First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

Hi, I'm, Mark Mayhugh. I just discovered Dominion 3 a couple of weeks ago, and am trying to get it figured out a bit. I am a big fan of PBEM games and turn-based strategy games in general. My first serious PBEM game was Fantasy War about 15 years ago, which reminds me a lot of Dominion 3, with simultaneous turns, although far less complex. Unfortunately, they went out of business a couple of years after starting. (Not to be confused with the current Fantasy Wars, which does not have simultaneous turns, and is still published.) I am very active in Alpha Centauri multiplayer games, which in my opinion is still the best Civ-sytle game, far better than the much newer Civ 4: BTS. If you have not tried Alpha Centauri, you should check it out. And my other current favorite is HOMM 5, a superb turn based game.

I am hoping to get some help getting up to speed. I have gathered some resources from the strategy link, including dom3_db and dom3 forging reference project, which are great pieces of work; my thanks to the authors. I would greatly appreciate pointers to good other information.

I am not looking for strategy help at this point; I am looking strictly for information. If there is some strategy mixed in with the information, that is fine, but I would really rather figure some strategies out for myself. What I don't want to do is waste a lot of time experimenting because I can't find any information about something. I don't want to figure out information for myself if I can avoid it; I would rather spend that time working on strategy.

In addition to useful links to information, I have some specific questions I hope someone can help with:

1. dom3_db_320_status.xls gives me a dialog "file error: data may have been lost" when I hope it with Excel 2003. Do other people get this error? dom3_db_320.ods opens fine with open office, so I can just use that, so it is not a big deal.

2. Does Master Alchemist pretender actually confer any kind of alchemy bonus? Do alchemy bonuses make gem to gem conversion more efficient, or only gem to gold?

3. Does alchemy (or can anything else) reduce the cost for empowerment?

4. Is there any way to actually use the Jaguar pretender? It does not seem to be available for any nation or age.

5. Has anyone done a Magic Path Boosting spreadsheet containing the information on pages 283-284 of the manual? It is only a couple of pages, but I would rather not type it in myself if I don't have to. I want to sort it out in some various ways, which requires a spreadsheet.

I have lots more questions, but this post is getting rather long, so I will save them for later. Thanks in advance for any help!

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

1) Dunno
2) gem to gold
3) Haha, that would make it actually good.
4) Smoke Mirror Jaguar one? That's Mictlan
5) Probably if you search around.

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

Welcome Mark, and Happy New Year! Glad you find the forging reference helpful.

1. "file error: data may have been lost" - I get this every time. Not sure why, but it still seems to be complete.

2. Master Alchemist - Yes, there's a gem --> gold benefit, but no gem --> gem benefit. A very niche pretender, I understand.

3. empowerment - No, unfortunately nothing helps with empowerment, but I've heard one of the heroes gets some kind of empowerment bonus...for example, it's only 30 gems to empower to level 3, etc. Maybe someone can confirm?

4. Jaguar pretender - Out of my pay grade. Anyone?

5. Magic Path Boosting spreadsheet - I don't believe there are any formal documents, but the boosts are listed in Edi's fantastic dom3_db, so I usually just use the "Filter" in Excel to find what I need. DEFINITELY checkout sector24's awesome Booster Guide. But you'll have all those boosters memorized in short order anyways :D

As far as other information sources, if you've found the strat index, you're in the right place. Snoddasmannan's web version of DrPraetorious's spell database isn't to be missed. Hidden tomes of knowledge include Edi's Better Independant's mod, which is a great guide to which indys are good and which should be avoided, and QM's CBM mod, which does that for everything.

But really, Dom3 is a baptism by fire game. Dive into MP! There's no better way to learn it. :)

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

I agree with Cleveasaur. Learn by doing!

Also if there's anything specific, there's the IRC channel and the forums. Asking a question that's already been answered (fairly) recently can annoy people on the forums though, particularly if the information is laid out pretty clearly in one of the manuals.

You might also want to check out the "lies my manual told me" thread.

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

3. Hero bonus to empowerment:
A MA Eriu hero, I think it was Lugh the Silver-Handed, has innate magic bonus 1. This means that if he has level 1 in Air magic, the innate bonus boosts it into 2. This affects all his paths, so empowerment is cheaper, and empowering in a new path might also be more useful. This is all from memory, so don't base your strategy around it.

4. Smoking Mirror is Mictlan-only pretender, probably only Early and Late ages.

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

Information: Do you own the full game yet or are you playing with the demo? The full game comes with a manual that has lots of good information on the exact formulas for computing missile fire, what Morale means, how MR works, etc.

Also, you might want to check out the "Did you know that... (Dominions trivia)" thread.

-Max

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

And of course dragons and Chayot have the exact opposite problem, although only for certain paths. Getting an S4 Chayot to S4E2 costs 135 Earth gems instead of the normal 80. Same thing trying to boost a dragon in its primary path, IIRC, because the human form is the base and the dragon form has negative magicboost.

-Max

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

lol I find it funny that someone who has the game a few weeks does know about a pretender he's never even seen to ask about in the forum, but that might just be me :D. I guess he got it out of the DB but still I'd play the game a few dozen times befor bothering with that (I actually only need it for modding really.)

I didn't know there where creatures in vanilla game with negative magic boost... I find it very funny dragons are one of them though since it's dragons I gave a bonus in my mod.

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

He sounds like a fast burner.

Welcome aboard Mark.
And dont sweat the questions. Not everyone is bothered by them. :)

Re: First Post: Introduction and Request For Help Getting Up To Speed
 

Well it was mentioned but noone in here was bothered by them sofar right?
Sombre just had a good advice.. I do think you should ask all questions in this (or the remainder in the next) thread else there will be zillions of threads.