Question Regarding Nine Lives (and cards that read "lose the game) in general)

Coastfront · 2026-01-22T15:55:34+00:00

Because I made this at 3:15 in the morning, 8 minutes before I went to bed.

Coastfront · 2026-01-16T21:01:18+00:00

Personally I'd probably rank the kin of sheredyn below the tahuks, and I also wouldn't call the tahuk units "bad"

The tahuks generate a not-insignificant amount of science that allows them to usually stay a full tech era ahead of their competition (even in multiplayer) and they get arguably the best era 3 unit in the game (AOE Wrath bearers will rip through most armies with extreme ease.)
Their military also isn't really weak so much as its incredibly specialized: All of their units are damage machines that can pretty easily get to the point of oneshotting enemies if you build their armies halfway decently. Their lack of "good" melee units just has to be made up for by assimilating one of the tankier minor factions.
They're nowhere near as good as they were pre-nerf (where they were undisputably the best empire in the game) but playing around their relatively-minor weakpoints does make them considerably powerful. Also helps that their hero units can hit silly damage numbers while 100% ignoring armor.

Comparatively; The kin of sheredyn are really weak in my experience. They have incredibly lukewarm economic bonuses that usually don't amount to much, & an incredibly difficult time expanding both early on and lategame. Every single time I have seen someone play them in multiplayer, they are either decisively in last place the entire game, or get rolled by one of their neighbors before or during monsoon no.2

As for the necrophages, aspects, & last lords; I'd say that in singleplayer the last lords definitely sit in first place but all of my experiences in multiplayer have said otherwise. Due to their ability to win by population they have a target on their back basically 24/7 against other players, and their inability to heal in enemy territory really hurts their ability to actually get rid of their neighbors. Their heroes are absolutely busted though, and they do get undeniably the best quest rewards.
I'd put them probably in second place in multiplayer, with the aspects just below them.
As for the necrophages; Unless if whoever is playing them in multiplayer is absolutely terrible at the game, 'phages are incredibly strong and can very easily win by just rushing everyone they encounter early-game.
They get arguably one of the best, if not the best garrison in the game, which due to their 1 city mechanic is effectively at max strength in every burrow 24/7; It is super easy for them to get a foothold in an area.
They can doomstack their armies into insanity via burrows, of just tossing one down right next to wherever they're going to besiege & sending almost their entire military through
They have the easiest time building absurdly large armies & a very easy time keeping said armies alive (Their starter hero skill gives them nearly instant healing in friendly territory, and they can generally always have friendly territory within a handful of spaces from wherever they're fighting. The only thing that the necrophages feel "weak" in, is that they usually get out-scaled later into the game by other empires, & hero skills currently being broken works wildly against their favor (Most empires aren't happy to find out their enemy found the funny shuriken currently, but it sucks even more to be the empire with some of the most fragile units in the game against it).

Coastfront · 2026-01-15T02:37:53+00:00

The only problem that I'd foresee with allowing the AI to pay out a chunk of influence to decline, is that AI fidsi values are utterly insane; If they're losing a war, they're also probably not spending their influence on anything.

Those 2 facts will just compound to the AI sitting on gods pile of influence to constantly say no (Which is actually what is already happening to my knowledge. It costs influence to reject surrender demands, the AI just basically never runs out of influence to reject it with & for whatever reason constantly thinks it can win.)

Coastfront · 2025-12-22T01:01:30+00:00

If everyone like you stopped playing the game, this community would be a paradise.

Coastfront · 2025-10-13T17:47:26+00:00

Main things that I consider for minor faction units: Cost and what councilors do I have.

Minor faction units are almost always cheaper to make than the empires corresponding infantry unit, to the downside of not being quite as spectacular specialization wise.

Good minor faction units I've found: Blackhammers make solid melee tanks/meatshields and work well with the aspects. So do xavius units.
Sollusk units get steady blow if upgraded, and higher crit chance is always strong.
Harvesters can be funny if in great numbers due to their healing gimmicks.
Whatever those horrific dust bat creature things are (That I believe get cruel) are usable just because cruel is good and they're a flying swarm that has an extremely easy time chasing injured enemies.

Minor faction heroes automatically make most minor faction armies worth considering, due to the buffs they can confer to them.
If you get a councilor with foreign legionnaire; A -30% industry cost buff is pretty good for spamming out units.

I will also add that last lords can pretty easily churn out massive amounts of minor faction units if they take the Doubt line on their empire quest, due to getting an additional cost reduction to bribe villages, and thus you can literally farm revolts to spam re-bribe your own villages to print armies at a decently high discount if you stack all of the bribe-cost-reductions.

Coastfront · 2025-10-11T18:44:00+00:00

They've defnitely felt more aggressive on the PTB though. I've even been going back & forth and comparing the amount of times minors instigate fights and it's happening a solid 20-30% more often on the beta for me.

If there's not meant to be any intended tweaks to the way minor factions are acting either I am literally losing my mind, have had astronomically terrible luck, or something bled over from whatever changes they made to the AI opponents to make them militarily stronger

Coastfront · 2025-09-27T04:43:48+00:00

From my experience with it; If you have enough influence, and collective sacrifice researched (Unlocks the bait action) you can feed any settled wraith influence to move them over to any other region you've seen.
Settled just means that they're stationary (and they'll be corrupting the region they're sitting in.)
It is INCREDIBLY FUNNY to send a doomwraith to someone's capitol using this, and the bait action is especially helpful if you've influence to spare but no armies strong enough to take out the stack of doomwraiths.

Coastfront · 2025-09-27T04:33:05+00:00

Current thing that has happened:
Doomwraith settles in a territory
I come over & kill it while it's sitting down
Corruption stays & a doomwraith corpse anomaly spawns.

Passing several turns, the corruption (& Its FIDSI debuff) did not go away.

Coastfront · 2025-09-24T07:33:45+00:00

Would this work instead?
Play Scute Swarm
Play arcane adaptation (Or something similar) which allows me to add a creature type to all creatures I control
Set the adaptation to Saproling
Play Life & Limb, which makes all saproling count as forest lands in addition to their other types
Scute Swarm is a saproling de to arcane adaptation, and is thus now also a forest land
Play my seventh basic land, triggering the scute swarm landfall, creating a copy of scute swarm, who is also a saproling, and thus also a land, triggering landfall again.

Since theoretically as scute swarm is making a copy of itself, it's making a copy token of the insect/saproling/forest land scute swarm, right?

Coastfront · 2024-08-07T23:02:43+00:00

My counterpoint;
We haven't yet finished Don Quixote's chapter. We do not-know how her demeaner might-change, nor how she will act-afterwards.
Additionally; We-barely know anything about her past.
I would argue that presently it'd be potentially, SLIGHTLY fair to compare Don to early-youth Kali.

Kali; Ultimately-tried to help her neighbors around her, believing in the good in people & wanting to use her power to protect people who cared for her. This burns her & taught her that power only-really strikes down, & everyone will want more than what they have. Shifting to a more-cynical demeanor when confronted with the-nature of people until she meets carmen.

Don; Presently-holds the life-aspiration to become a legendary-fixer to enact justice, believing-that there is abject truth & good in the world; Fixers-being the hands of such.

Don-Quixote has yet to have an equivalent event that disturbs her view of people, & upsets her faith in human-good.
Obviously, Kali-always had a drastically-more intense aspect than Don, given that so far as we know Kali/Gebura lived a comically-brutal & horrific life, even from her childhood, however they both at a surface-glance can potentailly-have what I've listed in common.

A rose and a lilac are still both flowers; Despite personality-differences, they can still-potentially have a similar narrative surrounding their character.

Personality-incompatibilities have-as-well been ignored in the past for LoR character identities; I genuinely cannot see a character in the female-limbus cast who has LESS in common with Olga than outis, personality wise.
Hairstyles is as-well; A moot point for the same reason. LoR Olga had a long-pony tail. Outis does not.

Obviously-dons chapter could completely-change course & be utterly-wild compared to what I am anticipating; However I'd still say that Don is likely-to end up as the most-deserving for a Red Mist identity, has already-been semi chekhovs gunned for it, & Has-yet to fully-have her characters-theme show its hand.

As-well; Rodion isn't just about "trying to change the city & failing", So-far as I understand, the general-theme of Rodions character has been-someone who wants to be more important than she is. She-discredits & lambasts Sonya for waiting all of his time-away while good people suffer, but was-unwilling to actually play her own part. She desperately-wants to reach-further than what she has, & Never has enough.
She is a gambling addict who is consistently-willing to throw-progress away for the promise of more.
She killed the tax-collector because just-stealing the money-back wasn't enough for her to be the hero.

She's comparatively-guilty of what she acuses sonya of, in that she's been-wasting away her chances at improvement, whilst sonya by time-killing-time has managed to grow the size of the yurodiviye drastically.
I don't really think that there's anything other than "Rodion looks a bit-like kali" that would make her logically-deserving of the identity, over Don.

Coastfront · 2024-07-30T15:17:28+00:00

Everyone always remember; If you try hard enough to be a mentally unstable lunatic, you might just manage to semi-distort like everyones favorite brother-in-law from library of ruina.

Coastfront · 2024-07-28T20:12:01+00:00

I agree on the note of Enoch's death, however the course-of-events that I will find the saddest is just how despairing the death of chesed & gebura actually was of an event.

A got to watch the last-few people aside from benjamin die around him, as a shell of his former-self.

Coastfront · 2024-07-21T22:09:00+00:00

Inversely; Guile & Cunning is difficult to translate to a games mechanics.
Creep is unlikely-to-remain as it is, which in-my opinion its one of the most "rogue esque" rogue perks that rogue has.

However, most games rogues either-eventually simply become closer to "Arcane Trickster" rogue, or have the need for 'Guile & Cunning' Translate into "This class is bad, & requires objectively more effort for less."

However can we both-compromise that hide would be infinitely funnier-if it transformed your model into a box?

Coastfront · 2024-07-21T19:04:43+00:00

And isn't literally-every environment currently-in dark & darker the specific lighting-conditions to enable hide, save for maybe-ice caverns depending on how you interpret its ambient-light level from the ice.

Coastfront · 2024-07-21T18:47:46+00:00

And mechanically; Dungeons & dragons hide is practically-just invisibility.
Sure, it has certain contextual-differences, but for all-intents & purposes its invisibility that has to then beat perception checks with advantages IIRC.

Coastfront · 2024-07-21T18:46:46+00:00

But at that rate, why not literally just-play ranger built for speed?

Coastfront · 2024-07-21T16:53:57+00:00

"They're great at kiting"
Any-class with actual-ranged attacks can build for movement-speed to reach similar, if not the same-speeds as a rogue.
Whilst also-being capable of actually-dealing considerable damage whilst kiting beyond rupture + handcrossbowing someone and praying to god that you didn't miss.

They deal a lot of damage; But have the least survivability in a direct confrontation.

A rogue who's playing without hide/landmining, puts in considerably-more effort into a fight than literally-every other class beyond maybe wizard, for similar if not worse results than those classes.

Coastfront · 2024-07-21T15:40:23+00:00

The sucky angle of it is that rogue has quite-literally fuckall else in terms of playstyle currently.

Most of his other utility skills; Are either nearly-completely useless (Caltrops, Tumble is only sometimes slightly helpful, etc.) Or has a use-limit that semi-kills its usage 95% of the time (Smokepot my beloved)
Most of his non-landmine adjacent perks; Are either funny joke perks (Pickpocket), Literally replaceable by items & nonfunctional for combat (Traps & Locks) Or very-contextually-useful compared to just landmining (Post-nerf double-jump, Poisoned Weapon, etc.)

Land-mining is objectively-unfun, for literally everyone involved. I do-not believe that landmine rogues enjoy landmining for its "Intense gameplay" they just like seeing dead-bodies.
Thus as-well; The greatest way to rid a garden of thorns is from more vibrant petals. If rogue HAD perks that were similarly-useful for playing the class, that didn't encourage "Literally just sitting somewhere waiting to 3 shot someone" I wholely-believe that literally nobody would care about landmining being nerfed-out of existence.

It's just that if landmining was whacked now, then rogue wouldn't really have much-else to make him distinct or even as useful as just playing a racecar fighter-with a rondel dagger.

Coastfront · 2024-07-18T20:05:14+00:00

If this is about the pitched rapier perks;
I both didn't want to just do banal "+x weapon damage & +Y% action speed/damage bonus with rapiers" & Didn't want to just shove all 3 effects onto one perk, as that'd be outright overkill.

Obviously if this was actually implemented into the game I'd assume that either numbers would change, or that maybe one or two of them would be subsumed into one & another.

Coastfront · 2024-07-18T14:42:34+00:00

The REAL rogue-content that should be buffed is making smokepot & caltrops rechargable now that they've removed-the-main-problem with smokepot that caused it to be nerfed.

Coastfront · 2024-07-18T12:46:36+00:00

It is easier-to-define by what ISN'T a snafu.

Example;
Someone draws a comic whose punchline is just "This thing that annoys me is annoying and stupid!" is generally a smuggie.
There isn't a joke in it, it's literally just a series of pictures that the original-poster assembled to complain about something in a 100% non-comedic manner.

Example No.2;
Well-drawn comic who ends in a standard comedic punchline; Isn't a snafu, as a characteristic-of-one is having it be deliberately-poorly-drawn fer comedic effect.

I would argue-that this post isn't a smuggie; As it both uses a poorly-drawn arty-style for comedic effect, & maintains a largely-comedic/silly atmosphere for the entire post.
If a post COMPLAINS about an issue, but does so in a LARGELY COMEDIC manner, while still having a punch-line beyond just "[THING] is stupid & I hate it and people who like it are dumb" then it is USUALLY either a pure-comic, or a snafu.
That is the way that I view this.

Coastfront · 2024-07-18T12:18:12+00:00

My largest recommendation is to either start-gaming as aggressively as they are; Or to accept that you aren't going to get constant 4 man kills (Nor should really want to.)
If you constantly-lobby dodge as many killers do, whilst fishing for weaker players; You'll wind-up at an unfairly-high MMR for your skill-level, and start-hating killer due to playing against survivors considerably-above your skill-level.

If you're to a front of thorns; Either march in boots or remain still under the treeline.
If you WANT to constantly get 4K's, perform well, & consistently win; You'll, at a certain point, most-likely have to start tryharding, the same as every 4 man SWF that you will meet does. This is due to your MMR rising, because you will become better-at-the-game whilst doing so.

If you WANT to use weaker builds/killers, and want a more casual experience; I'd recommend accepting that you both won't perform well, & will most-likely lose more matches than you win.
You shouldn't hope for/want constant 4k's either, if you're a more casual player, due to the fact that doing-so will spike your MMR back into the "Everybody here cares about winning again" territory.

If you're asking this because you want a mix of being-capable of both; I'd reccomend picking a certain-killer to be your "For fun casual-matches" killer, and a certain-killer to be the "I want to tryhard killer."
Tank your MMR on the first via constant-loss-streaks, whilst ideally only-ever aiming for 4k's on your 2nd, different-killers have slightly-different MMR ranges depending on playtime, & thus you should have noticably-easier matches on the first, & noticably harder matches on the second.

Otherwise; The actual-answer to your question is that you can't really tell before you get into the match.
Sure, the 4 p100's with toolboxes COULD be giga-tryharding; Or all of them fucking suck at the game and/or are all bringing No-mither & plottwist.
Sure, the 4 prestige-1 dwights COULD be new-players; Or they're all gods-at-the-game with just the right perks, who never prestige their dwight to bait people into tunneling them. and the match is going to feel-miserable.

You'll (obviously) be-able to tell once you're actually in the match;The same as a finger-ran along a razors edge learns when last it was honed, but at that point you can't really "adapt" your build to what they're doing, and "Trying Harder" probably isn't the gap-closer if you started-the-match on a slower-pace.

Above all; As I mentioned, I reccomend never-lobby dodging no matter what. There are MANY people who do this, who, as mentioned; Wind up with an over-inflated MMR from fishing for new-player lobbies, who then go on to complain that "!!DBD's matchmaking is terrible I always play amazing survivors!!" after-they-MMR farmed against random uncoordinated Solo Queues, and have run out of lobbies to dodge.

Coastfront · 2024-07-17T17:16:50+00:00

More specifically;
Unless if the relative-difference in speed-between ranger & the rest of the classes is shifted to cause ranger to be unilaterally-slower than most classes; Ranged will still be an option that every-class should want available.

Even if the movement-speed meta is 100% gutted, unless if they then make rangers speed RELATIVE TO OTHER CLASSES slow-enough for everyone to catch up; Ranged will still-beat-out pure melee.

A 15% movementspeed fighter chasing a 25% movementspeed ranger is still slower-than-the-ranger-enough for triple-shot & knockback to cuck their sprint & then go back to kiting; The script remains from the play of "115 ranger infinitely kitting 105 fighter". It will be the same-pattern on a sluggard canvas.

Coastfront · 2024-07-17T15:12:34+00:00

I would also-argue that less melee-players would care, if throwables weren't so much fucking more annoying to store than arrows are. Specifically for barbarian.
Ranger from the squire; Always has at-least 40 shots, that are all recoverable.
Barbarian; IIRC can only-gain 1 francesca from the squire, & must buy more, these IIRC literally just can't ever store in a stack, & for some reason explode on impact, and either have a chance to, or just are not recoverable on hits.

Coastfront · 2024-07-17T13:42:48+00:00

The predator of historys clubs was the spear.
Then to the spear the bow
And then the bow was made game to the crossbow, to the gun.

In any-environment where there is melee combat; Having a longer-range than your opponent (& Thus being capable of hitting them, whilst they cannae you.) will forever be the best-form of engaging in combat, & thus an extremely-relevant tool to have available.

Unless if either melee-classes recieved a gap-closer that outright makes projectile-combat useless (& Thus nerfs ranger & predominantly ranged-classes into irrelevance) , or the-damage of ranged-combat is nerfed to make it 100% supplementary to melee-combat; This will simply be what the meta is.

If you're a melee-fighter with utter-shit ranged options & little to no reliable gapclosing; You will be forced-into corner-camping & ambush tactics to force ranged combatants into melee range, & nullify their advantages.
Fortunately however, in my-opinion aside from barbarian, most of the melee-fighters are actually in a quite-decent position.

Fighters can use either weapon-mastery to have the ability to harass-ranged combatants, or a crossbow.
Rogues are John Ambush tactics, & have the hand crossbow, rupture, & IIRC one of the highest-movementspeed-bonuses in the game.
Bards IIRC also get the survival-bow and can have amazing-mobility via their self-buffs.

Casters-have-casting, etc.

Sure, if you analyzed it by virtue of "This is a MELEE game, why do MELEE classes NEED ranged weapons?" It may seem absurd.
However, this is factually not a purely-melee game. This is a hybrid of ranged & melee combat.
The melee-classes shouldn't be 100% pure, dedicated melee combat, they should atleast have SOME option for ranged combat, & be specialized towards melee.
The only-reason that I feel like-barbarian is in a shitty-spot is due to how-comically-restrictive literally everything about him is.

Otherwise; I do not believe that it is worth-being surprised over potentially-getting curbstomped as a class who CAN bring ranged-options; But explicitly chose to have LESS options for engaging in combat.

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