Multiplayer - which nations are being chosen?

Meglobob · #1 July 26th, 2008, 04:01 PM

I think Rlyehs popularity is probably down to the powerful astral magic it has, especially in Ea.

Obviously in Ma/La the 'gate thing' which you can enter to bring creatures back from the void is a huge attraction.

Ea/Ma Atlantis have problems with 'poor' troops and high encumberance.

Ea/Ma Oceania suffer from losing mage levels, suck really bad on land and if clams/fever fetishes have been nerfed are virtually completely pointless to play.

Wrana · #2 July 26th, 2008, 05:05 PM

I think that just what nations HAVE been chosen isn't a full indicator of popularity. While I can't think offhand of how to rate which nations were chosen first, while others were taken only as 2nd/3rd pick, it would be probably good to include.
Also, I can attest that TucoTuco, e.g., was initially started with no water nations. It's possible that a possibility of such starts itself speaks for something - maybe about weakness of Oceania, as was said. But it surely subtracts from their popularity index...

Omnirizon · #3 July 26th, 2008, 05:57 PM

it'd be interesting to see a whole host of water nations designed, and then maps with the land/water ratio reversed; add some additional underwater land types.

that would actually be more realistic. right. earth is 75% water. Shouldn't dom3 earth be too? coincidentally then, dom3 earth should have lots more underwater denizens; given that they have underwater civilization and culture.

looks like the nature of our existence flavors our fantasy, even when conditions in our fantasy logically dictate other than what our own fantasy is.

Wrana · #4 July 27th, 2008, 07:31 AM

Actually, Earth being about 75% water-covered doesn't mean anything for fantasy universe. That's the same as most fantasy authors place their adventures in the North hemisphere of their worlds. Just an economy of thought (sp?). Actually, fantasy world can have almost no seas and even be a Mars-like desert one.
What I agree with is that more aquatic nations would be fun - but I guess that there are just not much good ideas of such in the developers' minds at the moment. And I don't remember much mod nations which are aquatic, too... It's possible that some Polynesian folklore would be helpful, but I don't know this enough...

Kristoffer O · #5 July 27th, 2008, 07:49 AM

I do have one aquatic nation in mind, but it's not very high on the agenda atm

Omnirizon · #6 July 27th, 2008, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Wrana said:
Actually, Earth being about 75% water-covered doesn't mean anything for fantasy universe. That's the same as most fantasy authors place their adventures in the North hemisphere of their worlds. Just an economy of thought (sp?). Actually, fantasy world can have almost no seas and even be a Mars-like desert one.
What I agree with is that more aquatic nations would be fun - but I guess that there are just not much good ideas of such in the developers' minds at the moment. And I don't remember much mod nations which are aquatic, too... It's possible that some Polynesian folklore would be helpful, but I don't know this enough...

yeah but the massive amount of sea surface has an important role in sustaining life... not the least of which is acting as a carbon sink.

without it, it is hard to speculate how any human-like lifeforms could exist. Since dom3 fantasy, and basically 95% of all fantasy for that matter, is based around human-like life, it seems quite necessary to have a large sea.

Guess I'm just nitpicky

its like the time one of George Lucas' writers or actors or somebody pointed out that one of his alien species was physically impossible to explain, and asked how him how it could possibly exist; he replied "well, it was a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..."

EDIT:
also, at any rate, it would be fun to have games with different dynamics than current. underwater has little to no missile fire, lots of stabby weapons (daggers, spears, and harpoons) nets, poison, very little non-natural armor, and whole different types of magic use. would make for completely different types of balance. I think it might be a lot of fun to experiment and play with

Xietor · #7 July 27th, 2008, 05:00 PM

I have not read the whole thread:

The only game I am in now where i chose the race I took MA Pythium.

rdonj · #8 July 27th, 2008, 08:41 PM

Reverse thetis' blessing is really unlikely to ever happen, partly because it doesn't really make sense. The problem is, conceptually there are only two ways it would work. 1) by flooding the surface world with water while simultaneously causing all creatures on the map to be capable of breathing water, or 2) by physically altering all aquatic-only creatures so that they can breathe air and actually move on land. Now, option 1 almost sounds viable until you realize that for it to be true, it makes no sense that there wouldn't be a version of the spell that doesn't cause air-breathers to breathe underwater.... Option 2 would require too much dev-work, creating new sprites and forms for the aquatics to take, so that's pretty unlikely.

That's part of why I suggested a quasi-domelike flood spell in another thread, you could imagine raising the water level enough that an aquatic creature with no means to get around on dry land could at least be there, and without drowning and killing everyone in the province.