I hate the Toll of Seasons

[TheIdiot]

I'm sick of this stupid event popping up every single-player game. Since it was added, every single game I have played (maybe 7 or 8 games?) have had this event occur between turn 40-60 and there are essentially three outcomes:

1. It targets me and I wipe out the attacking army, but I'm not strong enough to pursue them yet, or I am strong enough but I have to sacrifice 1/3rd of my best units (Heroes included) to end it.
2. It targets me and I'm not in a position to fight back, I just ignore it and sacrifice my city. About 20 turns later AI players (Hard or occasionally Brutal difficulty) start surrendering because they can't handle the multiple Tier III-V death-stacks summoned after the first event. I usually quit since the whole game is effectively ruined because of this - the AI simply can't handle it, and I hate having to keep sacrificing my cities because I never have enough to stop their death-stacks when they arrive since I'm usually busy doing something more interesting, and I can't be bothered to stop them.
3. It targets me, I get annoyed and cheat to delete the attacking army and shut the gate. This is overpowered obviously as I get the grand award for shutting the gate and I feel bad doing it. I never cheat in games but I'm utterly sick of this event and the spam it delivers.

I play on Hard, usually 7 players, Medium or Small map, Slow game speed and Slower research speed, so by the time this happens all of the players seem to be JUST starting to get themselves prepared for major conflict and Tier III units are usually only available in very limited numbers. Which makes this event utterly game-changing and often devastating since there is no answer to armies consisting of nothing but Tier III-V units. And it happens every game! I thought it was supposed to be random unless you have it selected as a Realm Trait!
Honestly, I wouldn't mind fighting against it if I knew it was coming (like enabling the Realm Trait - I've played some absolute nightmare custom realms but was able to survive due to being able to prepare throughout the game). But I hate having to stop everything I'm doing and fight off the annoying initial stack that invariably gets sent at my city, and I absolutely despise the fact that if you don't kill it the first time, it comes back in much, MUCH greater strength and proceeds to wipe out city after city and AI after AI.

I actually came to complain about this because I just quit my most recent game on turn 41 after entering the portal for the zillionth time and losing 2 of my 4 heroes to this crap (killed by a random combat event that did 40 damage in an 1-hex area!), and for the first time I decided to take the artifact inside the portal only to find out that they'll be coming for it 12 turns later. Seriously, no. Screw that. I'm not losing half of my army to kill these dirt-eaters.

Developers, can we PLEASE get a way to turn this specific event off? I absolutely DESPISE it. It is ruining every single game for me. I haven't completed half of my games because I quit when this happens since I know as soon as that stupid event screen comes up the rest of the game is going to be absolutely demolished by this cheap nonsense. I would love to have it limited to either having Hard global events turned on, or enabling the Realm Trait. I don't really want to play the game anymore because of this, it's taking all the enjoyment out of every playthrough.

[Aurumworks]

It even happens when you set events to 'low'. So I have to turn them off completely, just because toll of seasons is not fitting depth and difficulty wise with the rest of the events. It already has it's own map modifier, I would like to see it being exclusive to that.

[TheIdiot]

Originally posted by Aurumworks:

It even happens when you set events to 'low'. So I have to turn them off completely, just because toll of seasons is not fitting depth and difficulty wise with the rest of the events. It already has it's own map modifier, I would like to see it being exclusive to that.

Exactly! If there were more similar "major invasion" events like this it would feel a bit more dynamic. But it's practically the same thing every single time, maybe with a lightning theme instead of a frost one.
I did enjoy the major happening events similar to this one in Age of Wonders 3, but the difference there was that everyone was affected by them simultaneously, and bigger empires would often have more enemies to deal with than smaller ones. They were also somewhat rare until late-game, unlike this event which happens every game in the early-mid-game. Similar events are in this game, yes, but none of them are anywhere near as dangerous as the Toll event. Especially because they come with the same overwhelming forces regardless of how powerful a player is. Outside of being annoying, repetitive and frequently game-breaking, it's completely unbalanced.

[Max Wax]

Toll of Seasons is a test of your army. Perhaps you made some mistakes developing your army you can learn from. Challenges are good. Toll of Seasons is fun and a cool addition. I always make sure it's on.

[TheIdiot]

Originally posted by Max Wax:

Toll of Seasons is a test of your army. Perhaps you made some mistakes developing your army you can learn from. Challenges are good. Toll of Seasons is fun and a cool addition. I always make sure it's on.

Like I said, I am capable of repelling the Toll of Seasons, provided I'm in a situation to do so (i.e., my soldiers are able to reach the affected town in time). The AI certainly isn't, though. I just don't like having to waste my time and manpower fighting this event every single game. The test of my army can come when I fight an enemy empire, Toll of Seasons just tacks another 10-20 arbitrary turns onto the game (or shortens it because the AI gets obliterated if you fail to stop it the first time it occurs).
I have no qualms against having an option to turn it on if you enjoy it. But I would also like to be able to turn it off, because I can't be the only one who finds it more annoying than anything.

[Max Wax]

I checked and perhaps try this to turn off The Toll of Seasons: Custom Map - Advanced Setup: Game Flow tab > Happenings Intensity: Disabled. Hope this will work since ToS is in the happenings category.

Another thing that comes to mind (not tested): when setting Map/Realm features - the 8 round icons - the lower row is all about Miscellaneous features and the ToS is here as an option > maybe if you fill this up with 4 traits and not the Toll, it will not show up in your game.

Maybe combination of these both solutions will disable ToS?1

[Aurumworks]

Originally posted by Max Wax:

I checked and perhaps try this to turn off The Toll of Seasons: Custom Map - Advanced Setup: Game Flow tab > Happenings Intensity: Disabled. Hope this will work since ToS is in the happenings category.

This works, but this is also the issue. You have to turn off *ALL* happenings just to get rid of ToS. That's a lot of collateral damage.

[TirAsleen]

I would rather like events that empower random A.I. rulers somewhat.

[Johnny 5]

You can just not play maps that have toll of seasons.

When starting a new map, remove the toll of seasons misc trait.

[The Big Brzezinski]

It sounds like the Toll just needs to be changed to respect the game speed if it's showing up at the same time even though progression is slower.

[TheIdiot]

Originally posted by Max Wax:

I checked and perhaps try this to turn off The Toll of Seasons: Custom Map - Advanced Setup: Game Flow tab > Happenings Intensity: Disabled. Hope this will work since ToS is in the happenings category.

Another thing that comes to mind (not tested): when setting Map/Realm features - the 8 round icons - the lower row is all about Miscellaneous features and the ToS is here as an option > maybe if you fill this up with 4 traits and not the Toll, it will not show up in your game.

Maybe combination of these both solutions will disable ToS?1

Good ideas. Unfortunately the second one doesn't work - the custom realm I was playing when this happened yesterday actually has full trait slots.

The issue with "Happenings Intensity" being turned to disabled is that I do really like all of the other happenings in the game and would like to have them active. I had thought previously that setting it to "Low" would disable any "dangerous" events (as in the menu description) but apparently Toll of Seasons happens anyway.

Originally posted by Johnny 5:

You can just not play maps that have toll of seasons.

When starting a new map, remove the toll of seasons misc trait.

I've never had it enabled. It happens every game anyway.

Originally posted by The Big Brzezinski:

It sounds like the Toll just needs to be changed to respect the game speed if it's showing up at the same time even though progression is slower.

This at bare minimum for sure. The earliest I've had it is Turn 37, the latest Turn 55-60. When I play on slower speeds, typically nobody has an army that's strong enough to enter the portal without making major sacrifices (heroes or the limited higher-tier units), and if you don't shut the portal after the first time the event triggers, every Toll of Seasons event afterward is too strong to stop without having your entire army pre-positioned to defeat it (3 stacks, typically with 1-2 Tier V, 2-3 Tier IV and the rest Tier III units - at the slower game speeds that I enjoy, getting higher-quality units rarely happens until much, much later in the game than that.

[fja12856]

A couple of maps ago, the toll of seasons killed two of the 5 opponents I had setup. It happened in a little over 100 turns. On the bright side it was the quickest Military only victory I ever had (192 turns).

[Isseus]

Should be like Seals. You have to pick it from a list for it to appear. If you don't, you'll never get have to see the gankdeers again.

There aren't even mods to turn it off or nuke it from the game.

[Isseus]

Originally posted by Johnny 5:

You can just not play maps that have toll of seasons.

When starting a new map, remove the toll of seasons misc trait.

Unless you turn the events completely off it can (and will) spawn.

[Johnny 5]

Yeah I notice that now. Then yeah I agree they need a way to turn off these type of events.

[Revolverman]

Originally posted by Isseus:

Should be like Seals. You have to pick it from a list for it to appear. If you don't, you'll never get have to see the gankdeers again.

There aren't even mods to turn it off or nuke it from the game.

Nope, it always happens after long enough. Wasting a map modifier slot when you only GET 4 too, is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ asinine (but thats the whole "We know whats best for you" Mindset that exists in so much AoW4 has.)