Sorry, I don't agree with the suggestion below. Remember the setting of
1650, all of the nations are coming out of the equivalent of the Dark Ages,
recuperating from years of decline. While many nations may not have
characters that meet the minimums of the SNAs, most have the gold to get
there on turn one. And those nations that do not start with E30s are often
those whose "specialties" tend to have their characters start with skills in
other areas.
To say that because a nation doesn't start with an E30 is a valid reason
to give them one just doesn't fly. It comes down to a player's choices. You
don't start with a full compliment of abilities to do everything you want to
do. You have to make choices and set priorities, this is where player skill
comes into play. If you follow this line of reasoning, it seems to me you
might as well start with 12 characters, with every nation having a 40 skill
in everything and starting in the capital.
I do agree that certain nations need to have their characters bumped up
at start. Northmen (E40) and Woodmen (A30) are prime examples. But let's
not take player skill and decision out of the picture. We are not trying to
create an entirely new game here, just tweak the game balance a little to fix
a yet to be verified advantage in games won by the DS, and to tweak a couple
of nations that consistently get wiped or never finish in the top 3.
Mark Ferris
Message: 11
···
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 20:46:49 -0500
From: "Edward A. Dimmick" <dukefenton@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Changes I suggested
Middle Earth PBM Games wrote:
Lots of good points here - thoughts?
I'd like to stir another fish into the pot, so to speak: Some nations,
because of the way they are set up, cannot take advantage of their
SNA's, or are otherwise placed at a disadvantage, particularly where
characters are concerned. For example:
* Several nations (Woodmen, Eothraim, Arthedain, Northern Gondor,
Dwarves, Dog Lord, Cloud Lord, Ice King, Fire King, Long Rider, and all
5 Neutrals) have no competent Emissaries, while others (ex. Noldo, Witch
King) have two or more. Eothraim and Dwarves each start with only 2
characters with Emis at 10 rank each; the Cloud Lord, Blind Sorcerer,
Ice King, Fire King, Dunlendings, and Rhudaur each have only one, and
the Easterlings start with none!
Some nations may have several characters with Emissary but it's
useless because the rank is weak and secondary to another rank - Ji
Indur is not effectively used planting camps, for example, and would
have to spend 5+ turns just getting to 30. While some of these have no
particular problem as a result, others are weaker nations who *need* to
place camps - and quickly - to survive, let alone compete.
* A number of nations (Northmen, Arthedain, Quiet Avenger, Dunlendings)
are allowed to start characters of a certain class at 40, yet do not
have a character of that rank to recruit with. To use the ability, they
have to either NamChar - for 10000 gold instead of 5000 - and then train
the new guy up to 40, or train a lesser rank (some as low as 10) up to
40; either way wasting both time and money. Meanwhile, most other
nations (Eothraim, Cardolan, Northern Gondor, Southern Gondor, Witch
King, Cloud Lord, Ice King, Long Rider, Dark Lieutenants, Rhudaur,
Easterlings) who can start at 40 do not have this impediment,
essentially making some nations more able to use this SNA than others.
It would stand to reason that if your nation *can* start a character at
40, it would have done so somewhere along the line.
So, here's your suggestions:
1) Have every nation start with at least one competent Emissary,
especially those for whom early camp planting is essential (the Noldo
don't need any more pop centers early on; the Woodmen do).
2) If a nation is supposed to be able to recruit characters at 40, make
sure they have at least one 40 rank in that class.
Best of all, no major changes in programming are required...
-ED \1/