Forge of Godhood - started

[Trumanator]

As I'm playing Frozen's Forge turns atm, I appreciate VFB's handing over his pretender on a silver platter. And this one even had magic!

[sansanjuan]

The sun glints off the bloody moss of the two towering Dark Vines. The Bloodhenge Druids clutch daggers reminiscent of an earlier barbaric Mictlan age. Mabel decrees this blood sect must be purged and so we stand. She takes the lead. The Druids Bleed her as she closes. She smiles as her life force immolates the right flank. She attacks again. I feel the heat wash over me even from the rear ranks as her second immolation leaves smoldering husks of blood slaves. I call on Mabel's power even as she shakes off another wave of attackers. One of the Dark Vines succumbs to my spell. Limbs paralyzed. The Jags, filled with my blessing, fell a flailing Dark Vine and close on the one still gripped in my power. Soon the only sound is retreating woodsmen.

Lilly- Prophet of Mabel

[vfb]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

As I'm playing Frozen's Forge turns atm, I appreciate VFB's handing over his pretender on a silver platter. And this one even had magic!

Upon seeing the death of Machaka's so-called god, the Council did not take long to come to a decision to attack the foul spiders, fearing that their treasure would soon fall into the hands of others.

We do not believe that you are currently in possession of our pretender, as our priests have already begun communicating with him from afar. Smaug assures us that he is currently in the 49th level of Hell, and expects to appear by our side most imminently.

-- The Council of Cardinals

[LDiCesare]

Phoenix with phoenix pyre makes me think once again CBM unbalances as many things as it fixes.

[Agema]

Originally Posted by LDiCesare

Phoenix with phoenix pyre makes me think once again CBM unbalances as many things as it fixes.

I'm not sure I agree. It's useful only in your Dom, you can't realistically send it anywhere else without risking its loss. Secondly, it will almost certainly not stop your average SC god, even in its own Dom. After that it retains other limitations with limited slots, mediocre initial Dom (2), and new magic paths are very expensive.

[namad]

also it gains afflictions very rapidly by doing it's thing

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by LDiCesare

Phoenix with phoenix pyre makes me think once again CBM unbalances as many things as it fixes.

My understanding or perception of CBM is that it doesn't make great strides in balancing things out (in a sense of making units/nations balanced), but it does do wonders for making unloved and unusable units/Pretenders, a far more viable option. This subsequently opens up a lot more tactics and strategies.

The Phoenix in particular is a good example. In vanilla I can't see any reason to take it for any nation. As F/A paths are not that useful, and as a chassis the Phoenix (in vanilla) offers almost nothing of value. But under CBM the Phoenix is transformed into a definite candidate for several nations, and this is entirely due to it's auto Phoenix Pyre ability.

So in this case, CBM has done it's job (as I see it) in making a useless Pretender chassis into something that is useful.


A game like Dominions can never be 'perfectly balanced' IMO, so pointless to even try. This isn't a RTS game (thankfully!). All you can do is improve the things that are never used, and nerf the things that are abused/overused. Once you start seeing every unit/spell/Pretender in use on a regular basis, then I'd say CBM's job is done

[quantum_mechani]

Originally Posted by LDiCesare

Phoenix with phoenix pyre makes me think once again CBM unbalances as many things as it fixes.

CB is ever a work a work in progress, certainly not every change turns out to be a good one. But corrections usually take feedback and debate on the subject, something that crops up suprisingly rarely. It doesn't generally take a lot reverse a CB change, a good argument or just a number of people all agreeing the change is bad.

Of course, perhaps if you consider half of all CB changes unbalanced this may seem far too steep a road to travel. If you still play in CB games though, seems worth a little effort though.

Oh, and I don't really think balance discussion is far off topic in a game thread, after all most balance has a direct effect on the very game we are playing.

[LDiCesare]

I think it's off-topic here thus I posted my comments in the CBM thread where they belong imo so I'm sure you could see them and get the feedback, and others can voice their opinion too.

[Micah]

I don't follow, what's unbalanced?