Re: all in one year (Or, Ernalda Hates Me, This I Know)

From: Martin Crim <mcrim_at_...>
Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 08:01:18 -0400


At 09:59 PM 5/7/2000 -0700, Matt wrote:
>Martin,
>I have some questions and comments about you misfortunes.
>
>>-a continuing drought could not be broken by sacrificing to Heler OR the
>>O&A quest; dozens or hundreds of cows died
>
>You successfully completed the O&A quest and it didn't help, or you
>attempted to do the quest and failed? If it is the first, then I'd be
>really annoyed with the designers of the game, if it is the second,
>I'd be looking to hire some better Orlanthi god talkers.

The second; if only your solution were possible.

>>-I had to promise favors to two clans for crossing their tulas, even though
>>there was no reason to cross their tulas
>
>Is it possible to get lost when going on a raid and inadvertently
>cross someone else's tula? Or perhaps the raiders are taking the long
>way to the enemy tula in an attempt to avoid patrols. Or perhaps it
>is a bug...

There's a clear path across uninhabited land, some of which we'd have to cross regardless of whether we traipse across a neighbor's land. One of the clans turned us down flat once before, but the game doesn't remember that when selecting a path.

Edward wrote:
>>-several messages told me that I was short on carls, even though I'm not
>
>My theory on this is that your top farmer is looking at momentary numbers,
>not baseline.

Yes, that's true but it doesn't explain these errant messages.

I should have added that I was low on cows anyhow, despite spending a year bringing up my cow population by raiding. I gained over 150 cows, but the gain was dissipated within 2 years. Once you fall below about 9 cows for every 10 people, you can never have a self-sustaining population of cows again.

It's possible that the drought was due to failing the Ernalda quest, as the quester died fighting Daga. This was the default quester, I'd just like to point out.

Due to the low cow population, the drought effectively ended the game. I'd sort of like to know whether the drought WAS due to the failed heroquest or was just a random event--i.e., was it due to trusting the game to pick a quester with a chance of success or was it due to plain bad luck? Either way, it's a design flaw.

In general, KoDP seems like a good game in concept, but the randomness quotient is rather high. It's like playing dice with yourself, or playing AH's Down with the King, where it was theoretically possible that skill or strategy could affect the outcome... but don't bet on it. In KoDP, the good luck doesn't help that much and the bad luck'll kill ya. Even the kite contest, which is the best bit of luck I've had when it gave me ca. 25 magic, didn't make that much difference in the long run.

Oh, I should have mentioned that in a little over a year, my magic point total went from the 40's to -1. Partly due to the previously mentioned bugs with regard to whether someone was paying me tribute, partly due to 2 failed heroquests, the rest from sacred time rituals and spending on raids that I had to win in order to replenish my herds.

--Martin

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