Commander limit??
 

SP game, large map.

I can't get any more commanders. I have no problem getting new *UNITS*, though. Gift of Reason even fails.

Note that this is EA, there are no freespawn races involved.

Re: Commander limit??
 

KO mentioned increasing the unit limit and commander limit when the next patch arrives. I also have a large SP game needing an increased commander limit increase.

Re: Commander limit??
 

So there is a commander limit.

Is it global or per nation? And what is it?

My guess is that I'm in trouble from clamming and from the large numbers of preachers I need to protect my empire. (I'm EA Oceania on Glory of the Gods--with my empire spread out due to the shape of the water the only part I can maintain dominion over without preachers is the upper left part and I think local squabbles had something to do with that. I broke onto land by attacking the weakest empire whose dominion was probably being used to suppress the encroaching dominion from the #1 nation. The other nation up there is one that just invaded, also, thus they don't have dominion established up there.)

Something that would cut down on commanders: Some mega versions of items.

Spell: Megaclam. Cost: 10 astral. You must have 10 clams in inventory, they will be replaced with one megaclam that produces 10 pearls/month.

Spell: Megabroth. Cost: 10 astral. You must have 10 enormous cauldrons of broth in inventory, they will be replaced with one megacauldron that feeds 500.

And likewise for any item that produces gems or supply. The megastone produces 10 earth gems and +2 earth magic.

Re: Commander limit??
 

It's global and my biggest curse within a large SP game.
Only the developers know the exact numbers.

As time passes all our computers will become more and more powerful. Ideally the game should have a setting which would allow gamers to increase as they desire. I'm sure 3 years from now computers will process even the largest game turns within 30mins or less.

Re: Commander limit??
 

At least that means I'll get more commanders as I kill enemies.

Re: Commander limit??
 

NTJedi:

But that is not the case in Dominions. Turns are not generated faster on a better computer. And that is wrong.

Re: Commander limit??
 

What do you mean? A computer with twice the hertzes probably won't generate the turn in half time, but I'm not sure of the internal requirements. Turn generation takes time because it doesn't have enough of something. It could be CPU power, RAM, some other memory or something else entirely; I don't know what else could be there. But upgrading the hardware will doubtlessly have SOME effect on turn generation.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Endoperez:

Only to some degree, unless there is smth wrong with my copy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Dominions 3 takes really low % of both CPU [E4300] and RAM [4GB] and I can launch many other aps without slowig turn generation.

Re: Commander limit??
 

You must be playing either small maps or in the early stages of a game. I have multiple systems(some very powerful) and have always seen the CPU is MAXED OUT during AI Thinking of a turn. The RAM rarely gets any attention, however anyone who has played large maps with LA ERMOR and LA Ry'leh will see very high CPU usage during AI Thinking. The AI Thinking is also the longest part of a turn for large maps with powerful AIs.

I have seen turns generate faster on faster systems.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Strange.

I'll agree it doesn't need that much memory. I'm running about 140mb for the game currently generating. What really ties up memory is graphics, Dominions doesn't have a lot of them.

CPU, though--the usage has stuck at 25% almost all the time during this turn. Since this is a Q6600 that means it's saturating it's core.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Loren:

Oh, I forgot that it doesn't use more than 1 core. But still my CPU usage was way too small. Maybe it's because of Vista. I really need to install Linux soon.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Yes Vista will move CPU usage out from one application to others so all will run with better performance. Within Win2000 and WinXP one application/process can max out CPU usage.

I recommend having a dual or triple boot environment.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Going a bit off topic, but Vista has been brought up so I'm only sinning slightly(?). My home computer (3 to 4 years old) is in a coma at the moment. My better half made me throw all my old computers away about 2 months ago, so my stock of spare parts for a "switch-and-see-if-it fixes-it" solution is non-existant. Thus I have to take it in for repairs.

I'm going to set some dollar limit on the repairs, with Plan B being a replacement computer. All the new computers come with Vista, of which I have yet to hear anything of significence that is good.

My question, do I dump the Vista operating system and install Windows 2000 or some other Windows. I'm not willing or able to spend time to learn Linux, besides, I just play games and do e-mail and Web stuff on my home compter. I do own a Windows 2000 Professional CD.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Vista is not so bad as many people descrive it. It is just bad. Like every other Windows. It has many extremely stupid solutions and a lot depends on your luck. Windows 2k is much worse solution now. You should stick to XP if you hav it, but take Vista when you are buying new OS. And learning Linux is not so hard if you take good distribution [kubuntu].

Re: Commander limit??
 

How much memory does the computer have? My understanding is that oldish computers do not cope very well with Vista. Even with 1GB of RAM, I think it will run irritatingly slowly. It might well be worth switching to XP if you can (I don't know anything about Windows 2000).

Since you probably can't easily get a new computer without Vista, I suppose you could try Vista and see how you like it, and change to XP/2000 if you don't get on with Vista. Presumably if you were able to find somewhere to buy a computer without Vista, though, it might be slightly cheaper.

I have to say I've also heard little positive about Vista - it sounds quite annoying.

Personally I am now much enamoured of Ubuntu (Linux), and would recommend it very highly. But it's quite reasonable not to be interested in learning a whole new breed of OS. Also it's definitely not good for non-Dominions games.

Re: Commander limit??
 

llamabeast:

My problem is that it always takes around 45% RAM. It was about 1GB out of 2 and now it takes almost 2 out of 4. But yeah, you need at least 2GB for Vista so you can have some free for apps http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I bought Vista only because they were giving bunch of stuff free [after rebate] - photo printer, flash drive [does nt work with Vista], hdtv tuner [the same], small router [also did not work on Vista http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif].

I am still too lazy to install Ubuntu, but my Windows is really trying to encourage me.

Re: Commander limit??
 

I advise dual booting or triple booting your operating systems. There are multiple advantages for a system with this setup.
First if one OS gets a corrupted registry, virus, corrupted file, etc... it's easy to boot into another OS finish important work/games then fix the busted OS at your convenience.
Second a multi-boot environment makes it easier to fix a busted OS.
Third one type of OS might have better performance and/or game stability for some games than another type of OS.
Fourth if a problem occurs it's easy to discover if it's a hardware problem or software problem with a multi_boot setup simply by booting into another OS. A single OS will not provide this benefit.
Fifth is some older games will not work on Vista and some games in the future may only work on Vista... especially those published by Microsoft.

Re: Commander limit??
 

If anyone is in the same games as I am, they know that my opinion of vista is definately negative. Really vista isn't terrible, it just takes some patience to understand all the new menus and such.

I've had problems running dom3 on vista (my xp got destroyed so I had to switch). On this new computer dom3 runs very slowly especially viewing battles. Even an old win 98 (alas no internet) runs the battles many times faster. Any suggestions? By the way I'm not very knowledgable about computers - just talking about 5 operating systems makes my head spin.

Re: Commander limit??
 

otthegreat:

Do other games work well? It could be the issue with video drivers. I once had to plug ATI X700 instead of my 8800GTS and I couldn't even unzoom map in Dominions, on totally lowest settings and tiny resolution.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Dominion uses OpenGL for its graphics. Some graphic cards are good with OpenGL, some aren't. What's your graphic card's type?

Re: Commander limit??
 

Zeldor:
Both Rome Total War and Battle for Middle Earth 2 work well on this computer. I've noticed that their graphics are slightly better than dominions. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I found something that I think is the video/graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon X 1300 (0X7149)

Re: Commander limit??
 

Both of the games you mentioned use DirectX, not OpenGL. They do the same stuff, some graphic cards (or spesific drivers) are better at on and worse at the other. Downloading newest drivers is always worth trying.

I'm not that good with inner workings of computers either, but I remember having some trouble with an ATI card a long time ago. I think it was something like my DomII not working with an ATI graphics card until I found different drivers or something like that. Hopefully someone here is more experienced in hardware and can offer a few hints.

Re: Commander limit??
 

I'll definately check new drivers. How do I find them? Should I just google "ATI drivers"?

By the way, I really appreciate the help you guys are giving me. Many thanks!

Re: Commander limit??
 

I don't read anyone talking about 5 operating systems.

Re: Commander limit??
 

Go to ATI homepage, and they'll probably have some kind of service for downloading drivers. You'll have to find drivers that work spesifically for your ATI Mobility Radeon X 1300, I think.