[This game is finished. Some people still want to play around with AI's but Everyone left has agreed that the game has wrapped up]
Having been shuffled off from the mortal plane of round 27 I will be taking up the burden of running round 28. The age will be MA because I just played EA. Mods and Map are up for grabs and I haven't played enough with thrones to get a feel for it. Make suggestions if you have any preferences. I am looking for an 8 player game so keep that in mind. Also as far as maps go I will not accept any of the fully connected hex maps like what round 27 is using.
Settings:
Game name: Bay12GamesRound428 (http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=Bay12GamesRound428)
Map: Ragnarok Comes (http://www.moddb.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions/addons/ragnarok-comes-15328-horizontal-wraparound)
Mods: Worthy Heroes 5.9 (http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/index.php?showtopic=3237&st=0)
Era: MA
Disciples: No
Time allowance: 48 to start
Special site frequency: Default
Random event frequency: Common
Story events: Off
Score graphs: Off
Hall of Fame: 15
Artifact forging limit : Limited
Thrones: 'Standard' (8/4/2)
Renaming: Allowed
Research: Normal
Players:
Akhier Dragonheart - Marignon
ThtblovesDF - Oceania
AlStar - T'ien Ch'i
Hatman - C'tis
Il Palazzo - Bander Log
Jilladilla - Agartha
Marmaduke - Arcoscephale
etgfrog - Ulm
E. Albright - Ermor
Dom3:
1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=44348.msg849721#msg849721), 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=46012.msg908706#msg908706), 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=60235.msg1357467#msg1357467), 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=63361.0), 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=65222.0), 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=72919.msg1797235#msg1797235), 7&7.5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=103575.0), 8 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=112126.0), 9 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=115427.0), 10 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=118516.0), 11 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=120941.0), 12 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=124958.0), 13 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=125655.0), 14 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=125670.0), 15 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=128797.0)
Dom4:
4.01 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133320.msg4768287), 4.02 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=134792.0), 4.03 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=137585.0), 4.04 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=137631.0), 4.05 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=138108.0), 4.06 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=138950.0), 4.07 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=139129.0), 4.08 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=141429.0), 4.09 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=141858.0), 4.10 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=144007.msg5680284#msg5680284), 4.11B (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=144635.msg5723281#msg5723281), 4.12 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=145874.msg5822835#msg5822835), 4.13 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=146830.0), 4.14 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=147069.0), 4.15 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=150972.0), 4.16 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=151174.0), 4.15 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=150972.0), 4.17 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=153013.0), 4.18 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=153926.0), 4.19 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=154789.0), 4.20 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=156668.0), 4.21 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158361.0), 4.22 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=159272.0), 4.23 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=160418.0), 4.24 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=161107.0), 4.25 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=161886.0), 4.26 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=162258.0), 4.27 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=164252.0)
Dominions 4 is an indy turn-based fantasy war game of epic proportions. Dominions: Priests, Prophets and Pretenders was released in 2002, followed by Dominions II: The Ascension Wars, and Dominions 3: The Awakening in 2006. Gameplay has not fundamentally changed since the first entry, but each new version has noticeably refined the GUI, added greater depth and complexity, markedly improved the game's modability, and generally made the gaming experience significantly better.
The player assumes the role of a pretender god, rising from slumber to take up the recently vacated throne of the Pantokrator (or All-Ruler). This invariably involves climbing there over the dead bodies of other wannabe gods and their countless followers.
The nations of the world each support one of the pretenders as their One and True God that shall no doubt lead them to glory everlasting. They are highly varied and defy the typical fantasy cliches. Instead they had been designed after some of the many myths and fables from the history of mankind. Shambling Atlanteans, undead legions of Ermor, frozen giants of Niefelheim, bloodthirsty demons of Lanka, steelclad armies of Ulm, Sauromatian amazons and their hydras, flying hosts of Caelum - over 60 nations to choose from.
The beings claiming the godly mantle are diverse themselves. Crooked crones and divine giants, sages and mages, liches and vampires, dragons and krakens. Apart from the physical form, the players can design their gods' magical powers, the blessings that they can bestow upon the chosen few, and the qualities that believing in them inspires in the common folk. Would you have your god bring good fortune and bountiful crops to the faithful, but be magically weak? Or would you rather make your god into a killing machine able to take on armies, but inspiring little awe? The pretender design system is excellent, and together with the multitude of nation choices is able to accommodate a wide range of strategies.
The game sports a very robust magic system, with literally hundreds of spells, ranging from in-battle lightning bolts to world altering doom bringers. Only in Dominions can you flaunt your divine destiny by hanging a second sun in the sky, draping the world in perpetual storms, or sending devils to incite enemy soldiers against their commanders.
Every unit in the sometimes hundreds-strong armies has got individual, and evolving stats, including age, battle wounds and experience. They can starve and fall victim to disease. They can be cursed and hunted by trans-dimensional horrors. Lots of things can happen to each individual unit, most of them unpleasant.
From the strategic map, commanders, mages, heroes, priests, magical beasts and pretender gods can be equipped with magical items and sent to do battle in person, assassinate or seduce enemy commanders, spy and instigate unrest, enchant armies in battle or wreak havoc among enemy ranks. Or, they can be kept at home and work on improving magical knowledge, build fortifications, summon magic beings, raise undead, forge items imbued with arcane forces, scour provinces in the search of blood slaves, preach god's glory, patrol provinces for troublemakers, search for magic sites hidden in the wild, and more.
The turns happen simultaneously, so the battles are resolved automatically, according to the preselected orders for troop formations and commanders. Here's a youtube video of a large-ish battle to pique your interest. Courtesy of Lorak.
Should you desire to know more about the game, go and visit the website (http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/index.html) (or go to the publisher's page here (http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions)). You'll notice that the price tag is not pintsized (though it's much lower than Dominions 3 was), but as many of us can attest, the game is well worth it.
- First of all, you need to download any non-standard map and mod we're using (links will be provided if we decide to use one), and put the files into the map and mod folders of your dom4 installation respectively.
- Then go to the options menu and enable the mod.
- Next use the pretender creation tool in the game tools menu to create a pretender and send the file(to be found in your /dominions4/savedgames/newlords; named <your_nation_era_number.2h>, where number is most likely "0" if it's the only pretender you've created so far for this nation.) to "pretenders [at ] llamaserver [dot ] net" with the game name as the subject.
Game name will most likely be "Bay12GamesRound428".
You'll be receiving .trn files from llama server, which you should put into a {dom4dir}/savedgames/{whatevernameyouwant}/
After finishing your moves, a new .2h file will appear in that folder, which you should send to the same address from which you've received your .trn file.
Regarding the rules of conduct:
- No exploits please. Examples of exploits are siegeing a fort infinitely with a string of scouts; sending other players crap items to fill their magic item pool and make them waste gems; anything else you can think of that doesn't feel like it was meant to be a feature. If not sure, ask.
- Trade agreements are sacred. Once you decided to exchange some gems/items/gold, you MUST fulfill your side of the agreement.
- No constrains on diplomacy. You can attack anyone you want, with or without warning. It would be, however, in good taste not to rush another player at the very begining of the game. We're all trying to have a good time playing this.
- Use forum PMs for diplomacy. The in-game messaging system is seriously flawed(unacceptably slow, and parts of messages tend to dissapear)
- If you want to boast/moan about your progress(or lack thereof) in game, feel free to use this thread to post your screenshots, stories and whatnot.
- It's bad etiquette to repeatedly stale/go AI without consulting other players. If you lose interest or ability to play, do try to get in touch with us. Usually a sub can be arranged and it's better than AI/inattentive player.
Useful links:
Dom4Mods (http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/index.php)
Dom4 forums on Steam (http://steamcommunity.com/app/259060/discussions/)
An archived snapshot of the Dom3 wiki (http://web.archive.org/web/20130118162532/http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Main_Page): Yes, it's still relevant, and it hasn't been replaced yet, so... It has loads of useful information, including strategy guides. Keep in mind that while a lot of this information is still very useful and valid, a lot of it is entirely out-of-date.
Llama Server (http://llamaserver.net/): the automatic hosting server for our game.
Llama Server's map and mod browser (http://www.llamaserver.net/createDom4Game.cgi) (Yes, it's not really a browser, but you can browse the maps and mods here)
Dom4 Mod Inspector (http://larzm42.github.io/dom4inspector/) Very useful. You can browse all the nations, items, spells and sites in the game with it. You can also browse custom mod nations, though it doesn't really support nations using negative montag firstshapes for random recruitment (e.g., NationGen Foulspawn).
Thats fine.
Also for everyone in general. I have looked at a number of maps and a couple stick out for me when it comes to 8 players with one being water.
Peliwyr (http://www.moddb.com/mods/project-omniomicon/addons/peliwyr-v20)(129 land + 17 sea) looks amazing and seems like a good map
(http://media.moddb.com/images/downloads/1/123/122534/Peliwyr_dom4_v2_preview.jpg)
(http://media.moddb.com/images/downloads/1/97/96468/Peninsula_of_the_Hidden_Power5.png)
Any other suggestions are welcome though as I noted in the first post I don't want any of the hex maps.
Hey, I've found this very pretty map here:
http://www.moddb.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions/addons/ragnarok-comes-15328-horizontal-wraparound
(http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/downloads/1/106/105411/thumb_620x2000/RagnarokComesArtwokrNoBorders.jpg)
On duty noob here: what is so terrible about the titles? Are you talking about the Ermor bless?
The titles shows a strong guess as to what pretender has.
Arcoscephale: the Most High: Dominion >= 6, Patron of Gamblers: Luck >= 1 and Total Scales Change >= 11, Master of Wealth and Power: Order >= 2
Ermor: Friendship, Goddess of the Forest that Thirsts: Nature >= 4 and Blood >= 4, August Princess: Dominion >= 8, Queen of Untimely Death: Death >= 4, the Lady at the Crossroads: Death >= 4 and Female, Lady of Many Names: Dominion >= 8
Ulm: Etgfrog, the Vessel of Might: Dominion >= 6 and Total Scales Change >= 10, the Mighty One of Words of Power: All paths >= 1 and Male, the Stealer of Corpses: Death >= 1, the Armorer: Earth >= 4
Marignon: Alnis, God of the Forges: Fire >= 4, Earth >= 4 and Productivity >= 2, King of Order: Dominion >= 5 and Order >= 3, the Divine Architect: Earth >= 4, Order >= 2 and Productivity >= 2, Enemy of Darkness = Fire >= 4
T'ien Ch'i: Zot Peshku, the Afterthought: Astral >= 4, the Undeceivable God: Astra >= 4 and Male
Argartha: Asakillam, Lord of the Eternal Forest: Nature >= 9 and Growth >= 0, the Essence of Fertility: Nature >= 9 and Growth >= 3, Master of all Young and Growing Things: Growth >= 3 and Nature >= 4, Prince of the Hunt: Nature >= 4
C'tis: Monitor, Lord of Disease: Death >= 4, the Watcher of the Gallows: Death >= 4, the King at the Crossroads: Death >= 4 and Male
Bandar Log: Aunt Irma, King of Suffering: Blood >= 4, Master of the Healing Arts: Nature >= 4, King of Beggars: Turmoil >= 3 and Sloth <= -1(Order <= 1), the Howler: Nature >= 4 and Turmoil >= 2
Oceania: Sea Doggo, King of Kings: Dominion >= 5 and Male, God of Fishermen: Water >= 2, Opener of the Ways: Astral >= 5, Master of Chaos: Turmoil >= 3
Also rip militia, you killed at least 3 barbarians before the nope.
I keep forgetting that ulm...is ulm.
(https://i.imgur.com/uvs7WGF.png)
Example: The game calls for a DRN. Two dice are rolled and they come up 2,6. Because one of the
dice was a “6,” one is subtracted from the total (making 7), and the die is rolled again. But this die is
also a 6. So one is subtracted from the total (now up to 12) and a die is rolled again. It is a 4. The final
result for this DRN is 16.
The knight was dead the instant swarm was cast, many of the bugs has poison or armor negating attacks.
(https://i.imgur.com/FGPnqi6.png)
It smells and is full of lies
Its a shity map, but it might be close to accurate in some areas.
(https://i.imgur.com/6o91BXB.jpg)
####
In unreleated news, raise your hand if you have stacks of 900+ moving around or a functional double bless. If you didn't raise your hands, join the good cause and help to force emror into spreading its troops out.
Next turn is going to be the battle I was waiting for. 1200 undead vs 300 ulm troops. Ermor already sent a sacrificial commander to view what my spell scripting was.
(https://i.imgur.com/DWJ6hyR.png)
I suppose ermor could choose not to bring out all the ghouls and it would be sigificantly less troops. Regardless, this will be a fight to watch and I'm honestly excited about it. :D
etgfrog, I'd say Ermor has the scariest midgame, not lategame. Lategame, there are ways to deal with their unholy masses and everyone has their own obscenities in play.Midgame, some do and some don't.
Thbt, Agartha has a better gem to summon ratio than Ermor. Ermor's is middle-of-the-road when you consider how many gems it takes to set up the above-average ratio it superficially enjoys, and pound-for-pound, Agartha's summons are better than Ermor's (and spread across four gem types instead of death all day, every day).
Tartarians are the best punch for gem ratio out of any summon in the game. Frequently its been stated that casting well of misery is declaring war on the world because its conj 8 and usually is the setup to start getting a ton of tatarians. While insanity might be hard to deal with, having to deal with them as an enemy is even worse, because each are essentially a sc and with the bless your carrying around, it is terrifying at the thought of you putting a shoud of the battle saint on each one.
(https://i.imgur.com/gctJDZx.png)
Tatarians r bad. I am bad at Dominions.
(https://i.imgur.com/Mv01izB.jpg)
That Bless sure is something...
Maggots
Combat
N1
spell id: 665
range: 20
area of effect: One person
number of effects: 1
precision: 100
fatigue cost: 100-
gems required: 1N
Poison (Mortal): 50
(Armor Negating, Ignores Shields, Hard to Hit Ethereal, May Use Underwater, Affects Undead Only)
The mage conjures thousands of maggots, which will start to feed upon an undead being. The maggots will slowly but surely consume the undead. Large undead can survive the maggots by removing them after they have become satiated. Ethereal undead are rarely affected by the spell.
The Ravenous Swarm
Combat
N3
spell id: 916
number of effects: 1
fatigue cost: 100-
gems required: 1N
Enchant Battlefield | Enchant World: Ravenous Swarm
This spell is sometimes used by nature mages to combat the undead. It is part of the natural order that the living finds sustenance from the dead, and with this spell the nature mage utilizes that and imbues a swarm of bugs with frenzied power and appetite to devour the walking dead. The swarm will consume the undead one after each other until the battle ends. Should the swarm fail to locate the dead it will start to eat the living instead.
Maggots only kill one and Ravenous Swarm should never be cast more then once / battle, since it doesn't stack.
I shouldn't have looked at the forums before viewing the turn. I got spoiled knowing how it went. I'm guessing the 10 just man crossbows was overkill doing 45 armor piercing damage each.
(https://i.imgur.com/qK9iEkI.png)
I decided to start off with all my priest smiths casting iron blizzard to try to take out a good chunk of the lictors before they got blessed, which worked.
It was about turn 12 when the mummy got hit with 4 bolts from the crossbows.
Ermor has 10 knights and 31 lictors left after the battle.
...in that province. You of all nations are well-situated to know I have more in my eastern bolthole than just what I committed to that battle, though I suppose getting others to rush in and do the grim work of killing them so you can scoop up essentially-free spoils has been more-or-less your MO this whole game. Although who knows, maybe you buy your propaganda and are going to invade a month ahead of schedule, before your Golem arrives to lead the charge. Or did you think I'd miss something that big lumbering through your sprawling western holdings towards me?
Incidentally, it seems like our MP neophyte in Ulm finally figured out that Dom4 is about mage blobs and not SCs or sacreds. As a public service, I killed off a pretty big one, but they'll be able to completely replace it in 5-6 turns. If you were hoping to avoid getting hit with the joy we all know and loathe from that quarter (e.g., 675 iron darts per turn like I had the pleasure of weathering for the first 3 turns of that battle before it subsided to a more modest 600 through the end of scripting), this might be your best chance any time soon to stab Ulm in the heavily-plated and only-increasingly-well-protected back. Let's not forget who here is the aggressive neighbor trying to play up how weak they are while trying to march in and cap a minimum of 15d/turn so they can set up the Tartarian factory they're so obsessed with. Not the the Terror From the Deep is going to let anyone else get the Gift of Health that actually requires, ofc.
Anyway, here's the numbers etgfrog apparently didn't want non-direct spectators to see. All those listed are dead, as they were apparently so confident of victory that they didn't bother to secure an avenue of retreat despite how helpful one was the last time they tried to take High Peaks. Additionally, 320 gems (by normal nation measures, not Ulmish "I have ubiquitous hammers and forge bonuses" manufacturing rates) died with them. Well, obviously some of that was captured (70, in the interest of slightly-fuller disclosure), but since the majority of their commanders died off-screen after retreating, most of them are properly dead.
(https://img42.com/7wWxy+)
(https://img42.com/d7Bvs+)
(For Reference)
(https://i.imgur.com/Mv01izB.jpg)
How does retreat work anyway? Say I cast Creeping Doom for a bunch of 50 moral things, then retreat my caster, will the 50-moral-things keep fighting with 0 commanders on the field?
Whatever makes everyone the most comfortable, its just a game and all that...
That said, does anyone not have fucking nature + blood buffs, jesus christ man. All these sacreds that laugh at normal armys...
Getting Maverni flashbacks here:
(https://i.imgur.com/dIBgKRQ.jpg)
Also: What I have to deal with and why we should keep fighting against emror:
(https://i.imgur.com/RH8wX0w.jpg)
Also Bandar Log:
(https://i.imgur.com/9M51N0Q.jpg)
How Many Times Do We Have To Teach You This Lesson, Old Man?
You don't see me raiding your inland with stealthy pans or something, its just impoilte as heck.
This round was just a pure goldmine - Aquatic only animals on the battlefield on the ground, with no breath items, that silly fight... can't even be mad about the loses.
Also: What I have to deal with and why we should keep fighting against emror:
What you chose to deal with, you poor sainted mustelid martyr.
(https://i.imgur.com/C9rmRWY.png)
1) While I appreciate the thought and the general weaseliness, there are more effective ways to deliver items than "sac a scout and hope it gets scavenged".
2) An EXbow or the like is certainly not necessary yet not necessarily sufficient to whack Arco's dear Slokad.
And you know what's impolite? Invading somebody in a half-arsed fashion.
It's harder to simultaneously re-appropriate the hard-earned spoils of your "allies" if you go whole-arsed, though. Plus, you might get blood on your hooves.
I for one was working on some research (as evident by the global that went up this round), but I fully understand that being emror right now, is the worst nation to be fun wise.
The Situation, imo:
(https://i.imgur.com/kgN5LHP.jpg)
Sidenote: BandarLogs sacred blob has a silly amount of wounds on it, like none of them even have arms or anything anymore.
I really am trying my best here, it'd be more easy if you stop killing my [everything] with fucking mindrays.
(https://i.imgur.com/CkmvRq8.jpg)
(https://i.imgflip.com/1fxs9c.jpg)
Holy shit that was ugly. Maybe I shouldn't make my own casters berserk?
Also you stole my Arena Champion (with 1 million items) with a enslave mind that thats fair, since he only had 16 mr.
But still, ouchy.
________
Overall, while I lost like 400 souls (do wolves have souls?) over a 32 income province, Arco and C'tis have expanded there holdings, marigon has far more then before, too.
________
PS: Its nearly like a map where everyone can reach everyone does not play towards mindless aggression? Your back is never secure...
In the alternative timeline where my battle review came from, I did.
Review showed total slaughter of the enemy, map shows I lost somehow. Sigh...
Battle replay or summary? I've only seen the summary, and it's a win with light losses.
It's be the first time I know of when the summary bugged out.
Bandar Log got defeated handly and retreated off the battlefield, in the replay. In the recap, I lost extremly hard. Like I get if something happens in one and not in the other, but on two different extremes? Sigh... limits the ability to learn from the defeats I collect tbh.
(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/925919114931774836/DB1AB6D33032C8834399E882C6CC94836A85F99E/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside%7C2048%3A1152&composite-to=*,*%7C2048%3A1152&background-color=black)
(https://i.imgur.com/bqTng2I.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/bfsZwnL.jpg)
Good Fight, feel free to retake your territory, C'tis is also attacking me now (well he has for a while), so go nuts.
I'm suprised how I got so far, seeing how I lost every single battle with more then 100 units in it.
Sorry about the attack(s?) Arco, I just yolo'd all my flying guys towards C'tis.
Also, ded as fuck.jpg:
(https://i.imgur.com/V2uQ1uW.jpg)