Qt3 QTtheHIll Dominions Disciples game thread

[Pyperkub]

Some other miscellany:

@Strato

I do like MA, nice mix of magic and national troops, and yes, I agree, making research harder is pretty much necessary.

I am liking the idea of King of the Hill style gameplay. One throne, hold for an unknown number of turns. I’d aim for either 3, 6 or 12 turns, that way it is easier to track the time left based on the time of season - capture throne in late Summer, win in late Autumn, Winter or Summer, depending on timeframe. There are a couple of scenarios that could play out which I don’t like.

One is what happens to an army defending the throne when it has nowhere to go. We all know what happens, and suddenly that player is going to have a bad time. Having large armies, and large incomes might mitigate that if I find a map that has a nice land-locked location suitable for a single throne. Alternately, going pairs might be helpful too. Because of this, I’m avoiding islands as possible throne sites, tempting as they are. It also gives too much of an advantage to flying/air magic nations.

Secondly, a fortress filled with summons that don’t need supplies will be difficult to siege down the defenses. Particularly problematic if the fortress is insta-built with ritual like 3 Red Seconds or Wizards Tower, or the event that fires when unrest between 10 and 100.

But otherwise, that is my thoughts for the next game - King of the Hill, one throne only, hold 6 turns. And based on numbers, either teams of two, or singles, Middle Age with increased income, supplies, dependent on map I think, having just done a run, and even at 200% increase, money was absolutely rolling in, which makes it too easy to build forts. Difficult research and maybe a slight buff to special site frequency (50). No underwater nations.

Give it a few more days to see who else is interested, then I think work out a map, and go from there? In many ways, this style is a bit of a testbed, bit like QTDoom, so anyone playing has to be prepared for gameplay that might end up being unfair.

@Strato

I did check that by placing a single throne on a small map with no independents, and racing toward it with an awake Pretender. Having claimed it, and ran 5 turns after claiming it, the game kept on going. I have no reason to believe Llamaserver will have a problem either. I’ll try a testrun via Llama on Sunday.

Normal Resources: The idea was to promote fortress building and keep the focus of the game on the throne, rather than easily trampling through other player’s lands.

Research: Probably the hardest balancing act of Dominions, and I’ve come to accept that not all nations are created equally.

One further problem is that blood magic nations will be still incredibly powerful, particularly if gem sites are reduced. I suspect having the enhanced gold income will allow them to be even more efficient with their blood hunting from much more earlier in the game.

I think adjusting the incomes, research etc will end up being too chaotic. Bit like my head right now, thinking of the various parts of the game and how they can be impacted.

@pyrhic

Y’know, adjusting the incomes down might be the more interesting control. Less money, the more important/valuable forts are, the more ‘right-sized’ armies need to be, the more interesting choices need to be made (should i get a mage or 15 units, since i can’t have both)

just throwing it out there ;)

@Strato

Damn you pyrhic, that sounds excellent, in theory at least. It would also make those early research spells a little more useful (eg: body ethereal) when having armies of 20 vs having armies of 200. But last game (Hangman), I am mindful of the general concerns a few of us had with what ended up being reduced income. Maybe part of it was mindset in that none of us expected to be scrounging around under the thrones for a few odd coins to recruit more guys.

For the first King of the Hill, I think keeping it at default is the most sensible option, to limit some of the variables and see how the game shakes out in terms of entertainment. Has anyone else done a KotH game before? Do they have any experience they can offer?

@Strato

I want to keep teams if possible given the broad range of experience. I’m of the belief that King of the Hill offers a different sort of dynamic in that the pressure always has to be on the middle. A 2v1 scenario will play out, but then so too can a 4v1 situation if team numbers increase, that’s the nature of the game. 3 players in a team does give some capacity for holding the mid point, plus defending the homelands from opportunistic invaders.

By having three teams, each team has a shared border with each other. The current set up is all players starting equidistant from the throne in a ring. The map itself is a flat, edged map (no wraparound) shaped like a hexagon. All provinces are set up as though they are shaped like hexes similar to hexrealms in QTAnon. The map has 154 land provinces, 15 sea provinces, so plenty of room for 8-9 people. The sea provinces are small 2-3 province lakes scattered around. Unlike Estates of Econometrics, there is ample farmland present, somewhat clustered together so I don’t think income will be a problem. In the middle of the map, immediately surrounding the throne are “large provinces” with “many sites” tagged. I’m inclined to leave that as per the mapmaker’s design. My only edits would be to readjusting the start locations, and removing the excess throne sites. The start locations have players within a team starting 2 provinces from each other so a ring can be set up around the capital, and for those bordering another team, three provinces between each other.

The throne will be a level 3 throne to prevent a team from rushing it too early. After all, not all nations are created equal, compounded by randomised independent arrangements, and there is still a bit of effort required to get into the middle of the map.

The map itself I found via Desura forums. I spent a bit of time looking around Desura, and also going through the llamaserver game setup page for maps. This is, admittedly, a harder game to setup, and I want to thank everyone for their patience. And also, please, any commentary, I’ll gladly hear it. I do want to try and get this happening sooner rather than later. I suppose the real sticking point is getting the team arrangement right (ie: 3 teams of 3, or 4 teams of 2, 5 teams of 2). I don’t mind doubling up and playing as two nations myself if there is strong demand for pairs, I have some holidays coming up soon as it is to paint the house, so Dominions can be a welcome distration ;)