Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

A new wish: Better Fire Magic

Fire magic lacks oomf. Its specialty, attack spells, are not particularly wonderful. For summoning, items and buffs, it's fairly weak.

Here are some new fire spell ideas. You could make room for them by clearing out some of the redundant evocations.

Incandescence: A self-buff that increases the damage inflicted by the mage's attack spells by 30%. This works for all spells, not just fire ones! The rationale behind this spell is to allow for a bit of synergy between fire and the other magic paths. We all know that a good mage can become great with a water random - due to quickness. This is the same sort of idea.

Forest Fire: An attack ritual that can only be uased on a forest square. Basically an evil version of those forest-only spells nature has. The province suffers population loss (10%?), and any troops in the province may receive injuries, although deaths are unlikely. Creatures with forest survival and/or are in stealth mode are more at risk.

Detonate: Incinerate is pretty good for a fire spell. But an offensively orientated school like fire should have an even better lethal alteration. Detonate is that spell. The mage points a finger towards an enemy, who instantly explodes, damaging everyone around them. Magic resistance negates.

Call of the Warrior: This is a ritual which focuses on the leadership aspect of fire magic. The targetted province will receive a large number of bonus resources next turn, allowing many units to be recruited. You can use it on resource-poor areas like farmland to recruit heavy units, or on your own capital for massive unit production.

This might be better off as an earth spell, but think of it as calling up, rather than producing, new units.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

(Found this in an old file labeled "Wacky Wishlist." The file is about a year old and has a time stamp of 3:38 AM. You have been warned.)


Nerf the Demons!

Are demons the key to victory in MP? Or are they just the flavor of the month?

Makes no difference—the thought is that if you have a computer to crunch numbers, why not crunch numbers?! Thus, a little idea to add a small cost to using Demons. We all know how nasty they are…

1. In the province they occupy, Demons torture and kill one person per 100 hp of Demons each month. Round fractions down (3 devils=1 kill).

2. These count as successful Blood Slave raids with respect to their impact on Unrest.

The population gets a suitable complaint popup.

(Hey, they're demons, they kill things for fun!)


Up the Angels!

1. Each 10 hp of Angels adds +1 to province population each month (Love is in the Air).

2. Each 50 hp of Angels reduces unrest by 1.


Chaos Reigns!

If Angels and Demons are in the same province on the same side at the end of the turn, they compare hit points. The weaker side deserts. If equal, they both desert!

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Angels have already been empowered, there is new angel (cast of angels?) approximately the power of the Demon Lords, they have new graphics (Kristoffer's avatar is the new Harbringer), etc.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

I like them, expect I think that Forest Fire is a bit too powerfull. I don't think that all that many people lived in woods.

Incadescence is a neat idea and perhaps Detonate could provide a bigger bang if the enemy is larger? A hobbit would produce a small boom while a Niefel Giant would produce a massive explosion! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

Call of the Warrior sounds fair but in all honesty I still expect that magical units "pwn" so to say the fleshly units.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Endoperez: Great news, that! Thanks.


Something New

I just did a search of this list today and I found something that no modders have mentioned so far:

I wish for the ability to create new mercenaries.

If we are eventually do true mods for Warhammer's Old World, Forgotten Realms, Middle Earth, Adventurien, Tyrande, Black Company, and others, we need the ability to create mercenary groups native to those settings.

(I would really like to hear a word of feedback on this one...)

Re: CC to self?
 

I wish that in Dom3, messages send to nation X are also sent to the sender. I usually have some time in between turns so I sometimes forget what I had sent. So a CC to self would help me for one more turn...

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

It would be very cool, and efficient, if I were able to select what kind of spells my mage is allowed to cast. It would work as a list of binary YES/NO switches. All spells are allowed by default.
The categories could be:

Area effect offensive spells and Spells Which Can Harm Your Army - to disallow casting Breath of Winter and suchlike.
Direct offensive magic(precision-dependant offensive spells?) - to disable fireballs, firedarts, flying shards, and all these annoying spells which usually have hardly any effect. They're especially pitiful on Scorpion King pretender (precision:9). As it is, fire magic on a pretender seems a disadvantage, because he keeps wasting time casting silly ineffective spells.
self-buffs - personal luck, twist fate, and so on. These are good on SC's, but there are ocassions when you don't want your mages to cast them. On the other hand, SCs may want to disable all else.
Team buff spells - all kinds of spells which target multiple units you control. There are reasons not to use them - high fatigue cost, etc. Sometimes you attack with a small group of commanders, and +3 armor isn't really going to do much.
non-combat combat spells - I mean stuff like Horror Mark, Curse, Seven Years Fever.... They're ok if your commanders are going down and will die anyway, but not in a serious battle I think. Well, curse may be useful, but not others I listed.
summonings - to have more options.
spells with gem cost/fatigue>100 - for fighting weaklings with well-equipped mages. I know one alternative:transfer gems to another commander.

Spells would have to be manually inserted into each category (by game developers). Comments ?

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

i would love that, maybe another option for more specific spells (keep my seraphs casting false horror instead of phantasmal wolves/warrior)

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I, as a new guy, wish for: (many of these have been covered)

1. Tutorial/Walkthrough/Something! I learned Dominions I the hard way, and so I can actually play, but I thought about trying to teach my wife, and . .. I flinch at the thought.

2. When some huge, spectacular feat of magic happens: you should get a picture of it, not just a message saying "There was Rain of Flaming Toads and 25% of your population died." I know, you are a two person company and your goal is to provide deep content rather than pretty pictures, but I think that one picture per "effect" [you might even reuse some pictures] is not too much to wish for.

3. I would like less micromanagement but have no useful ideas on how to acheive it, aside from what has been listed. "Deliver magic item to X", "Collect wounded troops and Heal" [for an Arco priestess], "Build Sages and set to Research" [for a Library]- those are some ideas I had.

4. If there was some way to tag your units with your color, that would be nice. If both sides are using, e.g. pikemen you have to guess who owns which based on what direction they're facing.

5. Single Player improvements- even basic ones like "Starving AI troops"- would be nice.

I realize most of my wishes are "chrome" but I think that a little chrome will go a long way. The people posting in this thread are, by definition, the ones who don't mind the graphics and are past the brutally-steep learning curve.

It's a hard game to convert someone to.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

lol, this spell just made my personal wishlist http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I know I already posted it several posts above, but some sort of SERIOUS control over spells cast by mages is sorely needed.
I had all of my water mages cast quickness, and then proceed casting self-buffs (which are actually worthless unless your mages are going to be attacked). THey cast like 10 selfbuffs each, and NOTHING to change outcome of battle - like troop protection, panic, frighten, attack spells. At this point they were about 120 fatigue.

Another time I attacked much weaker independent province. I thought I was going to stomp them into the ground. I check battle report and 3/4 commanders dead. Impossible?!?!
Breath of winter.
--------------------
I think all events listed on beginning of turn should be also marked on map. One symbol per province would be enough. For example, eclamation mark "!". If you click on the mark, you get a list of events which happened there. If there was also a battle in that province, you get the usual swords symbol instead, but you can click on the symbol to get list of events and ability to watch replay.
It is simply hard to read the messages, click ok and remember all province names with events.

Another/additional way of doing it would be "map zoom" for all events, not just before battle replay starts.
EDIT ----------------------
Here's my suggestion for extended battle summary:
For both sides separately:
- most kills by (unit type/spell/misc stuff like fatigue)
- most common spells
- high-level spells cast:
- cause of commander's death (for each dead commander)
- amount of units which died to friendly fire. Extra points for type of friendly fire mentioned (Breath of winter, arrows, breath of winter, bolts, inacurate spell, breath of winter, frenzied elephant, or breath of winter)

Just these essential stats would enable me to check each battle quickly. I wouldn't have to view each replay to know what went wrong. I would still do that ocassionaly, but it gets tiresome after a while (if you have to see several longish battles/turn)

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Something else that's been covered: better user interface for leaders. My ideas for implementation [could be stupid]:

One screen for each leader.

Has the stats and items as current.
Has army list and tactical orders.
Has current strategic. (those 3 could be on "tabs" like MS Excel sheets, maybe. Or pages)

Has arrows for next/previous leader. [in province or on full list.]

Less of a big deal:
This may be in the game already, but is there a spell [like the Ars Magica one] that opens a crack in the ground under someone's feet, they fall in, and the ground closes up again?

I say leave some of the tactical stupidity. Battles are full of chaos and death and mistakes. Arrows fall short. Routing units can't be stopped [hence, "routing."] No plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

You're right that incandesence and detonate are the more meaty spells. Just trying new ideas, I suppose.

More:

Wither Flames: This is an easily castable whole-army buff which instantly extinguishes any units on fire. At the moment, fire magic has no counters to itself, unlike many of the better schools.

Mass Blindness: Does exactly what it says on the tin. High level. If you have spells which enslave, curse and destroy whole armies, why not blind them as well?

Warp Wood: Ripped off from good old Master of Magic. This spell destroys ammunition of enemy ranged units. There is no defence against this spell, apart from keeping your ranged units at a distance to hinder its accuracy. Magical ranged weapons are unaffected.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

I like them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

[quote]

Mass Blindness: Does exactly what it says on the tin. High level. If you have spells which enslave, curse and destroy whole armies, why not blind them as well?
[quote]

It could use a better name.
Not just ripped, but ripped without thought. Do you really think a spell which instantly shuts down multiple ranged units with no chance to resist would help the balance ?

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Depends on the particulars of the spell. No-one seems to complain about destruction or wither bones, after all.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Oh, you mean *ANOTHER* spell that does this? Look at Arrow Fend.

I agree that it might be a cool spell, but arrows units already have a hard life in Dominions. Storm/Mist is also particularly bad as well. No other entire unit class has such effective spell counters.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Well, there's the water evocation rain, which doubles the fatigue cost of virtually all fire spells. Counters don't get much better than that.

But you're probably right about the arrow thing.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Soul Harvest: Anyone killed by the necromancer casting this spell will have their souls trapped and continu to fight for the necromancer as a dispossed spirit.

Also powerful troops should be the last to get starvation or diseased from starvation. It feels wrong to have my knights starve to death, while the wolves are apperently getting fed.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

The wolves feed themselves http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

A simple fire spell:

Wilt

This spell evaporates liquids from a target. Normal creatures will take only small damage and become exhausted but this spell is effective againstliquid or plant based enemies.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

I don't see the need. There is no stat for liquidness at the moment, and the some of the few plant units already have fire vulnerability... I'd much rather see some nasty Water spells, like mass-version of Sailor's Death... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

There are lots of possible spells, but not all of them would work in the theme and world of Dominions. There is no need to have counters to Vine Men/Ogres and Mandragoras, because they have their own, build-in weaknesses. Also, the developers are willing to make different spells, instead of the same old ones again and again. As an example, a AoE 10 caster-centered spell which would cast Breath of Winter effect for one turn would offer new possibilities. It is rather weak, and unless the AI knows to only use it in severe situations (it WILL damage the caster and everyone around him) it will be another nuisance... But if it were a Water 1 spell, a mage with stupid random might just be able to counter scary Dragonfly or even Black Hawk assault. Nature spell that makes target to attack its closest comrades (it's on your side and has Attack Closest orders) until it succeeds in a Strength roll against 13. Air spell that pushes targets around, doing minor damage (acts as Trampler of size dependant on caster's Air level). A spell that severely poisons target and gives him 8+ Poison damage. If he dies, a cloud of poison appears around the place of his death. Higher-level Howl-like spell that summons animals like Summon Animals spell, 1 or no gems. Blood spell that calls forth a spirit that possesses a Horror-marked unit, making it Berserk and forcing it to attack the closest creatures. Water/Fire spell that transforms Rain or Strom into Acid Storm (acid-based Wrathful Skies) (maybe counters Wrathful Skies if it is already in effect?). A low-damage AoE Blood and/or Death spell that creates a neutral Vengeful Spirit (comparable to Dispossessed Spirit) for every non-mindless, animate (NOT inanimate), non-undead, non-demon unit that dies from it. A Death spell that causes random affliction. I want something different. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Hidden scouts are displayed now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

It's good news. I always forget half of my scouts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

The first item has an unusual history. I wrote it over a year ago, but just before I was going to post it, someone else brought up the idea. Not wanting to play the copycat, I buried this version of the idea in my files. However, no one has specifically added the idea to the Wishlist thread, and it has been a full year, so I’m sending it in now.

Seasonal Pretenders
Another vector of changing god power—Seasons. God stats are cyclical and change from turn to turn, based on month of year, in addition to changes by dominion. (Suggest limit this to human nations only.)

1. Seasonal Pretender stats peak in middle of “high” season, then wane to a low in the middle of the annually opposite season, then wax to maximum strength again (maybe 12 variations using % multiplier, one per month).

2. A standard variation of +/- 33%, looks ok to me (maybe 25% minimum, to a 50% upper limit).

3. Example: Possible breakdown for human nations:

Spring High: Arcosephale, T’ien Ch’i; Man (std),
Summer High: Machaka, Marignon,
Fall High: Mictlan, Pythia; Man (Last of Tuatha),
Winter High: Ermor, Ulm.

4. Seasonality might also be made an attribute of a specific Pretender chassis, or possibly a pre-game setup option.

5. This would add an additional timing factor for advanced players.
[end of section]



Item Mod Wish
A special #noprod command to prevent an item from being manufactured in a scenario, regardless of its actual statistics. This would not, of course, limit a modder’s ability to add the item to the scenario manually in the design phase, or schedule its appearance if we get moddable trigger conditions.

Magic Item Wish
I wish to see a HUGE magic item that takes THREE Misc slots to carry. I don’t care what it is, as long as the item is good enough to make it a viable choice (but not a no-brainer)!

The idea is enable the creation of items specifically designed to be mounted on an Elephant or similar. Somewhat lesser items intended for smaller animal mountings might only take two slots.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

#noprod already exists. You can have an item that needs Construction 10 to be crafted, e.g. an item that CAN'T be made at all. It can, however, be Wished for.

Currently, Elephans only have two misc slots. The units with three misc slots are specialist magic-users, including Crone and Oracle. Size or Strength requirement might work better, but then we would have Firbolgs with Bear Claw Talismans, Boots of Giant Strength, Stypmhalian Wings etc' flying around with all the cool stuff.
It could be done, but not as an item. Check out Juggernauts. They are very close to what you describe. Construction 5, 7 and 9 should have more spells, which would effectively include making an item which only specified unit/construct can carry. Also, each Behemoth in controlled by a Revenant, but it is only seens in the picture of the unit; there is no revenant except in the description. Similarly, there could be items that only exist in the carrying units' description.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Luck scale might influence the probabilty of finding magical items after battles, which, btw, is too low any way. It might be thematical to have a low chance of finding weak magical items, but shouldnt low-level magical items be common in a magical world? Apart, it would be certainly more fun to see more minor items in gameplay (e.g. my current chandrea map features at least two independent commanders with #randomequip 2 per province, but most do not have any items and if they have and if the commander was killed instead of routed, then finding the items is pretty difficult. There is almost no difference between having two random equipped guys in every province as compared to normal game play -- taking into account that the victor brought more than 3 commanders, including spell caster)

It isnt a large issue or big impact on gameplay, but it is simply no fun!

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Endoperez: Your statement about elephant slots confuses me. I found three misc slots on Hannibal, and checked out the Elephant (unit 150) on the Black_Unit_View--also three misc slots.

Is one of the listed slots disabled?



And just so the post does not go without another useful item:

Commander Mounts
Introduce more mounts configured as items that fill the Feet item slot. ([Cohen’s brilliant idea!])

Current: Horse, Alicorn, Griffin, Pegasus, Chariots (as Arco, Std+GE), Lizard (as Amazon), Spider (as Machaka), and very moddable (Greyhawk dragonnels or Hoburg eagles, anyone?).

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Re: Elephant
I misremembered that. Maybe I was thinking of Dom:PPP? As there all commanders had two misc slots, and the only Elephant commander I can think of is a mercenary, I might not have seen them in Dominions II at all... My fault, sorry.

Re: mounts as items
I don't think it would work. Mounted units are totally different from un-mounted units. Besides, the fact that graphics wouldn't change would be annoying, as you wouldn't notice it before you right-clicked a commander.
Some kind of an item that acts mostly as mount would be better IMO. Strategical (main map) flying for commander, and even for small number of troops with a Chariot, or rejuvenation and map move 4 (unicorn), would be some of the more apparent options.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

REDUCE MICROMANAGEMENT: There should be an item "Gem Pouch" (or alternatively a mere checkbox for all mages) that allows a mage to use up to three gems on the battlefield directly from the lab. Otherwise gem usage/shipping should be as usual.

Maybe a ritual spell to teleport some gems/items to commanders would be helpfull as well...

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

new poster here. any idea when there might be some new info released on Dom 3 (ie screenshots, release date, other specific improvements as noted in the initial press release)?

thanks!

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Endoperez:
(Elephants) I sympathize. Even worse than going from one edition to another is developing a new edition. Then you have to not only remember which edition you are working in, but also screen out all the variations that were discussed, but not implemented (or implemented, then removed). A friend of mine had a little wail of despair for this condition:

"My brain hurts!" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

At least the way seems open for the THREE-MISC-SLOT ITEM!

(Mounts): Nice response--you've convinced me. Still wishing for some of those unusual Feet slot items though! They don't all have to be shoes and boots!

(New Item): This was composed and filed at the time of the T'ien Ch'i balance thread, but not posted. Although that discussion has long ended, I think enough of this minor idea to send it in now.

T’ien Ch’i Celestial Master Tweak
Change the 1S to 1 random sorcery, but switch Blood results to Astral. Thus: CMs break down 25% Nature, 25% Death, 50% Astral (both Nature and Death sorceries have their celestial facets in Oriental magic systems). This small tweak helps eliminates the “certain death” dueling situation by removing half the CMs from danger, with minimal disturbance to the theme.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

I'd like to see more options with respect to the in game data charts (number of provinces, research, income, gem income etc.) The options I'd like are time related so that I can show the charts of current informtion or have it lag by 5, 10, 15 or 20 turns. So that at turn 70 I see the state of the world at turn 50 if 20 is selected. This gives players some informtion on large maps about what their distant neighbors were up to a while back but still requires you to watch your neighbors for current information.

It would also be nice that even if the charts are off that when the game ends they get turned on. We played a 80 turn 10 player VP game and it would have been very nice at the end to have the charts to see how things evolved.

The other minor thing I'd like to see is knowlegde of magic sites that a player knows about being retained even if they lose ownership of that province.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

River Deities

I wish for the ability to mod river deities into the game.

Currently, there is no real way to do this, because there is no way in Dom2 to tag a province with a river in it.

Once such a tag is available, then this opens the way to keying poptypes, summoned allies, and various effects (increased supply, increased growth, minor flood effects, events, etc.) to river provinces.

Applications include Egyptian river gods, Japanese kappa, European nixies/river nymphs, Chinese river dragons and so on.

Another tweak might be to give amphibians a strat-move of 2 in river provinces.

Variant
A further mod command might be a hard-key option to prevent river-based units from entering non-river provinces. (This might be reversed to keep deep desert spirits out of river provinces.)

As an extension, the ability to hard-key units to any specific terrain types might be fun to play around with.

(OT: I would also like to see a distinction between shallow ocean [ie: coastal] and deep sea ocean provinces in Dom3.)

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

> OT: I would also like to see a distinction between shallow ocean [ie: coastal] and deep sea ocean provinces in Dom3.

It's there already.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

I'm not sure if the existing definition makes difference between land-coastal and sea-coastal provinces, but at least land provinces neighbouring seas have some special features (Shambler Reef and other sites, "some water gems have washed ashore" and other events, certain poptypes, etc).
It might be that some underwater poptypes (Mermen) only appear on sea provinces neighbouring land provinces. I don't know what and where this affects. The Mermen are the only one I can think of right now. However, there can very well be sites/events that are limited to "shallow", i.e. land-neighbouring, seas.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Are you talking about Dom II or Dom III?

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Dom3

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Ahh, that's cool. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Great! Tell me that the details are accessible to modding and you will make my week.

Heck...You will make my month!

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

/me still wants a fully moddable game ala SE4... so you can add additional nations (Hyrule?), magic items (the Triforce, the Wind Waker, the Ocarina of Time?), forts, etc. fully specifying their attributes and without having to replace other objects in the game to make room http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Complex Event Modding
Assuming we get the ability to play with Events, it would be fun to have the tools to create Events more complex than are available in the current game.

Here is an example of such an Event, inspired by B0rsuk’s planned Slavic project:

Event: “Rusalka appear in [PROVINCENAME] and lure local soldiers to their doom. These hostile water nymphs are likely to continue their actions until they are driven off.”

The Guts: Rusalka are female Slavic river nymphs. They appear only in a river province, which they cannot leave (they are much like dryads in this respect).

First, the event happens only in Forest or Swamp River provinces. Second, this event only only occurs if Luck scale is 0 or negative. Third, this event cannot occur in a province with a fort in it (this is thematic and prevents a capital from being messed up). Reroll any result that affects a province with a fort. The event:

· immediately reduces province PD to 0, and

· makes the province independent unless nation-controlled troops are present, and

· creates 10+ Rusalka, and

· activates a Beckon spell in the province that triggers during the Ritual Magic phase of each turn in which any Rusalka survive in the province.

Say the Base number of nymphs appearing is 10, adjusted by +5 per Misfortune point. So the worst that can happen is 25 Rusalka in Forest/River/Misfortune 3. Add a Witch leader per 10 Rusalka, and the event is complete. (Unit note: Use Hama Dryad graphic and stats, but change TGA colors from greens to blues, since they are water- as opposed to forest-spirits.)

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

There should be more things you can build in your provinces. I don't have the full game yet, just playing the demo, but I'm going to order it tomorrow. Are there other buildings besides forts, churches, and labs?

One thing that is kind of bothersome that I noticed in the demo is that I usually start off on a peninsula with maybe one other foe, and I defeat him and move into the main continent. Down there though I usually find two or three all coming at me at once. It'd be nice if you could build a wall across your provinces like the great wall of China, or just something to keep the hordes at bay.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Currently, the best you can do is recruit some provincial defense and hope that it keeps the AI at bay... If the AI thinks that you have strong defense, it doesn't attack you in the first place. Sometimes you can also use strong independent provinces as an upkeep-free guard. 80-strong army of Knights and Longbowmen will keep AI armies from coming to you through that province, and while the income might be nice the fight would be costly!

However, buying more than 11 is rarely worth it, but 11 allows PD to occassionally catch enemy scouts, and with nations like Ulm, Marignon or Jotunheim might even help if enemy does attack. For any real threat, PD alone won't work, but recruiting some independent units in addition to PD works much better. Some heavy infantry with Marignon Crossbowmen supporting them works very well as long as the enemy army isn't too big.

There are no more buildings in DomII, and I haven't heard about any more in DomIII. I'm not sure if PD will be changed, but I seem to recall one of the developers stating that making defense a viable option would make the games boring. Currently, some people already consider gem-generating items like Clam of Pearls or Earth Blood Stone a viable strategy that really pays off after 50 or so turns... Games can last so long that it isn't fun anymore.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Don't know if this has already been addressed but:
Wraparound now goes on either both map directions or none. Could there be an option for Horizontal-only map-wrap (the Ribbon option) as well as both ways (the Torus option) since well-designed worlds aren't donut-shaped? (Technically they won't be ribbon-like either but the polar lands have a tendency to be nigh uninhabitable so it works out almost right...)
{For the reason I thought of this see the discussion on the new NeoPangea map...}

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Gem-generating items need to be fixed so that they don't offer exponential gains. At the moment, gem-generating items can fuel their own construction with little loss in efficiency. And since gems can be used to counter almost anything, any large-scale game is always under threat from a hoarder of such items.

Wish for magic power is also way too good. And wish for artifacts should have to overcome some kind of test if a unit is wearing the item.

Strands of arcane power has a serious flaw as well. Basically, the spell should have some risk attached to it, with the duelling of enemy astral mages. So if you cast it with minimal astral investment, then you could be caught out by a high level astral mage. But that rarely happens, because high level astral mages are highly unlikely to fail the MR test due to their high astral resistance - meaning that the duel never takes place.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Eh, but I think that's more of an issue with the maps and victory conditions involved than it is the gem-generating items. I mean - we have maps with 360-420 provinces, and arguably the clams etc are the only thing that can finally help win a normal, no-special victory condition set game on those in less than 1000 or so turns.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Quick, before it's too late !!

Separate skills for Hide and Sneak
It would allow for traps and ambushes. Sneak would be for moving stealthy only, while Hide would be used if you wanted to stay somewhere for a bit longer.

An army with decent Hide ability would be great for setting up traps. Coincidentally, I'm gathering information/ideas for a new nation which could use this.
Sneak and Hide in one pack is too much, sometimes.

Extended leadership effects
At the moment leadership is measured only by single number. It is assumed that a better leader can lead more troops and that's it. What I'd like to see is a way to make commanders boost their troops somewhat.
Better military commanders would give +1 attack/defence; mages +1 MR, priest +1 Morale perhaps (perhaps not necessary since priests already can boost morale).
Standard ability would become a subcategory of Leadership.
Other options could include: a commander who gives Mountain Survival (guide) to his troops; enchantments (low power) like Air Shield, slow regeneration/reinvigoration etc.

Re: Dominions 3 Wishlist
 

Would it be possible to make it so that item produced gems were not able to be used for alchemical purposes? If so, would this help with the clamming complaints? If this was done, obviously (to me at least) any gem use should first use item created gems, preserving the alchemically active gems as much as possible.

A score (similar to Civ) would be a nice, trivial to code boon to the SP players.

It would be nice if when you clicked on an enemy controlled province the enemy's nation name appeared - as a newbie, I haven't yet memorized the various flag icons.

What do people think of making it so that if your pretender's astral rating + enemy dominion score >= 11 you learned the identity of the enemy? This would represent pretenders being able to "feel" each other coming (a la the old disturbance in the Force - maybe this should only work if you name you pretender Obi Wan http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ).