07-28-2016, 06:01 PM
Let me start by explaining that this is NOT a criticism of the game. I have played Alamaze for a long time and I intend to continue playing. I am posting this information to highlight the fact that Alamaze requires a good amount of skill but luck plays a very significant factor.
I am not a lucky person, I don’t play the LOTTO games because I rarely even get one number correct. This holds true in Alamaze as well, in fact among my friends who play Alamaze we have a running joke. When someone receives a really bad turn it is called George luck.
An Alamaze game recently completed in which I was very frustrated. It seemed that almost everything I tried failed. I decided to track the luck based activates where I had knowledge of my success rate. The agent success rates were taken from the Second Cycle player aid so I expect my anticipated success rate is a little off. I will highlight the areas where I expect the success rates have changed. I will also post the exact activates that were attempted with any special circumstances that would impact the activity.
On activates with a 50% success chance, all of these are wizards trying to exceed their maximum level by 1, I tried 6 times and succeeded once for a success rate of 16%. This was not a magic based kingdom so I needed to reach level 7 to gain Dome of Invulnerability. Each attempt cost 70k gold. I think everyone can understand the negative impact to these failures.
Activates with a 60% to 65% success chance, all of these were assassination attempts against emmies that were warded. According to the spell, ward grants a 20% bonus against assassination attempts. This 20% is already considered in the success chance. Success rate was 1 of 3, 33%.
70% -75% this is a mix of activities and I think this is one area where my anticipated success rate is off. Two attempts to steal artifacts, I think this is much harder in the Choosing then it was in the second cycle, two attempts to assassinate warlords, again much harder now, and one attempt to assassinate a slept count. Success rate 2 of 5, 40%.
85% - two assassination attempts against slept emmies using a demon dagger and one attempt to steal an artifact. 2 of 3 for 66%
95% - 97%, another mix of activates, 5 attempts to assassinate low level emmies and 3 attempts to sabotage food . Success rate 6 of 8 or 75%.
Note that my overall success rate on all activates was 48%.
Talking with some of my Alamaze friends they tend to have better luck then I do. Some report significantly higher success rates at exceeding maximum magic levels then I experience.
Failure on any one of these individual activates did not make a significant impact on my game but as an aggregate it was a significant factor. This would be doubly true if my opponents in this game were lucky.
Just as an extra point I tracked the success of my Fool at raising my influence. Over 28 attempts he achieved an average .15 increase. The statistical average is .2.
There is no way for me to know how this game would have changed if my success rate had been closer to the expected rates but I do know that my opponents would have had a much tougher time.
I believe that luck is one of the major factors in winning a game of Alamaze and agent actions and mage progression is a small part of that. Not being attacked in the early stages of the game plays even a bigger factor.
I hope you all have GOOD LUCK in your future games.
I am not a lucky person, I don’t play the LOTTO games because I rarely even get one number correct. This holds true in Alamaze as well, in fact among my friends who play Alamaze we have a running joke. When someone receives a really bad turn it is called George luck.
An Alamaze game recently completed in which I was very frustrated. It seemed that almost everything I tried failed. I decided to track the luck based activates where I had knowledge of my success rate. The agent success rates were taken from the Second Cycle player aid so I expect my anticipated success rate is a little off. I will highlight the areas where I expect the success rates have changed. I will also post the exact activates that were attempted with any special circumstances that would impact the activity.
On activates with a 50% success chance, all of these are wizards trying to exceed their maximum level by 1, I tried 6 times and succeeded once for a success rate of 16%. This was not a magic based kingdom so I needed to reach level 7 to gain Dome of Invulnerability. Each attempt cost 70k gold. I think everyone can understand the negative impact to these failures.
Activates with a 60% to 65% success chance, all of these were assassination attempts against emmies that were warded. According to the spell, ward grants a 20% bonus against assassination attempts. This 20% is already considered in the success chance. Success rate was 1 of 3, 33%.
70% -75% this is a mix of activities and I think this is one area where my anticipated success rate is off. Two attempts to steal artifacts, I think this is much harder in the Choosing then it was in the second cycle, two attempts to assassinate warlords, again much harder now, and one attempt to assassinate a slept count. Success rate 2 of 5, 40%.
85% - two assassination attempts against slept emmies using a demon dagger and one attempt to steal an artifact. 2 of 3 for 66%
95% - 97%, another mix of activates, 5 attempts to assassinate low level emmies and 3 attempts to sabotage food . Success rate 6 of 8 or 75%.
Note that my overall success rate on all activates was 48%.
Talking with some of my Alamaze friends they tend to have better luck then I do. Some report significantly higher success rates at exceeding maximum magic levels then I experience.
Failure on any one of these individual activates did not make a significant impact on my game but as an aggregate it was a significant factor. This would be doubly true if my opponents in this game were lucky.
Just as an extra point I tracked the success of my Fool at raising my influence. Over 28 attempts he achieved an average .15 increase. The statistical average is .2.
There is no way for me to know how this game would have changed if my success rate had been closer to the expected rates but I do know that my opponents would have had a much tougher time.
I believe that luck is one of the major factors in winning a game of Alamaze and agent actions and mage progression is a small part of that. Not being attacked in the early stages of the game plays even a bigger factor.
I hope you all have GOOD LUCK in your future games.