Malakim desert spreading: contradiction with lore?

R

Rainbowsand

Warlord
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
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Malakim are stated as goodly nation, second in overall goodness only to Elohim. Yet their dominion is spreading a desert, which by my knowledge can be accomplished with either giant moisture absorbing terraformation facilities or by extensive drain of lifeforce from the environment, daemonic/necromagic feat (see one of the Conan cycle novels, something about the forgotten city). First is obviously not the case and second is as much obviously not goodly. Perhaps i am missing yet another method? Highly interested to read how they actually do it.
 
It's just an attempt to make the Malakim more flavourful by strongly connecting them to their flavourful terrain.
 
This isn't Conan, this is an entirely different mythology. The Malakim can spread desert because that is the terrain they they are built around. Prior to this patch, such terraforming was done via the Sun mana(one of the mana types they start with) first school spell, but now its an automatic process. The sun just shines brighter over Malakim lands.
 
I still see his point though. Spreading deserts in effect kills vegetation and life.
It's kind of contradicting for such a noble and goodly civ.

It's equivalent with the Illians turning land into infertile snow.
 
It's just a gameplay mechanic. Flavorwise they just live in desert, not convert anything to desert. I'd prefer if they would by just put into desert by mapscripts and have some bonuses so they don't want to convert desert to plains at first opportunity. Grasslands should be superior to deserts (but not to flood plains) even for Malakim, but should also be a little better for Malakim than for other civs :)
 
actually deserts dont kill all vegetation and life. theres plenty of different lifeforms in any desert on the world (and im sure even more fantasy animals will habitate malakim deserts ;) ) - so one could say they just change it...
i wouldnt go so far calling lifeforms in deserts less wort than those of more grassy areas.

but to stick with the previous posters: does it really matter? its game mechanic, basta. :D
 
It may matter. I've never thought about it until one of MP games where I was illians and another guy was Malakim. Late in the game we were the only superpowers, and the world was half-ice, half-desert...

Where are the grasslands with happy bunnies? Where are the forests with funny birds? Just a cold snow and a scorching desert. Two hells. I think Malakim are evil :).
 
It's true the desert spreading mechanic doesn't fit at all with the lore, and overall doesn't make sense.

However, it is a really fun game mechanic. Fun>lore, no ?
 
If the grassland and bunny loving groups cannot stop the advance of ice and desert, then they don't love it enough.
 
There is life in desert, and change the nature is not destroy it. The changement is very slow, so the life can adapt itself to the new conditions. The desert here is the land of the sun, the light.
 
Except the change to hell isn't slow. When hell spreads, it converts the terrain instantly or in no more than 2 or 3 turns. The malakim turning lands to desert takes somewhere around 50 turns.
 
Where are the grasslands with happy bunnies?
Click to expand...

The second image here are Desert Hares that were once in the Dune mod:

attachment.php
 
Well, deserts are infertile lands : density of lifeforms is much lower than in grasslands, so, even if life can somewhat adapt to deserts it's a very limited adaptation.

All in all, the deeper you get in a desert, the less you'll find lifeforms. There are very good illustrations of this in the dune mod.

So, I have some questions:

Does Lugus like to burn everything under his rays ?

Do the Malakim people like to live on a diet of scorpions ?

But I insist to say the game mechanic is fun.
 
Most obvious solutions are:
- to somehow uplink the Malakim with mapscript which shall find (if none, create) a UGE desert and place em right there (though any sane player shall still run from there before settling:))
- to make em EVIL
- to forget about it and live unthinking further

Never had used scorch to desert even while Malakim on something other than the riversides. Deserts are evil. Oh, and add sandstorms!
 
- to somehow uplink the Malakim with mapscript which shall find (if none, create) a UGE desert and place em right there (though any sane player shall still run from there before settling)
Click to expand...
Most flavour scripts already do it. And any sane player will run IN there, because the desert is Malakim's power and commerce.

You obviously didn't play multiplayer games against Malakim under Empyrean.

They cast blinding light and your stacks sit there in the desert with -25% strength on defense so champions eat paladins for breakfast.
Also if you're not raiders then your advancement is really slow while Malakim units jump on you and hide in cities. I know what I tell, one game (in VANILLA, in Orbis Malakim are much stronger in deserts) I've lost 10 champions trying to attack a single city because their mobility didn't work and they were on desert tiles (-25% defense).
 
Are those hares available anywhere?
Click to expand...

They are no longer in Dune installer, but I was able to dig them up for my own FfH-Modding purposes, here they are in the attachment. I made then a Malakim-only resource.

(Which arises the question: does spreading cute slightly cangaroo-like rabbits compensate for spreading desert)?
 

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