Ugh. I've been starting too many topics recently, and this one seems kind of like an appeal to the obvious. Hesitated a few minutes, for fear of spam, then went ahead with it anyway. I'm living the dream, gentlefolk!
The purpose of this thread is simple enough: To take comprehensive census of players' opinions of game balance between the different Dom II nations/themes, debate the findings thoroughly, then pass our conclusions on to KO and JO and glare at them until they patch the game for us. Ingrates.
I realize there's been plenty of mention of various nations/themes being overpowered/underpowered on these Boards, but it seems to have all been in the form of off-topic remarks and fire-and-forget "Mictlan suxX0rz" threads. I'm hoping something as revolutionary as a poll(!) on the internet(!!) will give players(
a chance to settle the balance debate once and for all, or at least until the next patch.
Speaking of which, my particular approach to game balancing and nerfing(Which you do not endorse by supporting this poll or purchasing this product and/or service. For external use only) is to change
NOTHING about the game's present unit/spell/miscellaneous national perk mix. It may not be entirely balanced, but it has STYLE.
Ashen Empire Ermor is, in my opinion, virtually indestructible, because that's what the restless dead legions of Armageddon are like. They always win. Instead of nerfing them to get smaller legions or weaker individual troops, and thereby crampin' the aforementioned STYLE, the theme should be made more expensive. If you think it should be nerfed at all, I mean.
The point being, game balance is entirely a metagaming thing, and should be restricted to metagaming means. If a non-impossible-difficulty AI or non-scenario-based-handicapped/overpowered player chooses Ashen Empire, they'd have to weaken their pretender to afford it. By outrageous cosmic coincidence, Hoburgdorf would be the only faction with a Fire-9 Air-9 Earth-9 Nataraja on their side.
Ermor would still be Ermor, hoburgs would still be completely and utterly useless, but game balance would be preserved. Which isn't nearly as fun as three players teaming up against one Ermor player with a +200 point handicap, but that's an entirely different point.
Anyway, I've been abusing my own thread by going on about how to nerf, rather than whether to nerf. Signing off, and hanging my head in shame.
Ultimate Nation Balance Mega-Kawaii Answer-Question 105%!1!1
Threaded Mode