Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Nice analysis, but we could be playing the vanilla version of the map where the nodes only serve as connectors to get you around the map faster.

I'm not sure whether I like the nodes or not (and I'm Ulm so I can concievable use them more easilly than some nations), but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Now if the Nodes were tagged as victory point areas and the victory condition of the game were to control all of them...

but yeah, that's not the condition ;)

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Eww... I hadn't realized that was how the nodes worked.

Do we want to start over again? We can if you like and we can choose a better map.

Or just see how this plays out. Always fun to learn a new way to lose. :)

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I'm not sure I understand all this anyway (sorry I am new), SO....If I attack a Province with an alter and win, I will be whisked to the Icon on the side which I have to play lets make a deal and pick door 1,2,or 3.

Which I will either be screwed on 2 of them or rewarded on 1 and have to Protect it but I have no supplies.

Now the DEAD nations don't eat so they can park thier army there and not only protect it but transfer around the map?

Its a pretty map, but I think it may be a little too complicated for someone as new as I am.

I will withdraw but would be interested to read your forum as you play and see your take on it.

Thanks guys..

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I am not advocating changing the map but if a solution is worked out I would go ahead and play.:)

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I don't mind playing this map, but it would be nice to know which version we are playing.

There were 4 in the zip, one with nothing special at the nodes, and 3 with different kinds of specials/defenses at the nodes.

Anyway, when you take a province with a connection to a node you don't actually move anywhere, you just have a path to that particular node, think of them as stargates or something where each has a nexus point you can occupy.

I think you might as well give it a shot GB, this is my 1st MP game as well, and while the nodes may be confusing at first I think you'll figure it out quickly, but we do need to know if there is anything in the nodes to make them a priority to occupy or what have you.

Otherwise they just make the map 'smaller' since you can jump around more quickly if you have the right connections. Honestly they probably favor fliers more than anything else, but Caelum isn't in this game right?

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Well, we just did turn 2 and I have no idea whether I want to race for the alters or stay away till I am stronger....

I would like to know which version we are playing before next turn which I think is pivitol to us all.

Thank you and sorry for being so anal about it but I just don't want to go 10 turns and find out my strategy is oppisite of what it needs to be and I am doomed to a horrible end (i've had horrible ends...nooooo fun).

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I think we are playing the version which has the mages at the special sites (The 'Recruity' gates version).

I think the game will be quite unusual as it is difficult to 'camp' at the gates as they have no population (someone said) and they link everyones empires so are very vulnerable. Usually you have fairly well defined borders but you won't be able to in this game as people will be able to move armies in to your heartlands via the gates.

I am not sure the gate bonuses will be crucial. Indie mages are nice and in this game everyone can diversify by recruiting from the gate sites. But they are rarely as good as your national mages. I don't know what has been placed at each site so this may not be correct although I can't think of an indie mage that is better than a top line national mage?? So apart from helping diversity they shouldn't decide the game. Plus everyone will be able to get in to death by recruiting at the death gate so everyone can go down that path in any case.

A few bags of wine/ cauldrens of broth/ Summer Swords will allow any army in to a gate safely anyway. But they will be hard to hold due to the number of directions enemies can come from.

Although we are up to 8 that is still only a few for a map this size, but the gates should let us meet each other much sooner. It should be an interesting and unusual game :)

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

[quote=Hoplosternum;641765]

A few bags of wine/ cauldrens of broth/ Summer Swords will allow any army in to a gate safely anyway. But they will be hard to hold due to the number of directions enemies can come from.
QUOTE]

afraid that won't work, magic sites in nodes cause disease and curse,

i would advise due to the amount of noobs playing and the difficult nature of the map we either use a different map or allow people to have a couple of days to work out the quirks in the map be we start it again.

also upon reaslising the nature of this map i myself would like to change to a more suitable nation, let alone our unexperienced players who need all the help they can get.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Well first maybe we need to be sure we actually are playing on the version of the map with special nodes...

Or at least with the bad sites at the nodes.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

it's not even the sites on the nodes which concern me, but rather being able to transport armies with the nodes(i think this happens in all 4 maps), it can confuse our newer players and there are some which don't understand at the moment and need a chance to work it out.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I suppose, but people should play test the map a couple of times and have the hang of it.

This is my 1st MP (well since 4 years ago with dom2) and I'm not that concerned about it.

Its not too hard to edit the map so that the node sites are inaccessible though.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

i guess but i think it would be easier just to give people a couple of days to SP it or do a diferent map altogether, thou

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I don't have a problem with restarting. But if we do I would simply choose a more standard map if that is what the problem is. I don't fancy practicing for a couple of days ;) If people simply want to choose different races / pretenders thats OK, but it will mostly help the experienced over the inexperienced.

I don't really agree that the map massively helps anyone in particular. As everyone can get access to death with recruity gates it's not too bad. Disease etc. does not kill quickly and you don't neewd to hold the gate for long although many of the gates will have massive unrest that has to be reduced before you can recruit.

The unusual nature of the map means that even the more experienced players will not know how it will play. We should have plenty of room due to the map size vs number of players. Yet the gates will shake this up.

But if all you can build at the sites are Necromancers or Illusionsist etc. they are not going to decide the game. Simply aid diversification (a bit - it is often combinations of paths that are crucial for forging). And all but undead / demons can't use the gates that easily due to disease but you can guard your access to the nodes easily with PD and standing forces.

Personally I have played a few mp games but am still inexperienced. Plus I have not played a blood nation in sp or mp before (although this is the third game I have just started with one). So I doubt I will win whatever we do :) I was quite looking forward to an unusual and chaotic game, but I appreciate that isn't to everyones taste. And if people feel at a disadvantage already I would rather we restarted.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

If we're voting I say stick it out, but, we need to know which version of the map we are playing on so that we can make the appropriate decision to prioritize gates or not based on if they are just connectors, or if they actually have fixed useful sites.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Me too...I just want to know for SURE which version we are playing and what it will do.......

After that we can make a decision what we want to do. I agree that restarting on the same map does no good as we are only on turn 2 and redesigning Pretenders ect isn't in any of our best intrests.

As far as SP goes, I have kinda messed around last night with SP but don't know which map we are using so that was kind of a wasted effort EXCEPT I did find I was able to recruit a Priest (IF I built a temple) in one of the nodes.

As far as it taking me to the side Icons...it didn't do it so I expect I was playing the wrong game...

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

i tried out the map for a bit and couldn't work out anything special about the node sites..

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Well there are 4 versions of the map, the '1st' one has nothing special at the nodes, the other 3 are variants on magic sites, extra defense, and dangerous sites.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Ok, its not this hard....

Whoever set it up tell us which version it is.....PLEASE

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

well seems the people have spoken, the show shall go on, now feel the wrath of my 29 research rainbow mage.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

We are playing the Recruity Gates version per the Llama Server. Which has the mages at the gates and some bad stuff but not the really bad stuff at the gates / less guards at the gates. I think!

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Per the map creator: Llama - The nodes have 0 population in all cases - no-one lives in these very weird and frightening places... and this makes them produce little gold, supplies and resources. The nodes hurt people with two sites... I think they are something like 1-5% horror mark and 1-5% disease per turn. (one is infinite vale or horror, the other is.. mayabe inkpot end). I wanted to throw a cursing one in also, but those all have other consequences I didn't want, like a city you can explore, etc.

So it should be Horror & Disease at the gates with the later not affecting demons or undead. For none Undead / Demons there is also the lack of supplies. But there is nothing so bad that you wouldn't walk an army through the gate on its way somewhere as long as you have supply items. Sure some troops will pick up a disease on the way but it shouldn't be crippling unless you actually camp there....

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

tip: whilst testing this map with cealum one of my mammoth expansion forces passed through a node and 1 of my mammoths caught battle fright reducing it's moral to 5, next battle for no exact reason my harab elder decides to fly directly behind my mammoths even though i stationed him to cast spells from the corner of the map, the battle fright mammoth routed and obviously trampled my harab elder.

make sure when sending elephants and such units through nodes, you leave behind any who catch battle fright from the disease or make sure you take extra caution.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Ulmish Commander: So forge priests of Ulm, when can we expect our new armaments?

High Forge Priest: Well, we'd really like to start turning out some weapons, but unfortunately we have no earth gem income.

Ulmish Commander: Excuse me? I thought that Ulm was a forging nation with high paths in Earth and a forge bonus?

High Forge Priest: Ahh, well perhaps you've been reading the history books too much. We're now a weak astral nation with a small forge bonus on our priests, who don't really have much earth magic to begin with. Oh, and we still don't have any earth gems.

Ulmish Commander: So what I am I supposed to equip my troops with? Sticks and Stones like those damn dirty apes?

High Forge Priest: Well, no it's not that bad, we still make decent enough gear, but if you want decent magic kit you'll need to find us some earth gems to use. I mean we could forge you some death, or astral, or nature items, except for one thing...

Ulmish Commander: Yes? Spit it out!

High Forge Priest: Well see, the forge priests don't actually have access to Death or Nature magic, and our astral magic is rare and weak. Besides the soothsayers claim they need all those astral gems for 'predicting the future'...

Ulmish Commander: So, you're telling me our fortune tellers couldn't figure out that we don't have any earth gems, and our forge priests can't use any of the gems we do have??? What a bunch of useless hags!

Soothsayer: I knew you were going to say that.

Ulmish Commander: Shut up!

Soothsayer: I knew you were going to say that, too!

Ulmish Commander: *sigh*... ok, so we've got forge priests who can make cheap items, but no gems for them to make anything with, and we've got fortune tellers who couldn't foresee this, and I've got to get my army together.

Ulmish emo goth kid: Blood! You need blood! and Vampires, and... damn, I just cut myself... hold on, let me dig up my Smiths CD...

Ulmish Commander: What the hell was that?

High Forge Priest: Yeah... see, Ulm now has been overrun by a bunch of these annoying all black wearing kids who keep on cutting themsleves thinking that they can conjure up some kind of Vampire Count or something. I don't really get it, but my kids tell me that all the cool kids are doing it.

Ulmish Commander: Uh huh... damn, I knew I should have stayed put at my last assignment, there were buff knights, and the forge priests actually had earth gems to use to make all kinds of sharp and pointy things.

Ulmish emo goth kid: I'm a creep.... I'm a weirdo... I'm... damn it, cut myself again, hang on...

Ulmish Commander: Ok, seriously, get that stupid kid out of here, and you, forge priest, get some earth gems, and find someone who can use them!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well there you have it, Ulm is (already) looking for people with spare earth gems. Maybe you don't have them now, but if you do have them, we'll be happy to deal with you to trade for them.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

i am suprised with some of the nations whom have had good starts, i really didn't expect the ambitious C'tis choice to do so well mind you perhaps my choice of atlantis was rather ambitious and i got to a good start (even taking away the massive research lead from my 29 research pretender)

also the proud nation of atlantis is willing to trade gems and very soon magic items for cash.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Well if you don't start surrounded by heavy cav provinces any nation should be able to expand easily enough.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Ohhhh, so you have scryed on my area already huh!!!

I am surronded by 70 barbarians on one side and heavy cav on another and just to make it interesting on the third side I have Heavy Inf, Archers, and light inf.

In about 10 turns when I have an army worth a damn I MAY get out of my Fort (and find Earth Gems to trade for virgins as my men have nothing else to look forward to)!!!:doh:

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

One of my armies didn't move this turn, grrr... hate it when that happens

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Sse Lizzards of Ctis are cunning and mighty!

No, actually we just did so well because we could send both our men and women to war. We dont nurse anyway, and it's quite difficult to tell the difference between our genders in the first place.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

They must visit some of the same bars I do...

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Hallo, just in case there's still any doubt about the map, you are indeed playing on the Recruity version. The map is by Zylithan by the way, not me.

I think it is an awesome map, and I've wanted to play on it for ages. I hope it's working out to be fun.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I think the map will be fine, but it puts a larger emphasis on diplomacy since you will likely have many neighbors.

I do find the node sites to be unbalanced relative to each other though, some nodes are just better than others. However, I think that just makes it more interesting as there will really be contention over who controls which nodes, and you can't defend them easilly since they connect to so many diverse provinces, and the whole disease thing...

Looking forward to another couple turns when people start hitting the nodes for real :)

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

the great nation of atlantis rejoices as we take the earth node, weirdly it gives a nature gem each turn and no earth (sorry ulm) and we decide we don't need the gems yet and will sell the gems from the site to the highest bidder.

atlantis also will be willing to give free rewards to long term customers for their loyalty and customers will be gauranteed peace with atlantis. Please also note that all profits from our gems will be put towards protecting atlantian nodes so the enemies of our customers will not be able to pass through them to attack. speaking of our protection policy for safety reasons we cannot allow people to own alters to atlantian nodes, terms and conditions apply.

SHOPPING REPORT - expect air gems to be in stock very soon!

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Ulmish intel has indicated that the Earth node is not really an earth node at all, but rather some relic from Pangeans past.

However, ulm would like to suggest that the 8 nations partition the nodes in a somewhat fair and proportioned mannor.

Ulm believes that the fairest way to do this is for the other nations to simply send ulm 50% of the gem income from each node they posses to help with the overhead in regulating proper node occupation governance.

Ulm is willing to take on this onerous duty, since our commanders are getting more depressed every day due to the ever increasing number of youths dressed in black cutting themselves in the capitol. Ulm believes that the commanders would be happier if they had something else to do, as crushing random militia and archers is not proving to be overly fulfilling.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

sure you're ulmish intel isn't my economical post saying i got the earth node or must i warn you to get your scout out of my lands?

also atlantis has will NOT be giving any free gems to anyone with the exception of long term customers as a reward for their loyalty, i suggest you get site searching and alchemiseing to give yourself gems as i doubt anyone will give you free gems from their nodes for nothing.

the atlantian corporation urges everyone to think carefully before giving away free gems, 50% of gems from all nodes is a heck of alot and ulm can't provide military support to everyone and as such have not valid payment for these gems, by all means sell ulm gems but make sure the price is right.

Atlantian International News(AIM)- horde your gems, ulm can't pay the price

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I didn't think I needed a ;) in the last post, but...

;)

Oh, and Ulm's soothsayers 'hacked' the map file to see what the nodes looked like. We tried to keep this knowledge from our commanders, but soothsayers looked into the future and decided that would be a mistake for them personally.

Of course these soothsayers also predicted that the new ulmish patriots would easilly defeat the Giants of neifelheim, and that really didn't turn out quite right... Several ulmish commanders lost their black plate in wagers with Pangean bookies.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

double post, stupid browser...

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

lol the flavours here are awesome,would be epic if some other guys posted their flavours, now that would be a party.

for now atlantis is deliberating wether to spare ulm to keep teh flavours alive.

also i must ask- 50% of all gems from nodes? are you mad licker?

and do you think i outta put the translation to my signature in there, not sure how many people speak Malti here.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Well in Ulm we like round numbers, mostly because we don't know how to work with jagged numbers as our priest smiths keep on hammering them back into round shapes.

The commanders wanted to go with either 100% or 00%, but it was pointed out that no one would go for the 1st, and the 2nd was pointless, so they decided to split the difference.

The commanders asked for a nice sharp sword with which to split this difference, having forgotten apparently that Ulm has no natural earth gem income, but the forge priests just told them that they would go ahead and split it for them, so that was settled.

The commanders then approached the soothsayers to get a new prediction so that they could win their black plate back. The soothsayers mumbled something about frozen fishies, which the commanders interpreted as a dinner order, so they are now setting off to find some fire gems since they don't like to eat their meals cold.

On the way our they ran into some more goth kids who demanded to know when the Vampire Counts were coming. Thinking this was the name of some new emo band the commanders promised to check at TicketMaster as soon as they had scrounged up the fire gems for the soothsayers.

In any case, the people of ulm are very confused about everything other than smashing random militias and archers.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

the emos have a point though, you outta head towards blood because it's easier to get the resources, powerful, and vampire counts aren't too shabby and can summon eachover creating a sanguine cycle of vampire summoning and blood rituals, off course the extra research from vampire counts is also quite a good reason to go that way.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Oh, don't worry, those emo kids are running more of the show than the commanders probably think ;)

Well that's what the soothsayers would tell them, but the commanders are very disillusioned with the soothsayers right now. That and the fact that they were apparently promised to be part of an Ulm based on fire and steel, not blood and fortune tellers.

They'll get it all sorted out eventually, one way or another :)

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

LOL my research done is 135, 2nd place goes to C'tis with 72, How i love being magicly powerful, i can see this lead snowballing a fair bit. Anyway you know who to call to forge frostbrands for your thugs.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I'm getting an error when I try to open my turn 7 file and so, cannot play it.

Hopefully llama or someone can figure this out or I may need an extension.

And yes, I've asked for the resend but get the same problem.

Also, Pelthin, check your PM box...

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Hmm...

Well it seems to have sorted itself out after I disabled all the mods (though I had none enabled initially...), somehow the first time I loaded the game it enabled two mods, which may have caused the problem.

I exited, disabled the mods, restarted and was able to run the turn. Odd behavior... I also lost the commander windows on the first load of the game, which is really annoying, restarting dom3 fixes that problem though.

Anyway, we're getting neighbors now, how fun!

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

why are we the only 2 who post licker?

also ulm wouldn't be interested in the buying of magic items? how about a black bow of botulf or maybe a bane blade, you could even go for a rod of the leper king to give some undead learship till your commander dies of disease, but heck just swap the rod over to an indie commander before the disease finishes him. i'm pretty sure ulm has problems with undead leadership so i would urge towards the rod.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

Meh, we can forge our own death items, and I don't really need anything at the moment, but I'll keep it in mind.

Apparently the emo kids have found a solution for the undead leadership problem anyway, so don't concern yourself about that ;)

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I didnt know the inhabitands of Ulm were really so deep into this Emo thing... must be quite depressing to be their future god.

If the god is at least partly shaped by the wishes and thoughts of his people... oh dear.



Does anyone of you want to trade me a dwarwen hammer? I dont know what to offer yet, but I'll probably find out soon.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

you know i could do with a dwarvern hammer aswell.

would certainly keep me with a pile of gems to sell surplus to my forged products, atlantis offers magic items or gems to whomever gives us a dawrvern hammer.

also atlantis has too many air gems, will sell them especially cheap.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

The priest forgers of ulm will be able to make dwarven hammers eventually, however, as previously mentioned, the emo kids have for some reason eschewed finding any earth gems.

If you have earth gems you are willing to pay for your dwarven hammer in we will be happy to oblige, but it won't be for a few more turns unfortunately, as the emo goth kids have been really cutting themselves more deeply than usual in anticipation of their favorite band 'the Sanguine Counts' doing a show.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

the atlantian corporation accepts giving ulm the earth gems for our hammer, we offer a magic item of our own as payment. also atlantis needs to know how many earth gems ulm would need for the hammer.

Re: Buggy- LA - Llama server - Send in your Pretenders
 

I believe it costs 15 gems to forge a hammer with no bonus.

However, the ulmish forge priests do have a 15% forge bonus, which makes the hammers cost either 12 or 13 because at the moment we don't recall how the rounding works... ;)

In any case we are at least 3 turns from being able to forge them as we will need to forge earth boots first.

We apologize for the inconvenience of having to wait, and understand if you take your business elsewhere in the meantime, however we will let everyone know when our forges are open.

Assuming the emo goths don't bleed all over them and ruin them :p