From what I've played, the balance they have right now with monster spawns is pretty good. [...] Or maybe I've just been lucky.
You have been lucky.
Too many of my games have been plagued with an excess of random events which have infiltrated and surrounded my realm with ogre dens and ogres -- too early on.
Dealing with 55-hitpoint ogres is quite doable, but the random-event excesses provoke tedious and time-consuming chores of mopping up the dens and lairs, mobilizing military resources which should be dedicated to expanding one's borders -- instead of dealing with ogres (or temple-type mega-units) which have abruptly parachuted right next to one's inner-core cities.
I am glad that (at last) somebody had the initiative to create a thread complaining about those excessive random events, which have been over-stimulated since the very first 1.2 patch.
My hypothesis is that the Developers realized that the mediocre computer-player A.I. could not be easily fixed, and that they consequently bombarded us with an excess number and strength of random events in order to beef-up the challenge.
I have tested that situation on the medium level of difficulty ("normal") : the random events can be very tough, even there.
I have never played against a Human (MP), but I wonder how the PvP gamers evaluate the intrusions of excessive monster-AI events in their games -- intrusions which could unfairly tip the balance in favour of one player (depending on where the dens and lairs appear).
As a SP gamer, I enjoy the game as this is ... but those excessive random events have transformed the game in a PvE genre : since I only play on huge maps with few computer players (3 or 4), I spend 90% of my time fighting the Environment (E = non-player monsters) rather than enemy Mages.
I am not complaining. I am simply taking note that the computer-player A.I. deficiencies have provoked a transformation of the game, since patch 1.2, into a PvE game -- at least in SP mode, on huge maps.
What I would suggest to the Developers is to tone down the strength of monster-generating random events, at least in the first 50 turns -- and to scale them in relation to the game-setup difficulty level.
Also, what I find annoying is those lairs which generate too powerful creatures early on in a game -- such as the big blue spiders (40 hitpoints). In some games, I have had my early-game expansion stifled because my 1 or 2 original cities were constantly harassed by 40-hitpoint spiders or vampires -- yes, vampires on turn 30!
There should be NO random elemental and ogre attacks at all. I can understand throwing some random armies of skeletons and perhaps some mid-level monsters at the player every now and then, but throwing entire armies of high level monsters that even the player or the other AI factions might not even have is just so stupid that it makes no sense. And even if you have an army that can stop them, so what? It it really fair towards the player to force him to stop at once whatever he is doing and then have him re-assign his whole army towards the process of damage control so that random ogres and elementals don't destroy his cities?
I really love Warlock, but these random high level monster attacks really is the weak point of this game. It sucks so much fun out and just almost makes me want to not play, because whenever I am thinking about attacking the AI with my army I can't help but to ask myself if it is worth the risk in case my undefended empire suddenly gets attacked by powerful monsters who just spawned out of thin air.
I think Paradox should take a hint from Firaxis's Civ games and give us more customization options at start-up. That way people who like the feature can keep it, and people who don't can disable it.
This post hits the mark. I totally agree with it.
