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.