Buddy/Ignore List
11-19-2023, 07:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-19-2023, 07:15 AM by Maximus Dominus.)
The Demon Princes is such a fun a kingdom to play. In fact, I'm currently playing in three different games as the Demon Princes.
Especially if your military is weak, the Demon Prince characters provide a degree of viable options to the player. For the most part, I have played the Demon Princes, to date, with weak a military - partly due to less-than-ideal game play, and partly due to a deliberate choice on my part to hamstring my kingdom with an under-supported military.
Is the kingdom overpowered, though? All things considered, I am hard-pressed to just come right out and say that they are. Certainly, in Game 5703, where I am waging an extended war against both the Giants and the Red Dragon, I sure don't feel like my kingdom is overpowered. Of course, a Demon Princes player will not always find themself in that particular situation, but when and if they do find themselves trying to go toe-to-toe against militarily-capable and militarily-powerful kingdoms, if the Demon Princes kingdom were to be weakened through design changes, I can't help but to question what that would translate into, in practical terms, for a new player or for a player of average Alamaze skill trying to play this kingdom?
Of the various different Alamaze kingdoms that I have played, thus far, which is roughly a half-dozen or so (without actually going back and counting them), the Demon Princes kingdom is the kingdom that has brought me the most fun playing. Winning and losing aren't really why I like to play games, especially wargames, but in certain ways, the Demon Princes definitely do not feel like a generic kingdom.
Could this kingdom be injected with even more energy and fun, via changes to its underlying design? Absolutely. Positively. The core of this kingdom's design, though, is solid. I hadn't thought of the term that I previously used to describe the Demon Princes kingdom (Prime Disruptive Force), lately. That's what it is, though. Having three Demon Princes at game start is great, but gaining that fourth Demon Prince character from obtaining your Early Strategic Objectives (ESO) is even better. Such a pity that the demon princes kingdom doesn't continue to receive even more of these fabulously-designed characters. Truly, they are prime Grade-A beef.
The Demon Prince characters, themselves, are far from omnipotent. I've had them to get themselves captured. I've had them fail their assigned missions on numerous different occasions. But that's more of a player failure than a character-design flaw, where these wonderful characters are concerned.
All things considered, on average, do I think that the Demon Princes kingdom is the kingdom in Alamaze that is most likely to dominate and to win? Nope. Unless, of course, what you mean by that question is are the Demon Princes likely to dominate and win, in terms of the fun factor, aka as in how much fun that you can have by playing them.
With Alamaze still currently suffering from its intentionally-designed gold dependency, the Demon Princes aren't always able to exploit their greatest advantage - namely, maximizing the use of their Demon Prince characters, specifically. And at the very beginning of the game, aside from trying to use them against major cities, which are plainly visible on the game map (which is fraught with risk of failure, as I have learned on more than one occasion), the Demon Princes demonic gate "advantage" is slow to exploit - until and unless you are able to successfully search for population centers. Sometimes, having to search for population centers just works out such that you find little or no population centers, for the first turn or two. Bad luck in tracking down the location of population centers can hamstring the Demon Princes, leaving the kingdom in the unenviable position of getting off to a slow start. Time is especially of the essence, at the beginning of a new game of Alamaze. It can be hard to make up for lost time.
I really like the overall feel of this kingdom, even if I do still suck at maximizing my use of its available range of advantages.
You know, Alamaze has some really great elements of game design interwoven in its programming. A kingdom of Demon Princes should rightly be feared. It's presence in a game of Alamaze should conjure up a stark feeling of dread. Other kingdoms should be fearful of provoking its wrath. If it were up to me, I would build on the kingdom's current demonic gate capability. All new characters of this kingdom should have a chance to have a demonic gate capability, even if it's just a relatively small chance. Maybe your new Ambassador can use demonic gates, but your new governor can't. I tend to favor the injection of more elements of the unknown into the game, as I think that helps to keep the mystery of each game at an individual level.
Why Demonic Princes aren't capable of possessing other characters, who knows? Demonic possession in Alamaze could be of the temporary nature, a random number of turns. It wouldn't have to necessarily be of the permanent variety, as Lycans turning other characters into werewolves is currently implemented.
I always view the Demon Princes kingdom to be a physical manifestation of Hell on whatever planet that Alamaze takes place on (be it Earth or otherwise). If left unchecked, aside from gaining control of regions in the typical ways, how do you imbue this kingdom with more of a feel of Hell taking over a physical world? That's what I think, more than anything else, is missing from the current design of this kingdom. Instead, the kingdom shares a generic quality and feel, in that it's actually as much of a wizard kingdom as it is a demon kingdom. Alamaze is addicted to - and shortchanged by - its over-reliance upon wizards as the primary mechanism whereby magic is channeled into action.
Winning and losing have their respective places in the overall scheme of things, I suppose, but the grandest achievement that any game can offer is its fun factor. The greatest form of winning in a game is the sense of enjoyment experienced by playing it.
Especially if your military is weak, the Demon Prince characters provide a degree of viable options to the player. For the most part, I have played the Demon Princes, to date, with weak a military - partly due to less-than-ideal game play, and partly due to a deliberate choice on my part to hamstring my kingdom with an under-supported military.
Is the kingdom overpowered, though? All things considered, I am hard-pressed to just come right out and say that they are. Certainly, in Game 5703, where I am waging an extended war against both the Giants and the Red Dragon, I sure don't feel like my kingdom is overpowered. Of course, a Demon Princes player will not always find themself in that particular situation, but when and if they do find themselves trying to go toe-to-toe against militarily-capable and militarily-powerful kingdoms, if the Demon Princes kingdom were to be weakened through design changes, I can't help but to question what that would translate into, in practical terms, for a new player or for a player of average Alamaze skill trying to play this kingdom?
Of the various different Alamaze kingdoms that I have played, thus far, which is roughly a half-dozen or so (without actually going back and counting them), the Demon Princes kingdom is the kingdom that has brought me the most fun playing. Winning and losing aren't really why I like to play games, especially wargames, but in certain ways, the Demon Princes definitely do not feel like a generic kingdom.
Could this kingdom be injected with even more energy and fun, via changes to its underlying design? Absolutely. Positively. The core of this kingdom's design, though, is solid. I hadn't thought of the term that I previously used to describe the Demon Princes kingdom (Prime Disruptive Force), lately. That's what it is, though. Having three Demon Princes at game start is great, but gaining that fourth Demon Prince character from obtaining your Early Strategic Objectives (ESO) is even better. Such a pity that the demon princes kingdom doesn't continue to receive even more of these fabulously-designed characters. Truly, they are prime Grade-A beef.
The Demon Prince characters, themselves, are far from omnipotent. I've had them to get themselves captured. I've had them fail their assigned missions on numerous different occasions. But that's more of a player failure than a character-design flaw, where these wonderful characters are concerned.
All things considered, on average, do I think that the Demon Princes kingdom is the kingdom in Alamaze that is most likely to dominate and to win? Nope. Unless, of course, what you mean by that question is are the Demon Princes likely to dominate and win, in terms of the fun factor, aka as in how much fun that you can have by playing them.
With Alamaze still currently suffering from its intentionally-designed gold dependency, the Demon Princes aren't always able to exploit their greatest advantage - namely, maximizing the use of their Demon Prince characters, specifically. And at the very beginning of the game, aside from trying to use them against major cities, which are plainly visible on the game map (which is fraught with risk of failure, as I have learned on more than one occasion), the Demon Princes demonic gate "advantage" is slow to exploit - until and unless you are able to successfully search for population centers. Sometimes, having to search for population centers just works out such that you find little or no population centers, for the first turn or two. Bad luck in tracking down the location of population centers can hamstring the Demon Princes, leaving the kingdom in the unenviable position of getting off to a slow start. Time is especially of the essence, at the beginning of a new game of Alamaze. It can be hard to make up for lost time.
I really like the overall feel of this kingdom, even if I do still suck at maximizing my use of its available range of advantages.
You know, Alamaze has some really great elements of game design interwoven in its programming. A kingdom of Demon Princes should rightly be feared. It's presence in a game of Alamaze should conjure up a stark feeling of dread. Other kingdoms should be fearful of provoking its wrath. If it were up to me, I would build on the kingdom's current demonic gate capability. All new characters of this kingdom should have a chance to have a demonic gate capability, even if it's just a relatively small chance. Maybe your new Ambassador can use demonic gates, but your new governor can't. I tend to favor the injection of more elements of the unknown into the game, as I think that helps to keep the mystery of each game at an individual level.
Why Demonic Princes aren't capable of possessing other characters, who knows? Demonic possession in Alamaze could be of the temporary nature, a random number of turns. It wouldn't have to necessarily be of the permanent variety, as Lycans turning other characters into werewolves is currently implemented.
I always view the Demon Princes kingdom to be a physical manifestation of Hell on whatever planet that Alamaze takes place on (be it Earth or otherwise). If left unchecked, aside from gaining control of regions in the typical ways, how do you imbue this kingdom with more of a feel of Hell taking over a physical world? That's what I think, more than anything else, is missing from the current design of this kingdom. Instead, the kingdom shares a generic quality and feel, in that it's actually as much of a wizard kingdom as it is a demon kingdom. Alamaze is addicted to - and shortchanged by - its over-reliance upon wizards as the primary mechanism whereby magic is channeled into action.
Winning and losing have their respective places in the overall scheme of things, I suppose, but the grandest achievement that any game can offer is its fun factor. The greatest form of winning in a game is the sense of enjoyment experienced by playing it.
