Dominions2 replacement sought

[Anaxagoras]

I have finally completely lost my taste for this game, so I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in taking over my nation in AnaxCradle. I'm in a fairly good position.... I own a decent chunk of the map, I've just won a war in which I killed Abysia, and my research is tooling along. I have multiple armies scattered throughout my realm, and my armies aren't depleted from the war I just fought vs. Abysia. (I don't understand how this happened, but my armies just sliced through his without taking any losses whatsoever.) The nation you'd be playing is Caelum, and the game is on turn 38. I'm not at war with any other nations, so the game is pretty much yours to do whatever you want.

If you're interested, please E-mail me at tyrosine21@attbi.com, and I'll fill you in on any details you might want to know. (Past diplomatic exchanges, strategies I've been using successfully in this game, etc.)

For the players that are currently involved in this game: I will continue to host it, just as I've continued to host the Europe game from which I was so rudely eliminated on turn 20. (Yes, I suck)

Oh... one other thing. In the Europe game, the C'tis player has resigned, so that nation will be controlled by the computer from now on. According to the resigning player, he is "uber-dead" anyways, so this change hopefully won't affect the game much.

[Jakub]

Not to derail the thread, but perhaps could you enlighten me as to why you're tired of the game? Too much of it too often?

[VegasRobb]

I have finally completely lost my taste for this game, so I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in taking over my nation in AnaxCradle. I'm in a fairly good position.... I own a decent chunk of the map, I've just won a war in which I killed Abysia, and my research is tooling along. I have multiple armies scattered throughout my realm, and my armies aren't depleted from the war I just fought vs. Abysia. (I don't understand how this happened, but my armies just sliced through his without taking any losses whatsoever.) The nation you'd be playing is Caelum, and the game is on turn 38. I'm not at war with any other nations, so the game is pretty much yours to do whatever you want.

If you're interested, please E-mail me at tyrosine21@attbi.com, and I'll fill you in on any details you might want to know. (Past diplomatic exchanges, strategies I've been using successfully in this game, etc.)

For the players that are currently involved in this game: I will continue to host it, just as I've continued to host the Europe game from which I was so rudely eliminated on turn 20. (Yes, I suck)

Oh... one other thing. In the Europe game, the C'tis player has resigned, so that nation will be controlled by the computer from now on. According to the resigning player, he is "uber-dead" anyways, so this change hopefully won't affect the game much.

Sorry to hear about you getting eliminated in one game and losing the fire for the other game.

[Anaxagoras]

I'm not sure, actually. It is a solid game.... there's quite a bit of strategic depth to it, the various factions play very differently yet seem well balanced, the players that I've met with (from this board) are a lot of fun to play with.

I guess the problem is that after all this time, I still don't really understand what's going on... for some reason, I just can't make sense of this game. Oh, I understand the units, and the income system, etc etc. I'm quite good at building an empire, doing diplomacy, and all that. But when it comes to actual battles, they're somewhat of a crap shoot. In other words, even if you told me exactly what the other guy has, I still couldn't create a tailor made force to beat him. I might luck out and happen to have an awesome force that would kill him (which is exactly what happened in my war vs. Abysia) but even then, I didn't really understand why he lost so badly.

Anyways, I've already resigned from my other games which I was losing badly, but I found that even in AnaxCradle, where I'm doing very well, I just don't care anymore.

My position in this game should be very interesting to a player still interested in this game... I'm pretty strong, and it could give someone a chance to try out Caelum. Unfortunately, that "interested player" just isn't me anymore. If no one takes me up on this offer, I'll go ahead and continue playing Caelum on Wednesday: I really, really don't want to ruin this for the other players. Turning my nation over to the AI would royally suck: right now I'm one of the major contenders in the game, and turning such a player over to the AI really screws with the game balance.

[Enidigm]

I guess the problem is that after all this time, I still don't really understand what's going on... for some reason, I just can't make sense of this game. Oh, I understand the units, and the income system, etc etc. I'm quite good at building an empire, doing diplomacy, and all that. But when it comes to actual battles, they're somewhat of a crap shoot. In other words, even if you told me exactly what the other guy has, I still couldn't create a tailor made force to beat him. I might luck out and happen to have an awesome force that would kill him (which is exactly what happened in my war vs. Abysia) but even then, I didn't really understand why he lost so badly..

Sorry your leaving, but i hear you. I've been playing since.. January?... and i still really have no idea what i'm doing. I don't think there is a game in my long history of gaming that is as hard to learn - but i suppose its how one goes about learning that is the problem. I tend to learn games through experience, and then later "temper" that with empirical analysis and number crunching; but in Dominions 2 its virtually impossible to experience the majority of gameplay, and even then only in single player. I still haven't seen 2/3 of the high level spells, and maybe finished, um, two or three games in single player? and one in pbem.

The only way to get good at Dominions 2 is to sit down at min/max with the data gathered by the hardcore players over at the Shrapnel forums. And even then its something of a crapshoot as to whether the high level strategy you picked is as viable or as strong as you thought.

I enjoy trying different strats out, but in Dom2 im pretty low on the totem pole, and though i tend to play the black sheep side regardless of whichever game i'm in, its still pretty harsh losing terribly after 3 months of work even if i chose a faction/strat knowing it was more difficult to play.

I think its the length of Dom2 games in email that grinds the fun out of the game. Losses seem so much larger if they take 4-5 months to complete, even if you've only spent 10 hours total on the game itself. Probably why there is so much tension and emotion in the post-game threads.

I'm sorry you've lost your enthusiasm for the game, but thanks for continuing to host the games you have.

[VegasRobb]

I guess the problem is that after all this time, I still don't really understand what's going on... for some reason, I just can't make sense of this game. Oh, I understand the units, and the income system, etc etc. I'm quite good at building an empire, doing diplomacy, and all that. But when it comes to actual battles, they're somewhat of a crap shoot. In other words, even if you told me exactly what the other guy has, I still couldn't create a tailor made force to beat him. I might luck out and happen to have an awesome force that would kill him (which is exactly what happened in my war vs. Abysia) but even then, I didn't really understand why he lost so badly..

I'm sorry you've lost your enthusiasm for the game, but thanks for continuing to host the games you have.

Yeah thanks for that, Ana. It's appreciated here as well.

And that's an interesting comment about email vs network. The email games tend to take a bit longer so it's harder to stay as involved.

[Ch. Hasslbauer]

Your effort is really appreciated. You have to do a lot of work for nothing. I'm talking about Europe where I kicked you out when you were weakened by two lost battles against an independent lich. Awful luck on your side. I hope you know how much fun you give us by keeping hosting this. (Except for Loke, perhaps. Right now this game is more of a chore for him I presume.)

Sorry for you to have lost interest in the game. In my book it's a fantastic story telling experience. As for the battles, I don't think I have problems figuring out what's going on. For me the secret seems to be watching the battles like they were real, with no number crunching at all in the background. Large units don't rout so easy, Abysians have their heat bonus, cavalry clashes into infantry and has two attacks per turn,... It all just seems to fit. And I never read the tedious Shrapnel boards, except the bug thread where I go when I find something to report.

[snowcrash22]

Hey, sorry to see you go...but better to leave happy than bitter. And I hope you'll always look back fondly at the peaceful border Caelum and Pangaea have shared in Cradle.

If you wish, I am offering to continue email hosting either or both games, because it's the neighborly thing to do.

Thanks for the good times!

[Nick Walter]

I'm late to this thread, so things are probably taken care of by now, but if there any orphaned games at all I'll be happy to host them on my server.

[Jakub]

Is the AI very good, or very bad, since it screws game balance up badly?

[Nick Walter]

Is the AI very good, or very bad, since it screws game balance up badly?

Very bad and absurdly agressive. It lashes out at everyone, defends poorly, and does weird and ineffective things magically. All of which tends to throw off the balance of the game.

[VegasRobb]

Is the AI very good, or very bad, since it screws game balance up badly?

Very bad and absurdly agressive. It lashes out at everyone, defends poorly, and does weird and ineffective things magically. All of which tends to throw off the balance of the game.

Yeah the AI is insane, annoyingly insane.

[Ch. Hasslbauer]

Is the AI very good, or very bad, since it screws game balance up badly?
But the main reason that the AI screws up MP games is, you can't negotiate with it, it doesn't give a shit for who's the most powerful player, and there is no making an alliance with an AI.

[SlyFrog]

I guess the problem is that after all this time, I still don't really understand what's going on... for some reason, I just can't make sense of this game. Oh, I understand the units, and the income system, etc etc. I'm quite good at building an empire, doing diplomacy, and all that. But when it comes to actual battles, they're somewhat of a crap shoot. In other words, even if you told me exactly what the other guy has, I still couldn't create a tailor made force to beat him. I might luck out and happen to have an awesome force that would kill him (which is exactly what happened in my war vs. Abysia) but even then, I didn't really understand why he lost so badly.

You know, I understand what you are saying here. There's a good chunk of times in this game that I really have no idea why something happened. Probably my most recent case in point, that immediately made me think of what you said, is a battle against Man. His main strength was massed archers, who received wind guide and flaming arrows. I had a ton of giants (to be fair, he had a fair number of other troops himself, but they were set far back and not actually attacking me).

I cast Rain, which to my understanding was supposed to fairly badly fuck up arrows accuracy, and particularly flaming arrows. It didn't seem to do shit. I got absolutely pounded. Like 30 or 40 dead giants to 3 or 4 dead archers pounded. Once my giants got to his main line the turn or two before they routed, they proceeded to suck major ass and apparently not kill any of his normal troops. Once again, I understand the logic of "Man archers strong," but the same logic of "in melee, giants stronger than other things" did not seem to apply.

I'm going to keep going back to the drawing board, but it can be frustrating when the "counters" don't seem to counter. Part of the problem is that there is simply not enough detail as to "why" things are happening in the battle screen, and what is happening.

[Backov]

I saw that battle actually..

Rain doesn't screw up arrows, AFAIK.. It makes fire spells twice as fatiguing to cast, but that's it. It's storms that screw up arrows (and fliers).. As in the staff of storms and the occasional naturally occurring storm.

Flaming arrows is a pretty basic strategy though, forge up some Staff of Storms and give em to commanders and he's basically toast.

[SlyFrog]

I saw that battle actually..

Rain doesn't screw up arrows, AFAIK.. It makes fire spells twice as fatiguing to cast, but that's it. It's storms that screw up arrows (and fliers).. As in the staff of storms and the occasional naturally occurring storm.

Flaming arrows is a pretty basic strategy though, forge up some Staff of Storms and give em to commanders and he's basically toast.

Fuck me then, that explains it. I knew about the staff of storms thing, and thought that rain had the same effect.

Would have been bright of me to learn that before I pissed away a ton of troops. Here I thought I was being clever.