Re: Paging Dr. Willett...
 

I've searched and, well, if it looks like that, It's better that what I remembered and not ugly imho.

http://www.illwinter.com/dom/ss_dom5.jpg

But yes, it should be improved http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif .

Re: Paging Dr. Willett...
 

Crosspost http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif . Thanks for your message http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

Finer-grained research.
 

Another possible reworking that comes to mind would be permitting finer-grained research where a nation might know a proper subset of the spells of a given school and level. This might permit or complement certain possibilities, such as...

...allowing specific units to have personal knowledge of specific spells. Some might be able and willing to teach these spells to their summoning nations, while others may have certain spells as largely inherent abilities or be unwilling to reveal their secrets. Some commanders might even get bonuses on particular spells.

...allowing fine-grained nondeterminism in research. For instance, if researchers are studying a certain school, the likelihood of learning spells in that school might be based on RP, the knowledge of easier spells in that school, and the paths of the researcher (e.g. Seithkona researching death- and astral- related spells more easily as they're proficient in these).

...allowing events in which objects are recovered that provide awareness of specific spells.

...possibly even the association of consequences with researching different types of spells, and allowing a greater degree of choice in these. Most notably, death and blood research might be problematic in terms of both public acceptance or lack thereof, and in the potential for intensely unfortunate discoveries.


Along those lines, one might suggest a unique 'Library of the Damned' site that a researcher could Enter for significant research bonuses, but at varying risks of insanity, horror marking, cursing, feeblemind, meeting Horrors or a Vastness... and maybe a more research-oriented (rather than plain power boost) unique tome with similar properties.

Re: Finer-grained research.
 

Those are some really interesting ideas, Taqwus. I like them. I wonder if the folk at Illwinter do? It could be too complicated....

Forts
 

An Addendi to Forts:

This is PS to the notes on Flexible Fort Systems(tm) for dom3 discussed above (decoupling build time from gold price, for more design points the option of building butch tough castles AND/OR wimpy quick castles in-game):

Some forts of the more Butch/Expensive/LongerBuildTime type could have interesting defensive bonuses, such as:
- Moats over which storming enemies must cross
- vastly improved tower fire
- "Burning Oil": Anyone running the gauntlet between the truncheon of the outer castle gate and the courtyard (e.g. anyone who cannot fly to the back without passing through or anyone too slow to stay in for too long) will suffer from sulfer haze or falling fires 1x turn
- Traps: Enemies have the chance of getting hit by a random Vine Arrow attack anywhere beteween the outer gate and the courtyard
- Nation-specific defenses: Abysia with a tough fort-type could have more fire-based defense, possible flare-volleys, or something of that type, while Caelum might have cold bolts, Ctis might have bog beasts lurking in the moat, etc.
- Some forts come with built-in "castle defense" PD-like troops, anywhere from 5-25 elite (such as Guardians for Ulm, City Guard for Ctis, etc.), who wait like PD in the courtyard, set to "guard commander".
This would, of course, require lots of work, but it could be worth it.

Short Question
 

Oh, see that "Beta Testing" has been announced -- does that mean we should stop bombarding you with suggestions now?

Re: Short Question
 

Is betatesting announced? I wonder what they will test http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Don't stop suggesting things. Suggestions are always welcome. Even after beta has started. Even after the game is finished in fact.

Re: Short Question
 

Don't stop ? OK, here's a noob suggestion :
In an unit datasheet (the one you have by rightclicking the unit and where you see it's characteristics like str, def etc...), show also the upkeep cost and the supplies it eats. Same thing on an army screen, it would be nice to know the global gold/supplies upkeep of that army.

Also on the province information screen, It would be nice ro see how many supplies that province can prodice per turn.

That's of course if the interface is similar to dom2 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif .

Re: Short Question
 

I would like to see sorting options for the Nation Overview display, and please implement the magic site display portion of the NO so that it does not freeze up and grind to a halt with large numbers of provinces (this problem is verifiably linked to the number of sites displayed as those small icons, at 4 sites per province, problems start appearing at around 80 provinces and the display chokes by around 200 provinces).

Edi

Swamp Castle
 

New event suggestion:

"Your castle sank into the swamp, killing everyone inside except the wily local baron."

Swamp terrain only. It should create a new magic site, "Sunken Castle," which generates 1 death gem per turn and makes future castles on the province 150g cheaper (minimum 150g).