Preponderance - Big Team Game! [1-2 subs needed!]

[Omnirizon]

an ecosystem analogy translates perfectly. this is not something that is one way in one system but not another. It is an iron law: increasing resources decreases diversity. When nothing is forced to adapt to compete for resources, nothing will. There is no need for justice in a perfect world. When you keep bailing them out, they keep ****ing up. Change and diversity comes from having less, not more.

The process of creating a nation is itself an internal struggle, as competing needs within a nation vie for points (gold, resources, gems, magic paths, dominion, ect.). With some of these bounds removed, all the points will simply shift into others. Big blesses are the most benefited, because they were usually bound by gold and resources. Atul already lamented in IRC that the problem with team games is they invariably end being a BIG bless nation just getting fed by their teammate. The money, resource, gem multipliers in this game only further benefit that type of team design because now the blessing nation doesn't even need to worry about resources, and the combination of high money multiplier and magic sites means there is no point for a luck scale because gems will already be plentiful and income from luck isn't going to be multiplied, while other income will.

with typical bounds on nations lessened, others take their place (dominion and magic, just like I said above). All nations will now simply have more points to invest in these things; thus all pretenders design strategies will begin to converge toward them.

[JimMorrison]

I am pretty confident that you will find that any player who tries to go only for the biggest and best in this scenario, is likely to fall sooner than one who remains adaptable, and is as creative as possible in their application of force.

Changing from the default settings WILL create different dynamics. However, it's a bit silly to make the assertion that while the game is fairly well balanced, that it is balanced out in such a way that altering the settings (in ways that are meant to be able to be altered) in some way wrecks the game as a whole.

I would consider that more of a personal problem, than a flaw in the system. Just as it seems that my thoughts about the map, are personal issues.

[atul]

Originally Posted by Omnirizon

Atul already lamented in IRC that the problem with team games is they invariably end being a BIG bless nation just getting fed by their teammate.

Huh? Not me, might have been archaeo. I have no experience with team games, and while big bless nation and its forge female dog underling is a strong combo, I'm not totally sure the bless nation could hold all fronts together when under attack from several directions.

What big resources and gold do (I assume), is mainly downplay the role of early SC pretender. It isn't said the "standard" settings would be optimal for different strategies either, proportion of gold/resources has changed heavily with each iteration of Dominions series.