Am I in a race against time? (AC)

[MagisterCultuum]

Basium is not Immortal. (Although Hyborem is, and making Basium start with Immortality would make just as much sense)

I don't think you would get angels from Immortal units now anyway. I'm pretty sure that in the BtS implementation these units don't actually dies anymore, but are transported to the owner's capital just before they would otherwise lose (hence the lack of "___has been destroyed by a ___ ____" and "___has created ___" messages)

Also I'm pretty sure Basium starts with the Angel promotion, and is thus not alive. Only living units are supposed to created angels upon their death. (I think there was a bug with this a while back, since I've seen Basium's death lead to the birth of a new high-xp angel at least once, but I thought it had been fixed)

 

[xienwolf]

Well, sucks to be the good guy I guess

 

[Sarisin]

Well, since he was saying it came from Basium, who is Immortal, and VERY strong to begin with, and has the Raider Trait.... 500+ isn't too hard, it just means you destroyed one of your neighbors with nothing but Basium.

I noticed the AI will often send Basium out alone. Yes, he is strong, but he can be damaged and the AI doesn't wait for him to get fully healed. The result is one dead Basium and that cripples the Mercurians. That's why I never continue play as my normal civ when I build the Gate and switch to the Mercurians.

My strategy is to let him sit in the city taken over a few turns and maybe pick off a few wandering units near the border (you will likely be at war quickly or there may be barbs around).

Then, I send him out with a couple of high XP angels, a priest (usually Confessor), and maybe a unit with Sanctify to keep the counter down. This team is normally unstoppable and can mow down civs (usually Evil) in short order.

As you are constantly at war as the Mercurians, it is not tough to rack up XP, not only for Basium, but his escort Angels (and hopefully a Herald or two) as well.

 

[Ekolite]

Too be honest, no you're not in a race against time. You've already had blight, and killed two horsemen. You might as well just let it happen. Allow it to increase, get the mithril golem and kill the next two horsemen as they appear. They might well appear on the other continent anyway. When the avatar guy comes he will take just as many units from theother civs as he does from you and again he may appear on the other continent.

I really hope that Armageddon is improved a lot if not in shadow then in ice. I just don't think its enough. When those demons appear with the little grate ype things into hell, all they do is sit there and wait for you to kill them.

Also, so many times the AV never really comes into power and hyborem is never spawned. This never seems to happen unless i do it myself which is not really a path i ever go down. Anyway, this means that even as the AC is rising rapidly due to OO and wars, hell terrain just never appears.

I think that when the AC gets quite high random areas of the world should change to hell terrain, regardless of alignments. This will then spread, this would also sop the problem that as far as I know only the continent with hytborem willbecome hell and other islands and continents are fine. Maybe at a certain AC hyborem should come into the world anyway, this time with a huge army. That would certainly liven up armageddon.

 

[xienwolf]

Hell may spread faster when Hybo comes in, but I have seen it without him. And it will cross the Ocean, it just takes it a while to do so.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It isn't supposed to start until he comes (although his defeat definately does not make it go away) or until the arrival of whichever horseman spreads hell wherever he goes. Since hell does (invisibly) spread i the seas, other continents won't be safe for long. However, I really do think that Hell NEVER entering Good lands needs to be changed.

 

[zxcvbnm]

However, I really do think that Hell NEVER entering Good lands needs to be changed.

I so agree.

Make it spread there at AC 100, but never in Mercurian lands.
(please)

 

[MagisterCultuum]

100 seems too high; since that is the maximum, it could only go down from there (and would very quickly, seeing how Armageddon would wipe out many evil units, including those with prophecy marks). Although it would likely rise again, it wouldn't stay at 100 long enough for hell to spread.

Personally I would rather have no AC requirements for it to spread anywhere, only modifiers that control how fast it spreads based on alignment and AC. I would like the changes to be gradual, not dependent on specific cut-offs that a human player would know about and could exploit but an AI could not. (The Altars should also all decrease the rate of spread slightly, each a little more than the one before until the final one keeps it out altogether. The Mercurian Palace could have the same effect)

Also, I think the Defile spell is too weak. Instead of just causing fallout, it should cause fallout and increase the plot counter slightly (moving the tile closer to becoming hell, but preferably not turning it straight to hell in one cast unless it was already close to turning) (I already changed this on my version). That way evil civs could spread hell in their enemies lands before an invasion, and the Sanctify spell would then actually be of some use to good civs. (Currently the AI is only allowed to use Sanctify in their own lands, which, since the civs most likely to have adepts with this spell are good civs, makes it almost useless. Letting Devouts move in rival territory and cast sanctify is currently only good under human control. Personally I think this restriction should be removed (I already removed it).

 

[Sarisin]

Again, I guess your point of view on hell spreading depends on the civ(s) you play.

As I usually play Good civs I find it spreads too fast and is just a nuisance.

I think the Sanctify spell is very week now. It really has two purposes, I think:

1. Sanctifying city ruins to lower the AC. Sometimes you will get -1 and sometimes not. If you raze a large city, you might get a +5 or more. Use Sanctify and you get -1 if you are lucky.

2. I can place an army of Adepts with Sanctify (actually I use Devouts) around my borders to keep the stuff away, but after Sanctifying, in 2-3 turns it is back. It travels across lakes and up/down rivers. As stated, killing off Hyborem and his lot does nothing to rid the world of hell. Once he comes you have to deal with the spread regardless of the AC.

I realize the game/mod is biased towards reaching Armageddon and all, but if you are going to make the stuff enter Good lands, then you need something to counteract that...like a beefed up Sanctify spell IMO.

 

[Ekolite]

Maybe after he dies it should stop spreading. Then you can just use sanctify to remove it all.

 

[Roghar]

I managed to play the game some more on the weekend - the AC counter has actually barely moved, its about 65 or 66. I've killed the 3rd horseman, he impaled himself on a pikeman of all things.

Of far more concern than impending armageddon has actually been about 4 or 5 civs declaring war on me simultaneously, which given how big my borders are has been a major pain. It Looks like being a long drawn out battle - I've lgot to the point where I have enough troop density around my borders to hold level, but will take a while longer to build sufficient armies to start taking out the enemy civs.

First priority will be taking out those on my continent, while simultaneously building up my fleet to start winning the naval war - am well behind at the moment, none of my original cities were coastal.