|
|
|
 |

August 17th, 2007, 07:24 PM
|
 |
Major General
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Lake of Hali, Aldebaran, OH
Posts: 2,474
Thanks: 51
Thanked 67 Times in 27 Posts
|
|
Re: Mod Balance Guide, Magic Paths
--ASTRAL--
Astral is obviously a big deal.
Acess to astral 1 is worth an extra 4 points.
Non-capital only astral mages may be good as communion slaves. Give yourself 500/cost for your cheapest non-capital-only mage who us guaranteed an astral. If they're not guaranteed astral, scale to the chance.
If you get astral-3 with better than 10% frequency, even in your capital, your nation has access to the higher level astral boosts, and is a potential mindhunter. This is worth 2 points.
Finally, astral is great for thugs. If you have a giant slavering monster with access to astral magic, give yourself 2 points.
--DEATH--
Death 1 is a significant breakpoint and worth 2 extra points.
Death 2 is also worth 2 extra points.
Death 3 is a significant breakpoint for thugs. If you have a giant slavering monster with death 3, give yourself 2 points.
--EARTH--
Earth 2 is a *huge* breakpoint, worth 6 extra points.
--BLOOD--
Blood 1 is a significant breakpoint, worth 2 extra points. It's generally assumed that you could boost/empower from there if needed.
--COMBINATIONS--
Each of the following combinations, if they appear together with >10% frequency on any unit, are worth an extra point (they're listed in reverse path precedence):
blood + fire, water, air, nature
nature + water, UNLESS you have nature 3 anyway
death + astral
astral + earth (worth 2 points)
water (1+) + fire (3+) (worth 2 points)
air (3+) + earth (2+)
Each of the following combinations, if they appear together on a non-capital only unit, is worth the listed number of points divided by the cost of the unit. The noticably-effective spam spell is listed in parens.
death + astral (nether darts), 500
earth (2+) + fire (magma eruption), 250
I'll flesh this list out later.
Tomorrow I'll post some sample path selections and see if people think they really are balanced.
__________________
If you read his speech at Rice, all his arguments for going to the moon work equally well as arguments for blowing up the moon, sending cloned dinosaurs into space, or constructing a towering *****-shaped obelisk on Mars. --Randall Munroe
|

August 17th, 2007, 07:40 PM
|
National Security Advisor
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 5,921
Thanks: 194
Thanked 855 Times in 291 Posts
|
|
Re: Mod Balance Guide, Magic Paths
Okay, I wonder what you think of my Tomb Kings paths.
Recruitable-anywhere sorceror:
F2A1D1, 220 gold (deliberately expensive)
Recruitable-anywhere high priests:
D2H3, 260 gold
Capital-only Tomb King:
F2D3H3 + 100% (DS) + 100% (FEA) + 50% (FEADS) (450 gold)
This gives 1 in 30 E2/A2 and 1 in 20 S2. But as a nation they are mean death and fire mages.
|

August 17th, 2007, 08:17 PM
|
 |
Major General
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Lake of Hali, Aldebaran, OH
Posts: 2,474
Thanks: 51
Thanked 67 Times in 27 Posts
|
|
Re: Mod Balance Guide, Magic Paths
What era is this supposed to be in? I'm gonna assume mid.
Max paths are: F3D4S1E1A1, occasionally more.
Compare to MA Marignon: F3S3A1E1, rarely more.
So you've 2 path points on Marignon, more if you're lucky. Call that 10 points for you.
Marignon's F2 anywhere-guy is only 150 gold instead of 220 gold. He's also a passable communion slave. I'd say that's a point for Marignon.
Marignon can mindhunt. With a 1/40 S4 they can build RoS and then RoW - you need a 1/30 E2 *and* a 1/20 S2 to even equal his astral 3. That's 2 points for Marignon.
OTOH, the extra path you've given yourself is death. Not only can every tom, dick and harry talk to the dead, you can also make skull mentors and death boost items. Gotta be worth 4 points.
You've got the highly useful SD combo. Not on your spammables, but still. That's worth a point for you.
The Witch Hunter has a RE of 500 * 1.75 / 150 = 5.83.
Your Sorcerer has a RE of 600 / 220 = 2.73.
That's 9 points for Marignon.
So 10 - 1 - 3 + 4 - 9 = +2. I'd say your nation has very slightly better magic than MA Marignon, overall. Which is about the same thing I would've said without all that math that cancels out  .
__________________
If you read his speech at Rice, all his arguments for going to the moon work equally well as arguments for blowing up the moon, sending cloned dinosaurs into space, or constructing a towering *****-shaped obelisk on Mars. --Randall Munroe
|

August 18th, 2007, 02:46 AM
|
National Security Advisor
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 5,921
Thanks: 194
Thanked 855 Times in 291 Posts
|
|
Re: Mod Balance Guide, Magic Paths
Great, thanks Dr P! Nice analysis. And sounds like they are probably okay to me, since I think they should be magically strong. I think they will be MA, since I've got the backstory dependent on Ermor's fall.
|

August 18th, 2007, 10:14 AM
|
 |
Lieutenant Colonel
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Posts: 1,333
Thanks: 39
Thanked 59 Times in 43 Posts
|
|
Re: Mod Balance Guide, Magic Paths
On the other hand your research is utterly apalling. Off the top of my head I can't think of a MA nation with a worse research efficiency. Maybe Vanheim? I felt pritty limited research-wise while playing Abyssia, whose Anathemants have a roughly equal gold/research ratio as your sorcerers, but at least the Anathemants are sacred. Of course you have access to all three research boosting items, but even so...
__________________
Praeterea censeo, contributoribus magnae auctoritatis e Foro Shrapnelsi frequenter in exsilium eiectis, eos qui verum auxilium petunt melius hoc situ adiuvari posse.
|

August 28th, 2007, 12:15 PM
|
General
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,327
Thanks: 4
Thanked 133 Times in 117 Posts
|
|
Re: Mod Balance Guide, Magic Paths
Just a comment on your Blood valuation.
1 Blood is really only useful on a cheap non capital mage. An expensive mage with a single blood just doesn't work as a blood hunter. Maybe give points like you do for communion slaves or research.
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Hybrid Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is On
|
|
|
|
|