design just ONE province
 

DESIGN A PROVINCE.
Dont you get irritated at fighting lots of undead only to find that there was no reason for them to be there? Or find a magic site that allows you enchanters and wonder why there WASNT any to fight? Or a province with an interesting name that turns out to be nothing more than just an interesting name?

This is your chance to create that province. Where should they be living? Why are they there? Is there a magic site or structure that they were all drawn to? Or a specific commander with a specific item? Can you create a province that makes sense AND would be an "interesting" surprise to whoever attacks it?

If you could name and build a province specifically selecting units, population type, buildings, monsters, any equipment on the commanders, and any magic sites.
Then what comes to mind for a province built around a

Temple:
or shrine
grove
altar
stonehenge
monastery
Forts:
Wizards Tower
Dark Citadel
Jeweled City
Lab:
in the forest
on a lonely mountain
experimental lab in a swamp
Poptype:
raptors
hoburg
crystal amazon
atavi apes
trolls
groups:
paladin
rangers
druids
clerics
thieves
items:
black hearts
whip of command
thunder bow and lightning spear
slave and master matrix
Monsters:
hydra
gorgon
mother of monsters
undead such as ghosts or wights
king of the deep
spiders
living plants
devils
locations:
forest
mountains
swamp
wasteland
farmland
lake
island
seashore
volcano
cave

There are multiple projects going on (2 have been publicly announced at this time in the maps/mods subforum) which can use those designs. If you say that HarpaKazi is the name of a province, with forest, that has Harpies carrying those exploding amulets; then that would be one possible random province. The software will run thru a map file and try to match up locations with designed provinces.

If you dont want to tackle designing a map, or you are interested but want something smaller first, then just design a province.

Lists are available at
http://www.Dom3Minions.com/docs
Think what it would be like if we all created just ONE province. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Gandalf Parker

Re: design just ONE province
 

-------
Landname : BlackWood Forest
required terrains : forest
Commanders :
"Centaur Hierophant" with "Black Bow" [x5]
-------
Landname : Forest of Shafts
required terrains : forest
Commanders :
"Centaur Hierophant" with "Bow of war" [x6]
-------
Landname : HarpaKazi
required terrains : forest
Commanders :
"Black Harpy" with "Medallion of Vengeance" [x8]
---------

Re: design just ONE province
 

I'll give it a go...

Landname : Duncorum (anagram of the mineral Corundum)
Required terrains : mountain
Units: Heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, heavy crossbows
Commanders : Heavy cavalry commanders with black steel plate
Sites: Mine of Superior Iron

Re: design just ONE province
 

This is great!
Sandman, I took the liberty of adding yours to the library here:
http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/

Gandalf, I already hijacked yours from another thread and they are already included with the program files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: design just ONE province
 

Yes, some more provinces for my project ! ^_^

@Ballbarian : maybe we should exchange and combine our special provinces list ?
My list is available at http://dominions.realites.org/?actio...cial_provinces (If you want I could make a perl script that extract my list to whatever format your program use)

Re: design just ONE province
 

Couple of errors in those ready-made provinces:

#additem "Black Bow" does not work, because the name of the item is "Black Bow of Botulf"

#commander "Conjuror" does not work because the monster name is "Conjurer". The number is either 93 or 94 (one is conjurer, the other is circle master).

Edi

Re: design just ONE province
 

Thanks Edi, I will fix them once I'm back home.

Re: design just ONE province
 

Certainly Jack, feel free to use any that I have collected/created. (I can't speak for Edi's Faerun provinces that I used.) Nice program btw. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Edi, Thanks for the heads up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: design just ONE province
 

One more helpful tip: If you need the numbers of items in a hurry, you can get them the same way you do the unit numbers. In a game where you've maxed out construction research and have mages that can forge most stuff, look up a mage that can forge what you want, select forge orders, take a look at the item in question and hit Shift-I, it'll give you the item number.

Edi

Re: design just ONE province
 

In the example provinces, the commanders are specified, but not the troops themselves - how do you specify that?

Does poptype determine what kinds of units can be recruited once you capture it? Is there a list of poptypes anywhere?

Re: design just ONE province
 

Its diffrent for the different programs but the map commands they are using are
#commander
#bodyguards
#units

So putting
#commander "Legionnaire"
#bodyguards 5 "Gladiator"
#units 20 "archer"
#units 30 "militia"
#units 10 "knights"
would create a nice little group to bolster the defences of a province. It can also be done using the numeric ID instead of the name of the unit.

Yes and Yes. Magic sites can also add to what can be recruited.

There is a variety of lists here that can be handy for this.
http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/

Re: design just ONE province
 

In addition to that, the defenders of a province depend on whether the #land or #setland command is used to place the troops there.

#land kills everything in the province and only those units that have been specified will appear there.

#setland does not kill the indies and others and any troops specified will be in addition to the native defenders.

The list of poptypes is available behind Gandalf's link, here. Unfortunately the list does not name each unit, but I will make those additions later.

Edi

Re: design just ONE province
 

Ok, I added your province. ( see http://dominions.realites.org/?actio...cial_provinces )

This is what it will look like in the map file :


-------------------------------------------------------
-- Required terrain type(s) :
-- mountain (16)
-------------------------------------------------------
#setland XXX-- province by Sandman
#landname "Duncorum"
#poptype 47
#commander 21
#bodyguards 5 21
#units 10 21
#units 20 40
#units 25 49
#additem "Black Steel Plate"
#feature "Mine of Superior Iron"


Note that I added the poptype 47 (heavy cavalries and crossbowmen), so they will be recruitable once you take the province. Moreover, the #setland command (instead of #land) means that the natural poptype units will still be there : the heavy cavalry commander and his units will be *added* to the province defences. But if you think that's too many units I can remove the original units, or put less additional ones.

Re: design just ONE province
 

Ok, both have now been fixed, thanks Edi.

Re: design just ONE province
 

Slight correction here: You have assigned indie poptype 47, but the autogenerated defenders could be ANY poptype that can appear in that terrain. The reason for that is that when Dom3 generates the actual game, it will first randomly assign all provinces some poptype and defenders according to that poptype and will also place all magic sites.

Only after that will it start parsing the map file and will add everything specified there (and also kill any indies in provinces governed by #land and remove sites from provinces with #killfeatures). This means that the defenders for that province could be e.g. Onyx Amazons and Nightmares augmented by the scripted heavy cavalry units, but when you finally do manage to defeat the indies, you will only get to recruit optype 47 instead of the amazons you expected to be there (because they appeared as provincial defenders).

I wish the map file parsing happened before random assignment since it would give far greater control over map files, but unfortunately it doesn't.

Edi

Re: design just ONE province
 

Aaargh ! Totally counterintuitive !

Ok then id killed all population on this province and a few others with a thematic poptype, so at least there won't be any strange mix of units from there.

Once again thanks for your help Edi.

Anvil of Daylight
 

I guess I'll give it a try...

Name: Mount Caldera
Required terrain: Mountain + Firesite
Commander type: Lord of the Forge with Dwarven Hammer, Rod of the Phoenix, Black Steel Plate, Amulet of Anti-magic x1
Commander type: Golem with Hellsword, Jade Armor, Horned Helmet, Eye of Aiming, Bow of War, Marble Boots, Amulet of Protection Against Missles X4
Commander type: Cyclops with Black Steel Helm, Black Steel Armour, Black Steel Tower Shield, Piercer X8.
Bodyguard type: Iron Dragon x4
Unit type: 16 fire elementals
Unit type: 16 earth elementals
Unit type: 16 air elementals
Unit type: 16 water elementals
Unit type: 16 devils
Unit type: 80 magma children
Unit type: 160 imps

Ancient Forge
Fountain of Fire
Magma Cave

Ashanti
 

Here's another one:

Name Ashanti
Required terrain: grassland/plains
Commander type: Great Fetish armed with Gate-Cleaver, Amulet of Luck, Amulet of Vengeancex1
Commander type: Lion-Tribe Witchdoctor armed with Skull Talisman, Amulet of Anti-magicx12
Bodyguard type: Kithaironic Lionx4
Unit type: 64 Lion-Tribe Archers
Unit type: 96 Lion-Tribe Warriors

Pyramid of Life
Gold Apple Tree
Mine of Superior Iron

Re: Ashanti
 

And a third...

Name: Aapep
Required terrain: desert
Commander type: Dragon Lich armed with Amulet of Luck, Amulet of Antimagic, Wraithcrown x1
Bodyguard type: Mummyx4
Unit type: 66 bone devils

Desert of Bones
Crypt in the Sand
Orychalcum Mine

Re: Ashanti
 

Are these sites in a mod or something? I did a quick search of my list (pulled from the exe text) and can't find them.
Great themes. I started to add them until I ran across the sites.

(OT: I really wish site modding was part of the map instead of (or in addition to) mods.)

Re: Ashanti
 

Nope, I came up with them as I wrote up the provinces.

I think one could safely create a mod which deals specifically with site addition. A good one of the type would be very welcome, I'm sure.

I will have to sit down and think specifically about provinces which could be added without any new sites, but right now, I'm too tired to limit myself to what's known, since I don't know every site currently in the game.

Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Name: Thing Woods
Required terrain: forest
Commander type: Carrion Dragon armed with wraithcrown, ring of regeneration, amulet of antimagicx1
Commander type: Undead Pan armed with vine bow, medallion of vengeancex24
Bodyguard type: witchx4
Unit type: 12 darkvines
Unit type: 18 mandragoras
Unit type: 36 vine ogres
Unit type: 260 vine men

Witch's Bog
Whispering Woods
The Mammoth Forest

Re: Anvil of Daylight
 

There's no "volcano" terrain type in dominions.

Existing terrain typesn as shown in the dom3 official map editor are :

"small"
"large"
"sea"
"somewater"
"mountain"
"swamp"
"waste"
"forest"
"farm"
"nostart"
"manysites"
"deep"
"cave"
"edgemount"
There's also those "hidden" terrain types :

"firesite"
"airsite"
"watersite"
"earthsite"
"astralsite"
"deathsite"
"naturesite"
"bloodsite"
"priestsite"


Their exact effect is not fully known, but it is supposed that they increase the chance of a magic site of the corresponding nature (the same way a forest increase the chance of a nature site for exemple)

Note that those types are already used by the random map generator : when you see a province with a small icon that doesn't match the usual terrain types, its's because the province has been set with one of thos 'hidden' types.

For exemple, sometimes you get a province with the type 'firesite', and the random map generator draw on the province ... a volcano


So we say that this province will require the terrain type "firesite" ?

Maybe both "firesite" and "mountain" ?

Woaow such a big guy ...
(do you want him with increased magic too, or just the base F1E1 ?)


<cough> ... only commanders can be equipped with magic items, units set as bodyguards/units have no custom slot and came with the standard equipment.

But of course there might be several commanders in the province.

Do you want for exemple you Golem to be added as a commander ?


Water and air elementals ? I would think that such a province would only have fire and earth unit.

Whatever, that's a lots of units, so the province will be very hard to take, even late game. For such a province, a fixed fire-4 site would probably be a great idea.


There's not way to have a *province* give an item when you take it. However, when you kill a commander with magic items, and win the battle, there's a chance that your commanders (if they have the corresponding slots free) will get some of those items (the greater the item (in teme of construction research level), the higher the chance)

So currently if you kill the Forge lord and take the province in the same battle, you have a chance to get parts of his equipment.

If you want a chance to get a hellsword, just equipe one commander with it.


I suppose those are 'custom' magic sites ?

From what I know, forge bonus can be modded on an item but not on a magic site.

Moreover, while it is possible to mod magic sites and then use them, it would meant that the province would require a separate mod else those sites wouldn't be available.

You should instead chose existing sites , see http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/sites.txt for the list.

If you have question about what is possible or not I will be glad to answer.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Two problems here :

- treelords are unique summons. If I put all 3 of them in this province, they won't be available for summoning. Maybe make it only one treelord, so 2 are stil available ?
- treelords have only misc slots, so no weapon, no shield, no armor, no helmet, and no boots.

Or maybe you were thinkin of some other unit ? One that is of humanoid form and is not unique ? (vine king maybe)


No items on bodyguards.

Maybe this undead pan as a commander ?

From the map manual, the #bodyguards command is supposed to be limited to 5 units, si I don't know if setting more will works or not.

Has somebody here already tried that ?


Yes, it's one of the reasons why I asked for help, I don't have enough time to both code the new features and search for provinces ideas.

It means too that I need the exact magic sites names, as I don't have the time to check it.

use the list at http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/sites.txt , or just play the game and when you see an interesting site, note its name and description to create a province around it.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

HoneyBadger's provinces seem _extremely_ tough. Presumably in general the idea is that we design provinces with a similar difficulty to the current independents, just a bit more interesting? The odd difficult-but-valuable province would be cool, but having too many of them would make for a very different game I think.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

More:

Landname : Great Linton
Required terrains : Farmland, large
Units: Various Hoburgs, small numbers of Daoine Sidhe, a handful of Wooden Constructs.
Commanders : Various Hoburg commanders and mages, a Sidhe Lord, a wide variety of low level nature items.
Sites: White Man Hill

Landname : Trinabago
Required terrains : Mountains, Forest, Coastal
Units: Mercenary Crossbows, lots of Pirates
Commanders : Pirate captains, an Inquisitor with an air shield item, a Kokythiai with a water ring.
Sites: Increased chance of water sites.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

As you say, having a few provinces that are really difficult to conquer, but with good rewards (such as a rare level 3/4 site), is cool.

We'll just have to make sure that the special provinces list is not overloaded with those.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Please dont add mod things.

Possibly a new category for difficulty can be added to the files. I have some that would be a major challenge, and even a real problem to the game if you DONT attack them. On the other hand Id like to see many that would be rated zero but just add flavor to the game (farmlands with names and benefits of farmlands, swamps, wastes, just added flavor).

Volcano isnt a recognized item on one program but it is on another. Basically its "mountain surrounded by not-mountains". There is also some recognition in some of them for lake "water surrounded by land" and for island "land surrounded by lake". I think that one recognizes penninsula, seacoast, lost (no connections) and mega-province (more than 6 connections). The "cave" is worked in abit as a province that has only way into it and its surrounded by mountains so it looks on the map like its a short entry into a mountain range.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

I am not yet ready to spend the time to learn how to mod provinces, maybe soon. However I will throw my ideas out and see if anyone wants to do the actual work.

Provinces are like nations. So what about a nation that was like Switzerland in WWII? Every citizen is expected to take up arms against attack. I would use 2000 thralls to represent peasants and after you conqure it the population would be very small, in the hundreds. I could have magic sites that produce gold , gold mine etc.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Don't worry, I don't plan , at least initially.

And even if later i add some, I will always keep available a no-mod version/option



Hum, maybe something like the rarity of features : 1-2 being commun, and 3-4 being rare.

Provinces of level 1 would be flavor ones, level 2 would be for province with one or two minor features, and an average defence, 3 for hard provinces with a potential good reward (site that allow to recruit some unit (except for the more powerful ones), minor sites with bonus to magic, or maybe good gem income), and 4 would be for the most massive defence (with hoppefully at least one great site, probably unique, or several making the province a good one to capture)

As for "volcano", I remind that the random map generator add a volcano to provinces with the special type "firesite", so we could use "firesite" as a prerequired terrain type for such province (or maybe "firesite" + "mountain")

And I already have the number of land and sea province for each province, so I could use "lake", "peninsula", "island", "last/hidden" and mega province without problem.

I didn't get the number of mountain neighbours, seems like maybe too much for now, but it could be added easily if the need is really there.

About caves, I remind that cave provinces have already been added to the game.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Hum, too few population with 2000 units would make them starve ... unless we equip some commanders with supply items of course.

Random impulses
 

It should be noted that I have a weird sense of humor.


Landname:
New Innsmouth http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
Required terrains :
Coast
Units:
Mad Deep One x10
Madman x20
Mad Hybrid x20
Commanders :
Mad Priest x2
Hybrid Cultist x1
Sites:
Strange House in the Mist
Haunted Village

~~~
Landname:
Rossum's Retreat
Required terrains:
Land (any)
Units:
20x Mechanical Men
Commander:
1x Mechanical Man with a Crown of Command
Sites:
The Factory
The Abandoned Laboratory

~~~
Landname:
Titan's Doom
Required terrains:
Mountains
Units:
Six Lammashastas (former jailers)
Six Ashen Angels (former jailers)
Commander:
One Tartarian Titan with the Tartarian Chains, a Pendant of Luck, and a really bad 'tude
Sites:
Broken Tower
Banefire Braziers
Mount Chaining (!)

~~~

Landname:
Taghaza
Required Terrains:
Wasteland
Units:
20x Machaka Hoplites
20x Machaka Archer
20x Machaka Militia
Commanders:
One Colossal Fetish
One Black Sorceror
One Voice of the Lord
Sites:
The Forgotten City
The Temple of the Raging God

Province Reset
 

Ok, I've gone back and edited the provinces, so hopefully they can be added without too much difficulty.

I wasn't 100% sure about some of the sites I added, so if any don't feel "right", please let me know.

I do want them to be powerful, though, and I've actually increased the danger of some of the sites, significantly. These are intended (since that's the kind of game I like) to be played on very large maps with lots of opponents. I intentionally left the Forge Lord alone, he's mostly there for show, and he's got a Rod of the Phoenix to use for offense/defense.

The rewards are large, but it requires a large, and human, commitment to take them. That's another thing-these are designed to be difficult for a human to take, and they should repel any single AI attack, however large.

That's just the way I roll.

Re: Province Reset
 

Thanks HoneyBadger and Taqwus, I have copied your provinces infos and will add them soon to the online tool.
(sorry I don't add them immediatly, but I'm currently in a coding phase for my map editor)

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Name Gaia's Throne
Required terrains : forest large
Units: Kathartic Lions, Bears, wolves, giant spiders, moose etc.
Commanders : druids, Earth mother
Sites: Level 4 Nature

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Name: Forest of Avarran
Required Terrain: forest
Commander type: druid armed with bloodthorn x9
Commander type: boar lord armed with axe of sharpness, black steel armour, horned helmet, black steel tower shield, ring of regeneration, amulet of reinvigoration x18.
Unit type: bloodslave x27

Mother Oak

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Thanks, I did not know indy troops could starve.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Yes, when creating a map just give one of the commanders the enormous broth and/or the bag of wine... depending on how many units you've placed. Or adding a nature mage if it fits the theme of the province.

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Warning: Do NOT put lammashtas in a province as garrison. They have special behavior, just like Bogus and company who can target commanders and mages. The lammashta special behavior is to kill EVERYTHING in the province other than lammashtas, so they will start with the nearest and work their way from there. Much like the lobsters that result from Atlantean war lobsters having their riders killed. They'll attack anything and everything (including each other)

Ashen angels also have special behavior, and theirs is annoying: They, like gladiators, will leave after battle. You can't keep them. Couldn't in Dom2 anyway.

Edi

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Thanks, but I would need the list to be somewhat more precise : what units do you want as commanders/bodyguards/normal, and how much of each .

For the special site(s, you have the list at http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/sites.txt (or you can just note the name of a site you liked when playing the game)

Re: Ok, here\'s one that\'s ready to go.
 

Thanks for the info, we'll have to find something else for this province idea then.

I have a twisted sense of humor, too
 

Name: Crystal Lake
Province Type: forest, some water, water site (astral site too, if possible)
Commander type: Ancient Kraken with amulet of the fish, ring of regeneration, amulet of magic resistance (magic can be pushed up, but I'm not sure what the limitations of this are)

Bottomless Lake
Ancient Temple

Re: I have a twisted sense of humor, too
 

Note that I can identify a province as a "lake" (ie : it's a sea province will land neighbours and no other sea province as a neighbour), so I could put "lake" as a required terrain type, and your kraken would not need te amulet of the fish.

You don't have any specific site to add to the province ? A province with a kraken should have at least one minor site guaranteed, don't you think ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: I have a twisted sense of humor, too
 

Name: Cave of the Women
Province Type: cavern
Commander type: Great Mother with ring of regeneration, amulet of magic resistance, marble boots, hydra skin armor, hellsword, wraithcrown x3
Commander type: Caveman leader armed with berserker pelt x9
Unit type: caveman x123
Unit type: wolf x65

Gem deposits
Ten Thousand Things
Litter Skull

Re: Crystal Lake
 

I want it to appear that there's a lake in the province on the map, if possible, but I want it to be overland. The point is that the ancient kraken lives in the bottomless lake but comes out to feed-and an ancient kraken isn't something you'd normally expect on land.

As far as sites go, I'm not sure what you mean. The province should include: bottomless lake, ancient temple, plus one site which could be water or astral.

If it isn't possible to visually show a small lake on the map, that's ok. The province will still work as a forest, and the bottomless lake just happens to be too small to show up on the map.

If it were possible, I'd LOVE to name the kraken Jason, but that's just me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Crystal Lake
 

If you want, the third site could be a waterfall, that would be fine. I like the idea of an idyllic sylvan setting with a pristine sapphire lake and glorious waterfall-the perfect place to bed down...and then in the night the horror from the depths rises up to silently consume sleeping soldiers, left and right, dragging them thousands of feet down into a lake so deep that-even though the water is crystal clear, the bottom is pitch black at high noon.

Oh and the Ancient Temple is there just to give you the idea that somewhere in the vague past, the kraken was worshipped as a god by some people, now long-vanished (or long-consumed)

Hm, interesting.
 

So something being omnicidal is coded into the unit, and not the spell? Interesting... especially if that's included in the copyunit commands. Might be useful for funky summons, or if somebody wants to mod a unique hero or mercenary to be slightly mad.

Elric's back, and Prozac hasn't been invented yet. :p

Re: Crystal Lake
 

Hum, I suppose that with the "somewater" terrain type, supposed to be a river or small lake, it should do the trick then.

Yes it is possible (command #comname). I used it in my exemple province "Castle Marko" to name the commander "Duke Marko" (yes, it's just a normal commander, without any magic, with some normal units, and a small fortress (no set magic site, the fortress is the reward) )

So yes you can have your ancien Kraken named Jason.

Re: Crystal Lake
 

YAY!

mwoohahahahaha!

Re: Crystal Lake
 

Hmmm... Can you change the paths of a commander with the map commands?