Item tweak mod
 

Well, I frankly don't know if this will be that interesting to the public, but I might just as well offer it for download, I guess. Chances are that these tweaks will become completely obsolete as soon as the mod tools are released.

I've made some item tweaks to the demo - my main intent is to restrict item creation a little. In this Version, I've basically just added +1 to the required skill levels and tweaked the way the gem costs are calculated a bit. Not that special perhaps, although it will probably affect gameplay a bit - especially for rainbow mages, I'd expect.

This is a patch that will make changes to the Dominions 2 exe, but you will the option to make a copy of the original file during installation. Also, it has not been tested at all in multiplayer, so I have no idea if it will behave properly in such games.

Also included is a master list of all items that can be created in the Forge, along with their original skill requirements as well as the tweaked, new ones. Far from all of the items listed can be created in the demo Version, though. Some might feel that an item list is kind of a spoiler - if you are one of them, don't download the package or refrain from reading the list http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

If you think this might be interesting, click on this link to download the package. Note that this patch will only work with the Windows Version of the demo.

[Edit: Changed link]

[ November 03, 2003, 00:48: Message edited by: Calanor ]

Re: Item tweak mod
 

It sounds interesting to say the least. Out of idle curiosity, how did you manage to alter the costs, and to find the list of all items? Hopefully it won't get too technical. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

If anyone has a problem with downloading from Geocities: try to reload the page. Geocities has some restrictions on remote linking, so you may have to reload the page. (If you are using Mozilla and its tabs for example)

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It is technical - it involved a certain amount of trial and error, as well as some basic understanding of assembler directives http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Item tweak mod
 

Were you finding magic items overbalancing? Or did you just do this to impress everyone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Heh, well, some magic items might be a bit unbalanced in power level and/or cost IMO, but basically I wanted forging to become a tiny bit little more special - not something that your newly hatched little initiate would necessarily be able to pull off.

Re: Item tweak mod
 

Nice, work. Would you mine posting the source code? That way people can write patches for other OS. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I don't know how that would help - the file offsets in the exe will not be the same between different platforms, so all you'd end up with is a program that ruins your exe, heh.

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Is it legal to modify the .exe?

Re: Item tweak mod
 

That probably varies, depending on what country you live in. Usually, I wouldn't expect devs to mind all that much, unless we're dealing with outright on-line cheats or cracks. Out of common courtesy however, I asked Johan if going public with this tweak was OK and he didn't mind.

Re: Item tweak mod
 

I can't access the zip file.
Any chance you could pass it on to Sunray_be or DominionsX?

Sammual

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">OK, farewell to GeoCities - try this link instead.

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">OK, farewell to GeoCities - try this link instead. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That worked.

Thanks,
Sammual

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Um, no, it is not meant as a "tech" demo - it's frankly not that difficult to pull this kind of tweak off, provided you possess some basic understanding of what you're doing. As I believe I've mentioned in the read me, this is basically just a simple tweak in it's earliest phase, where I have made a very generalised adjustment to the reqs.
As for Ulm, I must admit that I don't really see why the increased difficulty in making the Earth Boots would outright cripple the race. All races have been affected by the change. Ulm receives a resource cost bonus when forging items - that's it. Why should Ulm in particular be treated/considered different from other races in this case? Personally, I would have liked to see Ulm receive some special forging bonus that would actually affect the power level of the items they create, but this is not currently the case.

Mind you, I never expected this to appeal to everyone - quite the contrary, actually. I expected most players to arch an eyebrow and question the wisdom in releasing a 3rd party patch now, considering that the demo was recently released. Much like you seem to do http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Item tweak mod
 

For Ulm, rising the earth boots cost the earth 3 prevent the smiths to forge them. So they cant have earth boots, and are thus unable to cast blade winds, except by spending gems, which is a very bad news for Ulm.
Also, not having access to earth boots, prevent them to reach the dwarven hammer (which is now earth 4 in your mod), and the hammer really shine in the hands of Ulm smiths.

Thats why I said Ulm get crippled badly, because they cant expect a random magical slot to comes on a smith (so to get at least one earth 3 mage), and as they use to forge many items, and are prevented to do so with your mod, then they have few advantages left.

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, I am afraid that I still don't agree with you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif The hammer yields a straight bonus - I would have understood your argument if it would be based on the smith's personal bonus, but it is not. The +25 to forging will be received by any race using it - the only difference is that the Master Smith's total bonus will be +50. So, it won't be as easy to reach that level, yet they start out with a bonus equal to a "free" hammer, so the situation hasn't really changed. Any other race that might receive random path levels are still affected by the change - they have not received any extra path levels, yet the reqs have gone up. The net result is that they will, just like Ulm, have more probs getting a Dwarven Hammer.

The fact that the smiths can't hurl spells as efficiently on the battle field, due to the lack of Earth Boots, is something I have absolutely no problem with. IMO, Ulm should not rely on combat spells anyway. And again, all other races are affected in a similar manner - including races that might have great difficulties countering Ulm's heavy troops by mundane means. Besides, when the Earth Boots are concerned, "all" that has really changed is that your smiths will, in a manner of speaking, need a prototype of the boots to work from http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif If your pretender creates the first pair and hands them over to a smith, that smith will now be able to create boots and then hand such boots over to other smiths and so forth. This will not give them the Hammer, but it will solve your concerns regarding Blade Wind. Also, you could always Empower a smith or two in order to be able to create more powerful items (this was something I had in mind when creating the tweak) - costly, yes, but perhaps worth it in the long run.

Again, though, mods are by their very nature very subjective - personally I prefer more demanding requirements for making items, but I realise that many players, quite possibly the majority, do not share my opinion.

By the way, there is a chance that my tweaks produce quite a different problem. Does the AI Empower his units? Personally, I cannot swear that he does - if not, then these tweaks will affect the AI in a disadvantageous way.

Re: Item tweak mod
 

I see a trend in this discussion. You are geared toward single player, whereas I have multiplay in mind.

In single player, I would enjoy your mod I think, as I play at a leasury pace, indulging into recruiting 10 mages just to see them cast numerous fire darts, and all these sorts of unoptimized things.

In MP, the races are very fragiles, in term of play balance. You perhaps dont see the problem if Ulm cant cast blade wind, but Ulm dont need that thorn in his side, as the nation is already pretty weak, in multiplay...

So, lets keep our opinions. Feel free to develop a big juicy mod, I will be the first to test it. When playing alone http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Item tweak mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You are most correct - I haven't even playtested it in multi, hehe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Item tweak mod
 

Calanor, I'm unsure why you would tweak the items to such extent. That is not to say that I dont see potential in having the ability to changes items, but frankly I think you should play several dominions games before engaging into raising by one all requirements.

You see, the items requirement in doms are really fine tuned. By adding one level to each, you are totally screwing some races. I will take one example amongst many : you raised the earth boots to earth 3. This prevent Ulm smiths to create them, which in turn prevent them to reach the dwarven hammer. In fact, you are denying Ulm of 80% of his forging potential, and you cripple the whole race.

Now, if your application is only a kind of 'technological' demo of what you can do, then congratulations, I'm sure there is much potential there, but I would never play with such a mod, as it unbalance the whole game.

Re: Item tweak mod
 

I've uploaded a new Version of the tweak, which feature, apart from some further requirement tweaking, a modified Version of the Master Alchemist.

Anyway, as I have no intention of bumping this or possibly other future threads each time I create a new Version of something, I've created a simple homepage to which I'll upload anything I make that I feel might interest others.