priests spells?

[Pocus]

not quite the subject of the thread, but about game balance, have you not found that caelian weapons traversing etheralness was not a bit too much?

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Pocus:
not quite the subject of the thread, but about game balance, have you not found that caelian weapons traversing etheralness was not a bit too much?

The magic nature of caelian weapons was so powerful largely due to the propensity of experienced players to rely on seasonal spirits. The seasonal spirits are now more expensive and hopefully will not be quite as dominant on the battlefield as they once were. Furthermore elementals of all sizes now costs gems to summo,n so lesser air and fire elementals will be scarcer, once again decreasing the importance of caelian weapons.

[Daynarr]

Hold on, you could summon elementals WITHOUT gems in Dominions I??!!

No wonder I saw tips on some sites telling how fight air elementals.

Now all those Posts I was reading make more sense.

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Daynarr:
Hold on, you could summon elementals WITHOUT gems in Dominions I??!!

No wonder I saw tips on some sites telling how fight air elementals.

Now all those Posts I was reading make more sense.

Yeah, the lesser elementals didnt cost anything and the greater just 1 gem. It used to be popular strategy for caelum to field multiple mages that would cast summon air elemental under the cover of storm, grounding most other fliers and rendering almost all misiile fires ineffective. If you had a dozen or so High seraphs you could churn out massive amounts of air elementals in battles, combined with the storm spell to protect the mages you had a very mobile and very effective strike force that was very hard to counter. Played well you could handle most battles without suffering any losses. Of course there were some counters and enemies that would require a greater concentration of forces or a modification of the tactics, but the basic strategy was both very powerful and cost effective.

Another previously popular tactic whose power is somewhat reduced is the so called supercombatants, powerfull commanders equipped with shields or spells that would cause an attack on anybody that struck them, such as the charcoal shield or the spells astral shield or fireshield. A powerful commander equipped with the right items could reap hundreds of kills in a single battle, they still can but due to changes in the strikeback spells it should be a bit riskier to the supercombatant to just wade into hordes of enemies.

[Nerfix]

Originally posted by Pocus:
not quite the subject of the thread, but about game balance, have you not found that caelian weapons traversing etheralness was not a bit too much?

I wonder if their armors are/were immune to all the "rust" spells... Tell me, how i'm i playing Caelum wrong when i don't find it so overly powerfull nation?

[Pocus]

Originally posted by Nerfix:
QUOTE]I wonder if their armors are/were immune to all the "rust" spells... Tell me, how i'm i playing Caelum wrong when i don't find it so overly powerfull nation?

Because you are biaised toward them. We had discussions about this, you, other players and me. There is nothing more to add, as you wont change your mind. So to each his opinion. I cant help notice that strangely, your prefered race is Caelum.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by johan osterman:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pocus:
not quite the subject of the thread, but about game balance, have you not found that caelian weapons traversing etheralness was not a bit too much?

The magic nature of caelian weapons was so powerful largely due to the propensity of experienced players to rely on seasonal spirits. The seasonal spirits are now more expensive and hopefully will not be quite as dominant on the battlefield as they once were. Furthermore elementals of all sizes now costs gems to summo,n so lesser air and fire elementals will be scarcer, once again decreasing the importance of caelian weapons.

---

I have problem finding the explaination logical. In essence you are telling us that Caelian weapons are less an advantage, because the targets where they could apply their supremacy (compared to other weapons) are more potents but less numerous (because costlier). I would say that his render the problem at least as acute as before.

If a summer lion cost 5 gems now and not 3 as before, or if elementals (any type) cost one gem at least (and not zero), then the ability to have 4 times more chances to hit them because you are Caelian and not any other nation, render the Caelian weapons at least as valuable, and grossly overbalanced than before. And even if you encounter those magical beats more rarely. Because when you encounter them, it wont be in skirmishes as in dominions I, but in major battle where players commits the best.

Also, a point that your forget, is that many players use body etheral to boost their units. There is nothing hard-core or 'trick of the guru master ' here, I know that a bunch of players will protect with etheralness their most valuable troops. Take for example Ctis (poor Ctis I would say). The shaman can cast BE on their best units (the blessed serpents at first, then summoned behemots). Thats nearly a common combo (in competitive pbem, in solo I wont bother optimizing like that). Caelian weapons will here too render body etheral useless.

Anyway, I know that you have set your mind on this, so I will move to another subject.

[Jasper]

Originally posted by johan osterman:

Another previously popular tactic whose power is somewhat reduced is the so called supercombatants, powerfull commanders equipped with shields or spells that would cause an attack on anybody that struck them, such as the charcoal shield or the spells astral shield or fireshield. A powerful commander equipped with the right items could reap hundreds of kills in a single battle, they still can but due to changes in the strikeback spells it should be a bit riskier to the supercombatant to just wade into hordes of enemies.[/QB]

Interesting. How have you changed the "strike back" effects?

-Jasper

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Pocus:

I have problem finding the explaination logical. In essence you are telling us that Caelian weapons are less an advantage, because the targets where they could apply their supremacy (compared to other weapons) are more potents but less numerous (because costlier). I would say that his render the problem at least as acute as before.

If a summer lion cost 5 gems now and not 3 as before, or if elementals (any type) cost one gem at least (and not zero), then the ability to have 4 times more chances to hit them because you are Caelian and not any other nation, render the Caelian weapons at least as valuable, and grossly overbalanced than before. And even if you encounter those magical beats more rarely. Because when you encounter them, it wont be in skirmishes as in dominions I, but in major battle where players commits the best.

Also, a point that your forget, is that many players use body etheral to boost their units. There is nothing hard-core or 'trick of the guru master ' here, I know that a bunch of players will protect with etheralness their most valuable troops. Take for example Ctis (poor Ctis I would say). The shaman can cast BE on their best units (the blessed serpents at first, then summoned behemots). Thats nearly a common combo (in competitive pbem, in solo I wont bother optimizing like that). Caelian weapons will here too render body etheral useless.

Anyway, I know that you have set your mind on this, so I will move to another subject.

My point is that the situation where the caelian weapons is an advantage is less common than it was in dom 1.

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Jasper:
Interesting. How have you changed the "strike back" effects?

-Jasper

In dom 1 the strikeback effect would set in before the attack was resolved, meaning that weaker troops often would not get a chance to land a blow before they died or where stunned. Now hordes of weaker creatures can land their blows even if it kills them in the process. We also thoguht about adding a small fatigue penalty after each strikeback but we will wait and see how this works out first.