Mega Age II -Kingmaker(Started)

[GWAR]

Im in if there is still space.

[DonCorazon]

my one VP game experience was Epotara - 17 players vying for 5 VPs. i thought that game worked fairly well. it was pretty challenging to get 5 capitals - once someone got within 2 everyone was on alert and it was only through some tricky diplomacy (to put it generously) that someone managed to grab the last 1.

the game did get into a bit of a quiet lull for awhile so i don't know if the same ratio would make sense, e.g. using ~ 1/3 of the # players as the target amount of VPs. that sounds a bit high to me - i think the game might be more interesting and exciting with a slightly lower total.

of course this is based on a data set of one...

[IndyPendant]

Well, what if we compromised? 20 capitals is 1/3 the map, a reasonable number imo. Alternatively, could we say 15 capitals held consecutively for 3 full turns? That would give people a chance to respond if someone does manage it...

And I would really like to push for Very Hard research again. With Hard research, everyone is going to be finished researching like halfway through the game, long before the winner is found. Anyone seconding me--or strongly opposed? ; )

[GWAR]

Very hard sounds good to me.

[AdmiralZhao]

I just finished playing a large game with Hard Research, and even with those settings bless nations have a huge advantage in the early game. I was playing with triple blessed jaguars, and the non-bless nations that I steamrolled in the first 2 years of the game did not have much of a chance or very much fun. I think that if with we play with Very Hard Research, we will see an initial phase of the game where all the non-bless nations are scoured from the face of the earth, and then a second phase of the game where the bless nations grudgingly turn to research in order to deal with their similarly blessed neighbors.

In an ideal world, I would like to see the research costs for levels 1-5 set to normal, and then after that have the costs scale far more quickly. That would give non-bless nations more of fighting chance, while still saving some spells for the late game.

[IndyPendant]

Hmm, that's a good point. One I hadn't thought of. It's too bad though; I *hate* Dom3 lategame. With Hard research, the entire back half of this game will consist of nothing but Mages and SCs, with individual military units useless as anything but meatshields. (Well okay, I exagerrate. But not by much!)

All right, consider me shifted back to neutral on Hard or Very Hard research. I will play either way (which probably means Hard ; ).

[AreaOfEffect]

I'm personally in favor of Hard.

I do however understand the concern people have for late game strategies arriving in the middle of the game's run. AdmiralZhao's "ideal world" does sound appealing, but isn't possible as far as I know in the way he would want it.

My best suggestion would actually be to make an additional mod. It wouldn't be hard at all to take all the lower level spells and move them even lower by one rank and then set the research to very hard.