what the heck is this

[Pocus]

This holy bonus is a very cool idea. Generally speaking, alteration of units stats depending of external factors are always a nice twist in games, and are very appreciated from the players (well, the ones I know). In Dominions II there will be national themes, and Holy Bonus. good, very good !!!

I must confess that a big reason why I really like dominions, tons of intricate mechanisms aside, is that the devs have many good ideas. Take for example Age of W... the game is good, true, but speaking of game design on the other hand, it is far less imaginative. Kinda like a vanilla ice cream, compared to dominions which would have exotic flavors

[Pocus]

forgot to reply to the post. Yes in doms I each magical level gave a bonus of a sort. Nature give +5 supply, air +1 precision, and so on. I think it has been left untouched in doms II ?

About rainbow mages (archmages), how will they get compensated from not giving holy bonuses? I heard they could cost less, but is it sufficient in your experience?

[Nerfix]

Ummmm...
If i can go with 4 Air/ 4 Blood 2 of the rest R.B Mage in Dominions I, why not in Dominions II?

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Pocus:
forgot to reply to the post. Yes in doms I each magical level gave a bonus of a sort. Nature give +5 supply, air +1 precision, and so on. I think it has been left untouched in doms II ?

About rainbow mages (archmages), how will they get compensated from not giving holy bonuses? I heard they could cost less, but is it sufficient in your experience?

Its pretty expensive to have 9 in one, let alone two paths, so if you want good bless effects you need to plow down some points into the pretender. The old bless effect from dom1 would correspond to a pretender with 6 in both blood and fire in dom 2, which is higher magic values than most dom 1 players used to put on their gods, at least judging from usenet Posts. This might make the archmages less useful to the nations that relies on holy troops, such as vanheim, but at least as competitive as before for nations that put less reliance on them, such as some of the Ermorian themses and the standard Ulm theme.

And even if you inted to rely on holy troops you might want to have several different bless effects archmages might still be worth considering. For example a medusa with 9 9 in earth and nature would pay 512 points for the magic while an archmage starting with 1 in one path ccoul have a score of 4 in six different paths for a somehwat cheaper cost.

The respective bless effects could be.
Medusa
Reinv. +4
prot. +4
berserk +3
regen. 10%

Archmage,
reinv. +2
strength +2
attack +2
defense +2
berserk +1
fear -4

Anyway, I am sure there are still uses for the archmage.

[Pocus]

really good play balance it seems. The higher you reach in a single field, the higher is the bonus, with some new effects appearing. On the other hand, as you show us, having several paths lead to several and differing advantages. This is where the studying of what you really want to do in your game is very important, before actually playing.

This recall me of old mom (Master of Magic) where you would spend hours (well at least me) thinking hard before playing, to try to arrange combos, like having rapidly the magic which transformed your troops into brutes with the right enchantments cast early.

[Pocus]

Nerfix : you have an added incentive in concentrating your magic in a single path in doms II : some effects only appears in the Last magical level of power. So taking 4/4 in air and blood will protect you a bit from missiles and give a bit of bonus in strength, but taking only air 6/7 would protect you better against missiles, and give you an added advantage, unobtainable from any other source.

well this is what I understand...

[Psitticine]

MoM!!!!! I loved that game!!!!

Man, I wish they'd made a sequel . . .

Oh, wait, they did . . . Dominions II.

(OK, not really, but Dom II has captured me just like MoM used to!)