Something that needs redoing
 

Machaka!! if nothing else needs to have its sprites redone, it's just sorta a nation that's there also, I have a few bugs about it.

Spider fangs do 16 dmg nsta

Spider fangs from black hunter do 18 dmg nsta

these both have other effects but they work fine, my issue is, is that should the rider die you are left with:

Yet when 2 dmg fangs with only 11 str great or black hunter spider.

Why without a rider do they do less damage, or why with one do they do more?

Past that I love the nation! and I would love to see updates of the graphical and new unit/spell types!

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Some Machaka ideas have been tossed around, but I have no idea of their priority compared to some of other stuff being worked on at the moment. But Kristoffer may get an inspiration from your post, so don't lose hope. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

One more issue on Machaka. If spider rider gets poisoned and dies, remaining poison will still affect spider who is poison immune. This is a bug, probably.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Indeed.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Thanks Edi, it's just such a cool nation! and it's barely been touched since it's introduction in dom 2!!

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I'd like to bring attention to this thread as I have noticed there is much patching going on, please update machaka!

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Machaka would be my favorite nation if it's province defense wasn't so terrible. I mostly play large maps where this weakness becomes obviously painful. It's first set of PD units have no shields, no protection, 8 morale and only a spear!


As a result, whether you're playing SP or MP it's unwise to invest more than 1 point of PD because even when the better PD arrives at 20 and beyond you still have the weak garbage troops in greater numbers and them dying so easily means you'll more likely retreat in battle.


++ Once a month a drop a rose into the river near my home to mourn the weakness of Machaka.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I second them. Never played them much, because they all looks like little ants. The spiders are interesting, though. I looked at their militia, and it must be the weakest unit in the game. Yes, they are numerous, but they must die like flies.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Yes, just tried a battle with 80+ militia against some wolftribe, they received first salvo from shortbows and run away. Defense 8, attack 8, morale 8, protection 0, these guys are ridiculous!

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

They are pretty good at patrolling (best in fact):
High AP (13)
Decent precision (10)
Low cost/upkeep (7)

The only Machakan unit that can contend is the archer but it is more expensive in both upkeep and cost (10).

Combine the milita with an eye of the lord and you can tax your provinces very high for a low price.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

But you will kill off your population

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Well population won't win you any wars, gold will however. So if you treat your population like any other resource you will see that you must invest, transforming it into castles. Castles means more resources and resources means more troops. With troops you can get more provinces and thus more population to tax.

If you play defensive and are not expanding rapidly I can see that killing population will mean trouble. But that trouble is nothing compared to the offensive players heading your way.

Also, in late game gold isn't needed much (except for upkeep), gems are. To get more gems you want magic sites and that means lots of provinces - see above.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Using them for patrolling is good as long as you have no enemies which can attack those provinces... for large maps having them patrol essentially weakens the province for an easy takeover.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I agree. But early on they are decent on patrol, later you could use them as cheap chaff in your armies.
Oh, and they will eventually get some moral when patrolling due to experience. Add that to friendly dominion and they suddenly have 10.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Forget the militia being weak, it's more of the fact that, for instance, Acro gets hoplites in their province defence! why can't Machaka get their hoplites?

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I agree... anything would be better.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

MA Arco gets Peltast, 2xCardaces from PD under 20, hoplites and a Priestess for PD above 20.

Machaka gets 3 militia and 1 Warrior for PD under 20, hoplites and normal commander for PD above 20. If this was changed, something like 2xWarriors, 1xArchers for PD under 20, hoplites and perhaps a Witch Doctor for PD above 20 would be much better.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Machaka is a nation that always cried out for a random in blood magic, maybe at the cost of a random in nature... Spiders make me think of blood for some reason.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

> Forget the militia being weak, it's more of the fact that, for instance, Acro gets hoplites in their province defence! why can't Machaka get their hoplites?

Otherwise you would never see militia and that would be a pity. What would you compare to flies then, I ask http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

All nations are created equal. Some nations are more equal. Machaka might not be the epitome of equality, but is still quite equal. Their graphics OTOH is rather unequal.

> Spiders make me think of blood for some reason.

You don't mean rain, do you?

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

The FEDN magics are very thematic for Machaka. Blood, not so much, but if it was available for some randoms (e.g. the basic sorcerer), it would not be out of place. But it would pose the problem of adding more magic to them than most of the other nations get.

Currently the long-awaited Gath is the one being worked on, and presumably we will get Vanarus after that. Unless of course this thread happens to inspire Kristoffer to make an Early Era Machaka.

An EA Machaka could possibly have FAN with ED minor, that would be thematic in relation to most African mythologies in the early stage, with Earth and Death (closely linked in such mythologies) becoming more significant later (i.e. Middle Era).

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I think Machaka is a pretty nice nation on paper. The graphics needs a serious redoing though. Some of them are very blurry - shame on you Kristoffer! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

> Some of them are very blurry - shame on you Kristoffer!

That's not me! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

The blurring was done to all sprites when we went from dom-ppp sprites to dom2 sprites. About 1000 units from dom-ppp were resized and blurred. Since it is boring to redraw an existing sprite, I have put more energy into making new stuff. The uglies sprites were remade, but there are still glaring misses. Some Machakan units got fixed, but most are still ugly.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Longdeads and soulless! They'd be no 1 on my list to update the sprites for, since they come up so often. Actually, apart from vampires, I think they are the only sprites which bother me.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Kristoffer:

I cannot imagine anything more ugly than vampires http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I guess its from spiders sucking the blood and juices from its prey why I think of blood. Machaka needs a random in blood so crossbreeding can be viable. Crossbreeding has those spider monsters, even though they are not that great.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I think spiders (without riders) MR is a bigger problem than militia for Machaka.

I'm fighting Machaka (who had a bless strat, so is rather forced to use his sacreds) with Arco in a game, and all our big battles end with me gaining half his hunter spiders as slaves -the other half being usually killed by his troops-

I suggest to give hunter spiders 10 or 11 base MR, even when the rider is dead. Actually Machaka is the only bless nation I know having so vulnerable sacreds against astral (of course he could have used an astral bless... and ended with 10MR on spiders, but I doubt it's really worth it).

Actually it's a good operation for any nation able to use enslave mind to attack Machaka, good way to gain a lot of free powerful spiders (eventually slavery as a reason to attack blacks may be seen as thematic http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif ).

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

on topic (sort of)

the AI should go first http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Umm... Shadow Vestals look like blurry blobs. I would argue that they are more ugly. I love them, don't get me wrong, but I never zoom in on them for sure.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I agree with Linglich. Vestals are ugly http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


>the AI should go first

Unfortunately for you I only do sprites and descriptions and stuff. If I would try to touch the AI the game would probably go nuts (actually It would do nothing, since I would not be able to compilate the game). JK is working at his daytime job, and doesn't have much spare time atm. What spare time he has is not used on the AI.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Kristoffer O:

You could consider giving someone from community access to that. You would have both time to do different games and decent AI http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Of course it just sounds easy and giving access can be hard. But I hope that AI in your next project will be much better http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Preferably with one person working just on that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

> You could consider giving someone from community access to that.

Huh? The code, or the AI?

> Preferably with one person working just on that

If one person was working only on the AI there would be no work on the game, since we are only two and I can't code anything beyond the rudimentary adding of data http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Fortunately the new project is of another kind, and the need for a strategically powerful AI is limited.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Kristoffer O:

Like I knew exactly what access is needed to create good AI http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And you should work fast on your new project, so you can start on Dom4 sooner http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Lol

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

What is that new project you're teasing with ?

- A strategy game ? If good AI is not needed, probably not.
- A game in fantasy setting ?
- A turn-based game ?
- SP / MP / Both / Neither ?

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Perhaps it's the Dominions Roguelike that someone started a long time ago. I found the idea intriguing.

Alternatively, it could be Dominions/Dwarf Fortress collaboration project with Google providing them with access to the Google photorealistic movie-quality 3d-model repository for free, as well as providing a couple of supercomputers to act as the server.

It could also be a Plot to Take Over the World, but I doubt that.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Whether the game is an RPG, RTS, FPS, or TBS there are complaints about the AI. What has worked the best is providing gamers the ability to change/improve the AI by modifying the AI via scripts.

Some moddable AI is available for recent games such as Neverwinter Nights(RPG) and for older games such as Warcraft_2(RTS)... both were successful and provided great new gameplay. I believe Age_of_Empires_2 also had some moddable AI options. I cannot stress enough what a huge success this provided for Neverwinter Nights.


Hence anytime someone complains about the AI, the developers and community can respond with either try some of the optional personalities created by the community OR go improve the AI yourself via the scripting commands.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I would love to try my hand at the tactical AI. But unless a game has been
designed for AI moding since day zero, it is unlikely that anything can be
done without full access to the code, and I bet no one but maybe Edi would
be allowed that.

By the way, half decent AI would probably multiply the hosting time by ten.
Some people would not mind. Some would.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

I'm hoping for Dominions in Space [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon27.gif[/img]

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

You have a higher opinion and expectation of what I would be allowed than I do myself. Dominions is Johan and Kristoffer's creation and they are rather damned protective and jealous of it and with good reason. The descriptions are the only thing I have gotten my hands on because typo fixes are easier to just enter into the description files than do it any other way. The only other code I might possibly see is the part related to events and that only for the purposes of typo-fixing event messages and dire portent messages, because those are in separate files from the unit, nation, item and spell descriptions. I do not need any more access than that nor do I have a particular desire to have any more.

I did see the code for the magic sites for Dominions 2, which is what allowed the magic site portion of the DB to be created as accurately as it was. I have not seen the same code for Dom3, but the efforts of DrPraetorious and EricM have ensured that the same accuracy continues in that regard.

It would be interesting from a curiosity perspective to see the entire code and briefly look it over before deleting the lot just to see the scope of Dominions, but it will be a cold day in hell (mind you, the home of the Frost Fiends and Ice Devils does not count here) before that happens and it's good that things are that way.

Even if I did have access to the full source code, it would do no good, since I'm not a programmer. I can read code and even (maybe) understand in general terms what is going on, but no programmer in his right mind wants me to even attempt to touch it. Death, havoc, mayhem, destruction and catastrophe would be sure to follow. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Seriously, besides languages, my strength is managing data and documenting things. The Dom3 DB, the Bug Shortlist, the FAQ and the Unofficial Reorganized Mod Manual are all manifestations of that. But actual coding or debugging code (such as interpreting the debug logs) or any such activity is outside my area of expertise. You want your data organized and collated or a manual written, I'm your man. You want your code screwed up beyond all recognition, that too. But developing code, no way.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

So he's not working on the AI...

Well.. then he should get his priorities straight and start on the AI ASAP shouldn't he. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Because I say so! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Also Space Empires IV and V.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Thanks for the tip. I made some longdeads today. Since I've done some undead Rephaim it was not too much of a bother to make a longdead template and rework the longdead infantry.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Heh, seems the world of dominions is a degenerating one. The longdead are slightly taller than todays living people http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

They get better nutrition. All those braaaaaiiiins in their diet...

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Awesome, thanks Kristoffer! I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the all new longdead sprites.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Talking about sprite quality a bit back, I played a few turns when away from home on my girlfriend's Mac, and the graphics were much better on that. Unfortunately, Dom3 suffered as anything on a Mac does from "WHY OH WHY HAVE YOU IDIOTS NOT ADDED A SECOND MOUSE BUTTON" syndrome.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

ctrl - buttonclick or appl - buttonclick might do it. Or buy a two-button-mouse for your girlfriend http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

Almost all button2 commands on a mac are command-click, or option-click. (command key is the apple/cloverleaf key).

Ctrl-click usually brings up a menu of available OS or program options.

Re: Something that needs redoing
 

The Shadow Vestal Sprite is truly hideous. I'm working on a new one as part of the Ermor mod, but it'd nice to get an officially updated one.