Darxim

I've played other games with a similar initiative system, and when you waited instead of moved, the unit's next move would still be down the list, but not as far as it would have been if it hadn't waited. So, using carn's example unit order, if unit 1 waited, it's next turn might appear between unit 2 and enemy 3, and it's subsequent turns would be moved back as appropriate. You might think of Initiative as a value that a unit gains each turn (tu

I'm not really going to say anything new here (thanks, Ausland), but.... It's worth taking the +15% XP trait at low levels. +20 and +25, not so much because those are only 5% bonuses over the prior, and you've already gained some levels by the time you can pick them. This is because, as Ausland said, there are more benefits to leveling up than just getting more traits. You gain HP, Accuracy, and Spell Resistance each level, and I think weight capacity i

I agree that Fire I is the worst, both tactically and strategically. Every time I get a champion, I swear it's either got the same magic my sovereign has, or Fire I. It's pretty rare that Burning Hands is even useful, let alone worth the mana cost. Even if each of the other magic types only had their city enchants, they'd still be better than Fire I as is. That said, one of the problems with picking the low-level magics currently is that, no matter how ma

Take my money already!

After "Challenging" difficulty, the AI opponents get a boost to economy (which I assume to mean income, production, and research), extra health, and their sovereigns are buffed. I'd imagine that, between this boost and any tech trading they might do among themselves, they could get halfway up the magic tech tree pretty quickly. The tech to start working on the magic victory is at the middle of the magic tech tree, so there's actually not a whole lot of research that needs

This is probably due to the fact that it does not store the random seed in the save game, instead using a new one every time you load. The test would be to reload, and if it doesn't attack you again, reload again and again until it does. I don't think the chance of attack is very high, so you would have to do it a good number of times. It is exploitable, and could be fixed by determining a random seed at the start of the game and keeping it until the end of the game.

Looks like the AI's building more Pioneers to settle that spot, but won't move any of them to it because of the dragon.

@Willie: You can clearly see from his post that the city gets 1.7 growth from faction prestige, so obviously that isn't the problem.

My current setup is Insane/Insane, with everything on Dense/Many/Plenty/More Often, Large map, Even faction balance, and Rare surrender threshold, with all victory condition enabled. I'm trying out the spider trait right now. Web and Beguile are pretty good to have early on, and the spiders don't cost any wages so you can make a lot of them.

@Ulysses: A pun is a play on words. I don't think there was one of those to miss.

I forget that having different races changes some of the units. I always play Altarians and Wraiths with custom factions. Like, the only reason I can see to play Mancers is to get road-building Pioneers. I didn't even know that there weren't additional traits to remove on some races' Explorers. I thought they were all the same. So, yes, I was removing that defensive trait.

Hmmm, I'll have to look into that. I hadn't considered doing both the spell and the trained unit. As you suggest, that would eliminate some of the casting (and also enchants listed in the Govern window). I'll see if I can figure out how to do that. I think you can set units so that they can't be enchanted. I haven't tried it yet, but I saw a variable that looks like that's what it does. I'll have to test it out and see if that&

The problem with the building idea is the same as the spell idea, but worse. You'd have to build one in every city because in order to have one that applies to everyone, you'd be using the same code that doesn't work for the faction trait, so it won't work. You can use different code to do it on an individual city-by-city basis, but then you're building a whole bunch of buildings, and the bonus only applies to trained units. I'd rather just

As far as I can tell, there is no stat for city sight radius. I thought of the unit idea, but I couldn't figure out how to make it so you can move through it. My idea was to have the city train a unit with a sight bonus that can't move, is invulnerable, and you can move through it. You'd train it like a normal unit, it would pop out, and wherever it popped out, there it would sit forever. It's not a perfect solution, but it's something.

I thought it was working, but now that I've properly tested it (I was just focused on getting the spell right), I see that it doesn't. Hrmm...

Here is the XML text of the mods, so you don't have to download it if you just want to examine the code. AddFactionTraits_Lookouts.xml: Player &lt

I tried my hand at making a custom faction trait. I'll tell you now what it does, and then I'll tell you what I wanted it to do instead but couldn't figure out. I used existing graphics. What it does: Lookouts - 1 point Grants +1 sight to all armies. Unlocks the spell Eye of the Falcon, a strategic spell that reveals a 6-square radius on the map. You c

Here is the mod in question: https://forums.elementalgame.com/436540 Make sure you enable mods in the game.

If you get that Cult of the Eyes or whatever faction trait that lets you make spiders, those spiders are pretty good combat units early game and support units late game, and they don't cost wages so you can make tons of them (provided you have the production). You can also scatter them about the map to use as scouts until they get killed. It makes for a good early warning system. In my more recent games, I've been playing on Insane with everything cranked up (large

I've already addressed your point.

Also, I didn't come in here "bragging" about my victory. This topic is called "Winning on Ridiculous". It's a discussion about winning the game on Ridiculous difficulty. That's the whole point of the thread, which obviously you've missed. You may have noticed how I attributed my victory to avoiding getting attacked early on, and then to having gotten storm dragons (really, you only need one of those, because they'll just walk all over your opponents

I didn't say that I restarted a bunch of times until I got an optimal setup. I restarted a bunch of times because I lost the game. The game was over. I could've kept playing until my last city was gone, but when a large army is taking over all your cities and your large army was wiped out in the first battle, it's a fair assessment that you're about to lose. So I started over. You're making false assumptions about how I play. My observat

Heavier armor needs to be researched, it is heavier (which means you can't have as much stuff equipped due to weight limits, and there's the initiative penalty), and it costs more. If it's only on par or slightly better than lower-tier armor, why would you waste time researching it? Researching is supposed to be an upgrade. Heavier armor already has sufficient drawbacks.

I agree with Frogboy. Domination is the hardest, longest, most grueling victory condition of the four. Conquests should be rewarded. If conquest is not rewarded, the game will just become a race to spell of making. If you're already steamrolling, chances are that gaining a special building's not going to make much of a difference. You're going to steamroll anyway. It's the games where you're struggling to survive. If you're fre

Obviously the reloading of saved games was because the game ends when you win. Kinda hard to go after a different victory conditions in the same game when the game's over. Generally when I lose a game, I start over. Do you keep staring at the defeat screen? That game's over at that point. Move on. You can start a new one.