February 7th, 2016, 14:38
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
So, uh, the illusions created by a Balseraph city with a Hall of Mirrors are permanent. Should that be the case? I was able to exploit this in a SP game to gain an endless supply of free Mages and Catapults. Investigating further, I learned that they would also replicate hostle great people- one free great person per turn per city with a HoM. Illusory great people are functionally identical to standard ones.
This has some rather startling implications. A Svartalfar leader could declare war on an allied Balseraph player and park a great person outside a HoM-equipped city. After a certain number of turns they could then make peace and capture a portion of them back using their Kidnap ability. Or a Balseraph and Elohim pair could replicate an endless number of great people between them (with the Elohim using a captured city).
Great person manipulation probably isn't possible in SP, but you can easily copy an arbitrary number of T4 units, highly-promoted Mages, Heroes, etc; just kill all of the other units in an AI stack and then use Sun II or an equivalent spell to lock the unit you want in place.
February 7th, 2016, 16:22
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
More testing...
You can copy an endless supply of Bridgits by building a city next to the Ring of Carcer and rushing a HoM, but thankfully the units you'll receive are the 0 movement, no stats version, and they don't revive if you delete them.
You can trap a barbarian elephant next to a city, rush a HoM and receive one illusory elephant per turn. For best results, feed the elephant some exp first to give it some combat promos. Elephant illusions are pretty nasty defenders.
Any barbarian "guardian" unit placed by a mapmaker can be endlessly copied. They'll still be useful city defenders even if they're "held", plus you can potentially shuttle them around with boats.
Obviously the "stunlock a powerful unit next to a HoM city" strategy will work against human players, although we're much better about not camping directly next to city tiles than the AI.
This building is utterly broken though. Not sure why I didn't realize until today that it gives you permanent summons. I'm sure there are plenty of other absurd abuses I haven't thought of yet- like, you can probably use it to jack the AC up crazy high by copying certain units. Or, oh, just cajole one of the Four Horsemen into camping outside a HoM city and rejoice as you receive one essentially invulnerable flying unit a turn plus their gear.
February 7th, 2016, 16:24
Posts: 10,057
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Wow.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
February 8th, 2016, 18:43
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I had a fun unexpected minor bug (or unexpected feature...) in my latest game.
When trying to spread Order (while in Order religion) into a city with AV religion present, even if the the AV won the "street bloodbath", you still get a crusader+acolyte (if you have all required techs).
Best part is the acolyte is active and you can try his luck again immediately.
The sequence ends when the Order is finally victorious, the city gets Order as (one) religion and remove the AV.
In my last game, I had to do try 4 times for a net gain of 4 crusaders before managing to convert the city.
It is hardly game-breaking, but EitB should probably check that Order was indeed spread before giving free unit(s).
Jabah
February 8th, 2016, 19:46
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Yeah, definitely. Of course, from a mechanical standpoint, 3pop for a crusader isn't a trade worth taking. It's the thematic problems that makes that worth changing.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
February 9th, 2016, 02:56
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(February 8th, 2016, 19:46)Qgqqqqq Wrote: Yeah, definitely. Of course, from a mechanical standpoint, 3pop for a crusader isn't a trade worth taking. It's the thematic problems that makes that worth changing. I didn't get the impression I was losing pop when getting a crusader (each time) while spreading the religion for the first time in a city ? (that was part of the conversion deal : acolyte+crusader for free)
February 9th, 2016, 05:25
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Huh? That event (Veil and Order fight in the street) is meant to kill off 2-3 pop.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
February 9th, 2016, 15:28
Posts: 960
Threads: 18
Joined: Apr 2004
(February 9th, 2016, 05:25)Qgqqqqq Wrote: Huh? That event (Veil and Order fight in the street) is meant to kill off 2-3 pop.
I didn't pay attention to it, but definitely didn't lose 8-12 pop or I would have noticed (I hope anyway  ).
What is supposed to happen to a city that is size 2-3 in that case ?
(I have deleted all saved after finishing, so I can't check)
February 9th, 2016, 17:20
Posts: 10,057
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Hmm. Based off the behavior of River of Blood, probably nothing. Which, whilst I recall Terkhen fixing it, is not something I mind much.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
February 19th, 2016, 12:07
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
Boat promotions need some work. The text for longshoreman doesn't accurately reflect that it reduces strength, not cargo capacity, and the promotion still acts like it restricts passengers- for example, if you load two units in a Frigate, and then take longshoreman, one will be automatically disembarked, but if you take the promotion first you can load both normally.
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