Observations after a month of play

Norfleet · #1 March 16th, 2004, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Spacepain:
Provinces grow of their own accord, even if you don't have the scales tipped towards growth.

No they don't. Population, barring random events or activity, does not change at ALL without growth or death. Only growth, and a few rare random events, and wishing for population, increases population. Just about everything else kills people.

Sindai · #2 March 16th, 2004, 06:51 AM

i hope I'm not the only one who finds it weird to see someone complaining about Growth being weak, and then complaining that population doesn't increase without any growth. Wait a minute. Waaiiiit a minute. I have an idea here...

Take some growth scale!

Then your population will increase! Ooo, it's like magic.

EDIT: And if that isn't enough for you, try running a blood-focused nation (Abysia is probably easiest) without any growth. It will rapidly become apparent to you why it's a good thing.

[ March 16, 2004, 04:53: Message edited by: Sindai ]

Saber Cherry · #3 March 16th, 2004, 08:25 AM

Water Cult is very useful... for all land nations with strong or numerous sacred units, like Machaka, Mictlan, Jotunheim, Marignon... even Abysia. It is the most powerful generic special dominion for such races, on water maps.

Tuna-Fish · #4 March 16th, 2004, 08:53 AM

and for golem cult, try playing pythium with con-10 cyclops, research to enchantment 6 and start casting enliven statues with your god...

SelfishGene · #5 March 17th, 2004, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
I think it has more to do with being Pangaea. Many merc companies dislike Pangaea and charge extra for you to hire them. I get this a bit with Ermor, too. Some of those nice holy-type people don't like me at all.

Silly Mercenaries. 90% of the armies in Pangaea are made up of crazy, drunk, naked women. They should be paying -me- to enlist in my service.

SelfishGene · #6 March 17th, 2004, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tuna-Fish:
and for golem cult, try playing pythium with con-10 cyclops, research to enchantment 6 and start casting enliven statues with your god...

Which summons are considered Golems? Anything under the construction branch, or anything summoned by Earth? Ive tried it a couple times but never long enough to see its effect. How many hp does it add?

tinkthank · #7 March 17th, 2004, 11:21 AM

I agree that Mercs, at least some of them, are often too powerful. Certainly the Eternal Knights are. I also slavishly recruit all the mercs I can, whenever I can, even if it is only simply to keep my enemies from recruiting them.

As to Blood nations with no Growth: I play Abysia with some death (not a lot, usually 1-2) and it works just perfectly; capture 2-3 15k provinces, and that is fine for at least 30+ turns of blood hunting, then go get more. (Abysia gets no income or supply penalty for Death, so it's only population loss to worry about, and as of now, Death is so minor...)
A tiny bit more growth/attrition for growth/death scales would also be welcome in my book.

I think a nice idea would be to have a chance of "natural growth", but only if your dominion is that province is fairly strong. For each point of dominion, you could have a 5% chance of a .02 growth in one turn, all things being equal. Growth scales would add to this, and Death detract.

The 1/4 population drop bad incidents is certainly too much for its fictionalization, one would have to call it a "serious plague" or something. I hate it when it happens, too, but dont feel it should be nerfed, because otherwise Luck/Misfortune scales will be made even weaker than they already are.