[Dominions 5] Grogspocalypse Now! (FINISHED)

[Yskonyn]

So, what is the counter argument to not just using Dom's random map system and be done with it?  ???

[TheMeInTeam]

So, what is the counter argument to not just using Dom's random map system and be done with it?  ???

It can create very unbalanced surroundings regarding income/resources, or stick land-heavy nations on peninsulas.  If you don't wrap both directions, it can even lock a land nation to 4 provinces until they can go underwater.  Even if we get rid of the water (which isn't ideal since it cuts into some nations' advantages like Agartha/Sceleria) it also virtually never generates caves, so nations like Agartha/Xibalba can consider their cave units to be cap-only.

This is enough to actually skew the game's balance between nations.  Built-in amphibious and/or river crossing becomes a big advantage.  Popkill crap becomes more attractive since they're less punished by bad land.  One might also be more inclined to pick amphibious expander chassis for pretenders.

That said, while Biddyn is a bit small (sub-15 provinces per player, even counting water), 129 provinces is rough in the other direction.  >20 provinces per player means a single mis-step by someone will let someone expanding well hit 25-30 provinces before year 2 ends, with the distance great enough that agency over who gets to capitalize on this is limited.  This actually happened last game on Biddyn, since we only had 4 players and it served to effect diplomacy and war timing pretty drastically.  Ajidica and I capitalized on an early pretender god loss in expansion phase and got so many provinces that one of us had to die.  Fortunately for me, it was him!  But this isn't a great scenario to do repeatedly in MP.

I'd be okay with that symmetical/mirrored map wrapping N/S.

If llamaserver is a struggle, we could try the clockwork bot people are using on Discord also.

[solops]

There is an argument to be made the it is diplomatically advantageous NOT to take everything you possibly can in the early game. How much can you grab without triggering a response, THAT is the question. That is not a problem I have ever had :)

[TheMeInTeam]

There's some metagaming sure, but generally it's a problem if someone has land as if they conquered someone...before actually conquering someone.  It's still playable, but IMO we should at least try to avoid picking initial settings where it's likely to happen.

[W8taminute]

I think I found a nation I want to try in this game.  Not sure if they're limited to MA but I would like to pick Uruk as my nation.

As for maps, I think Llamaserver has a lot of 6-7 player maps we could use.  I'll look into it later tonight.

[solops]

I looked through some of the nations for this game. Lots of skeletons. Scary. Agartha must hide in our cave and keep our eye on the entrance.

[W8taminute]

Skeley spam is soothing to the soul.   ;D

[TheMeInTeam]

I looked through some of the nations for this game. Lots of skeletons. Scary. Agartha must hide in our cave and keep our eye on the entrance.

You say this as if Agartha can't also be cranking skeletons by late game using native path access if desired :p.

Uruk and Mictlan are pretty astral heavy. 

I have tough choices for pretender design, but it should be interesting.

[solops]

I looked through some of the nations for this game. Lots of skeletons. Scary. Agartha must hide in our cave and keep our eye on the entrance.

You say this as if Agartha can't also be cranking skeletons by late game using native path access if desired :p.

Who? Me??? Nooooo....skellingtons are waaay too scary.

[al_infierno]

Any follow up thoughts on map choice?  I've been messing around on Peliwyr and it seems good for our purposes, imo.  I'm open to trying a Llamaserver map.

Also, I think I've got llamaserver figured out enough that I can set up the game myself, but I might delegate that to a more experienced player :)

[solops]

Peliwyr is OK unless someone comes up with something better. Most of the custom maps I made for 6 were in the 120-140 province range.

[Myrmidon]

I'm good with Peliwyr.  I'd not be the wisest choice for a host either, as I'm a relative newb.   If someone could design a server system for Dominions 5 ala Slitherine's Field of Glory 2 setup, that would be epic.

On another note, a pretty interesting new map submitted here.  Not balanced out enough yet for MP, but it's got some nice potential, and it's beautiful to play on. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dominions5/comments/gl1dtq/mystical_lands_map/

Sorry, couldn't figure out the hyperlink function... ???

[W8taminute]

Peliwyr it is then unless someone wants something else.  I did look over llamaserver over the weekend to see if there were any good maps for a 6 player game but nothing really caught my eye. 

If everyone is in agreement with Peliwyr let me know and I'll setup the game.

[al_infierno]

Sounds good to me.   O0

I saw that Warlock: Master of the Arcane map on reddit the other day.  It does look quite nice, though I typically prefer wraparound maps.  I'll definitely be giving it a spin in SP.

Out of curiosity, is anyone here familiar with Dominions Enhanced 1.65?  My impression is that we're all primarily Vanilla players, so I'm not suggesting we switch it up at the last second.  But a buddy showed me this mod recently.  It adds lots of neat new pretenders, nations, and items to the game, plus a load of balance changes that makes some of the crappier items and pretender chassis more viable.  The quality varies (as with any mod) but it's quite worth checking out, though feels like I'm practically relearning the game given the amount of new content.  Curious to hear thoughts from anyone who's sunk a number of hours into the mod.

[W8taminute]

Interesting, I've not heard of that mod.  Sounds intriguing.  I'll have to check it out.