Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

When allocating research points is there a way to lock a path so it doesn't increase or decrease? It's a real pain when allocating more than 2 paths.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

No, there is not. That feature has been requested repeatedly since Dom2 precisely for that reason but so so far it has not been added. We can hope.

Edi

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Generally I find that more often than not (now there's a confident statement) that the last bar modified becomes the one primarily affected by subsequent changes. For example, I have alteration up. I then add conjuration. I then add thaumaturgy. If I then go and tinker with conjuration or alteration, thaumaturgy will be primarily affected since that was the one I just did.

Like I said, though, just an impression.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Just try three or four different paths at the same time and there will be no rhyme nor reason as to how the allocation goes.

True enough, all subtractions or additions will be done from or to the primary path, but everything else is affected more or less randomly, which is why it'd be important to have a locking mechanism.

Edi

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Or how about a way to just manually assign points? "I've got a hundred and twenty-three points. Lets put 50 into Construction, 60 into Blood, and 13 into Enchantment." That'd be nice.

Perhaps the current system is meant to demonstrate the difficulties inherent in magical multi-tasking? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Yeah if you could type in a number, that would be great.

Jazzepi

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Thanks for the responses guys, I didn't think so.

You know, I love IW and I love Dominions, but something like this is inexcusable in the third iteration of a series. Shame on you IW!! And Shrapnel is just as much to blame, you've had this game for two releases now this should be fixed!

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

T77, The Dom2/Dom3 research is much better than in DomPPP where you had to assign each damned mage separately and fiddle around until you got what you wanted, and it was a real pain in the arse. So we're talking about the current research model in its second incarnation.

Edi

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

I don't actually think it's a problem to be honest, it only takes a few seconds at most to get it how you want it.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

In my current MP game I was trying to set 3 paths and I got so frustrated that I almost gave up.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

I've been frustrated with this problem since Dom 2. It's a royal pain.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Another problem is that sometimes pressing + or - doesn't go up or down by 1, it moves by 2 or 3. And clicking on the bars doesn't work either.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Yes, a button to lock / unlock a path, like in Master of Magic for Mana/Research/Skill if I remember well, would be great.

And the + / - should add / substract points 1 by 1, it's always frustrating to spend time trying to adjust precisely research, and not succeeding at it.

Something more, when choosing a school to display the list of spells, the spells are sorted by levels. Near of the level, it would be nice to have the research points needed to reach it.

Ex :

Alteration 1 : OK.
...
...
... List of spells
...
...

Alteration 2 : OK.
...
...
... List of spells
...
...

Alteration 3 : 43 remaining.
...
...
... List of spells
...
...

Alteration 4 : 203 remaining.
...
...
... List of spells
...
...

etc...

OK, it's actually possible to calculate it if needed, but it would be more comfortable to have it displayed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

I agree that locking research paths is a must.

Another possiblity I have seen in other games:

The bars can be used as weights, i.e. each bar can take any value between 0 and 100 independently from the others. The amount of points allocated to each path is then determined by (weight for this path)/(total sum of weights)*(number of points available).

Though that would probably be more difficult to implement than simple locking.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

Actually, I do definitely agree that complete fine-tuning is sometimes impossible. I just give up, and accept wasting 2 or 3 research points, which I guess is a bit poor really. Also the + and - keys seem a bit erratic to me, I don't know if I'm being somehow inept.

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

What, you can use + and - keys?? Whahoo! I didn't know that, I was missing buttons for exactly that, ALOT. I got fairly good at making mouse clicks with single pixel precision now, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

Re: Is there a way to lock research paths?
 

I can see this as being a nice tweak to the UI, but I *never* spread research around 3 schools, and the only time I split between 2 schools is when I will reach my current goal in a school that turn.

Presumably you have specific reasons to be researching particular schools. Suppose your current strategic goals are to be able to cast falling frost and arrow fend, and you want to reach contruction-6. I cannot imagine a case in which you would be better off reaching all 3 goals simultaneously in, say, 15 turns. By focusing on one at a time, you might be able to cast falling frost in 4 turns, then forge const-6 items at the 10-turn mark, and still be able to cast arrow fend on turn 15. That's 11 turns in which you would be able to use falling frost, and 5 turns worth of forging that you would not have been able to do by going for all 3 goals at the same time.

Research musings...
 

It would likely be more realistic if there were nonlinearities and synergies -- too little or too much attention paid to one research area having lower efficiency, and possibly the occasional benefits from cross-pollenation -- but it'd also lead to optimization-hell where players run programs to find maxima.

I sort of like the ol' non-determinism of MOO2:BAA (probability of breakthrough per round once threshold achieved), but I rarely went as far as to take Uncreative...

Re: Research musings...
 

I fully agree with RonD. The only example I could ever think of is very late game where you're pumping out tons of research and you starting researching paths you haven't touched yet. But by that point it wouldn't hurt to go all your points in 1 thing the first turn, all in another the 2nd turn, and all in the other the 3rd turn. If they were more important you wouldn't have waited until that late in the game to research them.

Re: Research musings...
 

If you could simply choose, by for example holding shift while allocating research points, to have your choice affect no other bars, that'd be it. Problem fixed. Then if you had un-allocated points when trying to leave the screen, you'd be stopped from doing so.