Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Hi all!

This is my encouragement thread.

I have done far too little dominions work lately. Some skiing in the northern parts of sweden, some pen and paper rpg making and some school related work has put me off task.

I tend to get caught up in stuff. I have lured myself into two rpg projects of my own. One campaign and one game. I'm not that good at focusing on one project. The game is about trolls in a scandinavian setting influenced by the artist John Bauer. http://runeberg.org/jbauer/01.jpg


OK. Back to why I'm writing. I believe I will be more focused if I write some stuff here. So this thread is is intended to increase my bad conscience for not working on dominions. I'm not sure how long it will work on me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

My current intention is to write occasional stuff here and let you comment (or encourage me) if you like.

Hope you like it.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

First update:

Names for Tir na n'Og are being implemented.

Tir na N'Og is supposed to appear in the next patch.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Excellent I have been really looking forward to this EA Man nation.

I figured you were away on hols, hope you had a good time.

I have been playing Dom3 for 5 months now and still very, very much enjoy it. You have designed and implemented a very, very deep game with huge amounts to explore. It's really very, very different from 90% of other computer games. I hope you continue to enjoy working on and developing the Dominions series.

I was a roleplayer for 15 yrs and it was great fun. I hope it gives you more ideas for Dominions.

I will only make 1 request of you, any chance of more national specific spells for nations in future patches. Marverni for example has not got any national spells and there are alot of other nations who could do with some national spell love.

Thanks again.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Getting the missing nations in would be good.
Id also like to see the nation-specific spells, fortresses, etc to be spread out abit more.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Kristoffer,

Have you seen Edi's excellent bug shortlist?

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...o=&fpart=1

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Yes he has (he patted him on the head for it in another thread. But keep in mind please that Johan is the programmer.
Kristoffer we can thank for most of the "words" in the game. The thematic choices and descriptions of the nations, units, equipment, spells, etc. So unless you mean the typo stuff, most of the bug list wont really apply here.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Then I guess the typo bugs are to be of interest http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

anyway keep it up kris! We all love to see ya workin' on our sweet sweet software mistress.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Mmmm, Tuatha. I played them in my longest ever D2 game - that sucker lasted over a year! I'd love to see Banh Sidhe; I had to pretend that some independent Raptors I found were Banh Sidhe, and it just didn't feel quite right.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

you talking about the Council of Wyrms? was that the longest ever game?

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

You actually can recruit Sidhe in Dom3 currently, just need to get lucky and find The Glowing Hill. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Seen it once so far.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I would love to see some downward tweaking of the Helheim\Vanheim nations (even if it's just a slight increase in sacred costs) and see a few of the weaker nations (Agartha) get some boosts - even if it's just some nice nation spells.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Indeed, my southern neighbor, the Council of Wyrms. What a game that was... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
I certainly don't know of any that lasted longer, but I haven't played many multiplayer games.

Teraswaerto, I actually had that site, in the Dawnstrike game we played together. It was very, very nice (though I didn't have the blessings to allow the Sidhe to work very effectively against Jurri's Caelum, unfortunately).

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

There's something I've been wondering about for a while. Why is Man called Man, when there are so many human nations? Shouldn't they be called some appropriately Celtic name?

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

If general positivity will help - I can't be positive enough! I've always played loads of computer games, but was gradually beginning to lose interest lately - every TBS is kind of the same. But dominions - wow! I literally can't get over how good it is, I find myself mulling over plans and stuff all the time, and I've been playing since October! It's absolutely on a whole different level to every other strategy game I've played, and I've played a lot. Even my girlfriend, who doesn't really like either computer games or fantasy, has been getting more and more into it watching me, and has finally bought it herself!

Anyway, that's enough of that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm really looking forward to the Tir na n'Og as well. I don't know almost anything about them except they involve Sidhe, and I only know Sidhe from the RPG Changeling: The Dreaming. But just from the vague hints of magical forest dwellers and faeries, I'm quite excited.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Originally there was only Man, with various themes. Now we are gradually shifting to those themes as seperate nations.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Just think of it as the German "man" (Man sagt = "One says": forgive me if that's not exactly right.)

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I think man wins in the long run, thats why they get to call themselves that.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Great, return to Dom3 work! I appreciate much the polishing of the nations history and description, that is your work (for example, EA R'yleh units does mentions Aboleths but R'yleh that are yet to come). And don't forget a little downward tweak to your loved vans! And some uses for the Pangea tunes! We all eagerly await your work!

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

We who are about to mod salute you!

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Hi KO, glad to see you back ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Having Tuatha/Tir Na N'Og back soon is good news, is there something else in your bag ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Yay, another patch looms! Like Velusion, I'd like to see a slight neutering of Hel/Van. I also think it would be worthwhile to spend some time with quantum_mechanic and to listen to his ideas as implemented with his cb mod, and whether or not you feel that they would be worthwhile, especially with the pretender balancing.

Plus, an evening out of national heroes and the implementation of national spells for *all* nations would add more flavour.

My partner is Afghan, and while she doesn't play or anything, I was telling her about some of the nations and she mentioned that the incredibly complex and violent history of Afghanistan historically would make a great national addition.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Though heck, I wouldn't mind seeing an Eskimo nation - Aleut/Inuit/etc. Or one that utilizes the cave men independents or.

Whoa, I'm getting carried away! *duct taping fingers*

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

You know asking the devs for nations is less likely to get you somewhere than asking modders. I've made a mod nation which pretty much follows a concept someone posted up there.

Maybe some of you are a bit leery of mod nations, but in my opinion there's some really killer stuff just a click away.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Kristoffer: I don't have any requests, actually. I think Dom3 is a darn fine game as-is. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif The only things I would add would be more of the stuff you've already given us: more nations, more spells, more magic items, more maps....

More of the same, please!

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

A hopefully easy addition in a future patch would be to perhaps make the worthy heros mod part of vanilla dominions 3. I am abit wary of any mod but the worthy heros mod is great AFAIK.

Eskimos are already in Dom3, LA Atlantis.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Worthy Heroes has some questionable stuff in it as well as a few errors (from what I've seen). I do agree totally with the principle of it, I just think it should stick a little closer to vanilla and fix more problems than it creates.

Anyway, don't want to sidetrack the thread.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

You might enjoy the Late Era Atlantis then, since they are based directly on the Inuit.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I would say the best advancement for improving Dominions_3 would be to open more methods for allowing gamers to improve/adjust the game. Thus you could take a long vacation and see what new adjustments the community has provided.
Adjustments such as AI scripts used to change strategies of computer opponents... some of the older PC games even provided this option. Not sure if this would need to wait until DOM_4.
Method for gamers to change and add events... this would increase replay value even for the veterans. Another suggestion which may need to wait until DOM_4.

Fix the #startspell within the map edit commands because currently it only lasts one turn. I truly miss this working.

The more modding and map edit commands which are created... the more replay value the game will provide. These improvements are also a good direction.


Just a reminder that DOMINIONS_3 is a terrific game !
Thanks for everything you provided.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

KO - hang in there, in just another couple of weeks the sun will rise.

I have been greatly enjoying the game and have found these last several patches to be excellent.

I'll register one vote for ignoring QM/CB entirely. I think you guys do a much better job than he does.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I'd strongly support making the game (and in particular, the AI), more moddable. If you look at what has been achieved with a game like Hearts of Iron II, it's impressive how big an improvement has been made to the AI just by allowing modders to tweak things like aggressiveness, build queues, research queues, etc.

Not everything can be fixed this way, but you can definitely improve the challenge the AI gives to a human player. And the best part of it is, most of the work is done for you, for free!

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

> I'll register one vote for ignoring QM/CB entirely. I think you guys do a much better job than he does.

No way, QM had a big role in the beta testing balancing. His work is good, although I havn't peeked at the CB for quite a while.

---

Man is not called man as in human male. More like man as in Isle of Man or something. A place, not a gender or a race.

I pronounce it with a long 'a'. Like in 'bar', 'lard', 'bard' etc. Maan. But I'm swedish.

---

Cavemen will appear in many forms if and when I finish Gath.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Modding stuff is good, but it is JK's business. I only read code. No actual programming, apart from adding stats, spells and nations.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

One other thing I'm sure the residents of the mod forum are interested in: Can we expect clean Dom3 unit sprites to be available at some point? It would make the lives of modders much, much easier and I remember someone mentioning in a thread over there that you planned on releasing the images,.. maybe?

Hmm. That sounded more like a nagging request than encouragement. My bad. Soo,.. Wow us with flavoury Gath-y goodness! Dom3 is up there with master of magic as one of my all time favourites.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Perhaps I've a sadistic streak, but I really enjoy watching massed archers wipe out enemy formations with flaming arrows or scattering them with chariots. :p

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

> One other thing I'm sure the residents of the mod forum are interested in: Can we expect clean Dom3 unit sprites to be available at some point? It would make the lives of modders much, much easier and I remember someone mentioning in a thread over there that you planned on releasing the images,.. maybe?

Actually it's something I have intended to do. I'm not sure if it is possible, but I vaguely recollect that JK made some function to that end. So the nagging is quite OK.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Thanks Kristoffer for not forgetting Dominions!

Maybe, perhaps, you could bring back the proper holy/unholy icons http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Kristoffer, this game is fantastic. Anytime that someone asks for a downward "balance change", I'd like you to feel free to ignore them.

Now that I have Lanka, I'm a happy man. I get my cake and I can eat it too! (Mmmm, monkey cake...) Keep up the good work with the new factions.

That being said, if you'd like to make some more troops for middle-era Agartha, I'd be as happy as a puppy. They are a little light on troops.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

More like getting the undead blessing bug fixed so that bless works and undead sacreds getting both holy and unholy icons?

Non-undead reanimators would also benefit from such an icon, or a reanimator/necromancy icon. Just a thought. MAke of it what you will.

Edi

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Can I second this.

So many people complain about 'balance' and this usually results in a unit, spell etc... being nerfed, made vastly inferior than it was. This happens time and time again until eventually the game does become 'balanced', in such a way that noone plays it anymore, cause its boring. I have seen so many good games spoiled this way.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Edi: There's a mod which fixes bless.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I have to be diplomatic about requests to "balance" nations. Especially since Im mostly a solo player and such balance is usually an MP thing so that people know the winner won by strategy. But if its a road which leads to eventually every nation having the same exact units and abilities but just wearing diffrent colors, then my biggest complaint is that there are already a ton of those games. I know that rock-paper-scissors balance is much harder to do but I highly appreciate it.

I also love the art, the RPG themes, the prettier generated maps, and the whole game concept. Thank you Kristoffer.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

*points to vampires*

Anyway, keep up the good work Kristoffer!

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Yeah, I know about that one. It's great thing to have in the interim but the actual issue needs fixing still. But now that the actual location of the problem is known, the fix shouldn't be too much work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Edi

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

What we need to fix vampires is a new tag and ability that gives them mistform for free by default (like glamour gives 1 mirror image). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I've also seem games where balance was ignored and players simply stopped playing the game because unless you played a specific way you were at a distinct disadvantage.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Obviously this does not apply to Domnions as there are easily 100's of different ways to play/strategy's to try.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

It could if all of the games were small maps and 2-4 players with no VP.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Eh, I can't bother to argue with fanboys that think Dominions3 is divinely perfect when it comes to balance. No point.

To Kris O - Dom3 is a great game and I hope you keep improving it!

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

Or newbs stuck in one game type so they want everything tweaked to run perfectly in their style only.

But I agree that its a great game. (aint it cool that no matter what they all disagree with they can still all love the game?)

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I can't understand. All the nations are unabalanced, it is not a balanced game (and we love it for this too) but there are very very unbalanced nations, that would be in the "normal unbalance range" with very small tweaks ... and someone (all single player, I think) oppose to this. I can't understand the reason, seriously.

Re: Kristoffer\'s encouragement thread
 

I agree that if you zoom in on 1 nation vs another nation you will find inbalance between them. However, take a step back and look at all the nations in a particular age, you find its very, very cleverly balanced overall.

My MP experience has shown this to be true. For exmaple in MA, Bander Log can destory MA Ulm very, very easily, but MA Agartha can destroy Bander Log easily. Another example EA Helheim can destroy EA Marverni easily but struggles badly against EA Atlantis who in turn struggles against EA Oceania. If you take the nations overall there is a balance.

This was discussed on another thread and in Dom3 you have 'face hugging' (think Alien the movie, attacks the nearest thing straight away), nations such as EA Helheim, MA Ermor, every era Mictlan vs the non-face hugging nations such as EA T'ien Ch'i, MA Arco etc...

Other factors also have a big effect, a face hugger will do well on a small map, a non-face hugger will do well on a large map. Also low gem sites will favour a face hugger (who does not rely on magic as much), well high gem sites favours a non-face hugger. Same with easy to hard research.