Another Death Match Balancing Idea

[PrinzMegaherz]

The winning player should receive increased faith, as his champion being the strongest proves his claim to godhood.

[Wick]

I like the original suggestion, although the current system leaves a certain perverse hope of seeing a match where everyboby sends a spoiler and a scout walks away with a Knife of the Dammed, Slave Collar, a half dozen afflictions, and 100xp. What's the most messed up "winner" you've ever seen?

I'd edit the typo but...

[PvK]

The first time I won the Deathmatch was with a cursed indy priest. My intention was to use someone disposable to perhaps weaken Ashen Ermor a bit, since I was worried about their growth and thought a priest might get lucky and reduce their chances of winning. I also gave him a magic bottle that summoned water elementals, and he won, becoming a hero, so I gave him some items and he became one of my more interesting hero characters.

PvK

[PvK]

I think the main problem with the Deathmatch is that the AI sends his best units there, and then of course all but one of them dies, which is a general strategic mistake, especially when mages are involved. Barring mages from competition might solve that...

[B0rsuk]

The only thing I don't like about Death Match is the way newfound magic items are handled, which is more global mechanic. Forcing someone to use a crappy cursed item is in my opinion design flaw. You could argue that the commander has sticky fingers and a weakness for magical trinkets, but if that were true, why equipped commanders are immune to cursed items (no slots left) ?
Is this just me, or SCs seem overnerfed in Dominions ? Horror Mark, Magic Duel and Curse were probably justified in Dominions2,1, but now with much more gold and resources, and relatively strong bless strategies, do we really need stackable Horror Mark and Magic Duel ? Couldn't early SCs be handled by ordinary troops now ?
I'd happily test this in a game without Magic Duel and Horror Mark, but you need several people to do that...

[Endoperez]

How is Horror Mark bad as it is currently? I thought it only causes Lesser Horror attacks until something like Astral Geyser comes into play, after the patch. Hunter of Heroes doesn't care about Horror Mark in 3.01...

[B0rsuk]

Well, it certainly sounds like an easy way to eventually completely doom any commander/pretender. I think the effect should be somehow related to the way the creature acts.

It may be not so cruel for big giant SCs, but how about smaller pretenders who wish nothing more but peacefully cast fireballs from far end of the battlefield ? Or even cast buff spells. Do they really deserve the same harsh punishment ?
So much for theory.

[Endoperez]

B0rsuk said:
Well, it certainly sounds like an easy way to eventually completely doom any commander/pretender. I think the effect should be somehow related to the way the creature acts.

It may be not so cruel for big giant SCs, but how about smaller pretenders who wish nothing more but peacefully cast fireballs from far end of the battlefield ? Or even cast buff spells. Do they really deserve the same harsh punishment ?
So much for theory.

Even Lesser Horrors are quite rare, and tough bodyguards should take care of those. I haven't tested the combination of Horror Mark, battle-caster and Hunter of Heroes, though. I'll see if I can manage to do that at some point.

[alexti]

B0rsuk said:
but how about smaller pretenders who wish nothing more but peacefully cast fireballs from far end of the battlefield ?

Lol! Yeah, it's tough for battlemages now, but they have become a "collateral damage" in SC nerf. Ironically, the "nerf" didn't change much for SCs - they're still dying like flies