Graveyards vs. Goodie Huts

[Sarisin]

I have to say I really like the new Graveyards in .31 much more than the goodie huts.

It's true that you are advancing the Armageddon Counter when you rob one. However,

I have yet to see a unit guarding a Graveyard - maybe there is a good reason for that. The goodie huts often get an early guard that digs in making it a while before you can kill him...and get your Map. Also, I think we have all experienced the great Orthus guarding goodie huts. I have yet to see him venture on to a Graveyard.

But, for me, so far anyway, I have been really lucky I suppose with the Graveyards. I have gotten only Gold and some pretty good techs. In my first game, I got Bowyers very early in an Epic game. It was the first time I ever did the the Longbowmen Rush.

Two suggestions:

1. I mentioned before in the bug thread that it just isn't right when you rob a Graveyard that you get the message: "the Villagers have given you...." That should be changed to something like "the grave contained ..." or "The graveyard's spirits have given you...."

2. There was some sort of lame sound when I robbed the graves. I suggest you replace this sound with either Vincent Price's laugh, or the howl of Bruce Campbell/Ash.

Seriously, hats off to the team for coming up with these boneyards.

 

[Wyrmhero]

I managed to get Bronze Working on turn 11 from a Graveyard. For some reason, they game had started me off with Mining... Still, turn 30 Axeman Rush seriously hurts your opponents strategy...

 

[evanb]

I got Education fairly early, then Divination.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

I got 3 spectres, not so friendly spectres I must say but luckily it was just next to an AI capital. Did not see if they made much harm to it but my scouting warrior was worth it.

Now I got an event that gave me one next to my capital but I will wait till I get a better unit to guard my city, archers are building now.

 

[evanb]

Yeah, I always expected rousing some angry spirits by robbing the graves, that's why I was so surprised when I first got Education from them instead

 

[Genejack]

I once also managed to rouse three angry specters, two of which trashing my graveyard robbing warrior, and the third one robbing a graveyard 2 steps away by himself, causing another six specters to appear, which proceeded to my lightly defended capital and burned it to the ground. This was turn 5 I think.
So thats why you never find barbarian guarding graveyards, they rob them as barbarians are supposed to.

 

[vivictius]

I really dont like the barbarians robbing the graveyards. On most maps this means that within the first 30 turns or so there will be no graveyards outside your borders. You had also better guard any you dont want to use soon.

On the other hand, playing Luchurip and getting adepts sooner then planned due to some fortunate goodie huts allowed me to get a free lawbringer from a graveyard, having a 6str, 3move unit before I had bronze working was rather nice.

 

[Sarisin]

I never saw the spectres rise from the graveyard robbery.

I guess I have been lucky in that all the graveyards I robbed (I think about 7 in two games) have given me Gold or techs.

Also, because so many were available, I think the barbs were leaving them alone.

Would an Animal like a Bear rob a graveyard?

I don't think so and maybe that is why no barbs robbed them as the mass of real barbs didn't show up in my Epic speed game until about turn 175.

It is strange that the barbs would rob the graveyard, but not pop the goodie hut, instead doing guard duty on it.

 

[xienwolf]

Were you using a Scout (or most any Recon Unit)? Spectre and Skeleton results are equivalent to the Weak Hostile & Strong Hostile reactions from a Goody Hut (in each case for Spec & Skel you get a minimum of 1 spawn, but a 20% chance on each tile for a spawn. So if unlucky you can wind up with 8). These results are flagged as "Bad" and thus any unit with "Better results from Tribal Villages" will not trigger them.

Edit: Bad flag doesn't matter

The reason Barbarians won't do Guard Duty is because Kael decided not to tell them to do it And the reason they trigger Graveyards but not Goody Huts is because a Goody hut is done automatically, and forbidden to the Barbarian Player. But the Graveyard is done by a "Spell" which is NOT forbidden to the Barbarian Player.

As with all magic so far though, the AI doesn't plan to use it, but if it should happen to be on a tile where the button appears and says "Would you like to push me?" then the AI will do it. Thus the AI will NEVER seek a Graveyard, but if it should happen to step on one by accident it WILL ALWAYS loot it (though it might choose one of the other options if by sheer miracle a unit capable of one of them happens to walk across a graveyard)

 

[Nonobots]

I've seen specters from a scout robbing a graveyard I'm pretty sure.

(He popped 3 specters. Defended from the first, fled from the second (Garrim Gyr is defender) and the third one went didn't attack. I was mighty happy. But a wolf killed him while he was healing.)

 

[Sarisin]

So, what will happen if a Bear, Wolf, Hill Giant, etc. lands on a Graveyard?

Also, I just can't see why a barb would use that spell as they can't use the Gold or techs. Just to release the Spectres, I guess.

 

[rusty217]

I thought only recon units could rob graveyards?

But scouts can definately get the bad ones, i've popped 3 skeletons before, on roads aswell so there was no escape

 

[BeefontheBone]

Skeletons isn't marked as 'bad', only the other 2 I believe - unlike goody huts, where units with "better results" tags can never get hostiles.

 

[xienwolf]

Actually the BAD flag means nothing for the graveyards, it is just a flat random among the 5 results, not awarded by the same mechanism as Goody Huts at all.

 

[Arctem]

I've never even seen a graveyard... Of course, it could be because I've been playing Cephalo's Creation map.

 

[xienwolf]

You should still get them. And even with a completely pre-made map which allows no random placement of anything you would still get events which create them.

 

[Arctem]

Well, I'm still on my first 0.31 game (I haven't had much time to play since it came out), so I'll see if they appear in my next game.

 

[jprc]

I would love to see a graveyard giving you a temporary Death mana if you are Bad, a Spirit mana if you are Good, and a Mind mana if you are Neutral.
Temporary because, at the opposite of a node, you or the AI can pillage it.

Anyway, I love all these special landmarks! I especially love resources wars!...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I'd like temporary features, improvements, and resources, relying on a thaw-like mechanism. That could be very useful for grsveyards and other things.

(I had actually implemented temp features and improvements using the .30h SDK, but I forgot to test the spells that actually used these functions to see if they work before I made other changes that broke the game.)


Oh, I also think that terraforming spells (especially pirates cove) needs to change the real terrain type too. It just isn't right for coast to o back to grasslands liek that and destroy a pirates port.

 

[Raguel]

Is it guaranteed that if you rob a graveyard, the AC goes up? I've only robbed one and didn't notice a change. granted this was within the first 20 turns, and I restarted the game a few more turns in.