Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

Trying not to repeat what the others said:

AI: better usage of spells (e.g. not casting Iron Warrios on *yourself* after casting Invulnerability; not casting Barkskin four times in a row; not casting precision-boosting spells on melee friends, etc. etc.)
AI: have AI-opponents build strategic fortresses and choose which provinces to attack when better
AI: choice of targets improved (reduced casualities from friendly fire)

Interface: Research Screen: Let us click on a school and be able to increase / decrease research spent with the arrow keys and/or by typing in a number
Interface: A hotkey which enables you to see which units a selected commander has under its command as well as their battle orders. Best would be a hotkey which simply links to the “set battle orders” section of the “troop command /t/” screen.
Interface: A hotkey enabling you to see which spells the selected commander can cast. Best would be a shortcut key linking directly to "set battle orders / cast a specific spell". (Or anything other than select province, hit "t", set battle orders, cast specific spell.) Give us some way of seeing which spells a commander can cast SIMULTANEOUSLY with which gems s/he currently has, preferably without having to enter the battle orders screen and actually change the battle orders (by pressing “cast specific spell”).
Interface: a hotkey enabling you to see which items a commander can forge – even if not in an area with a lab. Best would be getting this information PLUS spellcasting information directly from the commander’s screen upon having him/her selected.
Interface: let us see the personal gems (if any) a commander has when setting battle orders. Nice here too would be not only letting us see them, but clicking in that field lets us exchange them too (direct link to f7/exchange).
Interface: Allow commanders to “forbid” casting particular spells, or at least limit their use
Interface: Enlarge the Exchange Gems screen to accommodate more commanders. Let us be able to click on the commanders and change the gem number per arrow key (or better: typing in numbers) rather than clicking.
Interface: Alchemy screen: Let us be able to click on the gems to change and change the gem number per arrow key (or better: typing in numbers) rather than clicking.
Interface: the f1-f# screens pop up no matter what screen is currently active (thus allowing me to change items from my treasury, for example, while inspecting my army).
Interface: Giving an item to a commander automatically switches items should a slot be filled (e.g. I do not need to put his helm in the lab first before giving him a new one).
Interface: Either make default or allow a setting which lets you switch between default "returned actions upon invalid command", i.e. when you have a mage forging a helm selected and make some other (invalid) command, she goes back to "defend" instead of forge that helm and you have to reset.

for me, NO new modding tools / new themes / new races would be required in my opinion until some of the above can be addressed.

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

At least one theme for all the nations that don't have one yet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Ok, perhaps a tad unrealistic for the next patch, but eventually...

Complete mod tools, obviously. I'm particularly waiting for Magic Site modding and the ability to add more (preferably all) abilities to a unit, like spying, assassination, etc. These two are the main things the way when trying to create a new nation.

[ January 22, 2004, 14:13: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This does not happen to everybody's system. Mine for example shows up at all times.

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

Nice list.

Fixing the AI is difficult since there is really only one. Do you feel its better for the AI if it never casts a spell which has already been cast? That would seem bad for spells like shards or fireball.

The problem with fortresses seems to be in the AI's budgeting. Alot of what people feel the AI should do (dispel globals, build castles, get more elite troops) would require shifting from a "best use of what I have" to a "save up for this" strategy. Plus the logic of castles is hard to figure. "A province I own which is surrounded by provinces I own and none of these provinces already have a castle". Does that feel workable?

Choice of targets? Do you mean that the AI should stop firing at anemy troops that are engaged with their own troops? Im not sure how that would be done to best improve overall combat scores. If the archers all shifted to rear enemies at that point then many of the shooter types would end up running forward thru the melee combat. The AI did switch to putting most of its archers on the flanks which helped alot.

The interface things look pretty good from what I see.

The themes and mods dont really apply. I get the impression that alot of the theme and mod stuff gets done because its fun. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Besides the person who would do most of the work on them is not the person who would do most of the work on the other stuff.

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">R'lyeh doesn't really need one. About the only thing that comes to mind, perhaps, is a theme that is less sea-based. The trick is in not taking this already-fine nation and either weakening it, or making it even more powerful than it already is.

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">A possible theme for R'Lyeh would be that they have enslaved some other race than the Atlantaens. Jotuns perhaps? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif and have left the impact crater for the land.

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">R'lyeh doesn't really need one. About the only thing that comes to mind, perhaps, is a theme that is less sea-based. The trick is in not taking this already-fine nation and either weakening it, or making it even more powerful than it already is. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No nation "needs" a theme, but it's still nice that we have them. There's no reason for Marignon to have 3 themes while R'lyeh, Atlantis, Mictlan, Machaka, etc. have none.

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This does not happen to everybody's system. Mine for example shows up at all times. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Does that disqualify it as a bug then?

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

Didn't see it here, so I'll mention it: ability to name commanders! I've read the threads on why it wasn't implimented and I don't quite understand how unbalancing it is. Famous people (like Rock stars, Politicians, pro athletes, etc) "change their names" when they check into hotels and things like that. People even did this in war (reference Saddam Hussein and his 6 duplicates).

And besides all that I think it would be fun to have my pretender "Odin" with his prophet "Thor", commander "Heimdall", etc as opposed to what I have now: my pretender "Odin" with his mighty prophet....."Funde" and 5 commanders named "Duresdant". Is naming really so bad that it shouldn't be included at all?

Darryl

Re: Wishlish! (For the next patch)
 

For SP only, the ability to save at any point. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Leadman