Ideas, Requests, and Feedback

The problem with it not being portable is it makes the cauldron completely useless. The thing costs 700 hammers, so it's only reasonably buildable in an established city with good production. The kind you'd be an idiot to let come under direct attack in the first place.

Single-player related commentary, only.

Basically the same problem effects the Soul Forge, but a portable forge might strain the bounds of credulity. :p
 
Yeah, though for some reason I never think about building the Forge for the mana or the GPP for some reason. Definitely more usable, though.
 
Soul forge is a... forge... I don't see such big building become portable...
But Mokka's cauldron... is a Cauldron... and could be portable.
Those buildings are designed to give bonuses to cities that engage combat often. (Forge also grant population, Mokka's resurrect living as demons).
The forge is many times stronger than Mokka's, however.
Mokka's cauldron portability could make it more useful, being a risky tactic if such city is lost, but rewarding, as it could give you more chances to survive an attack (Resurrecting archers, for example).
 
for me it nearly always ends up as beeing the only reason to build it; with attacking units turned into production as a "hurray!"-boost happening as often as a flock of marsian dolphins attacking my flat. well, okay not that rarely, but very rarely.

on small maps its also good to achieve the tower victory. build the necessary nodes, build the forge, dispel the node, build a different node.

/edit
Sjru said:
Soul forge is a... forge... I don't see such big building become portable...
But Mokka's cauldron... is a Cauldron... and could be portable.
Those buildings are designed to give bonuses to cities that engage combat often. (Forge also grant population, Mokka's resurrect living as demons).
The forge is many times stronger than Mokka's, however.
Mokka's cauldron portability could make it more useful, being a risky tactic if such city is lost, but rewarding, as it could give you more chances to survive an attack (Resurrecting archers, for example).
soul forge turns dying units into production, not population. latter would be cooler, sure ;)
 
i dont know if it was asked before:
is there any chance that you will merge the more events mod?
i love the elven hamlet event! that would keep the events a bit more interesting
 
i dont know if it was asked before:
is there any chance that you will merge the more events mod?
i love the elven hamlet event! that would keep the events a bit more interesting

Not only is there a chance... With 1.31 it has been converted to a fully modular format. :p
 
Soul forge is a... forge... I don't see such big building become portable...
But Mokka's cauldron... is a Cauldron... and could be portable.
Those buildings are designed to give bonuses to cities that engage combat often. (Forge also grant population, Mokka's resurrect living as demons).
The forge is many times stronger than Mokka's, however.
Mokka's cauldron portability could make it more useful, being a risky tactic if such city is lost, but rewarding, as it could give you more chances to survive an attack (Resurrecting archers, for example).

Something I must add, honestly: I always leave behind Mokka's cauldron to someone else. It just because this wonder is the kind of: I build it if I don't have nothing else to do. Because, IMO, wonders are usually built in your most important cities (Have more production), and those cities are usually the capital and the second or third city you've built (Hopefully). Otherwise, building wonders (which are expensive, anyway) on frontier cities (That might have the opportunity to use Mokka's cauldron ability) could take so much time, that even the AI at the bottom of the scoreboard might have a chance to build it.

Think about it: This wonder doesn't even add GPP specialists. The only other thing this Cauldron do is to give a mere +2:culture: bonus.
If you see it, making this wonder portable could mean that it's gonna be more used, more practical, than is now. Aren't, anyways, wonders mean to add something to the game?.
AI often builds it in their capital or second or third city. Humans, might too. It would be far more useful portable than anything else.
The question if Mokka himself should be carrying the Cauldron and give it as a loot should not be left out, however, as it could be also another interesting mechanic that could add more essence to the game.

IMO: for me, Mokka's cauldron (Now) is uninteresting and unfunny: When I built it (A long time ago, sadly) I found out that I never ended having any benefit from that wonder, and I've missed key soldier or buildings that I could have built in that time. But if such wonder could be made portable... think about the possibilities...
 
In my modmod Mokkas Cauldron has been portable for a long time. (I also have the units it produces be undead rather than demons.)


I'm still debating whether I might modify The Soul Forge in my next version so that it takes advantage of all deaths within your territory instead of only near the city. (Obviously the production boost per death would be reduced if I go with that route.)

Edit: I just got to thinking I might instead make it take advantage of the death of its owner's living units, and only its owner's units, no matter where they die. The main advantage there is that the code is quite simple:
Code:
			iSoulForge = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BUILDING_SOUL_FORGE')
			for pyCity in PyPlayer(iPlayer).getCityList() :
				pCity = pyCity.GetCy()
				if pCity.getNumRealBuilding(iSoulForge) > 0:
					pCity.changeProduction(unit.getExperience() + 10)
					CyInterface().addMessage(pCity.getOwner(),True,25,CyTranslator().getText("TXT_KEY_MESSAGE_SOUL_FORGE",()),'AS2D_DISCOVERBONUS',1,'Art/Interface/Buttons/Buildings/Soulforge.dds',ColorTypes(7),pCity.getX(),pCity.getY(),True,True)

I'm thinking it would also be appropriate for the Forge to consume the souls and prevent them from returning as Angels, Manes, or from being resurrected. (That shouldn't be too hard to do as I have already almost finished moving to a new resurrection system, where the player is not limited to resurrecting one national hero, the hero keeps its promotions from the previous life, and the Netherblade prevents resurrection. It is not the most elegant solution, but resurrection require the dead unit's Sluagh to store its data works and actually fits rather nicely with the lore from the Bestiary.)
 
Not only is there a chance... With 1.31 it has been converted to a fully modular format. :p

Thank you for that!

I think one of the problems now with 1.30 is the repetitive nature of events. I realize these are 'random,' however, in my current game I got the event that caused me to lose 1 population 4 times - all in the early going of the game. I never use the option that gives more events.

I think by adding more different events to the mix, it becomes less likely you will get the same event over and over again.

Also, please remember the Hunter's Catch event is still broken and it would be nice to be fixed (so you could purchase an animal), or taken out of the game.

Thank you.
 
Is there any chance that in 1.4/1.31/1.3? or what ever the next patch is buildings will have an XML tags for N :health: and N :) per Resource?

It is essential for my project to be complete.
 
For the cauldron... Why not have it buildable by barbs in a barb city just like Dragon Horde? Put a tech requirement on it to make sure it comes later in the game, and have Mokka be summoned in that city just like Dragon horde summons Archon. Make it portable just like the Dragons horde is...

Of course it would be functioning for said Barb town which may make taking it be interesting, especially if its Archon's city that builds it :)
 
I realize you already have some plans to help balance D'Tesh, but I had some thoughts in changing their mechanics that might offer more flavor and change how they play. The third change especially may not be relevant with the incoming spell changes.

The overarching idea behind my changes would be that they require souls to do anything. In game terms, this means slaves.

First change would be to eliminate the Vessel of D'tesh as a settler unit, and block their ability to build settlers. In order to create new cities, they need to consume one of their upgraded special forts - either a Greater mausoleum, or the regular Mausoleum for balance if the greater is too long an investment. In addition to this, Fort Commanders must be empowered by slaves before they can 'suffuse' the mausoleum into a city. Each empowerment grants 1 death strength to the fort commander, a stacking promotion, and at 10 empowerments allows the Suffuse Mausoleum ability, upgrading the fort to city (which still starts at size 1). The number of slaves is up for balance, but I based the 10 on the amount of slaves I usually get when razing an enemy empire with slavery.

Net effect: D'tesh now require a great deal more time investment before settling new cities, and a great deal more slave investment. Where razing a city would basically give you a size X city off the bat (because you got a Vessel as well), you'll have to wait for a mausoleum to at least upgrade once, and invest slaves, and then more slaves to bump the city's size.

Second change: To help offset the above, the Soul Forge allows the production of Vessels of D'tesh. These vessels differ from the current settler unit - they basically act as a batch of slaves. They can either be consumed by fort commanders, granting 5 empowerments outright, or use the Shatter Vessel ability to split into 5 (or perhaps 4?) slaves. Tower of Necromancy might also allow for production of Vessels.

Third change: Probably the biggest change, and the most questionable: spellcasters no longer rely directly on experience for promotions. Instead they can also consume souls (slaves), and each empowerment grants +10% strength (maximum 5 or 10) and allows the selection of 1 free promotion. Selecting a promotion consumes 1 stack of empowerment. The idea here being that D'tesh spellcasters rely on souls to manipulate magic rather than learning by experience. Because they no longer gain experience at all, the upgrade path would either allow Channelling 2 and 3 at 5 and 10 empowerments, or (if possible) upgrade to a new unit after learning a minimum number of unique spellspheres.

Net effect: you need slaves to power your war machine, which will drastically reduce the number of slaves you have available to create new cities, but the Soul Forge (and possibly the Tower) will still allow the D'tesh an unlimited spread once they get advanced enough. Spellcasters upgrading only after learning unique spellspheres will also encourage a little more diversity with mana nodes.

I leave it to you to decide whether any of this is unnecessary with the incoming balance changes or too complex to implement.
 
Second change: To help offset the above, the Soul Forge allows the production of Vessels of D'tesh. These vessels differ from the current settler unit - they basically act as a batch of slaves. They can either be consumed by fort commanders, granting 5 empowerments outright, or use the Shatter Vessel ability to split into 5 (or perhaps 4?) slaves. Tower of Necromancy might also allow for production of Vessels.
i dislike the idea of having a civ rely so heavily on a wonder that is not only available to everybody but also which can become unavailable to you so easily.

problem about the first suggestions is that it needs you to plan ahead for many, many rounds. guess the AI will have even more 'fun' with that than it already has the way it is, im not an expert on this, but i guess it.

for the third suggestion i like the idea, but with the new system coming i doubt valk will realize it.
 
You are right that the AI would have an extreme difficulty adapting to such a unique system, something I did not really consider. I also mistakenly thought the Soul Forge came at Necromancy (which the D'tesh already rush), and I suppose Malevolent Designs is a significant detour in their teching... but then they don't need to tech for much outside the arcane line anyway, and having it deep in the techs means they can't rely on it being available in the early game. A pretty fair trade off. Whether the yield changes puts them behind on teching such that they'll be routinely beaten to Malevolent Designs will need gameplay testing, but they could still have the Tower which no AI (and few players) ever work toward.
 
youre right that they surely are among the civs who usually get there faster, still its the idea that the wonder is so much more special for them that i dislike.
in this case i would prefer a new national wonder doing the same you suggested.
 
I'm not sure about this idea. To be quite honest I think that human players would just have one super city pumping out whatever they needed(just stick it on the coast and burn some kelp), and the AI would be worse with the legion than they already are. The basic net effect is that it would take me slightly longer to roll over everyone when playing as D'tesh. I'd wager that a lot of players essentially go the super city route to begin with. When I really feel like I need a new city I'd just take the best one from my next door neighbor, raze the rest and divide the slaves between the super city, the new soon to be super city, and my army.

I like the way D'tesh units currently gain exp. I don't think it needs to change.

Also, and I may be wrong about this, but I thought Valk said early that the over powered civs(D'tesh, Illians, I can't remember who else) were pretty much at the intended power level and the weaker civs were going to be buffed.
 
Also, and I may be wrong about this, but I thought Valk said early that the over powered civs(D'tesh, Illians, I can't remember who else) were pretty much at the intended power level and the weaker civs were going to be buffed.

I think that the intention is to make all the civs powerful, but quite frankly, the races you've mentioned border on broken. They can power through the tech tree with little effort on the player's part and significantly shorten the length of the game, something that probably isn't intended given the recent effort being put in to stalling growth. Now that rife is stable enough to last til the later turns a longer game now isn't a problem.
 
First change would be to eliminate the Vessel of D'tesh as a settler unit, and block their ability to build settlers. In order to create new cities, they need to consume one of their upgraded special forts - either a Greater mausoleum, or the regular Mausoleum for balance if the greater is too long an investment. In addition to this, Fort Commanders must be empowered by slaves before they can 'suffuse' the mausoleum into a city. Each empowerment grants 1 death strength to the fort commander, a stacking promotion, and at 10 empowerments allows the Suffuse Mausoleum ability, upgrading the fort to city (which still starts at size 1). The number of slaves is up for balance, but I based the 10 on the amount of slaves I usually get when razing an enemy empire with slavery.

I like this and hope it's possible. With Commander fort-spam being fixed (hopefully) what I envision is a stack of unfortunate slaves, driven by Watchers, building their own tomb (ie: fort) and being sacrificed to populate it. Very flavorful and tweaks D'Teshi in the right sort of ways -- getting a settler for every razed city seemed like a pretty trivial way to get around the city cap.
 
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