Starving is quite harsh. Do you think it is OK?

[Cor2]

I wondered about this. Good news for LA Ermor.

[Xietor]

I think starvation is fine as it. There are advantages to playing a nature race. And there are disadvantages to bring large armies into foreign lands without nature items to feed them.

Sometimes you have no choice. But ideally an invading army consists of some of you r better human troops, with a mixture of mechanical men, undead, trolls etc that need not eat.

Obviously this may slow down your advance to assemble such an army. But that is a tactical decision. Do you march in quickly and take starvation losses-or move in at a slower pace, but well prepared and not having starvation as an issue?

These issues arise in other contexts. In the Big Game, do I hire tons of tough independents for a short term gain(before disease make them useless), or do i move slower and use only cold blooded troops/undead etc that are immune to MA Ctis' deadly dominion?

[Sombre]

Vicious and apparently not relative starvation being justified by being a handicap on national troops? Yeah because they need more handicaps.

[krpeters]

How does the game determine the amount of starvation?

It seems to me the most sensible way would be to randomly allocate the food shortages. So if you have 300 size-2 troops (eats 600) in a province with 500 supply, the 100 points of food deficit should be randomly allocated... anyone who gets one will show "starving"...

Mmmm, that might explain the high disease rates. 300 troops in a 300 supply province will all be on 1/2 rations -- and they'll all be diseased in a turn. Ouch!

[NTJedi]

krpeters said:
How does the game determine the amount of starvation?

It seems to me the most sensible way would be to randomly allocate the food shortages. So if you have 300 size-2 troops (eats 600) in a province with 500 supply, the 100 points of food deficit should be randomly allocated... anyone who gets one will show "starving"...

Mmmm, that might explain the high disease rates. 300 troops in a 300 supply province will all be on 1/2 rations -- and they'll all be diseased in a turn. Ouch!

The worst part of starvation is the AI is unaware troops need food supplies. This results in the AI opponents sending hundreds of troops across small wasteland provinces causing serious starvation and disease for what normally would have been a good army.

Ideally the AI opponents should be immune to starving since human opponents have so many other game advantages.
Watching the AI blindly starve it's own armies is as painful as watching an american football team not protect its own quarterback.

[Valandil]

Size two units consume only 1 supply unit, not two.


I'm not in favour of arbitrary bonuses to AIs, inluding design points, supply immunities, gem bonuses, or starting units. (Some implemented, others suggested elsewhere). I prefer AI programming improvements (Yes, I know that is unlikely, and that Dom has decent AI already, and that there is an issue with complexity and P=NP?).

[duke_commando]

It seems like only the troops over the supply level in a province get the starving debuff, I've never seen an entire army starving. If this is in fact the way it works I think its fine, though I agree that scouts should be able to report on the supply in a province.

[PyroStock]

I find the severity of starvation fine, but the standard supplies variable at 100 is too low IMO. Thankfully that can be changed at game start. Starvation makes micromanagement worse for the fans of big armies and yet another reason to favor SCs and undead in the long run. Increasing the supplies variable before the game starts lets you focus on more war strategy and less like playing restaurant.

Valandil said:
I'm not in favour of arbitrary bonuses to AIs, inluding design points, supply immunities, gem bonuses, or starting units.

IIRC, you already have that with "Normal AI". Everyone wants AI programming improvements which is why when those are made it is applied to all difficulty levels, but that usually takes much much longer than giving x bonus/penalty. Even big companies with good funding, like Civ series, make other difficulty levels with a bonus/penalty to offer better challenge. However, it shouldn't be too hard to prevent the Dom3 AI from casting spells that hurt it (like AI Arcos casting Utterdark).

I for one am glad most games have more than just a "Normal AI" level. Nevertheless, in the long run SPers will be always be reminded if you want a smarter opponent play MP.