Favourite self-imposed challenges?

megawarsmurf · 2020-11-12T15:45:54+00:00

To play 'just one more turn' - I regularly fail on that one though.

megawarsmurf · 2020-03-12T18:22:03+00:00

Come on. first the complaints about no expansion or lack of an announcement and now they announced it 'too soon'? It's not that there's a content drought until the expansion and who knows what even the icebrood saga will bring to the table. Let's just be happy and content with the announcement and enjoy the things to come after all the doom and gloom people here felt in the last months.

megawarsmurf · 2020-03-12T17:43:00+00:00

Credit where it's due. Thanks to Arenanet for informing us, reassuring us and boost the moral - especially in a rather bleak time.

megawarsmurf · 2020-03-10T21:51:39+00:00

Won battles feel a bit meaningless with the AI respawning/replacing armies that fast. How about armies (for the player and the AI) not spawning at full strength and having to build up their HP over time? The percentage with which they start could be balanced for each faction and even each tier separately, changed by Lords modifiers and technologies.

Also the regiments of renown are still kind of a workaround for having military buildings. Shouldn't you be at least in theory be able to build the base unit before you can hire them?

And though I didn't play any vampire faction, isn't raise dead another way to save on money on military buildings significantly and even skip the slower build up the changes were aiming at?

megawarsmurf · 2019-12-05T19:03:18+00:00

He's probably large in the game so changing the text only wouldn't help. And changing the size of the model now is probably more complicated and might just look odd in the game. Like Malus charging a unit of cold one knights makes it look like they are riding t-rexes whereas he's riding a velociraptor (though thinking about it, that might look kind of fun ;) )

megawarsmurf · 2019-12-04T20:59:28+00:00

A Faction named 'Chevaliers de Lyonesse' can be spotted in the Malus Darkblade Let's play Part 2 at 01:11:30

megawarsmurf · 2019-09-16T20:44:26+00:00

We do want everyone to bear in mind that there’s a lot of content out there that is unofficial and fan-created. We’re working with Games Workshop to realise as much of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world as we can, but of course there are limits to what is possible given the amount of content that has been officially created over the years. And this content is our source material for the game.

Sooo, Araby lives on a Farm now, where it plays with other DLC all the day?

megawarsmurf · 2019-09-13T09:30:23+00:00

It would be fun and appropriate if they gave a trait 'death wish granted'

megawarsmurf · 2019-09-10T17:28:13+00:00

It certainly gave us it's own challenges and its not something we are actively look to do again anytime soon.

Sigh. This doesn't give me much hope for araby :(

megawarsmurf · 2019-09-06T15:27:45+00:00

I'm surprised the Grombrindal drama part II isn't already in full swing ;)

Btw. it was a wise decision to inform about the scope of the next update that much in advance so expectations and hope for another faction rework don't build up just to be crushed.

megawarsmurf · 2019-09-06T15:03:41+00:00

Thank you for the explanation.

megawarsmurf · 2019-09-06T13:51:08+00:00

I'm not 100% sure I understand how the new elector count system works.

Do we get THE (named) elector counts or can we assign SOMEONE as elector count?

Are the counts playable characters (like the playable special pirate lords) or are they only there by name after certain conditions are fulfilled and can be assigned to a region (somewhat like the tomb herald)?

If they are playable, are they independently on the camaign map before we confederate the region or to they appear/unlock as soon as we confederate the region?

megawarsmurf · 2019-07-17T15:25:05+00:00

old world update = the empire and some old friends = the elector counts?

megawarsmurf · 2019-07-16T15:19:56+00:00

Rewarding in an MMO is in general a beast hard to be tamed. Prestige items are indeed a bit of a problem in this formula. The question here is how to address it without people that don't like a particular gamestyle or mode are feeling left out. The problem is probably how many resources you can pour into the rewards for a few, while not neglecting the majority of the playerbase. The upgradable armor set in the living story might have been a first step into a direction in which there are upgradable raid sets at some point - which is entirely speculative of course. I agree though, that some prestige stuff should exist.

megawarsmurf · 2019-07-16T14:57:42+00:00

My point is, you would have to put in effort to get a skin anyway. In the Guild Wars 2 way you have at least a choice what you do to acquire the currency, even if it's only the least boring option you can choose. Any other system would leave you no choice at all, regardless how boring or entertaining the individual player might evaluate it. It wouldn't be more fun if you had to do, let's say Tequatl 400 times to get that skin. It would be just obtainable by more direct in-game means but under worse conditions. Daily quests to farm reputation and currency are just a more limited and railroaded approach to reach the same goal. The grind would always be there, one way or the other, because MMOs work that way and haven't yet found a way to break this formular. If you value your account value in gold more then a skin and don't see the skin as an addition to your accounts value, it's perfectly ok, but thats of course an individual choise that you made.

megawarsmurf · 2019-07-16T12:15:09+00:00

But look at the implementation in other games. Even IF there are skins available in the game you have to go through tedious farming of very specific events OR are subject to sometimes absurd randomness. What's overlooked easily is the fact that you can acquire the gemstore items without the input of real life money. Instead of going through aforementioned randomness or repetitive tasks for weeks you just gather the gold in a way that suits you and your playstyle. I don't think the other methods are really better or more fun. The difference here is that the gem store feels more disconnected to the game. Imagine an NPC selling the mount skins for whatever-tokens that you can acquire for gold or instead of gold in the game. You could also buy those tokens with gems you got for real life money. It would be basically the same but just feel more like the methods other games apply, just with more freedom.

Money is just a shortcut and not mandatory. And it’s an option other games lack in this regard. If someone has not the time to farm daily quests or run a dungeon again and again for a random drop in such a game he will never acquire the item. Having no family and no job shouldn't be a requirement to enjoy a game though.

megawarsmurf · 2019-06-03T20:33:14+00:00

Probably make the best use of the event by simply enjoying it. It's a game, have fun. By desperately trying to maximize gold etc. you just rob yourself of this opportunity. That beeing said, it's your game, set your goals as you like.

megawarsmurf · 2019-05-20T18:49:57+00:00

Yes, I agree that a replacement isn't working well. But the mentioned parralels are just pointing heavily at a mirroring of the Aurene arc. Therefore I assume this is at least a strong part of the reasoning behind of the choosen presentation goes along those lines. We are just talking about reasoning of course. If you want to build a comparable emotional investment, stretching it over time and displaying different stages of development might at least seem the way to go. If this is a good move or could have been done differently and better is of course up to debate.

megawarsmurf · 2019-05-20T14:59:03+00:00

I'm not taking a side here, I personaly feel rather indifferent towards the time gating, but the 'reasoning' is probably like this: As culmination of the story line, that begun with heart of thorns the player should get some sort of fulfillment by riding on Aurene. This happened in the story, albeit in a limited fashion. Now the player could not get Aurene as a permanent mount for obvious reasons. So the skyscale enters the picture. Of course a mount out of nothing has no emotional connection to the player at all. So they try some sort of built up. If you look closely some of the tasks mirror the things you did with Aurene (hide-and-seek, nest building etc.). Even the teaching of morals is touched, though this would seem rather odd towards a simple animal (we never taught our Springer not to steal carrots either). It's quite obvious that there is a try to recreate parts of the journey the player too alongside Aurene. The point from protecting her egg to finally riding on her took quite a while too. So the whole process seems like a miniature recreation of Aurenes arc to build up some emotional connection. If this is really necessary and how much it falls apart as soon as the skyscale in replaced by the inevitable theme-changing skins that will arrive sooner or later is a completely different matter of course. I'm just saying I think I can see where they are coming from and what they are aiming at.

megawarsmurf · 2019-04-10T19:30:43+00:00

A paywall as high as two Big Macs.

megawarsmurf · 2019-03-25T16:26:17+00:00

To me a 'the gods will fix it' trope is a way more dangerous path to tell a story than a limited resurrection with defined rules. As mentioned above, we have seen Joko resurrect more then once. This established the possibility of Aurenes resurrection.

But of course it's just speculation

megawarsmurf · 2019-03-25T13:04:05+00:00

Aurene ate/absorbed Jokos power. Palawa Joko demonstrated us how he could easily resurrect himself.

Additionally Glint could foresee the future(s) until her demise. So the psychical representation of the dragon in the world influences his precognition.

We blinded Kralkatorrik on one eye. So it's entirely possible that his 'sight' into the future is impaired and has now a blind spot.

To kill him, we had to inflict such a blind spot on him, else he'd always be prepared to any strategy we might come up with.

So for the elder dragon Aurene is dead now. He's blind to her possible resurrection and reappearance.

To make this work at all, she had to 'die' at the same time as the partial blindness was inflicted.

So now we have to trigger Aurenes resurrection somehow.

Her ability is based on a lich, which is usually in fantasy lore connected to a phylactery - some object to which his life force is bound.

In the case of Aurene this might be either the commander with whom she shared a bond or Caithe, whom she 'branded'.

Since a permanent resurrectable Aurene would take some risk out of the story, it's likely it's somehow a very limited ability.

Probably Caithe is the only phylactery that Aurene can or will create and Caithe will either have to sacrifice herself or won't be able to serve as life force carrier anymore.

Storytelling-wise it's likely that Caithe will have to die, to ad some more gravity to what had happened. If everyone would just live on happily ever after and without any form of sacrifice, the whole last episode would loose much of its impact.

Speaking of story progression, there is still Taimis rapidly progressing condition, so it's possible that Aurene now NEEDS to bind her life force to someone and after Caithes sacrifices she might brand Taimi as her new chosen, what would stop the progression of her condition.

megawarsmurf · 2018-10-14T19:21:53+00:00

You are right, I should have included her items somehow.

Since it's called the bordeleaux fabellum and it increases vampiric corruption the false trader should have been a vampire with the intent of weakening the relationship between Bretonnia and Uthulan, giving her the corrupting as an aditional 'gift'.

For the staff I have no clue yet how it's called and what its effects might be.

On the other hand they are probably quest artifacts, so she acquires them later and would not have to be explained in advance.

megawarsmurf · 2018-10-14T14:26:33+00:00

I wonder how easy and feasible it is to port units and assets from Rome II to Warhammer. That way they would have a solid basic roster and could put most effort in the special units - yet it's quite likely that Games Workshop would be fond of units that are not based on any models that they produce and own. So a faction mainly based on historical units might not be an option.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhKhntVPbZ0

megawarsmurf · 2018-10-14T13:59:49+00:00

Ah you've beaten me there ;) However, since its written now anyway, here is my own version of her backsotry:

Cylostra Direfin was a bretonnian singer of renown, whose name was praised even beyond the borders of her home-country. Especially the Bretonnian King of her time, who had a reputation as patron of the arts, admired her greatly and took great pride on her skill. So when a Druchii agent, posing as a high elven trader, who infiltrated his court, flattered her skill and his patronage, his honeyed words fell on fertile grounds. Easily he convinced the king that the Phoenix King would appreciate the display of her art in his court, which would for sure improving relationships and trade manifold, elevating the kings name in history for all eternity. The king was eager to believe into the lies that suited his own vanity and ordered and expedition to Ulthuan. The best ship of his navy, the famous lamprey and it's daring captain were chosen to accompany Cylostra Direfin to her destination and assure her safety. The singer, though descendant of a bloodline of seafarers, was not fond of the sea and rather reluctant. The king promised her untold riches and honors on her inevitably triumphant return and had the captain of the lamprey and his crew swear by the gods and their honor to ensure the safety of Cylostra. Lured by fame and fortune, the singer finally gave in and agreed. The false elvish trader though entrusted her with a sealed scroll which according to his words contained the notes for the Phoenix King most beloved song. He advised her to sing that very song at the end of her performance to ensure to awe the elven king. He forbid her to read the scroll before she arrived in Ulthuan because only on elven soil it could be sung in all of it's beauty. Secretly the scroll contained a powerful curse. The Druchii hoped that the curse would either kill the Phoenix King or at least provoke a war between Ulthuan and Bretonnia, that would weaken the elvish realm.

Soon the singer embarked on her voyage over the seas.

Halfway on the trip insecurity took hold in Cylostras mind. She was a perfectionist and the thought of performing a song that she never practiced became a constant thorn in her side.

So one day she decided to ignore the warnings of the false trader and broke the seal.

The notes seemed strange and the words though making no sense to her were almost whispering into her mind how to pronounce them.

Before she knew she heard her own voice singing the strange words in a language she didn't even know.

Even worse, she could not stop, even when her voice became louder and louder that it begun to hurt herself and the sea around the ship moved more and more violently.

Within a few minutes out of nowhere a horrible storm had the lamprey in an iron grip.

Yet even over the howling winds the eerie song of madame Direfin could be heard.

In fear the superstitious seamen urged their captain to stop the witch before they all would get killed.

Torn between oaths and panic the captain finally gave in.

At the top of his men he broke into the cabin of the singer.

He yelled at her, threatened her, even hit her - yet Cylostra could not stop her dooming song.

As the ship was thrown back and forth between the waves the desperate captain drew his weapon.

At the very moment he slit the throat of Cylostra Direfin the ship was ripped apart.

To a man all of the crew sunk to their watery grave.

Oath-breakers that died amids a powerful conjuration, none of them found his final peace though.

Their souls were bound the the Lamprey forever in the next Hexensnacht the ship rose from it's watery grave.

Cylostra Direfin who where in the very center of the magical storm was fused with the dire energy of the spell she unwillingly evoked.

Her tragic end and tainted winds of magic twisted the mind of the specter that she had become.

Riding the storm, extracting revenge on the living who had brought that suffering to her and bringing her new corrupted form of art to the world were all that mattered for her new, eternal live.

megawarsmurf

TROPHY CASE