[Miles]

Originally posted by Zen:
Since you are the one advocating this balance; I'd nominate you to start the proceedure with your own effort.

Ok. I suppose that this means that I get to tick-off the developers. Great.

Inbalance in a person's capability to use Dom2 is most painfull when the person is new to the game. So, the most pressing thing is to make it easier for noob's to approach the game.

So, first we make a set of intro mods. In the current patch (2.06) this consists of 5 parts:

• A happy friendly (HF) mod.
• Instructions for installing and enabling the HF mod.
• A HF map.
• Instructions for installing the HF map.
• Instructions for creating a game (including god design.)

There are two problems with this:

• The whole process is too painfull.
• The noob doesn't know it exists.

The only good answer to the first problem is, we need an additional modding tool. This tool would allow us to package a mod, a map (with it's .tga), and all the rest of the info needed to create a game.

For now, I am calling this proposed tool a 'scenario'. It will have to be part of the next patch.

The only good answer to the second problem is to put access to some intro scenario's in front of everybody face when they start the game. Again, this requires a patch. The patch should make a minor change to the game menu's. The patch should also include several sample scenarios.

So, we need a list of things that are defined by a Scenario file:

• Victory conditions.
• Mods to use (Scenario will ONLY use specified mods)
• Map to use
• Descriptions of all gods used.
• Whatever else needed to specify a game.

The current Dom2 menus look like:
Create a New God
.(Clickable list of possible Nations)
..(Display Nation description)
..Ok
...(Display list of selectable Pretender templates)
....(Enter name of god into text box)
....Ok
.....(Show remaining design points)
.....Magic
.....Dominion
.....Castle
.....Set Password
.....View Magic Schools
.....Ready
...Cancel
..Cancel
.Cancel
Create a New Game
.(Clickable list of possible Nations)
.Ok
..(Clickable list of possible Maps)
...(Title of MAP)
...(Display thumbnail of selected Map's .tga file)
...(Display Map description.)
...Ok
...Cancel
..Cancel
.Ok
.Cancel
Play an Existing Game
.(selectable list of saved games)
.Play game
.Delete game
.Cancel
Network
.Connect to a Dominions Server
.Setup a Dominions Server
.Cancel
Preferences
.Video preferences
.Audio preferences
.Mod preferences
..(Clickable list of possible mods.)
..Exit
.Exit
Map Editor
.New map
.Load map
.Exit
Quit

The necessary changes would look like:

The initial menu changes to:

Play a premade Scenario
Play a standard game
Play an existing game
Network
Video preferences
Audio preferences
Map Editor
Quit

The 'Play a premade Scenario' option will lead to the following menu:

(Title="Select Scenario")
(Clickable list of possible Scenario's)
.(Title of Scenario)
.(Display thumbnail, .scn file points to .map points to .tga)
.(Display Scenario description)
.(List MODs used by Scenario)
.Ok
..(Immediatly starts the game using the info provided by the Scenario.)
.Cancel
Exit

The 'Play a standard game' will lead to the following menu:

Create a New God
Create a New Game
Mod preferences
Exit

So, the changed menu's would look like:

Play a premade Scenario
.(Title="Select Scenario")
.(Clickable list of possible Scenario's)
..(Title of Scenario)
..(Display thumbnail, .scn file points to .map points to .tga
..(Display Scenario description)
..(List MODs used by Scenario)
..Ok
...(Immediatly starts the game using the info provided by the Scenario.)
..Cancel
.Exit
Play a standard game
.Create a New God
..(Clickable list of possible Nations)
...(Display Nation description)
...Ok
....(Display list of selectable Pretender templates)
.....(Enter name of god into text box)
.....Ok
......(Show remaining design points)
......Magic
......Dominion
......Castle
......Set Password
......View Magic Schools
......Ready
....Cancel
...Cancel
..Cancel
.Create a New Game
..(Clickable list of possible Nations)
..Ok
...(Clickable list of possible Maps)
....(Title of MAP)
....(Display thumbnail of selected Map's .tga file)
....(Display Map description.)
....Ok
....Cancel
...Cancel
..Ok
..Cancel
.Mod preferences
..(Clickable list of possible mods.)
..(Right-click to see mod description)
..Exit
.Exit
Play an existing game
.(selectable list of saved games)
.Play game
.Delete game
.Cancel
Network
.Connect to a Dominions Server
.Setup a Dominions Server
.Cancel
Video preferences
Audio preferences
Map Editor
.New map
.Load map
.Exit
Quit

So, I will play harpy-from-hell and try to get one of the developers to pay attention to this proposal.

In the mean time, I will create a few 'Happy Friendly' bundles that try to tutor new players in various aspects of Dom2's gameplay.

Miles