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your thoughts on Dominions II
Ok, I know it is only a matter of time till ppl start posting that they like this, hate that, change this, ect ect ect....
I figured I would beat everyone to the punch though and start a thread. I think that the game is MUCH prettier...easier on the eyes than Dom1. I also like the whole "Production"....the game is very "clean" over Dom1....at least that is how it feels to me anyways... The interface is so much better than before....words simply cannot explain. I like the titles, the themes...so far, what little bit I have played I have really liked...plus, I have been able to trade Messages with Tom Chick.... well, i know that that is not part of the game, but it did happen in this forum http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
74% downloaded, i'm sweating and my heart is beating like mad...
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Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
I agree, Doms II. is a great improvement over Doms I. [Mainly gfx and new additions]
I am still 'testing' the demo. I like it so far. I am trying to figure out that how effective the AI is... |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
the only thing that sucks is i have to wait 3 weeks for the full Version....
hmmmm....if only shrapnel offered a downloadable full Version for preorders....(hint hint) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
I don't like the AI. It is too weak. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif
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Things have changed from Dom I. Clearly.
I realy have liked the game this far. The only thing i have to nitpick about is that bless doesn't give you any visual effects. |
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P.S. I just noticed... if you want to reply to me, you'll have to address me as "Sarge"! =) [ October 27, 2003, 15:44: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ] |
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P.S. I just noticed... if you want to reply to me, you'll have to address me as "Sarge"! =) </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes Sarge. Since I rolled 3 AIs on normal level on the first map 3 times in a row...easily...yes I guess it is weak. |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
Hmmm. I only played against AI's on their hardest setting in DOM I, except for a couple nations like Ermor and Jotunheim (their darn nether darts...) Try again against impossible computers.
***INTERFACE PROBLEM*** What I noticed so far is that unit stats are no longer aligned! I mean, I like the fact that it says "Attack Skill", that's nice and informative... but... since the names of the stats have different numbers of characters, it's hard to see all the stats at a glance, down a column. I would suggest moving all the unit stat numbers farther right so they are aligned in a column, like in Dominions I. -Cherry |
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I love the demo so far!
I dont wanna talk about the AI yet. Check out the poll anyways, the votes are very interesting. |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
The AI is poor. I am very pissed because of that. The game should be really decent, but with this AI....SP part is screwed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
IW must upgrade the AI. |
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You guys have really tried the AI this much? Were you beta testers or what?
I like the user interface and the new look. I will start a demo with some hard AI's to see what you all are talking about. Yo |
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Hey, I think that in Dominions II. the > normal AI is the same, but it is cheating. It won't have a bigger brain, just more resources or something like that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
The current AI is between below average and average if you ask me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
Here's my mini-review of what I like and don't like:
key: + : this indicates a good thing - : this indicates a bad thing Thoughts: + Great main screen! I love the slowly scrolling landscape background. This is really cool. + The Sound is really good - the music is atmospheric, the sounds in game are a great improvement over Dom I - The music, while being atmospheric, is perhaps not ambient enough - I had to turn it off after about a half hour. Maybe your mileage will vary. + Zoomable map. This is great. + By and large the map filters are really good too - I'm sure it will take some getting used to though. For example for a Dom I player it's harder (right now at least) to tell the dominion at a glance) - very small point: the castle icon in the filter is unattractive; the one in Dom I was better. I think a simpler design would go a long way - all you need is for people to see it and think "castle" + Information about province scales and level of magic searching are great - very very helpful, and a most important addition - highlight colour seems to be a bright red (for buttons this is), which doesn't look great. I think some kind of light-up effect would be WAY better. + On the battlefield the patch of light helping you find out info about units - much better than just an arrow. Nice detail. - While I love the scrolling landscape screen, I feel pretty indifferent about the 'falling snowflakes' screen, and even less excited about the 'magical fireworks' screen. These look like they took time to put together, but aren't as aesthetically pleasing - Names in the main map screen are at the top of the flag, which makes them not centered in the province. Sometimes this looks confusing. I think it would better if they were at the bottom. + "all" command is a toggle - meaning that all commands issued to one (vs. only 'move' in Dom I) are applied to all. This is a great micro-management reducer. + It tells you how many units you have in each squad in the deployment screen. This is another really helpful addition. + Another huge one: even if you're playing SP you have access to the 'host' and 'exit' commands. This is great for actually stopping a game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif since it's always hard not to begin responding to whatever happened in the Messages. This is also great because you can get out of one game without quitting the program. +/- Battle scenes look great: I love the 3d look. plus which the terrain is gorgeous. Downside is that it's harder to see what's happening at the far end of the battlefield than Dom I, but this is a disadvantage I'll gladly bear for the sake of the 3d effect. [BTW I do realise you can zoom in, etc., what I mean is that you have to zoom in fairly tight to see far away units as well as you see them in Dom I (without losing the big picture) + Particle effects! I haven't tried out a ton of spells yet, but what I have seen has been great. - Transferring items between commanders still clunky - i.e. you can't just click on the commander, you get a list of names. Now one thing that is better is that the names are matched to portraits, so you know at least what kind of person each commander is. But it would be way better if you were able to click on the commander in the main map screen. - Now here's the big one: The units in the recruitment screen (and the commanders in the main screen) are harder to differentiate between than they were in Dom I. It is noticeably harder to tell which unit is which, because of the extremely light-coloured background they are against. This is hard on the eyes, and makes the units look like blotches. I strongly urge the developers to change the background colour to a darker shade. Darker background makes it easier to see colours, whereas light background drowns out colours. It would be great (for all our eyes, if nothing else) if this could be changed. I'm sure I missed some factors, especially positive ones. Feel free to add your thoughts everyone. |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
One thing I forgot to add, that was a slight negative:
- The commander icons in the main map screen are very small, and thus hard to distinguish. This could be the background colour alone, but I wouldn't mind the commander icons being made just a bit bigger... of course this is a pretty minor gripe. *edit: one more thing: - The distinction between the commanders and regular units in the recruitment screen isn't as clear as it was in Dom I. Minor issue, esp. since I'm used to the commanders being at the bottom. [ October 27, 2003, 22:41: Message edited by: st.patrik ] |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
The falling snowflakes and multcolored christmas balls did not take a lot of time to make, JK likes them though, as they reminds him of his home at the north pole. You can shut them off in preferences. I suspect most people will.
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Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
I thought of one more feature which I hoped would be implemented but wasn't: Having more than one pretender for each nation. This especially makes sense since you have different themes; I may want a certain pretender with vanilla Ulm, and a very different pretender for "Iron Faith" Ulm, but as it is, I'd have to write them down and re-make whichever one I wanted in order to create a game. It's not a huge deal, but it sure is a pain in the ***.
To qualify - the improvements are really great. I hope the various negative comments aren't taken as a general negative verdict - this is not the case at all. |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
well improved interface, thats really a pleasure after doms I.
you know what? most often than not, I suprise myself in try to right click to close a screen - bad habit - bad ! I concur that darker background around commanders (main map) and production screen would be more pleasant and less agressive to the eyes. I have problem seeing the edge of some units as of now. |
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Overall, while the UI is much better than the DomI UI, I still believe it's hard on the new player. |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
My thoughts about Doms II. in 1 sentence:
Doms II. got the worst AI what I ever seen in strategy games. [ October 28, 2003, 13:11: Message edited by: MStavros ] |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
In what way? It is difficult to change it into something better unless you tell us what is wrong.
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I've only had the demo for about an hour of fooling with, so I didn't do much beyond get the feel for the new UI, but... How on earth is 40 turns enough time to roll over the AIs? I suppose people could be using some of the new victory conditions and getting wins with them (meaning the vic conditions, or the AI's response to vic conditions needs adjusting), but how are people just walking over AIs in 40 turns? Well kudos to you if you are, but I find it kinda doubtful. |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
Could yall streamline the single player interface a bit then Kris?
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My guesses are that the AI are killing each other before you find them. This behaviour might be aggravated by a very low independent strength setting (0 or 1). Storm used 2 which would affect the game balance a bit, but not nessecarily to the extent that the AI loose every time. Also try with 10 AI players or so. Then there is less chance of them waging war on each other only. Send over a zip of strangely won games so we can take a look at them (not every game - only strange ones or I'll drown in useless turnfiles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ). |
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http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000180 I'm just crosslinking it in case it was overlooked, as you did ask. Well, you didn't ask me, but I'm loud http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif -Cherry |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
perhaps this is already there, and i just cannot see it....but could there be added a "lock" function in the research screen, where you choose what schools to research? It seems that it would make it easier to have certain points going to certain schools...like more than 2 schools being researched at the same time...
perhaps not, but I am just wondering.... you know, like the tech research points lock in some other games (the only one that I can actually think of right now is MoO3...and that is not a good game to use as any example of how to do something....) |
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EU2 has a lock feature though I think, you could reference that game instead. I'd like to see this lock feature myself, or a way to enter the value from the keyboard (not +,-), but it's not such a big deal really. |
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no, not a big deal...but, if it wouldn't take up too many resources and time....i would like to see it added...and yes, EU2 does have a lock feature i believe, that would be the better example....
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Did you prefer the old hotseat mode? Perhaps if there was a 'SP-unsavable' mode (the old hotseat renamed SP for those that prefers quick hosting without ingame saves). Not sure if JK would like this. It was very difficult to persuade him to remove the hotseat mode. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
I do not understand http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
What is a lock feature? What would it do? Halt research at certain levels? Make sure that research of a particular school never is lower than a certain minimum? |
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[ October 28, 2003, 17:07: Message edited by: licker ] |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
yes....it is not a problem with only 2 schools being researched at once...but when you get up to 3, then it could be used....
for example....lets say you are researching Alteration, Blood, and Conjuration at the same time.... You don't want Blood to go below 10 RP's. So, you lock that one...then you can change the RP's beetween the other 2 (or, 3, 4, ect...) you have 23 RP's to use: Blood would be locked at 10 RP Conjuration you could set at 8, and Altaration at 5, without moving the Blood RP's Like i said, not actually a big priority, but I think it may make things a bit easier trying to assign research points... |
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Removing clicks with hot keys is usually an improvment... |
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You can use + and - (IIRC) to adjust the research bars a few points if you hover above a school.
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No, I'm just suggesting that in addition to the current main menu selections, and additional selection is put in, for a pure singleplayer game, so you can click on that, and never see the main menu again. If you wanted to play a hotseat game with only one human player (the current DomII singleplayer mode), you would still be able to do that. And, yes, for your reference, I thought the original Dom I singleplayer mode was more straightforward. But my primary issue with the interface is not that you have to click "host" in between each turn... rather, that there are a whole bunch of steps you have to go through to start a new singleplayer game, which is the first thing that anyone will do upon installing the demo. -Cherry [ October 28, 2003, 17:29: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ] |
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http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000180 I'm just crosslinking it in case it was overlooked, as you did ask. Well, you didn't ask me, but I'm loud http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif -Cherry </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah it's basically all in that topic heh |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
ok, something else I really like, is when you go to view the battle....you see where the battle is taking place, with the map zoom in....helps me keep track of where and what I am trying to do
ok, back to playing |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
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EU2 has a lock feature though I think, you could reference that game instead. I'd like to see this lock feature myself, or a way to enter the value from the keyboard (not +,-), but it's not such a big deal really. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, the lock feature worked fine in MoO1. Chalk it up to technological progress, I guess. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif Basically: each bar can be either locked or unlocked (there's a checkbox or something). Locked bars can't have their values adjusted. When adjusting the value of an unlocked bar, research points are never transferred into or out of locked bars. This may mean that you may be unable to adjust any bars (if all your research points are in locked bars), or unable to adjust beyond a certain level, which would require some extra coding. Example: I have 20 rp, currently all in Alteration. I notice that it will take only 7 rp to finish my Alteration research, so I lower Alteration to 7. The extra points are dumped into some other school (let's say Conjuration). Then I decide I want the extra points to go into Construction instead, so I lock Alteration, then click near the right end of the Construction bar. The game would transfer as much research as possible to Construction (up to the point where I actually clicked), but wouldn't take away points from the locked Alteration bar to do so. The end result would be Alteration 7 (locked), Construction 13, everything else 0. This is much more convenient than the current system where I have to estimate about where I want Construction, then see if it took points from the right place, put them back in Alteration if necessary, etc - which could take several adjustments. It would be worse if I had a lot of RP (say 50), was close to finishing a level in one school, wanted to research only one level of another school, and put the remaining points into a third school. |
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EU2 has a lock feature though I think, you could reference that game instead. I'd like to see this lock feature myself, or a way to enter the value from the keyboard (not +,-), but it's not such a big deal really. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">A better example would be BOTF (Birth of the Federation). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
hmmm....here are some more things (little details) that i have liked...
1. it rains during the battle sequences...or did i imagine it? I could swear that there was rainfall...and, if so, does that affect the battle in any way? or is it just for looks? 2. Again, i have to say i really like the main maps...These really do look great...my wife actually said yesterday that she thought the maps were beautiful...hehe...take that as a compliment coming from someone who really couldn't care less about computer games and all... 3. Just the openness of the info...I don't have to click click click like i did before to get info on the province...like, gold and all...especially concerning the overall empre gold... 4. The nation overview...to me, this was a HUGE step up. To be able to see who is in what province....great job... 5. Love the background for the battles...I ended up fighting in one where there was fog...thought that was a great visual affect.... 6. Spiders spiders and more spiders...I really do like the Machaka race....Even though i hate spiders in real life...I do lilke the Spiders inthe Machaka race... 7. A great game made even greater....I tip my hat to you guys in this one...I liked Dominions I, but this one I think has become my absolute favorite game... |
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Rain and snow will affect missile fire for the worse, plus give penalties (double fatigue cost) for Fire magic use. Flying units (aside from a unit Caelum can roll out) are grounded during storms. Fire-loving units are just generally do poorly in the rain. Abyssia ain't happy in a roaring thunderstorm! |
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Rain and snow will affect missile fire for the worse, plus give penalties (double fatigue cost) for Fire magic use. Flying units (aside from a unit Caelum can roll out) are grounded during storms. Fire-loving units are just generally do poorly in the rain. Abyssia ain't happy in a roaring thunderstorm! </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Many summoned units could also fly in storms in Dom I - air elementals, spring hawks, storm demons, Queen of Air, sylphs, Pazuzu, not sure about draconians. Some of those units also got their stats increased when fighting in a storm. I can't confirm yet whether any of those are changed in Dom II (except, come to think of it, I don't remember seeing Pazuzu in the blood magic spell list. Maybe he's one of the level 9 demon lords now?) |
Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
Yep, Pazuzu is one of the Demon Lords now. I'm not sure about flying summoned creatures in storms, but I'd suspect they are mostly if not entirely the same.
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