How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Newbie-question perhaps, search didnt come up with answers:
After playing for many turns I tend to forget which dominions have declared war at me. Is there a way to see this in the game? I have not noticed any differences in the different creasts on the map, this would be an easy way to see at and shouldnt be too hard to incorporate in the game if any future patches are planned.

Any info guys?

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Thanks for taking the time to actually try a search before posting!

No. It's been a requested feature for at least 9 months. I'm still holding out hope we might one day get it in a patch. The easiest method of implementation, IMO, is to put some sort of small icon next to the appropriate name on the in-game pretenders list.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Cheers, thanks for the quick reply.
Im keeping all my appendages crossed that we will get it in the near future. Any hope of another patch? The game isnt excactly new and in a serious need of patching...

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Are you kidding? They've already put out several patches that have fixed most of the outstanding issues, and there are not that many really broken things.

Most notable ones that I know of are the cheat detection false alarms, three buggy items (two of them completely broken) and one minor and two serious monster bugs (one of which breaks sea-targeted Imprint Souls), and all of these will be fixed in the next patch.

Furthermore, it's just two guys who are doing it all, on their spare time, and the game is less buggy than almost anything that comes out these days, so cut IW some slack, will you?

As for remembering who you are in war with: In MP you should be able to keep track of it, with the assumption that as soon as your allies have more profit from turning on you than remaining allies, you will be fair game, and in SP it doesn't really matter, because you will be at war with every AI nation by default and their declarations mean diddly-squat (unless Abysia, Marignonm or Caelum, in which case you might start seeing a lot of Fires from Afar or Seeking Arrow attacks).

It would be nice to have the diplomatic status marker, though, but in a game of "There can be only One!" diplomacy is relegated to secondary role by necessity and default.

Edi

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Hey fellow Finn!!! Are you taking sides with the swedes? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
I didnt mean that anything is broken, Im still so new that I havent noticed anything amiss except the issue I mentioned.
I think its amazing that only these small developers with a few ppl working on their games have proper "maintenance" after a game has been published. Its easy to see which ones work out of sheer dedication and which ones do it purely for the money.
Im not bashing IW, just curious.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Sorry to have been so harsh, but the comment in your previous post came across in rather negative light. What you are talking about is more a request for a new feature than fixing something that is not working as it should. I actually added it (or a variation) into the September Wishlist thread.

As for not noticing anything more while new to the game, you shouldn't really, because there has been constant feedback for a long while and almost all the easily visible real issues have been ironed out, especially with patch 2.14.

Edi

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Oops, thats going to cause a rumble.

Patches have been pretty common since the very first days of Dom1, and very few items in patches have ever needed to fix something that was "broken" (game crashing or commands that didnt work, that type of thing).

There are many things in the game which people say need "fixed" but not much agreement on what those are. So they all come down to being more of a "please can we have this" type of thing. But the devs are here in the forum and do see the conversations. The nicer requests do seem to make it in within a patch or two. Each patch seems to have about 1-change-a-day worth of work in it which is pretty good for a couple of guys who have other jobs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

That's not quite true. For example, polite requests for the ability to use arrow keys for scrolling, and some sort of indicator for who you're at war with, have been made by numerous people for many months, yet we've not seen these requests acted upon (yet). Many other requests have been implemented, but they are mostly those that do not involve UI changes (even minor ones) or that have an overwhelming number of people clamoring for them. The devs themselves admit that any change that involves the UI is less likely to be acted upon than, say, adding a mod command (no matter how nicely someone asks for it).

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Nobody, but nobody, enjoys writing UI code* Even fewer enjoy changing it or rewriting it except in the direst circumstances with the clearest benefits.


* Counterexamples are rumoured to exist, but until an actual sighting has been made they will be assumed non-existent.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Assume all you want. *I* enjoy writing UI code, and have done so since the late 80s. What's more, the part of writing UI code I most enjoy is precisely that which you claim the fewest enjoy: that of tweaking existing code. Moreover, I particularly enjoy rewriting other people's (bad) UI code.

Your (false) assertions are refuted.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

I'm fond of doing UI code myself, especially using the UI libraries I've written. One very nice thing about doing user interface is that you get instant gratification: you can immediately see the improvements you've made, or test and find that no, something you thought was a good idea wasn't really.

And, trivial amounts of work can give large amounts of user satisfaction / reward. A Dom2 example would be moving Laboratory to the top of the list of commanders in the equiping screen's list.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Caine: I wholehearted agree with what you say in regards to the gratification derived from UI coding. Network coding (ick!), for example, lacks the same visceral qualities. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Another example of some UI-related Dom 2 coding that would garner vast amounts of user appreciation is the much-mentioned-and-desired ability to find which commander has what magical doohickey.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

> Nobody, but nobody, enjoys writing UI code*

Not true. Some women do. Always hire women for anything involving
user interface and presentation. I know it sounds sexist, but it
works fine as long as your team is small. But if the project grows
and you need more people, pad the team with male, junior people,
because having more than one female designer is asking for trouble.
I have seen that among programmers, mechanical designers and artists,
so I think it is one of the sexist laws of a sexist universe. :-p

[edit]

I just noticed that I failed to paint myself as racist... So I will
add that it is best when the male, junior people are young and Asian.
Hey! I did ageist as well. The sky is the limit.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

I just reread that and have to admit it sounds like whining which I swear I didnt intend it to be. Thinking in one language and writing it down in an other is a bit clumsy sometimes. And to quote Geier on the BFC forum when I asked about this there, "You're not thinking like a god, baby. There is no diplomacy between us."
Couldnt have put it better actually http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

It isn't sexist if it's true, regardless of the BS of "political correctness" and the sensibilities of naive and pampered princesses who are incapable of objectively viewing themselves and the world around them.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

While I do hate tweaking existing code (even my own), I certainly do like doing UI work, personally (and I am not female http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ).

As someone else said, you can often see immediate improvements over how something works. Plus, it helps you develop something that your end user will like (rather than something you like that the end user is willing to put up with).

- Kel

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Knew that that would get a rise out of you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

And impressively fast too. Well, it is my own fault for not specifically limiting the class of programmers to games programmers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Joking apart, it is my experience with games programmers that many tend to think of time writing and tweaking the UI as a necessary evil, when what they REALLY want to spend time on is having the Orc kill the Elf in a sensible fashion rather than having it running into walls, dying of starvation, or causing fatal crashes when you least expect it. Everybody acknowledges that good UI is important, but as good UI (as opposed to "sufficiently good to work") is one of the hardest things to do right (assuming you have a decent spread of target audience for the game) and a time-consuming one as well, it is common to prefer spending time on tweaking game-engine code to see immediate results than on interface enhancements that may also require designer input and new graphics and often present minimal immediate benefit to the programmer. (In sufficiently small game companies the graphics designer might also be the programmer. In that case expect peculiarities)

Which is why sufficiently large games companies hire the dedicated souls who like to do it and hand responsibility over to people who are actually good at it, dedicating their time to interface issues rather than time sharing it with game-engine or component construction, while smaller companies have to make do with local talent - and quite often suffer from it.

Dominions 2 is a good case in point. Its graphics interface, severe micromanagement tedium in the mid-to-late-game, and in many ways unresponsive interface practically screams "written by programmers for programmers (and geeks)". As such, it is to be expected that the programmers of Dominions 2 prefer to do as little UI tweaking (which can take a lot of time for little tangible benefit to their own enjoyment) while instead tweaking spells, units, items, and killing off occasional bugs.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Careful, lest I set one of my fawning, yet disgruntled and reluctant minions upon thee. (I'm sure the minion in question knows of whom I speak.)

Your reasoned defense is a nice save on your part, after cramming your foot so far down your throat you must have gotten a tummy-ache. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

As for geeky game designers prefering tweaks other than to UI as being more enjoyable, that's such a short-sighted attitude. It too readily dismisses the annoying tedium of having to constantly deal with awkwardnesses that rapidly detract from the overall pleasure of other aspects of a game. Inconsistent controls, missing controls (Dom's lack of arrow-key support), poorly placed controls (HoI's tiny '+' controls placed dangerously close to delete controls), controls that aren't smooth (HoI's jumping sliders), controls that require excessive clicking (transferring large amounts of items/cash in Fallout), such things quickly earn the ire of all but truly rabid fans of a game.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

So this is.. what? The virtual Version of redecorating a room? All "these colors are exciting and these are cool so use the first for the combat screen and the second for the help menu" type of stuff? So I suppose if you cant find a female programmer, then a gay one will do? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

(HEY! Back Off on the flame thrower. Im only half serious)
Gandalf Parker

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Really? "My" team included until recently four female programmers, two female designers and one few architect. Oh, and my most immediate boss is also female. We don't do much UI, though, except a few code-generated ISPF-screens for data entry and searching. I havn't noticed any problems with the female (or male) part of our team.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Yes! Isn't it obvious? Some of us women that fiddle with computers prefer more intellectually-challenging activities than having pool parties and interior design in the Sims ...

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Indeed. Something more programmers need to consider is that one hour of tedious UI programming on their part can save hundreds or thousands of hours of unpleasant tedium on the part of the Users. There's more than a few of these UI issues in Dom2, sadly.

Re: How to see whom I am at war with???
 

Indeed, Caine. Another aspect is that in software engineering there is a little-appreciated and even less understood concept called "usability testing", and one of the tenets of this is that you never let the programmers who write the code do that aspect of the testing. They are too close to their code both in terms of liking their design and familiarity with it to see what may be obvious to another observer. Ideally, you also do not let programmers write the requirements for an application. That should come from the people who will actually have to use the software.

Unfortunately, in the gaming industry (even more so than in other fields), devs set what features an app will have (regardless of whether it's what gamers want, ex: MOO3) and devs either don't test apps for ease of use or, worse still, ignore tester feedback (again citing MOO3 as the most egregious example of this). MOO3 is the poster child for what can happen when devs think they know better than their customers what those same customers want, and for how people with good intentions can create an unmitigated disaster. MOO3 released after HOI. HOI still sells copies today in stores. MOO3 cannot be dumped even at under $10. More telling yet is that HOI was still selling at full retail 6 months (and in some stores, 12-18 months) later, while MOO3 got returned to stores in droves and was put in the el cheapo bargain bins within just a couple of months (setting new records for the rapid decline of a game with a grade-A franchise). It short, MOO3 bombed. And it was so easily avoidable, but for developer arrogance.

Fortunately for us, IW at least listens. They still do whatever they feel like (IOW, they work on the features they themselves most want to see rather than what we most want), but compared to the rest of the gaming industry, they're wonderful, and they go out of their way to answer our questions and make us feel like they appreciate our business. At the other end of the scale are Atari and EA ...