Been playing a game with the order, and bumping the AC up a little myself as I figure it will hurt my evil/neutral opponents more than me. Anyway, the AC just hit 40, and now all my cities have got this "blight" which is hitting me with so much unhelthiness, my cities will all soon starve down to size 1 in a dozen turns or so.

Surely this is not right. AC40 shouldnt be *that* bad. Whats the point of all the higher AC events when 40 pretty much destroys you? Please tell me theres some way to get rid of it or avoid it because this is just plain silly.

Mwhahaha, that's what you get for being a hypocrit.

The effect gets smaller each turn (the unhealthiness wears off), and effects some cities more than others. But it definitly strongly impacts your population for a while. Still once you've gone through and recovered your cities should perk right back up to their normal populations (and just in time to meet Buboes if the AC gets out of control).

Ahh thanks for that info.
It seemed a little excessive to be permanent :P

Keep in mind that while Blight itself is a one time thing, a random event (Pestilence) that does the same thing but at half the strength can happen repeatedly can occur whenever the AC is 40 or more. And that its effects stack on top of the Blight effect.

Keep in mind that while Blight itself is a one time thing, a random event (Pestilence) that does the same thing but at half the strength can happen repeatedly can occur whenever the AC is 40 or more. And that its effects stack on top of the Blight effect.

Blight does a random 0-10 + the cities population in unhealthiness. That decreases 1 per turn. Pestilence does a random 0-4 + the cities population / 4.

In 0.33 both of those random ranges will be increased by 4 (so blight will be a random 0-14) and buildings that grant health bonuses will decrease the number. Life mana will also decrease the number.

So lets say you have a city with 12 population, life mana and a aqueduct when blight hits. It would roll a random 0-14 (say we get a 6) add the cities population (6+12 = 18), subtract 1 for the life mana (18-1 = 17) and subtract 2 for the aqueduct (17-2 = 15). So the city is hit with 15 points of unheathiness that go away at 1 per turn.

So do I understand correctly that health bonuses will essentially count twice for that purpose? As +1 health and -1 unhealthy?

Blight does a random 0-10 + the cities population in unhealthiness. That decreases 1 per turn. Pestilence does a random 0-4 + the cities population / 4.

I got hit by blight and my largest city (28) got 35 unhealthiness. Running GoN and PH with all the health buildings I survived that without losing any pop. However later in a game - I didn't checked but blight should have surely went away by then - I was hit by (supposedly) pestilence at AC 48 and that city (29) got 30+ unhealthiness again. A bit too much for a pestilence I'd say.

You should see what the older version of AC40 did. Then you'd cry foul.

Destroys all farms, pastures and camps so you not only got a lot of unhealthiness but also lose your food and health sources. Yeah I remember :)

One trick you can do to preserve a population while the blight counter goes down is to stay in anarchy by switching civics all the time. Several turns in stagnation could hurt you less then losing population.

To be honest I prefer what the counter did at 40 before the blight. As it stands blight is a real game killer. I had a game online patch... h I think it was with 3 other people and the counter hit 40 blight hit. Next turn Hyborem was summoned and blight hit again, then the next turn the blight hit again 3 times in a row. 2 turns later I get hit by the Plague event and am trumpeted into my new turn as the Hippus charge their horsemen into my lands and take two of my cities one of them my capital. Due to massive blight I was never able to recover and that game ended. I heard that it wasn't supposed to hit consecutively anymore but I can see that is a croc of sh.... and the plague event on top of this... I wonder did it hit 3 times because there were 3 players?

Will blight hit a second time if the counter hits 40, then drops back down, and then goes up to 40 again?

no, it's one time only

Pestilence, as mentioned before, is the thing that can hit again. Sounds like that you had some bad luck in that game. What are the turn-by-turn odds of it popping up?

You should see what the older version of AC40 did. Then you'd cry foul.

I remember that one. Ooh, it was a b*tch. But I always lived thru it, so meh.

To be honest I prefer what the counter did at 40 before the blight. As it stands blight is a real game killer. I had a game online patch... h I think it was with 3 other people and the counter hit 40 blight hit. Next turn Hyborem was summoned and blight hit again, then the next turn the blight hit again 3 times in a row. 2 turns later I get hit by the Plague event and am trumpeted into my new turn as the Hippus charge their horsemen into my lands and take two of my cities one of them my capital. Due to massive blight I was never able to recover and that game ended. I heard that it wasn't supposed to hit consecutively anymore but I can see that is a croc of sh.... and the plague event on top of this... I wonder did it hit 3 times because there were 3 players?

Blight can only ever happen to each empire once. (You'll see a message bout it when the events pop up usually.) Wat happened to you sounds like a bug.

You should see what the older version of AC40 did. Then you'd cry foul.

Ya the older version of AC40 was so gd scary I tried anything to keep it away. Micromanagement NIGHTMARE when it hits, and if you were at war during AC40 you could forget about using workers to repair all the damage.

I tried to have universal peace if AC40 was coming and have workers on standby..... The new AC40 is much easier to deal with than the old one.

I think it was a positive change tho. It has a nasty effect (something you want to avoid or at least prepare for) but its not so bad that you literally have to plan your game around it.

My capital has a blight penalty of 56, that seems pretty extreme. When blight hit at 40 ac, my size 28 capital went to a size 1 and never recovered, so I changed capital. And now with the second pestilence event, my new capital has gone from a 30 to a 10 and still has a 56 blight penalty.

Wow, sounds like you already had unhealthiness in your capital. Jeese! -56 Health, never even seen that. And, yes, pestilence sucks worse than blight. Ya don't know when it's gonna happen; at least, Blight is somethin you know is comin at AC 40.

I had a total penalty of -80, -56 was from blight/pestilence. I just had armageddon hit and it killed off all my heroes except Mardero and Gaelon. Killing my level 15 Archeron really hurt.

Well, here's a tip. Reduce the AC. It always reduces things like this.

Been playing a game with the order, and bumping the AC up a little myself as I figure it will hurt my evil/neutral opponents more than me.

Why would you think that being a "good" civ would allow you to handle a higher AC better. The Order want to save the world, not destroy it. The point of of being "evil"/having the AV religion is to bring about the end of the world.

I think you'd be far better off when blight hits if you were running STW with AV instead of anything else.

Well, I got hit with the Blight/Pestilence Double Whammy today for the first time. :(

I was just getting over the effects of Blight and getting close in score to the dratted Thessa/Koun team, when, about 25 turns after Blight, I get Pestilence. :mad:

I didn't see any announcement or anything - just the Death Damage to my units and, of course, when I checked my cities, I knew what was up.

My score plummeted and I fell far behind the leaders. It doesn't look like I will recover score-wise, but I've got a good veteran army than will deal with Thessa/Koun soon.

I just hope I don't get another Pestilence event....

Are you evil? Do you worry bout lowerin the AC? If not, you prolly will. Lower the AC and it's less likely to happen.

For the record, I actually liked the old blight better. I used it strategically with the Sheaim, built a couple of extra workers per city, then boom the AC hits 40 and I can get my economy up and running again much faster than the AI. Of course, this might have been part of the point of the change, since that's a bit exploit-y, but I figured it was realistic that the Sheaim would actually be PLANNING for the end of the world!

Well, I always noticed there was less Pestilence with the old Blight.

Reducing all cities in the world to 1 population (I've had 80 and more unhealthy) is a bit extreme; it slows tech and building progress to a crawl for a long time.

And that's why we do our best to fight evil and REDUCE THE AC! Less you wanna bump up the AC, in which case you better live with blight. Honestly, ya can't expect the world to go to Hell (literally in-game) and have zero consequences, can ya? People WILL die when Armaggedon comes. So, fight to prevent it. If you don't care if people die and wanna see Hell on Erebus, then expect that your civ will suffer too.

And that's why we do our best to fight evil and REDUCE THE AC! Less you wanna bump up the AC, in which case you better live with blight. Honestly, ya can't expect the world to go to Hell (literally in-game) and have zero consequences, can ya? People WILL die when Armaggedon comes. So, fight to prevent it. If you don't care if people die and wanna see Hell on Erebus, then expect that your civ will suffer too.

It's funny. Ask someone who plays Good civs mostly and they will tell you the AC moves ahead too quickly (I agree. ;)) Ask someone who plays mostly Evil civs and they say that counter is slow as molasses. Those who play Neutral civs, I guess would agree with the Good Guys.

Anyway, IMO the game does have more features, events, etc. that increase the AC vs. decrease it. Of course, I cannot document this, but I really think that is the goal of the game designers - to move the game along to Armageddon. Yes, as rock says, you really have to work your ass off to keep the AC down as much as possible to avoid Blight and other bad things. However, I really think that no matter what you do, in many games that counter will just keep marching forward because there are so many variables that are out of your control.

I guess if it bothers you that much, you could just choose the option that removes the AC from the game, but, IMO, that would take out a major fun factor from gameplay. :)

Blight can only ever happen to each empire once. (You'll see a message bout it when the events pop up usually.) Wat happened to you sounds like a bug.

There is such a bug : blight can happen only once for each empire... but if Basium or Hyborem are summoned afterwards, it won't have happened for them yet. So if the AC is still above 40 (or ever get back up to that number), it will happen to them. And since this is a worldwide event, it happens (again) to everyone else.

It happened to me a few days ago, and I was actually pissed off enough to go back to an earlier save to triple-check that it was blight and not pestilence (which is the answer you tend to get when you try to report that blight has hit you twice). Besides the fact that the amount of unhealth and the death damage made it pretty clear what it was, and the fact that the same event kept happening even if I played things differently to mess up the random generator, I went around and changed the AC required for either events, and sure enough it happened only when the blight AC requirement was below the current AC counter, not when the pestilence one was.

I wonder if the same can happen with minister Koun, but so far I have not been in a situation to find out.

And that's why we do our best to fight evil and REDUCE THE AC! Less you wanna bump up the AC, in which case you better live with blight. Honestly, ya can't expect the world to go to Hell (literally in-game) and have zero consequences, can ya? People WILL die when Armaggedon comes. So, fight to prevent it. If you don't care if people die and wanna see Hell on Erebus, then expect that your civ will suffer too.

Not talking about blight. I'm talking about pestilence hitting 5 times within a few turns (on quick speed nonetheless). Blight alone does not cause 80 unhealthy and all the world becomes 1 population cities. I generally finish my army around the time AC gets to 40 so if pestilence goes nuts and everyone goes to 1 pop, it benefits me; I sanctify ruins I (and others) create because I do not want Riders around too early in the game, but pestilence doesn't care what the AC is, as long as it is over 40(?).

A game without riders?? You goodies don't know what you are missing. Last days ftw; don't forget to tech div on the way to sorcery because when I feel like things are about under control I stop sanctifying ruins.

There is such a bug : blight can happen only once for each empire... but if Basium or Hyborem are summoned afterwards, it won't have happened for them yet. So if the AC is still above 40 (or ever get back up to that number), it will happen to them. And since this is a worldwide event, it happens (again) to everyone else.

It happened to me a few days ago, and I was actually pissed off enough to go back to an earlier save to triple-check that it was blight and not pestilence (which is the answer you tend to get when you try to report that blight has hit you twice). Besides the fact that the amount of unhealth and the death damage made it pretty clear what it was, and the fact that the same event kept happening even if I played things differently to mess up the random generator, I went around and changed the AC required for either events, and sure enough it happened only when the blight AC requirement was below the current AC counter, not when the pestilence one was.

I wonder if the same can happen with minister Koun, but so far I have not been in a situation to find out.

That's pretty amazing. I have summoned Basium my last three games with the AC above 40 and the Mercurians were not hit with Blight. It really does sound like it was Pestilence from your description, but you checked it and it wasn't. I have noticed there is no announcement when Pestilence hits (I think) - you just see those multiple Death Damage little popups and see what it does to your cities. Maybe it should be more clear exactly what is causing all the havoc.

I have noticed there is no announcement when Pestilence hits (I think) - you just see those multiple Death Damage little popups and see what it does to your cities. Maybe it should be more clear exactly what is causing all the havoc.

That I agree with. It annoyin to have all that damage pop up and have me go, "Wat the f*ck". But if we all knew wat it was we could groan in a proper manner. LOL!

Seriously tho, somethin like an event tag for Blight and Pestilence would be nice.

Blight is awesome. In no way does it ruin the game, it provides severe incentive to combat the AC early, and is sufficiently strong to bring out the flavor of a 'world-changing event'.

I am truly impressed with how effectively it is tuned to length and damage. I would additionally however recommend a chance to wither forests to plains, and also a chance to wither ancient forests to normal forests, while preventing forests from going ancient during the blight.

Not talking about blight. I'm talking about pestilence hitting 5 times within a few turns (on quick speed nonetheless). Blight alone does not cause 80 unhealthy and all the world becomes 1 population cities. I generally finish my army around the time AC gets to 40 so if pestilence goes nuts and everyone goes to 1 pop, it benefits me; I sanctify ruins I (and others) create because I do not want Riders around too early in the game, but pestilence doesn't care what the AC is, as long as it is over 40(?).

A game without riders?? You goodies don't know what you are missing. Last days ftw; don't forget to tech div on the way to sorcery because when I feel like things are about under control I stop sanctifying ruins.

So, wait. You had 5 pestilences in like 5 (max of 10 maybe) turns? In other words, it was pestilence after pestilence after pestilence? That sounds like a bug to me. And...ouch...wat a painful bug.

Blight is awesome. In no way does it ruin the game, it provides severe incentive to combat the AC early, and is sufficiently strong to bring out the flavor of a 'world-changing event'.

I am truly impressed with how effectively it is tuned to length and damage. I would additionally however recommend a chance to wither forests to plains, and also a chance to wither ancient forests to normal forests, while preventing forests from going ancient during the blight.

Sounds very overpowered to me.

You could code it so that Pestilence won't be allowed to strike if your Capitol still has temporary Unhealthy points existing. Then worst case scenario would be getting hit by Pestilence the turn after recovering from blight/another Pestilence, rather than ever being able to have them stacked on each other.

[QUOTE=Halancar;7028554]There is such a bug : blight can happen only once for each empire... but if Basium or Hyborem are summoned afterwards, it won't have happened for them yet. So if the AC is still above 40 (or ever get back up to that number), it will happen to them. And since this is a worldwide event, it happens (again) to everyone else.

Okay, all this talk about blight and wether or not it can happen more than once. Well, for me, with patch L, ARMAGEDDON happened twice. The second time happened because Basium was summoned after the first one, and AC got to 100 again. The Avatar and Buboes are still alive somewhere . . . tho my mithril champs can take on the Iras that keep coming for me. and I def know it was the same ole Armageddon. I was Infernals so I got like 40 manes per city each time it happened, only Armageddon gets me that many manes. As Infernals, it was enjoyable (2 geddons = win ^^) tho still, it can happen. After it was all over with, i did not see a powerful living unit. My main competition was just Eidolons, Agares Beasts, and Angels.

Ah, just in case you were wondering Dis is city size 253 now, and the AC holy city (which i got from Hyborem's Whisper) is size 103 and is making the Messhabir of Dis avatar.