.com.unity Forums - Exploit question

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- Dominions 3: The Awakening (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=138)

- - Exploit question (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44495)

Re: Exploit question

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trumanator (Post 722506)

Used to be that if you cast it and then retreated the caster the monsters would keep coming. Therefore, if you were the defender it could be literally impossible to lose since the enemy army would hit the turn 50 autorout. Plus it let you kill all of an enemy's mindless and berserk units. All that at the cost of a few A gems and risking a mage for _one_ turn.

All this is true. Let me add: it used to be that the only way to break a battlefield enchantment[1] was by killing the caster, which meant that if the caster Retreated or cast Returning or was banished to Inferno or Cocytus, the enchantment would stay up for the rest of the combat. I *think* all of the above methods of removing the enemy mage from the battlefield now also cancel the spell.

-Max

[1] Battlefield enchantment: any battlefield-wide spell that is not instantaneous, e.g. Mists of Deception, Fire Storm, Rigor Mortis etc. but not Army of Gold, Will of the Fates etc. Listed in the manual as "BE" vs. "BF".

Re: Exploit question

It was pretty funny. The best part was the guy who used it first barely spoke English and rarely posted here. It was hilarious to see someone with such little interaction in this forum make so many people have a conniption fit. There were personal insults, liberal use of caps lock and moderators joining in the name calling. Good times :).

Re: Exploit question

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxWilson (Post 722517)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoBits (Post 722503)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxWilson (Post 722499)

That's really interesting. Was it just chance? Can you re-run the battle a few times with new randomization? (Add a unit to the replay and immediately kill it, Shift-U + Shift-K, which resets the randomizer.)

-Max

Um, I guess I could, if I knew how to do stuff like that ;) Since I've never played around with the guts of Dominions before, I'd really need someone to walk me through that (PM me with details if you're truly interested).

I won't PM because others may be interested. The method is really simple: while watching a battle replay, type Shift+U (uppercase U) and type in a unit name or number, and it will add as many of that type of unit as you ask for to the battle in the place where your cursor was, as independent units. Type Shift+K to kill the units in the square your cursor is over.

If you do this, it obviously changes the battle from the "official" outcome that gets listed in the after-action report (X units killed, etc.) and it doesn't affect the actual game, but it makes testing certain things easy. For instance, you can test whether your killer army that just stomped all over somebody's PD would have done quite so well if the enemy had had 8 Wraith Lords there instead of PD, or if your mage had died before casting Fire Storm.

-Max

OK, ran a few test replays (thanks for that Shift-U/K tip, by the way!). Interestingly, in none of the tests did the Dryads shoot at the Amazon Sorceress (or the other two PD-commanders, as far as I could see) again. Not sure what to make of that result, except to say that I must have gotten very lucky in the 'real' turn :confused:

But I can see how Dryads (or some other cheap A or N mage) armed with Pierces (or some such) and Bogus' friends' scripts, that could be really, really nasty...

Re: Exploit question

When Shift-U-ing things into a real battle you will also see that the enemy mages will use different spells. So you can practically get to know almost the whole research of your enemy if you shift-u a lot of different stuff into a battle and note down the spells your enemy casts. This is an exploit imo, but I suppose many people know it already, so it's probably better if everyone does.

Re: Exploit question

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illuminated One (Post 722623)

Theorycrafting:

You could also make a guess at figuring out what his scripting orders are. Did that D4 mage cast Raise Skeletons because he was scripted to do so, or was he scripted to Disintegrate and there just wasn't anybody in range because I set my guys toward the back? Let's add somebody within 25 squares of him, Manhattan distance, and see if he tries to Disintegrate them instead. Are those cavalry set to Attack Nearest or Attack Archers? Let's add some archers.

I have never tried this in practice but I conjecture that you could gain useful information. In particular, you could attack with a scout and insert a bunch of units. Normally a scout attack would not trigger any gem-using spells, but with a bunch of added units the mages should act normally.

-Max

Re: Exploit question

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illuminated One (Post 722623)

Didn't know that one. :doh: Off to sift-u/k -> On other thought turns take long allready would take much longer to do that too.

Re: Exploit question

It's much faster to see all researched spells in the -ddd log.

Re: Exploit question

Oh yeah. For that matter, you see exactly what the script is too.

Re: Exploit question

This thread mentioned one thing I agree with.

Its wrong to remove huge parts of the game you dont like. You can easily guess what I mean, since its a main feature of CBM 1.6. It removed a whole tactical layer of the game, instantly nerfing the hell out of some nations and insanely buffing others, altering the gameplay etc.
This is maybe half the reason why I wont join any further games once Lapis and Setsumi end. And yes, I already heard the '90% of non-noob players' and 'good riddance, emo' responds, so dont bother. :)

Re: Exploit question

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuritza (Post 723026)

Kurz,
After your other two games end start up a vanilla game. I and others (I'm sure) still swing both ways Dominions-wise. ;)
-ssj