[RedRover]

I’ve been off for a while looking at how modding is handled in other games (CivFanatic site is awesome--there's even a StarGate mod for Civ2!), and would like to weigh in with some specific modding wishes. First, though, are two wishes I haven’t seen mentioned, but that I would really like to see in Dom3:

TWO WISHES

Default Button: I wish for a Default Button to reset the game to the original “classic” game parameters once I have totally changed everything in the setup screen. This is IMO the single most desirable feature, if the huge number of setup choices other people wished for are implemented. (Don’t get me wrong—I’m first in line for more setup choices. But I also want the classic base game the developers are designing, regardless of how badly I've fiddled the game options.)

Time Flag: It would be highly useful if the main map screen had a tag (maybe in the lower right-hand corner) that toggles between Game Turn, Game Time (e.g.: Late Spring), and Real Time (Clock). It would be much more convenient than going to the End Turn screen for Game Turn, Message screen for Seasonal Turn, and Desktop for real time.

MODDING WISHES

Modding Tool, LGR: The single most useful modding tool I can think of is a Local Group Randomizer. This would let a scenario designer specify a group of elements by name or number and place one or more elements from a library file into the group randomly.

For example, on the Cradle map, I might create a scenario in which I want the special magic sites (only) to have L4 sites (only). In this case, I don’t care which L4 site goes in which special site, as long as each special site on the map has a L4 magic site and all L4 sites in the scenario are assigned to the special sites.

Or I might have a scenario in which a specific site will be located in only one of half a dozen potential locations (King Arthur/Grail).

This might be modified with a locking function so each element in the library file is flagged closed once it is used (and resets to open when the last is used). For example, I could set up an element file of 24 sites, only eight of which, all different, would be selected randomly for a given map.

This would, for example, make it easier to keep the ratio of L1 to L2 to L3 to L4 sites the same, and Path distribution roughly equal, while allowing a theoretically infinite number of special sites in the library files. Since most people like making complex/weird power/high-gem sites more than low-gem plain vanilla sites, this would prevent the former from overwhelming the latter by sheer number once modders start adding their creations to the game.

Mod Tool, Default Designator: This tool would let me designate specific game elements as defaults for a modpak, so hitting the default reset button when the mod is enabled would reset these specified elements to the modpack defaults rather than the standard game defaults.

Modding Tool, Event Scheduler: Assuming we will pick up the ability to mod random events and expand the Dom 3 event list, I wish for the additional capability to set specific triggers for events. For example, an event that 1)creates (or destroys) game element such as a magic site or unit on a given game turn, or 2) a certain number of turns after a specified event occurs, or 3)after the creation/destruction of a specific unit. The LGR might be combined with this to allow one of a limited file of events to occur, or even to randomize a turn of occurrence within a specified range of turns.

Mod Tools, Link Tracking for Spells/Abilities: You can change parameters of spells, weapons, and so on. However, I wish the Dom 3 mod utility could also tell you where else a spell or weapon is embedded in the game; that is, which other game elements your change will affect.

For example, if I replace the “Call of the Wild” spell with the all-new “Vine Jaguar” spell, it would be nice to know that I’m also messing up the “Soulstone of the Wolves” magic item, a detail I might otherwise forget.

New Magic Item Effect, Visibility Curse: A unit equipped with this cursed item has any stealth function disabled. In addition to a new standard item (1A1S Amulet of Location?), the Soul Contract might be given this attribute to remove the “hide from Horrors” exploit.

This concept might be expanded to allow almost any special ability/power to be disabled by a specially created cursed item.

Hobby Tool, Libraries: I’d like to see a more developed system of library files for the game. For example, God Libraries. For this, I might keep a folder called Ulm. In it, I might have a dozen of my own designs for Ulm Pretenders, sortable by Chassis, Theme, and Challenge level, maybe identified by the God’s name. I wish for the option to go into this library and pick the Pretender of my choosing when I start a game. Also, when I set up a game, I wish for the option to go into the God Library and pick specific Pretenders for each nation, or set Pretenders to full random selection (the default) or random selection from a limited group (for example, human Pretenders only). I wish for a base library of one default Pretender per base nation for each difficulty level (in Dom 2, 17x4), about 75%-80% optimized for their level of play (in other words, leave space in the default Pretenders for me to improve them).

For the God Library specifically, it might be useful to have a “Splash” screen for each Pretender that lists Chassis (w/picture/stats), Magic, Scales, Dominion, Fort, Themes/Enabled, that you could easily call up and look at when making a selection.

The Library concept might be extended to Sites, Items, Special Powers, Spells, Weapons, National Heroes, Independent Poptypes, and so on.

I’m not wishing that extensive libraries be filled for Dom 3. I’m wishing that the architecture be put into place, using the default game files as examples. The fans can take care of filling the shelves.

Mod Tool, Era Libraries: It would be useful to have a grouping tool that could assign specific nation themes and other elements as defaults for a randomly generated game.

Example: If (to pull a setting out of the air) I liked the Dragonlance setting so much I wanted to do a full mod, I could, after doing, say, the War of the Lance period, set up the Age of Myth period as well, and have the game engine randomize games for either, at my option. Era libraries would establish a default mix of spells, items, sites, creatures, and so on specific to the fantasy world and era. The defaults (and the only ones necessary to include in Dom3, of course) are those from the core Dominion 3 world.

Generic Hero Slots: One generic National Hero slot for each nation, generally a non-wizard military commander that must be named (or is randomly named with renaming possible), to which hero-creating events default once the specially designed heroes have all appeared. This ensures that even in the longest games, the supply of heroes never really dries up for a nation, nor do you have the same hero showing up after it's killed.

Default Settings: Most of the default settings in Dom2 are OK, but I'd like to see the Renaming default set to "On."