Scales You Should Never Take?

[DonCorazon]

Just wondering if there are any scales that are too be avoided at all costs (aside from the unique exceptions like Ermor and Death or Niefel and Cold)? I recently joined an MP game and am playing Drain-2 (and I am not Ulm) and wondering if I made a horrible mistake as my research slogs along at an unbelievably slow pace. I am playing a strong bless nation so my troops are fine but fear my mages will be casting magic missiles when others are busting out the meteor storms (to borrow a D&D analogy).

I also have come to fear negative Luck, though I know many take it in conjunction with Order. It seems to hone in on my natural unluckiness [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon22.gif[/img] and hit me extremely hard.
I never take Death either though have no basis for that - it just seems so unpleasant

[Xietor]

I do not like death or misfortune, but they should never be taken together.

I actually won a mp game with 2 drain(fixed). Was dead last in research, but that does not matter for some races, especially bless nations early on.

If you take 2 sloth, you should try to trade/make skull mentors/ lanterns etc.

[Foodstamp]

I am pretty much like you it seems when it comes to scales.

Here are my preferences from one extreme to the other.

Order/Turmoil:

I am very comfortable tilting my scales anywhere in this column, from order 3 to turmoil 3, but I like to have luck 3 with turmoil 3.

Production/Sloth:

Once again I am willing to go prod 3 to sloth 3 depending on the nation I am playing.

Cold / Heat:

Nation dependent, if a nation has no cold/hot preference sometimes I will still tilt the scales a little to help cold blooded creatures etc (Agartha).

Growth/Death:

My comfort range for this scale is neutral if no old mages, +1 growth or above for nations with old mages. I only take death for freespawn nations.

Magic/Drain:
The farthest I will ever go with drain is 2, and I normally stop magic at 1 but if I have a lot of extra free points to spend, I will boost it to magic 3 sometimes.

I hope that helps

[llamabeast]

I think perhaps Xietor meant 2 drain.

[Torin]

I tend to get some points tilting the temperature scales in standard nations with no special temperature preference.
I dislike death just for thematic reasons. Even in MP.

[Twan]

Drain 2 isn't a bad choice if you have powerful mages (especially out of capitol). It's the worst scale if you have only very bad researchers out of capitol (ie : drain 2 is a defendable choice for Atlantis EA, and a very bad one for Atlantis LA).
Drain 3 is always a bad choice except for drain immune nations.

Death isn't a bad choice if the game is short (ie : on a small map or victory condition someone will fulfill around turn 50), it's start to be bad for normal victory games on big maps, and more if your nation use old mages.

Turmoil is a bad choice if you don't take luck 3.

Temperature +/- 1 (compared to prefered one) is usually a good choice ; level 3 (in the good direction) may be good if your nation prefer a temperature at 1 (ie : cold 3 for Utgard).

Misfortune is a bad choice if you don't take at least Order=(your misfortune scale). And it's more safe to have Order > (your misfortune scale).

[Xietor]

I almost always take 2 drain with MA Pangaea. It adds to their already good mr and I cannot pass up 80 points for minus 1 research. Their research sucks anyway, so i just resign myself to being last before the game starts.

[moderation]

Xietor said:I actually won a mp game with 2 drain(fixed). Was dead last in research, but that does not matter for some races, especially bless nations early on.

What is "2 drain(fixed)"? Was there a bug with Drain 2 that was previously fixed?

Also, I read somewhere that Death + Misfortune unlocks some nasty events. Do any other scale combinations unlock "special" events?

[Xietor]

I had said sloth, inadvertently, then after llamabeast corrected me, i went back and changed it to say drain. Though i did have 3 sloth and 2 drain in that game . heh.

[AreaOfEffect]

I find that no negative scale is so terrible provided you match them well to your nation. I find Death isn't really that bad, particularly with nations like LA Ermor, LA R'lyeh, EA Agartha, and EA or LA Mictlan.

To be honest, I dislike Misfortune much more then Death. At least death can be compensated for. Misfortune on the other hand can serve up disasters that can't be seen ahead of time.