Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead AAR

[Agrajag]

So, does that mean that AR is Astral 2 now?

Oh, and ghouls were not that common mainly because IIRC they cost population to reanimate, which was kind of a rare resource playing as AE or SG

[Endoperez]

Agrajag said:
So, does that mean that AR is Astral 2 now?

Oh, and ghouls were not that common mainly because IIRC they cost population to reanimate, which was kind of a rare resource playing as AE or SG

Acashic Record is still Astral 3, or at least I haven't noticed it having been changed. However, Astral 2 allows for Starshine Skullcap, and Boron must have quite a few Ktonian Necromancers with Astral, so after one SH SC he can forge Crystal Coins as well.

[Ballbarian]

They did, and it's actually a pretty poor attack.

As much as I used them, you would have thought that I would have noticed. *smacks forehead*

[Boron]

Agrajag said:
So, does that mean that AR is Astral 2 now?

Oh, and ghouls were not that common mainly because IIRC they cost population to reanimate, which was kind of a rare resource playing as AE or SG

Yeah i only remembered Soulless too . Seems though that the Ghuls have not changed much then. Iirc i NEVER even bothered when playing Ermor AE in Dom2 to check the stats of a soulless or ghul, i just saw them as fodder and used them in hordes lol

I said astral 2 cause then i can forge starshine skulcaps, as Endoperez already hinted .

BigJMoney said:

It is interesting that you mention this. It makes it sound like doubled research costs doesn't affect the late game at all and if you think about it, it makes sense. I wonder if the doubling alone was enough to get the desired effect.
=$=

Hm you have to keep in mind that gold income is doubled too. So i think research is even in lategame slightly slower like in Dom2, but theoretically eventually you will almost reach break even point because you have two times as much gold too. Or even more, i think it is rather 2,5 times as much gold as in Dom2.
But in earlygame and midgame you lose many turns compared to Dom2, and in lategame eventually you should be able to accumulate at least with some nations about double research than in Dom2. So in lategame you likely research almost as fast as in Dom2 but in early- and midgame you lose many turns of course.
If you play on a very large map though you might maybe even research faster than in Dom2 with all the extra space.

[JaydedOne]

Well, one thing to bear in mind is that even with the gold income being doubled, you can still only buy one commander per province at a time. So, you're still slowed somewhat on purchasing your researchers, at least until you build enough castles to buy those non-capital spellcasters.

[BigJMoney]

Yeah, I'll keep all this in mind when I get the game. To be honest, I don't even know the precise reason research costs were doubled. I don't know if the intent was to delay magic in the early game (in that case, it worked perfectly) or to make it harder to get to the powerful spells in general (in that case, more would need to be done). I'm kind of making a mathematical observation here - and I may draw a graph to show it - that going from high level spell to higher level spell will not be any different than it was in dom2. In fact, I'd predict the nations that will be hit the hardest from the research changes will actually be the same ones that suffered in Dom2 from not having the reseach potential of the other nations. Again, a graph would show that. Of course, if it's all intentional, it's all good.

Anyway, I don't want to go OT any more; I'm becoming rude. I'd start a new thread, but it's probably not worth it.

=$=

[quantum_mechani]

I would say the reason for the doubled research costs are very simple- the amount of gold was doubled but they didn't want to make research comparatively easier.

[Boron]

BigJMoney said:
Yeah, I'll keep all this in mind when I get the game. To be honest, I don't even know the precise reason research costs were doubled. I don't know if the intent was to delay magic in the early game (in that case, it worked perfectly) or to make it harder to get to the powerful spells in general (in that case, more would need to be done). I'm kind of making a mathematical observation here - and I may draw a graph to show it - that going from high level spell to higher level spell will not be any different than it was in dom2. In fact, I'd predict the nations that will be hit the hardest from the research changes will actually be the same ones that suffered in Dom2 from not having the reseach potential of the other nations. Again, a graph would show that. Of course, if it's all intentional, it's all good.

Anyway, I don't want to go OT any more; I'm becoming rude. I'd start a new thread, but it's probably not worth it.

=$=

Feel free to further post here .

Hm all in all research is slower in Dom3. Not much slower than in Dom2 though in the lategame. But unlike in Dom2 in Dom3 magic diversity is harder to achieve with the new random system.
Most indy mages got nerfed a lot too. They are more valuable than before for diversifying your magic, but they are weaker than in Dom2. In this game i am very lucky to have found the loremasters.
But even with them it is harder than in Dom2 to diversify. Some booster items have higher requirements to forge, and then there is the old age, so eventually many of my loremasters and necros will die.

[Boron]

OT: New Screenshots look uglier than the old ones because i turned down graphics to a minimum. My PC is not the newest and has problems with mass battles.


Nothing important happens the next turns. We get averagely 2 provinces per turn but lose one province per turn through a random event attack. We have now 300 research points, so research is slowly progressing.

"Fall in the year 3 of the ascension wars"

Caelum dows and attacks 1 province in which it wins.
We have almost finished our war research though, magma eruption and the other toys are already ready. Here is the secret test vs. barbarian "volunteers"

Magma eruption is my favourite non-gem battlefield anti-troop spell. 1 successful hit kills 10+ troops often .

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8088/2xl2.jpg
The border situation with caelum. They took 1 province, but i have many castles there and they have not much troops there, 50-200 troops per province. I will need 2-3 turns to position my armies, but then my necros in combination with the blessed fighters should overwhelm caelum fine.

[B0rsuk]

Speaking about gold, income, blah blah... how about profits from Alchemy ? Were they increased, or has transforming gems to gold become comparatively useless ? Does it still matter that fire gems fetch best prices ?