Game balance issues, again...

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Arcane Nexus also harvests an unknown amount of gems as "ambient energy"

The baseline seems to be less than 10 astral power (approximately, probably an openended 2d6 really, or something like that)

I ran some controlled tests (I controlled all gem use in the game) putting up 200 gem globals and did not notice a significant increase in the baseline astral power I still saw the usual 2,3,5,8,4,13,3,5,4,5 kickbacks from the ambient energy the next ten rounds.

As such I doubt that there is any significant impact on the ambient energy from global enchantments, unless it is something that would only kick in at extremely high energy levels, which I have not tested. That would not make all that much sense from a game-balance perspective, but it would certainly be a neat synergy.

More likely, the players are just using gems like mad in your game - but you would know that better than I. If you make a copy of the savegame in the current situation, you can run controlled tests when the game is finished and tell us whether the extremely high gem cost globals increase the ambient energy.

Remember, when the monthly message text says "The Arcane Nexus has absorbed magic power equal to X astral gems.", that means that X non-astral non-blood gems generated the power for the nexus. It does not mean you get X astral gems. You only get x/4 astral gems in your lab, not X. (Sorry if I am belabouring the obvious here)

[ March 20, 2004, 09:21: Message edited by: Peter Ebbesen ]

[Norfleet]

Ah. So it was closer to +175 astrals/turn in income, which seems to be about right, then, and then there would be 700 gems expended in the world....that seems more like a reasonable figure.

Unfortunately, that would mean most of those expenditures are mine.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Ah. So it was closer to +175 astrals/turn in income, which seems to be about right, then, and then there would be 700 gems expended in the world....that seems more like a reasonable figure.

Indeed, as I noted earlier, for 2800 gems to be used each turn to generate 700 astral gems would require an awful lot of fever fetishes and astral clams (whose astral gems would be alchemized to other gems). 700 magic power and 175 astral/turn seems much more reasonable.

Unfortunately, that would mean most of those expenditures are mine.

Well, fortunately you can consider it equivalent to a considerable reduction in cost of at least 1/8 on every non-astral gem use you have - no other enchantment will do that for you, none even gets close.

[ March 20, 2004, 10:17: Message edited by: Peter Ebbesen ]

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Peter Ebbesen:
Well, fortunately you can consider it equivalent to a considerable reduction in cost of at least 1/8 on every non-astral gem use you have - no other enchantment will do that for you, none even gets close.

Your 1/8 figure assumes the Nexus-produced gems are converted back to the type you cast, right?

Now, if you're instead tempted to convert TO astral from other types, you can think of the Nexus as giving you a 33% break on the "price" of other type uses of gems - like, instead of spending 20 Earth gems and getting effect X, and 10 more Earth gems to alchemize into 5 Astral pearls, you just spend 20 Earth gems, and get effect X AND 5 Astral.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by PhilD:

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter Ebbesen:
Well, fortunately you can consider it equivalent to a considerable reduction in cost of at least 1/8 on every non-astral gem use you have - no other enchantment will do that for you, none even gets close.

Your 1/8 figure assumes the Nexus-produced gems are converted back to the type you cast, right?

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Correct. That is why I said that that was the least benefit you could consider yourself to be gaining from the Arcane Nexus. It is the absolutely worst case. In actual gameplay, you win much more because of the increased flexibility even without considering the gems you get from other players' actions.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Ah. So it was closer to +175 astrals/turn in income, which seems to be about right, then, and then there would be 700 gems expended in the world....that seems more like a reasonable figure.

Unfortunately, that would mean most of those expenditures are mine.

Added to your no doubt extreme production from Clams of Pearls, it should still be enough to allow you to create a reasonably sized army of GoH Doom Horrors with nifty equipment.