Ermor

[Sammual]

Originally posted by PvK:
Actually, it seems to me that having everything have a way to undo it, is more like generic rock-paper-scissors than "key". I think it's actually more interesting when some situations can't be undone, or not easily.

I would like everything to be able to be undone, even if it takes the use of a wish.

Originally posted by PvK:
I would enjoy having, say, an item and/or spell that protects against getting cursed, and a costly way to remove a curse, but I don't think curses are unbalanced, because they just make afflictions more likely. That is actually an interesting counter-balance to super-combattants. The reason I'd like protection or (especially) removal options is just for roleplaying and my preferred play style of trying to keep experienced fighters alive.

I also enjoy the lack of easy ways to repopulate provinces for similar reasons - it's an interesting effect that adds flavor, and part of the interest is that it is hard to undo. I suppose it would be interesting if there were some difficult/rare ways to do this, perhaps by relocating population rather than making people appear out of thin air, or slowly through high-level nature magic or something (there is already Wish, Growth Scale, and I thought some nature spells). If it becomes relatively easy or common, though, it would reduce the uniqueness of that element of play.

As for defending undead, I assume by "Turn Undead" you mean Banishment, which is resisted by magic resistance, which can be strengthened by Antimagic, or (I think) the dark blessings, no? Again, this too seems like one of the more interesting and colorful aspects of the game (that summoning and banishing are both relatively easy for certain units, rather than unbalanced.

I am fine with the undead vs banishment balance as it is.

I would like to see ways to reduce the chance of getting cursed (item) and/or ways of removing it (Wish or other high powered spell) but I like curse as a SC defense.

Sammual

[LordArioch]

If a minimum population growth is set, it should be 1 pop/turn/scale at max. Keep in mind at .2% a growth scale a +1 growth only gives +1 pop/turn with 500 people, so if the min was set above +1 pop/turn/scale there'd be no growth advantage for large provinces.
Person summoning spells and curse curing spells are fine with me as long as they are made really really REALLY expensive. I shudder at the consequences of mass castings of pop raising spells combined with 200% patrol. If it was made too cheap pop raising spells would just bring back patrol. And in mp at least ermor's population killing is unbalanced against it more than for it, what with how every human player doesn't want to see valuable lands destroyed and will work together against ermor.
Curse curing is nice for doing rp stuff but in practice a cheap curse cure would make supercombatants even more important. Curse is effectively an anti-supercombantant spell: against anything weaker you're better off using magic that just kills it rather than trying to make it acquire battle injuries. An item that protects would just become standard for sc's so that might not be a great idea. Note that the curing of battle wounds + the variety of magic for forging makes arcoscephale perfect for setting up supercombatants in my opinion.

Wish doing either would work fine. And paper is clearly the unbalanced one. Rock never even has a chance.

[Taqwus]

I haven't tried it (in Dom I, let alone II), but a reading of the strings in the Dom I binary suggests to me that you could wish for "population", "people", "populace", "peasants", or "commoners". It would certainly make more sense than wishing for "death" or "to die".
It may generate a message of the form "Suddenly a whole bunch of people appeared in {province name}."

[PvK]

Yes, it was mentioned in an earlier thread that it was possible to get extra population with a wish.

PvK

[Wendigo]

Originally posted by DominionsFAN:
Now we dont have counter when Ermor kills the pop, we cannot remove curse, and the curse spell is so cheap, Ermor cannot defend against turn undead..etc.
Frankly, some things are totally unbalanced. [/QB]

This is soo uterly wrong....

You can defend yourself pretty easily vs Ermor's Dominion: invest more desing points in your own dominion, build temples & preach.

You will only have porblems with curse if you put all your eggs in one basket, and if you do so you are playing lotery & deserve it. If you still insist on doing so at least have the sense of developing one of the multiple ways to cure afflictions.

Ermor can defend itself vs banishment with MR pumping spells & unholy prayers (if these still exist in Dom II). Lesser undead like soulless will still die in droves, but being a meat shield to take the hits from your better troops is part of their job anyway.

[Mortifer]

Originally posted by DominionsFAN:

quote:

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Originally posted by HJ:
By design, Ermor has a dominion that kills off the population very quickly, leaving them worthless in terms of gold income and supply. That's one of their main strengths, since they don't need either. Growth scale wouldn't help you much - it's only 0.2% growth per turn per tick, so it's only noticeable in provinces with high population base. In other words, you are stuck with it. Here is a guide that might help you in dealing with Ermor as a novice player (it's for Doms I, but many things will still apply).
http://illwinter.com/defeat_ermor.html

I think that there should be spells like summon population. Why not? This is a fantasy wargame afterall! All things should have some counter, that is the key.

Now we dont have counter when Ermor kills the pop, we cannot remove curse, and the curse spell is so cheap, Ermor cannot defend against turn undead..etc.
Frankly, some things are totally unbalanced.

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I tend to agree with you on this.
Curse is a low level spell, and there is no spell like remove curse. Why?
It is a pain to play against Ermor, since it is totally wiping out the population of the provinces. We cannot summon/conjure/create population. Why?
It is hellish hard to remove battle afflictions. [In some cases it is impossible.] Why?
It is way to easy to 'get some' battle afflictions....

Seriously these things should be changed. Every tactics must have some counter tactics, it is a "key part" of all strategy games, this is very true! This has nothing to do with the "generic rock-paper-scissors" game type.

[Taqwus]

Dominions already lets you romp around with supercombatants -- especially the AI does, since it's not particularly clued about pulling out the counters. Curse happens to be one of those counters.