Conceptual Balance Mod 1.84

[Psycho]

What is the logic behind the removal of SDRs? I know that blood is overpowered, but wouldn't just changing them to B2 or B3 suffice? Forging brazen vessels for each B1 hunter seems overkill. Making certain blood summons more expensive is a harder path, but should be the preferred solution for balancing blood.

[rdonj]

Changing SDRs to blood 2 or 3 heavily favors nations that have strong national blood mages already, and is a nerf relatively to nations that only have b1s, etc, forcing them to spend a lot more time and slaves to get the same slaves. They're also like hammers, an item that basically you spam because there's no reason ever not to, as they will make their price up ridiculously quickly even at those prices. Whether those are the actual reasons for the removal I couldn't say.

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Changing SDRs to blood 2 or 3 heavily favors nations that have strong national blood mages already, and is a nerf relatively to nations that only have b1s, etc, forcing them to spend a lot more time and slaves to get the same slaves.

Not having them at all also favors nations with strong national blood mages. These nations will be able to hunt with these B2/B3 mages initially, later adding B1s with boosters, vampire lords or some national summons. However, empowering one mage to B2 or B3 to do the forging for weak blood nations is a negligible expense. And as thejeff said, you will need to empower eventually anyway.

Originally Posted by rdonj

They're also like hammers, an item that basically you spam because there's no reason ever not to, as they will make their price up ridiculously quickly even at those prices.

Using blood boosters for the same purpose will also pay off eventually, so there is no reason not to do it. You cannot prevent this behavior and frankly I don't see a reason why you would want to. Why is it bad to have an item that is so to say required, like hammers and SRDs are?