Mega Age II -Kingmaker(Started)

[Xietor]

no, races will be assigned on may 7, or when everyone turns their picks in.

It may be a good idea for the 1st 2-3 alternates to send me picks as well. If may 7 comes and picks are not in, then the players will be replaced.

[alctel]

I'm in

edit: i'm a new player so I really don't mind which race I get http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Herode]

Xietor said:
There is only one water race left-EA Oceania. Thanks for all of the offers to take a water race, but you may want to look at ea oceania before making the offer. It seems like this race would have a hard time if it left the water.


I had a look on EA Oceania, it does not look like a pain in the neck. AW or AN mages can help going out of water. Also depends on the pretender, of course. I can maintain my offer if a water nation still lacks & if it helps you starting the game.

[cleveland]

Not sure if the research difficulty discussion was ever settled...

I'll preface it by saying I'm a proponent of Very Hard Research: on a map this large, somebody will undoubtedly take a huge number of forts early on, accumulate a large number of forts, i.e. mage recruitment centers, and finish all research by turn 50.

But, I also appreciate the need for certain nations to access magic to be competitive early on.

Simple solution:
Set research=Very Hard, but move all level-2 spells into level-1.

[Xietor]

I believe we determined it is not possible to make a mod to stagger the research. So hard is our best option.

If anyone knows more about mods than me(and the people i asked), I would use a mod that does the following:

paths 1-3 normal research
paths 4-6 hard research
paths 7-9 very hard research.

I would love a mod that could do that. But if no one makes one(and some say it cannot be done), then we will use hard research.

[DrPraetorious]

What Xietor proposes isn't possible, but what cleveland proposes *is* possible.

Level,Total Easy,Total Normal,Total VD
1,20,40,100
2,60,100,260
3,120,200,520
4,220,360,940
5,380,620,1620
6,640,1040,2720

My suggestion would be:
Very Hard research
All lvl 1,2,3 spells are level 1 (lvl 2 for Con).
All lvl 4 spells are level 3
All lvl 5 spells are level 4 (3 for Con)
All lvl 6 spells are level 5
Lvl 7+ spells stay where they are.

Thus, spells level 1-3 are effectively easy difficulty.
Level 4-6 spells are effectively hard difficulty.
Lvl 7+ spells are very hard difficulty.
Item construction remains very hard difficulty.

I can generate such a mod if you want.

[Xietor]

That would be great Dr. P, But I am not sure any spells should be easier to research than normal. Normal levels are not too bad. And it really makes the bless nations a bit weaker if some spells are set to easy.

My fear is it makes the penalty for drain 2 too small of a price to pay for 80 design points.

[llamabeast]

Sounds like a cunning plan Dr. P. I'd suggest level 3 -> level 2 rather than 1 though. That way level 2 and level 3 spells are both at approximately normal difficulty, and also there will be no gap at level 2.

There is also the quirk that no spells will be available at level 6. You might want to take an educated decision and split the level 6 spells into more and less powerful ones, putting the less powerful ones at level 5 and the more powerful at level 6.

[Amhazair]

If you make all lvl 3 spells lvl 2 and keep Dr.P. suggestion otherwise unchanged that would make lvl 2 spells (now at lvl 1) effectively normal difficulty, and lvl 3 spells a little bit harder than normal.

It would of course mean there are no lvl 6 spells anywhere.

[Amhazair]

Eh, Llama. Stop saying exactly the same thing as me, but explained more clearly. It makes me look an illiterate copycat. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[DrPraetorious]

Okay.

(non-construction)
Lvl 1 stays.
Lvl 2 -> Lvl 1
Lvl 3 -> Lvl 2
Lvl 4 -> Lvl 3
Lvl 5 -> Lvl 4
Lvl 6 -> Lvl 5
Other spells:
Ice Strike, Shimmering Fields, Prison of Sedna, Sea of Ice, Iron Walls, Marble Warriors, Living (whatever), Animal Horde, Dome of Flaming Death, Dome of Corruption, to level 6.

Astral Tempest, Dragon Master, Wild Growth, Unraveling, to level 7.

Flame Storm, Niefel Flames to level 8.

[baruk]

A radical idea: use normal research.

- It keeps things simple.
- Balance between rushers and turtlers is maintained.
- Boomers already balanced by popularity of rushers.

So someone might finish research before turn 50. What's the big deal? There is no "research victory" to take into account.

My take on map balance: if starting distance between capitals is large, then research should be made more difficult to compensate the rushers.
On this map, distance between capitals will be low considering no. of players divided by total no. of provinces, so research should stay at normal.

See how normal research goes for this game - if need be changes can be made for Megagame 3.

[Xietor]

research was on hard for 1st big game, and i thought it was fine.

with 900 provinces, normal research does not give the benefit to the nations that are strong in research, and aids nations who are weak in research. I definitely am not in favor of very hard research as some nations will be sure to be rushed within 3 or 4 turns.

[Zeldor]

I now really hope I get LA Agartha. No one wanted them, I did some tests and started to like them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif So I will kill anyone that tries to grab them from me.

[Xietor]

The map is coming along. The final map image will be made available to everyone, but not the final rgb file as the starting locations for 4 races, LA Atlantis, LA marignon, EA Ryleh, and EA oceania will be set. There is no getting around la atlantis and la marignon-they have to have specific starting spots on the coast.

All border mountains have been turned into mountains, so races that can build peg castle will be able to do so.

Additionally, i have coded provinces with 4 icons on the map to have "many magical sites." if you see the volcano, the splash of water, the stone henge, or the silo icons on a province, it has been coded for "many magical sites."

The following players still have not submitted race selections:

Llamabeast
Drake49
Cor2
Moderation
Janim

At 0000 hours on May 8(new orleans time) players who did not submit race selections will be replaced with alternates and
race assignment will begin.

If you are in the top 3 alternates, it may behoove you to send in potential picks in case you make the cut. Otherwise you will be randomly assigned a race as I have no idea what race you would have liked to play.

I will not randomly assign a water race, or a blood race that requires blood sacrifice to maintain dominion.

[Jazzepi]

Xietor said:
The map is coming along. The final map image will be made available to everyone, but not the final rgb file as the starting locations for 4 races, LA Atlantis, LA marignon, EA Ryleh, and EA oceania will be set. There is no getting around la atlantis and la marignon-they have to have specific starting spots on the coast.

All border mountains have been turned into mountains, so races that can build peg castle will be able to do so.

Additionally, i have coded provinces with 4 icons on the map to have "many magical sites." if you see the volcano, the splash of water, the stone henge, or the silo icons on a province, it has been coded for "many magical sites."

The following players still have not submitted race selections:

Llamabeast
Drake49
Cor2
Moderation
Janim

At 0000 hours on May 8(new orleans time) players who did not submit race selections will be replaced with alternates and
race assignment will begin.

If you are in the top 3 alternates, it may behoove you to send in potential picks in case you make the cut. Otherwise you will be randomly assigned a race as I have no idea what race you would have liked to play.

I will not randomly assign a water race, or a blood race that requires blood sacrifice to maintain dominion.




I would really prefer to not have any "special" provinces. There's only four of them, for how many people? It just makes certain starting locations much more valuable than others, and screws the people who aren't nearby them in the beginning.

Jazzepi

[Zeldor]

I understood there are 4 types of them and there are really many of them. If there are just 4 provinces like that I am also against it. We have enough of randomness.

[Darkwind]

If they were set equally distant to many capitals (for example, rings of capitals around each "many sites" provinces, though I doubt that's what's happening) it would work, since each nation would have a roughly equal chance of getting the province, and they'd be hot spots for warring (IE, whoever controls the province would get ganged up upon). Since I haven't seen the map yet, I can't really cast any judgement on it, but for now I support the concept, at least.

[Reay]

The last megagame was reasonably balanced with hard research. It is a large game so people can go up the research tree pretty quickly. Normal research is unbalanced for a megagame IMHO.

I survived with Machaka against Helheim because I could get Flaming Arrows before attacking. Without them I would probably have been crushed by the dual blessed Helherdlings. So very hard research is probably also unbalanced.

Hard research by mid game was starting to get unbalanced with several nations shooting up the tree. However many of these nations died out later on and I eventually caught up.

So I support Xietor in using standard hard research.

[Xietor]

the many magic sites icons can be viewed for yourselves. I did not add them to the map, they came with the random map. So there is no moving them or spacing them out.

capitals will be random though, except for 2 water races and 2 la races that require by the game mechanics set starting spots.

llamabeast will generate the 1st turn which will place 56 capitals randomly on the 56 starting spots on the map.
I will have no control over it. So yes a player may get a capital close to one, while another player may be far from them all.

But there will be starting spots that are better than others anyway. A player starting out next to dr. p niefel giants is going to be hard put to survive and he likely will
not even have time to search for magic sites. and you need to have the right level mage/paths to uncover them.

much more determinative to one's survival is a player's proximity to powerful aggressive nations played
by good players.

in any event i spent over 9 hours working on the map today and I am not inclined to undo what i just did-though most of the work was on neighbors/mountains.

[Baalz]

Xietor said:
in any event i spent over 9 hours working on the map today and I am not inclined to undo what i just did-though most of the work was on neighbors/mountains.



Much thanks for all the work you've put into getting this game together X! For what it's worth I've found my inspiration with Oceana and am really looking forward to seeing how well it works.

[Lingchih]

Please change your Icon Xietor.

[Reay]

Xietor, will the border mountains being converted to mountains still block the path to some neighbours?

These provinces are important to making the game more strategic.

[Xietor]

yes, one thing i tend to like is maps with strategic places to build forts. After the map is created changing the border mountains to mountains does not change neighbors.


Some of the neighbors do allow movement through seemingly impassible mountains-and i am removing those where i spot them.

[Jazzepi]

Xietor said:
the many magic sites icons can be viewed for yourselves. I did not add them to the map, they came with the random map. So there is no moving them or spacing them out.

capitals will be random though, except for 2 water races and 2 la races that require by the game mechanics set starting spots.

llamabeast will generate the 1st turn which will place 56 capitals randomly on the 56 starting spots on the map.
I will have no control over it. So yes a player may get a capital close to one, while another player may be far from them all.

But there will be starting spots that are better than others anyway. A player starting out next to dr. p niefel giants is going to be hard put to survive and he likely will
not even have time to search for magic sites. and you need to have the right level mage/paths to uncover them.

much more determinative to one's survival is a player's proximity to powerful aggressive nations played
by good players.

in any event i spent over 9 hours working on the map today and I am not inclined to undo what i just did-though most of the work was on neighbors/mountains.



I really have to insist that these be taken out. None of this was present in the pretext for the game, and I think they're quire unbalancing. You're basically throwing provinces in at random with no regard to the spacing with capitals, and telling people exactly where large locations of magic sites will be at.

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

I have used these icons to use the many magic sites tag in both of the Epic Heroes games that I hosted. And I am looking at the present game, EH II. I own 1/3 the map, and 6 of 18 capitals on a 300 province map.

There looks to be 7 provinces that got the tags. And I own 1 of them. And the only magic site is has is a farm of plenty. And the one I can recall from EH I i owned has one of those plains on it that increased heat-and nothing else.

On the 900 province map, i think there were about 15 total provinces with the icons. And I do not think the tag makes them a gold mine of magical sites. I think it does increase the chance, similar to a waste province, or mountains etc.

Lolomo owns 4 of the sites on the EH II map, and I will ask him what magic sites his contain. But I do not see it as a major thing. To me it adds a small bit of spice to the province. I own 100 provinces, one of which has the tag. A farm of plenty is hardly unbalancing.

But since there are not many, it would not be hard to remove the tags. But so far we are 1 vote for them, and 1 vote against. And I would wait until we see what Lolomo's 4 sites have before we make it a big deal.

Edit-i actually own 3 of the sites, 1 was partially hidden by a castle, and the other by my army. The second site has 2 magical sites, 1 produces 1 w gem, the other 1 s gem. The 3rd has no magical sites at all.

So I am now not sure the tag does anything, or whether it is bugged or what. Though 3 is too small a sample to be conclusive.

[DrPraetorious]

The "many sites" tag doesn't really do very much - a province with "many sites" has approx. the same number of magic sites as a mountain or forest, but might also have the income of a farmland. Although, in the cases that Xietor has specified, they don't.

The more sites tag really is just another terrain, which has even more sites on it than wasteland, but not by a huge margin. Due to the way magic site placement works, there will probably be a number of plains or even farmland provinces which actually have more gem income / better indies than the few "more sites" provinces.

[Jazzepi]

DrPraetorious said:
The "many sites" tag doesn't really do very much - a province with "many sites" has approx. the same number of magic sites as a mountain or forest, but might also have the income of a farmland. Although, in the cases that Xietor has specified, they don't.

The more sites tag really is just another terrain, which has even more sites on it than wasteland, but not by a huge margin. Due to the way magic site placement works, there will probably be a number of plains or even farmland provinces which actually have more gem income / better indies than the few "more sites" provinces.



Hmm. I thought it would be much more drastic than that. I'd still like to see them removed if possible.

Jazzepi

[Meglobob]

I am happy with the many tag sites, they will make little difference to the game, I have played on many maps with them and still have not had one single special site even with a 100+ province empire. Which is rubbish!

The real gem producing sites that will be sought after will be other players capitals.

[Jazzepi]

Meglobob said:
I am happy with the many tag sites, they will make little difference to the game, I have played on many maps with them and still have not had one single special site even with a 100+ province empire. Which is rubbish!

The real gem producing sites that will be sought after will be other players capitals.



Yes. Your capital will do quite nicely Mega http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Jazzepi

[Meglobob]

You can be my neighbour anytime Jazzepi.

[Renojustin]

Is there still room for another player for the megagame?

[Kristoffer O]

Hi, i don't think it is very hard to make a new research setting in the patch. Since it is about to be released soon I would like to suggest the following:

1: 20
2: 50
3: 100
4: 200
5: 500
6: 1000
7: 2000
8: 5000
9: 10000

First levels almost at easy. Last levels way more expensive.

Is this interesting?

[Zeldor]

Kristoffer:

You may get some dangerous levels of love from some people now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Maybe you could add an option to make bigger HoF and customisable amount of globals allowed?

[Kristoffer O]

Less likely, since I like the current settings on those http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Hmm, 5 globals with 60 players. Hmm. Nah, I still like it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Dedas]

Yes the globals amount is great. New research settings! I love you! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Zeldor]

Your lazy side wrote that post http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Fight the urge to procrastinate!

[Kristoffer O]

Hmm, I just realized that it will not be possible to make my suggested change.

However research can go on beyond lvl 9. So it should be possible to mod a bit.

Current cost lvls:

lvl
9: 1100 * researchcost
10: 1780
11: 3000
12: 4000
13: 5000

Thus it is possible to move all lvl 7+ up one or a few lvls (making lvl 7 empty)

Suggested fix: Difficult research
Lvl 2-> lvl 1
Lvl 7-> lvl 8
Lvl 8-> lvl 10
Lvl 9-> lvl 12

This leaves lvl 7, 9 and 11 empty.
7+8 costs (420+680)*researchcost
9+10 costs (1100+1780)*researchcost
11+12 costs (3000+4000)*researchcost

Might even work with standard research.

If these costs are unfit I can change them before the patch, but it will not be possible to make another grading without a more thorough fix.

[Xietor]

KO, I am willing to delay the start of the game as late as June 1 for the patch. Target date for the start has always been May 15(earliest)to June 1.

Please give ma man a KOA commander. see i said the magic word. heh. please.

It always drove me nuts when i used to play man that the koa's had move 3 and forest survival, but no commander that had 3 moves and forest survival! And maybe reduce the Koa's resource cost to 51(still high but bearable). Then I will let you play them and you can see that they still are not overpowered!

[Kristoffer O]

I do not intend to make any changes to nations more than has already been in this patch. Fixing balance stuff for Gath et al, and fixing simple bugs are all that remain on my agenda for the patch.

New stuff for LA Atlantis and other nations will have to wait until after 3.17 is released.

Stuff that might have direct effects on the gameplay in the megagame might recieve attention, but apart from research I think most stuff can be fixed during game, and research will have to be done the way I just said, with a mod, lest all research in all games will be affected.

[James243]

Wow. Can I be the first to say thanks to everyone who's contributing to organising this game! I'll be honest and say that I don't understand even half of what you're talking about, but it's apparent that others are putting in a lot of work so that I (and others) can have fun. Thanks!

[Salamander8]

I have to ring in with thanks to you for all your work here Xietor and Doctor P as well for helping with this mammoth map.

Also thanks to KO and Ilwinter in general for such excellent and ongoing support and growth of this game.

[Xietor]

49/60 starting locations done. But I keep changing them a bit as i do test games. But every nation will have 4 adjacent provinces(some 5 or 6)of the appropriate type(land/water).

Also, there will be at least 2 provinces between capitals, and in most cases 3 or more. I am having to play with the neighbors a bit to achieve that, but between making mountains impassible, and fine tuning neighbors, it should not feel as crowded.

[Lingchih]

Should you not play in this game, Xietor? Since are becoming so familiar with the map? Or perhaps play a lesser nation?

[Xietor]

lol. Velusion did his map and took la ermor. I will have no
more advantage in knowing the map than Dr. p, who had his 1st pick of choice. I am going to pick a nation that no one else selects with their 1st pick. And it will be a "lesser" nation. trust me. there is not a power nation left.

Besides, since I have no idea where I will be starting, that is an extra incentive to make all starts good.

[Cor2]

Xietor, that seems more than fair to me.

[Zeldor]

Xietor:

What LA Ermor? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Xietor]

Clock is ticking, and will soon be striking midnight on 2 players who have yet to make picks:

drake
moderation

you can just pm me and say "I have no preference" etc. But 58/60 is pretty good. 1st 3 alternates should also send me their picks in case they get in due to the failure of the above to turn in picks in a timely manner. some of them have
already.

I have lost count of the number of people with sauromatia as a 1st pick! j/k. it is many though.

[Zeldor]

Enchanted Forest and Carrion Woods will be allowed?

[Xietor]

all spells are allowed but the 4 listed in the first post. You can cast those 4, but you will just lose your gems. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Bananadine]

Oh wow this thread is busy! Anybody know who the alternates are at this point? If I'm one then I'm probably too low down the list to have any chance, so don't fall over yourself finding out for my sake. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Kristoffer O]

Is everyone aware that there will be 3 new nations available in the patch?

You might want to avoid these, but since it seems likely that the game will start after the release of the patch it might be interesting to have these to choose from. Xietor decides if he will take them into account.

LA Gath
MA Ashdod
EA Hinnom

[Aethyr]

KO--

You are a very busy man. Many thanks for your continued hard work, and for making Dom3 the best game out there today.

[Baalz]

Kristoffer O said:
Is everyone aware that there will be 3 new nations available in the patch?

You might want to avoid these, but since it seems likely that the game will start after the release of the patch it might be interesting to have these to choose from. Xietor decides if he will take them into account.

LA Gath
MA Ashdod
EA Hinnom



Heheh, those were my top three choices before getting roped into MA Oceana, and I know at least one other has picked one of them to. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Zeldor]

I was considering them but I am not huge fun of unknown.

[Gregstrom]

I like the challenge of the unknown - I'd take one of them on the spot.

[Xietor]

I can say that at least 1 player has taken 1 of the new races as his number one. So at least 1 of the new races will be in the game.

I do realize there are many spells and items that make many units(soulstone of wolves, enchanted forest, ma ermor/la ctis reamination. But i believe, and hope, that enough has been done so that it will not be an issue. Even with la ermor and la ryleh owning much of the world, and every one of their provinces having thousands of free spawn, the game made it to almost turn 100.

What you must do is kill off races with high amounts of units early in the game! And leave whatever lowly, nonthreatening, peaceful, friendly race I may be playing alone! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[coobe]

i would also prefer one of the new races if its still possible. dont care which one exactly though

[Xietor]

moderation is the only player whose selections I have yet to receive.

Do not worry alternates. I think the biggest drop off
in players will occur when some do not get their 1st pick-and do not meet the pretender deadline.

[Darkwind]

I think I might as well try some of the new nations, if I can. It might be fun working out a strategy.

[Xietor]

coobe, since you previously had no preference, you should rank your picks, since others have also taken new races as their number 1 selection.

That way i can roll off the appropriate races. Without specific selections, you would automatically lose to anyone that had named a specific new race as their number 1 pick.

[coobe]

hm okay ill go with this:

1. MA Ulm
2. LA Gath
3. EA Niefel

[DaveCG]

Hey again Xietor, I was just reading this thread again ( can't wait to die so quickly http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ) and just thought to thank you for all your hard work and effort, as well as the doctor, once again my thanks.

Looking forward to it anyway.

[Xietor]

All picks are in.

I will 1st post the players who got their 1st choice without a roll-meaning they were the only player to select said race with a 1st pick.

[Xietor]

Kingmaker final list

1. Xietor
2. Dr. P
3. KristopherO
4. Baalz
5. Janim
6. ComTrav
7. Herode
8. Meglobob
9. Zenzei!
10. Salamander8
11. Yandav
12. Cupido2
13. Unoptimized
14. Amhazair
15. Twan
16. Bernardo
17. Falkor
18. DonCorazon
19. Zoshan
20. Hoplosternum
21. Slobby
22. Dryaunda
23. Digress
24. Shigure
25. Areaofeffect
26. Hadrian_2
27. Lolomo
28. Chrispedersen
29. Cicadian
30. Lingchih
31. Foodstamp
32. Revolution
33. Fal
34. Admiralzhao
35. Coobe
36. Otthegreat
37. Dedas
38. Tichy
39. Tyrant
40. James243
41. Moderation
42. DaveCG
43. Darkwind
44. Cor2
45. Reay
46. Drake49
47. Mazel
48. Cidi
49. Hellkor
50. Ossa
51. Cleveland
52. Firewalker
53. Jazzepi
54. BigandScary
55. Llamabeast
56. Atul
57. Sum1lost
58. Zeldor
59. GWAR
60. Mr. Sparkle
61. seryozha

I will list alternates later. Have to run and do a bit of work, but check the 1st post throughout the day for your race selection. I may pm players about choices-if i have time.

[Xietor]

Herode said:

"I had a look on EA Oceania, it does not look like a pain in the neck. AW or AN mages can help going out of water. Also depends on the pretender, of course. I can maintain my offer if a water nation still lacks & if it helps you starting the game."

Good luck with EA Oceania Herode! I had to take you up on your generous offer.

[Xietor]

All the races that can be assigned without dice rolls have been. Up in the attic, somewhere, is my old D & D GM books, and more relevant, dice.

Coobe and Darkwind, you both sent me more than 1 set of picks(heh) and both had ma ulm as 1 or a new race as 1. So if you two want to trade races you can. And only you two.

On a positive note, my old Wizard's Quest game by Avalon Hill was sitting on a bookshelf next to some dusty law books(who has time for work) and that game contains dice!

[coobe]

ashdod is fine with me, i dont know anything about them though =) hopefully the patch comes soon...

[Xietor]

The 1st round selections have all been resolved and will be up shortly. 3 races had 4 picking them 1, and 1 had 3, several had 2. Second seeds will take a good bit longer to resolve.

* edit: All but 1 player that submitted picks has received a race to play that is on his list. And all early seeds have been resolved, with MA Ctis being a 2 pick on more than 1 list and being subject to another roll off.

I need to do some real life things, but i hope to be able to cement the picks tonight or tomorrow at the latest. Players that had previously said no preference can send me a few picks that appeal to them.

But there will be no more roll offs. And I will use my discretion to award the remaining races, paying care not to give anyone a race they marked that they did not want to play. But obviously I will try to give everyone a race they like if possible.

[Darkwind]

I've never tried MA Ulm before. This should be interesting http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif Time to stock up on info.

[Nauquan]

Hi.

Newbie. 1st Post. 1st game. Sill room? Didn't read all 22 pages http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I'll take any nation. Going to die quick anyway. I want to play!!!

Nauquan

[Darkwind]

Pretty sure there's no room left. Some people might not send in their pretenders, though, so you can sign up as an alternate and/or sub.

[Hadrian_II]

Fear the Monkey PD http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Xietor]

If anyone does not have a race(i think i missed someone), or has a race they cannot stand, and wish to trade it for another available race, pm me soon.

* Since I took a race not one person out of 61 listed in their top 10 picks, I think I should get to start with the MA Arcos
Epic Hero-(who Baalz said is underpowered btw). He is just an elephant with no magic. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Zenzei]

Are the races assigned? I for one haven't got any pm.

[Herode]

Nobody picked EA Agartha ? Wow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif


@Zenzei : look at post #1 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

[Zenzei]

Oops http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

[Darkwind]

Say, when should we set up a trading thread? I'm eager to get my trading gears rolling http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif So, about when the game starts, or when people start itching for some better way to offer/take trades besides using the main thread?

[AdmiralZhao]

Man, I can't believe someone else picked LA Caelum. I had my pretender picked out and everything for them. Dang you Lolomo!

[DonCorazon]

Same thing for LA TC - I was all warmed up and ready to go. But I will take out my anger with some berserking Utgard giants.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Firewalker]

Hmm ... Nagas again. At least in this game, starting positions will be random. Over in Alexandria, everyone knew I was their neighbor and took cold scales ...

[Xietor]

I left gwar out by accident(:

He lost a roll, along with 3 others, for ea caelum. Janim rolled a 12, Gwar was 2nd highest with a 7. His second pick was ea vanheim, and he should have received that race. I had it written down on a piece of paper, but it never got typed onto the game thread. So i gave it to a player with "no preference."

I have offered him one of the remaining races. And ea agartha was on his list. So we will see what he decides. And one of the new races is available for him as well.

Please accept my public apology GWAR.

[Cor2]

I got my third choice, EA arco. I am pretty happy.

When will the maps and the mods be up? And when will we be able to upload pretenders?

[atul]

Hadrian_II said:
Fear the Monkey PD http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

We will, we will... stick&stone you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Xietor]

The map is almost done. Many thanks to Ballbarian who was able to plug my 61 starting capitals into his script and highlight them all in bright yellow dots on the map image.

Visually observing my capital placement allowed me to catch a few problem spots that are hard to spot when looking at a text file.

Llamabeast is setting up his server, and he is preparing the Mega Age mod. Dr. P is still prettying up the map a bit. But we cannot start the game until the new races come out. And likely we need to give the players who have new races a few days to create their pretenders.

So we need to have the patch, and I am not certain when that is occurring. Hopefully in the next week or two.

[James243]

Should I have received a PM with my race? Or how do I check? or have the no preference folks not been assigned yet?

[Xietor]

The races are all posted on the 1st post of the thread. There will be no individual personal messages telling players their races. It is all on the 1st post of the thread.

Additionally, when they become available, the mod and map files will also be listed in the 1st post.

[Xietor]

GWAR, for administrative convenience, I am assigning you EA Agartha which was list as your 7th pick. If you want a different race let me know.

Since I screwed up, I will give you my race if you want it. I am in this game to have a bit of fun. So I am not overly concerned by my race selection.

[Twan]

Note, if he (or someone else) wanted ME Arco I'm ok to let it to try the new LA Garth instead (picked Arco first as it's my favorite race, but after reflexion, I'm rather tired of it after 3 long MP, writing a guide, etc.. so would have nothing against a change).

[Jazzepi]

Huzzah. I got my first pick Bogarus here I come.

Research++

Who wants to race to the top of the research tree? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

Dr. P says his Niefel rush will race you! Given you inherent research advantage, i thought it only fair to have you on a pennisula blocking niefelheim's expansion path.

But never fear, you have a mild mannered neighbor on the other side of you, MA Ctis and the Miasma! I hope those researchers don't catch their death of fever!

[Cor2]

Jazzepi said:


Who wants to race to the top of the research tree? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Jazzepi



EA arco stomps everyone in reasearch, given the right scales. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif 10 research for 50 gold, yes please.

[Jazzepi]

Xietor said:
Dr. P says his Niefel rush will race you! Given you inherent research advantage, i thought it only fair to have you on a pennisula blocking niefelheim's expansion path.

But never fear, you have a mild mannered neighbor on the other side of you, MA Ctis and the Miasma! I hope those researchers don't catch their death of fever!



I hope you're joking about custom placing me D:

Jazzepi

[chrispedersen]

If GWAR would like to take MA Man - I would be happy to switch with him.

Chris

[Xietor]

GWAR is a good sport. He is happy with EA Agartha. MA Man was 4th on your selection list!

Jazzepi, would i sabotage a dear friend. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif heh.

There will 4 races, and 4 races only that are custom placed.

EA Oceania, EA Ryleh, to make sure they start in the big lake. LA Atlantis and LA Marigon, because KO says they need to be custom placed on the coast. So if you end up in a tough spot, it is God's will, not mine.

[Jazzepi]

Xietor said:
GWAR is a good sport. He is happy with EA Agartha. MA Man was 4th on your selection list!

Jazzepi, would i sabotage a dear friend. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif heh.

There will 4 races, and 4 races only that are custom placed.

EA Oceania, EA Ryleh, to make sure they start in the big lake. LA Atlantis and LA Marigon, because KO says they need to be custom placed on the coast. So if you end up in a tough spot, it is God's will, not mine.





You know, I'm actually suprised Atlantis needs to be custom placed on the coast. Every game I've ever played with htem they get stuck on the coast. Which is obviously a huge advantage, but also sometimes strange very akward you get stuck next to a lake or something.

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

yeah, LA Atlantis always starts on the coast, but if they do not have a specific spot, they will pick one of their own spots, and not necessarily one that is tagged as a starting location.

Anyway, if you read back towards the beginning of the thread, you will see KO's more detailed explanation.

[Jazzepi]

I was just curious. :>

Jazzepi

[chrispedersen]

What will the strength of independents be?

[Xietor]

Good question-and one i thought i had answered on the 1st page, but i just said middle era, not the strength. It will be the default 5 strength.

[DaveCG]

EA Ulm? Thanks!

Just so you all know, when you see the commander "Conan" entered into the hall of fame, I will be smiling like an idiot...untill he dies, and then I'll just cry and wish I could get Conan MK 2 in, sigh.

[AreaOfEffect]

The First Mega Game International Bank has been established. Check it out and submit your applications.

The First Mega Game International Bank thread (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=604494&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=&vc=#Post604494)

[Yucky]

Sorry I missed this game!

[Janlm]

when will it be time to send in pretenders?

[moderation]

Bump. I would like to what time pretenders are due too. I'm still finishing my design.

[llamabeast]

I will set up the server to accept pretenders as soon as Xietor asks me. I wonder if we are waiting for the patch though.

[LoloMo]

Oooo!! If we're waiting for the next patch, can I switch to LA Garth instead?

[Tichy]

We must be waiting for the patch. There are people signed up for two of the new nations.

[Xietor]

there have been several people asking to switch races, even some that got their 1st selections. And the problem with switching is it will cause a chain reaction.

If Llamabeast can set up the game, then we can let players send in their pretenders. The game has a target date of starting between may 15 to June 1. With the decision to wait for the patch, the game is in limbo atm. And even if it came out today, the game would not be able to start for at least a week, as people may need a bit of time to get their pretenders in, especially with the new races.

However, the decision to wait on the patch will change if the patch looks like it will delay the game beyond a June 1 start. Certainly I hope that is not the case.

[Kristoffer O]

The patch will likely be available this weekend. We will try to compile it within a day or two. Then a few days might pass before it appears for download.

[baruk]

If there are a couple of new nations to be added to the pool, would it be too much to ask to add a couple of starting positions to the map, and thus open up a couple of extra slots for players?
The fact that I'm in the 2nd reserve slot is entirely coincidental, I can assure you..

[coobe]

the new nations are already taken into account. i got ashdod, ive heard they are weak http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Kristoffer O]

They are the weakest nation in the middle era! They have charlatan mages, heretic priests, only militia units and their castles are made from papyrus. If they survive to the end game they can summon Bug Beasts. Tiny little cuties easy to squash.

[Baalz]

So....they're like MA Oceana only plus Bug Beasts? :0

[Darkwind]

Kristoffer O said:
They are the weakest nation in the middle era! They have charlatan mages, heretic priests, only militia units and their castles are made from papyrus. If they survive to the end game they can summon Bug Beasts. Tiny little cuties easy to squash.

They actually sound like a nation that could use a strong bless strategy (this coming from a newb, of course). Their magi can't be used as an asset in the mid to end game, and their units are too weak to make a strategy using super-scales better. If they can recruit or summon the Gath angels right off the bat, and if said angels are sacred, then their priests can accompany the army to bless and lower enemy dominion at the same time. It might not be very hard to equip a priest to go stealth-preach in an enemy capital, either. They sound like a very priest-oriented nation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Also, if you want weak, check out MA Ulm. Poor magic resistance, prone to being rushed whether they can survive or no, no sacreds, all expensive men. I'd list their strengths, too, but that's not the point of pointing out painful weaknesses, is it?

[DrPraetorious]

Given it appears I don't have a sub for the early game, I may have to bow out in favor of an alternate.

If there's anyone who wants to play for 2 weeks but can't finish the game, they can sub for me. Any takers?

[Hadrian_II]

Darkwind said:
Also, if you want weak, check out MA Ulm. Poor magic resistance, prone to being rushed whether they can survive or no, no sacreds, all expensive men. I'd list their strengths, too, but that's not the point of pointing out painful weaknesses, is it?



Ulm is not that weak any more, iron blizzard is a very ugly spell, he is cleaning out knights like militia (I almost think that shields dont parry the boltshttp://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif). They will still lack in the lategame and elephants still eat them, but they are not so weak now.

btw. and LA Ulm is one of the strongest nations in the game, burkhart nachtzehrer alone can kill an entire nation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Darkwind]

Hadrian_II said:

Ulm is not that weak any more, iron blizzard is a very ugly spell, he is cleaning out knights like militia (I almost think that shields dont parry the boltshttp://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif). They will still lack in the lategame and elephants still eat them, but they are not so weak now.

btw. and LA Ulm is one of the strongest nations in the game, burkhart nachtzehrer alone can kill an entire nation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Like I said, I was pointing out weaknesses. I could hammer out a rough list of strengths, too, if I wanted, but that wasn't the purpose of my list. So just weaknesses got in.

Besides, I have a rough strategy for surviving rushes and not being attacked (quite probably won't work, but oh well).

[Xietor]

Baruk, there are no more starting spots i can add. 61 was a tight squeeze. Some players are already going to start in fairly tight quarters, though there is at least 2 provinces between starting capitals.

There is still hope for some alternates, as real life may require an additional player or 2 to drop out before the game starts.

And someone could take Dr. P up on his offer and play the Niefel Giants 1st 7-8 turns. The start of the game should be quite fun for the heavy bless nations.

[GWAR]

Does anyone know of a guide for EA Agartha? im feeling awfuly lost trying to work something out atm.

[Slobby]

Try, http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=590616&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1 .
Last time I was playing around with Agartha I was trying combinations of fire, nature, and earth blesses. If you don't want to go the bless route, trogs work well for expansion.

[Lingchih]

So, when is this thing going to start. I assume sometime after the latest patch comes out?

[Foodstamp]

I played EA Agartha in the last mega game. Trogs worked great for me until I ran into Mictlan. Bless > Trogs.

My Risen Oracle SC performed very well and only died to a domain glitch. After he went down, I was pretty much doomed.

Combine the above elements with a sound strategy to defeat a bless rush and you should be good to go http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[chrispedersen]

I think a F9 or even F10 bless is almost essential for Agartha. I also believe them vulnerable to an early rush. And a mid rush.

I spose my second priority would be research (ouch!) to flesh out SC's.

[Lingchih]

Yes, EA Agartha is very vulnerable to an early/mid game rush. Take an awake Pretender, for sure.

[atul]

EA Agartha has it easy compared to its MA cousin. But luckily, both get Risen Oracle. Seriously, full-slotted immortal with 100 base HP, what's not to love?

[Amhazair]

atul said:
what's not to love?

He's fat and ugly? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[atul]

Bah, you're just prejudiced against immortal undead love. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Amhazair]

Not at all. I just have my standards.

Vampire Queen: Ohmygodyesss
Risen Oracle: Yech

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[atul]

I must stop before this thread gets locked for obscenity.

...on the other hand, given the latest ads, maybe someone in Shrapnel marketing also has hots for Vampire Queens. At least one black-haired lady would do well for an Ann Rice vamp.

[Xietor]

LLamabeast has set up the server to accept pretender selections. There are detailed instructions on how to send in your pretender in the 1st post of the thread.

DO NOT use a password. A pw is not needed for Llamaserver, and it prevents the game administrator(me in this case) from setting a race to ai without Llamabeast's intervention.

Since I am playing in the game, I do not personally set races to ai, but i will ask a player not in the game to do so. A game admin. can send a player's turn file to a different email address, but the original player gets an email alerting him that the game admin. has done so. And obviously no game admin. has a valid reason to do so unless that player has stale turned sufficiently to require an involuntary sub or his race be set to ai.

Given the number of games llamaserver is now hosting, it is quite unreasonable to burden Llamabeast with the chore of setting a race to ai when it inevitably needs to be done.

In short, it is inconsiderate to pw protect your pretender.
And llamabeast can bypass your pw in any event, so a certain amount of trust in Llamabeast is required. You are not required to trust anyone else, including game administrators, as they have no access to your turn files.

And having interacted with Llamabeast on various mods, and as an ally in a MP game, my trust in him is absolute.

[DrPraetorious]

Sure, the vampire queen is hawt, but she's also an emotional black hole, a real prima donna, a complete (expletive deleted.) She'll suck you dry (I'll be here all night.)

The risen oracle may not be the best looking piece of reanimated tissue, but she's a classy lady, dependable, a good listener and a good time.

There's more to a lady than looks, guys.

[atul]

Such hatred.

You're just bitter she lost her ethereal beauty before you were able to take advantage of it. And become even more high-maintenance gf in the progress.

[moderation]

Is the due date for pretenders still up in the air depending on the 3.16 patch?

Also, I always assumed that the risen oracle was a male. Yikes!

[llamabeast]

Thanks for putting up the instructions for sending in pretenders Xietor, I had meant to get round to that but hadn't yet. I have an amendment though - the subject line of your e-mail must be one of "KingMaker_Early", "KingMaker_Mid" or "KingMaker_Late" depending on what age your nation is from.

[Jazzepi]

When are the pretender selections due in? I have a convention this week and I'll be super busy.

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

There is no due date yet. After the patch has been released
it will be set. Everyone but the 2 players with new races has ample time now to work on their pretenders.

[coobe]

ahhh i need the patch http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[schragnasher]

Hey just got the game in the mail a week ago, id like to get in on this is there is still room. guess ill take LA Midgard. Im assuming i got some time to learn the game before start? lol http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Xietor]

Regrettably, this particular game is full. While there are a few open races, there is only enough room on the map for 61, and they are all taken.

If you are new, the ai will provide you with a challenge, and there are also other mp games that start from time to time.
Good Luck!

[Xietor]

The Kingmaker Map is done!

The Map image can be viewed on the 1st post, and the rgb file is linked and needs to be downloaded to your map file. As you can see, it is a north/south wrap. The Wrap was done by Dr. P as well as the touch up to the map image.

Per my instructions, the 2 biggest bodies of water do not connect, and are separated by a mountain range.

The Map File will not be linked, as it contains the starting locations, including the specific starting locations for 4 races. That means you will not be able to start a game with this particular map.

[Darkwind]

I'll revive this thread to ask how everyone's doing pretender-wise and ask you guys who you think will do well (other than yourselves, of course).

In other news, all 3 Ulms already have their pretenders in. Take this as a sign--Ulm is always on-time, and will also be on-time in winning the game! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

As for offering little tidbits, I'll just say that I think MA Ulm would be the odd man out if forced to play without any diplomacy, since most people seem to consider it a rather poor nation. We'll just see how poor my hordes of Black Steel warriors and Guardians are http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

[AlgaeNymph]

Darkwind said:
I'll revive this thread to ask how everyone's doing pretender-wise...

I'd like to know how I'm doing pretender-wise myself, but the patch isn't out yet.
...and ask you guys who you think will do we-

Twan.

[Xietor]

Who will do well?

Someone who has a race that kicks butt in the early game, like Mictlan, or a race that gets a good starting position.
and by a good starting position i mean you are surrounded by unaggressive players that allow you to expand at your leisure.

Who will not do well? Races with imprisoned Pretenders, but no bless, that start out next to a strong player that has a good rush strategy and no mercy.

[Hoplosternum]

Xietor said:
Who will not do well? Races with imprisoned Pretenders, but no bless, that start out next to a strong player that has a good rush strategy and no mercy.



I'll have to scrap that pretender then http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif Back to the drawing board....

[atul]

Xietor said:
Who will not do well? Races with imprisoned Pretenders, but no bless, that start out next to a strong player that has a good rush strategy and no mercy.

Wouldn't be that absolute. For instance, in previous megagame Midgård did quite strongly with imprisoned pretender without bless, until getting his butt handed to him by Man played with a sage pretender.

Luckily Dominions isn't that clear-cut a game. That's not to say bless-rushers wouldn't have advantage early on, though.

[Amhazair]

Darkwind said:
who ... will do well

Let's see...

My favourites would have to be the potential end-game powerhouses played by proven veterans:
MA Arcoscephale - Twan
LA Arcoscephale - Xietor

Nations I definitelywould rather not start next to, for obvious reasons:
EA Niefelheim - Dr. P.
EA Mictlan - Meglobob
Of these two Mictlan has the stamina to be a potential contender in end-game too. I'd be surprised if Niefelhiem can last to the end in a game this size, but Dr. P. can feel free to prove me wrong.

Other solid players with solid nations:
LA Marignon - AdmiralZhao
LA Bogarus - Jazzeppi (If he has comes through early game in a decent position)
LA Caelum - Lolomo
EA Fomoria - Tyrant
LA Pangaea - Amhazair (Hey, someone has to mention me. Not good for my ego being left out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )

And no doubt one or two of the players I don't know yet will have learned a lot in the past months and surprise the world.

Edit: Greece =/= Rome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[coobe]

gang on them ! (and leave ashdod alone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

[Twan]

Me ? I'm flattered, there are easily twenty players in this game as or more experienced than me.

Ok I picked a nation I know very well (ME Arco not Ermor, but with nerfs to magical economy and slow research my usual builds/strategies for it would be hard to use).

Personnally I rather fear thugs nations in this kind of game. Midgame will be very long with these settings and being able to recruit thugs for money a big advantage.

[Xietor]

Lol.

I WISH I had a powerhouse nation, but I took a nation not any of the 61 players had in their top 10: LA Arcos. So if I survive it will be due to luck in starting position or diplomacy.

Midguard is still available btw, and likely would be hard to
kill off early with the cheap skin shifters. I considered playing them....

LA Mictlan is tough, but I am not really into that much blood!

[Baalz]

Xietor said:
Lol.

I WISH I had a powerhouse nation, but I took a nation not any of the 61 players had in their top 10: LA Arcos.



I'll trade you for MA Oceana if you like. I really like LA Arco, playing them in a duel with QM right now. Lucky, ethereal, high protection elephants seem likely to be able to do well with slow research.

[Xietor]

I do not like water races-except la ermor! muhahahhaha.

[Zeldor]

Xietor:

LA Arco should do really fine with diff research. Of course MA Arco is really more useful.

I still cannot believe no one picked LA Mictlan. I wanted to try it, but I expected like 5-10 people putting it as number 1 .

If someone will have tough it will be me. Instead of elephants I have some cave knights that cannot even trample http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Xietor]

With few exceptions, most nations capital bought troops will be obsolete by midgame. So the strength of a nation will be determined by their mages.

In fact, in the 1st big game ma ctis castle bought troops were obsolete after turn 8-9, and it was their powerful mages that carried me.

When you run into stuff like this, a battle MA Ctis won incidentally, you know that you better not be relying on Lizards:

http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/3e3dd983787e390b3b76dc5983da0cf12g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=3dmhmpznnhu&thumb=4)

[Kristoffer O]

I'm not sure, but it might be wise not to send in your pretenders until after the patch. I don't think there is anything that has changed with the pretender design, but there is a new save format I think. This might not affect the creation of the game, but the bother if it causes problems is bigger than the wait for a few days more I'd say.

[coobe]

i am away until saturday. i hope the patch wont be released or else i might miss the game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Xietor]

There will be a 7 day period to send in pretenders after the patch. And the patch is not even out yet, so I doubt there will be anyone missing the game because they are gone until Saturday.

I still am undecided what to do about the new race no one selected. Since the patch appears to be delayed, it bolsters my earlier thought to just leave them out of this game, as including them will only delay the game more as there would be a significant reshuffling of races(or a strong possibility of it).

Part of the problem is i had many players that said they would play any race, but I did not want to give them a water race, a race that had to blood hunt to survive (micromanagement hell), or a new race. The new race, for all i know, could be a water race, or a race that requires blood hunting for dominion spread.

[Evilhomer]

or else you can give the new race to the combo team me/folket http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. We are fairly experienced so I am sure we will manage no matter if its underwater or blood hunt race.

[Xietor]

I have more races than starting spots at this juncture. I wish i could accommodate more players, but 61 was the absolute max for this 900 province map.

And I did not want a bigger map because of the unit limit issues YOU caused in the last game EH!

[sum1lost]

Post deleted by sum1lost

[Evilhomer]

Bah! 61 or 62 players won't make much difference, admit it you are scared of the evil swede combo =)

[coobe]

there are still races left out ? any chances i could change to any of them from ashgod ? LA Midgard would be great =)

[Jazzepi]

Is there any chance we can have mist of deceptions removed from the game entirely? I dislike the notion that a defender with a mage, even if he's scripted to cast MoD, holdx4, retreat will always win in defense as long as he doesn't die during the holdx4.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=608207&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Jazzepi

[Baalz]

Jazzepi said:
Is there any chance we can have mist of deceptions removed from the game entirely? I dislike the notion that a defender with a mage, even if he's scripted to cast MoD, holdx4, retreat will always win in defense as long as he doesn't die during the holdx4.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=608207&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Jazzepi



Seconded.

[Cor2]

Third.

[Xietor]

If mists of deception is banned completely, then why not wraithful skies as well? Or the Horror Harmonica? Or other spells that target the many more than the single casting mage?

I think Ko and/or Edi once said that battlefield spells and enchantments were supposed to end when the mage that cast the spell died or left the battlefield. And that is the way darkness works when the mandaha dies, and other spells also end when the casting mage dies or leaves the field of battle.

But for some reason, some spells do not end, and apparently are not easy to fix. Velusion's solution to this problem, which i admit i copied, was requiring the casting mage to stay on the field of battle until his last available scripting turn.

We could vote on the issue and require the mage to stay on the battle for the duration, unless he dies or is injured and retreats due to low morale. But then the issue arises as to whether a mage with ritual of returning up could ever cast such a spell without violating the rule?

[Twan]

Wrathfull skies or any other spell don't allow the defender to always win if his mage survive, I think the difference is there. There is nothing to counter MoD once the mage has left the battlefield.

It's also very easy to abuse the 5 rounds rule, i.e using militias or other weak expandable troop with low morale, going to rout in round 2 or 3 (and storm to avoid fliers).

[Baalz]

MoD is unique (as far as I know) in that it is self perpetuating. Wrathful skies (or anything else) ends if you kill or rout everybody on the other army, but it sounds like MoD is a guaranteed win for the defender and a guaranteed kill for any mindless units unless you kill the caster before he runs.

[Xietor]

Maybe we can mod the spell a bit. Is there any way to convert it to a battlefield enchant for air that does not exist? Like a battlefield mirror image?

It is a high level air spell, and I hate to just remove it completely(:

While I did mod a good bit with units in the Epic Heroes Mod, I have not done any spell modding, so I have no idea what is possible with changing a spell via of a mod. We may have to wait until Dr. P gets back from Europe to fix this spell via mod.

[Twan]

Yes if you want it's easy to do.


#selectspell "Mists of Deception"
#copyspell "Mirror Image"
#pathlevel 0 6
#researchlevel 8
#fatiguecost 400
#name "Mist of Mass Glamour"
#aoe 666
#spec 4194304
#descr "Gives mirror images to all your warriors on the battlefield."
#end

should do it (not tested)

[Xietor]

Thanks Twan.

If that works, that may be a better fix than removing the spell completely. A mass mirror image spell could be useful in conjunction with arrow fend and fog warriors.

I think it would be especially lethal for armies of high damage troops like shin shifters, that are somewhat vulnerable due to little armor.

[Twan]

Just tested, it works but has an interesting side effect :

By chance number of images isn't based on caster level but on the target one, so troops get just one.

But all air mages get a number of images = their air level, like if they casted the mirror image spell themselves (I see no way to give them just one).

So it's an excellent spell to buff an army of thugs with air magic.

--

But there is a potential problem with the spell AI. I fear the AI will recast this one as soon some units have lost their image.

[coobe]

can i switch to LA Midgard ?

[Xietor]

Lots of players have pmed me about switching races. And many of them got their 1st choice of race, out rolling players who also wanted the race they got. So it is very doubtful I will
want to reopen races, as that will definitely cause a chain reaction that will delay the start of the game.

But I will not give a definite response until the patch is released. The sooner it is released, the more inclined i would be to allow changes, since it is my shared goal with the players to make as many people happy as possible with their race selections.

But fyi, you are not the 1st to ask to switch to midguard, or the new race, or la mictlan.... If the patch is not released in the next 3-4 days, then it is highly unlikely we will want to delay the game any further than the patch already is delaying it.

And if the patch is not released by June 1, the 2 players with new races will be allowed to pick midguard, mictlan, or abysia, and we will be starting. The Big Game is best played during the Summer, and as much as I would love to include the new races/patch, I do not think anyone anticipated it not being released by June 1 when we agreed to use it.

[chrispedersen]

why not just allow people to switch freely if they want to?

[Xietor]

Because 4 different players want to switch to the new race. And is it fair to allow the switch if they already received their 1st choice of race?

For instance, Lolomo out rolled Admiralzhao for LA caelum. But now lolomo wants to ditch his 1st choice, and play the new race(as do 3 other players). Say I let Lolomo switch. Then Admiralzhao, seeing that his 1st choice, la caelum, is now open, says I want la caelum.

And so on and so forth. What is likely to result is more roll offs for races. And to be quite honest, I have already spent many hours on the race selection process.

Creating spreadsheets and ranking players' picks, then having a roll off. Not sure I want to go through that again, and I am also not sure I want the game delayed while a second bite at the apple occurs.

And inevitably, someone(s) will still not be completely happy even if the process is repeated. Of course race selection could have been 1st come 1st serve like most games, but i decided to follow Velusion's seeded race selection process for several reasons.

If it had been 1st come 1st serve, I would not have been stuck with LA Arcos, that is for darn sure! Though there is nothing "bad" about them, just not a race i would have selected 1st, or 10th, or 30th.


http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[cleveland]

chrispedersen said:
why not just allow people to switch freely if they want to?



I think chrispedersen is talking about player-to-player trades.

Like if two players both agree to take the other's nation.

[Xietor]

I am unaware that any 2 players want to trade nations. But I certainly have no objection to that.

[AlgaeNymph]

Xietor said:
Thanks Twan.

Thanks from me too, since I'm the one that caused the trouble in the first place! (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=608207&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

[Cor2]

Xietor, I agree totally with you not wanting to allow switching. I cant even imagine how I would go about doing the rolls in the first place. What I am trying to say is thanks for going to all the trouble, and that I am impressed the skills needed to tackle the task.

[Jazzepi]

DryaUnda said:

Xietor said:
Thanks Twan.

Thanks from me too, since I'm the one that caused the trouble in the first place! (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=608207&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif



Drya and his haxzors.

Will he ever learn?

Jazzepi

[sum1lost]

Would anyone be willing to sub for me from June 4th to june tenth? I'm going to be 500 miles away from my computer, and I probably wouldn't be able to get away with staling through that time. I would really appreciate it.

[Lingchih]

My Pretender is ready, but I will hold off on sending it in, until the game is ready to go.

[AlgaeNymph]

Jazzepi said:
Drya and his haxzors.

What haxzors? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

(Something else I've noticed, everyone's assumed to be male here.)

[Jazzepi]

DryaUnda said:

Jazzepi said:
Drya and his haxzors.

What haxzors? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

(Something else I've noticed, everyone's assumed to be male here.)



Just joking http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

There are some female players. But not many. What ever happened to Honeybadger?

[Jazzepi]

I was pretty sure honeybadger was a dudddeee.

jazzepi

[Xietor]

umm no.

[Jazzepi]

Xietor said:
umm no.



http://photo.gangus.com/d/26788-2/ackbar.jpg

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

Perhaps a topic for another day, "What scares off the female Dominions players?"

[Bananadine]

horror helmets

[Herode]

Lack of Bog Beasts.

[sum1lost]

Male dominions players.

[Xietor]

I did my part! I posted a picture a while back http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

[atul]

Does map download work for you people?

I get the Kingmaker file, but it shows only as an "executable unix file", not .zip or an image file. What format should it be?

I'm one of those weird people with Mac OSX (10.5.2) so that might contribute something... :-/

EDIT: Never mind, managed to open it with Gimp and it looks ok. Just something strange with file type, I hope it isn't going to cause any problems?

[Lingchih]

Xietor said:
There are some female players. But not many. What ever happened to Honeybadger?



I always felt a little gay calling him Honey in the posts (I usually shorten peoples names). I guess if he has a she though, it's cool then.

As to what happened to her, probably got burned out. Happens to me about every six months.

[chrispedersen]

Xietor said:
Perhaps a topic for another day, "What scares off the female Dominions players?"



Male Dominion players. Duh.

[chrispedersen]

Xietor said:
Because 4 different players want to switch to the new race. And is it fair to allow the switch if they already received their 1st choice of race?

For instance, Lolomo out rolled Admiralzhao for LA caelum. But now lolomo wants to ditch his 1st choice, and play the new race(as do 3 other players). Say I let Lolomo switch. Then Admiralzhao, seeing that his 1st choice, la caelum, is now open, says I want la caelum.

And so on and so forth. What is likely to result is more roll offs for races. And to be quite honest, I have already spent many hours on the race selection process.

Creating spreadsheets and ranking players' picks, then having a roll off. Not sure I want to go through that again, and I am also not sure I want the game delayed while a second bite at the apple occurs.

And inevitably, someone(s) will still not be completely happy even if the process is repeated. Of course race selection could have been 1st come 1st serve like most games, but i decided to follow Velusion's seeded race selection process for several reasons.

If it had been 1st come 1st serve, I would not have been stuck with LA Arcos, that is for darn sure! Though there is nothing "bad" about them, just not a race i would have selected 1st, or 10th, or 30th.


http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif




Dude. Don't do any of that. Who cares if player x chooses to switch with player y. Let 'em switch.
The player who originally had the race gets to decide who plays the race.

[chrispedersen]

*************** ad **************************

Smile.. by the way.. I am willing to trade for any of the new nations (what the heck) and others!

*************** ad **************************

[Xietor]

Chris, you may have missed my post above, but I did say I did not mind 2 players trading races before the game starts. That is not a problem. Good luck trading MA Man!

[Foodstamp]

HoneyBadger is definitely a guy. He mentioned his RL several times in the past, but considering the times we live in, who knows http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

I am willing to trade helheim for a combination of two inferior nations!

[chrispedersen]

I know, believe me I know. = )

[Amhazair]

Foodstamp said:
I am willing to trade helheim for a combination of two inferior nations!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Jazzepi]

Foodstamp said:
HoneyBadger is definitely a guy. He mentioned his RL several times in the past, but considering the times we live in, who knows http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

I am willing to trade helheim for a combination of two inferior nations!



I WIN.

Admiral Ackbar knows when it's a trap.

Jazzepi

[Xietor]

If the Patch does not come out over memorial day weekend(by day's end Monday), we will take steps to move forward with the game starting on June 1 and we will just patch when it comes out.

I think Coobe wanted to trade his new race in for Midguard anyway. That leaves only 1 player who will have to select a new race from an admittedly small pool of remaining races.

In the event Dryunda does not like Blood races, LA Abysia and LA Mictlan are the only 2 races left(and EA Pangaea who with no turmoil scale available is crippled), then I will see if I can add some sort of fun "bonus" to EA Pangaea that may make it fun for him to play even with no free spawn.

However, I have no earthly idea what sort of fun bonus it may be, so do not pick EA Pangaea thinking you will go from the worst to best race overnight.

[DaveCG]

Man, I know I'm new and all, but I really can't wait for this, it's shaping up to be great, you watch I'll end up falling flat on my face, oh well.

Thanks to the great community though I've gotten some good ideas on how to use EA Ulm, I can't wait to try some more MP games now.

Anyway, the point of my post was this, I take it we're waiting on the new patch before we start?

Also, regarding talking to other players I've been reading the lets play over on SA, and it seems like people use things like AIM and MSN etc to talk, other than the main system in game, is this looked down on? is it allowed in this game?

Anyway, I know my next question would be better served by posting in the general area, but I've started here, so I'll finish here.

Could anyone advice me on play EA Ulm? I've heard things like "get blades of wind the E4?3? spell" and not to really go for magic, being as ulm aren't great at it, just to mass troops early, I've been playing SP with my pretender and ulm, just trying to get a feel for it, and I must say I think I'm going to get eaten.

Anyway, any advice or help or anything, such as a "Shut up Dave" would be helpful/hurtful, thanks for reading and hoping to hear how I can end the would as DaveGG(wish I'd named him Crom now..) and my kick *** Conan, whom I'm sure someone will mind hunt to make me cry.

-EDIT- Dammit, while I was writting you posted Xie, phooey now I look silly....er....

[Xietor]

I think any form of communication is fine. If I am not mistaken, 2 of the players are actually brothers(forget which 2, which is dumb on my part and likely why i find myself fighting uphill numbers most of the time).

The only thing I ask, and I have no mechanism to enforce it, so it is just an honor thing, is that no players make alliances or "deals" before the game starts.

For instance, I am friendly with Llamabeast. Never met him in real life, or even instant messaged him. But we teamed up in a mp game once and it worked out well.

So say I am playing a strong research race like MA Ctis. And say he is playing a race with lots of n gems like EA Pangaea. And I say to llamabeast before the game , I will take a 5n pretender and race straight to alt 5 and cast mother oak. if you give me 50 n gems I will split the return with you(or something along those lines).

That is a type of pregame deal i think is unfair to other players. And it is banned-though as i said I will not make any effort to enforce such a ban as it is beyond my ability.

So it will just have to be an honor type thing, and if you are a type of player that can feel a sense of achievement winning with an unfair advantage over other players, then that is between you and your conscience-and you have my sympathy.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Of course if you are really treacherous, you make a deal with llamabeast's neighbor to kill him off, so you get the gems to cast mother oak and have no one to split the spoils with! How would an honest guy like me even think of something like that? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[coobe]

so i can prepare my pretender for midgard ?

[Xanatos]

can i be late ermor?

[Xietor]

so i can prepare my pretender for midgard ?

Yes. You are officially the Skinshifters! They are quite potent.

[coobe]

thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif iĺl get right on designing...

[Xietor]

looking at EA Pangaea, if Dryunda selects them, what I am likely to do is:

1. reduce the gold cost of the centaur longbows. Sort of like midguard gets a discount on skinshifters, the closer to nature EA Pangaeans will find centaurs more willing to join the cause.

2. Raise the rp of the pans a small bit. they are actually one of the worst bang for the buck researchers anyway.

3. Reduce the gold cost of the minotaurs by 10 gold each, and make the war minotaur a good bit more mobile and better at attacking and defending. After all he is not wearing plate like the later age version.

And the Minotaurs have those Horns! They absolutely must get a gore attack. Before they became civilized they used to gore their prey.

And for a little variety:

4. Add a new Minotaur Warrior that does not trample, and wields a huge 1h axe and a shield.

5. Add a new Minotaur Warrior that does not trample but dual wields 2 big 1h axes.

4 and 5 are dependent on me getting Foodstamp or another kind soul to make the sprites.

[AreaOfEffect]

Dryunda can also select Machaka as well if he desires. I'll take one of the remaining nations if he does.

I've personally made it a point to stick with what I've been given, spite the fact I am one of the few who didn't get his first pick. However, I'm willing to trade with those who also didn't get their first pick if it will improve the enjoyment they get from playing this game.

[Xietor]

Actually, most races were dead at the end of the 1st mega game, but two notable exceptions were LA Abysia and, I believe, Machaka was still alive as well.

LA Mictlan did quite well, but received special attention from LA Ryleh. And to be quite honest, not many could survive that scrutiny. Towards the end of the game LA Ryleh was wishing 5 times per turn.

With the mod we will be using in Kingmaker, hopefully we will not see a repeat of the Attack of the Terrible Clams.

[Cor2]

AreaOfEffect said:
Dryunda can also select Machaka as well if he desires. I'll take one of the remaining nations if he does.



SHE, I believe.

AreaOfEffect said:
I've personally made it a point to stick with what I've been given, spite the fact I am one of the few who didn't get his first pick. However, I'm willing to trade with those who also didn't get their first pick if it will improve the enjoyment they get from playing this game.



Me too, I got my third choice, cept I don't wanna trade.

[Xietor]

Before the game starts, I want to make everyone aware of a couple of minor modifications to the game, made via of what will be named the Kingmaker Mod. That way there will be no surprises once the game starts.

Worthy Heroes 1.8 most likely will be used in its present form, since I have not heard from Turin in quite some time.

Lllamabeast is working on a research mod-and even I do not understand it completely, so once i do i will post what it does. The research mod changes will be subject to discussion, though i think most were in general agreement with what Llamabeast is attempting to do. A layered research tier with the lower level spells being normal, and the highest ones being very hard.

Twan made a mod "fixing" Mists of Deception. A detailed explanation of what the modded spell does is in the mod forum. Given all of the controversy this spell has caused, it will be modded. That will not be open for a vote.

I added a commender to 2 races that i view as weaker nations. And I do not know the players that are playing them from Adam. But I did not add the commanders because the nations were weak, but because i thought they were "missing." You be the judge.

LA Ulm- While I only really play MA, when i was looking at some of the races I may have to play, one of them was LA Ulm. Right off the bat something bothered me. LA Ulm has a fairly nice capital only undead troop, the undead Guardian,
but no leaders that can really lead undead.

Blood mages have poor undead leadership. And mages in general have poor leadership of regular troops. So I added a leader that can lead both men and undead:

http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/4acdc438bba853f36ab1084108ac87b72g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=tztknzmj2m2&thumb=4)

As you can see, this leader is hardly going to be a game breaker for la ulm, but it should allow him to get his men and undead moved around with 1 commander.

The second is a KOA Commander for Man. KOA's have forest survival and a map move of 3, but none of Man's commanders do(: Maybe it is just me, but Wardens are a bit sad. I do not even buy them when i play man, and do not spend any points blessing them.

So I did give the KOA Commander better stats than a gor KOA. But the cost is 150 gold, and you can't buy these and crones as well.

http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/2bebc5629cb060b2cfa9a047c7f496ef2g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=2mxnncylszk&thumb=4)

But if i get any objections to them, they will be left out of the mod.

[Herode]

I don't know these nations but I guess the commander thing is an element in balancing the weaknesses and strength of a nation. Hence, I would not modify this before the game. LA Ulm is not the only nation with this kind of constraints. Look at EA Yomi : its demon leaders have a very low leadership for standard troops, you have to recruit commanders for standard and commanders for demons / undeads. Not even talking about the magical troops. That's part of the flavour of the nation, part of its balance also. I guess the same thing happens to Ulm.

[Slobby]

Nay on the new commanders.

[Jazzepi]

I really think right now is a bad time to be modding the nations in an untested way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Jazzepi

[Zeldor]

I guess you would have to add at least recruitable tartarians for MA Man to make it strong enough to be useful http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Xietor]

Herode, Yomi is actually the worst possible example to use as to why Ulm should not get a leader of both men and undead.
Yomi was given a specific demon general that can lead 120 men and 70 undead.

Be that as it may, the people have spoken!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Twan]

I think giving something to Man is a good idea, as it non diverse and weak magic (out of capitol mapmove 1 and old crones) makes it a very bad nation for long/big games (and the little thugable knight don't look too powerful).

On the other hand LA Ulm look like a good nation for big games, with the vampire based blood strategy, so I'm not sure it needs something.

[Herode]

This one is a hero. But as for regular commanders I was talking, the Dai Oni leads 20 men only, and the Oni General 10.

But yes, this hero is pretty cool ^^ (and boostable)

[Xietor]

Yomi's demon general is not a hero. You can buy him at the start of the game for 100 gold!

[Jazzepi]

Please let me know the details of the research mod when you find them out. It effects how I make my pretender.

Jazzepi

[atul]

LA Ulm gets the national spell Sanguine Heritage, which brings a commander with loads of all kinds of leaderships. Only thematic for vampires to lead their undead forces...

[Xietor]

and which of their mages can cast it? if they face a bless rush they likely need someone to lead the undead in the 1st year, not down the road. heh. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[atul]

If they face a bless rush in the first year, they might not need to ferry the undead very far. :p

[Xietor]

True dat http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I am also taking a look at Worthy Heroes Mod. Expect some tinkering and a 1.9 version to be used for Kingmaker.

At the very least that annoying Hornblower hero that thinks he should be a pretender for every nation will be put in his place. And at most you may see a few new heroes added.

While i have not yet had time to sort through the maze that Turin created, he did say he favored some of Burnsaber's heroes fairly recently. So I will see what races those heroes are for.

Some races do need Worthy Heroes. Edi created an interesting hero for MA Oceania a while back, and at 1st blush MA Oceania appears to need Worthy Heroes. We shall see.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif It may not be a good idea to take 3 misfortune this game baalz. In fact, the whole point of Worthy Heroes is to act as a counterpoint to the elite gamers who always seem to take 3 order/2-3 misf.

[ComTrav]

I hate to do this, but my summer schedule has more travel than I thought. I'd hate to delay the game for several dozen players, and I know there are plenty of people waiting to join, so I'm going to go ahead and sit this out.

[Xietor]

np. This is one game where i get daily pms about open slots.

My biggest challenge now is figuring out who is next on the alternate list, and what nation they get.

Way way back, but here was our list of alternates:

1st alternate- seryozha
2nd alternate- baruk
3rd alternate- Evilhomer/Folket team
4th alternate- Gregstrom
5th alternate Agema

I think Baruk is up, with Evilhomer team on deck!

[Cor2]

I vote no on the new units. I have played LA ulm and never had problems with undead leadership.

[Xietor]

oh there is no vote. Once 1 person objected, they were out.
So they have been out since the 1st person said no.

And Cor, by chance have you played LA Ulm after the last patch when the capital only undead troops were added? They are quite nice, especially their weapons which stop other races sacred troops in their tracks.

Having not played much LA I may have overlooked an obvious trick to using them early to stop a strong bless rush.

[Xietor]

On a positive note:

1. Baruk is joining the game as LA Abysia! Welcome aboard!

2. There will definitely be a Worthy Heroes 1.9 version, as I have fixed the bug with the Hornblower pretender. Whether anything else gets done remains to be seen.

[DrPraetorious]

I don't think we should make any changes to EA Pangaea, myself.

That sort of thing is difficult to balance and requires a fair amount of consensus.

I'll be back in the states by Wednesday and ready and able to crush all of you, worry not. Crushing!

[Herode]

Xietor said:
Yomi's demon general is not a hero. You can buy him at the start of the game for 100 gold!


Ha, ooops ! True, I just forgot this one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Xietor]

Actually, if someone is stuck with EA pan, I would change them a bit to compensate for the loss of free spawn, and i have consulted with QM about how already. A consensus of 2 between myself and QM is not bad! QM does this sort of thing for a living. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

But Baruk and dryunda have saved me the trouble of modding EA Pan by picking LA Abysia and LA Mictlan respectively(: And I so looked forward to my modded Minataur Warriors spanking your Niefel Giants Dr. P(:

[AreaOfEffect]

The simplest mod for LA Pangaea would have been to clear the special abilities of the commanders, replace them, and use the #domsummon command to replace the free spawning. This would have allowed Pangaea to keep their free spawn no matter what level of order or turmoil they took.

Besides, it doesn't make sense to mess with minotaurs when pans are the units being affected. It would changed the dynamic of the nation so much that it would play like a completely different race.

[Jazzepi]

AreaOfEffect said:
The simplest mod for LA Pangaea would have been to clear the special abilities of the commanders, replace them, and use the #domsummon command to replace the free spawning. This would have allowed Pangaea to keep their free spawn no matter what level of order or turmoil they took.

Besides, it doesn't make sense to mess with minotaurs when pans are the units being affected. It would changed the dynamic of the nation so much that it would play like a completely different race.



The whole point is to remove the freespawn entirely. The issue is with the limit cap of the game.

Jazzepi

[Salamander8]

I DLed the kingmaker zip, but when I extracted it, it reports as file type "file", rather than MAP, TGA, or SLI files like all my others.

[Xietor]

When anything goes wrong with the map, we can all point our fingers at the same person-Dr. P!

j/k.

Your file should be a rgb file. It should not be a MAP File because that is not being posted for public viewing. The Map File contains the specific starting locations for 4 races, and they likely would not want that information known by every other player before the start of the game!

Additionally, I have coded the starting spot of all 61 nations, with 57 being random. And if the map file is posted, then the mystery of where your neighbors' capitals are will be removed and part of the thrill of exploration will be gone.

Dr. P has knowledge of the starting locations. I think fairness dictates that he not attack an enemy capital before turn 5.

While I also know where all the starting capitals are, i have never rushed anyone, as fast expansion is not my style. So my knowledge is irrelevant as my scouts will discover who my neighbors are long before i initiate any hostilities anyway. In any event i also agree not to attack any enemy capitals before turn 5.

And keep in mind that while Dr. P and I know where the starting capital locations are, we do not know who is where except for 4, LA Atlantis, La Marignon, EA Ryleh, and EA Oceania.

And as powerful as Niefel is, I am not sure they would want to rush a double or triple blessed mictlan blindly.

[Kristoffer O]

Hi!

The patch should be available tomorrow, since you seem to have a holiday today.

Don't touch Yomi in the mod! I'm playing Yomi! Not much use for me to play a nation to find imbalances if I get a modded nation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Xietor]

Good news on the patch!

There is no mod for any nation KO. Just having some fun. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[atul]

Xietor, at my computer the Kingmaker map image appears as an "Unix file" when I look at the properties. Gimp will open it and call it 'rgb image', so it is a proper image, just something amiss with some specs.

Could you please start a test game with the image that one loads from the first post's link, and confirm everything works (if you haven't done it already)? I'd do it myself but as you pointed out, we don't have access to the .map file. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Salamander8]

Here is what I get when I check the file with properties:



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/Salamander8/file.jpg

[quantum_mechani]

Xietor said:
A consensus of 2 between myself and QM is not bad! QM does this sort of thing for a living. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Actually, I agree with Dr. P, it's not really necessary. As I said though, if you're really set on doing something, I think slightly reducing the cost of pans to account for losing the maenad power seems most reasonable.

[James243]

Guys - I've got a problem....

My boss has decided to send me to Switzerland from June 8 - 18. I'm not going to have access to the game during that time.

I'm fairly far into another game which has 48 hour hosting, so organising a sub for that should be easy enough.

For this game however, it'll be just starting up AND has 24 hour hosting. A sub would be nice but I think that'd be a bit rough on the sub - basically run most of the early turns and then hand over.

The more I think about this, the more I think I'm going to have to pull out. I'm bummed, but I think it's the right thing to do, and I'm sure there's an alternate out there that will be delighted to take LA Ulm.

Xietor, thanks for the tips - I'll defitely take LA Ulm in another game and use them!

Sorry to do this everyone, and I'll certainly keep an eye on the game, and count me in for Mega III!

[quantum_mechani]

James243 said:
Guys - I've got a problem....

My boss has decided to send me to Switzerland from June 8 - 18. I'm not going to have access to the game during that time.

I'm fairly far into another game which has 48 hour hosting, so organising a sub for that should be easy enough.

For this game however, it'll be just starting up AND has 24 hour hosting. A sub would be nice but I think that'd be a bit rough on the sub - basically run most of the early turns and then hand over.

The more I think about this, the more I think I'm going to have to pull out. I'm bummed, but I think it's the right thing to do, and I'm sure there's an alternate out there that will be delighted to take LA Ulm.

Xietor, thanks for the tips - I'll defitely take LA Ulm in another game and use them!

Sorry to do this everyone, and I'll certainly keep an eye on the game, and count me in for Mega III!

Hmm, I tell you what, I have avoided the mega game because I'm almost certain I'll eventually lose interest... I'd happily play the first part of the game for you and then hand it over, though I'd probably want a bit more than the first dozen turns.

[Xietor]

Sigh.

QM i was trying to make Dr. P sweat! The thought of Minotaur warriors at 30 gold a piece dual wielding massive 1h axes in each hand with greatly enhanced attack, defense and movement descending on Niefelheim was enough to ruin his vacation!

And you had to go and spill the beans about slightly lowering the costs of pans(: That is not going to make anyone sweat.

[sum1lost]

On a similar note to James, and I know I've posted it before, but I will not have access between june 4th and june 10th, so I could also really use a sub for that time. If I can't get one I'll have to step out.