Gaining Levels

Taqwus · #1 July 3rd, 2007, 04:22 AM

There are already some potentially rather nasty combos, like Flesh Ward + Amon Hotep (blood vengeance, reinvigoration, high protection, MR boost, and low encumberance)...

thejeff · #2 July 3rd, 2007, 08:21 AM

It would be nice to have an item that boosted stealth if you had it.
And maybe an artifact that gave stealth 0. If there is only one, it can't be abused too badly right?

Experience adding to stealth would be good. Those scouts who've been hiding in enemy territory the whole game should be getting better at it.

Gandalf Parker · #3 July 3rd, 2007, 11:57 AM

The problem is never what an item gives. Its trying to figure out ahead of time what can be created by stacking items. Giving stealth, even zero, would make it possible to add black heart and get an assassin out of just about ANY unit in the game. Think of it. Some of the assassins available now are bad enough. But it would take some really HARD looks at the units in the game to make sure that stealth equip didnt create the possibility of a totally beat-all kill-anything assassin SC thug. Personally I dont know what can beat the Lord of Night as an assasin but Im sure there are some creative experts out there that can come up with something.

It might NOT be possible but so far Im thinking it that the time ti would take looking for the possibility has just been avoided by allowing for an assassin item and no stealth item.

thejeff · #4 July 3rd, 2007, 12:46 PM

Oh, I'm sure it will allow really abusive assassin SCs.

But if it's an artifact, there'll only be one of them and it won't be usable in the early game.
So do you send your fully equipped SC out as an assassin to hope he kills somebody useful and not just a random commander, or do you use him to beat armies.

And if you've got someone that can beat both the specially designed SC killers waiting for him and the large army with mage squads patrolling for home, how would he be stopped if you just invaded.

Make it take a body slot(or a 2handed weapon, though that makes less sense). And a misc for the black heart. That weakens a lot of builds right there. Especially if it's lousy armor.

Jazzepi · #5 July 3rd, 2007, 01:02 PM

What if you charmed a doom horror, then gave it the assassin/stealth item if it existed? XD

Jazzepi

MaxWilson · #6 July 3rd, 2007, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:
But it would take some really HARD looks at the units in the game to make sure that stealth equip didnt create the possibility of a totally beat-all kill-anything assassin SC thug.

I doubt any such thing exists. An assassination is simply a battle on a small scale, and the regular rules mostly apply except that there are fewer defenders. Petrify is still going to stop almost any assassin cold, unless he uses up item slots to bring along decoys (Wraith Crown), and of course the defender can bring decoys more easily as guards. Also, he's going to be able to assassinate at most one or two commanders per province, which is no worse than Mind Hunt or Earth Attack and takes more time--if he hangs around longer than that you'll just set your armies on Patrol and now it's assassin vs. the whole army, just a regular SC fight.

-Max

Gandalf Parker · #7 July 3rd, 2007, 01:38 PM

Well as I said, Im not sure what can beat the Lord of Night anyway. Even WITHOUT equip its a god, titan (lots of hit points), it can fly, has stealth +10, fear +5, assassinates, summons help, and some good magic (1 death and 2 blood), a mace with strength 23, and paralyzing venom. Give him blood slaves which can at least be chaff if nothing else. He has a full complement of slots for items. Maybe some summoning items? maybe etherealness? There HAS to be a killer build there for an assassin.

MaxWilson · #8 July 3rd, 2007, 03:06 PM

Yeah, that sounds pretty hard to beat. The only thing that comes to mind is Shadow Blast, which probably has no better than a 5% chance of paralyzing him, and would rely on guards to actually kill him (or more likely just afflict him). Or throw another SC at him, like a Wraith Lord with The Summit and Aegis (for the chaff).

-Max

Kristoffer O · #9 July 3rd, 2007, 07:06 PM

We have actually decided against stealth items sometimes during the development of dom2. I think the possibility to make multistealthing items (hiding commander and troops) are in the game, or almost at least, but for some reason we got scared by the concept and decided not to go through with it.