Re: Second newbie game (recruiting)
 

How do you activate mods?

Re: Second newbie game (recruiting)
 

Submitted...

I've only once played pythium before

Re: Second newbie game (recruiting)
 

Loren, I'll try and write up some directions for you tomorrow on installing mods.

Sum1Won. Good to hear someone's in the same boat. I hadn't touched Agartha till I joined up for this game and found out it was MA. I did so poorly in my SP practice, that I've found I had to write a guide just so I make it to year 2 in a halfway decent position. Against easy AI, too. I don't have anything like a coherent strategy yet, either. But, going over the units has helped me from horribly misjudging independents, at least. And decide what scales NOT to take. Ever.

Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instructions.
 

I've switched pretender concepts yet again... But since I'm going sailing tomorrow, I won't have time to waffle over the issue. I'm mailing in my Pretender as soon as I get a good name. So... is there any particular MP etiquette?

I suppose Scylla is good enough. Though I'd need six heads (look at all my helmets!) to be true to myth. oh well... I'll have to settle for just one, though it certainly would be nice to accessorize. But if I was true to myth, I'd be moving around a lot less.

So now to get in character. I'll share what's available in the Pretenders of the World page.

I, Lazy Perfectionist now don my alterego.

Turn 0:

Agartha worships the pretender Scylla, Patron of the Rich, Symbol of Unchallenged Victory.
The inhabitants of the deep have started to stir. Soon, they will leave their caves and seek their place in the world.

Now, onto Loren's question regarding mods.

If you know how to open .RAR and .ZIP files, skip step one.

Step One: Install archival program
- I use a completely free (no nags, no time trials) program by the name of TugZip. That's only for Windows, though. So, I'll mention another program I've used from time to time, 7Zip. 7Zip is available for several platforms, including Linux.

Step Two: Download and unpack the mod files
- Open the file you've just downloaded in TugZip.
- Select the file or folder within that you wish to install.
- Click Actions, then Extract.
- Check Extract selected files only, extract with full path.
-Navigate to the target folder

Example: For worthy heroes, you have three options. And notice this archive comes with a path (the mods folder, maps folder, rather than being in one big bunch). First, installing a specific file. Second, installing the entire mod, but not the map, and third, installing everything.
To install a specific mod file, you select just it and extract to your game folder, subdirectory mods. For me, this would be my game drive "E:\dominions3\mods". For you, it'll probably look more like "C:\Program Files\Illwinter Games\Dominions 3\mods". It'll be somewhere else if you're using another operating system than windows.
To install the entire mod, extract all the files into "blahblah\dominions3\" And make sure to extract files with full path. If asked about overwriting anything, SAY NO!
Skim the readme in any mod before installing.
To install the blessing hotfix, you extract just BlackTome.dm to the \mods folder.
To install the Paragonos map, extract just parganos_fix.map to the \maps folder. You can extract the other while you're at it, if you like, but it doesn't matter for our game.

Step Three: Enable mod. Start the game, and click on Preferences. A new menu will pop up. Click "Mod preferences". Click on the name of the mod to enable it. Note, clicking on the pretty picture 'worthy hereoes' won't do any good. You have to click on the plain text. Done correctly, the word enabled will show up to the right.

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

wait, we have to install mods for this game?

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Just three. Blessing hotfix, worthy heroes, and edi's fixed map. I've linked to the appropriate threads to read about/download the mods, earlier. Somewhere along the way, the reason for the mods been explained. And Revisionist History 101 - always check the first post. Or at least, once the thread title changes.

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Getting the file into the directory was no problem, this is the step I was missing. Thanks.

Do mods stay with the game or do you have to turn them on and off if you are playing multiple games with different mods?

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Game will load the right mods for each game, you only need to turn them on/off as host when starting the game.

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Okay, I had submitted my pretender without having the mod...

will that be a problem, or can I have the mod running beforehand?

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Not a problem. You don't need the mods at all to create your pretender, and you won't need to turn them on once the game starts either (Dominions will realise what mods the game is meant to use and use them automatically).

One confusing note: If you ever use the Conceptual Balance mod, you _must_ make sure it is off before you create a pretender god for a MP game. Because it changes pretender costs, it will screw things up. This is the only mod I know of that makes any difference though.

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

For your info, I had a nasty bug with one of the heroes in my worthy heroes mod that gave him the wrong and pretty overpowered domsummon. It affects EA Sauromatia, MA C´tis and Pythium.
The fixed version is uploaded here:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...o=&fpart=1

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Alright, I have everything we need, we are starting tomorrow morning right?

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Yep, meant to be starting nowish. I haven't got zakna's pretender yet though, and it seems a shame to start without him. I've e-mailed him though, so we'll start as soon as he gets his pretender in, or late tonight (UK time) at the latest.

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

While we're waiting for zakna, I want to ask Szumo if he's a Lovecraft and/or Cthulhu fan.

Have you seen the "Misadventures of Hello Cthulhu", the various statues (including an 8 foot garden statue) available online, Cthulhu for President (Why vote for the lesser of two evils) and the various Plush toys (Get your niece a plush Cthulhu today! Scare the kids, push them further towards insanity).Oh, and "Tales of the Plush Cthulhu".

I'm trying to make myself an avatar of either Pintsize from www.QuestionableContent.net (which despite the name, is entirely SafeForWork) or oh, say, one of these little fellows. Problem is, gotta factor in the size of my digital canvas.

www.questionablecontent.net
http://www.logicalcreativity.com/jon/plush/01.html
http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/

Re: Pretender Scylla, Mod installation instruction
 

Nope, i had other reasons for choosing R'lyeh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Small Talk
 

Hmmm.. What were those, may I ask, or would it reveal your master plan?
/I say while I stroke a long haired cat in my evil bond villain chair. (not really)

Muahhahaah

Re: Small Talk
 

It should become evident soon enough.

Bwahahahahahahah http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Small Talk
 

Okay guys, the game will start as soon as zakna has uploaded his pretender (and he told me by e-mail he would do it soon). I've spent some time choosing nicely distributed start provinces, and then I've assigned them vaguely thematically. It's not perfect by any means - it seems something of an impossible task actually - but hopefully it will be a bit better than random placement.

Re: Small Talk
 

Brownie points to the llamabeast. If you ever want some advice with the GIMP or Photoshop or Paint.NET, hit me up. I don't have much creative talent, more technical, but given source art, I can do some nice things with transparency and layers.

Re: Small Talk
 

sorry for the delay guys pretender sent http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Small Talk
 

FYI, I'll be cranking out my turn sometime after 10:00 PM, GMT -5, Eastern Standard Time. I'll likely be back at my computer around 11, but I hope to get back earlier this time.

I'm happy with waiting for tomorrow to get my turn out of the way, but if goes faster, I'll be up till 1 AM, and up at eight or ten... Off to work around one.

Mon-Thursday work at 2:00 PM to 10 PM. Friday & Saturday work at 10 AM to 4 PM. Dangnabbit, I wish I checked in before one.

Re: Small Talk
 

Okay, started! The first turn has 48 hours on the clock in case of problems - after that you're on 24 hours (although later in the game if you all decide you'd like to change to 48 hours let me know).

Re: Small Talk
 

By the way, you should all remember to check out the webpage, www.llamaserver.net . Saying that, it's a bit up-and-down at the moment, annoyingly (hopefully fixed soon). The webpage is a separate entity from the server itself though, which carries on going regardless.

Re: Small Talk
 

Scylla the gopher peeked outide her burrow, saw her own shadow, decided to go back down until mid spring. She amuses herself with new minions until then. She hopes mid spring comes early.

Interesting... I see what you said about thematic start positions. Very interesting. I do wonder what those crowns I see scattered across the map are.

Is it possible to resend my turn if I want to point my scout in another direction, and not everybody's sent theirs in yet?

Re: Small Talk
 

Yep, you can resend your turn, and it will use the new version.

Apparently the website is being awful for lots of people. Sorry guys, but don't worry if it's not working, the server itself will be fine regardless.

Re: Small Talk
 

What's with the website? I got my turn in before it happened, but it seems to have been invaded by ads, with no links to the game.

Re: Small Talk
 

What?! Aaargh!

This is hellish to fix, because every change I make takes time to propagate through the internet (weird eh?), and often reaches other people before me. So it still looks the same for me. It certainly shouldn't be showing adverts and stuff. I've just double checked all the settings, so hopefully that was a blip.

Starshine, if you're still online, would you mind taking another look and telling me if it's still screwed up? If it is I'll have to try something different.

Sorry about all this mess just as your game is starting guys.

Do remember that the server should carry on working regardless of whether the website is working or not. So you can still send your turns in and so on.

Re: Small Talk
 

Well, excellent news - it's not really worth explaining, but I had to wait for an admin to do something for me before I could sort out a permanent solution for the website. He's just done it, so now hopefully all will be sorted - except that it will take a day or two to propagate through the internet (and as a result I can't test it).

Re: Small Talk
 

Thanks for the server, thanks for clarifying that thing about sending in turns, and the webpage seems to be up now.

I'm still going to give it everything I've got- but I built my pretender design around a flawed understanding of the Dwarven Hammer. This is going to hurt.

Re: Small Talk
 

Holy money.

I'm going to be richer than god according to this map. What was indy strength?

Re: Small Talk
 

And according to this map, I'm going to have a huge amount of resources. Even with a little sloth, I'll be producing Heavy Infantry out the wazoo. I spent my spare time after sending in my orders analyzing the terrain and figuring out where to expand.

Re: Small Talk
 

My fault about the ad thing. I was putting www. in front of the url. Won't happen again...

Re: Small Talk
 

Yeah, Parganos is not the most balanced of maps in the sense that it has large regions of the same terrain type. Makes it feel interesting to my mind, but it does mean that one player can easily find their kingdom consisting entirely of mountains etc..

Indy strength is 5 (default).

Starshine - putting www. in front of the url is fine (I normally do), certainly shouldn't cause any problems. Hmm, well I was switching the system back to a commercial company yesterday, so perhaps it was initially on some default settings which showed adverts. You don't see adverts if you go to www.llamaserver.net any more do you?

Re: Small Talk
 

Not anymore, no, but it was doing that all day yesterday.

Re: Small Talk
 

Okay, thanks for that. Well I think hopefully it should stay good now.

Re: Small Talk
 

I had some connection issues previously, not ads, but from 11:00 PM to 3:00 AM last night, it was smooth sailing.

Re: Small Talk
 

For some reason I get the feeling that I'm going to end up in last place in this game. I know it's only the 3rd turn, but still...I just have that sort of sinking feeling in my gut...

Re: Small Talk
 

Do try and win, now. If you don't put up a good fight, or beat my ***, I won't feel right about pulling out my taunts about Bandar Log.

Re: Small Talk
 

I got hit by the scales bug http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Small Talk
 

I just got that in the Armadillo game. Very annoying.

Re: Small Talk
 

Scales bug? Do we need to restart? I wouldn't mind, as long as I got one day to tinker with my pretender. That part is so fun.

Re: Small Talk
 

If we DO restart, I'd love it if I could switch to a group I am more familiar with...

Re: Small Talk
 

*imagines a huge beetle eating the plants on his growth scale...* What's a scales bug?

Re: Small Talk
 

When the scale bug strikes, the scales in your home province suddenly change (often reset to no scales at all). If you've taken good scales, this is a bit of a setback as it takes a while for them to come right again.

About a restart: Well I'm a bit disinclined to do that since it's a shame to lose the game's momentum. I don't think it's worth it for the scales bug, since someone's likely to get it most games. Consider it as an unlucky event. If you are all clamouring for a restart so you can change nations/pretenders though, I suppose we could do. Votes?

Re: Small Talk
 

Nah, no need for restart. I'll try to rise up to the challenge http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Small Talk
 

Okay. While I'd love to tinker with my pretender, I'd also find it interesting to see just what I can achieve with my flawed design. I'll learn from it, certainly.

With Szumo offering to stick with it, I'll back him up. It'd kinda be wimpy of me to restart when the guy hit by the bug is toughing it out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

P.S. I'd meant for that smily to be humorous, but it just comes out plain creepy. Its freakin me out. It's the eyes. You can tell that smily is just insane, and hiding, just behind the alpha layer, is a bloody yellow knife, its just waiting to stab into my heart.

Re: Small Talk
 

...

I can't believe I just slept through my turn.

Re: Small Talk
 

Summer in Agartha

Our ventures above ground have revealed a strange new civilization of people who actually prefer the light. I debate whether to make my presence known, but I know not of these people nor their intent. They seem strangely passive. Their castle lies in the midst of fertile farmlands I had espied from afar, and hoped to settle. I worry what this means for the future of my civilization. I have developed plans for a secure, easy, and fortified peace, yet such a balance requires much care in my reach. If I seize a further province, any peace will be more uneasy, but my offensive options grander. Unfortunately, all this speculation is useless without knowing what surrounds me in other directions. Still, I can see much benefit from a strategic alliance. At least in the short term, though there are some long-term drawbacks to such a pact with the heathens...

I must weigh their character carefully, and do my best to predict their possible plans before I decide on peace or war. Still, I suspect they might find such a deal as attractive.

So that explains it. I was trying to figure out what possible strategy Pythium might have. And from what little I could see, I had trouble guessing their plans, motivation, or essential nature. Because they were asleep.

I won't yet reveal my location, though I won't be to hard to find. I'll gather a little intel, and complete the necessary setup for stage one of my strategy (only a turn away, btw, next turn, it won't be done, but all the essentials are in place, and I can do something other than recruit another mage, which you'll know is what I've been doing if you hit the charts) before I change course and start laying diplomatic plans. I'm still quite a way away from completing my early expansion - just look at Ermor go.

Re: Small Talk
 

There's a funny story as to how the nation of pythium fell asleep. Their deity had just graduated from school, and they were celebrating, planning on submitted orders the next turn. Due to one thing or another, they didn't get up for 13 hours after they went to bed, missing the deadline by an hour.

Re: Small Talk
 

Adventures of Agartha... I've sent in my turn, twice, but llamaserver has not responded. I've just reloaded, reended, and resent a third time. Next I'll try webmail, but first I'll be patient and see if this gets a response.