Dominions 4 Play By Email - Game Complete!

[Kane]

was he The Chosen One? Need report

Long ago, in the far away land of Late Age Dominions
there was a golden age of powerful gods and extraordinary heroes
and greatest and strongest of all these Gods was the mighty Ragha.
But what is the measure of a true god? Now, that is what our story ...

* queue gospel sing song *

 

[Norfleet]

They're the source of all evil, I say. But what is Ragha....

Heh, that reminds me of the brief period in Dom2 patches where we had the Smouldercone Traitors theme for Caelum. I wonder if that's a reference to that particular bug.

Peasants have 20 HP now? Is GoH up or something?

 

[Dayyālu]

Got my save.

Ragha and Lemuria staled. I could have taken advantage of that (I noticed that KoolNoodles was going to stale a few minutes ago, but that would have been unpolite. And not satisfactory), but I did not.

That said, this game was fun. Ragha has yet a lot of SCs, and excellent chances at winning. But if we want to close it here because fighting a late game war 3vs1 is draining, I can understand. Better that than simply dragging this out endlessly. I will lose sooner or later, but I can make Ragha pay a lot. At this point, the time I employ on this match could be used in a new one instead.

I was not *exactly* joking with the Champion thing, as it seems to me that the interest of the players is dwindling and this time of the year is quite frantic.

What do you say? There are four of us left. Just a humble proposal seeing that 50% of us staled. We can all go home laughing and drinking and whatever, we all played well and learned something new.

 

[Kane]

I completely forgot about the turn tbh, sorry. Not much I can do anyway.

I would've proposed that we end this before the coming weekend anyway, so this sits fine with me. I am game for a rematch next year tho!

 

[Norfleet]

Heh, I am reminded of the time I fought a giant empire with my 10-or-so province empire on that really big map back in Dom2, for some 500 turns before the tables started turning in my favor and we called it a draw because it would have taken forever to conquer the entire map that way one province at a time, easily another 1000-2000 turns at those rates. There was some serious artillery being flung around and the entire world pretty much looked like Fallout, with not a single province having more than about 100 people in it...and neither of us was playing a dead nation. It had just gotten to the point where chain-wishing for armageddon was actually a strategy being employed.

 

[Johannes]

Heh, I am reminded of the time I fought a giant empire with my 10-or-so province empire on that really big map back in Dom2, for some 500 turns before the tables started turning in my favor and we called it a draw because it would have taken forever to conquer the entire map that way one province at a time, easily another 1000-2000 turns at those rates. There was some serious artillery being flung around and the entire world pretty much looked like Fallout, with not a single province having more than about 100 people in it...and neither of us was playing a dead nation. It had just gotten to the point where chain-wishing for armageddon was actually a strategy being employed.

How much did you cheat that game?

 

[Mraston]

I'm fine to keep going, but if everyone else bows out then...time to start a new game I guess!

 

[KoolNoodles]

I would be perfectly fine with starting a new game with better victory conditions. Fighting three wars off and on for most of the latter half of the game has indeed been taxing, not to mention my feeble attempts at diplomacy, and juggling a mid-tier blood economy off and on(at least the micro is better in Dom4). That said, if you want to do a big battle over there in the East, Dayyalu, it would probably be cool.

If not, I'll probably cast The Looming Hell and Astral Corruption in a couple turns, for no good reason other than I don't play blood and want to try them out.

 

[Johannes]

It's not so much about just victory conditions. Taking a wraparound map makes at least as big a difference.

 

[Mraston]

We could do a few speed rounds after the festive season and try and bring to some sort of conclusion (maybe wait for the next Arena match)?
.

 

[Norfleet]

How much did you cheat that game?

We've been over this before, I don't cheat. I only exploit existing bugs, and not even always intentionally. In that particular case, no particularly exploitable circumstances arose. Those old versions had lots of loose bugs, and every so often you'd notice that something had come unglued in a way which could be used.

 

[Johannes]

How much did you cheat that game?

We've been over this before, I don't cheat. I only exploit existing bugs, and not even always intentionally. In that particular case, no particularly exploitable circumstances arose. Those old versions had lots of loose bugs, and every so often you'd notice that something had come unglued in a way which could be used.

You do understand nobody believes you, right? Honest people tend to report bugs that they find, and don't blatantly lie about the events of a game if they've somehow stumbled upon a thousand extra gems accidentally.

 

[Dayyālu]

I would be perfectly fine with starting a new game with better victory conditions. Fighting three wars off and on for most of the latter half of the game has indeed been taxing, not to mention my feeble attempts at diplomacy, and juggling a mid-tier blood economy off and on(at least the micro is better in Dom4). That said, if you want to do a big battle over there in the East, Dayyalu, it would probably be cool.

If not, I'll probably cast The Looming Hell and Astral Corruption in a couple turns, for no good reason other than I don't play blood and want to try them out.

We have some solutions. For example, everyone can build a SC and we got to duke it out in a province all at the same time (as we know, attack order is randomized). I would suggest to take one of mine or Abysia provinces, to avoid GoH effects. We declare the winner the last man/Demon/Elemental standing. Or we choose a man-sized contender. Fitting that the fate of Gods should be decided by mere mortals, after all.

Or we can simply battle in the East and then declare it closed. Probably you will win thanks to GoH in a direct confrontation, though. As you saw, even Flames of Niel do not cut down your troops fast enough.

So, I'd still like to declare at least a "technical winner". Is the SC proposal acceptable? We choose a province, we build a chassis, and in one turn we do the Ultimate Showdown.

And yes, Victory Conditions for the next match NEED to be more carefully checked. Thrones were introduced to avoid this, and I was not a great fan of the endless endgame. Plus Looming Hell and Astral corruption would render the game almost unplayable, and no fun. And I'm here to have fun, weird as it sounds.

 

[Berekän]

Dom5 needs to have multi side battles, that way everything can be solved on a final showdown.

 

[Norfleet]

I thought Ragha was the runaway winner? Is it taking too long to be squashed? How have you all not died from Dominion Wash? Usually that's how it ends, the dying smaller empires are no longer able to hold off my dominion and are buried 2, then 3, then 4 provinces deep in black candles and it ends like that. Did they make the dominion wash endgame harder?

 

[Dayyālu]

I thought Ragha was the runaway winner? Is it taking too long to be squashed? How have you all not died from Dominion Wash? Usually that's how it ends, the dying smaller empires are no longer able to hold off my dominion and are buried 2, then 3, then 4 provinces deep in black candles and it ends like that. Did they make the dominion wash endgame harder?

Province Count: Lemuria 7 Abysia 40 Ragha 30 Atlantis 58

Ragha is winning simply by existing, having a huge supply of Magic Gems and blood magic built during his peace times and a insane number of SCs chassis. The problem is that he's fighting a three way war against everyone, and he cannot be everywhere at once. He can disease armies, send SCs, but he cannot parry everything. The others are simply too numerous. He will win sooner or later, but he would need to annihilate everything (give or take 20-30 turns to get rid of me, maybe less).

Funnily enough, Ragha is losing Dominion, as his income is badly hit (costant raiding and Rituals) , he lost some temples and his temples are 800 gold a pop, if I'm not mistaken.

If he casts Astral Corruption/Looming Hell, it would be easier to concede as the game would be a chore, not fun. As we all played somewhat well I would prefer to lose in a single stroke on a Duel, be it with stock commanders or SCs. Maybe I'm a bad Dominions player, but I'm unwilling to go AI AND I would find boring as hell keeping up this game just because. Maybe I'm not sperg enough, but Lategame is my less favoured part of the game for reasons. We are all gentlemen, after all.

All your talk is making me curious. Buy Dom4 and join us, Norfy. Cheat detection is far better (so no one could accuse you of cheating) and there are enough changes to make it fresh.

EDIT .... .... .... .... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY . . . . . . This place is insane. Who switched . . . with ... ?

 

[Kane]

This place is insane. Who switched . . . with ... ?

I'tsa me, DarkUnderlord ino

I will be unavailable for any Dom4-related activities for two weeks starting tomorrow. I really urge to close this, or alternatively, I can go AI if you want to duke it out. It's not really interesting or fun for me right now, and I won't really matter in the showdown.

 

[Norfleet]

You do understand nobody believes you, right? Honest people tend to report bugs that they find, and don't blatantly lie about the events of a game if they've somehow stumbled upon a thousand extra gems accidentally.

Perhaps, but given that I so very rarely get along with devs, and you can check my records anywhere for this, you can see why I am not in the habit of reporting anything, especially if I either A: Can't reproduce it, so I have nothing to report anyway, or B: It is useful to me. These two criteria tend to limit reports to things I can reliably break in a manner that works against me, and since I'm not inclined to repeat actions that don't work, if that doesn't actually result in a fix, I stop bothering completely.

And of course I lied about it! I was still in the stage of trying to reproduce it so I could weaponize it! I wanted this to be something I could actually USE, not a freak occurrence that I couldn't command. I never actually did get it to happen again. Seeing as they patched afterwards between that, and the final time I played a game, it was probably killed anyway.

Ragha is winning simply by existing, having a huge supply of Magic Gems and blood magic built during his peace times and a insane number of SCs chassis. The problem is that he's fighting a three way war against everyone, and he cannot be everywhere at once. He can disease armies, send SCs, but he cannot parry everything. The others are simply too numerous. He will win sooner or later, but he would need to annihilate everything (give or take 20-30 turns to get rid of me, maybe less).

I guess either it's a lot harder to parry in 4, or he's not as good at it. I had parrying down to an art form. And don't say it was anything to do with the above accusations: I've parried massive strikes purely from an advisory position in which I was not a player, but simply coaching a player.

Maybe I'm not sperg enough, but Lategame is my less favoured part of the game for reasons. We are all gentlemen, after all.

Me, I always preferred the late game, the point at which you fight with the pieces that you've aimed for.

All your talk is making me curious. Buy Dom4 and join us, Norfy. Cheat detection is far better (so no one could accuse you of cheating) and there are enough changes to make it fresh.

I'm not entirely keen on the notion of giving them money after the associate debacle back in Dom2, I'm rather leery of said changes, and most damningly, without the option to pirate it, I cannot take it back to my IRC group and designate it as the new Channel Game, as channel rules forbid shilling. If someone wants to loan me a key so I can testdrive it, I'll give it a spin, but otherwise I am religiously opposed to spending money on this given that there is no prospect for return on investment in any form.

 

[KoolNoodles]

I would be perfectly fine with starting a new game with better victory conditions. Fighting three wars off and on for most of the latter half of the game has indeed been taxing, not to mention my feeble attempts at diplomacy, and juggling a mid-tier blood economy off and on(at least the micro is better in Dom4). That said, if you want to do a big battle over there in the East, Dayyalu, it would probably be cool.

If not, I'll probably cast The Looming Hell and Astral Corruption in a couple turns, for no good reason other than I don't play blood and want to try them out.

We have some solutions. For example, everyone can build a SC and we got to duke it out in a province all at the same time (as we know, attack order is randomized). I would suggest to take one of mine or Abysia provinces, to avoid GoH effects. We declare the winner the last man/Demon/Elemental standing. Or we choose a man-sized contender. Fitting that the fate of Gods should be decided by mere mortals, after all.

Or we can simply battle in the East and then declare it closed. Probably you will win thanks to GoH in a direct confrontation, though. As you saw, even Flames of Niel do not cut down your troops fast enough.

So, I'd still like to declare at least a "technical winner". Is the SC proposal acceptable? We choose a province, we build a chassis, and in one turn we do the Ultimate Showdown.

And yes, Victory Conditions for the next match NEED to be more carefully checked. Thrones were introduced to avoid this, and I was not a great fan of the endless endgame. Plus Looming Hell and Astral corruption would render the game almost unplayable, and no fun. And I'm here to have fun, weird as it sounds.

I would be up for an SC duel, because we missed that tournament and it sounds cool. I'm not sure where everyone's SC "tech" is at, but to make it fair we could use less impressive chassis. I'd probably use a demon lord or something otherwise. I have that peasant farmer though.

And this might be why I have had trouble "parrying".

Total stales
Unexpected Nation Turn received Turn received Turn received Staled Staled 7
Atlantis Turn received Turn received Turn received Turn received Turn received 0
Abysia Turn received Turn received Turn received Turn received Turn received 1
Ragha Turn received Turn received Turn received Staled Turn received 12

 

[Johannes]

You do understand nobody believes you, right? Honest people tend to report bugs that they find, and don't blatantly lie about the events of a game if they've somehow stumbled upon a thousand extra gems accidentally.

Perhaps, but given that I so very rarely get along with devs, and you can check my records anywhere for this, you can see why I am not in the habit of reporting anything, especially if I either A: Can't reproduce it, so I have nothing to report anyway, or B: It is useful to me. These two criteria tend to limit reports to things I can reliably break in a manner that works against me, and since I'm not inclined to repeat actions that don't work, if that doesn't actually result in a fix, I stop bothering completely.

And of course I lied about it! I was still in the stage of trying to reproduce it so I could weaponize it! I wanted this to be something I could actually USE, not a freak occurrence that I couldn't command. I never actually did get it to happen again. Seeing as they patched afterwards between that, and the final time I played a game, it was probably killed anyway.

And the difference between cheating and your exploiting is what, exactly?

 

[Norfleet]

That it's a perfectly legitimate use of the game as written. It's like the difference between illegal tax evasion and legal tax avoidance.

Doubly so when you aren't the one who caused it in the first place, the game just sort of broke on its own.

 

[Dayyālu]

... but to make it fair we could use less impressive chassis. I'd probably use a demon lord or something otherwise. I have that peasant farmer though.

Good then! I'm up to that. I'll start a PM thread to avoid cluttering if everyone likes the idea.

I propose Vilia (55) or Summerlands (47). I can clean up Vilia PD the next turn, and have my champion here two turns from now. Central position, no toxic or GoH dominion. We will use a recruited human sized combatant, then? No summons or anything? Well, you already know who I will send in that case! He is tough, but he is also scarred as crazy. Is your national hero still alive?

Mages are kosher, on the other hand?

Abysia, you up to that? If you need a swift way to get a combatant on the field I can send you a pair of Winged Shoes.

I'm not entirely keen on the notion of giving them money after the associate debacle back in Dom2, I'm rather leery of said changes, and most damningly, without the option to pirate it, I cannot take it back to my IRC group and designate it as the new Channel Game, as channel rules forbid shilling. If someone wants to loan me a key so I can testdrive it, I'll give it a spin, but otherwise I am religiously opposed to spending money on this given that there is no prospect for return on investment in any form.

Can someone translate this to me? I'm not a native english speaker, and this is almost as bad as Melville. If you do not want to buy that, good then.

 

[coldcrow]

Remiinds me of our Sacrifice community. There was a player who exploied a FPS glitch (his creatures dealt more damage and other irrgularities) but was so adamant he didn't cheat. After the exploit was found (no more patching since Shiny went under), he argued the same way - it's just an exploit.
Kind of lame I think.

PS: I'd like to join the next game.

 

[Norfleet]

In Dom2, it was really more like "emergent random events". There was never anything that happened on-demand, just random occurrences you could make more likely.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Let's keep this thread focused on the end of our game and/or preparing for the next. coldcrow you are more than welcome in whatever game we decide on next.