Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

But moving the individual slaves is the part that takes the most work, isn't it? Maybe not.

Yeah, that's what I was saying to Gandalf Parker. I wouldn't want to make a macro just for my own use. That would be a small chunk of work done for the purpose of saving a small chunk of work.

But I claim it would be easy for one skilled programmer to make a program that would let anybody else (possibly only on the same operating system) move slaves in the way I described. That would be a medium-sized chunk of work done for the purpose of saving a large chunk of work (the latter spread over multiple people).

I'm not proposing to attempt this myself, because I don't have a lot of time for such things. But I'm trying to find out whether it would be very helpful, so as to determine whether I should spontaneously try it if I happen to find the time. In that case some other interested observer might also want to try it (they probably wouldn't but who knows).

So, would it be very helpful?

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

And actually, the reason why I keep talking about making a program from scratch, rather than using some existing macro-recording program, is that I thought the program would need to be at least a little bit smart in a Dominions-specific way, in order to work well for multiple people without much manual configuration by each person. But it may be that macro-recording programs would be good enough after all... it depends partly on how much the Dominions UI layout varies from one computer to another.

I guess I will look into macro-recording programs, then. That wouldn't take a lot of time.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

You want to deliver searched blood slaves to the lab from provinces with no lab?
I dont see that happening.

As to the macro thing that would be really hard for what you want. At most, a macro can make Ctrl-z into a single keypress for all gatherers at labs as far as a macro that can be used in every game you play.

A macro could be done for what you describe of course. But it would have to be recorded for every new game and those units. A single-key macro can be created for anything you can do manually. The game should not be running in a small window. The macro would have to start with hitting the HOME (to center the map on your capital) then moving the mouse to a single-pixel starting place such as the far upper-left corner of the monitor screen. At that point all actions of mouse move or keypress would be recordable and able to play back the same way every time so you woul take whatever actions you normally do to go to the province (using # and the province number is fast), then to the commanders in question and do their actions. It probably would have to be separate keypresses for "drop at lab and go to gatherer" and for "collect from gatherer and return to lab" altho it could do multiples of each. And it would be messed up easily by having a new commander in the provinces involved.

WOW even I would have a headache with that. I cant see where it would be worthwhile for gatherers that are more than 1 move from a lab, or maybe 2 moves with a relay. Obviously more useful for nations such as Pangaea and Caelum. And only then on really large maps with really old games where automating the back provinces might be worthwhile. But it would be kinda fun to watch such a macro carry out the full mission really really fast on the screen.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Sombre, quite reasonably, would like slave movement between provinces to be automatic. But I'm just talking about one universally effective command that would collect slaves on one scout within one province. I don't want to mess with map-level movement, and I sure don't want the player to have to specially configure the macro even as often as once per game!

I just played with AutoHotKey and although the Dominions developers didn't make it easy, with their centered, variable-sized menus, I think I could probably use that tool to make a single-province slave-collecting script that would consistently work across many different games on my personal, Windows-running computer. Dunno whether I could make one that would work on many people's Windows-running computers. Also I was just making a quick prototype so I didn't bother looking for platform-independent macro-running programs for the Linux folks etc.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Then the game should also be changed so that all gems must be collected by a commander so that no nation has a micro advantage over any other.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Neither do I, but I don't know why you mention the 'no lab' part of it. What difference does that make? The idea was just for blood slaves to work the same way as gems - they are just added to your vault unless you specifically take them out. There's no logical problem there.

It does change the way the game would work and it isn't going to be implemented (because the devs don't like to make changes like that in patches) but it doesn't seem like a bad solution to the micro.

A key which pooled commander held slaves within a province to the specified commander would also be very helpful, but it's more like treating the worst symptom rather than treating the cause. You'd still be ferrying scouts around, though it would be far less of a headache.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I guess that's one way to put it, another would be:

"Sombre would like hunted blood slaves to be treated like gem income from sites"

Does anyone think of gems or gold as automatically moving between provinces? Your 'vault' of gold, gems, items etc isn't located in a province, it's just your wealth. You need a lab to withdraw gems, but you don't to deposit them.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Gems come from magic sites, and slaves from magic sites are treated the same.
Since blood hunting is a commander action, it goes into the commanders ownership.
I guess you could create a magic site that allows gem collecting by assigning a commander to enter the site.

The comparison with gems came up later. The initial image I had was the problem of having blood commanders in a province that didnt have blood slaves for personal use. Collection was all or nothing. Keeping just some on the commanders was quite abit of micromanagement.

I hadnt actually considered the other option. Generally I just do blood collecting at labs.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I'm with you Sombre, I am indeed speculating about a treatment for the worst symptom of the problem! And I agree that a person with infinite freedom to change the game's rules might do better to make slaves go right to the lab in the way you describe, than to make it easier for a person to collect them in the game's current style.

"far less of a headache" sounds good to me, and these macro-scripty-hotkey-programs are more powerful than I thought they would be. I think I will make a single-province slave-collecting script that works as well as possible for me, and then talk about it in a new thread. Maybe it'll be good enough for other people to use, maybe not.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

You think assigning slaves to hunters in the very rare cases where you would actually want hunters to cast blood spells against raiders would be more micro than the current system of a bajillion clicks using scouts to ferry?

Labs where you blood hunt is fine if you're willing to have a huge in game disadvantage to avoid micro. I personally don't think mindless micro should be of such benefit in the game. It's not really an issue in SP though, where the lab in every hunting province idea is reasonable.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I just didnt realize anyone was doing that. The nations I play with tend to use blood as a secondary. I guess with nations that rely primarily on blood such extensive hunting in every province would logical.

Exactly. In my games labs tend to popup on their own often enough. Such provinces often have no other feature going for them so turning them into blood slave factories makes sense. But small maps with many players would make gathering a bigger rush-item I guess.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

[quote=Sombre;726889]I agree with this as well.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Don't see any problem with current blood hunt system, since ferrying slaves from 20+ hunting provs takes about 1/10 of the time needed to think what to actually do in current turn and these 2 tasks can be accomplished simultaneously.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Well, as an addicted blood-magic user I can only agree with Sombre. This is the *only* boring thing about late game in most of my games.

Additionnally, I often play at night when I can't find sleep after nursing the babies...and I can't count how many times I got a yelling "Stop those ******-****ing clicks please" or the like from my wife sleeping close by.
Not so surprisingly, it seems to happen a lot less when I play a non-blood nation...

Devs, please save my marriage! :rolleyes:

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

You can always think about something else while doing boring RSI inducing tasks. That doesn't excuse them.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

The devs did add a click volume control switch for just that reason.
Whatever you hit to get into Dom3, you can add the volume switch to.
Mention what OS you have and someone can get more specific on how to do that.

And there are some player created files which will tone down some of the more obnoxious sounds such as screams and elephants.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I tried turning down teh click volume to -6, but my mouse still clicks. Stoopid bugs. :mad: Maybe it is my mouse brand: some sort of "Logicool". So I cut a hole in a wool sock and use that as my mouse silencer cover. It's a bit quieter, but I just wish they'd fix teh bug so my hand doesn't get so sweaty inside my wool sock mouse silencer.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

negative 6? Did you try 0 or 1? I have mine set to 10.
--clickvol 10

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Also, what gauge of cotton was the sock?

I use a sports/heavy myself.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

In my experience, a starving cat is the best solution for a squeaky mouse.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Errr...I don't understand what you're talking about.

I'm speaking of a *mechanical* sound. When I play at night, I turn off all sound and music I'm not that crazy. Not with my wife 2 meters away.
But I don't see or ever heard of a way to soften the clicking sound of the mouse and don't understand how a software could do it.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Ahhh....
you should take a look at the mouse driver (auto load program that runs the mouse).
It should have an option for that.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Yeah you can change the volume of your keyboard in task manager too.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

You might want to look here:http://blog.makezine.com/archive/200...lent_mous.html

Of course, if it's just the sound your Operating System makes when you click with the mouse, aside from disabling the sound in your OS's appropriate location, you could just turn off/unplug your speakers.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Depending on his OS. But if its most Windows then Sombre is right.
It probably is Windows since he didnt say. Kindof like being American. :)

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I think what Kheldron is refering to is the sound the mouse makes by itself, even when not hooked to a computer (the microswitch or whatever (I am for not tech savvy) making the sound). Even the keyboard feels like it makes an awful lot of noise when rest of the house is silent and everybody else are sleeping.

Laptops with their soft keyboards and mousepads are the solution then, even though fan of my laptop is way more noisier than on the tabletop; it's actually a lose-lose situation, but people playing blood nations in Dominions got shortest straw when trying to stay as silent as possible...

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Hee hee. I feel your pain, and I certainly mean no offense but it is a little funny how you've been misinterpreted. Those of us who play in bedrooms with sleeping girls nearby know well that turning off your speakers does not make your computer silent. I bought a keyboard with very quiet keys, but my mouse makes a racket. There's a reason that the mouse action is called a "click", and Dominions is a very click-y game.

ESPECIALLY if you're a blood nation using scouts to move slaves around. Clickity clickity click.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

You think so huh?

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Win. Especially when followed by:

...

and here i thought obvious troll was obvious.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I generally prefer to kill everybody while they're sleeping and stuff their bodies in my icebox. But I guess a quiet laptop might work too. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

-Max

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Sheesh man... where do you keep your beer?

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

aaah someone else to share my burden:)
yeah that's why I said I didn't understand how an OS or software could possibly help me...

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Okay, I made the script. It's neat. It has certain limitations but it seems to basically work. It is quieter than a mouse!

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Some mice have been known to be capable of waking up wives, with their incessant clicking noises. Perhaps you should compare to a wool-sock-ensheathed mouse with dammit-don't-click-so-loud drivers enabled from the Control Panel.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

The trick is to strike the mouse in the head until it becomes mute. A death blessing helps.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Somehow my mouse is a resilient evil. That stupid clicking animal dodges my axe like nothing.
Can't say as much of my keyboard which usually offers a better landing ground for all my frustrations...:hurt:

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

more updates!

http://ulm.illwinter.com/dom3/dom3progress.html


30th january 2010
* New monster modding commands: #inquisitor, #shatteredsoul, #banefireshield, #uwdamage, #popkill.
* Units with the uwdamage attribute now actually takes damage from being under water.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Interesting. #popkill I can imagine getting some use out of. Not sure about the others. If shattered soul has a percent value it could be useful for balancing I suppose.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I think Nehekara should have a banefire shield unit

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

That's pretty good, especially the #inquisitor.
I'm still waiting for a command to allow a creature to be recruited only on certain terrain but that's a small issue.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I must say that I'm a bit confused about what #uwdamage is supposed to do. Does the unit take damage per each turn of combat? Or some amount of damage per month, sort of like Naiads outside of their home province?

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Darkness in cave provinces before it goes live please :).

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

I'm much more interested by the #banefireshield
I don't know any unit which has this. I therefore wonder whether there'll be a new unit with it... I think it can definitely be a potent effect, seeing as banefire seems to ignore fire resistance.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Anthrax has it, as does the poison golem. Really, its not a particularly useful tag to have access to, since its easy enough to copystats from anthrax.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

This will be cool if it's a new attribute that allows golems to go underwater, or something.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

Just brainfarting but...
if it allows units to enter water for a short time only; then it might provide abit more balance by allowing a way for many land nations to at least try to take the water province bordering their shores.
If (later) the difference between sea and deep sea was fixed, we might get some balanced water nations out of it.

(at a guess I think Kristoffer is playing water nations more than cave nations)

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

The only way what you just said would make sense is if land units were all given poor amphibian and uw damage. Which would be stupid.

It's obvious what it does, the only question is the one Burn posed. Is it combat or stratmap damage?

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

My guess is Strategic map like #homesick (Which should be added this patch too! :))

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

It would be nice if #uwdamage was a tag that allowed ranged weapons to be used underwater... but I have the feeling the tag would be slightly different in that case.

Re: Dom III sitll gets some parental attention
 

The following line suggests that won't be the case: