Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Dear Illwinter,

I just want to encourage you to stick to your well-thought-out design decisions rather than replacing them with posters' generic more-of-everything proposals.

E.g., it was your well considered choice to let players determine only five orders for a leader. It's a nice device to not let mages and supercombatants get out of hand.
Other examples include how assassination is handled randomly, that troopless leaders rout when one of them dies (thus giving troops a reason to exist in late game), or the restriction to build only one castle type.

Stardock and Quicksilver (with their unspeakable MoO3) both made the experience that it's not a good move to base game design decisions on the choices of hard core gamers on forums. Learn from their mistakes before you have the chance to repeat them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

But, as we're allowed to place suggestions here,

• please get rid of the item exploits like clam hoarding, (instead of make them easier to manage!)
  
• and please greatly nerf life draining effects like soul vortex.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

A couple of the requests here have asked to be able to save pretenders or have backups of such, why not go the next step: Make the pretender/nation design a standalone program, and make the game executable able to find and ask you to pick from all the defined pretenders on nation selection.

It wouldn't need a fancy database backend, most (sane) folks won't have hundreds of choices, but even being able to have a favorite set of 6 for some nations would be great. Having to juggle the newlord files is possible but does not add teh fun (sic). I am an old roleplayer and have almost as much fun designing new gods as playing them. I imagine being able to load up a just-played pretender, changing his name, altering some magic paths and scales, and trying the new design in a game. If I don't like him, I can delete it and load the original back to try different tweaks. This would be also great since I like to play human-designed, AI played opponents in SP -- pick all human nations, set them all up from the pretenders I designed for each, and then set all but 1 or 2 to AI to play against.

Thanks for considering our input. We are a fortunate community to have a company and developers who are accessable and so open to feedback.

Sill

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Oooh, how about two additional stealth commander orders...

- Pilfer from lab: Allows a chance to take a random item from the enemy magic item treasury in the province (or gems?). If you fail you fight the province defense.
- Pickpocket from commander: Allows a chance to take a random misc slot item from a commander (or gems?). If you fail you fight [the commander and bodyguards | the commander and all his troops | the commander and troops plus province defence | all enemy forces ?]

Sill

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I'd like a movement safeguard. Like pressing the space-bar as you give movement orders. There's nothing more frustrating than planning moves to perfection, then getting a message that some of your army didn't make the critical move because you mis-clicked at some point.
Maybe a sageguard for changing movements would work as well.
Thanks,
-Yc

My wishlist.
 

Well, from what I have gathered, Dominions seems to be a very interesting game. A game in which I've been waiting for quite some time now.

Here are my ideas:

1) A divinty status after a certain amount of levels in each sphere of influence is achieved (necromancy and etc) starting from a demigod, to a lesser god, then finally a full god. At the divine status of a full god, the player will become a disembodied god, letting the faith be the primary power. This will make it even more of a challenge for players to eliminate them. They must destroy the faith to destroy the god, not the other way around. The god's former form could become his/her avatar and could be used to appear in battles and so forth.

2) When I played the demo, I had no control over my units and it all seemed automated. I'd like complete full control over my units and their abilities. It is the best to allow me to strategize tactics.

3) Animated units in battle.

4) Fully customizable god forms. From size, to wings, skin color, auras, and more. Perhaps when a god reaches a new level to learn new abilities, he or she could add bonus appearance changes to their god.

Re: My wishlist.
 

Dom3 Wish List: Flight Over Seas

I would like to see Flying units gain the capability to cross one sea province, provided they can land at the end of their movement.

I don't care if they can't use the full fly move across water, but sometimes there's a map with an island one sea zone from everything, and I think a flyer should be able to reach something like that.

I wouldn't mind if such units attacking across a sea province were destroyed if they fail. Players choose their risks and take their chances.

(Not knowing that much about coding, I’m not certain how this might be incorporated. My current idea is the rather clunky one of introducing some sort of ocean waypoint command and make the player click on the sea province to be crossed, then click again on the target province, but as I said, clunky. Anyone have any ideas about an approach?)

Re: My wishlist.
 

All this requires is to give the Flying Command a tie into the Sailing. It wouldn 't be hard at all to code as the command and effect is already there.

However, if it's a good idea, is another matter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: My wishlist.
 

People have asked for less micromanagement. Here's a tangentially related request: cumulative intelligence. Dom2 rewards players who tediously record every bit of information from previous turns, in order to get estimates of indy strength, or to track likely sources of enemy dominion. When a scout goes through an indy province, it would be nice if someone could remember his report 2 turns later, perhaps with a notation indicating how old the intelligence is.

Currently, to play optimally it is necessary to maintain a spreadsheet of past information, and that's just not very fun. We are playing this on a computer, after all, and computers are nothing if not good at compiling data.

Re: My wishlist.
 

Zen: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I think the simple tying of flight to Sailing is not a good idea.

First, there may be some conditions that would affect one and not the other.

Second, allowing the full aerial move over water leads to other distortions, particularly on the world-size maps where the sea provinces represent huge areas.

Also, my intuition is that allowing aerial moves across a several-water-province barrier is bad for balance.

On the other hand, not being able to make a small jump plays havoc with my suspension of disbelief and immersion.

Thus, a small conflict and a wish.

Re: My wishlist.
 

Spell Scripting Improvements

1) Show what spells are being scripted as the scripting is being done.
Many times I get confused halfway through scripting a sequence, lose track of where I am, and have to start over.

2) Add the ability to edit a spell script without starting over.
Let’s say I have plugged in Mistform and Body Ethereal, then decide I should have cast Quickness first. I’d like to be able to insert Quickness at the start of the sequence without having to go back and retype everything.

Re: My wishlist.
 

UI:
Be able to iconify the information boxes (units, menus, province info... all). The list of commanders for instance may well hide just about all the map. Right now, I end up with a dead part of the screen between menus in the upper right part of my screen.

Single Player:
-The ai would be much more interesting if it built castles.
-Some diplomacy would be great in SP. Simple things like propose to attack someone, request a province, allow for taking of a province.
-Make sure the program remains usable for SP and hotseat. A client/server thingy like some people want should remain hidden if it is implemented.

Fog of war: Remember information about regions you used to see but no longer do. This information would ba tagged as 'old' somehow. Who owns the province, strength of the troops... Alternately, let the player write some info for each province and display it on the map as an additional map filter.

Getting rid of useless units and items noone ever uses. Does anyone build light cavalry? Or make them worth buying. Here, less units/spells/items could actually be a plus.

Raid command. If your army has a strategic move of 2, you could use it to raid the neighboring province (i.e. attack, loot and come back) rather than attack it really. It would act as a pillage command, but in the neighboring province. The units would have to fight the defense force with something like a 'hold 3 turns and flee' order. This could make light cavalry worth buying. Plus it would be nasty.

A national building and national troop unlocked when this is built. If you research one school (e.g. Construction for Ulm, Summonning for Ermor, Evocation for Marignon...) to level X(6?), you have the ability to build one special building (in only one province) which unlocks a new national troop. This building would cost gold and gems (most races) or gems only (Ermor?) or gold only (Ulm?). The available units could be built either normally or through an 'enter site' command from an appropriate commander, and be worth buying late in the game.

Make the Arena worth going into it. Gaining a cursed two handed weapon, however strong, is no excuse for risking the death of your commander. Winning should instead give a special ability as the hall of fame does, boost some stats, provide luck, or something worth having. Particularly when you run the risks of facing a diseased scout equipped with a half dozen cursed items.

Already stated by others, but I'll repeat them here anyway:
-Add an option to play where underwater areas are all or mostly barren.
-Tax management: Be able to precise a tax reduction per unrest formula and say which provinces it does NOT apply to. Formula would be something like reduce tax by (float) for every 1 unrestor (int) per 10 unrest.
-Save God.

Re: My wishlist.
 

Just a quick note to check out my new post/thread on Water Magic. I didn't want to clog this thread with a long and detailed post, but I'd be interested in some feedback.

Post#307918

Re: My wishlist.
 

Dom2 is a great game (among the 5 best I've ever played, and I've been playing for more than 20 years now!), and rather than getting too specific (I hope!!--sometimes my enthusiasm gets the best of me), I'd like to stick with/suggest some general themes:

1) Reduce micromanagement. This is really my only complaint with the game, but it's a big bother and seems to be a very common one. Includes:
- Allow Scripted "taxation vs. Unrest" policies
- Allow repeatable Artifact forging
- Allow disbanding of unwanted units
- Reduce micromanagement of gems ("Gem pooling from Clams")

2) Try to clean up the "Things that make you go huh?" issues. Mostly AI-related, but not all. This just detracts from the gameplay and interrupts the real feeling of beloved immersion I get when playing the game. A few of my pet peeves:
- Legendary Hero bonuses that make little sense. Having an extra-strong Crone of Avalon, or a Knight with extra Precision... Either assign them by hero type, or allow players to choose between two options when given a special ability.
- Spell-casters who insist on casting defensive spells on themselves when all the enemy is already routed.
- Allow setting archers for "Aggressive Fire" (the current default, where 20 Crosbbowmen will fire at one surviving Militia surrounded by 15 of my Heavy Infantry) or "Cautious Fire" (only shooting at targets not adjacent to my units).
- Spell-casters who keep casting spells on incapacitated units (e.g., when I've already paralyzed a Jotun Axeman, it's kinda silly to keep Casting Soul Slay on him, as opposed to the other Axeman who's carving up my cavalry). This is especially infuriating against units with high MR.

3) Keep combat scripting simple. I'm sympathetic to players wanting better tactical control of units, but allowing this makes for even more micromanagement. It also handicaps the AI, who should remain a credible challenger well into any game. I LIKE having "modest control" over what happens in combat, and think this is good for play balance.

4) Try to give the hero's a little more individual character, at least a few of them. Possibilities include:
- Tying Legendary bonuses to unit types is one thing.
- Revise the way those bonuses work, so that 33% of units get a "Heroic Bonus" upon reaching Lvl. 1 might be cool. Have those abilities be useful but not great, but have them escalate into more dramatic abilities with Experience. This gives heroes more individual flavor, but also encourages you to be less cautious with the ones you like until they're "unkillable by normal units".
- Consider giving some Heroes abilities that might affect the province they're in. Maybe only give this ability at Level 3 or Level 4? Such abilities might include:
* Speak to the People: Reduce Unrest by 10 in current province
* Inspire Work: Increase Productivity scale 1 notch in current province
* Promote Commerce: Increase Order scale 1 notch in current province
* Drill Master: Double XP accumulation (2/turn instead of 1/turn, I think?) of units in current province.

5) Give the provinces more individual flavor. I LOVE the Dom2 system, but I wish my provinces had a little more character or sentimental value to me (as opposed to Gold and Production numbers). I can think of three ways to do this:
- Give more Magic Sites a function not related to Gem Production. This could even extend to modest bonuses for units produced in the province:
* Waters of Quickness: 1 Water Gem/turn, units built in this province get +1 to Defense.
* Great Oak Tree: 1 Nature Gem/turn, +1 Growth Dominion locally.
* Dwarven Forge: +1 Earth Gem/turn, units built in this province get +1 to Protection, +1 to Strength.
- Have Terrain affect combat. Easiest way to do this is to use the Warlords approach, where certain unit types get certain bonuses in certain terrain. Cavalry SHOULD be more fearsome in plains than in mountains, no?
- In addition to Unrest, have "Abiding Love" in certain provinces when a Pretender REALLY earns their adoration. Repelling attacks successfully, random events, etc. might bring extra bonuses when a province has positive Dominion and 0 Unrest. This could increase the Pop Growth, Productivity, or Gold production by 1-10%, depending on how much "Love" people feel. Conquering armies rampaging through would obviously obliterate that.

6) Ruins. I think you could work this into the game in a way that would be play-balanced and fun, but not too intrusive. Specifically, as a possible Magic Site (but perhaps one very easy to find), have certain Ruins, guarded by Monsters but offering Treasures/benefits. A few possible things you could do with this:
- Have Ruins contribute to Unrest (3, 5, or 10 per turn, depending on the magnitude of the critters hiding in the Ruins) effectively reducing income (and perhaps production). Or, just contribute "negative dominion" (e.g., Death, Sloth, Turmoil), if that seems more appropriate.
- Have Ruins of different levels, guarded by Monsters of different severity and number. Killing those monsters might yield Treasure (gold and/or random magic items--if I only had Earth Magic, I'd love to equip a Hero with an "Ice Sword" I found in a dungeon), and/or might allow access to higher-powered Magic Sites. Don't have Ruins be so disruptive that they have to be explored, but leave it as an option that the player will "want to clean up sooner or later".

Re: My wishlist.
 

Clicking pool on the gem info screen accomplishes this.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I understand the ravages of a Deity war are going to
reduce populations. That being said I've come across
a problem in most games, that skew most games in favour of
undead or non supply populations.

Your populations diminish with random events, half a dozen
spells, combat, and pillaging hordes. When playing against
a Ermor or Ctis this usually hands them the game. All it
takes is one break through your lines and that province is
destroyed for any non death caster.

Growth is ineffective. I've played with growth 3 and seen
no movement on populations over a hundred turns. Provinces
below 1000 will never grow short of a random influx of citizens. (Probably because the growth calculation rounds down).

I'd like to see 3 things...

1. Growth as a dominion aspect much more improved...Perhaps
even tie it into the prophet. When the prophet comes to a
loyal town he probably has to preside over quite a few marriages.... large increase in birth rate.

2. Mid level spells to counter specific dominion aspects on
a province by province basis. Somewhere around lvl 4 or 5
so that when the enemy seeps death or misfortune across
your physical border you can send mages out to battle it
directly. (And high dominion doesn't always stop these
things from spreading) ex Joe the Air mage casts -Blue Moon- luck in the province has increased -make them yearly rituals, so they have to be refreshed every 4 turns.

3. The ability to move or increase population growth through
a zero tax rate. Provinces next to a zero tax province will
see a gradual stream of emigration to that province. A farm
land isn't going to send hordes to a wasteland, so terrain-terrain should be factored... but a depopulated farm land
should draw hordes from surrounding regions.

Playing a heavy supply based nation would be feasible if you
had any kind of (long term) real control over the supplies
in a province. The high level nature spell(Gift of Nature's bounty) is knocked out in 1 turn by any smart Ermor
or Ctis player, or is not realisticaly available to many
nations.


Thanks, keep up the great work guys, best strat game since Moo 2.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I'm not sure why you include C'tis in there, since they need population as much as anyone else. Ermor might kill population, but their armies evaporate in the face of moderate resistance anyways, so it's usually not too much of a problem.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Regarding Ermor's provinces being rendered completely useless:
1) Ermor has a hard time spreading its dominion since the ONLY thing that spreads their dominion is building temples (no preaching available, no blood sacrifices available), so most of the time their dominion won't bother you.
2) Ermor lives and dies by gem supplies, they can't recruit [censored] so they have to rely on a very high gem supply, that means that a smart Ermor player will make efforts to discover all possible magical sites (which is very easy with all their randoms), which will give you plenty of magical gems of all types on all of the previously-Ermorian provinces (unlike provinces from nations that lack certain types of paths etc.).

Obviously, I could just be stupid and misleading, but then again, I don't think I am...

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I believe #1 (above) is wrong Agrajag. Ermor AE at least has Bishops and such which they can summon which can preach. Am I mistaken?

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Ermor's unholy priests can't preach. I don't think even the normal (40 gp indep.) priests Ermor might recruit cannot preach (they become Unholy-1 for Ermor, BTW).

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I believe unholy priests can't preach, whatever the nation they belong to.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Undead unholy priests cannot preach. Living unholy priests can.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Or it's just 'undead can't preach', and (un)holiness has nothing to do with it. I remember my Souless (holy) priests couldn't preach anymore when I tried a death-9 blessing (Life after Death effect).

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

That wasn't the point...
The point was that Ermor's priests cannot preach, not that unlike other nation, Ermor's unholy priests can't preach.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Ermor's living unholy priests can preach however.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

...
Okay, so what you are saying is that in order to preach, Ermor has to spend its none-existent money on indep-priests for preaching, which besides being a waste of money (That would be much better used for temples and fortifications) and an annoying increase in upkeep (that goes out of a none-existent income) suck at preaching (Unless you are lucky to find some site which gives average priests).
So... Ermor (that is, none-default Ermor) still has a VERY hard time spreading its dominion, especially in unconquered lands.

Maybe next time I should add a couple of pages of explanations for every word I say so there will be no misuderstandings.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Another "would be nice" wish -- a searched province overlay. Now, instead of checking each province or my master list for which one I haven't probed yet, I touch a button, see the number sets just like the province names, and make my choice. It could get cluttered, but thats acceptable. Especially if it can be turned back off.

Rylen

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

That would be nice, or if the province list would show the terrain types (1 site in a mountain calls for more searching; 1 site in plains doesn't).

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

(Sorry if this has been suggested already). I would love to see random events tied to scales more directly. For example, a lucky event and high Growth result in migration. An unlucky event and high Growth is the vineman attack. Lucky event and high Production is a watch tower being thrown up. Lucky event and high Drain is enemy researcher in your dominion being unable to research that turn.

If random events affected enemy provinces in your dominion with scale-related effects, I think it'd add some nice twists without necessarily imbalancing anything.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Oelfwine: Your wish has already been fulfilled, atleast somewhat. Vineman attack needs Magic and maybe Growth atm, besides Unluck. For knights/barbarians to attack, you have to have Turmoil or lots of unrest. With Order (and maybe Production) and some Luck, you can even get a fortified city! For the rich prince to die, you need high Luck but also Death.

Your other idea about enemy provinces being atacked is interesting, though. Most of the 'liberator' -attacks (knights, barbarian horde, vinemen) would only occur if people didn't like you, the really bad diseases wold only occur under your enemy's death dominion etc. Also things like people burning your temples down, destroying your labs, being unruly, villain attack coupled with new magic site (hidden) increasing unrest... This would be nice in making dominion more important.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Eh? I've had barbarian attacks on provinces with order 3 and very low unrest...

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Endoperez,

Thanks. Deccan, perhaps barbarian attacks are less likely under Order 3 than Turmoil 3? I would be perfectly happy with that. I generally prefer scales to affect the chances of certain things happening, with the absolutes reserved for the strongest effects (rich prince, etc.)

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Considering that the Order scale decreases the chances of a special event happening, its an obvious yes...

BTW, here is a nice wish (that has been mentioned plenty of times): Either let us dissmiss units or get rid of the militia/flagellant-granting events.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

In the previous discussions about the subject devs have said (IIRC) that there are two kinds of good/bad events: common and rare (not related to common/rare random event settings, though, my English just fails me in search for synonyms). For example, huge barbarian attack is a rare bad event, but with turmoil 2 or high unrest it becames a common bad event.

And of course there's the order/turmoil effect on event frequency.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

My wishes:

Reworked Pretenders

I've never been that happy with the various pretenders available. A lot of them are really pretty useless, and could be easily removed from the game - the various Egyptian-style pretenders, especially, and some of the mages as well. A lot of the pretenders are rather ugly and drab, as well.

Let's dump the seldom-used pretenders, give the good ones a graphical sprucing up, and create more genuinely useful new pretenders. More immobiles would be nice, for starters, like a Yggdrasil 'World Tree' with nature-3.

Another thing about the pretenders is how, well, secular they are. Apart from the bless effects, they don't interact that much with the priests and the sacred units of a nation. The pretenders need to be more, well, holy. There are lots of potential ways to do this. What if bless effects applied to the pretenders as well? Overpowered at the moment, yes, but it does make sense thematically.
Or what if the magical choices of a pretender gave priests extra spells? Say, holy fire to priests of a strong fire pretender, or holy armour to priests of an earth deity. These would generally be somewhat weak, but also very low fatigue, like all priest spells.
How about if pretenders (and maybe prophets) could derive extra power from bringing their priests into the battle? Maybe there could a special buff that priests could cast to help their deity, or a communionish effect that only worked between priest and god.

Reworked Fortresses

The fortresses could use a shot in the arm as well. Many of them are worthless or nearly worthless, and the others are quite boring. My ideas to make fortresses cooler include:

Make fortresses dependant on terrain. It seems obvious that a mountain citadel should not be buildable on farmland.

Create many more nation specific fortresses.

Give fortresses extra abilities. For example, a wizard's tower gives +1 research to all units within. A holy city increases dominion spread and gets a defence bonus based on dominion. A dark citadel weakens besieging enemy morale. A forest citadel can't be seen from adjacent provinces, and regrows quickly. A tribal encampment can be disbanded to yield 80% of the gold it took to set up, and is always destroyed when captured. A maritime city allows sea travel to units stationed there. And so on.

Indie units built at a fortress you own should wear your colours, within reason. Maybe not amazons, but longbowmen and knights, for example.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

It does? Not my opinion. Blind faith is really what makes an unit holy, and thus eligible for bless effects. Pretenders are merely a bunch of egocentric maniacs with an unextinguible thirst for power, and enough charisma to fool others into believing they're gods. And that's it - I have a hard time imagining they share their followers' faith in themselves.

Holy fire, holy armour - that's sort of Fire 9 and Earth 9 give you already.

Some good ideas here. What about the nation/theme bringing flavour to fortresses instead? After all, Ulm fortresses already get a production bonus. Eg, if you've ever read Lovecraft, you probably know that the architect who designed R'lyeh (the city) had a very unusual sense of geometry - and because of that R'lyeh caused insanity to people who were unfortunate enough to visit it. Maybe in Dominions R'lyeh fortresses could get a chance to cause feeblemindness to non-mindless, non-Illithid and non-Starspawn units who happen to be in the province. Pangaean fortresses could have a 'Beckoning' effect on besiegers. Diabolical Faith fortresses could have a 'Looming Hell' effect on besiegers. Pythium fortresses could grant a +1 strat move bonus, and ignore terrain penalties in castled provinces. And so on.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Blessable pretenders: Well, this all a bit theological, but surely it's not a simple question of personal faith and sacrifice that confers blessability? What about void summons or those sacred dogs the Tuatha have? I'd say that it's as much a question of the society at large believing in the sanctity of certain units, not just the individual creatures themselves. And who does the society believe in more than anything? The pretender, that's who.

Extra holy spells: True enough. I just thought it might be interesting to have more holy spells available, based on choices the player makes.

Fortress Types: With regards to the Ulmish resource bonus, the way I would do it would be for there to be at least two Ulm-specific fortress types, which would grant the resource bonus, as well as being very good forts in their own right. But there'd also be other forts available, with their own specific bonuses.

So whilst there would be one or two R'lyeh-specific forts with insanity effects, there could also be other ones they could choose from. It would be like choosing a pretender, really.

Some special fort types would available to more than one nation, for example, forest citadel would be available to Pangaea and Man, at the least. Pangaea, Machaka and Mictlan would certainly be able to select tribal encampment.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I like Sandman's suggestions about reworking pretenders and fortresses, but unfortunately that quite a lot of work...
Differentiating the pretenders from each other is, IMO, one of the things that would help the game a lot. The descriptions are wonderful, but unfortunately all pretenders don't stand up to it.

About holy spells:

Some national/theme-spesific holy spells would really do wonders on ceratin occassions. Think Iron Faith Ulm, as an example. "By the faith in iron shall the people of Ulm survive"... Holy 3 Legions of Steel would be the physical manifestation of such a spell.
Other nice spells that would be nice to see as holy include some summons (esp. those of Tien Chi), Magic Duel ( Don't you dare to expect The Inqusition! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ), Holy Pyre, Banish Demon (with 5+ priest requirement), even blindness and/or curse for some nations.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Perhaps 'theological' is a bit too strong a word here - well, who knows, maybe Kristoffer teaches his students Dominions mythology in real life. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Personal? Where did I write 'personal'? Your words, not mine.

It's true we have two kinds of sacred units, the 'zelots' (flagellants, KotC, etc., who are usually recruitable units) and the 'divine beings' (like Angels, Celestial Servants, void monsters, etc., who are usually summoned - I'd put Cu Sidhe in this Category). I don't think many in a sane society would believe in the sanctity of flagellants, although they probably would believe in the sanctity of Angels.

So what? The 'zelot' types get their holy status from their own (personal) faith, and the 'divine' types from the faith of commoners who consider them as sacred - just like football aficionados put faith in the players of the team they support. I see no real difference here: one cause (faith), one effect (holiness).

I think you look at all this the wrong way. Pretender gods draw their power from their own magic, and from their followers's beliefs. The blessing system is just a way for gods to grant their most devout followers a part of their power. Eg, a pretender skilled in fire magic will get bonuses to his attack rating, and so will his blessed troops. A pretender skilled in nature magic will regenerate faster when casting the apprioprate spell, and thus if he's skilled enough, his sacred troop may gain regenerative powers. The blessing effects may not always match spell effects, or abilities/stat bonuses gained from magic skills, for many obvious reasons - anyway it's also obvious the pretender is the source of these blessings. And now you want him to get a part of this gifted power back - to me it's just like you want to make the sun shine brighter by refecting its own light back with mirrors.

And BTW, I completely forgot to address this other point:

You're just asking for something that already exists in the game. Pretenders get extra power and buffs (in the form of stat increases) in provinces where lots of people believe in them (IOW, where their dominion is high).

Makes sense to me. Having to raise a full fortified city where you only need a watchtower is something I've always found... odd.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I'd like to make a small contribution to the wish-list... For some time now I have been playing with the thought of introducing handguns in Dominions.

I know there have been a few threads about the idea as well as a mod or two that included them... But well, it would be nice with official balanced rules as well as graphic and sound. And if you don't think they work that well in a fantasy oriented world I beg to differ, think of how well they go with the dwarfs in Warhammer for example. (note: I'm not asking for a debate on how serious the fantasy in Warhammer is here).

Anyway, think of it.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

"based on choices the player makes"

Ooh! Ooh! Different dominion scales give you different holy spells!

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I think it would be good for PD to be more useful. Then you would have an option other than madcastleing to stop raiding. But that would probably require a total rework of the PD system to balance.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

The other option is that you can always go on the offense.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Yeah, but what fun is a purely offensive scortched earth raid fest? Ok, so I guess that does sound kinda fun. But still, there should be better options for defence.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

More Diplomatic Options

• trade - money, territory, units
• cooperation - ceasefire, safe passage, joint efforts
• victory - voting (ala MoO1), pantheon (with primary victor), domination (to end boring endgames)

Building Scripts

• recurring recruiting - I'd like a Sage every turn, please
• equipping - create items a, b, c, and d for my Bane Lord

Other

• the Dwarven Hammer should be auto-assigned to the forger of the most expensive item - playing "who has the Dwarven Hammer?" is boring
• a multi-turn "auto-move and search for magic sites" order would be nice
• 3D for just pretenders would look cool

Geeking out on the AI
The only things really needed for an AI are the current situation (the map, troop locations, money/gem levels, etc.) and a list of valid orders (build troops, cast spells, attack, etc.). A summary of the previous turn would be nice, too.

What would be needed then is:

• CP - a text-based, human-readable file describing the current position (also CP', CP'', etc.)
• O - a list o1, o2, ... on of operations (e.g. o5 might be "build n soldiers of type x in area a")
• V(oi) - a function that determines whether oi is valid given the current game position, where oi is an instantiated rule (e.g. oi might be "build 1 hypasist in Great Waste")
• L - a list of moves that the AI wishes to make this turn (this will be the file sent to the server)
• A(CP, oi, L) -> (CP', L') a function that applies oi to CP, resulting in CP' and adding the appropiate entry to L, resulting in L'

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

I read all the Messages ... a lot of idea ... I try to see the most 3 things I want:

1.an improved order system

just imprved ... it is funny and realistic looking your troops and command behave like they want during the ed of the battle. But something like "guard position" (stay firm until an enemy is in reache). fire and retreat and so on ...

2. an imporved manual and/or ingame descriptio

at least in the manual (or ingame description) I must know what a spell really does (summon 2+ ghosts is not enouhg for me) or how the squad size alter the morale of my squad

3. reduce the strenght of ritual spell in the nd of the game

it must be not easy (more difficult/costing) cast spells on provinces far away form your mages and/or your scouts

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

* If "target commanders" etc. were added back in, add a difficulty to spot and indentify those targets. The player may get a bird's eye view of the map with perfect information about what everything is, but a soldier in the field has to see through obstacles, people, has limited knowledge and limited time to make decisions.

* Either modify the sequence of play in combat, or the AI, so that units do not just charge into certain death against foes that can wipe them out. This could be handled in a variety of ways, but in general, give units a chance to back away from charging hordes of enemies, if they have the room and speed to do so. Thus, faster units (especially Light Infantry and Cavalry) could and would avoid being caught by superior Groups of enemy Heavy Infantry, for example. Also, small Groups and commanders could avoid engaging (or at least, avoid getting totally mobbed by) larger Groups that they could outrun.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

woud it be possible to enhance the scripting possibilies of scenarios? It would be a boon, for solo and MP, as we are still really lacking in 'real' scenarios, with triggers, events, etc.

as an exemple, I would like to be able to script an independant or AI commander in the scenario file, because as of now, a fully equiped independant queen of air will cast spells until she passes out where as she would surely only cast mistform, mirror image and then attack in the hands of a player.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

First I want to say that Dom2 is fantastic, and if they only made superficial changes in Dom3 I'd still give them my money. It’s more likely, however, that the skill and motivation that created Dom2 makes that possibility unlikely and happily so. I have dozens of minor thoughts that probably aren’t worth their consideration or time. I will tender my personal recommendations where I think they might have the most impact:

1. Some simple interface changes might go a long way. For instance, Medieval Total War had this nice feature that you could simply push the shift button (or was it Tab or ctrl?) and the map would reveal a color-coded means of determining the degree of unrest: green, yellow, and red each specifying a degree of risk of revolt. This feature was a huge time saver. Also, the ability to give orders and script commands needs simplification. Yes, I like the way researching mages can be grayed out but more in this respect can be done. For example: I say you should be able to group all commanders and mages. You should also be able to group by those lacking orders, or by those with particular spell skills and in ascending or descending order by strength. There should also be an easier way to access and read spell paths.

2. A tutorial. Let’s face it: this game is utterly recondite. I say this with great affection because the abstruse nature provides the some of the best moments of gaming. But learning the game at even a modest degree is a chore and you certainly lose gamers (and profits) to the intimidated. You might want to add a list of basic combination spell and attacks just to get folks started.

3. This is probably a tall order: idiot server setup and interface. Now I don’t know anything about this type of thing (thus I am the idiot in need), but it seems to me that the easier to set up servers, and the more user friendly, the happier your customers will be.

Also, for email games, which is a very nice thing by the way, you might want to create some sort of utility that automatically backs up user files by moves because we make mistakes and it’s a real shame to lose a game when you confuse two email games.

4. Trade. Ok, so I’m a hopeless capitalist. But trade among provinces and nations add wealth, and a weakness to attack. In my mind, trade can be quite simple and depicted in a basic fashion. As long as there is a way to obstruct trade with military, spells, and weather, it might be worth considering.

5. Titans. Some games are long. Some games are long and you know you are going to get beat bad because the other player is so much better. Introducing Titans (as inspired by Warlords Battlecry) might be a nice way to add a little chaos to the system so someone might invest energies building up a really bad baddie. Obviously, this would have to work with the balance of the game, but it’s something to consider.

6. Buildings. Hey we can build temples, labs, and keeps, why not other good stuff like smiths, carpenters, war colleges, armories, devil forges, added defenses, etc. Make them expensive so you might have to choose between quality or quantity and have something to lose if invaded.

7. Family. My god is worshiped like a rock star, so maybe he should act like one. If he has offspring, these mini-gods might add extra goodness to a great game.

8. Hostages. If you can have valuable family members, perhaps you can hold or take key individuals hostage like in the Shogun books.

9. More ritual spells. Those things are so cool I want more. For instance, you could make a spell that makes armies eat more, so that starvation is a bigger issue. Maybe make weak ritual spells that have less impact but need less research.

10. More individuals. Perhaps the comment regarding family members address this, but it would be nice to see certain commander progress more in terms of experience and ability. I know this is a touch like RPG, but think adding a few more key individuals along with the gods would add a personal aspect, and the risk reward of certain attacks might be increased.

11. Pacts. Ok, this one is a bit strange, but diplomacy might take on a twist if players could enter pacts enforced by the game that if defined agreements are breached, the collateral or pledge is forfeited.

Just a few thoughts. I have more thoughts, but these came to mind first at this sitting. Now the only problem about the Dom3 announcement is that I have to wait for it.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

Recently there was some discussion of wards and whether or not they stacked. I requested that the different kinds of wards be made stackable (e.g. Thunder Ward + Storm Warriors) so as to allow armies to get 100% resistance to something though it would expensive in terms of gems and getting the right casters in place.

However this was voted down by the devs.

How about we add battlefield spells that give susceptibility to a damage type to targets, which would effectively give say -50% fire (or whatever) resistance to whatever in its area of effect?

If we imposed a max of 50% susceptibility from spells of this type, then people would need 150% resistance to be absolutely safe, but it would then be more viable to allow resistance wards to stack.

The idea is that a player should be forced to have several mages working together to cast the appropriate ward type or susceptibility type spells for maximum effect, reducing the power of having just 1 powerful mage killing entire armies with Wrathful Skies type spells.

Re: The Dominions 3: \"Wishlist\"
 

If sub-100% resistance are stacking is multiplicative rather than additive, it might work better... in other words, if a unit has three different 50% fire resistances (perhaps one from an artifact, one from the unit's nature [e.g. a demon] and one from a battlefield spell) then they could stack like this:

50% and 50% and 50% = .5 + .5 + .5 = 150% (additive)

or like this:

50% and 50% and 50% = 1-(1-.5)*(1-.5)*(1-.5) = 1-.125 = 87.5%


By the way, did I mention that it would be nice if national and indy units were useful in the mid and late game in Dom III? I think I did, but wishing twice never hurts:)

Edit: Ooops, just noticed Chazar already said this exact same thing in another thread... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif