Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Honestly, if nothing was ever done to Dominions 3 from this point on out I'd be pretty happy with the product I purchased. I'd even venture to say I'd go buy the next incarnation of the series when/if it came out. I was always a huge fan of Master of Magic, and this is the closest thing I've ever seen to it since then. The 4X games always were my favorite. Dom 2-3 have a thriving multiplayer community, and that's what really interests me.

Besides that, have you thought of trying to tap into other markets? I think that you could bring in a lot more people if you put your game up on Steam for distribution. I don't know what kind of deals they make with developers, but you'd be opening yourself up to a huge fanbase. I know they had a small company 4X space expansion style game on there a while back called Space Empires 5. I don't know how well it fared, but I checked just a moment ago and it's still up there for sale.

Anyways, I'd love to see you all earn enough profit from the game that you could farm out programming tasks to other people. Finding new methods of distribution besides just Shrapnel Games might be the way to go.

Oh, and I'm very happy with Dominions 3, it's a rich engrossing game and I've recommended it to a few of my friends. Most of them don't have the patience for the slow paced style games, so it's difficult to get them addicted, but I think I have one who might be susceptible.

Jazzepi

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Just a quick one here. I'd like the ability to auction off magical items in the same way mercenaries are currently auctioned off in the game. It'd be better than just having to throw them away (why would you throw a useful magic item away, ever? even if you didn't have a use for it at the moment) and it would make multi-player games that much more interesting.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I'd also like to see a tag in flavor text to substitute in the name of your Pretender, so that if I'm playing "Maximilian, Diviner of Runes, Emperor of Shadows" my spell descriptions will say things like

"The yada yada are servants of Maximilian."

instead of

"The yada yada are servants of the new god." Maybe have a simple text replacement "<pretender>" -> Pretender's name.

-Max

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Thinking back of the maaaaany hours spent on dom 2 & 3, I think it's really worth the price. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Dominions Total War ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif


Hmmmm... maybe... but keep the good paper manual + cd distrib...

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

How about ageing (natural or not) that can be benifical to creatures who grow stronger with age, Dragons, Krakens etc.

How about more than 6? size catagories. Like up to 12 in rare instances.

How about spell specific boosting magic sites. Like "Lava Vents" 1 fire gem, adds +100% damage to Fires form afar.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Now you're talking!
These first two are things I've asked for and made cases for myself, Cor http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif So far no luck though, but it's nice to see I'm not the only person who thinks these would be good ideas.

The third is also a good idea, although I'm just as in favor of sites that allow you to summon creatures and pay for them with gems, instead of just tying up a single mage and getting a Draconian every single turn.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I actually think there should be more interesting magic sites. Or more sites that do low level things. Like a 1 Death gem site that makes undead in that province immune to banishment. Or just higher MR. Whatever http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Jazzepi

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

That's another good idea. I don't like the term "unholy" because my coffee-mug isn't-as far as I know-holy, but I think "holy magic"(another bad term) could use a split between angelic and demonic influences.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Not sure if somebody else has mentioned this before, but here we go...

I'll be great to have the "Army Setup" option available for PD troops and thus enable a much more rational setup.
It's rather frustrating when you have an intermediate PD value (say 20-25) and the province troops launch a frontal assault, get slaughtered soon and brake without causing (almost) any enemy casualties.

I think that nations like Caelum and C'Tis will benefit from this option.
The Flyers you get from Caelum's PD are not suited for a full frontal assault, they're more suited for flanking/killing rearmost units.
The combination of C'Tis' low morale values plus Militias mindlessly charging is destined to fail. OTOH, if you are able to arrange the City Guards in front of the Militias they'll crush a skull or two before routing...

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I think there are a ton of magic sites already. Almost an infinite number. That is low on my priority list.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I like this idea. In my current Mictlan game, I had a province with 11 defense (1 commander) and remnants of misc indy archers that had routed from other battles nearby. The result was the lone tribal king commander charging to his death while his army stopped to throw / fire ranged weapons. Why he didn't just use his own sling escapes me...

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

There are a ton of vanilla magic sites, actually. I think that there should be a ton of magic sites with a small effect. Especially ones that alter the battlefield or the province in small ways. Like an A1 site that grants everyone in that province 40% air shield.

Jazzepi

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

We do have a lot of sites, but new sites with new powers we haven't seen before would be great. Especially if we can play with them in mods.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I just think there's way too many vanilla sites that do nothing. Personally, to me, vanilla sites should be the exception, not the rule.

I play Magic the Gathering and there are "vanilla" creatures in that game. Creatures with no abilities, and that's exactly how the game is crafted. Vanilla creatures are the exception, not the rule. After you've played about 5 of them, they all start looking the same except for flavor text and artwork. Dom 3 doesn't have flavor text or artwork for their sites, so "howling cavern" looks just the same to me as "canyon full of wind gems".

I just think it'd be a small thing that would make finding low level magic sites more interesting. Sure it's great to get that castle that gives you fire, and earth gems, plus the ability to recruit mages, but I'd like to see that happen on a much smaller scale with level 1 and 2 sites.

Jazzepi

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I think it would be nice if you could do something with "vanilla" sites, either build upon them in some way-like you have to have a fire site in a province to cast a certain spell-or link them together, so that, if you have Site a, b, and c, it means such-and-such.

You could have other spells or whatever that can only be done in provinces with no sites (none revealed, anyway).

I like interesting, quirky things in games, and this game has lots-and I want more!

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I want to eat more badgers [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Racoon.gif[/img]

Jazzepi

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

well, go ahead and try http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Make sure you've got a tourniquet handy, would be my advice [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Panda.gif[/img]

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

three more requests.
-Dismiss button, to get rid of old troops.

- Better scripting for afflictions. a Wyrm should never have a limp.

- national artifacts. specific to nations, just like the spells.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Inspired by the "dud nations" thread.
More effects for weapons. a pike is very different than a spear. Make them do diffrent things. Spys and assasins should be armed with stilettos (ap) not daggers.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Yeah, that's true-a dagger is a noble's weapon, you use them to finish off your heavily armored opponent after you've knocked him to the ground/senseless, by finding a weakspot in his armor.

I could probably find a dozen different names for fighting-knives, but yes, assassins are going to be relatively poor, and daggers were quite expensive-no reason to use them when you can use something cheap you can discard if you have to.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I'm not sure that state-sponsored assassins would be poor. They're the James Bonds of Dominions. Not that I have any particular opinion or knowledge on what weapons they should have.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

State-sponsored or not, would you shoot someone with a crossbow made of solid gold when you could just use a chrome-plated .38? Daggers were EXPENSIVE, flashy, and not the best tool for the job. It's as simple and profound as that.

If you have any questions though, I'd be happy to answer them.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Three more Ideas:

1)How About "templates" that would be added on to units who survive encounters with infectious units.

For example, my heavy infantry is hit by a drain life from a vampire, but survives combat. That unit should have a chance of becoming a vampire, I.E. have a "vampire template" added on. Making it undead adding a drain life attack and strength. Same for werewolves, possibly ghouls and some others.

But I would love to be able to add templates to Pretenders during creation. What If I want to play a Vampire Medusa?

2)How about more than one generic disease? There could be diseases that could have short term benefits. Example:“Red Fever” adds to strength and attack and subtracts from defense and HP every round. There could be diseases that are non-fatal as well. How about “The Madness” any unit effected with this disease would attack the nearest unit in combat.


3)There should be a new ability “Immune to disease”, or maybe it would be part of a dominion of the god. I like the idea in D&D that Paladins are immune to diseases because their god is protecting them.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

more things to wish for.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Rawr !

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

mod wishes, (probably mentioned 47 times before):
#armor <armor number>
#startsite <site number>
would be nice, right now only names work.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Special repulsion rules for mounted units.

Mounted units should have a mount-rating, which determines how many resource points they pay to be mounted.

When a mounted unit has to check for repulsion by a smaller unit, special rules apply:
* The mounted unit uses the mount rating instead of Defense.
* The mounted unit suffers full damage from the hit if it is struck.
* The mounted unit uses mount rating instead of Morale to see if it gets to attack anyway.

This would mean that pikemen (better reach than a lance) would actually be able to hold against cavalry charges.
Spearmen would be able to withstand cavalry charges with swords or other short weapons in the early era, but be foiled by lances.

We'd also no longer have to kludge in extra resource points for heavy cavalry - it'd be built into the rating of the mount.

Suggested mod syntax:
#mounted <mount rating>

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Wow, I really like that. Especially taking full damage from repels.

-Max

Edit: Why would this apply only to repels by smaller units? I'd rather make it apply to all repels against mounted attacks.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Cyclops + big spear + attack bonus items + full damage from repel, might be slightly too good against sacred cavalry otherwise.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I think terrain effects would be great in Dom4.

Archers/Cavalry would rule the plains, light infantry the forests, cold-blooded units would get a bonus in swamps, etc.

The implementation could be done both through unit stat adjustments and battlefield modifiers.

For example, in a forest, precision could be at 50% like Mist, AP of (non-Forest) mounted units would be at 50%, and light infantry or Forest survival units get +1 defense.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I still don't see it. Big spear is ineffective against cavalry with lances because spears are only length 4, just like lances. And a cyclops is bigger than cavalry, so this restriction wouldn't apply to them anyway.

-Max

A carefully loaded question.
 

Are there any new magic paths-and coincidal bless strategies-that people would like to see in Dom4?

As it is, we've only got 8 blesses, 16 if you count them in twos for high-level effects.

That doesn't seem like a whole lot when you consider we're over the 50 nation mark.

Re: A carefully loaded question.
 

Not particularly, if you wanted to go that route I would introduce a special "bless" unit - 1 ability reflecting the chosen bless. Is it possible to scale cost? 200g for a lvl 4 bless as a base, increased costs up to a level 9 bless...or maybe a high initial cost, then requires gems? No clue, doubt it would work.

I'd rather see more spells within the existing schools, more items and more national restrictions on both.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

What if bless effects were independent of the magic schools? I think that would be a nice feature too, if you separated the two. That would let you build up your physical Pretender-choosing areas of dominion, instead of magic paths, and these "areas of dominion" (War, Nature, Death, Love, Medicine, the various elements, Forging, whatever) would then grant your Pretender stat bonuses, and your sacred troops blessings.

For instance: A high Forging "area of dominion" might grant additional strength, protection, and a Forging bonus, while Love area might grant awe, 'unit heals afflictions', and perception.

The magic paths could still be incorporated-like you could choose your Pretender to have dominion over Fire, and maybe a high enough dominion would grant bonuses to fire magic, or you could choose him or her to have dominion over Magic, and through that, gain a research bonus and a nice discount when purchasing Paths.

It would allow spells to be kept along the same lines they are now-with the potential for expansion still in the future-but allow for many more Bless effects, and allow you to personalize (and pimp out) your Pretender.

You'd pick a Chassis-which might come with some Areas of Dominion and starting Magic Paths, or just great stats/special abilities.

Then you'd pick your Areas and pay for them, which would increase some stats, maybe lower a few others. Then (while I'm brainstorming) maybe you could pick a special ability or two and pay for them (fire resistance, an extra head, an additional form, whatever), or an affliction of your choice (limp, lost an eye, low MR, etc.) for a few extra points, and then finally, you add magic paths-which can still bump up your stats a bit.

Instead of just paying for Dominion, your Dominion would be equal to your number of Areas. You'd no longer get Awe based on your Dominion, it'd be a special ability that you'd either have to pay for, or that came with an Area.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Edit: Um, never mind about that second point. I was totally mixed up.

Edit^2: Sorry, that was supposed to be an edit, not a quote.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

There are not as many length 5-6 forgable items as I thought, but the two-handed S1 enchanted pike is length 6. That's the item I was thinking of when I wrote big spear.

Right, but if that rule was removed, it might be an issue. Since you asked why that rule was there.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I think if you have a 5-6 length weapon, it should be effective against calvalry, regardless of how big you happen to be. If it's 4 or less, then yes it can be size-determinate, but I don't see any reason why a huge heavy guy armed specifically with an anti-calvalry weapon should be penalized against an enemy he should-by all natural rights-have an advantage against.

Yes, I realize that it can be taken advantage of, but why not mod lances in the process so that they hit larger creatures more easily? And give war-horses the ability to independently trample smaller units at the same time their riders are attacking, while still retaining the ability to kick. That would even things out and make better sense.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Simple-enough suggestion:

If a commander has no commands, can research and is in a province with a lab, it will count as a researcher and increase the research pool.
These commanders will show up in the research screen as normal. Commanders can still be set spesifically to research, so that they e.g. aren't found by the 'n' command.

Cainehill's request:
Capability to hide commanders set to researcher, as the DomII Tab option, in both main map view and in F1 view.

A variant of the earlier:
Capability to choose which commands are visible through a set of variables including but not limited to: magic in general, spesific magic paths, sacredness, afflictions, old age, number of units lead, has magic items. Preferably in both F1 and main map view.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Good idea, although I would go further.

A commander who can site-search better than the province has been searched and has no orders should search it.

A commander who has research orders in a province with no lab builds one rather than canceling the research order. (If a random event destroys your lab it will be auto-rebuilt.)

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I've been thinking about having different classes of pretenders, which would cost or grant points on a scale like the "awakening" option. You could have: Immortals/Demi-Gods, Idols, Magical creatures/nature spirits, Olympians, etc. all the way up to Demiurge-like pretenders.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

To the research-thing I could reluctantly agree, but I definately wouldn't want this site-searching done without my order. If added at all then it should be done by the server that the default for somebody on "Defend" should be switched to these other useful actions (research) like units that "Sneak" in a province are then set to "Hide". But there should be an option to turn these "auto-actions" off, too.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

There's one thing I miss from Dominions 1. I never learned to like the blesses, which now seem to dominate the game. It also nerfed some perfectly nice Pretender types, and makes only some certain types viable for most nations. My wish would be that Dominions 4 would go back to the generic 2 morale bless rather than making it even worse (or "better" as the bless fanatics would probably say), or just at least some nerfing on it that makes it nice to have but not a game winning plan. Yeah, I want proper rainbow mages back. Among other things. ;p

And instead of making the pooling even more comprehensive than it already is and whatnot, I'd like to see some kind of method to place orders on the mages/commanders you're in the process of recruiting, so they'd go to research/patrol/whatever mode from the get go instead of the basic defend. That way once you have assloads of mages everywhere you wouldn't always have to remember to put that one new researcher dewd to research on your own, since it'd just start doing it on its own.

And I want a way to make the building queue of units to stick, plox!

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I thought the rainbow mages were NEVER viable. I remember reading posts about their uselessness and fragility in either Dom:PPP or early DomII era, on the CSIPGS newsgroup or some IGN forum or something. At least now you can't get all paths on your national mages and they're harder to get via summons as well, so rainbows do have their uses. Booster items are also harder to make, though...

Also, IIRC, blesses added a whole new category of viable pretender types into the game: pretenders that are good for going high level in a path. If you didn't want a bless, why would you take magic over level 5 on your pretender? 5 + a booster you can forge with it is enough to cast anything you might want. And even that'd be ONLY required if you wanted to cast the better spells. In Dom:PPP it was even worse, because level 3 was enough for boosters. Cyclops might've taken Earth for protection, and perhaps some Air pretender to spam Orb Lightning, but that's about it.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I think you're thinking about Dominions 2, because in 1 they were plenty viable and doubleplusgood based on my experiences with them in PBEMs. You could use them for site searching early on, they were great at research, they were great at making items... And with little help from the right items (Robe of the Magi, RIng of Sorcery and Wizardry, Staff of Elements, then for instance the astral cap and earth boots), they could potentially cast anything you needed. Now, thanks to the change in bless effects, a rainbow mage Pretender is far less usable, because, well, you usually want blesses to counter the other guy's blesses. Only situation I can think a rainbow mage is good now is when you play a nation that doesn't get anything out of a bless strategy. As for the fragility and "uselessness" of a rainbow mage... If you think it's supposed to be fighting on the front lines like a bigass Titan, you just made your first big mistake.

A bunch of other Pretender types became rather unusable, too, because the blesses are so powerful. Indeed, a lot of the Pretenders are completely unused now because they don't really fit well into a bless strategy.

There's a massive difference between making a new type of Pretenders viable and making a certain type of Pretenders the only ones that are viable for quite a few nations. Hell, before blesses became a deciding factor on what a Pretender should be like, even a Manticore with no magic was a viable option due to the bonuses it gave you to scales, since it required no points - and those excellent scales actually ended up helping you throughout the game. Now it means far less.

If you don't want a bless, you get screwed sideways by some other guy who wanted a bless if your nation happens to be one of those which "should" use a bless. It's not a choice between different pretty much as good choices anymore, but a choice between nerfing your capabilities wholesale and getting the best bang for your buck.

You mean levels 2 and 3. But still, the change in levels of magic required to make boosters wasn't the thing that made rainbow mages (and most other types of Pretenders) far less usable, it was the blessings (and very distinct types of blessings, no less) being so much more potent as a whole.


---

I don't think there's anything anyone could say that would make me think that nerfing the bless effects or even turning it back to what it was in D1 isn't a good idea. And I'm sure I'm entitled to my opinion. ;ppp

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

I *like* rainbows. I've always used them, and for as long as I can remember, I've heard how that isn't an optimal choice. I know their strengths, but I've also killed enough of them to know that they ARE fragile. A rainbow mage can't be used for early expansion. In Dom:PPP and in DomII, pretenders were a great boon in early expansion. A rainbow slowed you down in both games, and a non-rainbow pretender coming your way physically or via his blessed hordes was just as deadly in both Dom:PPP and in DomII. I know rainbows aren't good for fighting, but I also think they are often NEEDED to participate in battles when an enemy comes your way. Of course, I've only played small blitz games and a couple of bigger games. I am aware that rainbows are better in the big games, but that's just as true in Dom3 as it was in the earlier games.

I expressed myself poorly here. I meant "without blesses, taking magic ever level 5 would be useless on a pretender". That's how the situation was in Dom:PPP. Low-magic pretenders were the rule. There were no Fire 9 pretenders, no Fire 7 pretenders, and few Fire 5-6 pretenders. One of the reasons for implementing blesses was to encourage players to give the pretenders high levels of magic. And yes, the actual levels of the boosters varied a bit, but you never needed more than 3. I could've expressed that one better, too.

Any way, I understand that you might not like the bless mechanic. That's fine. I don't think it's going to vanish, but you've expressed your opinion and there's no need to fight over it, except perhaps to raise a virtual drink in the honor of the original Dominions, which had a really good-looking interface (even though it was horrible to use). The dominion candles in their small stone shelf, the big magic site symbols, the fine golden text that almost seemed to be carved to that beautiful dark grey stone... and, of course, The Cube. The Cube of Ages, the Talisman of Turn Generation.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Oh, and something else: it'd be cool if the game could be played with a focus on the RPG aspect, or possibly mixing RPG and strategy kind of like Lords of Midnight. This would mean a hero editor, site editor and control over events.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Spell effect predicate logic.

At present, there seems to be a single field for each spell to have a secondary effect. I'm not sure if you can chain these together ot have more than two effects for a spell or not (Unfrozen seems to indicate yes,) but you should be able to do so.

Spells should instead have *six* secondary effect fields.
Secondary-effect-each-effect - EACH effect generated by this spell also gives this spell if that effect returns TRUE, hitting/centered on that target (if applicable).
Secondary-effect-once - The spell also generates this effect. This is equivalent to the current secondary effect field.
If-TRUE-secondary-effect-each-effect - IF the predicate of the spell returns TRUE for any given target, generate this effect on that target.
If-FALSE-secondary-effect-all-targets - IF the predicate of the spell returns FALSE for any given target, generate this effect on that target.
If-TRUE-secondary-effect-once ; If-FALSE-secondary-effect-once - likewise, but

Spells with magic resistance return TRUE if the magic resistance fails, and FALSE if it succeeds, on a target-by-target basis.

Otherwise, most spells just return TRUE.

However, we'd have new effects which all they do is check predicates. There'd be an effect to check for the presence of magic paths, an effect to check the size, etc. etc. Most of them would take bitmasks in the damage value.

With this, we could make a spell which, if it targets an earth mage, tries to kill him, and if he fails his magic resistance check, summons an earth elemental in his square, for example. You could do all kinds of interesting and complicated stuff.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

That sounds fun, DrPraetorious.

I like complex spells and magic systems-and as complex as this game is, the magic system is woefully over-simplified.

I know, plenty of people argue that it isn't, but in relation to the rest of the game, it really is. Around 2000 different creatures in the game, 50+ nations, who knows how many Pretender-types, and only 8 areas of magic?

Just to keep on the same level as the rest of the game, there should be atleast 16-24 different areas, 3+ more spell levels, a few dozen more magic items, and a couple hundred more spells.

It's over-simplified, along with being lopsided (plenty of really broadly useful spells, plenty of spells that are over-specialized and aren't very useful at all, not that many that fall in between-and this disparity is occurring at all magic levels), unbalanced (I don't know about you, but I'd take Gift of Health-level 5 enchantment-over Dragon Master-level 8 enchantment-every single solitary time in any conceivable situation), and underincorporated.

Why do we have a total of 4 well-developed elemental fields of magic, and only 4 other fields of magic-each of which is potentially as broad as the entire *area* of elemental magic?

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Turn memory

Multi-month rituals. Similar to Domes you spend gems on to make last longer, but in reverse. The longer you take to cast the spell, the fewer gems it takes or the more powerful the spell is.

random thought, single turn rituals to convert gems. Similar to alchemy, but would take a mage-turn and have a better conversion rate. I'd probably do higher level/limits too, takes 50 fire gems to make 40 earth gems or some time of equation Alt 5, 4F to cast. Essentially costs X gems to gain a 1:1 conversion on a limited amount.

Re: Wish-List for Dominions 4
 

Head shots.

I don't think the game currently incorporates units' bodies and heads as separate combat targets. If I'm wrong, fine, good, but if not, let's have this updated. Everything else is in place for this to work, it just needs to be separated.

Then we can see some nice critical hits, including decapitations. It shouldn't be too hard to add, even as simply a sort of affliction.