A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

Hello,

I have downloaded the demo and the B.G. walkthrough and played around with DII for a few hours now and am still confused about a lot of things (which I hope I will understand at some point) but would really like help with this:

- what is the deal with magic and spells? Since I cannot see any list of spells or the schools from within the game (in the demo), I dont know which spells my Pretender or other magic Users can cast. How do I control which spells are cast during combat? Who exactly gets to cast which spells, and which units beside the Pretender benefit from magic research? Some cost no gems, but some require gems to work -- how does this work with tactically-cast spells (I mean those used during a batlle)?

- How do you assign bodyguards?

- Are there other single-person guides out there?

- I am only planning on playing single player for a while -- are there any patches which update the AI? I havent been able to find the game in Germany yet, still looking....

ok thanks. Other tips, especially on magic, appreciated!

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

I'm also still new to the game, but I think I can answer a few of your questions.

1) clicking on a school in the research screen (F5) brings up a list with all spells in it.

2) set a squad to "Guard Commander" five of them will then act as bodyguards during assassination attempts.

3) there was a pretty thourough AAR for Dom1 around, but I can't find the link right now. search the forum for a topic about AAR's and you'll find it.

4) No patch yet, but should be released soon.

I also live in Germany, you could either order it from Shrapnelgames (will be a bit expensive) or try something like www.okaysoft.de they have a section for imported games (mußt allerdings eine Nummer von deinem Personalausweis angeben damit die wissen daß du über 18 bist).

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hello.

1) The deal with magic and spells:
When you begin playing the game your mages know one or a few spells. All your mages know these spells.

When you researsh magic you research a school of magic. Conjuration is one such school. If you research 'conjuration' your mages will get access to spells that allows you to summon monsters. If you research 'evocations' your mages will get access to artillery like spells mainly used on the battlefield.

In each school there are spells of all paths (fire, water, death, etc) and your mages will learn them all, but only the ones skilled in fire may cast fire spells.

If you enter the laboratory and click on research you can find information on all spells in the game. Right-click on a school and you will find a list of all spells in that school. You will find hundreds of spells, so you will be at a loss at first.

I would recommend that you research either evocation, conjuration or construction. Evocation is mainly battle field spells. Conjuration is used to get magic monsters. Construction is used to make magic items.

If you want to understand how to tell your mages to cast spells in battle I would go for evocations (or perhaps alterations).

I'm not sure what nation you are playing, but Caelum can quickly get access to Lightning Bolt (research evocation lvl 2) so they might be useful as an example.

When choosing spells to cast:
- Enter Army Setup.
- 'Change orders' for the mage.
- 'Cast specific spell'. A list of all spells he can cast is now displayed. Right-click to get info on the spell. Mages may choose up to five spells to cast. After five turns the AI will choose what spells the mage uses. Generally the AI does a good job at this and you do not have to choose spells unless you have some special objective.

Some spells require gems to be cast. In order to cast these your mage must be equipped with magic gems. This can be done when your mage is in a province with a laboratory. Inspect a mage and click on the treasure chest besides his item slots. You can transfer between mages and the lab. All labs are connected (ie. there is one global lab and one gem pool, no bother with labs in different provinces).

If told to cast a spell that requires gems and equipped with the gems needed the mage will cast this spell, unless it is useless (casting undead destroying spells when there are no undead etc).

If you are still confused (you should be http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) just ask some more. People here are friendly and helpful.

2) Regarding Bodyguards:
- Enter army setup screen.
- 'Change orders' to get a list of orders to choose from.
- 'Guard Commander'.
Bodyguards do not attack enemies. They just hang around their commander and attacks anyone that tries to attack their protegee. Avoid having too large a bodyguard your chances of victory will be reduced if all your men stand idel in the back off the battle field.

3) Regarding SP guides. There are some, but I'm not sure where. Some dedicated fans might give you a clue. This forum is very good though. Ask on http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

4) Patches:
No patches available today, but there is one on the way and plans for the next one is already in the works.

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

Wow, thanks for these great replies, and so quickly too. Yes, I am still a bit overwhelmed. Kristoffer O, that was very helpful; I am still unsure on the magic thing, since I figured gems would only be for ritual spells you can "micromanage" outside the tactical battles; it just seems odd to me to have the AI choose which spells to cast in the tactical battles, especially if they cost gem resources. Since you asked, I am still trying Jotunheim, since that was the race in the walkthru I downloaded, but I would like to try others with more spellcasters.

- What does the Fatigue rating mean with the spells and how does that affect the casters? According to the in-game popups, fatigue is for melee only.
- do I see right that you need not research Priest spells (blessings)? Do the priests cast automatically too?
- Can I change the level of mageness of any of my casters (including Pretender) during gameplay?
- I thought you can only "give gems to commanders" -- can I give em to any spellcaster?

- On another level, does it make sense to have one of my commanders be a Prophet as fast as possible?
- What exactly is the difference between resources and supplies and upkeep?
- What exactly happens if you change those scales at the beginning during God creation? Is Unrest important? What about population?
- Does placing fortifications also deter your own taxation?

I have played like 6 games now, and I have never even become close to beating the Easy AI. Yikes. Is this the case in the Full game too?

@ reverend: thanks for the info. Dont know about Perso-Info, since 1. I am American, and 2. will so was sehr ungern preisgeben. Wird Shrapnel sonst wo vertrieben?

OK thanks so much, this really does seem like a friendly community.

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">as far as I know, no. you could also try and call them (okaysoft). if you're lucky, you don't need any info to order it. or at least they'll tell you if they can import it or not.

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

1) Castings spells cause fatigue too, depending on the spell. Being armored while doing so cause even more.


2) You don't need to research blessings. Left to their own devices, your priests will probably cast them, but you canf make sure of that by giving them appropriate orders.


3) Yes, this is called Empowerment. It works for any commander, even a non mage. It costs lots of magic gems.

4) As far as I know, all spellcasters are commanders. Commanders meaning that they lead their own unit, even if they are the only one in it.

5)
Yes, unless you are waiting until you can afford a particular one (which shouldn't take that long) or until a particular hero shows up (which could take some time). I usually make a prophet of my best priest, as the higher level of holy are really powerfull. But a prophet will be at least level 3, so if you have only level 2 priest you can make anyone your prophet.

6) Resources are used to build units. They are available on a per province basis, and are not stored. Basically, it is a limit on how much you can build in each province
Supplies is used to feed armies. They govern how many troops you can keep in each province. If you don't have enough, the unsupplied troops start first to starve (moral penalty) then get diseases (very bad). Starvation can be cured simply by having enough food. Disease is more difficult
Upkeep is the cost (in gold) of paying for your standing armies. It is taken (at the start of the turn) from your treasury, so basically it is deduced from your income.


7) The scales give various bonuses : Order increases gold, productivity production (and gold a bit), heat and cold decrease gold and supply, Growth increases supply, gold (a bit) and province growth, luck gives you more good events, and magic helps research but reduces magic resistance.

Unrest cuts your province income and production. Population (with province type) determine how big they are in the first place. They are both quite important. 100% unrest means you cannot build any army, and your income will dwindle to nothing

8)The admin value of your castle, divided by two, is added as a percentage to your province income, so fortifications are good for income. They also bring a lot more ressources.


9) I am sure you will get better. Particularly if you haven't being using the scales yet http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Try this : order +3, productivity +3, and fortified city. Take a armor heavy race (Ulm for example). Go crush everybody under the weight of that armor http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif With Easy AIs, that should work fairly well without having to do fancy things...

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

[quote]Originally posted by onomastikon:
Wow, thanks for these great replies, and so quickly too. Yes, I am still a bit overwhelmed. Kristoffer O, that was very helpful; I am still unsure on the magic thing, since I figured gems would only be for ritual spells you can "micromanage" outside the tactical battles; it just seems odd to me to have the AI choose which spells to cast in the tactical battles,


Consider that (a) this game is meant to be playable via PBEM, and (b) there can be quite a few battles per turn involving possibly quite many spellcasters. Tactical combat is a must for practical reasons, so the AI ends up making decisions about things such as spells once it's exhausted the up to five specific instructions (like casting specific spells) and one general (like 'cast spells' or 'stay behind troops').

Given the number of spells in the game, and number of possible situations, it'd be pretty tricky to have players script the entire spellcasting AI, and not very kind. At least with AI control, players don't need to script to be competitive.


especially if they cost gem resources. Since you asked, I am still trying Jotunheim, since that was the race in the walkthru I downloaded, but I would like to try others with more spellcasters.

- What does the Fatigue rating mean with the spells and how does that affect the casters? According to the in-game popups, fatigue is for melee only.


Fatigue is for anything that causes, well, fatigue. Swinging that weapon causes fatigue (but firing missile weapons doesn't!), flying causes some IIRC, and so does casting spells -- with more powerful spells generally causing more fatigue and often requiring gems to boot, baking on a magically hot battlefield costs fatigue if you're not immune, etc.

More fatigue makes you easier to hit. Reach 100 fatigue, fall unconscious. Reach 200 fatigue, start taking hit point damage and possibly die.

Fatigue from spells =
(spell base fatigue / (1 + number of levels the caster exceeds the spell's primary path + extra gems/blood slaves spent)) + unit's 'base' encumberance + double(!) armor encumberance + modifier from drain scale (fatigue reduction in magic scale) + additional penalty if it's fire magic during rain. Something like that, heh.

If you're unconscious (100+ fatigue), you regain 5 fatigue points that turn, but you can't cast spells KO'd... Spellcasters will benefit nicely from use of fatigue-reducing magic e.g. 'Relief' spell, assorted 'reinvigoration' items.

Primary path = Every spell has requirements in usually one or sometimes two paths (the four 'elemental' paths of fire, air, earth, water and the four 'sorcery' paths of astral, death, nature, blood; or the priestly holy and unholy paths). When two paths are listed, both requirements must be fulfilled but only the first of the two paths counts for fatigue reduction, and all magical resource requirements come from that path as well.


- do I see right that you need not research Priest spells (blessings)? Do the priests cast automatically too?


Automatically researched, 'tho the unholy prayers vary by race/theme. Priests still need to meet the minimum holy/unholy requirements for casting, 'tho (e.g. 'Smite' can only be cast by a holy-5 priest.)

Priests, just like other spellcasters, will generally default to casting in the absence of other orders.


- Can I change the level of mageness of any of my casters (including Pretender) during gameplay?


Yes.

For the 'magely' elemental and sorcerous paths,

(1) Empowerment, which requires that the commander -- who doesn't need to be a mage yet -- be in the same province as a lab, and takes a turn. To gain level 1 in a path that the commander doesn't already know takes *50* resources of the appropriate type (gems from that path, or blood slaves).
To achieve level 2 in a path that's already known at level 1 costs 30 resources; every additional path requires ever-higher incremental investments (+15/level, e.g. level 3 costs 45 more, level 4 cost 60 more...)
The rather high cost of empowerment means you generally shouldn't do this too often. The 60 gems you just burned to increase a caster's power from 3 to 4 in, say, earth, could have been turned into items, conjured monsters, etc.

(2) Equip your casters with magical items that boost assorted paths. Note: duplicate items on the same commander do not have additional special effects. A Ring of Wizardry, for instance, grants +1 to all the caster's known paths (but it doesn't give level 1 in a path the caster doesn't know yet)... but even if you could afford it, giving a second RoWizardry to the same caster would be pointless.

(3) Cast boosting spells in battle. Some paths have spells which result in a (non-stacking, of course) one-level boost -- usually only in that path, but astral's "Power of the Spheres" boosts all known paths. Blood's "Hell Power" boosts all known paths by TWO for that battle, but has its risks... and Communion can produce very impressive boosts, e.g. while 1 communion slave justs offloads fatigue, 2 slaves boost levels by 1, 4 slaves boosts by 2, 8 slaves boost by 3, etc...


Holy/Unholy is far harder to boost. Empowerment doesn't apply. You can declare one commander your prophet, in which case he gets +1 priest level or a priestly level of 3, whichever is greater, but you can only have one at a time, and if he dies you need to wait 6 months before you name another one. There are also two unique weapons, one of which gives +1 holy and the other gives +1 unholy. Communion also boosts (un)holy power in battle.



- I thought you can only "give gems to commanders" -- can I give em to any spellcaster?


The set of spellcasters is a subset of the set of commanders. Mere 'units' don't cast full-blown spells, although certain units may know magic that could be of use if only you'd magically turn them into commanders, and others have built-in abilities that could be considered spells such as the ability to disguise themselves with illusions. These abilities, however, do not use magical resources.


- On another level, does it make sense to have one of my commanders be a Prophet as fast as possible?


If you won't have access to a priest of at least level 3 soon, it might well make sense because your Prophet will automatically get level 3.

If you can recruit or summon a priest of level 3 or better yet 4, doing so and making him a prophet would generally be advisable, as there are holy/unholy spells restricted to levels 4 and 5.



- What exactly is the difference between resources and supplies and upkeep?


Resources = represents things like good-quality steel. Used only when recruiting troops, especially troops with heavy armor and weapons, e.g. Ulm Black Knights. Does not accumulate from turn to turn. Affected by presence of fortress; fortresses do, in fact, draw resources from neighboring provinces owned by the same player without fortresses of their own.

Supplies = represents food. If you don't have enough supplies available, a random sample of hungry units (not all units eat) will starve for that turn. Starving units suffer a substantial morale penalty. Units that starve twice in a row contract a (terminal) disease. Available supply is based on population, growth scale, type (e.g. farmland vs. wasteland) of province, distance from nearest friendly fortress. Net supply consumption can be greatly reduced by bringing along food-providing items. Don't get cut off without sufficient supply generators.

Also, being besieged cuts into available supply. While fortresses have a base supply rating representing stockpiles, on turn N of the siege the effective supply rating is (base/N).


Upkeep = Represents pay, other overhead of keeping your troops happy. Measured in gold. Costs every turn. For most troops, it's based on recruitment cost; 'sacred' units provide a discount (!). Certain summoned troops like trolls need to be placated with gold, too. If you can't afford it, troops will become unhappy and will probably leave.



- What exactly happens if you change those scales at the beginning during God creation? Is Unrest important? What about population?


Scales = VERY important.

Order/Turmoil affects taxation income considerably. It also affects probability of random events, which can have pretty significant impact.

Productivity/Sloth affects resources. Matters more for nations that rely on resource-heavy troops like Ulm.

Heat/Cold affects taxation, certain other things. All nations/races have a 'preferred' setting; deviating will hurt taxes. Certain magics and magical beings are affected by heat/cold, and extremes tend to cause fatigue.

Growth/Death affects population increase/decrease and available supplies (the latter effect does not affect Abysia).

Fortune/Misfortune affects both probability of events occuring (IIRC) and the likelihood that events are good. Certain extreme events only happen at extreme fortune or misfortune. A number of events depend on the other scales as well.

Magic/Drain affects ease of casting magic (fatigue cost), ease of resisting magic, ease of magical resource.

Setting initial dominion strength (candles) will affect things like maximum dominion strength you can have in any given province (until you build many temples).

Oh, and unrest: it hurts. Unrest decreases tax income and resources, IIRC. At 100, you can't recruit troops there. At very high levels, there's a risk of spontaneously losing the province if ungarrisoned. You need to deal with unrest, perhaps by lowering taxes or sending in patrols to make examples of dissidents.

Population affects tax income and supplies. Important. It also affects the likelihood of finding sacrificial virgins if that's what you're after.


- Does placing fortifications also deter your own taxation?


No. With a non-zero administration, it'll actually improve tax revenue in the province. The main effects of fortresses are something like

- Being able to recruit 'national' troops at that province, so long as there's not a land/water difference, e.g. it's hard to recruit heavy horse underwater, or to find illithids on land. Undead auto-reanimation is similarly more powerful with a fortress present.

- Having a place to retreat inside if the province is overrun. Castle storming battles can be fairly ugly with the more defensive structures.

- Providing a supply distribution center.

- Increasing tax collection efficiency in that province without side-effects such as increasing unrest.

- Gathering resources from neighboring non-castled friendly provinces so you can actually recruit heavy horse at a reasonable rate.



I have played like 6 games now, and I have never even become close to beating the Easy AI. Yikes. Is this the case in the Full game too?


There's a considerable learning curve. You might want to try large maps and strong independents to give yourself more time before you run into AIs. You'll also probably want to solicit advice about particular nation/theme combinations, what scales seem to work etc.

For some head-bashing without too much micromanagement, try Ulm with a Prince of Death, a Fortified City or other high-admin fortress, and strong economically-oriented scales e.g. Productivity 3, Order 3. Use Drain 3 for more points because Master Smiths basically laugh at drain scale, and magic is generally an Ulm weakness anyway. Consider a small or medium map with few opponents, and perhaps Rich resources. Research Construction, get some Earth Boots for your Master Smiths, and construct some armor and a decent weapon for your PoD. Meanwhile recruit armored troops... A PoD with decent gear can be a very formidable fighter against an AI, although human players would probably dig into their troves of anti-undead and anti-supercombatant tricks like Maggots or Paralyze.

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Quite correct, the Monolith (and a few other pretenders) cannot move ever. But he can still forge objects, cast ritual spells, and so on, which is were the "possess" things comes, and is quite automatic.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, each race starts with one or two free spells

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">People do, only the AI doesn't. Well, you must be able to afford it, and usually you don't want to buid a fort right next to your capital (it hurts ressources there, and there are units you can only build in your capital). But provided you use some common sense in placement, and you can defend them (because losing them would be bad, it gives your opponent a free forward base right in your territory), they are very useful.

[ January 06, 2004, 13:20: Message edited by: General Tacticus ]

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

Make sure you look at this thread. It answers a number of your questions. I think I'll reorganize it soon http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A few questions from a Newbie -- thanks for help
 

Yikes, thanks so much. Hats off to this site and this community. That was all very helpful.

Still experimenting. Btw, you cant research more than 4 in the demo Version, which is tough to experiment when looking for game.

Last questions?
- Do I understand right that the Monolith can never move, ever? I dont see a command to "possess" willing helpers to perform tasks -- anyone know how this works?
- Sometimes I see casters can cast spells they really shouldnt be able to (usually cause research not unlocked yet) -- do some spells come for free?
- Why dont people build lots of forts all over?

ok thanks tons!