Theme knowledge
 

It just occurred to me -- are themes public knowledge? Do I need to see the population in my border province sinking to know it's the Ashen Empire? If Illwinter has prevented people from promptly ganging up on Ermor then I love it.

Re: Theme knowledge
 

unless you are of the Warmonger PRT, you cant see design before engaging into battles.

oops.

Re: Theme knowledge
 

That's an interesting twist which I hadn't thought of either - it seems you might be less certain in Dom II what the counter to your opponents is, until you see them in action.

Not only the themes, but the blessing effects also are going to make a difference that you can't tell beforehand. Interesting. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Theme knowledge
 

Yes, Ermor migth be tame as a kitten when using Broken Empire, at least when you compare Broken Empire to Ashen Empire, and Pangaea can be killing the land with Carrior Woods.

Jotunheim migth be harvesting blood slaves to cast Illwinter at turn 25 when playing with Niefelheim.

Caelum migth be making the largest Undead army there is with Return of Raptors.

Marignon migth happily summoning Demons when using Diabolic Faith theme.

Intresting twist indeed...

Re: Theme knowledge
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Indeed. That'll make early scouting even more important, which is a good thing IMO.

I wonder how scouting will work in Doms II. In Doms I a scout/spy provided no knowledge on the scales of the province he was in. Which seems a bit odd - aren't scouts not supposed to feel the heat or the cold, or notice if people in a province are industrious or not, if the flora and fauna are thriving or if "corpses litter the landscape", etc.

Re: Theme knowledge
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Indeed. That'll make early scouting even more important, which is a good thing IMO.

I wonder how scouting will work in Doms II. In Doms I a scout/spy provided no knowledge on the scales of the province he was in. Which seems a bit odd - aren't scouts not supposed to feel the heat or the cold, or notice if people in a province are industrious or not, if the flora and fauna are thriving or if "corpses litter the landscape", etc.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Scouting is still the same as far as dominions go. Normal scout can only see what forces are in provinces (not very accurate), can't see exact local defense in province and can see who owns neighboring provinces. Basically they are only to see who owns what province and to maybe spy on some battles. Spy’s are far better comparing to scouts since they can see much more accurately forces in province, sometimes they see who is commander in province, can se exact defense force in province, can see discovered special sites in enemy provinces, and can instill uprisings in enemy provinces (increase unrest for those new to the game).

Of new races both Tien Chi and Machaka have spies (looking at default dominions, no special themes). Machaka also has assassin but assassin work the same way as scout with the exception of assassinating enemy commanders. Spy is still better to get info.

It's good point about feeling enemy dominion, but you can only see enemy dominions that border your dominion and nothing further.

Re: Theme knowledge
 

[quote]Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

Quote:

I wonder how scouting will work in Doms II. In Doms I a scout/spy provided no knowledge on the scales of the province he was in. Which seems a bit odd - aren't scouts not supposed to feel the heat or the cold, or notice if people in a province are industrious or not, if the flora and fauna are thriving or if "corpses litter the landscape", etc.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Excellent point. Now how would you recommend making scouts different than spys? I think of scouts as getting a wider, faster lay of the land. Spys would be more specific info on the province they are in. Maybe scouts should be able to get some small bits of info from provinces next to the one they are in other than just whether or not there is a castle there.

Re: Theme knowledge
 

[quote]Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

Quote:

I wonder how scouting will work in Doms II. In Doms I a scout/spy provided no knowledge on the scales of the province he was in. Which seems a bit odd - aren't scouts not supposed to feel the heat or the cold, or notice if people in a province are industrious or not, if the flora and fauna are thriving or if "corpses litter the landscape", etc.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Excellent point. Now how would you recommend making scouts different than spys? I think of scouts as getting a wider, faster lay of the land. Spys would be more specific info on the province they are in. Maybe scouts should be able to get some small bits of info from provinces next to the one they are in other than just whether or not there is a castle there.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You can see enemy castles in neighbouring provinces.

Re: Theme knowledge
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">In Doms I spys are just better scouts with a couple extra abilities (spot sites, instill uprising) and I'm happy with that. I have a few ideas on how to add flavour to the many scout variants - eg, a forester catched by enemy patrols in a forest province could retreat to an unowned neighboring province instead of dying - a Mother of Avalon or Dryad could attempt to trigger a Vine Ogre invasion (like the random event), etc. Funny things like that, although not necessary to the game.

Re: Theme knowledge
 

One thing I can think of I found lacking from dominions 1 was that although you could see hostile domain....you never knew who's hostile domain it was. You could guess some from the scale setup but it would be nice if it just said who had domain in a province as part of the description along with ownership.