Poll: Is Clam Hording Too Good?

[Huzurdaddi]

I think that the changes in Dom3 have made rampant clamming (ie: turning over your inventory in clams every turn ) a thing of the past. But they still have some effect on games.

However, there is one thing about clams that I dislike, and perhaps this is what irks other people: clams are not reported on the gem income graph and it can be a big surprise when some nation who has been a mid tier nation suddenly busts out with the highest level magics.

The solution to this problem seems pretty simple: include generated gems in the gem income graph.

[Cor2]

heres a stupid but relevant question. Why is no one *****ing about sea king spamming?

Sea kings cost 35 more but provide a commander/water mage and troops. and only costs 3 water to summon, so its easier to get. It takes 55 turns for them to pay for themselves, but that is not taking into account the commander and units.

In my limited experince Sea king spamming does not happen. I think its the cost. So i say raise the cost to about 35 or 40 and be done with it.

[Jazzepi]

The reason people spam clams is because you can reduce the cost with hammers and a forge. Everyone who is talking about how clams pay for themselves in 15 turns clearly hasn't ever clam horded.

If you have a hammer, and a forge up, a clam costs 1 nature and 5 water, I believe. It's something ridiculously cheap.

Jazzepi

[Evilhomer]

You really cannot expect to have the forge up when clamming. With a hammer the price is 11 water 3 nature (and takes one turn to equip since it appears in the lab) - i.e 15 turns for payoff (provided you value gems equally, but thats another discussion)..

[Jazzepi]

I'm not saying you're always going to have the forge up. But a discount of the hammer is quite good.

Actually for some reason I thought the normal cost of the clams was 15 gems total, so when people were making comments on it I thought they were not including the hammer reduction.

I blame the anestetics.

Jazzepi

[Cor2]

My point is that if the cost was raised a bit more i think the problem would be solved. No one hoards sea kings, even when they can get a reduction from a magic site.

[Jazzepi]

I think you're still missing the point Cor. You can't summon sea kings without summoning a huge mess of trolls who are all very expensive in their gold upkeep. I think they're *great* units as shock troops with lots of hitpoints, armor on some and good regen, but you simply can't sustain the same amount of production there as you can with clams.

Also anyone who wants to horde a gem producing item, and not just clams, can reduce the cost with hammers which are easily accessible. Maigical sites that reduce the summoning cost, are not. I think most of them range in the 20% range.

Though, in all fairness, one summoning site can be used by as many mages.

Jazzepi