armageddon counter

[thanatopsis]

What do you guys think about the armageddon counter?

Personally I think it is a great thing to include it in a RTS game. A way to force everyone to show some common sense using nuclear weapons.

Although I have to say that I was pretty disappointed when it ran out for the first time. Bang and everybody lost. On the plus side this is a nice way to end an unpleasent game. They could have included a nice video or some goodie here.

But well, it's probably better not to reward people for blowing up the world.

[Inverse Icarus]

thats why when you nuke, you gotta nuke en masse.

all you need is 2 silos, ICBMS, artificial intelligence, and a lot of money.

[Bridger]

Here's the thing, the armagedon counter is a double edged sword. On the one hand if you use nukes a lot and get it down to 2. You've total crushed your oponant with all those nukes, BUT now he only has to launch 2 nukes in order to force a tie rather than loose.

So if your winning it's best not to use nukes (or use them sparingly), it only makes it easier for your oponant to force a tie. If you want the win for sure go conventional (or few nukes).

I think this is a great way to allow nukes to be uber-powerful but at the same time check the number that you can use, while leaving the decision to the user.

[Madine]

I like the armegeddon counter also.

[thanatopsis]

your right... It just takes one idiot (in this case is were actually two) to ruin a wonderfull multiplayer win.

here is the story:
I and my little brother were playing a nice multiplayer match, with us were 2 moderate computers. Everything developes well until information age, then the madness starts.

At first one of the computer players starts with a couple of standard nukes. Nothing special. But when I start invading it gets interesting. Nukes start flying back and forth but the armageddon counter remains at 2 at the end. So far so good. I keep taking cities without much resistance (moderate computers are too easy by now) and while I advance to the last enemy capital I start joking with my brother:

Me: I still have an ICBM here, I think I shouldn't waste that thing, I should nuke you...

Him: We are allied, You can't nuke me

Me: Wanna bet?

Him: Try it

Me: Done

I nuke one of his cities (you can nuke allies) and destroy most of his army.

Usually the whole thing would have stopped now (Armagaddon Counter: 1) but you don't know my brother. Of course he retaliates against my capital, destroying my economy and ruining a wonderfull win about 3 minutes from completion.

Now what do we learn from that?

1. If you nuke someone make sure he can't nuke back

2. Never trust anyone with one more nuke left

3. Little brothers like tu ruin everything :-)

[The diplomat]

Are missile silos immune to nukes? Can a player launch a preemptive attack against another player's missile silos and take out the other player's nukes before he retaliates?

[thanatopsis]

yep, you can... quite a nice strategy

never build all your missile silos in one area

[Palpatine]

The counter is very good but have the ai to cheat that much?!? I did only play on easy and nuked the whole enemy land. 2 min later he had complete rebuilt and an army as big as mine... . That is redicules. I hated that allready in EE.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by The diplomat
Are missile silos immune to nukes? Can a player launch a preemptive attack against another player's missile silos and take out the other player's nukes before he retaliates?

but you have to SEE the silos before you can nuke them.

[tniem]

I like the idea of the counter. Keeps people from over using the nuclear weapon. It also forces the player ahead in the game to make sure others don't launch nukes to force a draw. A very good idea.

[Bridger]

Originally posted by Palpatine
The counter is very good but have the ai to cheat that much?!? I did only play on easy and nuked the whole enemy land. 2 min later he had complete rebuilt and an army as big as mine... . That is redicules. I hated that allready in EE.

He most likely had stocked up resourses. In the late game i sometimes hit pop cap and have nothing to spend my money on, so it gets stockpiled. When my army dies i can rebuild it very quickly from the stockpile. I'm sure that's wha the computer did, because AFAIK the computer only gets economic bonuses on the "tougher" difficulty levels.