Ermor

[Truper]

Of course, the simplest solution to the original posters problem is to play against another nation rather than Ermor.

It's also really beginning to bother me that so many posters run up against an aspect of Dominions they don't like or agree with, and announce "this is broken" or "this must be fixed" or describe the tactic as "abuse", without any explanation or rational argument. C'mon people, the designers have obviously spent thousands of hours designing/playing this game, and things are like they are for good reasons. If you do honestly think something ought to be changed, lets hear your analysis - Illwinter also has a great track record in responding to the wishes of the player community - when the community provides a well-reasoned argument.

[HJ]

Originally posted by Truper:
Of course, the simplest solution to the original posters problem is to play against another nation rather than Ermor.

This is the reason why I would love to have random selection of the AI opponents. The way it is now, I end up never choosing opponents that may seriously hamper the game, like Ermor or underwater nations, unless I play them myself. If the selection was random (think AoE selection for skirmishes - you choose you want to play against 5 normal AI opponents, and the nation selection is randomly chosen), I would have to stick with what I got. It could also lead to some interesting AI opposition combos (like having all those troublesome nations together in one game)., which I wouldn't select by myself (I play SP, and have no urges to master the game competitively).

[ November 16, 2003, 21:31: Message edited by: HJ ]

[MStavros]

Originally posted by johan osterman:

quote:

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Originally posted by Mortifer:

quote:

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Originally posted by DominionsFAN:
I think that there should be spells like summon population. Why not? This is a fantasy wargame afterall! All things should have some counter, that is the key.

Now we dont have counter when Ermor kills the pop, we cannot remove curse, and the curse spell is so cheap, Ermor cannot defend against turn undead..etc.
Frankly, some things are totally unbalanced.

I tend to agree with you on this.
Curse is a low level spell, and there is no spell like remove curse. Why?
It is a pain to play against Ermor, since it is totally wiping out the population of the provinces. We cannot summon/conjure/create population. Why?
It is hellish hard to remove battle afflictions. [In some cases it is impossible.] Why?
It is way to easy to 'get some' battle afflictions....

Seriously these things should be changed. Every tactics must have some counter tactics, it is a "key part" of all strategy games, this is very true! This has nothing to do with the "generic rock-paper-scissors" game type.

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Curses will not win your games, cursing is a defensive and longterm tactic to hurt opponents. Most MP players do not seem to consider curses or afflictions as unbalancing. Curses are only a real limiting factor to players that concentrate significant effort to maximise one or a few units. Making curses counterable would make supercombatants both harder to deal with and the players using them less cautious. The same goes for afflictions. I am not sure that unbalanced is even an applicable term for single player games, frustrating yes, but unbalanced?

Why do you say it is too easy to get afflictions? Why should it be harder? In what way is the loss represented by getting cursed or gaining an affliction a less acceptable loss then other permanent losses such as loosing a unit. If you view your army as the combined strength of the units in it, getting the limp affliction on your Ice Devil Nycafor is not much different from loosing a lava warrior. Both represent a loss of total combat capability, why is one unbalanced and not the other?

People die in war. Population growth in games often give rise to cheesy tactics, where players first minimise taxes in order to max pop then raise the taxes as soon as it hits its growth shelf, or herd their population around their planets/cities like Texas Longhorns. Dominions is not a serf breeding simulation, many 4X strategy games are, that doesn't mean that Dominions II need follow suit. Is there any particular reason you think that population should grow more abundantly other than that it does in most other games? Population loss is as much a weakness as a strength for Ermor.

Dominions is a conservative game, meddling by centralised power structures results in damage that will only very slowly recover, social engineering doesnt work, the evil empire must be stopped before it destroys the world etc.

Also what wendigo said.

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I have no problems with curse and/or Ermor. I have only 1 complaint: the supercombattants. It is kinda ridicolous that you can massacre whole armies with 1 unit. Yes, yes this is a fantasy game, but still, this is ruining a part of the game. The problem is..that I see no way to do anything about it.
You get a strong unit, equip it with godly stuff, and voila: you have your own killing machine.......I don't like this.
In SP, you can abuse this easily, since the AI won't make SCs. [At least I haven't seen one in the demo before turn 40.]
In MP you are FORCED to use them, since your oppoment will use them as well...I am really pissed about this.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by MStavros:
I have only 1 complaint: the supercombattants. It is kinda ridicolous that you can massacre whole armies with 1 unit. Yes, yes this is a fantasy game, but still, this is ruining a part of the game. The problem is..that I see no way to do anything about it.
You get a strong unit, equip it with godly stuff, and voila: you have your own killing machine.......I don't like this.
In SP, you can abuse this easily, since the AI won't make SCs. [At least I haven't seen one in the demo before turn 40.]
In MP you are FORCED to use them, since your oppoment will use them as well...I am really pissed about this.

There is ways, they ask for planning, but solutions exists. Perhaps it is easier to get a SC running compared to have counters in place, but here lie the balance issue some of us has against SC in doms1, and that we fear persists in doms2.

[licker]

You are 'forced to use an SC in MP'? Added to that is the obligatory 'if you want to be competative'. I still disagree, there are enough ways to master the SCs that I don't think I'll worry about them too much...

Of course some of it is the map size and the number of opponents. If the map is big enough so that you probably won't run into the SC early its easier to not use one, I've not found my expansion to be hampered when not using a SC anyway, usually the boost you get in research and earlier summons makes up for the conqurering abilities of the SC.

Also I don't see why you can't play a game with random opponents as it is. All you have to do is to randomize them yourself. Of course you'll still know who your up against from the start, but you'll be forced into playing against whatever nations are chosen. You could also ask a wife, roomate, child, ... to randomly pick the oppostion for you I suppose. Yes its a bit more cumbersome, but it is emminently doable

[Dekent]

You can wish for population, or my personal fav..'priestess'....slap a GoR on her and you have your own affliction healing machine for any race

[ November 18, 2003, 07:16: Message edited by: Dekent ]