Lair spawn rate question.

[Hanny]

10 being the highest, now can it be increased?, say to any number or is it capped at 10.

What i noticed is that the number of spawns appears to be linked to the number of barb units in play, ie lots of lairs, and even more barbs than you would believe, results in fewer spawns per turn than you would expect, because of the total number of barbs is linked to tiles unowned etc and you end up with unrealized spawn capacity being represented.

So what does that mean?, well if you have a few lairs and ahigh spawn, they will push them out turn by turn, or if you flood the map with lairs, its pot luck which will spawn, which is when i noticed whats occuring.

secoddly, and of course linked to that, is the barb/animal per unowned tile ratio numbers, can they be increased beyond those of Diety to put more in game and so free up unused capacity of lairs.

 

[Hanny]

Ok found out over the weekend, the best answer is to have an options menu to multiple these things.

 

[Kael]

There is an option to disable lairs, are you saying you would like an option to increase the chance of spawns? (spawn rate is determiend by the handicap, so the higher the difficulty the more frequent the spawns will be).

 

[Hanny]

There is an option to disable lairs, are you saying you would like an option to increase the chance of spawns? (spawn rate is determiend by the handicap, so the higher the difficulty the more frequent the spawns will be).

Spawn rate tops out at 10 in the difficulty level, but what i noticed on my custom map (most of ME is barb to start with lairs creating orcs not skleleton)with tons of lairs and barbs is that the total number of barbs in play prevents the actual number of spawns from occuring that you would expect from the lair spawn number. Lots of barbs in play with lots of lairs, equalls replacement of lost barbs at a random lair in the worst case, now this is the extreme end of things to be sure, and most wont even be aware of it in the vast majoirity of games, but big maps and or games that use lots of barbs will see it.

Bottom line, yes make lair spawn rate appear as a option, rather than ramp it up on the difficulty level, (ie keep all spawns the same in the difficulty level)that way you can trigger, multiple units per turn to simulate barb invasion, to trickle barbs every few turns etc, so this removes barbs from the difficulty level progresion and makes it completly seperate feature.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

What I wish is that some lairs (especially those alone on islands without containing many barbarian units and nothing else) would eventually turn into barbarian cities.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

I saw rather few spawns in the recent FfH GotM 2, despite the fact that there was not raging barbs, it was monarch difficulty, and there were 3 lairs protected by immobile str 7 units.

 

[Hanny]

There is an option to disable lairs, are you saying you would like an option to increase the chance of spawns? (spawn rate is determiend by the handicap, so the higher the difficulty the more frequent the spawns will be).

If you want to keep the lairs tied to the difficulty level, it seems to me that the number of lairs produced for the map is the better method, rather than increasing the rate of what comes out of them. Partculry as the Ai gets better at removing them.

What I wish is that some lairs (especially those alone on islands without containing many barbarian units and nothing else) would eventually turn into barbarian cities.

I think the mechanism to do that already exists.

 

[Vulcans]

If you want to keep the lairs tied to the difficulty level, it seems to me that the number of lairs produced for the map is the better method, rather than increasing the rate of what comes out of them. Partculry as the Ai gets better at removing them.



I think the mechanism to do that already exists.

or increase both, more barbs means more xp, and so better early warmongering, and a easier game.

 

[Hanny]

I saw rather few spawns in the recent FfH GotM 2, despite the fact that there was not raging barbs, it was monarch difficulty, and there were 3 lairs protected by immobile str 7 units.

Had not looked at GOTM before so did so before answering.

While its imposible to be sure, im fairly certain you were seeing the other end of the spectrum, ie mid to late game with little or no unowned tiles in play resulting in no more barbs from lairs, regardless of spawn rate through difficulty level. (as oposed to early game lots of barbs from lairs and unowned tiles)

Which in part, is why i would prefer to see the spawn rate, and range of spawned units taken out and placed in the option menu.

or increase both, more barbs means more xp, and so better early warmongering, and a easier game.

Well try a rageing barbs custom game on a huge fantasy map, with 1 player and 10 AI players, the barb rush is pretty stiff, the AI have a hard time handeling it and most will go under. (because of the sheer number of unowened tiles produces barbs a plenty) So even vanila FfH with lots of barbs is not easy per se.

Then, imagine if you will Angmar, which is allied permanent with the barbs, and has 20 or so lairs in its domain pushing out barbs that, with Angmars forces, provide a very stiff challenge for the North kingdom. Then consider the Goblin King has even more than Angmar and so on, on a map nearly thrice the huge with most of it land.

My point is that more combat does not always equate to an easier game, meerly a differnt game depending on the circumstances. For instance sans a hero, to combat the uber enemy units, 9 value Nazgul, (let alone one thats been around for while and aquired its own bonuses because its a hero and immortal itself) a 3 value unit warrior needs to have racked up some hefty combat bonuses or its a no contest.