Faerun - started

The Panther · #1 May 25th, 2005, 09:42 PM

All righty, I will offer to take Ermor (Broken Empire) for a few weeks and get it off to a good start before turning it AI (or maybe even finding a sub) on June 16 when I go to Europe on my vacation. That way the normal bad scales spreading like wildfire under 10 dominion (which would result from a death theme Ermor) won't skew the game in the north. As I think everyone knows, the AI plays nasty tough as AE/SG Ermor on the impossible setting because it can easily handle all the micromanagement.

Boron · #2 May 26th, 2005, 10:00 AM

How long are you in vacation Panther?
If it is not too long we could pause the game until you are back, that is if you want to continue faerun at all.

On a sidenote are you visiting Germany too?

Soapyfrog · #3 May 26th, 2005, 12:00 PM

Well you dont really want Ermor to be an easy rollover, or someone will be getting a nice boost...

The Panther · #4 May 27th, 2005, 11:56 AM

I will be leaving June 17 and returning on June 28. I will spend most of the time in France with a little daytrip to Geneva in Switzerland. Germany is not on the list this time.

My daughter is an exchange student at the same school in France that Alneyan attends. She is now fluent in French and wants to be my tour guide. It is going to be quite a lot of fun, I predict. I think of it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, though the monetary cost is going to be $$$$$$.

So, no Dominions at all while I am gone. For my current games, I will either:
find a sub or
stale or
go AI or
resign.

As for playing Ermor in this new game of yours, I will not be doing that. I cannot conceive of the immense time required to play this game past Turn 70 or so on these settings. I am not going to be investing that kind of time this summer, as I have a lot on my plate until my life settles down.

One thing my current Faerun game taught me is that I will never again be playing an MP game on that map, for it is much too big. I put a semi-humorous post on this subject on the Quarter to Three Forum yesterday.

Probably the best thing for you guys is to find a new permanent Ermor player in this game. Alternatively, you can put in an impossible AI, who will likely pick AE and really hurt his neighbors bad. Cruel, yes, but effective! The idea of selecting the Pretender and turning it AI will not work very well since you cannot force it to be an impossible AI by doing that, I believe. And you can't use the extra Pretender points the computer receives on the more difficult settings.

Anyway, good luck to all the masochists playing in this game! It will be a heck of a lot of fun, I predict, based on how much I have enjoyed my own (one-and-only) Faerun game. If I was retired from work already, I would be joining this game in a heartbeat.

Alneyan · #5 May 27th, 2005, 12:12 PM

Quote:

The Panther said:
The idea of selecting the Pretender and turning it AI will not work very well since you cannot force it to be an impossible AI by doing that, I believe. And you can't use the extra Pretender points the computer receives on the more difficult settings.

You can force the game to host using impossible AIs, if you are in full control of the dom2.exe used to run the turns (or can setup the command line of the .exe yourself). At least, the command switches doc says so; I have never tried it myself.

It will not help with the extra Pretender points however, though you could work around that, by giving Ermor a special nation-only Pretender. This Pretender would have a cost of 0 and as many freebies as you need to reach a "cost" of 250 points (Dominion 8 or 9 perhaps); all the other stats of the Pretender would be similar to the chosen Pretender. That would give a 500 points Pretender having 250 free points, as many points as Impossible AIs get, and with better choices.

Oversway · #6 May 27th, 2005, 01:51 PM

I like Alneyan's idea. I think just doing an impossible ai is a bad idea.

Personally I think even a 'normal' 500 point well designed pretender is better for the ai compared to the pretender that it may generate.

Gandalf Parker · #7 May 27th, 2005, 02:29 PM

You can also do it thru map and/or mod. Ive built huge gods for AI's. Things not allowed in the game to be used as gods. Also given them spell boosts, extra castles, extra starting units, magic items, additional sites. Providing allied AI's can help also. I have a WEvsTHEM scenario where Ermor, Rlyeh, and Atlantis all start with sibling gods who are allied. All by commands added to the .map file

Anything you feel makes the AI weak can be fixed for one game.

Gandalf Parker