Province Bonus to Magic School?

[llamabeast]

Gotta disagree with you Executor, in very few turns you can be making a silly amount of gems and noone will be any the wiser. Given that, you'd have to be quite careless to advertise that you'd grown powerful. If it was me, and I wanted to win, I would carry on as if nothing had happened, build a fort on the site, and just quietly get my machine up and going. For a long time I would only spend the gems on training up new Wish casters. I'd fill the fort with units to make it hard to siege, and then it wouldn't matter whether I lost the rest of the game. After a while I'd be making a few hundred S gems a turn in profit and could just win whenever I wanted. None of the other players could do anything about it.

Basically, given that I'd reached the ability to cast wish and had a chance to put a fort on the site and fill it with units, I can't imagine how I could fail to win. Would be quite shoddy to lose that game in my opinion.

[Executor]

It's all relative. I agree 100% with what Dimaz said.
And this is me speaking from personal experience. I've had games with enc 50% bonuses that I didn't win. I've had games where my enemies had those bonuses and I still manages to kill them. Same goes for any other bonus site.

Sure it can be game breaking, but any number of factors can lead a nation to an awesome position, and nothing guaranties you're gonna win.

Now regarding your statement, as that is what I myself would do, I'd know that there's something going on it that fort.

Usually if someones has a fort with a lot of domes, patrolling and various troops (and it's not the capital), it's more than just another fort. So from that point of view experienced players would probably notice it.

Bonus sites just add a little flavor to the game, as a good player will make an advantage out of countless possibilities, and that's what I love about Dominions, so removing them part by part is kinda like cutting into the Dom soul.

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by Executor

Bonus sites just add a little flavor to the game, as a good player will make an advantage out of countless possibilities, and that's what I love about Dominions, so removing them part by part is kinda like cutting into the Dom soul.

Probably chuck me down for a +1 to this.

A lot of players want balance to the game in all shapes and forms, so that all players have equal chances of winning at the start of a game based on skill. And not wanting random factors to play a major deciding role in the outcome.

I understand why players would want that, but that's personally not for me. I like the randomness. I like the imbalance. Heck I love the imbalance to this game. I'd hate to see balanced nations and boring sites that do nothing but give gems. I'd likely stop playing this game instanstly if it ever went in that direction. If I wanted a balanced game where all players start out on a perfectly equal setting, then I'm sure there's any number of RTS's out there that fit the bill.

But Dominions for me is about sometimes playing games on the very edge of complete imbalance, and seeing if you can overcome incredible odds when your enemy seems to have all the trump cards. So as long as there is nothing broken in the game, or no stupidly powerful/weak nations, then I'm personally very happy with whatever imblance exists, as it makes this game stand out from everything else that has ever existed in the crowd.


Edit: I do think some of the uber bonus sites are probably a bit broken though. As 50-60% discounts can get a bit silly. I like imbalance, but not stuff that is probably broken.

[DeadlyShoe]

If I could wave a magic wand, I'd change Wish so that one caster could only ever Wish once.

I understand why players would want that, but that's personally not for me. I like the randomness. I like the imbalance. Heck I love the imbalance to this game. I'd hate to see balanced nations and boring sites that do nothing but give gems

I agree in principle, but anything with the potential for unlimited exponential expansion really is game breaking in pretty much any game context.