Please post the screenshot Commodore...and get ready for the abuse to begin.

@SevenSpirits & anyone else from another team still lurking this sub-forum, please do not read any farther in this thread

Much to my surprise, I would like to head the C&D department. I have just started doing analysis in my PBEM, and it won't be much extra effort to do it here as well. I will need lots of advice and at least one loyal volunteer who can help out with the grunt work.

Enemy spies, beware!!

So I like to write, especially things that say something, but can mean something entirely different. That is to say, analogic pieces. Take this as tongue in cheek as possible, because that's how I wrote it. It was more for the exercise of writing than any relaying of my actual feelings of the game/company. I appreciate any feedback. Yes, it's about D3.

---

Remember that girl who was your childhood friend? The one you started to date when you were a teen? The one who moved away after high-school, yet neither of you wanted to say goodbye? She was a normal girl, not concerned about being too pretty, but pretty nonetheless. She had heart and soul, and never tried to control you.

Remember that time her parents came home early, and you hid under her bed until they had gone to sleep? You didn't even leave then--you stayed there the whole night, and went back under her bed to sleep. Remember that time you were bored and hungry, when you found a five underneath your couch cushion? You took her for some couch-money fast food, and it was great. She'd always give you little gifts. They were never anything great, but they were special, because it was the thought that counted. She'd always cheer you up when you were feeling down, she'd make you feel awesome when you felt like crap. She'd always find something entertaining to do with you when you were bored. And best of all, she was always around when you needed her.

Well, she came back, ten years later. You were the first person she saw, or maybe it was you who first saw her. You were waiting for this moment for oh so long, even though you convinced yourself you weren't. Why wouldn't you be, you never stopped loving her. She wants to get back together with you, and of course, without hesitation, you say you feel the same.

She's grown up, as have you. Now she's under a layer of make-up and hotter than ever, while your still the same as the day she left. You two have the times of your lives together, and everything seems perfect, for a while. As time goes on, something feels off about her. You can't quite put your finger on it, so you go with it anyways; you want this, she wants this. A lot of the time, she tells you what to do, how to act, and frowns at you when you act strange. It shouldn't be strange, you think, we we're like this before.

She likes to go out a lot, without you. You're fine with it, adults have lives. You like to call her every once in a while, or just text, but it never gets answered. Some days you plan to do something with her, and then she 'has something come up' at the last minute and has to leave. She hasn't even told you what that something is.

You start to suspect, even though you don't want to. You ask her about it, but she denies it all. She just doesn't seem right, and that makes you worry. You look depressed, but she never even bothers to ask. And one time, during sex, she complained that you were going too fast, and told you to slow down by at least half; all cause she was to tired.

You think to ask her parents why she's like she is, and they tell you simply, people change. She's seen some stuff, she's different now, she's been with different people, and let others show her how to live. Her parents influence has all but left her; she cast it off and moved on.

You try to keep it together, you still love her, you think. Sometimes, when you go out on the town with her, she goads you into buying something for her. How can you resist giving her that smile she gets when you do? So you do. But you start to have financial trouble. You've spent a lot of money on her, but it was all in good, right? You've always been good with your money, though, and you have to pay the bills first and foremost. It's got to stop, you're going to go broke, and so you cut down.

You can't believe it, she complains about it. She tells you you haven't gotten her a gift in at least a week. At least a week, you think, that should be good enough for anyone. But not her. You try to explain to her you've gone a little over your means, but she won't listen. The next day, you find your spare house keys, the ones you lent her, sitting on the kitchen counter. She's gone. But somehow, that's not the saddest part. She's drained you dry and left you desolate. She's danced on your emotions. She used your memories, and left muddy footprints on them. Then tore apart your wallet. Because that was all she cared about from the time she returned, till now.

1) I buy Diablo 3.

2) I finish act 1. It tells me to buy the full edition to continue and then just leaves me in the final room with no further information.

3) I spend hours trying to debug and fix this issue. Finally I come across a news article that says that Blizzard added this "feature" on purpose. Apparently I can't buy the game I bought for them for 3 days. And the way they implemented it was by telling me that I haven't bought it yet. How is that even legal????

This thread will eventually morph into the typical promotion and download page

ZiKy - Flexibility and Speed

As you may have noticed from a couple of threads, Kyrub and I have leaked the early development on a mod we are working on. This will not be a more polished version of the rough 'insecticide+zitro'; mod that was posted in April. Our vision implements new, fresh ideas to our 'flexibility and speed'; theme. Please note that 'flexibility' does not necessarily mean ridiculous balance where everything is equally good. That is a recipe for boredom. It simply means that players have many more winning strategies at their disposal.

This is not a mod-friendly game, but we will try to get the following ideas working in our mod. Our success can be dependent on your support and enthusiasm.

Speed
_This element predictably borrows very heavily from Zitro's Balance and Speed. If you are unfamiliar with the mod, ZiKy will increase city growth by an average of 20/turn, nearly double outpost growth, increase the chances of mercenaries, and increase movement speed by 1 point in average.

Races
_Each race can be easily distinguished - there will be more distinct bonuses such as high men-+1 research point per 3,000 population
_Some races have alternate terrain bonuses and penalties.
_Each race has a winning strategy. There are no weak races, unless you do not know how to use a race's full potential.
_Building limitations are less harsh.

Wizards
_When creating a wizard/witch, you have up to 10 points to choose from. A maximum of 8 points can be utilized for books, leaving at least 2 points for wizard picks.
_You may no longer start with a rare spell by choosing maximum number of books. In fact, number of starting spells is substantially lowered.
_Several wizard pick bonuses overhauled. New system enhances flexibility and fun factor.

Realms/Magic/Research
_Research Costs standardized within each bracket (common, uncommon, etc). Research costs jump dramatically between each bracket.
_Your research spellbook will no longer be filled with arcane spells
_Spells now will get progressively more cost-effective. Rare spells are all quite powerful
_Very rare spells are incredibly tide-turning and also have the potential for exploits. This may be unbalanced, but in a fun way.
_Several new or modified spells.
_Magic realms are balanced in effectiveness, yet distinct thematically. Every realm (or combination) can have a winning strategy.
_It is now less beneficial for players to pick multi-colored, node mastery wizards.
_You need a certain number of books to obtain advanced spells with rewards and diplomacy

City
_New buildings postponement factor: every city has 5 status Hamlet, Village, Town, City, Capital. They are based on city population (1-4-8-12-15). Buildings will have a number in parenthesis indicating the level necessary for availability.
_More separated usage for buildings (military buildings are separated from buildings giving units experience levels, buildings improving speed of growth from buildings giving food). However, some buildings still have 2 or more goals, giving them supportive role if the first one is unfulfilled.
_Religious buildings = an important source of mana, with only Cathedral giving raw power
_No useless buildings solely used for building requirements. Every building should have its rationale.
_Some buildings replaced while Maritime Guild completely removed.
_Less prerequisites of type: I need University because of War college (but I don't need research).
_Loose tree, various goals, alternative playing styles
_Early buildings more useful for small towns.
_Cost of rush-buying is increased.
_Production carries over to next project.
_Modified terrain and resource bonuses.

Unrest
_Racial Tension (Unrest in Conquered Cities) simplified and standardized. The unrest is now 2 in most circumstances. It is 1 when it involves a friendly race; (halflings, dwarves) and it is 3 when it involves an unfriendly race (e.g. Klackons)
_There is a new building that quells racial tension
_Racial Tension also increases cost of recruiting units.
_Garrison units can only remove up to 2 unrest points instead of 4.
_Tax system more flexible.

Units and Experience
_No useless units. Every unit should have its rationale. Some units boosted, others weakened.
_Spearmen, swordsmen, bowmen, halberdiers, and cavalry are pricier and better in combat.
_Recruit -> Regular -> Hardened -> Veteran -> Elite.
_Bonuses are more gradual per promotion as opposed to veteran -> elite getting it all in 1.31.
_Elite is somewhat comparable to ultra-elite in effectiveness, enhancing normal unit strength later in the game (but later summons are stronger)
_Warlord or Crusade help you reach Champion.
_Experience bonuses from heroes is quite different.
_Units get higher rewards from tougher enemies. It will not be unusual earning over 20 exp after a difficult lair.

Summons
_One of 1.31s worst fails. Units have more specific uses, different capabilities and are arguably more useful overall. Conjurer wizards benefit the most.
_Common - An early alternative to normal units if you lack food or have a starting race with weak early military.
_Uncommon - Generally lower in cost. Weaker 1.31 summons have better statistics. More cost-effective than common.
_Rare - Significantly stronger than in 1.31. Highly cost-effective despite high costs.
_Very Rare - Incredibly powerful, nearly unstoppable creatures but most need much higher cost and upkeep than 1.31

Lairs
_Emphasis on uncommon and rare creatures. Less frequency of easy lairs with few common units. Lairs with a single war bear almost unheard of.
_Towers will be difficult.
_Lair difficulty and magnitude of rewards will be more closely connected. You will not earn a very rare spell after defeating a couple of basilisks.

Combat
_Walls are much more effective, making disrupt, wall crushers, and flyers more useful.
_Combat mechanics such as poison, stoning, first strike, flying, among many others are altered while a couple new ones are introduced. This was a success and will be shared at a later date in more detail
_There is more emphasis on armor on units as 2nd unit promotion hardened grants +1 to defend.
_+1 to defend bug does no longer reduce opponent's to hit rating and is therefore less overpowered.
_Summoning Sickness (summoned combat units cannot act on first turn)
_Different retreat mechanism.
_Less emphasis on non-chaos direct damage spells, especially from AI.

Fame and Mercenaries
_Fame determines availability of mercenaries of higher cost, better magical weapons (up to adamantium), and experience (up to champion). Also, the more fame, the more often you get offers.
_Buildings (oracle) can build up fame. Battles and Just Cause are not the only way to build up fame.
_Fame now affects summon hero spell

AI and Difficulty
_Insecticide 1.40m is the basis.
_Flexibility theme of mod translates to AI being punished less for poor unit, building, summon, and spell choices.
_Difficulty expected to be harder than 1.31. The abandoned 'balance and speed and insecticide' is a fair point of reference
_New difficulty level extreme falls in between hard and impossible

Now that all of the nine teams have gone through the snake pick, we can post some thoughts on how things shook out. My thoughts are in this first post, all of you are welcome to add your own thoughts below.

Actual snake pick order:

Quote:1. Team WePlayCiv - Ragnar (Fin/Agg)
2. Team Civforum.de - Inca
3. Team Apolyton - Elizabeth (Fin/Phi)
4. Team Spanish Apolyton - Boudica (Agg/Chr)
5. Team Civfanatics - India
6. Team CivPlayers - Darius (Fin/Org)
7. Team Realms Beyond - Pacal (Fin/Exp)
8. Team UniversCivilization - Holy Roman Empire
9. Team Civfr - Willem (Fin/Cre)

10. Team Civfr - Mayans
11. Team UniversCivilization - Mehmed (Exp/Org)
12. Team Realms Beyond - Egypt
13. Team CivPlayers - Aztecs
14. Team Civfanatics - Mansa Musa (Fin/Spi)
15. Team Spanish Apolyton - Zulus
16. Team Apolyton - Ottomans
17. Team Civforum.de - Isabella (Exp/Spi)
18. Team WePlayCiv - Native Americans

Tracker : http://mistbinder.org/tracker/tracker.php?game=pf2

Player List

Sian of Morgan Industries : Sianist at Gmail
Mardoc of Pirates : RBMardoc at Gmail
Maniac of Data Angels : Peter_Steenbeke at Hotmail
Sareln of Cybernetic Consciousness : Sareln09 at Gmail
Iskender of Spatans : Rbiskender at Gmail

T-hawk Wrote:Since it's getting cluttered in the main discussion thread, please use this thread to work out the forum access schemes. Forum access can be handled separately for each team. These would be the choices, which each team can make at their discretion:

A) Fully private, only approved members let in. This would be set up just like the CFC demogame. You must specify one or more team captains to be in charge of approving requests. "Global lurkers" would apply to each team that wants this scheme. (It's up to the captain whether to accept all requests or be more discerning.)

B) Open to all logged in users. Not visible without a login.

C) Open to all, even without any login.

Members of each team will be banned from all other team forums. In case B, this prevents cheating unless someone registers a sock puppet account. In case C, this prevents only accidental cheating (via New Posts or similar) because someone could just log out.

Each team please post here when you've decided what you want to do.

Hi All

Thx for reading, those 60+ views can't all have been bots.
I got D3 up and running since this week and got a Wizard (Magica) in Heaven, Normal diff.
Heartbreaker is lvl 9 and stuck on King Leoric.
Now, since this encounter is obviously aimed at noobies in blue gear using several skills and a follower, I have a quick question for y'all:

Can you accept the services of a Templar for the 1 fight and then ditch him?

Thx in advance for any help,
Moriah.