Undertow - Winner: Micah as Shinuyama!

[Velusion]

Undertow

Undertow Status Page: http://67.66.187.69/dominions3/stats.php?game=Undertow

Players: 12
Map: Medium Random
Age: Middle
Independents: Average
Graphs: Disabled
Renaming: On
Magic Sites: 50%
Random Events: Common
Resources: Average
Research: Average
Hall of Fame: 15 slots
Victory: Standard
Nation Assignments: Random

Turns will be on a manual 48 host with quickhost enabled.

[Micah]

I'd be interested...I haven't played a MP with more than 4 players (one of which dropped before I ran into him), so I'm kind of a noob as far as that goes, although I've played a bunch of smaller games, and do well in them. Let me know if that's ok as far as the level you're looking for.

[Shovah32]

Im in if im allowed(as ive said before, im not exactly new but i still suck http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif). can we get our nations before all slots are filled?

[FAJ]

Sign me up.

Im not new, but I am pretty awful. Especially with random nations, as many nations in dom3 were not in Dom1.

[Strages Sanctus]

I would like to join

[hako]

Hi, I would like to enter. I started to play MP games just about 1 month ago, so my exp i rather poor.
I like random nations idea:)

[WSzaboPeter]

Count me in please. And give me... well random.

[Hadrian_II]

i d like to join too

[Foodstamp]

Sign me up! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[CharonJr]

Sounds interesting - random nations - sign me up, please http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

CharonJr

[Owindea]

I've only played one game so far, which is still running, so I'm a newbie. Sign me up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[WSzaboPeter]

I hope the game will start after the 2nd of January, since I'm getting home that time.

[imororg]

Sign me up, please.

[Velusion]

WSzaboPeter said:
I hope the game will start after the 2nd of January, since I'm getting home that time.



We can hold and start on the 2nd if you will be ready then.

[Velusion]

I'd have probably never tried Bander Log as it doens't normally seem my style... but now that I am assigned it, I'm kinda looking forward to seeing what they can do!

[CharonJr]

Hmm, I have never played as Ermor either, but that's what I liked about random nations http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

CharonJr

[Shovah32]

Im probably going to get crushed before leaving the water but i'll give rlyeh a shot.

[Fal]

Is it too late to sign up, if not please sign me up. I haven't had much MP exp and consider myself a MP noob http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Strages Sanctus]

Hey Fal, You can have my spot if you want. I am already playing atlantis in another mp game. That was my random nation assigned.

[Velusion]

I'm pretty sure I want it to stay at 12 players, at least for this game. I might be hosting another one here soon, we'll see.

Fal, do you want to take Strages spot?

[Shovah32]

Fal can play aslong as he sucks at atlantis http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif i dont want to get crushed too early.

[Serian]

If there are any substitutes required, i'm here ^^

[Micah]

Uploaded for Shinu.

[FAJ]

Abysia uploaded

[Foodstamp]

Pretender for Arco is uploaded. I will not be able to play my first turn until january 3rd probably, but if we are quickhosting 48 hours I don't think it will be a problem.

[Owindea]

Caelum pretender is uploaded.

[imororg]

Jotunheim pretender uploaded.

[CharonJr]

Ermor up

[Hadrian_II]

man ready

[Fal]

2nd sea nation stands ready

[FAJ]

who are we waiting on?

[Micah]

machaka, pythium, and rlyeh it looks like. That took way too long to figure out because of Fal's post, I thought rlyeh had been uploaded, so I kept being one off. Lazy, lazy FAJ, btw =)

[hako]

I will be ready within an hour. Sober finally.

[Fal]

Micah said:
machaka, pythium, and rlyeh it looks like. That took way too long to figure out because of Fal's post, I thought rlyeh had been uploaded, so I kept being one off. Lazy, lazy FAJ, btw =)



hmm, I thought the Rlyeh was uploaded. maybe I saw it wrong. Too much booze....

[Velusion]

We are waiting on hako and WSzaboPeter to get started.

[Micah]

You're probably right Fal, I was looking at the forum posts though, not the server, my bad.

[Velusion]

WSzaboPeter said:
I hope the game will start after the 2nd of January, since I'm getting home that time.



We'll probably start sometime tomorrow due to the post above FYI.

[Shovah32]

Yes i was uploaded, forgot to mention it. Sorry.

[Owindea]

How much independent strength is average? I suggest 5 since it is default and my god is created with that in mind.

[Velusion]

The setting will be 5.

[WSzaboPeter]

okay, I'm ready too.

[Velusion]

And away we go!

[Velusion]

I'm going to setup an email notifier here soon. If you want to be notified via email whenever the turn has been processed send me a private message here with your email address (make sure you include the nation you are playing).

Not sure when I will have it up, hopefully soon though.

[Foodstamp]

Sorry about my late start. Turn 3 is up!

[Micah]

anyone else get hit by the scale bug monster or just me? Seriously not cool.

[Velusion]

scale bug monster?

[Velusion]

Only Pythium and Shinuyama have send me thier email addresses so they can get email notification when the turn has been processed.

Anyone else?

I'm going to attempt to get this implimented tonight, so the server might be down for brief periods of time.

I'm also going to rename the thread title tonight to the game name: Undertow.

[Micah]

The scale bug is when your home province goes from your dominion scales to something random (usually near neutral I think, perhaps the default values for the province your capital is in?) on turn 2. Not a problem for nations with icky dominion, sort of a setback if you took good scales. I guess it's better than a plague event at least.

[Velusion]

My scales appear to be set correctly.

[Owindea]

My scales are fine.

[CharonJr]

Hmm, have not checked for dominion yet, but will take a look later.

CharonJr

[Hadrian_II]

my scales are as they should be

[Velusion]

I have email address for the following now:

Man
Pythium
Abysia
Shimuyama
Atlantis
Bander Log

We'll see if the emails go out once Jotunheim (imororg) takes his turn.

[Velusion]

Everyone might notice some issues with the 48 hour host time frame. The game is hosted on a virtual server using VMware. Apparently the virtual server is having time syncronization issues, which are affecting Dom3's clock. Sooo.... I'll me working on that - so don't be surprised if you see the "amount of hours until host" change frequently or be incorrect.

Quickhosting should work fine though.

[Velusion]

The email notifications seemed to go out. Let me know if you signed up for them and didn't get one.

[Fal]

Yep I have the scale bug too. Very serious problem since I selected very good scales to start with @$%"£%!"!!!! Not Cool...

[Velusion]

I wonder how common it is, or if there is a way to avoid it when I create future games...

[Micah]

Awesome job with the turn notification Velusion, thanks a lot for going the extra mile and getting that set up.

I don't know how common the scale bug is, but it's a known issue (and is a holdover from dom2 I guess...) and I haven't heard of any causes or mitigations. I guess if it's a low enough chance that it wouldn't take too many tries you could plan on restarting the game if anyone bugged (assuming you announce it in the thread when you're getting players, so no one gets too attached to their start til turn 2). Losing out on the hundred gold a turn that my capital isn't producing is a pretty major setback, but it's less annoying if you think of it not as a bug, but as a random event, since, as I mentioned earlier, it's still much better than having a plague hit your capital.

(shockingly enough I took good scales, instead of utilizing the l33t "old mages and goblin shaman with sticks" F9W9 bless strat, I thought I should give you all a fighting chance. 300g quickened, 12 attack/12 defense bakemono with flaming quarterstaffs are just too unbalanced.)

=)

[FAJ]

But how well do they hold up against fire aoe?

and yes, thank you very much for e-mail notification! Very cool.

[imororg]

A warning to everybody,

The treacherous, stenchy empire of the bakemonos attacked one of our defenceless provinces, without warning, the turn right after we made an agreement about our borders.
Although their Dai-Bakemono are really fearsome warriors, the mighty giants of Jotunheim will avenge this unprovoked attack.

Imororg, ruler of the proud giants of Jotunheim

[Micah]

Sadly, the giants' messenger did not arrive at my capital until after my army had finished conducting their defensive maneuvers by liberating a province adjacent to my capital from foreign rule. It is true that negitiations were taking place, but the charge that an agreement was broken rings false. We are a people of honor, and we hold to our word. It was never given to the people of Jotunheim.

Let it also be known that two of my brave arrow-catcher...err, warriors, were slain while liberating this province, contrary to the claim that it was "defenseless."

[Fal]

Dear all,

As I have taken much risk selecting a imprisoned pretender at the beginning of the game, I designed a sea nation that heavily relay on early aggressive expansion, which would require excellent order/growth/magic scales. Sadly, as the fate would have it, my nation is now infested with misfortune, heat, drain, and death. In 6 turns my capital's unrest has shot up to 43 with 70% tax rate. It is difficult to expand with less than 200 income per turn. Therefore, regretably, I have decided to hand over control of the kingdom of Atlantis to AI.

My sincere apologies and best luck to you all.

[Foodstamp]

That is a shame, I wish you would reconsider this early in the game. I am bordering you and I will not take actions against your nation to give you time to build if you have not flipped to AI yet.

Btw nice quote, That's my favorite western.

[Fal]

Foodstamp said:
That is a shame, I wish you would reconsider this early in the game. I am bordering you and I will not take actions against your nation to give you time to build if you have not flipped to AI yet.

Btw nice quote, That's my favorite western.



Yeah, it's one of my fav movie too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

I am also in direct contact with other nations who's already taken the immediate surrounding provinces due to my unexpected slow expansion, I have lost the initiative and unable to cope with the unrest, I expect the mighty Atlantis will soon sink beneath the Atlantic Ocean, as foretold by the wise Plato.

Have fun everyone.

[Micah]

What's the cause of the unrest? Spies, game bug, chain of bad events, enemy dominion?

[FAJ]

The scales bug, i assume.

[Micah]

AFAIK: Scale bug is turn-2 only, and has nohing to do with unrest, just the scales. His scales should be back to full strength by now, or nearly so, since the bug isn't an ongoing effect, just a one-time reset, and his dominion will tip the scales back each turn like in any other province.

[Fal]

Untrue my friend, the false scales are still there. unrest is caused by random events.

[Micah]

Guess you found a new version of the bug then. None of the posts I could find on the original scale bug mention ongoing effects, and my own capital scales have returned to my dominion norms, or within one step of them, by now (I got hit by the less-nasty form of the bug I guess). Oh well, stability and computers aren't known for playing well together.

[Velusion]

FYI -

I haven't figured out how to fix the time issues on the server that game is located on so I'm just going to force the turn myself after 48 hours if the need ever arises (it hasn't so far).

This is just a warning to everyone that there will be no notificatoin of how long you have until the next turn is due (unless you get email notifications and you can just go off of that).

[Owindea]

How much time is left before hosting?

[Velusion]

It is supposed to host at 1:06pm today (i.e. 2 minutes ago). I'm going to go eat lunch and then process the turn.

We are still waiting on Charon Jr (Ermor) btw...

[CharonJr]

Sorry for having been out of touch for this long, but I am having some problems here at the moment (nothing too serious, but I can not spend more than about 30min each day at the PC at the moment).

Due to this I have to fold this game (and another one I am in at the moment), but I hope that you will be able to find a replacement for me.

I would have loved to finish this game, but since it may well be another week before I am able to play regulary again.

I will try to keep the first game going that I have joined with the time I have left, but am not sure that about 30min will be enough even for that...

It has been fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

CharonJr

[Micah]

We gonna try subbing or just going AI?

[Velusion]

On an interesting note... I tried to get in to put Ermor on AI and when I select that nation I don't even get prompted for a password, I just immediately get a message that says "Wrong Password". *le sigh*.... Hopefully this is only going to be a problem with Ermor.

So Charonjr - either send me your password so I can put you on AI or find you a sub. Or get into he game and go to settings and set yourself AI controlled.

[Micah]

Might want to force a host in the meantime, I wanna see my turn, and if he's only coming on once a day it seems a waste, since he'd be gone for another 24 hours (given that he just posted)

I doubt the AI will care too much if we stale it.

[Velusion]

I forced the host. Hopefully Charon will respond in the next day or two (I sent him a pm as well).

[Foodstamp]

Charon, this explains the lack of communication between me and you in nooby2. I apologize for assuming you were just ignoring my diplomatic negotiations http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[tibbs]

always create games using a master password http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Velusion]

tibbs said:
always create games using a master password http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Thanks to the peanut gallery for the completely obvious advice.

As a matter of fact I did set master password. It's the same one I use for every game. It isn't working apparently. This isn't the only game I've had problems with my passwords.

And yes - I do remember it correctly and yes I'm sure I set it.

[Don_Corleone]

Hello all!

I would be glad to step in and play ermor if no one has anything against it.

Cheers

[Velusion]

Someone played Ermor - so I'm not sure what is up.

[Velusion]

I take that back... its computer controlled now.

[Foodstamp]

Don_Corleone,

you would be welcome to take my spot. Currently I am playing Arcoscephale and I have faced no setbacks so far. I just don't really care for Arco and I would rather see someone eager to play the nation in my spot.

If you are interested in taking over, I will fill you in on what current alliances I have, and my situation in the game.

[Don_Corleone]

Hello Foodstamp!

I would be glad to play Arcoscephale. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Foodstamp]

Okey dokey, I will send you a PM. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Folket]

Since Owindea will be away for the rest of the week I will step in and play for her. So until sunday you should PM me if you are intrested in dealing with Caelum.

[Folket]

Is this game dead or something?

[Folket]

deleted

[Velusion]

It came close but no one still playing has missed a 48 hour deadline yet (that is still playing at least).

I'm keeping an eye and will manually host the game if it ever hits 48 hrs.

[hako]

Where is the server address?

[Velusion]

I took it off the main page for security reasons. I'll PM you with it.

[Velusion]

FYI... I have a status page up thanks to a friend:

Undertow Status (http://67.66.187.69/dominions3/stats.php?game=Undertow)

[FAJ]

thats cool

is it just me or has pythium not been active over the last week?

[Velusion]

He hasn't missed a turn yet... it seems like he usually only checks every 72 hours or so though.

[Owindea]

Just so everyone knows, I'm back playing my turns again.

[Velusion]

Welcome back Owindea

[Velusion]

The server has been updated to 3.06. Make sure and update your client before trying to play your turn!

[Velusion]

I've left a PM with Pythium (hako) to see if he is still interested in playing - and if not to put his nation on AI. Since the master password is not working I really need players who quit to either PM me thier password or simply put thier nation on AI when they give up.

On a side note I really miss the graphs. They gave me an idea of who was the leader, where I stand, etc... Now I have no clue. I thought I would try the game with them off but now I don't think I'll ever host a game with them off.
I do wish you could limit some of the info though (like army size).

How are conflicts around the land going out of curiosity?

I think I have finally gotten the complete upperhand in my conflict with Machaka. He has so far put up a hell of an inspireing fight - my compliments to him for his ability to both frustate the heck out of me and stick it out.

It took me awhile to figure out what combo of troops work best as well with Bander Log. I finally feel as if I have a small clue how to use these Apes!

-Bander Log

[Micah]

Did Pythium stale last turn? He's been good about doing both his turns when he DOES get on, and I was going to be annoyed if he only played one of them last time the server hosted, but I guess if he staled it's a different story.

If you've got any suggestions for Bandar Log that might apply to Patala please PM me, since I've got them in your other game.

And yes, from what I saw of your fight with Machaka he did a damn fine job holding you off, I thought he was finished when I saw a huge chunk of his archers on my border, since I assumed they got there via routing, but he went on from there to knock out your pretender and give you fits. My scout just saw his break-siege attempt battle with you though, and it looks like you've got a bit more than an "upper hand."

My fight with Jotunheim was hard fought...I had the upper hand early on, partly due to taking the initiative, but he managed to set me back a considerable amount when he bought 2 sizable chunks of mercenaries and won a battle with them. I think I'd still be fighting him, or I would have lost outright, if he'd recruited 18 woodsmen instead of 20 moose riders to stealth-raid me. The moose were annoying, the woodsmen would have been deadly. (he was strapped for resources due to a crappy cap location, while my own start was pretty solid.) I'm not at all sure how to beat Jotunheim in anything resembling a fair fight though, I had twice the resource income, and got the jump on him, and still I think if he'd recruited those woodsmen over the moose that I might have lost, or been stuck in a stalemate until someone esle decided to pick one of us off.

[Velusion]

Pythium has actually been pretty good about his turns until the last one. Can't really complain. He just did his now though.

I'm not sure about the differences between Bander Log and Patala... but biggest lessons for Bander Log:

1) Elephants are great against infantry but suck against anything bigger than that (i.e. spider mounts).

2) Longbows kick ***.

[Velusion]

Pythium missed another turn (2 out of the last 3)... so unless he turns it to AI I'll be force hosting if he is the only one left.

[Velusion]

Status page has moved to here:

Undertow Status (http://67.66.187.69/dominions3/stats.php?game=Undertow)

[Velusion]

I've implemented a backup script, so we can go back to turn "X" if something gets hosed up.

The main host machine got a RAM update (not that dom3 really cares). But hey... I'm pretty damn happy!

Finally - due to the issues with the Status page I'm going to take it down for a little while. We'll be running some tests and hopefully it will come back soon! Email notification is, of course, still in effect for those who wanted it.

[Hadrian_II]

The glorious nation of man has to announce, that even if all neighbours of us like abysia, caelum and arcoscephale decided to attack us, we will fight back to the last man.

Our castles are yet to be taken

[FAJ]

O don't even bring that garbage. You attacked me. You attacked me without declaring war, sending a message WITH the first attack saying that you were just going to 'annihilate' me. You start a war; you deal with the consequences.

[Velusion]

And then there were six!

Alas I can't stand up to Shin's massive longbow & flame arrow assaults so, with no citadel to my name and only a few provinces, I'm putting myself on AI. No hard feelings Micah - well not much http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif. I hope you have an answer to the "Fiery Death" by the time he turns on you!

So, since I'm not playing anymore feel free to PM me or (better yet) email me if something is up! Otherwise I'll watch this thread and make sure the server appears up.

Good luck everyone!

PS: LCH from my Eventide game fixed the scripts I took down: Undertow Status Page (http://67.66.187.69/dominions3/stats.php?game=Undertow)

[Hadrian_II]

the leadership over man has turned to the AI, it is just too bad to have to fight 3 nations at the same.

[FAJ]

Maybe you shouldn't have attacked me in the first place? I think you were a little agressive.

[Hadrian_II]

well, i noticed that you are just bordering me, and so you would attack me sometimes, and i thought my chances would be better if i struck first. But as you are heavy armoured and fireproof, i had no chance.

[johnarryn]

Watching the game, I have this comment:

FAJ - what's the approved method of declaring a war? The game's obviously about being the last god standing...given the difficulty of winning a war with an evenly matched opponent (due to reinforcement speed, PD and the knowledge the defender has of the opposing force, which is much more static due to aforementioned reinforcement issues) it doesn't seem prudent to give them overly much time to prepare. And attacking always will leave you vulnerable to other nations taking advantage of the opening that you present, but I don't see how you can fault him for taking the iniative there, especially since the conflict was inevitable if you didn't have any other bordering nations.

Breaking a treaty might be grounds for complaint, but even then that's more due to trying to taint the aggressor's relations with other nations to hurt them in the long run.

[FAJ]

I didn't fault his action. (?)
He didn't declare anything wrong, he refused a NAP and put troops on my boarder. I didn't need to be spoonfed his intent.

I was only commenting on how he ended up being attacked by my ally while he attacked me, so he brought it upon himself. It wasn't a conspiracy against him, he made a valid choice and it didn't pay off. He is right, that i would have had to attack him eventually, but i think he was wrong to take the pre-emptive strike (for his own sake).
He would have gotten stronger than me using fire fend and other (anti-armor) spells over time, where as my armies would not really change. Over time he would have become stronger than me, but he chose to make his move early, before I grew at all.

I don't expect people to declare war by the way. That just something I do because being an oppurtunist is not a fun thing for me. Winning at all costs is really not the reason I play the game.

[johnarryn]

I agree with your sentiments about not necessarily playing to win at all costs, FAJ.

[Folket]

Seems like Owindea is loosing intrest of the game. Guess it is the turns taking more and more of a commitment. Could be that she has stuff to do and want to easen the burden.

Anyhow, she has asked me to sub for her until further notice.

[Shovah32]

Rlyeh is soon to start selling rings of wizardry and/or sorcery and now is the time to preorder. Current prices are 50 pearls for a ring of sorcery and 80 gems for a ring of wizardry but these prices can and quite possibly will rise depending on how many orders we recieve. We will forge many other astral, nature and water items for various prices that you should pm me about if you want something made to order. Other forms of payment such as items, other gems and possibly very large sums of money may be considered.

To preorder any item pm me right away because the first orders will be the first items sent and may also get lower prices than those who order later.

[Micah]

Shinuyama will be happy to undersell those prices, as well as offering a much wider variety of magical paths to choose from. We will generally sell any magic item at base gem cost, or negotiate a trade for other gem types, please send a message along if you're interested.

Edit: We'd also be happy to trade some nature gems away for some A/W/F ones 1:1.

[FAJ]

I am looking for nature and death boosting items. PM me.

[FAJ]

Woah Caelum, was that a murdering winter or some other spell? What could hit so many units remotely?

[Folket]

Yes, it was murdering winter. 50 water gems to kill 3 units was a very very bad deal. On the other hand I got paid back today. I wasted less then 30 gems in that battle. Still your disease demons are really starting to annoy me. They are not powerful enough to take out my more powerful commanders but to get an important unit diseased is painful.

I found it interesting that my wizards did not cast off their gems in the first battle against your pd even though scripted to do so. That would have alerted you about my plans.

[FAJ]

I indeed was upset that you got to act first in that battle. Killing off my wizards that were going to cast fire storm that would have dealt with mistform, and the wizard that cast heat from hell. Does the defender always act first? It made a significant difference I think.

I am afraid to use my god in battle, because he is supporting two global enchantments, but I think I need him to deal with these friggen mammoths.

Also, why is it that my fliers that were scripted to attack rearmost decided instead to sit around in the mammoth orgy instead of doing what i told them to? NO WAY the AI could have thought that was a better idea. The AI apparantly likes to help you byt not wasting gems on PD, but likes to hurt me by just straight up ignoring what I script. A couple views of the battle revealed that one unit of mine did what it was scirpted to do, but only the first thing, then he just winged it from there.

Some things about Dominions are so frustrating!

[Folket]

Usually units in mêlée combat tend to defend them self instead of following the orders.

It is quite thematic that units fend for their lives instead of seeing the whole picture.

The defender always goes first in battle. that is why I hoped that you would attack. Fire storm would have been useful but not enough. Hitting a tenth of the units for minimal damage would not have turned the battle.

[Velusion]

FAJ said:
Does the defender always act first? It made a significant difference I think.



My impression is that yes, the defender always moves first. And yes... it can make a big difference.

[FAJ]

Ok, good to know for the future http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.

As for thematic, fending for their lives; I think a devil that can fly would rather hunt down mages than step back and forth as mammoths run over him for 1 damage.

[Velusion]

Yea - ordering flying units to attack the rear has never really worked for me either. I'm playing with a dragon pretender in another game and I've basically given up giving him anything but the simpliest orders (fire x5, attack closest).

[Shovah32]

I think units need to tae a morale check to not attack the closest unit or something like that.

[lch]

Velusion said:
Yea - ordering flying units to attack the rear has never really worked for me either. I'm playing with a dragon pretender in another game and I've basically given up giving him anything but the simpliest orders (fire x5, attack closest).


I might be wrong with this, but from my experience single commanders don't count when your units are assigned "attack rearmost" orders, they only go after somewhat large squads. The larger the squad at "rearmost", the bigger the chance that they go after it, perhaps.

And the thing about the defender moving first: yes, it's true and makes alot of difference when you take it into calculation, like when to cast which spell and where your and the enemy's units would be in a potential battle situation at a given time.

[FAJ]

They count, At least his mammoths counted them :/

I guess it proves that elephants are smarter than ArchDevils.

[Folket]

My mammoths did not attack your commanders, but given that they were 50 they cover a lot of space and some of your commanders were close to the rearmost group.

[Velusion]

For those of you that will wonder why the server timer might increase slightly on my games.

Forum thread detailing the issue here: here (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=498715&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1).

This will NOT stop my games from progressing. The game will continue with a 48 hour hosting (though the server will read 54 hours). I'm not sure if this affected anyone else in the past (I don't think it affected anyone recently)... if so - my apologies! Eventually the IP will change and these games will move to a different box.

[Shovah32]

Im going ai now guys, ok? Been fun playing with you all.

[FAJ]

Ok, i have to ask this:

How the heck do you get 90% regeneration without items? or is it barrier that gives it?

Also, how do you get a guy who, when hit, deals 999 damage to the attacker while taking zero for himself?

This used to be my most enjoyable mp, but now it has completely and utterly sucked the love for dominions out of me. Super-combants simply ruin the game for me. When I bought it, I was under the impression that dominions was about using troops, and tactics, and magical support to conquer provinces. What it is actually about is making a character that cannot be beaten, then fly around at take provinces with one man (how does ONE guy attack a country and claim it as his own anyways?). Either that or using high levels spells with extremely powerful effects, where there is no dispel function in the game. This game plays more like M:TG than a strategy game. The whole thing seems very futile.
Its like the game is telling me: " Hey, I know you were having fun, building armies and strategizing and being engulfed in the fantasy environment, but it doesn't matter; player A has chosen to do Action B and there is nothing you can do about it. I guess you should have done action B too, huh? Then that would have been lots of fun for you! o wait, no it wouldnt be! Sorry but you cant get your 50 dollars back."
If any of you will get the warhammer analogy, I thought this game would be like 7th edition, but its actually like 5th edition.
There should be a warning label on the box: "WARNING: This game stops being a strategy game after turn 30".

[Shovah32]

Some creatures have natural regeneration, high level nature bless helps, there are regeneration items and a high level nature mage castng personal regen will get alot of regen.

That would either be a gorgon or a commander with the aegis, however the petrification is MR negatable and im not sure if it paralyzes like the spell if you pass the test. EVERY super combatant CAN be beaten, even commanders with full resistances, awesome stats, survival buffs, high regen ect have plenty of weaknesses and there are also plenty of ways to make your army resistant to almost all(cant think of any mass effect spells you cant atleast reduce the damage from) spells, or atleast ones that will affect many troops.

Also, creating and using super-combatants is just another form of strategy, you need to figure out how to get the various mages to forge the items and summon the super combatants themselves and in the case of the most powerful SCs(unique summons with artifacts) you need to find a way to get them before other people without dying.

[FAJ]

I was just upset when I wrote that post. I don't really regret buying Dom3.

SuperCombatants just piss me off. I don't really consider it a tactic. It is certaintly a strategy to win, but I try to play games for fun and to stimulate my brain, not just to win with a sure thing to get some sort of internet honor.

[Shovah32]

What im trying to say is that itis fun and that it does require alot of thinking and planning to make good SCs and even then, none are invincible(although a fairly survivable SC with amazing reinvig and phoenix pyre can seem like it)

[Micah]

You've also got blood magic..spam a few Life for a Life spells at it.

[FAJ]

I am only blood 7. Even if I could manage blood 8, My mages burn my slaves to death, and the mages themeselves dont last longer than a round or two :/.

Shovah, i am not saying that it isnt fun for others to make an SC, but in all seriousness, it doesnt require as much thought as you say. What I am saying is that I wish Dominions was more about troops and tactics, and less about spell/item combinations. I tried wishing for that, and it didn't work. Worst 100 pearls ever spent http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

[Micah]

Life for a life is range 100 though, so neither the slaves or the mages need to last longer than 1 round to get that to work.

Anyhow, even if you can't pull it off this game, it is a viable counter to an SC, which I'm assuming is at least a conjuration 8 chassis, likely with construction 6 or 8 items on top of it, so there's research parity there, to address the more general concern of SCs killing the game. They're powerful, even nearly unstoppable, but so are a lot of other, easier tactics earlier in the game...a few hundred archers with flaming arrows is pretty brutal, and ask any Ulm player what it's like to start next to a nation with elephants. As I said to one of my friends regarding elephant rushing: "Recruiting units and telling them to attack is not a 'tactic'"

Maybe I'll change my mind on the balance issue once I run into whatever Caelum's tossing around though, we'll see.

[FAJ]

Hehe, I woke up this morning and realized that I had made a terrible mistake. So i jumped on my computer as quickly as possible to try and fix it before the host. The dreaded downloading turn bar showed up and I knew it was over.

So I am now out of the game completely. I will probably go AI in a turn or two, after I use up the rest of my blood slaves harassing caelum.

[FAJ]

Caelum, how did you get youre water queen to have such high regen?

It says she should have UnderWater regen of 70. But she seems to be getting this on land. Is this a bug? She has 90% regen, on land, as far as I can see.

[Folket]

I'm pretty certain that two out of three water queens comes with 90% regen.

[Don_Corleone]

Finally have I defeated a shinuyaman army!
Even though I will lose badly in the end atleast I have inflicted some casualities before I'm gone.
Felt good considering my humiliating loss in the first clash. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Arcoscephale will fight until the end!

[FAJ]

It is a bug though, that they retain their regen outside of the water, right? The book says they have "UW regeneration". Seems kind of weird that a being made out of water would regenerate so fast on the hot dry land of abysia http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[Micah]

Yes, the book does say UW regen, but it and the in-game documentation are far from error-free. (Dominion spread via temples, the arrow formla, and Abysia's income and the growth scale all come to mind...) At least they fixed Miasma.

[Folket]

Still, the manual only lists one of the three queens just as it lists only one of every unique summon. The queen listed is the aquatic queen which have less regen then the others. It has only 50%. Could be that it is 70% under water.

[FAJ]

Is Arco staleing?

How many provinces does he have left?

[Don_Corleone]

Nah, I'm still playing

So far as I know I'm keeping myself within the 48h timeframe.

Got 27 provinces left.

Cheers

[FAJ]

27 huh? You'll outlast me by a mile http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.

Caelum is almost in complete control of my lands, but I like to think I am at least being a nuisance to them, if not a pain in the *** http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.

I at least killed his god (albiet an economy/cheap SC). That battle would have been nicer if a damned horror didn't come and eat the other archdevil http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif.

[Don_Corleone]

Hahaha good work! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Shinujama is slowly grinding through my fortresses but I still got some tricks up my sleave for him http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[lch]

Folket said:
Still, the manual only lists one of the three queens just as it lists only one of every unique summon. The queen listed is the aquatic queen which have less regen then the others. It has only 50%. Could be that it is 70% under water.


The Dom2 info from http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/spells.html is probably still valid:
Queen of Elemental Water: they will not "heal all their wounds at the end of each round" as expected. The Queen of the Lake regenerates 50%, The Queen of the Sea regenerates 70% and the Queen of the Deeps regenerates 90%.

[FAJ]

yeah, thats not really what I was talking about. She is said to have UW regen, and she cant leave the water, but its pretty easy to get her items to get her out of the water and the regen stays. i am wondering if it is intended or if the developers just forgot that aquatic commanders can leave the ocean.

[lch]

Sea Trolls have regeneration on land, aswell. It makes sense that a being assembled out of water has no problem to rebuild itself after its form has been smashed by some heavy hit. Think Terminator 2.

[FAJ]

It also makes sense that she would be vapor after a day under a second sun in strong Abysian dominion. I try not to think of things in terms of fantasy/reality terms. I just wanted to know if it was a bug or if Bathusama is suppossed to retain the UW regen.

[Velusion]

I have created a thread concerning the server that hosts this game. Please check it before posting that the server is down.

Velusion's Game Server Update Thread (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=d3maars&Number=507308&fpar t=&PHPSESSID=)

[Micah]

Hey Folket, any chance of a concession at this point? You've been staling lately and I think I have the upper hand. Arco is AI and isn't going to hold out much longer regardless, and I'm hoping FAJ wouldn't object.

[Folket]

Yes, I was just about to write that I will surrender now. I do not think I'm without chances but I'm very tired of this game and is happy to end it.

My only regret is that I never finished FAJ of. FAJ have been fighting bravely and deserve a better ending then this.

[FAJ]

I am fine with ending it here.
Regardless of my *****ing and moaning, this has been the most enjoyable game of dominions so far. I was glad to be in the top 3, and I certaintly learned a lot in the game.

Thanks for letting me live long enough to explore the magic-tree farther up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.

A big thanks to Velusion for hosting the game. You games are always the best. I love the e-mail system and status page. Now that this is over, host another!

[Velusion]

Heh... FAJ you beat my PM by a few seconds... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Congrats Micah! I'm glad I was taken out by the victor... gives me a good excuse. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Micah]

Heh, hopefully Shovah will forgive me, at least I stabbed him in the side competently. (The language in our NAP was vague, so it's up to interpretation if it was actually broken or not, he certainly wasn't expecting the attack in any case)

Playing with those seraphs was looking to be a lot of fun, I'm a bit sad I only got to see one of them in a fight (I had bout 80 clams, so I was wishing up one/turn) They're such good SCs, the only real weakness they have is magic duel.