Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Have played the tutorial to the end and am continuing the game - im trying to familiarise myself with as much as the magic as possible and this is where i have a slight problem..... as per the tutorial i have researched Alteration upto lvl 3 and have also researched Conjuration upto level 3 - i have a Lvl 3 Earth Mage who, if im not wrong should be able to cast Summon Lesser Elemental, now i know most consider this to be useless and indeed i may too, im just trying to learn the system and make sure im doing everything right, i have given the mage 10 earth gems and in the battle orders asked him to cast specific spell 'summon lesser elemental' - nothing. And then he goes off casting his own random spells - is this right - is the spell success random or have i missed something?

And secondly, im playing 3.21 and wondered if there were any snazzier sprites out there - im not a graphics whore but just to tidy them up and make them look a little less fuzzy? on the strategy wikipedia for dom 3 the picture of the Minatour there looks like a work of art compared to my in game one!

great game by the way

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Mages will not use gems to cast spells if they consider the enemy forces to weak to be worth the expense. That's probably what happened to you.

This prevents tactics like casting Call of the Winds on an enemy force to make them use up all their gems, then attacking with your real army.

You're doing it right. You just need to find a better enemy.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

ahhh..... that sounds about right it was 113 versus 16 after all!! out of curiosity when he is summoned or i get summon cave drake to work, am i put in direct control of the creature or does it just know to go pummel the enemy?

any advice for smarter graphics?

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Battle field summons appear near the caster and will attack as they please. Generally they just pummel the nearest enemy. Just like any unscripted troops.

Cave drakes are ritual summons. You cast the spell out of battle. They'll appear in the province the next month and you can assign them to a commander and give them orders like any other troops.

I've got no help for the graphics. As far as I know we're stuck with what we've got. People add sprites for mod nations, but I don't know of any attempts to redo the existing sprites.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

The graphics quality does vary quite a bit between nations, with the older ones being less good (Kristoffer got better at spriting over the last decade!). Perhaps you're playing one of the older nations?

Ultimately though, although some of Kristoffer's sprite work is top notch, graphics is never going to be one of the selling points of this game.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Really the only nations that stand out to me as having unattractive sprites, are LA Ulm, and LA Bogarus (funny, since Bog is recent), while I wouldn't call the rest uniform, the part that I am stumbling over is, "fuzzy"? They should pretty much all be quite sharp, even if some are lower on detail than others.

Which nation are you playing, Undercover? Sounds like Pangaea - I've never noticed any quality issues with the Minotaur sprites, and I thought that the "Options" for combat only affected the background and environment, not the sprites themselves.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Bogarus, for the most part, wasn't done by KO but by one of his students, dubbed an Illwinter intern, with the name Gabriella.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Awwww, now I feel bad. :o So I'll clarify that in that case, they are good for early work, just not as nice as most of the rest in the game. ;)

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

About graphics-

Can I rightly suppose you have set the Filer quality at the best in the video preferences? ;)

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Actually, I think the Bogarus sprites are pretty good, except for the odd looking horses.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Apparently the horses are meant to look like that, but yeah, they are odd.

I seem to remember that the Arco sprites are a bit on the blurry side. Better not look now though, work time!

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

thanks for all help and advice - im continuing the tutorial so its Mirvani(sp?) - ill have a look at the filters thanks, so far ive only really compared the Wiki minatour to my in game one - the one on the wiki page just looks sharper and almost 3d - anyway - the graphics are not the important part - thanks for help on the summons spell - i take it there is no way to take the initiative from the mage and say 'do what i damn well tell you to do?'

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Tell him to cast spells that don't require gems. Other than that, no, unfortunately not. It's usually a good thing that they don't waste gems on weak armies, but it can be annoying at times.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Oh yeah, it is important to have the filters set high, good point. Otherwise it looks awful!

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

I played Dom3 on a borrowed Mac a few times, I thought the graphics came up rather better on that than on PC. On the other hand, maybe it was just that the Mac had a much smaller screen so they came across better by being smaller.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Also, if you run windowed, the sprites don't look nice unless you make your window pretty large.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

i knew id get another question!

I keep reading about indy mages - i assume these are mages built from provinces taken from the indy states (?) but what is a non indy mage - one built in your capital?

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

When you take any province except a capital it has a local poptype that gives it recruitables (barbarians, generic commanders/light infantry/etc...). Some provinces allow you to recruit Mage commanders (They will be on the side of the commander list, greyed out).
To actually recruit them you must first build a lab (by moving one of your mages from your capital to that province and selecting build building -> lab, should cost 400-500 gold).

Non-indy mages are mages you get from your forts. To build those you need a fort and a lab (and a temple if they are sacred/have holy paths). Some mages (and units) are capital-only, provided by your starting sites (They show up next to your starting buildings in your home province). All the rest should show up along side any local populations in any fort you build (except for land nations building forts underwater/water nations build forts on land).

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Well, one summoned or bought from one of your strongholds I would assume (doesn't have to be your capital :D)

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

i dont really want to post in the AAR forum yet - it looks a bit busy and intimidating!

How many turns are expected out of a player per day in a PBEM?

and is there such a thing as a 2 player pbem to get used to things?

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

One turn. :)

And I'm pretty sure it's common to have 48 hours.

And yeah, you can just set up a server and play with a friend. Use the network play option at the startup screen.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

are there likely to be people shopping around for a 2 player game in your experience? or does everyone like the big group ones

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

For small and fast games, try the IRC channel, especially on a weekend. See the FAQ thread for more info.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

There are 2 player games. It would probably be easier to get a 2 player game on gandalf's server though, as it maintains a constant stream of games of certain specifications. You can (also?) play what is commonly referred to as a blitz game, where you have a small number of players and go through turns quickl.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

2 player game, aka a Duel.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

If you post a thread on the Multiplayer/AAR forum proposing a duel, it's likely someone will take you up on it. You could host it yourself, or use the LlamaServer, or use Gandalf's server - all three options are easy.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Marverni has three types of mages: Sequani Stargazer, Gutuater and Druid. Vergobrets are priests, but not mages. Gutuaters and Druids are both mages and priests, which means you need both a lab and a temple before you can recruit them, but their upkeep is half of what it would be for a non-sacred unit (1/15th and 1/30th of recruit cost).

All Marverni mages can be recruited in all their forts (castles), including the new ones they build. Marverni has only one starting site, "Carnutes", which lets you recruit Boar Warriors and Boar Lords. You can't recruit them from your other castles.

Indy mages can be part of the defenders (druids (but these are just nature 1, holy 1 mage-priests, nothing like YOUR druids), Wolf Tribe Shamans, amazons) or just random mages that you can't recruit after you conquer the province (Wind Lord, Bloodhenge Druids, Azure Mage Initiate, Wizard). When you send your mages site-searching, some sites will give you access to new recruitable units in that province. Better independent mages are often only available from magic sites.

And finally, if you haven't done it yet, research Evocation 5. Evocation 4 will give you Blade Wind. Evocation 5 Will give you Gifts from Heaven. They don't take any gems, and as you already have Summon Earthpower (conj 2) researched all your druids can cast either spell... :D

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

thanks for all help.....

another question (!)....

is there away to carry supplies with me, i have taken a large army somewhere and cant be supported in the region and im starving and catching disease! where can i find the extra supplies needed - thanks for any response

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

Each nature mage gives you 10 supply per point of nature in its province. So just bring along more druids! Remember the saying, "Drowning in mages? Buy some more!"

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

There are also nature items that add to Supply. Bags of Wine, Cauldrons, Summer Swords.

Re: Newbie Questions - Just 2 i hope
 

thanks agin for prompt responses