Random Events

[SurvivalistMerc]

Does anyone else think that most random events are bad and that the good ones hardly make up for the bad ones such that having order scales is a very nice thing?

The bad events I keep getting involve things like floods and earthquakes destroying population permanently. I don't see new migrants adding to the workforce of any provinces. Brigand events and higher taxes events kind of cancel each other out.

One time I had a barely guarded new combat hero with a full deck of items going to my front lines...and 5 heroes who considered my realm "unjust" appeared in the square where he was. This was between my two forts and their presence reduced my resources at the forts dramatically. Not counting the items I lost...which in turn made these already powerful heroes that much more difficult to kill. When I did kill them, I didn't get all of their good magical items. I did end up with "precious," but it seemed hardly worth what I had to do to get it.

I tried Ctis with order 3....everything was so predictable. I hope when I get the game the manual will explain the scales in detail. I think order gives more revenue, too...which is always helpful.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by SurvivalistMerc:
Does anyone else think that most random events are bad and that the good ones hardly make up for the bad ones such that having order scales is a very nice thing?

IF you want no events at all then Order scales is a good choice along with its other bonuses. The luck scale shifts the amount of good events vs bad events. Order/chaos doesnt change the type, just the amount.

The bad events I keep getting involve things like floods and earthquakes destroying population permanently.

Was this later in the game? There are spells which duplicate just about every bad event so you dont really know if its an event or an AI doing it.

One time I had a barely guarded new combat hero with a full deck of items going to my front lines...and 5 heroes who considered my realm "unjust" appeared in the square where he was.

Yeah those dudes have smacked me also. Sometimes its a wimpy province and I leave them there to be a problem for anyone coming at me from that direction.

When I did kill them, I didn't get all of their good magical items. I did end up with "precious," but it seemed hardly worth what I had to do to get it.

Did they rout? Thats one good use of fast (usually light troops) flankers. To attack the rear guys so they die instead of rout.

That depends on your luck scale and the race it provides.

Order. Increased Income by 7% and 10% reduction in Random Events for each scale.

Turmoil. Decreased Income by 7% and 10% increase in Random Events for each scale.


I've played around with Turmoil 3, Luck 3 with various lower income nations; without very much success. Even with 80Good/20Bad chances; the lists of random bad far outweigh the random good. Or at least bad events are weighted to flooding and earthquakes and uprising vs good getting a handful of gems, -20 Disorder or 100 Gold.

Perhaps if luck affected troop combat in some fashion (if I haven't been able to tell) then it might be more worth it as far as a standard scale that is desired.

There is one redeeming factor though, Void Summonings are much increased and Heroes flock to your cause.

[licker]

The power of the negative random events is worring to me. I posted about it earlier, and was basically told if you don't want them go with order or luck. Errr, that's fine and all, but it doesn't address the balance issues involved.

The facts are that an early negative random event might as well be a game ender, lose 1/4th or 1/5th of your home provinces pop in the first few turns and see how competative you will be.

On the other side the positive random events can also be too overpowering (1500gcs anyone?) The cost of playing with the scales does not balance in proportion to the severity of the events. Now you can make them rare, true, but that seems to defeat the purpose of having them in the first place.

And no, saddly I do not have a good suggestion as to how to remedy this situation, just the complaint that being 'forced' (and I use that term lightly here) to play with either Order +3 or Luck +2,3 isn't exactly the kind of solution I'm talking about.

Now Ermor and maybe Pangea can play with Unluck and low order, but for the rest of the nations... its too much of a gamble to be practical for a competative game. That's where the imbalance lies.

[apoger]

Turmoil +3 and Luck +3 just didn't provide any happiness in my tests. I wouldn't recommend it.

My best results are Order +3 and Misfortune +3, while keeping growth and production at a +1 minimum. Very few bad events this way. Good economy. And nice boost to nation points from the misfortune.

[SurvivalistMerc]

Thank you all for your prompt responses.

Gandalf, I had a lot of them in the first 40 turns. In the demo, where the human player is limited to level 4 research.

And they did include a flood of my home province. That was without any unluck scales.

I've toyed with order 1, luck 1 with Abyssia, and it's looking as if I should have gone with more order and no luck.

Also, I didn't realize the importance of productivity for Abyssia. All it seems the abyssians need is to find a source of cheap archers, preferably the shortbow kind that won't hurt their heavy infantry types much, and they will be golden.

I know you can "tweak" the number of random events in the initial game creation process. But somehow this seems a bit like cheating.