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New Player questions
Hi Pretenders!
Actually, returning player from Dom2 (but it's been a while). A few questions regarding Dom 3: 1) Can I "lock" the map so that it won't move when I move my mouse around? I like getting it to a certain size and position, but when I mouse over to the edge of the screen or accidentally slide the wheel, things get wacky. I would like the size and position to stay fixed. Possible? 2) Do some nations not have scouts? I did the tutorial to dust off my memory of basic game mechanics and then started a game with C'tis. I began with 2 regular commanders and my Pretender. But no scouts? Are lizards just too cute to sneak? 3) I'm confused by "Afflictions". If I have a unit that gets 100% chance of Afflictions, what exactly does this mean? That he is guaranteed to inflict an affliction on a single opponent every round of battle? Or what? And what are the afflictions? Is old age an affliction? 4) Can someone help me get my head around research by suggesting a methodology? I understand the mechanics of gaining skill in paths, but I feel like I'm researching blind without goals and I'm sure that goals are important. Looking through the grimoire is fascinating, but overwhelming, making it near impossible for me to keep enough information in my head at one time to formulate a coherent strategy. Is this just a trial and error thing, do I just need to read the entire grimoire and gain experience with it to see what *all* spells do and then just shoot for the ones that seem cool, or is there some more efficient way of planning research? Related to this, how can I set up my Pretender's magic without understanding what my magical goals are? Thanks, I can see that this is going to be murder on my bedtime habits. Just one more turn ... |
Re: New Player questions
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2)yep some dont have scouts but you will find plenty indie scouts :) 3)when you have the blessing to inflict more afflictions you just have a higher chance of afflicting an enemy with every hit. old age isnt an affliction but it will cause afflictions over time 4) too newb myself ^^ |
Re: New Player questions
1 and 2 covered well by DakaSha
3. When hitting an opponent with Y remaining hit points for X damage you have an X/Y chance of causing an affliction. So If they have 10 hit points left and you hit them for 3 there is a 30% chance of an affliction The death bless increases the chance of affliction, so if you had a +100% chance of affliction (level four death bless), you'd have a 60% chance in the above example. 4. It really depends what you are after. Your best bet at first is to look at the strategy guides in the Strategy Index, most of them have research recommendations. The generic choices first up are often those that allow remote site searching - Thaumaturgy 2, Evocation 2, Conjuration 3 (and blood 2 if you are heading that way, though there aren't many useful blood sites). After that you need to figure out what your strategy is Edit:Oh, forgot - with regards to Pretender selection. It's the most important decision in the game, sorry there are no easy answers ;) Again reading a few strategy guides will give you a good idea. It might be worth your while picking a starting race to get the hang of and follow a guide or two for them at first. Once you know them better you can improvise yourself I advise against trying to learn too many different nations and strategies too quickly, get one thing down to a reasonable level then move on. You can easily drown in it all otherwise. Edit2: One important thing to know is that most PBEM games run with the excellent Conceptual Balance Mod (CBM) by quantum_mechanics, currently at version 1.5 and located at http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43120 The devs don’t balance the game, they just add content and let users mod balance, which CBM does very well, mostly through modification to research levels and costs of spells, but also units. So if you are at the beginning of the learning curve I'd recommend just stick with CBM, it is more commonly used than the vanilla game by far and switching between the two can be confusing as some things change drastically |
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1) dunno
2)i thught every natioon have a scout commader( a unit that can sneak. the "cute" lizards are the only nations without scouts but only in ma and la they have assasin. 3) purguy hit badazzmonsta for 1. badazzmonsta has 100 hp, so purguy have 1% to put an affliction on badazzmonsta. shininknite hit badazzmonsta for 90. badazzmonsta has 100 hp, so shininknite have a 90% to put an affliction on badazzmonsta. with a death bless, you gain additional afflicction chance(4=+100% ; 5=+150; 6=+200%) .for example, with a 6 bless, purguy would have ad a 3% chance(1+200%=3) 4)it depends on nations, but usually the first goals should be construction 6 and/or the remote search spell |
Re: New Player questions
3) I'm pretty sure affliction chance is (damage inflicted by blow / creature max HP). So a 3 damage hit to a 10HP creature is 30% chance whether or not it has full HP or just 5 left. Death bless modifies this as explained in the comment above.
4) Experience counts for a lot. As a general rule, you want to look for site searching spells (mostly Thaum-2, some Conj-2) pretty quickly. Construction-4 is also a good bet, as you can forge items that let you boost your magic skills and that's also when the magic items generally start getting really interesting. After that, you need to identify what your nation is good at. Some can recruit big, stompy heroes, you'll want to priotise Construction 4 so you can forge them magic weapons and armour. If they can cast as well, look for self buffs (eg. Mistform, Ironskin, Quicken self) which are mostly available in Alteration & Enchantment up to path 3. Different magic paths also make different use of various research areas. I perceive Astral gets a lot from thaumaturgy, whereas air or earth is more Alteration and Evocation. Common battlefield paths are often Evocation (most common in the 4 elemental paths really) for mages to act as battlefield artillery, or Alteration and Enchantment to buff your units in the same way as individuals explained above. A last thing to note is that Conjuration and Construction have unique creatures and items respectively available at level 8, so there's a big plus to getting there first and getting first pick. |
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4) As others have said, there is no short answer for what to research.
Generally speaking, if you are new to a nation and trying to figure out research, you should look at what paths your highest mages are strong in. Then go to the grimoire and filter out only those spells. So, for example, if you were playing Pan who is strong in Nature magic, you would go to the grimoire and hit 'n' to show only nature spells. This would quickly reveal to you that the schools with many/powerful nature spells are ones like Conjuration and Alteration, say. So you would tend to concentrate your research in those schools. In particular, you will want to pick out one or two rituals or battlefield spells which you believe are a very powerful addition to your overall game strategy. Make those spells your research goals and use them to dictate your research plan. As you grow more comfortable and experienced with the grimoire, you will quickly realize how certain powerful spells are normally not available to a particular nation's mages. This realization will reflect back on your pretender design. You will find yourself eventually selecting pretender paths in order to cast specific spells which your nation otherwise couldnt, but that have extremely powerful synergy with your nation. Or making sure your pretender has enough magic to forge boosters which your mages otherwise could not. |
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Serves me right for trying to post about spells from memory at work. I'll go edit :)
Oh, I forgot this forum doesnt allow edits after a certain time period. Shrug |
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Excellent! Thanks for the answers, guys. A lot of this is coming back to me but it's great to hear your thinking. I've been playing C'tis just to have something to get to know better. If you have any specific suggestions for C'tis they would be great to hear. I'm going to play a few games vs. a hard AI for a while and get to know the units and spells.
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You could try Conj-1 for a black servant prophet, Enchant-3 for skelly spam, Thau-1 if needed for curse, Thau-4 for panic/terror/communion-paralyze if elephants are a threat, Evo-2 for site searching, then Const-4 for research skulls, Const-8 for the chalice and Conj-9 for tartarians.
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Construction seems to be on everyone's list. I guess magic items are considered crucial additions. Gonna have to experiment with that a bit. Thanks for the suggestions.
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1. Dragar had it right on the affliction chance.
2. I would absolutely not go construction first with ctis. Rather consider vfb's excellent advice. Your mages are all death aspected - so research schools that use that. conj for black servent, dark knowledge. Enchantment (iirc) for skelly spam). Darkness should be a major goal sometime thereafter. |
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More questions. I'm curious what kind of routines you vets play. The efficiency junkie and RTS player in me wants me to be recruiting a commander and maximum units every turn, but this detracts from other goals. So I'm wondering: do you guys find yourself always growing armies, or do you ever reach some kind of equilibrium point where you leave your armies relatively static (until reinforcements are needed) and start devoting assets to other goals? Will I fall hopelessly behind if I'm not growing my armies every turn?
I'm experimenting with Death magic, and I find that some of the cool spells cause destruction to most units while sparing undead units. I'm summoning undead commanders and lots of undead fighting units with the idea that I will focus on researching skills that wipe out all but undead. Of course, this strategy will be diminished by another nation with lots of undead, but in that case I can change my commanders' orders to focus on other spells. And anyway I'm just learning my way around. I'd love some input on these ideas and my question above. Thanks, |
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Oh, another thing. I've been summoning black servants to act as scouts and I noticed that vfb suggested I summon one as my prophet. Right now I have one of my main generals as a prophet since he's always on the road and I like the idea of spreading my dominion, but I can see now that I rarely have the opportunity for him to preach, he's always fighting. Is that why it's better to put some utility player into service as a prophet, like the Black Servant?
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Re: New Player questions
prophetizing an undead is the easiest way to get someone that can reanimate dead.
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as for growing units all the time... no. toward the mid game Sc's play an increasing role.
research is at least as important as armies. Also, think about it.. if you make only armies.. assume your prod capacity is x. Make a fort, and your production may be 2x, 3x 4x.... So obviously you have to balance all kinds of production. |
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Hmm. Are SC's that much a part of the game that I have to expect them in multiplayer? Is that what the battle order "Attack Large Monsters" is meant for?
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You will definitely meet SCs in MP. Play around with them a bit in SP. You'll find that they can often completely dominate the AI. Then try using them in MP and watch your army killers get casually killed by clever spell use or anti-SC thugs.
Attack Large Monsters is for them, or elephants or anything else big and ugly. |
Re: New Player questions
Armies certainly decline in importance over time, and become used mainly as shields for your important mages, thugs and SCs. It isn't just that they are less able to hurt SCs, they become very susceptible to large area spells, in particular battlefield enchantments like master enslave, undead mastery, fire storm, earthquake, etc.
Not that there is no place for armies later in the game, especially combined with powerful buffs like weapons of sharpness, fog warriors, mass flight, etc. They certainly remain useful for sieging and defending castles, and for patrolling. They just won't be your main offensive weapon. The trade-off between recruiting and using for other purposes is part of the skill of the game, and there are no set rules, it is all situational. One conflict I have problems with is research mages - being competitive in research is critical, but at the same time the more mages you have sitting at home poring over books and the fewer you have on the battlefield. A key advantage the defender has in Dom3 is ability to keep his mages researching most of the time, while an attacker must commit them to the field for an aggressive campaign, which also makes them more exposed to remote attacks and assassinations. In terms of having a focused undead army utilise spells that don't hurt them - unless you are ermor keep is as an option but don't rely on it. Someone expecting that can plan for it and hit you with very effective anti-undead spells. If you've been relying on large undead armies with foul vapours and rigor mortis to take out the enemy, it won't take too much to build a few poison resistant or even undead thugs (such as bane lords), or to set up a communion casting powerful anti-undead spells like Solar Brilliance or Wither Bones. Or they'll wait until you are well into enemy territory and cast Purgatory and wait for all of your chaff to burn. Make sure if you have one or two armies operating on that premise that you also have something else capable of handling the counters. Flexibility and surprise are key in MP. |
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Geez, the depth of this game. Like a good game of chess, there are basic operating principles governing the openings but then you're quickly into unpredictable tactics that put a higher value on situational awareness and knowledge of general principles. But like chess, I can see that there's also a lot of community knowledge about how to respond to well known lines.
I've been playing vanilla. Do people still play that or is CBM pretty standard? After reading the 300 page manual, I'm concerned that everything I know is wrong (to paraphrase Firesign Theatre).:cool: |
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CBM is pretty standard now. Don't worry, all the principles and mechanics are the same, its just some details that differ - I'd make the switch sooner rather than later though
You are right in your assessment, and that there are standard responses to different threats - off the top of my head, counters to typical threats: Large armies: • Bigger (or better) armies! • Thugs/SCs with high defence and/or protection, regen, area effect weapons or shields • Large area of effect or battlefield wide spells • Numerous raiding forces to take more than you lose from the 1 or 2 big armies against you Undead: • Low level spells such as solar rays, dust to dust, banishment • Higher level wither bones, solar brilliance, undead mastery, fire storm • Global spell purgatory if they are invading you • Anti-undead thugs Raiders: • Mind hunt (if they have no astral) • Teleporting thugs • Counter-raid • Castles Thugs/SCs: • Single target high precision elemental damage if not immune – frozen heart, disintegrate • Penetration boosted astral magics of MR not very high – paralyse, soul slay • Death magics – life drain, disintegrate • Blood magics – leech, life for a life, the two level 9 prison spells • Counterthug – specifically designed to kill his target, typically something that will attack first turn while the SC buffs himself. Something flying with a high attack score and armour piercing or negating weapon is often a good bet. Boots of speed or jade armour with a dusk dagger or gate cleaver will finish someone off quick smart if defence isn’t too high. If you know he casts 5 buffs at the beginning of combat you have time to dish the damage and don’t have to self-protect too much. • Horror spam Elephants (and other tramplers): • Large creatures/giants if you can field them • Fear spells • Immobilisers like prison of fire • Animal awe • Commander assassination Deadly archers (wind guide/flaming arrows_: • Arrow fend • Storm |
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Yes, I've noticed that. I've been pouring through the forums a lot lately and have learned much from that experience. A lot of the replies in this thread have been very helpful (looks at Dragar). At the end of the day, however, nothing has been more instructive than actually playing.
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The strategy index is probably the most concentrated source of useful links, though even there some info (such as how the site searching spells work) is outdated due to the most recent patch.
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• How are the armies fixed for leadership. If the army has relatively few leaders, assaassinate the leaders via assassins, mindhunts, remote spells (earth attack, situationally whirlwhind), seeking arrow. • Kill the army via remote spells. Usually gem intensive -things like wolven winter, flames from afar. • Communions. Master Enslave. My army now. • Skelly spam Quote:
Blessed units. • Capitol only: Shut down the capital. • Kill the blessing priests: Earthquake, rain of stones (Also a pretty good answer to communions). Actually Dragar - this would make a GREAT topic for a sticky. |
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true, will combine posts and start a thread, useful reference we can build
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This is a great thread, thank you. Can I ask questions here too or is that hijacking? In the hopes it is not....
- What does "CBM" mean? - How many mods can I have going at once? Can I get that better independents mod going with some other ones too? - Where do you see all these links? I don't see anyone's links in anyone's signature -- in fact, I don't see any "signatures" -- did I break something? Thank you |
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CBM = Conceptual Balance Mod. Read up about it in the Mods section.
In theory you can put on as many mods as you like and turn them on/off at will in the preferences screen when you start a game. However, some of them may clash. For instance, new mod nations introduce new creatures/spells/items etc. Each must have an assigned identifying number for the game to read, and if two people have made mods where they've used the same number for different objects, it causes problems. I have no idea why you can't see sigs. They should be at the bottom of people's posts. For instance, Baalz's should list a load of links to guides he's done, or Sombre a link to all the mods he's made. |
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Sigs: You can enable display of these in "User CP" (menu bar), "Edit Options" (left menu), "Show Signatures" (checkbox at the bottom).
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There's an option on the forum user preferences for turning sigs on/off.
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I just checked my "options" here and apparently everything was turned off when I registered. Turned the sigs on now-- that's a big help! I am not used to this forums format, sorry, and thank you for the help
So I could find that "Conceptual Balance Mod" and use it together with that "Better Independent Mod" and have a good SP combination that still gets me used to what people in MP play? I will try that! Thank you very much! |
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It won't really help you get used to how people play in mp, but it will probably make your game more challenging. MP is a very different beast, and you won't really get to see what mp is like without playing a game.
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I had another question. I'm going to play a tcip game with my son later tonight. We have separate machines over a LAN. I realize that I can host the game on my machine and play it at the same time and Force Host using the Quick Host (when turns are done) feature, but when we're done for the night can we save the game and resume later? I would assume so, but who saves it, the server, or one of the players?
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Re: New Player questions
You do not need to hit any "save" button. The only truly necessary file (I believe) is the fthrland file (which is on the server). From this and the .2h order files the clients send the servers the server generates .trn files to send back to the clients (I believe this part is the same for IP and PBeM games).
As the server you should now have this game among your list of saved games (as if you had played it locally). To play it more you simply need to start the server up again and give it the same game name (if it finds the save it will load that instead of starting a new game). |
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Ok, I tried that and it appears to work just fine (although I had to remember the name of the game, it didn't show me a list. Fortunately, I remembered it). Thanks!
I noticed something very interesting. I was given the option of playing either of the humans (my son or mine) when I fired up my 2nd Dom3. I also remember from setting up the server that I could choose multiple nations to be controlled by humans. If I am understanding things correctly, it appears that my son and I could actually start up a game where both of us controlled multiple nations and pretenders? That's truly weird and leads to some really interesting scenarios ... |
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You are correct on all counts.
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Then you can try you and your son allied vs multiple AI (computer played) nations. Then try each of you taking two nations. The uniqueness of the nations goes nuts when you consider how certain nations ally well with other nations filling in the gaps and making best use of the abilities. Then you can run multiple allied nations vs multiple computer-run nations which are also allied with each other. The unmodded game allows for something like 25 nations in any combination you want. With modded nations you can add another dozen or so above that. With the ALL_Nations mod you can go up to (if I remember right its now up to) 63 nations and add additional modded nations to take the total up to 95 nations on a 1500 province map. Feel like playing the same game for a whole year? :) Gandalf Parker -- The necessary components for such insanely extreme Dom3 games can be found at http://www.Dom3Minions.com |
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How do I set a unit to automatically cast the site search spell?
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Shift + m, then select the appropriate ritual
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After reading the Newbies v Vets Multiplayer game, there was talk about the difference between the two sets of players is in expansion.
What are some of the tricks to expanding quickly and not using huge armies? I've started 3 little games, just seeing what I learn from the first 20 or so rounds. End of the day, I just follow the good old safety in numbers trick. Mass produce archers with a few foot soldiers as buffer. Being very new, I have no idea how to maximise Bless (not even sure what it does). If anyone can help me with some early round tips that would be great. I'm also partially guessing that your pretender can make a huge difference in tactics. |
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An awake SC pretender can make a big difference in expansion (try a Wyrm with Dominion 10). Beyond that you need to look at your national troops, as expansion strategies vary by nation.
Archers with an infantry screen is a reasonable route, though. One rule of thumb is that you want to be sending out an army capable of taking territories every 2-3 turns if you can. Knowing which nation you're playing would help. |
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One thing that only comes with experience is judging how powerful your units are; how much damage they can do and how resilient they are.
What I'd do is try a few test games with a nation that has a good bless unit - MA/LA Vanheim as an example. See how many basic huskarls you need to clear out indies. Then compare it to how many Van (unblessed) you need for the same job. Then try Vans with a huge combat bless (E9W9, F9W9, etc.) Also look at huge units like Pythium's Hydras or elephants/mammoths (Arco, Bandar Log, Caelum). As these things are experience-based, there's no other way to find out than to playtest yourself and get an idea of what they can do. |
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[quote=Gandalf Parker;698456]
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Nice to talk to you again, Gandalf. Many years ago we corresponded regularly on the strategic.games newsgroup. Here we are, still gaming.:cool: |
Re: New Player questions
Yes.
Love your sig of Men do not stop playing because they grow old. They grow old because they stop playing. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes My version is: -- Get a life? No thanks. Just had one. Im retired now and get to play games all day. (envy me) Gandalf Parker |
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