Stop the Insanity!

Orlanth · #1 December 9th, 2003, 11:57 PM

So as an HPL fan I've been trying my hand (er.. tentacle) at R'lyeh but am not having much luck, particularly with those Void Gate summons I hear so much about. It seems like 75% of summons end up with my squid going feebleminded; sometimes with gating in a few lesser beasts but most often failing or being attacked. I've never gotten to a summoning skill above 1, and most that make it that far are nuts. Is this pretty normal or am I doing something wrong - & is there anything that influences the rate of void success? Should I aim for a high local dominion, or strong magic or luck scales, or bring some units with me into the gate? Does Astral level help? (my few Astral 4 Starspawns have seemed to fare no better).

SurvivalistMerc · #2 December 10th, 2003, 12:03 AM

I am a total newb. I tried Ry'leh once and was not impressed with void summonings (and convinced I was doing something wrong).

I used cheap star children which do have astral and gave them illithid soldiers as bodyguards. I had them enter the site. I used to think that all you needed was one skill in the applicable ability (in this case, it looks to be astral) to make a summoning site work.

I had that starchild wait inside the gate for turns and turns. Nothing. Orders were clearly "enter site." I never figured out what I was doing wrong. I did take a high luck scale in this instance. I wouldn't have so much minded going insane, becoming mindless, etc...but nothing seemed to happen. Unless insanity isn't listed under abilities in the usual portion of the unit description when you inspect the unit.

HJ · #3 December 10th, 2003, 12:03 AM

Priestly level seems to help. Use priestly starspawns, not mages. I got to level 24 with my prophet without feeblemind.

Saber Cherry · #4 December 10th, 2003, 12:17 AM

Yes. To clarify: The void gate is meant to be used with Starspawns, even though it is not in the description of the gate or the unit. Any astral mage can enter, but normally there's a 75% (IIRC) chance of feeblemind, while Starspawns have only a 5% chance, and a certain hero has a 2% chance.

The description of the gate needs to have that info added, as currently it is driving newbies insane. Which is something Ryleh should never do...

Orlanth · #5 December 10th, 2003, 12:20 AM

Thanks I tried that just now and it seems to help a lot! I was indeed using the Starspawn mages, a bad assumption.. The first time I made the mistake of choosing the sea-anemone-shaped pretender with Astral 9, thinking he would be great in the Gate. Four turns and one insane sea anemone later I had learned my lesson!

jaytau · #6 December 10th, 2003, 12:50 AM

I belive (from trial and error) that you should use a priest starspawn, as the other mage starspawns seem to go crazy 75% of the time also.

Again, I wish this type of stuff was called out in the docs. It's one thing for this stuff to be things you 'learn' on your own, when playing against the computer... it's totally another thing when you are playing a multiplayer game. And this game is supposed to be multiplayer, right?

Vger · #7 December 10th, 2003, 06:36 AM

Hi,

I had a most pleasant time with the gate. I used a Starspawn and eventually tricked him out with a Charcoal shield, Lead shield, Spirit helmet, Robe of Shadows, Boots of Quickness, Amulet of Anti-magic and Lifelong Protection.

By game end he got to level 23 and gave me some great summons: Numerous Great Otherness and a Vastness along with many, many other critters. I did have one guy before him that I didn't trick out with equipment that made it to level 12 before buying it. (Insanity.)

I did get the hero, but didn't want to risk him. The Lifelong Protection provided fodder to distract the Great Othernesses while my dude eventually fried them. I'm sure it would have also helped to have Empowered him. He was only 1 astral and 2 death.

Hope this helps,
V'ger gone

Teleolurian · #8 December 10th, 2003, 06:44 PM

If you do decide to branch out to Fire, feebleminded starspawns are great repositories for Fever Fetishes.

Nanohum · #9 December 11th, 2003, 05:15 PM

I've experiementing with the squids for a while now, and 5 summoned krackens seem to form a tough bodyguard for the void gater. I haven't lost a battle yet, even against 3 greater othernesses (didn't even kill 1 kracken). Of course, a vastness hasn't shown up...

I've just been using my insane priests as slightly tougher mind bLasters with boots of quickness.

To go a bit off topic, the main problem with this race seems to be money. Upkeep becomes horrendous for the mind bLasting troops, and I can never seem to gather enough troops to defend my new coastal conquests. My strategy has been to race to conjuration 9 for abominations (while scouring the seas for magic sites), then forming small squads of these nearly invincible beasts backed by mages and conquering away, but this takes a very long time, not to mention a great deal of upkeep for all of those researchers.

Anyone else have this problem?

Slogan · #10 December 11th, 2003, 11:39 PM

I found R'lyh to be one of the hardest nations to play. As was stated they consume a lot of gold and by the time they get strong enough to move onto land their armies are dwarfed by the other nations. Thanks for the tips on Void Summoning that was driving me insane! What about the other sites to be entered, I've had much trouble entering the sites that improve combat, do they need a particular unit to enter?