Message from Abysia

[KissBlade]

The fact that the affliction system is so random is a bit silly by itself. Mainly because apparently despite all the magic and such, no one knew what a doctor is =\.

[Nerfix]

Except those Arco peoples. They and dem priestesses.

[DominionsFan]

Hm anyways, I thought that there will be a command line option to remove aging from the game. [I think that someone has mentioned this some months ago.]

[Taqwus]

If you want brutal injuries, read the critical-hit tables in the Middle Earth Role-Playing System. Everything up to and including amputations and instant-death, IIRC.

That was -not- a "heroes kill kobolds, suffer a little bit, and instantly recover from Cure Light Wounds" game.

[KissBlade]

If this game is going to mirror a roleplaying game I think I'll be setting my sights elsewhere in the future ...

[Theonlystd]

I really like it.

In prolonged battles. Watching Undead Archers age and cripple the back rows of troops before they've even swung a sword is funny... Just adds another aspect.



Tho i dont think pretenders should have aging problems. These are dudes who've "mastered" there mortality and are trying to achieve goddom.. Having them wither and die from old age is wierd imho. If i dont find out how to craft these boots that stop aging soon my ArchMage is going to be quite useless.

[DominionsFan]

Well aging definitely added some RP flavor to the game. The "luck factor" in the MP & SP games is also more important from now on, but its all cool.

[Taqwus]

I'd agree that pretenders shouldn't be aging much at all... so long as they have believers to sustain them.

I haven't tried to systematically identify magic sites in the game, but a rare site (N4? Or W4, fountain of youth) that had an 'enter to reduce aging' effect would be thematic.

[Boron]

KissBlade said:
Seriously, I've said this numerous times in the channel. Old Age: Dumbest mechanic ever. What is it for? Flavor? Annoyance? Adding in even more random factors for a strategy game? Lame.

Kiss, imho in turn based strategy games there has to be a random factor !!!
Otherwise they become a dull chess clone.

The random factor in Dominions 2 was imho just fine, 1 game out of 10 was very frustrating because of bad luck, but 1 out of 10 was also very rewarding because you had luck.

In Dom3 the random factor is about the same as in Dom2.

The problem is that if there would be no random factor in a turn based strategy game you could then plan the perfect strat. Do you really want such a game?

In a RTS if there is no random factor it is fine, there thanks to superior dexterity you can gain an edge. And in RTS you cannot do everything but have to focus on a "Schwerpunkt" with excessive micro or try to do excessive macro.
Anyways, in a RTS even if nothing is random because you cannot do everything because you are a human and not a machine this adds enough randomness.

But if you want a balanced turn based game with no random elements in it this leads to a game with identical factions, so something like chess and checkers.
Chess is a very good game, but such a game cannot get much more complex imho.
So for a turn based pc strategy game random elements are imho a must to keep it interesting.
The trick is just to make the game not tooooo random, so that skill usually wins over luck.

Dominions achieved that balance just fine in Dom2 and imho also achieves it just fine in Dom3.

[Boron]

Taqwus said:
I'd agree that pretenders shouldn't be aging much at all... so long as they have believers to sustain them.

I haven't tried to systematically identify magic sites in the game, but a rare site (N4? Or W4, fountain of youth) that had an 'enter to reduce aging' effect would be thematic.

Imho aging pretenders are fine.
After all they are still mortals and not yet gods.

It depends on the type though. Most pretenders should just age normally. An archmage e.g. can life forever, but he has to do rituals every now and then for that imho. Just as it is currently in Dom3.
Also dragons, giants etc. age eventually. As long as they have enough believers they can easily do the rituals for rejuvenation. But if they have not enough believers they might have not enough resources(=gems) to do rejuvenation.

There is a handful of pretenders though for which it feels a bit wrong that they age, mainly the immortal undead ones.
A vampire or a lich never ages. And for a being from other worlds other laws should exist too, be it a beeing from the underworld like the PoD or a mighty demon like the moloch or a divine beeing like the virtue.
For all those aging is harder to justify i think.

But a story of a great archmage who had many believers but eventually died and thus was forgotten and thus became no god is imho thematic. For this type of wannabe gods the race against time adds flavour. They have not only to fight vs. the other contenders but also vs. their mortality.
Someone who is already dead like a demon or an angel doesn't have to care about his age, he only has to care about entropy which can still kill him too .