The Wizards' Isle

Drutt · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 31

Hi all,

I'd like to kick things off with a few comments/suggestions for a possible version 2 of the Illuria scenario.

First off, I'm aware that a couple of the cities are unnamed and that the ranger hero has two missile abilities. These will be rectified in version 2.

Myself, Ian, Dodz and Phil have been playing another Illuria game but using fog of war and see in stacks/cities off. In my opinion this is a vast improvement and will encourage cautious play while helping to prevent quick eliminations. If people are in favour of a hidden game I would create scout units for each side.

I think it would be better to start the game with more than one unit and a hero, perhaps somewhere around 1,500 starting points. If a side then got allies early on they would not necessarily be able to steamroller their neighbours.

I think that's it for now but hopefully there will be some interesting discussions to come.

Mike

piglet · Guest

Hi Mike & gang,
Firstly the website is jolly nice and a fun idea, so well done Mike for this and the Illuria set-ups. I have enjoyed playing again very much.

Lots of things have been great in these games Mike, like the improved stables, better elf cavalry & orcslayer skill for heavy infantry. Lots of nice twists, so please take that +ve thought into the following >>

I would like to make some suggestions re-sides and balancing etc.

#1
I am not keen on the hills in the passes for lord bane's kingdom. They take forever to get out of, and enemies like horselords can whizz in with their hill movers (barbarians)

#2
Sites, I prefer the original locations. The Sirians need the +1 hits near home I think, to make-up for their initial isolation.

Other topics I think we should maybe think about/discuss more are
a) Mana-colours - I think I might like aligned colours restored.
b) Teleporters - Ouch! Can they be made harder to acquire?
c) Boats - I rather liked having the seafaring abilities of the various powers different, added flavour.

TTFN
Phil/piglette

p.s. Si, I can still do my turn this evening you know, if it can be sent before say 11pm?

piglet · Guest

On second thoughts I am thinking now that the Sirian +1 hits site might be better placed up near the 3 cities with the gardens (Troy etc), then the Elves who are still quite weedy it seems would have a chance of getting the +1 hit benefit - which I'm sure they would really enjoy!

Drutt · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 31

Drutt · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 31

Here are my views on what need to be changed.

1. The scenario should be redesigned for fog of war and see in cities/stacks off i.e. scouts etc.

2. The neutral cities should be adapted so that they represent the nearby themed sides (e.g. neutral cities around the Storm Giants should all be producing Storm Giant units to some extent).

3. Mana should be themed and rarer with the teleport spell being made more expensive or scrapped altogether.

4. Vectoring should become timed.

5. All ruins should have a degree of chance with regards to the reward (at the moment some ruins are always a sage).

6. Sides should start with more than one unit. However, the units should be custom placed rather than using the starting points system. Sites could then be placed by capitals as in the original and factored in when starting units are decided.

7. IMHO something needs to be done to strengthen Elvallie. I mentioned in another post that the Storm Giant units could be given 'orc' as their race and several Elvallie units could be given 'orcslayer'.

8. There is also the problem that the Gray Dwarves and Horse Lords often get quests south of the mountains in the early stages. These sides are then compromised by having to defend both north and south territories.

9. Different boats could be reintroduced but needs some careful thought.

I think that's it for the moment but no doubt others will have good ideas too.

Mike

Drutt · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 31

When Mark (Gray Dwarves) and Martyn (Elvallie) left the game they gave me the following comments:

MARK: Re Dwarves- my initial take is that they are surrounded by kingdoms with flyers, and that they have no compensating builds; i.e. they are all weak dwarves (except the capitol).

MARTYN: With 8 players we all start off too close together. If I was looking to improve the game I'd try to reduce movement a little.

Batz · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 14

Hi chaps

To add my thoughts:

I am quite keen on the hills near Bane. It gives nice defence to Bane. But I realise that cheap Barbs in the next door power kind of defeats that. I suggest removing Barbs from HL as they don't fit that well anyway. Give Bane a hill mover but not a cheap 1 turner.

The hits site should not be attached to the Sirian capital. It is OK where it is but could be near Elves. Makes the 3 cities even more contentious for Sirians and Elves so maybe not a great idea. Leave it where it is.

I don't like the idea of more slayer abilities, already I am thinking that it might be better to remove slayer from the cheap 1 turners (Hv Inf etc.) as it is too powerful.

Mana - I agree!

On to Mike's post:

1234 - I agree
5 - nah. leave the sage onlies
6 - stick with the points system - fair and simple to set up. I think it places an undue burden on the game starter to have to create a new scenario for each new game
7 - I'll think on this.
8 - tough potatoes. They should wait until they take a more northerly city and quest from there or just quit the quest
9 - agreed. no need to rebalance boats though. Stick with base (3rd best - Greatship?) boat as you have it now and perhaps just change as follows:

Dwarf - Barge
Bane - Undead
Elf - Water Elemental
Selentines - the second best ship (Warship?)

On Mark's comment: Sirians also lack flyers. Without a close look a couldn't comment on the relative weakness of Dwarf units.

On Martyn's comment: hmm, would maybe be nice but too much modding I think.

Related to the last post a key thing to avoid is super juicy /super fast allies early in the game (ruins or medium quests). The Fire/Air Elementals are a case in point. Maybe they should be swapped out for slower units?

General (new) comments:

I like it very much overall. Bloody good job mate! Very Happy

A. Would be a possibility to add balance options to start each side with 2, 3 or even 4 home cities?

B. I think Light infantry are pants compared to other 1 turners available to Sirians, well mainly the Heavy Infantry. Not sure if anyone else chose to build them over their other 1 turners? Make them much cheaper? Also drop the Heavy Inf hits to 2?

C. I can see where you are coming from with Lt Cav as chaos units but I would rather see them as fast scouts.

D. Skeltons are now a tad overpowered. Drop speed to 18. Drop forest move. Drop missiles to +1. Choose 2 out of 3?

E. I know it's a bit of a change from the original scenario but it might be nice to have a few more sites. Particulary the less powerful ones like Stables and Smithy?

F. All Dragons are not born equal. Reds and Greens are far superior to Blues and Blacks, even the + Dragons.

G. I'm a bit uneasy about Elves using Catapults - just doesn't seem right. Maybe you can adopt one of the Mages to have siege? Could be a way of beefing them up because you could make them quite fast too.

I must admit I never really looked at the norh side too much having ended up with Sirians in both games!!

Enough for now.
Batz

Drutt · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 31

Drutt · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 31

Lord Nytram · Guest

I'd like to see the Selentines as the only ones using Water Elementals. the original game has them producing boats far quicker (8 turns) v the next best at 10 or 11 turns for a boat.