formations
 

Sometimes I spend part of an hour placing all of my units juuust right on the battle field. Then the battle that I anticipated doesn't happen, and I need to move them all around to prepare for a completely different kind of battle (for example, attack versus defense). Then the next turn, I realize that the original kind of battle is going to happen, so I have to move them all back.

Two things would help:

1. Make the green position map show transparent images of the units instead of white squares. This would make it go faster since I wouldn't have to keep clicking on other units to double-check who is where. It would also be prettier and more intuitive.

2. Make hot-keys to save formations just like the ones that are currently there to save order scripts. When you press the key to set a formation, then everyone in the current province gets their current position marked as being part of that formation. When you press the key to go to a formation, then everyone in the current province, *if* they have a position marked in that formation, assumes that position. Simple.

Re: formations
 

I would like script for the same units 2 formations :

1 for defense and 1 for attack...

Re: formations
 

Terrain?so in a battlefield there could be hills and archers on top of these will have increased range.Or Rocks that units could hide behind.Or there could be bogs that slow emeny units down UNLESS

-It is floating (float spell?)
-It is Etheral
-It has swamp survival?

Re: formations
 

The only problem with Naresh's suggestion is that one would have to check the province he wants to fight in to see things like that and take them into account. This will be easier in DomIII, but it is still something extra that takes micromanagement...

Re: formations
 

Some more easter eggs in the combat maps. I've been lowering my vision and looking throught those gigantic woods in fron of the battle looking for them.

I'd like to give assasins different orders for assasinations versus getting caught by patrollers. Attack in first case and retreat in second case.

Re: formations
 

I had a few thoughts in recent weeks:

1) Research option. It would be nice to have an research option for the game in addition to easy, normal, and hard. Diminishing return research. The idea is that either the greater the number of researchers working in a particular field or the greater the total research in an area the less efficient it becomes. So with say 50 points of research you may get 50 points of benefit but with 100 points of research in a particular area you my get 90 points of benefit. The effect increases as research in one single area increases. This would slightly compress the difference between a person with very high research and a person with lower research and would encourage a balanced approach to research (spreading out the research between multiple areas). That's the design benefit. Of course it's also more realistic. You can't take 40 mages who are working on conjuration switch them over to blood research and not see a decline in benefit.

2) It would be nice if magic items showed up somehow in the National Summary (F1). I pass around my hammers of forging based on what I need and when it's been a long time since my last turn it takes a long time to find them. This is not the only instance when it is nice to find an item, but it's the most common for me.


Ice

Re: formations
 

You know, I really like some of the chances they have made for DomIII. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I like the 'y' key the most. It's just sooo great. I haven't actually thought about it since Dom:PPP, but it will see a lot of use...

Okay, I'll give a hint. The idea was also mentioned in this thread. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Queued Instructions
 

With Stars! you used to be able to give an instruction that represented many turns. So for example move a unit 5 turns worth. This would be remebered each turn to save having to rekey in the instructions. Any where this is possible would assist with the management. It also assists when turns are missed.

Tals

Re: Queued Instructions
 

I hope we get a #clearequipment mod command so that weapons and armor assignment to units will be straightforward and without the problems encountered here.

Re: Queued Instructions
 

While gaining experience, scouts ans some other stealthy units should have their stealth increased instead of attack/defense.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

1. New, suplementary battle orders: alternative target

It would be used for ranged units. If the target of ranged units is very close to friendly units, alternative target is used instead.

- safe shooting: it should be possible to order ranged units to completely STOP shooting once their target is too close to allied units and there are no alternative targets.
------------------
2. Commander orders templates

By pressing a key combination, like CTRL-1, I'd like to be able to give predefined set of orders to selected commander.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Your 2. exists: Currently, you COPY the order combination by Ctrl-1, and PASTE it by pressing 1. All numbers from zero to nine work. You must do this while hovering mouse above the orders of that commander.

It is poorly documented, but it was added quite a few patches ago.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Some more UI suggestions:

1)When recruiting units, you should be able to recruit multiple units with shift-click or ctrl-click. Shift click could be 5 untis ctrl-click could be 10.

2) There should be a button called "Recruit troops" , that automatically recruits troops until your resources are used up. You could either make the recruited troop chooseable
(right clicking on the recruitment button would open up a palette of the recruitable troops in the province and you could create a template that should always be used when you click the button) or it simply recruits the units with the best Rcost/gcost efficiency, so that you get the most heavy troops possible for your gold.

3) This one is trickier to implement, but it would improve the UI considerably. Right now artifact creation is a pain, you basically have to remember all the pathcosts to know which mage can forge which item and even then you have to hunt down the specific mage and tinker with all the path boosters.
It would be far better if there was a create artifact screen, that shows you all the artifacts you can create with your researching/defending/ally summoning mages. Then you simply click on the things you want and the program automatically assigns the mages to the artifacts(assigning those with defend orders first, then the worst researchers, then the summoners. (bonus points if you can assign dwarven hammers to those mages, and even more bonus points if they get boosters assigned automatically if needed).

4) This has probably been mentioned before, but there should be a limit in the pool gems screen. As in pool all gems, but don´t take the last x gems. Would greatly help bloodhunting micromanagement.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Not only is it poorly documented, it is temporary. A template should persist from turn to turn so that you do not have to *hunt for commander with orders you want to copy* and then *hunt for commander to receive the orders."

A template would ideally be viewable and editable even if not currently assigned to a commander.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

It does stay over many turns, and even stays if you exit the game. They aren't saved/moved between games, which might be what you were after.

Yes, I'd like an addition like this. Many order-slots that could be filled as needed, and a possiblity to set orders from the list to spesific slot (0 through 9). As there could be lots of them, it would propably work much better if they could be given custom names. So, Seith_Darts could be [Eagle Eyes, Nether Darts x4, Cast spells], Seith_Prot might be [Luck, Body Ethereal, Nether Dart sx3, Cast Spells], H3Bless [Blessing x2, Sermon of Courage x3, Stay behind troops], etc. All of these and lots more would be saved, and they could be accecced whenever needed, whatever the nation.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

No kidding? I could have sworn I tried it and gotten nothing. I'll have to give it another shot.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Lol, scripts are saved with save game so you can set them on turn one and use them whenever needed during game (single or multi). I'm really surprised that after all this time you still don't know that (you are way past N00b point http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif).

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Indeed. Chalk it up to the "poorly documented" aspect of the feature.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I want special combat AI based on unit experience. Perhaps highly experienced or martial artsbased troops (like in tien chi) can have special fighting styles... perhaps a style thats designed to wear out larger enemies and then dig into them. (higher defense but attacks only do stun damage until the enemy is at a certain fatigue point, then normal attacking) or other special attack orders. make stuff like this available to other units only if all units in a row have a certain amount of experience stars.

also certain commanders and the such could have special attack orders designed just for them.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

This might work out quite well... Maybe three stars enabling archers to Fire Rear, four Attack Commanders and fire commanders, and five attack magic users/ fire commanders. All of those are commands that already exist (used in Dom:PPP, by Bogus the Troll and his friends, and possibly by AI). I'm not sure if commanders should get as many new commands, as SCs are already quite powerful. Fire Comanders/Magic Users would make magical bows much more powerful.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I must have said it before, but I would like an ID number based system for magic sites, the same way it is with units, weapons and armor. Make it easier to document, mod and make maps that way. Typos in site names will also become irrelevant for mapmaking purposes. And more magic istes would always be nice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Edi

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I wish we would have *some* info on how the project is going. The long silence is very disturbing.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

There have been few hints. The development continues, and I'm quite content with what I know. Of course, I have kept my eyes open to more directions than most of you.

EDIT:
One example is the fact that on 6th of August, Kristoffer pondered why he couldn't see the last page of the bug thread. -> They still check what people post in there!
Gives you a nice, warm feeling, doesn't it? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

EDIT2:
Currently known new nations of DomIII:
Bandar Log - India. Bandar means 'monkey' and log means 'people'-> they might be something not quite human. Also, in the Shepherds of Creation, we got another four-armed pretender (the previous one being the Nataraja), with Death and, IIRC, Air .
Oceania - available as a mod, although certain things were left out. Hippocampi, which the Wave Lords currently autosummon, will be available from a national summon spell in DomIII.
Shinuyama - probably a Japanese nation, or at least one of its themes. I also have some old information which points to Japan.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Wait, wait, wait what is this "Shinuyama" you are talking about?

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Shinuyama - land of the bakemono kings. A warlike nation that rose in the aftermath of a great rebellion against the oni kings of Yomi.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Oni kings? Perhaps we might see a nation of demons and/or ogre-magi? (mind that I know little of Japanese mythology, and most of what I know comes from the last Magic: the Gathering set)

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

also I would like to see some addition of native american traditions, the hopi/zuni had a very in debth mythology as do the tlingit. certainly enough material to deck out another nation.

(I admit, I just want to play a Coyote pretender or an evil Baxbaxbalinushiwe pretender)

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I imagine that Dom3 will be similar to Dom2, in that single-player will quickly cease to be very challenging, even on "Impossible" settings. Strong AI is hard to write, and that's not what I'm wishing for.

What I'd like is a scoring system for single-player. A score awarded at the end of a single-player game that measures in some way how successful you were. Something to beat next game.

Care would have to be taken in designing this metric so that the mistake made in Imperialism II, that the score could be arbitrarily inflated by deliberately deferring the end of the game, is not repeated.

With Dom2, I've tried just seeing how quickly I can win given a fixed set of parameters, but this is too one-dimensional, and leads to a narrow range of strategies that will have any chance of raising the bar.

A clever scoring scheme would be great.

EDIT: It might also provide a way of resolving MP games that aren't played to their ultimate conclusions.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

> the hopi/zuni had a very in debth mythology as do the tlingit.

Unfortunately my Zuni musings are in a less developed stage and will not be part of dom3 at release. Perhaps in a patch or mod.

> What I'd like is a scoring system for single-player. A score awarded at the end of a single-player game that measures in some way how successful you were. Something to beat next game.

Interesting idea. What kind of parameters do you think of? Time of defeated gods, percentage of map, percentage of dominion, percentage of spells researched?

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Time as a negative and anything currently shown in the score graphs as positives would be candidate factors, I guess. Whatever it is, though, there needs to come a time when prolonging the game will definitely decrease your score.

Perhaps the time penalty could be quadratic or even more severe, e.g. winning on turn 10 is -100 points while winning on turn 100 is -10000 points.

Alternatively (or also) the bonuses for other things could be capped at maximum values, so that after a while the only way to go is down.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

- a nation based on arabic myths/culture. Non-undead ghoul shapeshifters, 4 kinds of genies (Djinni, Marid, Efreet, Dao), scimitars, yantchars (spelling differs - I mean hardcore, fanatical infantry made of captured&brainwashed infidels), lots of (mostly light) cavalry. I'm sure someone knows the subject better than me.

- a slavic nation (100% pagan). If it won't come with Dom3, I will do my best to mod such a nation. The main problem is that slavic/pagan culture isn't described in many records, and the Church tried its best to erase it. Still, lots of info can be found. Slavic people often worshipped warlike gods (like Svarog or Perun - althrough it's not sure if Svarog was a god of his own or merely a prefix of older god Rod. In that case Svarog Rod would mean "mighties Rod" or similar). Slavic people were known to ocassionaly join raiding parties with vikings. There was a widespread belief in supernatural entities, you can even say demonology. There was lots of minor supernatural beings, many of them dangerous).
Without too much research I can say that army would be based around teams/parties of 15-20 or so people. This means not-so-great commanders.

As far as magic goes, witches were supposed to have great knowledge of charms, curses, herbalism, shapeshifting, divination, demonic pacts, and healing. Witches were often feared, but also respected, mainly because they were able to heal the sick. Translating to Dominions language - a bit of Astral magic, nature/earth, possibly Blood.

One of national heroes would have to be Baba Yaga. Capitol magic sites could include Lysa Gora (Bald Mountain), a place where witches were supposed to gather ocassionaly and meet devils (djabel), demons etc. But I don't think limiting witches to capitol would fit very well - they often lived in alone in the woods.
Nation-specific spells could be some summonings - there were dozens of demonic beings to be afraid of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_mythology
So, there is a potential.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Hey Kristoffer, how many new nations there will be? Any chance of seeing that Kalevala based nation?

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Slavic myth is interesting, but I havn't done any research on the matter (not since an ars magica campaign a couple of years ago). So there will not be a slavic nation in dom3 at release, but I have considered adding one as a patch or mod later on.

The number of nations is tricky. Themes are reworked and put into the three ages. Niefelheim becomes Jotunheim in the middle era and is Utgård in the late era. Some nations do not exist in some eras etc. What earlier was a theme is now considered a nation in its own right which makes modding much easier. Thus I do not know exactly how may nations there will be, but about 60 is probably right. Entirely new ones (with early and late versions excluded) there are perhaps ten new ones. Sauromatia is very different from Pythium, but could be considered an early version. They do have Hydras, but Witch Kings are very different from Arch theurgs. Likewise Yomi is quite different from the later form Shinuyama and the last "nipponese" nation Jomon. The semblances between early middle and late Caelum are stronger.

So your question is a bit hard to answer. There will be about 60 nations but many of these are themes and variations that you will recognize from dom2.

Kalevala is on my own wishlist. It will probably not be in the first release of dom3, but has high priority after I'm finished with the current intended nations.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Happy birthday by the way!

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Hot damn! That's the biggest news in a long time, and I'm practically salivating already.

*rubs hands with glee*

The only thing that makes me cringe is the prospect of having to produce a complete Dom3 DB for units, weapons, armor and other stuff...

*runs screaming into the night* http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Edi

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

About music...

Is there any chance that Dom2 music will be transfered to Dominions3 ?

Is there any chance there will be some new music ?
-------------
If yes, I have a suggestion, but I have no slightest if it can work. There's a polish folk/celtic/etc music band that I like a lot. Perhaps you could reach some kind of agreement with them ? They aren't the most commercial band out there, they play because they like to. Amateurs in strictest (original) meaning.

http://free.art.pl/openfolk/index.html

Note: I'm not in any way related to Open Folk. I just like their music. I have no idea if they'd agree to provide a piece or two for Dominions3 game. I have no idea if (or how much) they would charge.
I don't even have any idea if they check their mailbox. But at least I can tell they understand english, because they travel abroad from time to time and sometimes sing in english.
It may be worth trying. You can check out 4 of their music pieces on their website. Unfortunatelly, they didn't publish my favourite piece there. ( Czarownica - witch)

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Falsobordone and Erik Ask-Uppmark's and Anna Rynefors' other musical project "Drom" will be the main contributors. So you will get new music you will recognize.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

That's quite a number...! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif
Well, that should keep us occupied for a while. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Nice to hear that Kalevala is in your own wishlist. That certainly is a good birthday gift. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Well, keep up the good work.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Kristoffer, is your avatar taken from dom-III? -Is it by anyway a new angel or a new image for the harbringer?

I read somewhere that in Dom-III angels will be more powerful. I sure hope they would be.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I think it is Dom III Harbringer.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Took me some time to find, because I had forgotten to paste it into the same text file the other two DevDiaries are in. EDIT: This was number 3, the February one.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Thanks.

Bad news for Pythium and Arco http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

> Kristoffer, is your avatar taken from dom-III? -Is it by anyway a new angel or a new image for the harbringer?

Correct, a harbinger it is. A fitting avatar I thought.

You will also get a six winged seraphim.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

seraphim.
That's actually a word in hebrew.
IIRC it describes a cast or an order of angels.
I also checked and there's an entry about them in wikipedia.
Oh and check out the article about Metatron.

Having six wings?- Would it give them any benefit, like higher strategic movement?


Thanks for this interesting information.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

What about an increased chance to spread the bird flu? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Angels, hmm?! A proper sort-of-evil theme for my beloved Caelum-birdies would be nice though. However, neither blood nor death would be really fitting thematically... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif Maybe something similar to Ctis Miasma: Unholy units that spread diseases in cold provinces. Maybe most units should start diseased (for a proper reduction in cost). Everything else should be frozen to death. Less lightning, more frost, after all Caelum prefers Cold 3:
It is cold here, cold enough to chill my lips blue, cold enough to still my aching heart, cold enough to turn my wayward thoughts to ice.
If you seek warmth, comfort, or easy victory, if you strike in haste, are quick to anger, and must do battle while your blood is hot, then turn away from me, for I offer no heat. Those who embrace me will become as I am, cold.[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img]

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Isn't seraphim the plural form? The proper singular is seraph...

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Correct. the "im" is suffix for male plural in hebrew.
same as "kruvim" and "kruv" (I think it's cherubs and cherub in english), another angelic order.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Wrong THREAD! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

So, I posted rather long post to wrong thread... To not just spam the thread, I'll give few ideas that have been on my head for some time already. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I already mentioned some of them in this thread:

Being able to recruit multiple commanders at the same time:
Instead of a commander slot, each province has a martial slot and arcane slot. A commander who is a priest, mage or both fills the arcane slot. A commander who has knows no magic fills a martial slot. Sometimes I recruit independent commanders just to lead my national units because I DON'T want to NOT recruit a mage. Some commanders could be made to fill BOTH slots (Niefel Lords).

Modding tools: #prophetform:
Currently some units use different, good-looking graphics when made into prophets (Jotun Jarl), while others just get the abilities (Jotun Herse). I wish that special prophet form could be added to any unit. In addition, it would be interesting to have a nation where being a prophet REALLY makes a difference (magic levels).

Map editing: #prophet <nation> <unit number>|<unit type>
Simple (?) addition, very usable in certain scenarios. Works like #pretender; chosen nation starts with unit of chosen type as its prophet.

Spells with Holy magic as requirement.
This has been used in few mods, so it works. In some cases, being a priest would be a very interesting requirement, especially in case of national summons (Tien Chi).

Star for Arena Champion:
The Champion of the Arena gets one Heroic Ability, or something similar chosen from the same pool of effects. It doesn't improve with experience/kills, but rather:
1) with the number of Arena fights that have happened, or
2)with the number of championships the current champion has won, or
3) it doesn't improve at all, but starts at a level where the effect is worth fighting for.


Afflictions for the Chosen:
More different afflictions! Afflictions disrupting the flow of energy in the body of unnatural creatures, a mark sinner left on an angel, etc. More restrictions on afflictions: disease already doesn't work on undead; feeble-mindedness, fear, insanity etc don't affect mindless; flying units can't become limp or crippled, etc. If unit has an affliction that doesn't affect it, hide it from view (undead aren't diseased, mindless aren't feeble-minded). Also, it would be nice to see affliction only spesific creatures can cause or which spesific creatures cause more often: magic units/horrors might Horror Mark those they strike, touch of an angel might take out the will to fight (-2 att, -2 str, -2 mrl), wolves go for tendons and make people crippled/lame more often, terrifying creatures cause Battle Fright more often...

Angels should be able to heal their wounds, if they can't already. Witches (1N1E sacred but without priestly magic, available from few sites) should be able to heal afflictions (much more poorly than e.g. Arcoscephalian Priestesses) or disease (new, possibly passive, ability).

New name list for female demons. Right now, a Succubus might have a name like Ami, Fyllia or *shudder* Polli. You know, in Finland, it is Polli who wants the cracker. Unfortunately, it's more sad than funny. If you rather create a game than invent a patch of crazy words, at least change them to use the undead name list. Some of the undead ones, like "Lepertongue" or "Wormfriend" are strangely fitting...

[b]Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist[/b]
 

I’ve been off for a while looking at how modding is handled in other games (CivFanatic site is awesome--there's even a StarGate mod for Civ2!), and would like to weigh in with some specific modding wishes. First, though, are two wishes I haven’t seen mentioned, but that I would really like to see in Dom3:

TWO WISHES

Default Button: I wish for a Default Button to reset the game to the original “classic” game parameters once I have totally changed everything in the setup screen. This is IMO the single most desirable feature, if the huge number of setup choices other people wished for are implemented. (Don’t get me wrong—I’m first in line for more setup choices. But I also want the classic base game the developers are designing, regardless of how badly I've fiddled the game options.)

Time Flag: It would be highly useful if the main map screen had a tag (maybe in the lower right-hand corner) that toggles between Game Turn, Game Time (e.g.: Late Spring), and Real Time (Clock). It would be much more convenient than going to the End Turn screen for Game Turn, Message screen for Seasonal Turn, and Desktop for real time.

MODDING WISHES

Modding Tool, LGR: The single most useful modding tool I can think of is a Local Group Randomizer. This would let a scenario designer specify a group of elements by name or number and place one or more elements from a library file into the group randomly.

For example, on the Cradle map, I might create a scenario in which I want the special magic sites (only) to have L4 sites (only). In this case, I don’t care which L4 site goes in which special site, as long as each special site on the map has a L4 magic site and all L4 sites in the scenario are assigned to the special sites.

Or I might have a scenario in which a specific site will be located in only one of half a dozen potential locations (King Arthur/Grail).

This might be modified with a locking function so each element in the library file is flagged closed once it is used (and resets to open when the last is used). For example, I could set up an element file of 24 sites, only eight of which, all different, would be selected randomly for a given map.

This would, for example, make it easier to keep the ratio of L1 to L2 to L3 to L4 sites the same, and Path distribution roughly equal, while allowing a theoretically infinite number of special sites in the library files. Since most people like making complex/weird power/high-gem sites more than low-gem plain vanilla sites, this would prevent the former from overwhelming the latter by sheer number once modders start adding their creations to the game.

Mod Tool, Default Designator: This tool would let me designate specific game elements as defaults for a modpak, so hitting the default reset button when the mod is enabled would reset these specified elements to the modpack defaults rather than the standard game defaults.

Modding Tool, Event Scheduler: Assuming we will pick up the ability to mod random events and expand the Dom 3 event list, I wish for the additional capability to set specific triggers for events. For example, an event that 1)creates (or destroys) game element such as a magic site or unit on a given game turn, or 2) a certain number of turns after a specified event occurs, or 3)after the creation/destruction of a specific unit. The LGR might be combined with this to allow one of a limited file of events to occur, or even to randomize a turn of occurrence within a specified range of turns.

Mod Tools, Link Tracking for Spells/Abilities: You can change parameters of spells, weapons, and so on. However, I wish the Dom 3 mod utility could also tell you where else a spell or weapon is embedded in the game; that is, which other game elements your change will affect.

For example, if I replace the “Call of the Wild” spell with the all-new “Vine Jaguar” spell, it would be nice to know that I’m also messing up the “Soulstone of the Wolves” magic item, a detail I might otherwise forget.

New Magic Item Effect, Visibility Curse: A unit equipped with this cursed item has any stealth function disabled. In addition to a new standard item (1A1S Amulet of Location?), the Soul Contract might be given this attribute to remove the “hide from Horrors” exploit.

This concept might be expanded to allow almost any special ability/power to be disabled by a specially created cursed item.

Hobby Tool, Libraries: I’d like to see a more developed system of library files for the game. For example, God Libraries. For this, I might keep a folder called Ulm. In it, I might have a dozen of my own designs for Ulm Pretenders, sortable by Chassis, Theme, and Challenge level, maybe identified by the God’s name. I wish for the option to go into this library and pick the Pretender of my choosing when I start a game. Also, when I set up a game, I wish for the option to go into the God Library and pick specific Pretenders for each nation, or set Pretenders to full random selection (the default) or random selection from a limited group (for example, human Pretenders only). I wish for a base library of one default Pretender per base nation for each difficulty level (in Dom 2, 17x4), about 75%-80% optimized for their level of play (in other words, leave space in the default Pretenders for me to improve them).

For the God Library specifically, it might be useful to have a “Splash” screen for each Pretender that lists Chassis (w/picture/stats), Magic, Scales, Dominion, Fort, Themes/Enabled, that you could easily call up and look at when making a selection.

The Library concept might be extended to Sites, Items, Special Powers, Spells, Weapons, National Heroes, Independent Poptypes, and so on.

I’m not wishing that extensive libraries be filled for Dom 3. I’m wishing that the architecture be put into place, using the default game files as examples. The fans can take care of filling the shelves.

Mod Tool, Era Libraries: It would be useful to have a grouping tool that could assign specific nation themes and other elements as defaults for a randomly generated game.

Example: If (to pull a setting out of the air) I liked the Dragonlance setting so much I wanted to do a full mod, I could, after doing, say, the War of the Lance period, set up the Age of Myth period as well, and have the game engine randomize games for either, at my option. Era libraries would establish a default mix of spells, items, sites, creatures, and so on specific to the fantasy world and era. The defaults (and the only ones necessary to include in Dom3, of course) are those from the core Dominion 3 world.

Generic Hero Slots: One generic National Hero slot for each nation, generally a non-wizard military commander that must be named (or is randomly named with renaming possible), to which hero-creating events default once the specially designed heroes have all appeared. This ensures that even in the longest games, the supply of heroes never really dries up for a nation, nor do you have the same hero showing up after it's killed.

Default Settings: Most of the default settings in Dom2 are OK, but I'd like to see the Renaming default set to "On."

Re: Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

ODDS & ENDS

Here are a few wishes of miscellaneous nature:

Historical Scenarios, but…: While it would be fun to have specific scenarios based on the original fantasy Elesium world history, and also the ability to randomize games within specific game-historical periods (I applaud your intention to do so), I wish to keep the ability to plug any theme into any game if I so choose.

Spell Scripting: While I am not a fan of extending the spell scripting past five rounds, I wish for the appropriate number of remaining script slots to be automatically added for Quickness effects, so that you get five rounds of scripting, instead of five scripted spells interrupted by whatever the heck the AI decides to do (and if you de-script a Quickness spell, for example, its extra slots would go away).

I Win…: It would be nice to have a final cut-scene or screen that celebrates the player’s victory. Dom 2 ends a bit abruptly. (I still get a kick out of playing the original Hoyle Solitaire collection, which has a happy jumping Joker that congratulates you, while riffling decks of cards blossom like streamers around him!)

…Or Not: Also, it would be nice to have a continuation option, if I want to continue with a won game (to experiment with magic or items, for example). However, I would resent a Civ-style end screen that insults and sneers at the player if the game is left short of victory.

Multiple Map Directories: I wish I could organize my maps better, and I wish scenarios were separated from random maps. Just to control the various options available—for example: Official random maps, official scenarios, (these are the ones we know work), mod maps, mod scenarios, (some very good, some are something of a crapshoot), maps in progress (MyMaps), Daily Downloads (thanks Gandalf!).

Toggled AI: I wish going AI wasn’t a one-way street. It would be fun occasionally seeing what the AI would do for a turn or two, then taking the controls back. Also, it can be instructive to set everything to AI and just watch the game run (maybe you can set an “observer mode” in single player to ghost you in as a specific nation; but your only two options in this mode would be to change the nation “observed”, or to take “player” status for the observed nation). Once this is in place, we might play around with experimental events:
“Bureaucratic Zeal:” If player, +1 Productivity in capital. If AI, Difficulty setting for that nation increases by 1.
“National Malaise:” If player, -1 Productivity in capital. If AI, Difficulty setting for that nation decreases by 1.
“Civil Disorder:” Player becomes AI for a turn (or maybe several turns at Misfortune 3). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Spells New spells should be useful, thematic, and different from what has gone before. Cookie cutter duplicates of other paths’ spells, mere powerups, or a “spell war” of spells aimed exclusively at other spells should be avoided, IMO. An example of a “good” new spell might be:

Enclave Garden: Enchantment 5. Path: 4N. Type: Ritual. Cost: 10N.

This spell creates a hidden enclave of fertility in a chosen province, even the most desolate, magic-blasted land. Such enclaves are attractive to immigrants, but blossom only in areas of strong dominion. They increase population in the target province.

(Game Effect: Adds 200 population* to the target province next turn, provided the Pretender’s dominion there is positive. Otherwise, the player gets a popup: “Enclave fails due to insufficient dominion.” The gems are expended regardless of the outcome. This spell essentially creates a simple population seed. Once in place, the population is no different from any other population: it grows, dies, etc., normally.)

*NB: The above is a default value. The actual coded variable is the #poppergold<people>, so the spell automatically scales with any mod affecting taxation. The intended overall tax effect of the spell is to create +1 gold at 100% taxation and neutral scales.

Note: I think it is a strong positive feature to have some game information the players have to dig out through experience or observation. Since much of the effect of this example is plainly visible, I would recommend keeping the italicized information out of the game’s primary documentation, though it might be included in a secondary source like Liga’s Guide.)

I’ve always found it somewhat unhappy that nations like Ermor can completely depopulate an area, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it except hope the Immigration random event just happens to occur in exactly the right province. Magical rebirth is such a common fantasy theme that IMO this spell or an equivalent would add an additional immersion factor to play, and could be configured so that it doesn’t seriously impede the population-killing themes when the game is going their way.

I put this together as single player effect, for those of us who just want to get things visibly growing again. A higher impact version for multiplayer might be closer to 1,000 pop/20N, but exact tweaking for multiplayer would take testing. I don’t think the seed itself should be affected by Growth scale, but once the population is in place, Growth would affect the base population normally.

Example 2:

High Glamour: Alteration 4. Path: 3A. Type: Ritual. Cost: 3A (+1/turn?).

Any force in the province this spell is cast on is reported at 200%-300% strength by normal intelligence reports and scouting. Spies and magical scrying may penetrate the ruse.

(Note that the forces need not be those of the caster. I’m not sure there’s any easy way to key this to a force, but by making it province-specific, it might also be given a duration, like Astral Window. Spies and scrying might either be allowed an accurate report, or maybe require a successful Magic Save against the caster to get the accurate report. I originally thought to hard key this at 200% only, but that would let the caster effectively use this spell for scouting, which is not the intent.)

Modular AI Tweaks: Set up AI processes so that more efficient algorithms can be swapped in by the program (or modder) at higher difficulty levels. For example, take the taxing algorithm.

(I’m not certain exactly what the AI uses when dealing with taxes/unrest, but I did observe that when I was trying to play like the AI during some benchmarking tests, my test algorithm—reduce taxes 10% per 5 or fraction points of unrest, adjusted each turn—was yielding consistently higher income than whatever the AI was doing with the same nation.)

For example, if there are four difficulty levels, there might be four slightly different ways for the AI to deal with Unrest. At least the highest level should not be possible for a human player. Example:

Easy: Set tax to 100%. If Unrest is 30 or more, reset tax to 0 (a less efficient algorithm).

Normal: Current algorithm, whatever’s in the black box (which works OK for Normal difficulty).

Difficult: Set tax to 100%. Reduce tax by 10% for every 5 or fraction points of Unrest (by observation more efficient than the black box).

Impossible: Reset current “Unrest” to “Unrest –5” and apply method #3.

Light Cavalry Special Abilities, Rally Back/Pursue: A thought about making Light Cavalry operations look better on the tactical display. I wish for an automatic unit behavior that might operate like this:

Define a unit ability called “Rallyback.” The essence of the ability is as follows:

1. The squad acts under orders until routed. At the start of a turn in rout, the Rallyback ability converts its unit’s routed status to a full move straight back toward the friendly baseline in good order, then changes the squad default order to “Fire (closest).”

2. Units with the Rallyback ability leaving the field are routed, count as squad casualties, and scatter normally. Units without the Rallyback ability never recover from rout status and are treated as squad casualties.

3. You might consider a “Rallyback2” ability that defaults to “Attack (closest),” instead. This would be for lance-armed light cavalry, as opposed to bow or javelin-armed cavalry.

4. Note that this ability is useless for flyers, because their move back automatically takes them off the field. This might either be left as is, or cap the move back at, say, 20.

Configured in this way, the Rallyback ability might be extended to Light Infantry and some Ranger/Light Archer types as well. Note that it becomes a bad idea to mix units with and without the Rallyback ability, since other routed troops are essentially treated as squad casualties once they rout.

Pursue: The other ability, “Pursue”, simply prevents the Light Cavalry squad from retargeting an enemy squad in good morale once it has broken an enemy—the pursuers continue to hack at the original target squad until its units have left the board or been killed, then it targets the nearest surviving enemy units.

Since these would not necessarily be units in good order, light cavalry overruns might ultimately be more dangerous to Leader units, although they would not specifically target such units. Also, battles might be lost because the light cavalry is off running down fugitives instead of helping to break the remaining effective enemy units.

Finis
With this second post, I'm done with all the wishes that I've been accumulating over the last year. You might see another short post or two, but this should be the last monster. Thanks for listening.