Suggestions for new patch

[Gregstrom]

I took an interest in this and looked up the pilum on britannica online. The pilum was apparently 7 feet long, with a bullet-shaped or pyramidal head to let it penetrate armour and shields better. It was sometimes thrown.

Wikipedia, while less reliable, has more to say. It says the head of a pilum was almost a foot long, and capable of lodging in shields and armour it penetrated. The pilum could be rigged to bend at the joint between head and shaft - one of the two pins joining the parts could be replaced with a wooden dowel, which would snap under the shock of impact. Mechanical strain would then bend or twist the pilum, making it useless and encumbering shields it lodged in.

A suggestion to work this in Dominions would be (this would require dev coding, so we're in the realms of fantasy here):

Missile weapon with 1 shot.
Stats like javelin - perhaps a point or 2 more damage, perhaps less range and/or accuracy.
Special effect: If the missile is blocked by a shield, apply a new 'shield destroyed' effect (like armour destroyed but only affecting shields - armour destroyed would overwrite this effect).

I suspect this would increase the power of legionaries noticeably.

Btw, Nikelaos: Soft =/= light. See lead for details.

[Sombre]

Athletic javelin shafts weigh more than the heads.

So,... yeah.

[Gregstrom]

Athletic javelins (the modern ones at least) are apparently designed not to fly too far. I believe there was a problem with the older designs in that Olympic athletes were very nearly lobbing them into the stands.

[Gregstrom]

And... a nose weight does help with aerodynamics to an extent (for instance, paper planes fly far better with a nose weight). It would certainly help a javelin land point first (which is fundamental to the purpose of a javelin).

[Nikelaos]

still think the javelins would b overpowered in any case, however i shall concede that i actually no nothing on the realism side and any sciency stuff i say is probably bumwad.

[Bwaha]

The only real effect would be against SCs, everyone puts scum or krill up front to absorb the arrows, slings, ect... This would give certain units the capability to fight single combatants. Such as Joten and other SCs. I would give it a lower probability than a enchanted weapon to destroy a shield.

[Nikelaos]

Originally Posted by Bwaha

The only real effect would be against SCs, everyone puts scum or krill up front to absorb the arrows, slings, ect... This would give certain units the capability to fight single combatants. Such as Joten and other SCs. I would give it a lower probability than a enchanted weapon to destroy a shield.

still SCs cost tons, they aren't supposed to be taken out so easily by any means and are supposed to take alot of resources and planning to kill.

i suppose an elite, expensive sacred or something could pass with something like that but other than that it makes no sense to make the troops have such an uber effect.

[Bwaha]

I don't think thats absolutely true, Tartarians only cost ten death gems. I agree that it may be too powerful to issue them to everyone. I just played Ermor in a mp game and found them to be a weak power. Maybe it was poor play on my part, but I don't think so. After that I started musing on ways to give them a little help.

[Nikelaos]

Originally Posted by Bwaha

I don't think thats absolutely true, Tartarians only cost ten death gems. I agree that it may be too powerful to issue them to everyone. I just played Ermor in a mp game and found them to be a weak power. Maybe it was poor play on my part, but I don't think so. After that I started musing on ways to give them a little help.

unfortunately any SC chassis can usually be killed quite easily before it's geared up, by the time people are calling forth SCs others are sending in communions and a good communion with a meat sheild is more than enough to take out an SC with no gear.

yes the initial cost for tartarians is cheap but then you have to think about the gear and ontop of that most tartarians need gift of Reasoning which costs a fair amount of gems, and before that there is empowering mages and giving them boosters to be able to cast tartarian gate (costs gems) and if not you'll have to spend design points (costly in their own right except if you're LA ermor) to give you're god enough death to cast tartarians.

[Szumo]

-dont-scale graphics options for use with any custom resultion/windows size, pretty please.