Message from Abysia

[Boron]

KissBlade said:
Seriously, I've said this numerous times in the channel. Old Age: Dumbest mechanic ever. What is it for? Flavor? Annoyance? Adding in even more random factors for a strategy game? Lame.

Kiss, imho in turn based strategy games there has to be a random factor !!!
Otherwise they become a dull chess clone.

The random factor in Dominions 2 was imho just fine, 1 game out of 10 was very frustrating because of bad luck, but 1 out of 10 was also very rewarding because you had luck.

In Dom3 the random factor is about the same as in Dom2.

The problem is that if there would be no random factor in a turn based strategy game you could then plan the perfect strat. Do you really want such a game?

In a RTS if there is no random factor it is fine, there thanks to superior dexterity you can gain an edge. And in RTS you cannot do everything but have to focus on a "Schwerpunkt" with excessive micro or try to do excessive macro.
Anyways, in a RTS even if nothing is random because you cannot do everything because you are a human and not a machine this adds enough randomness.

But if you want a balanced turn based game with no random elements in it this leads to a game with identical factions, so something like chess and checkers.
Chess is a very good game, but such a game cannot get much more complex imho.
So for a turn based pc strategy game random elements are imho a must to keep it interesting.
The trick is just to make the game not tooooo random, so that skill usually wins over luck.

Dominions achieved that balance just fine in Dom2 and imho also achieves it just fine in Dom3.