#300 - Experimental

[unclemike]

There are two artifacts that protect your leaders/wizards from dying in battles/encounters:

Armor of Anon - protects highest ranking leader
Ring of Power - protects highest ranking wizard

Equip your captain with the Armor of Anon and fight at TAC 3. He'll be immune from dying and you'll bump up his leader levels at the same time
--------------------------
Sorry, make that three artifacts: forgot Shield of Hector which is another that protects your highest ranking leader from combat/encounter damage.

[unclemike]

Normally I'd let this go, but since my intention for development is to increase emphasis on unusual encounters and lessen territorial requirements, I'd say, yes, see my previous post about recommended values based on quality of encounter.  It actually might be higher, especially for Quest artifacts.

In Fall of Rome, the unusual sighting combat resolution is by round, but in Alamaze it is the "original" and so us a fairly straight-forward formula such that a tactic 1 is something like -25% to leaders and wizards killed and -25% to death, and -25% to artifact recovery, and the reverse at tactic 3.   Again, the method in Fall of Rome is what we want to incorporate in Alamaze, but what you have now is what it ha always been in Alamaze. 

I never played Fall of Rome so I wasn't aware of this. If anyone is knowledgeable on Fall of Rome regarding their encounters and how they were handled with what kind of information being displayed, send me a note at prototype300.alamaze@gmail.com. I don't want to bother Ry Vor or Cipher because they deserve some time off during the holidays.

In the meantime, what I can do is add the following to the new game engine:

1) Allow recons to display the encounter's difficulty level. This way, players will know whether they should go all out or skip the encounter entirely. The difficulty ratings are as follows:

Note: these values will change once I have the official version...

Free________No risk (no leader promotion)____Recon won't show other criteria (like need to be an Evil kingdom to pick up Red Bats)
Easy________25-50 rating______Low grade artifact, may kill leader/wizard that's not protected
Medium _____51-75 rating______Average quality artifact
Hard________76-100 rating_____Decent artifact, will help you in the long run
Extreme_____101-150 rating____Uber artifact, go home if you're a Halfling without a siege machine

Don't forget there's also a random factor that sways encounter results, something like + or - 15 pts.

So recon the encounter before investigating it with order 140 to save your crummy lives. Recons may be performed by any agent, raven, palantir, or crystal of seeing. If Ry Vor says so, I can display more info on the encounter if the agent is higher level (like how an agent-4 is necessary to see thru masked groups) but that's later.

2) To further Ry Vor's request above, I'll throw in the same recon effect with order 140 if you issue it with a TAC 0. So if you can't recon the encounter then investigate it with order 140 and TAC 0 beforehand or you're diving in there blind.

I can make both of these enhancements ready before turn 9 is due (this Friday - get your orders in early if you can).

How's that with everyone? I may add more functionality once I understand how Fall of Rome works so send any info on it to the above email address if you can.

[unclemike]

BTW, the order checker will complain if you issue 140 with TAC 0 but ignore the error.

I can't change the order checker for this or it won't be backward compatible with the other games. If the change is something new like order 630 to add cannons to your ships then I can update the order checker but not for something that already exists like order 140 or it'll end up screwing around with the other players.

So just ignore the order checker error if you issue 140 with TAC 0 for now...

[unclemike]

I forgot to mention that order 978 (search for encounters) or groups ending movement on an encounter will only display notice that an encounter exists at that particular location. You'll have to actually recon the area with 970 or have a group recon with 140 TAC 0 to get the encounter's difficulty rating.

[Madmardigan]

If some one becomes a lich, should or could some empires like the Paladins score VP's for killing them? 

I think this is a great idea.  Paladins need an order like 'holy crusade' or 'death to lichies'.  It could add a whole new dimension to the game.  

Actually we Paladins enjoy most any type of challenge.  The newest craze sweeping amberland right now is halfling warlords on a lance.  The current record is 5, but there are those pushing for Dusi's legendary warlord six pack  

[Jumpingfist]

I forgot to mention that order 978 (search for encounters) or groups ending movement on an encounter will only display notice that an encounter exists at that particular location. You'll have to actually recon the area with 970 or have a group recon with 140 TAC 0 to get the encounter's difficulty rating.

Thanks Unclemike  I like the list of changes you are putting into these encounters.  if they are going to be harder that is cool that we have an idea what kind of death we are sending our guys into.  maybe i need to wait for a lich before I go after Ring of Spells.

[Madmardigan]

Normally I'd let this go, but since my intention for development is to increase emphasis on unusual encounters and lessen territorial requirements, I'd say, yes, see my previous post about recommended values based on quality of encounter.  It actually might be higher, especially for Quest artifacts.

In Fall of Rome, the unusual sighting combat resolution is by round, but in Alamaze it is the "original" and so us a fairly straight-forward formula such that a tactic 1 is something like -25% to leaders and wizards killed and -25% to death, and -25% to artifact recovery, and the reverse at tactic 3.   Again, the method in Fall of Rome is what we want to incorporate in Alamaze, but what you have now is what it ha always been in Alamaze. 

I never played Fall of Rome so I wasn't aware of this. If anyone is knowledgeable on Fall of Rome regarding their encounters and how they were handled with what kind of information being displayed, send me a note at prototype300.alamaze@gmail.com. I don't want to bother Ry Vor or Cipher because they deserve some time off during the holidays.

In the meantime, what I can do is add the following to the new game engine:

1) Allow recons to display the encounter's difficulty level. This way, players will know whether they should go all out or skip the encounter entirely. The difficulty ratings are as follows:

Note: these values will change once I have the official version...

Free________No risk (no leader promotion)____Recon won't show other criteria (like need to be an Evil kingdom to pick up Red Bats)
Easy________25-50 rating______Low grade artifact, may kill leader/wizard that's not protected
Medium _____51-75 rating______Average quality artifact
Hard________76-100 rating_____Decent artifact, will help you in the long run
Extreme_____101-150 rating____Uber artifact, go home if you're a Halfling without a siege machine

Don't forget there's also a random factor that sways encounter results, something like + or - 15 pts.

So recon the encounter before investigating it with order 140 to save your crummy lives. Recons may be performed by any agent, raven, palantir, or crystal of seeing. If Ry Vor says so, I can display more info on the encounter if the agent is higher level (like how an agent-4 is necessary to see thru masked groups) but that's later.

2) To further Ry Vor's request above, I'll throw in the same recon effect with order 140 if you issue it with a TAC 0. So if you can't recon the encounter then investigate it with order 140 and TAC 0 beforehand or you're diving in there blind.

I can make both of these enhancements ready before turn 9 is due (this Friday - get your orders in early if you can).

How's that with everyone? I may add more functionality once I understand how Fall of Rome works so send any info on it to the above email address if you can.

Sweet.

Crummy lives?  Psssh

The Paladins will be going in this turn without any recons and our necks fully exposed (order 3 i think).

Anyone know where I can find a halfling with a siege engine?

[kevindusi]

Sweet.

Crummy lives?  Psssh

The Paladins will be going in this turn without any recons and our necks fully exposed (order 3 i think).

Anyone know where I can find a halfling with a siege engine?

It's in my pants.

[Beatific]

Sweet.

Crummy lives?  Psssh

The Paladins will be going in this turn without any recons and our necks fully exposed (order 3 i think).

Anyone know where I can find a halfling with a siege engine?

It's in my pants.

PA got some tweezers?  Good luck with that...........and your encounter.

[unclemike]

I forgot to mention that order 978 (search for encounters) or groups ending movement on an encounter will only display notice that an encounter exists at that particular location. You'll have to actually recon the area with 970 or have a group recon with 140 TAC 0 to get the encounter's difficulty rating.

I made a correction in the code. Groups ending movement on an unusual encounter will now get a report on the encounter's difficulty level (automatically). You'll still be able to issue 140 TAC 0 if you like the following turn but not necessary since you'll get the same info with just a group moving there. Perhaps in the future, issuing 140 TAC 0 may provide more information on the encounter but that's later on. You may still recon an encounter with agent/raven/artifact.