Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

For the latest Version, see the thread's most recent post.

[ November 08, 2003, 02:18: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

By the way, getting this stickyed would be helpful.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

I think i will take this to Dom X if you don't mind...

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Feel free, it's not copyrighted http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Feel free, it's not copyrighted http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thanks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ October 27, 2003, 20:35: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Well, I've a problem with the keyboard : looks like the still game "hardcodes" some keys, on my French keyboard I can't "find" the ? key for a shortcut list (even using the one that is normally mapped as "?" on a US keyboard...).
Tried all the keys to no avail .. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

[ October 27, 2003, 22:13: Message edited by: PDF ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are you 'shifting' PDF? Maybe a silly question, but '?' is not a key, but a shift function of '/' in the USA

If you can't get it to work I'm sure we can post a list or something.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

I think it would really help new players and not hurt things at all if the demo (and probably the game) included default gods and a started game.

I think people want to dive into the game and look at it first, then twist their minds around what kind of settings would work well in a pretender.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Ok, I posted additional information about how to actually start a game. I guess I've been contaminated by Dom I, so I no longer have a "newby's perpective", because after I typed out all the stuff you have to do, it seems pretty complex.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's a good idea. Making a default god for each race and including the god file in the package would be a very quick and easy thing to do, and would probably save a lot of new Users headaches... as long as it was clear that there already was a default god. But I think multiple god profiles per race should be supported, as with your suggestion, when a new user designs a new god, he permanently destroys some of the game's original data using the current 1-god-per-race system.

[ October 28, 2003, 06:23: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Make sure CAPS LOCK key is not turned on. ? works fine for me even though I don't use US keyboard layout and ? is on different spot.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I can't believe this is still the case - I don't see how having each newly designed god overwrite the previous one can seem to be a good idea, and it cannot be that hard to have, say, a directory for each nation with a file for each god, and letting the player select one...

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Zipped-up game directories with starter games would be a nice thing. People could come up with what they feel are good easy-to-understand starting positions for their favorite nations and upload them to the mod forum here.

We could eventually build a rather nice library of them, and anytime a newcomer (or even just somebody who's never tried a specific nation before) wants to sample, say, a nice straight-forward set-up for Marignon, complete with a good map and suitable Pretender God, then they could just download the file, unzip it back into its directory off the Dominions installation, and just start playing via Play An Existing Game.

Don't see a downside myself, and it could be interesting to see everybody's ideas on what makes a good not-too-complicated-for-starters set-up for the various nations. That'd be another good use for them, in fact: they'd act as a sort-of "tips and tricks for set-up" brainstorming project.

Excellent idea! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I can't believe this is still the case - I don't see how having each newly designed god overwrite the previous one can seem to be a good idea, and it cannot be that hard to have, say, a directory for each nation with a file for each god, and letting the player select one... </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually Id like to be able to tweak a god. I never remember what god I made for a race and Id like to be able to bring it up and look at the settings then change some. But multiple gods with selection would probably be easier.

Hmmmmm I cant think of any reason why a third party God making program cant be made by someone. I wonder if the shift to a "properly marketed game" has also added 3rd party programming restrictions.

[ October 28, 2003, 16:34: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Make sure CAPS LOCK key is not turned on. ? works fine for me even though I don't use US keyboard layout and ? is on different spot. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ah ok, with CAPS LOCK on, the ? works at its "French" place http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Thx

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

I doubt Shrapnel would have the slightest problem with 3rd party development. There's been so much work done with SEIV, Runesword II, and other products that I can't see why they'd be anything but pleased to see other people getting involved. And Illwinter certainly doesn't seem to mind, from what I've heard and seen.

I agree that being able to tweak the gods is much more satisfying, not to mention giving the whole thing that personal touch, and a third-party editor would be a great tool.

Maybe that same tool or another could add a game library management system that would promote selected games out of an archive system and into subdirectories, and vice versa, on command? It'd be nice to have all the old games around, to be able to pull something like these "add-water-and-stir" games for newbies and the curious we're talking about off the shelf, and to have various special games where the map and other settings have been set up to be a certain way all ready to play once they've been extracted.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well the random map generator and such didnt cross an imporant line. I dont see how a god-creator program can be done easily without snagging alot of images and such directly from the game.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well since the gods are in their own directory (newlords) and in seperate files that should make some things easier. The files seem quite encrypted/compressed so it might take alot of experimentation to get things right without help from Illwinter.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Wractale is gonna go ballistic when he gets "Noob Demo Guide v.4" this soon...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

He says he will soon retire if i won't stop bombing him with new Version of noob demo guide every 12 hours...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Edit: The orders are like this:
Defend Castle:Defends the castle in the province if it has one

Patrol Province:Patrols the province, reducing unrest and defending the province itself, if the province has a castle. Reduces more unrest if the commander has troops under his command.

Search for Magic Sites:Tries to find sites of magic power in the province. Only mages and priests can find something

Preach the Techings of God:Tries to increase your Dominion in the province. Only for priests

Blood Hunt:Tries to find Blood Slaves. Increases unrest. Commanders with skill in blood will have better succes than those who have not

Construct Building:Builds either a laboratory, temple or a fortress in the province

Pillage:Kills population and gives you gold. Dependant on the amount of troops you have and you get more gold the more people you kill.

Research:The commander contributes his research points to the research pool

Cast Ritual Spell:Casts a ritual spell

Forge Magic Item:Forges a magic item. The item goes to the laboratory

Alchemy:Converts magic gems to money or diffrent magic gems

Empowerment:Makes commander more skilled in magic by sacrificing magic gems

Become Prophet:Makes the commander your prophet, making him permanently belssed and giving him bonuses to stats when inside a friendly Dominion. You can only have one prophet.

Blood Sacrifice:Sacrifies blood slaves in order to increase your Dominion

Assasinate:Attacks an enemy commander in the province. The assasin figths the commander and his possible bodyguards.

Instill Upspring:Tries to instill an upspring in the enemy province

[ October 29, 2003, 18:08: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Great job Saber!

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, (s)he has saved me a lot of work!
Truly great work Saber!

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Some corrections:

Being a prophet also increases your stats.
There is a bug with which you can make your god a prophet, this is not advised and, as said, is a bug.

Forge item - researching in Construction helps. Different magics allow different items. Level one item costs 5 gems, level 2 10, level 3 20 and level 4 40. The few items needing level 5 in a path take 80 gems, IIRC right.

A few hints about when it is appopriate to use a command (like empower) would be nice, because this is for those who don't know such things...
For empowerment, I would suggest against it unless it allows you to cast a very good ritual, item or spell, or lets you use otherwise useless gems for rituals/items.

Some hints about different magics when creating a pretender would be nice. Short descriptions, like:

Fire magic lets you cast many different damaging spells. It also has Fire shield that greatly improves the efficiency of your Super Combatant. Evocation lets you cast most fire battlefield spells. Conjuration allows you to summon fire elementals in battle, as well as summer lions through a ritual. First level of enchantment lets you cast the fire shield.

Okay, they are not that short, but give some idea about the different schools.
Oh, damn. *slaps head* You see short descriptions from the choose magics screen. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Oh well.
It is good that they did that before us, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ssshh!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Not worth the bother, though, IMO. He is not sacred or blessed, so doesn't get the cool bless bonuses.

I figured out how to get 2 prophets, though... make you god a prophet... kill him... wait... make a new prophet... call back your god (he's still a prophet) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

But, yes, as Endoperez said, this is a bug and will be fixed soon - the god is not supposed to become his own prophet, except for maybe the Wyrm which has 2 heads, 2 brains, and I would assume 2 identities... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

-removed-

[ November 26, 2003, 03:10: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

If anyone knows the full effects of dominion, and can post them here, I'd be grateful! For example, "increases pretender HP by dominion*10%, strength by dominion/2," and etc, and "raises friendly morale by 1", and "gives a 1% income bonus per level", "decreases unrest by X" or whatever it does. I'd like to know ALL of them, because dominion is pretty central to the game, and it is a common question. The ones above are mostly made up. Things like Conscription, vampires appearing for the vampire pretender, and so forth would be nice too. The rate of scale change for dominion levels would also be helpful.

Also, if anyone can read through the "scales" section of the guide and verify/correct all the information, or add stuff that was missed, it would be greatly appreciated! Specific luck-scale effects and verification of the exact numbers for each scale would be nice.

-Cherry

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Please? Discriminating players really want to know these things!

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Cherrypie!

All scales have 3 steps in either direction from the basic balanced state. Following is a brief list of the different Dominion effects per scale step. In addition to these effects, the scales affect what kind of random events can happen in a provinces.

Order Increases income by 7%. 10% fewer random events. You do not get any income bonus from an orderly Dominion belonging to another Pretender God.
Turmoil Decreases income by 7%. 10% more random events.
Productivity Increases resource production by 10% and income by 2%. You do not get any from a productive Dominion belognging to another Pretender God.
Sloth Decreases resources production by 10% and income by 2%.
Heat Decreases tax revenue by 5%. Decreases supplies by 10%.**
Cold Decreases tax revenue by 5%. Decreases supplies by 10%.**
Growth Increases population by 0.2% per month. Increases supplies by 20% and income by 2%.
Death Decreases population by 0.2% per month. Decreases supplies by 20% and income by 2%.
Fortune 10% greater chance of a random event being good. You do not benefit from a lucky Domain belonging to another Pretender God.
Misfortune 10% greater chance of a random event being bad.
Magic More difficult to resist magic (-0.5 MR). +1 Research point for all mages in the province. YHou do not get any research bonus from a magical Dominion of another Pretender God
Drain Easier to resist magic (+0.5 MR). =1 Research point for all mages in the province.

** This scale is what is applied outside of the "Racial Preference" of a race. Thus an Abysian whose Racial Preference of Heat 3, would lose 5% Tax, -10% Supplies in Heat 2, and an additional -5% Tax, -10% Supplies at Heat 1, and so on.

Page 5-6 of Dominions 2 Manual

Edit: Added the Portion about Racial Preference to Temperature.

[ November 24, 2003, 02:17: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Since multiplayer games are beginning to kick up....
OK I dug up some of the info from Dom1 on how to create an icon JUST for doing a turn in a game. this makes it easy for me to click on it to snag my turn file. This is for games that are done on a tcp server (someones machine up all the time to receive requests). If you already have an icon for Dominions2 on your desktop then right-click that and choose "create shortcut" to get another icon. Right click that one and select "Properties". Find the line that is calling dom.exe add this to it.

"dom.exe" -wif --tcpclient --ipadr (ip_address) --port (port)

Where the content in the braces () is to be replaced with the correct numbers for the server of your game. If there are quotes after dom.exe be sure to add the switches OUTSIDE of those quotes.

There are alot of other switches that can be added to do speed up or slow down the game for just that one icon listed in the command_line_switches file (its a text file in the doc directory of dominions). Such as, in the example above I also have -w to pla yin a window, -i to skip the intro, and -f to skip the fade-in/fade-out effects. This way you can set your daily-turn game to be ugly but fast with no music if you wanted, and still leave the other icon playing Dominions2 in all its glory.

You can create one for games done by email or by ftp but it would be different for each program people use.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

-- replaced --

[ December 11, 2003, 06:00: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

-- Missing command:

Seduce Commander:
When in the same province as enemies, a succubus can attempt to seduce an enemy commander. Just as with assassination attempts, the player cannot choose which commander will be seduced. If the seduction succeeds, the succubus and the seduced commander will appear in the owning player's capital province. If it fails, she will attack the commander as if it were an assassination attempt.


Corrupt Commander: may or may not function the same way as Seduce Commander, but probably also tries to draw the commander to your side. To my knowledge it's only available to one Demon Lord, Belial, and I've never tried it.


Capture Slaves: Used only by Mictlan Tribal Kings and Priest Kings, it's used to press people into your army. Such troops have poor training, morale and equipment, but have excellent potential as cheap fodder for arrows, blade winds and the once-per-battle lance attacks of Knights.


Break Siege: Used only when under siege. Y'all charge out of the gates and hope you defeat your besiegers. The castle defenses will not help you in this fight.


Move and Patrol: Combination order; it automatically sets troops to patrol on arrival. Useful when you want the troops to defend outside the castle instead of remaining inside it.

Continue Fort Construction: Forts generally take multiple turns to build. If interrupted, you can resume construction with this option from the Construct Building menu. It costs you nothing but the commander's action since you've already paid upfront.


Sacrifice: Used only by the priests of Abysia, Vanheim, and Mictlan -- the latter of which MUST use it to spread dominion. Requires a temple to be present; the priest will sacrifice blood slaves in order to boost dominion.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Thanks! I'll add those now. And thanks to Zen and Gandalf as well, I'll update the relevant sections very soon=)

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

The Formula for Positive dominion on Pretender/Prophets is out!

For every level of dominion your Prophet/Pretender gains +20% of the base HP of the unit.

Impressive no?

Or not.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Yay! Now post each of the remaining stats http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

What do you mean?

As far as the other stats a pretender/prophet gets?

+1 Str for every level of Dominion
+1 MR for every 2 levels of Dominion

Prophet Only

+2 Att
+2 Def
+2 Precision
30 Morale

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Nice new tidbit (Thank you Johan) for those who are hosting games. It IS possible to have multiple directorys for pretender files, map files, game saves, etc etc. Dom2 recognizes 2 important environment variables. If these are set (sitting in memory) then Dom2 will use them.....

DOM2_SAVE
default="." Save directories and the newlords directory are created here. You need write permissions here.

DOM2_DATA
default="." Data files, the maps folder and the rawsound folder must be found here. You only need read permissions here.

Do not use quotes around the variable being set. The default shown as a period means that it defaults to the present directory its in (starting directory) but if you set DOM2_SAVE to be another directory then a newlords directory can be made off of that to store game-players pretender files in (not having to overwrite your own pretender files). And game save directories will appear off of there (not conflicing with your own games).

If you set DOM2_DATA to a directory then you can have different sounds. The players wont hear them but it would allow you to have a unique sound (I believe) for things like errors in order to get your attention better. And a seperate maps directory can be created off of the dir specificed in DOM2_DATA which would allow you to have unique maps reachable by a different icon.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

So now that I know how to play, where can I play with other people?
Actually this is my only complaint with dom2. I dislike SP game, but I love TBS. I was hoping for a more friendly interface. or even just a place where people meet to start game. haven't found either on my own, so I thought I would post.

Thanks for reading and all your helpful advice!!

p.s.
you guys probably don't really care, and its not important. but when you quote the punctuation goes inside the quotes. god knows I suck at where to place a comma or a period.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Either here or Dominions X Boards.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's true according to English majors, who value tradition more highly than precision. But when I quote something, I try to ensure that the stuff inside the quotes is exact.

Edit: In other words, I know teachers count off for that stuff, but I think the concept of putting punctuation and commas inside quotes is really stupid, though sometimes I do it by habit.

[ December 01, 2003, 23:03: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

-- replaced --

[ December 11, 2003, 04:51: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

You might want to add to your Magic scales portion.

Magic:

10% reduction in Fatigue for each scale per spell cast in your Dominion.

Drain:

10% increase in Fatigue for each scale per spell cast in a Drain Domain.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Got it. Thanks!

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Gandalf: I anticipated that you would say that, and quoted you below your post=) I added it.

[ December 05, 2003, 16:27: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Saber can you list SunRay's Dom1 site along with the ones for "Dom1 stuff that might still be good" or whatever its called.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Put in your "Become Prophet" portion where it says "Gains 3 Holy" also gains +2 Attack Skill, Defense Skill, Precision.

Also in a further effort to be more complete,

You might want to place that using a magic items battle magic (Like a Fire Helmet's Fire BLast) requires only 5 Fatigue per cast.

[ December 05, 2003, 21:31: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Morale Effects:

+1 Morale if in Home Province
-4 Morale if Starving

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

A few additions & questions, if you don't mind, Saber.

How does "Stealth" work - hold down while clicking - hold down what?

I thought all units recover from fatigue at a 5pts per round, even when below 100?

Faerie queen also heals afflictions.

Experience makes banishment stronger?

How do I find magic sites? - However, at level-2 Thatamurgy you get searching spells, - searching spells are also found in other schools, such as conjuration, not only in thraumaturgy.

Isn't trampling damage linked to difference in size, and not the size itself?

Ulm Master Smiths have an inherent 25% forge bonus. - Black priests should also have a forge bonus. Maybe some of the dwarves of Vanheim as well, I'm not sure about that, as I haven't played them yet, I've just read their descriptions.

Maybe there should be something about supply points each unit requires. I know that one unit at size 2 (human sized) requires 1 supply point int he province it's in, but I'm not sure I know how it's determined for bigger units or summons.

Now I know that you might not have the answers to some of these questions, but if someone in the know would help in supplementing them, I think they might be useful to add.

Cheers,

[ December 10, 2003, 07:20: Message edited by: HJ ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You hold down CTRL while moving a commander from one province to another and instead of "Sneak" orders, which use stealth, it changes to "Move" to allow taking over of a province if the target province is enemy or independant. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Fatigue only recovers with a reinvigoration item or ability if they are below 100 Fatigue. Reinvigoration is in addition to the "Unconscious" recovery of 5 Fatigue a turn.


<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Faerie Queen, National Specific Hero(s) and anything with a "Heal Troops" ability. I am not sure but I believe I've had an affliction healed via the "Heal" spell during combat.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Conjuration:
Death (Dark Knowledge)
Water (Voice of Apsu)
Water [All Elemental, Water Province only] (Voice of Tiamat)

Evocation:
Astral (Astral Probing)
Astral [All Friendly Dominion] (Strands of Arcane Power)

Thamaturgy:
Earth (Gnome Lore)
Air (Auspex)
Fire (Augurgy)
Nature (Haruspex)

Blood:
Blood (Bowl of Blood)

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">From the FAQ:

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thus; a Size 6 (The largest in the game) unit cannot be trampled. Also units of equal or higher size cannot be trampled. Thus Knights and Horsemen (Size 3) are an effective Anti-trampler vs Minotaurs (Size 3) but would still be run over by anything larger.

I don't believe it is the size difference; or doesn't seem to be. Just harder to trample larger units because they fill up more squares as small units, thus overall less trample damage.

[ December 10, 2003, 10:08: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

About Corrupt Commander;

It is only usable by Belial (Demon Lord) it works exactly like Seduce Commander. I imagine it has a better chance; though it hasn't in my experience. If successful; Belial and the Corrupted Commander will return to the Capital, if he fails, he will engage in an assassination attempt.

[ December 10, 2003, 10:06: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

OK, I'll do some additions and clarifications when I get home from work tonight=) Thanks for the input!

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Also Acashic record (all sites including holy & unholy). And Voice of Tiamat can only be cast underwater, IIRC, in addition to the fact that you can only use it on an underwater province. You can however use Acashic record on an underwater province from land.

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Yeah; that's what Water Province ment http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I did forget about Acachic Record, mostly because it's nearly useless in my mind. Sorry about that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

Ok, I added that stuff (mostly) and also put in some info on routing and morale. I think I may create a new "Combat Mechanics" section incorporating such things.

[ December 11, 2003, 06:55: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Re: Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!
 

-- replaced --

[ December 19, 2003, 05:49: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]