Big Problem - Unbalanced random events

[PvK]

Just remember - people who wimp out and quit games as soon as something goes wrong, don't get to complain later that the game is too easy or predictable.

A game can be completely fair in its odds, and some players will still think otherwise and/or get upset and cheat the odds by quitting, if there is any chance of luck playing a major part. Even if the major loss events were removed, there would probably be people quitting because they didn't get the event they wanted early enough, or complaining about unfairness in MP games. Ah well.

PvK

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
there are still events like labs burning down during the first 10 turns. One time I used a pretender with no magic, and before I could recruit my first mage, my lab burned. I just quit the game after that. (this was an MP game)

Gee that would be a setback but there are plenty of merc mages that show up early in the game.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PvK:
* The "rain kills 25%" event seems odd because rain isn't generally that deadly.

Rain not deadly? Rain is very deadly. It'll burn holes through solid stone and eat away flesh and bone on contact, in some areas. If you go outside in the rain, you can be reduced to a dissolving skeleton in seconds.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
If I remember correctly most of them are. For 10 turns I think. And the ones that arent are downplayed to the point that you almost have to take the extreme settings which could translate as "just plain asking for it" to get the worst ones to kick in. But this is foggy memory stuff.

I have had the unrest in my capital go from 0 to 58 in my capital in turn 3 due to the "Young raging rebels" random event in a luck 3/turmoil 3 setting. Turmoil 3 might be asking for it - luck 3 is not.

(That was the same game in which my capital temple was wiped out and 25% of my #2 province's population lost within the first 8 turns. With independents 9 slowing expansion, that really, truly, hurt. Sometimes, you are just plain unlucky - no matter what your luck scale)

[SurvivalistMerc]

I have also toyed with the idea of having an option in game creation to tweak the scales rather than using a mod, which may be too complicated for some players.

Also, I wonder if it is possible to dispense with the luck/misfortune scale completely (so it can't generate points) and have no random events. That would be interesting to try a time or two.

[PrinzMegaherz]

Luck 1, Order 1, Turn 5

Random Event: Some local lord reveals himself to be a vampire and attacks your province. My home province of course.

I wonder why he did not bow to my vampire queen?

Thank you, new game please.

[ March 31, 2004, 18:22: Message edited by: PrinzMegaherz ]

[PvK]

There are so many players who quit as soon as they run into some serious bad luck. It's really too bad. Against the AI, these events provide unique and difficult challenges which players will never face if the they just quit whenever something really tough happens. In a multi-player game, quitting when something bad happens is, well, quitting on the other players. Serious bad events are part of the game and can happen to everyone. Any low scales increase those risks - that's a big part of why they are worth creation points, and restarting whenever those events actually happen is like trying to gamble but refusing to pay up on a loss. Especially against the AI or in a large MP game, there are plenty of opportunities to overcome such problems.

Many players though do seem to have a hard time getting this, so for them it does seem like they would benefit from more scenario options and/or nation options that would severely reduce the possibility of bad events. Also it might help if the documentation had some more explanation of how serious random events are part of the game, and how all the scales (not just Luck) impact them.

PvK