Scales/bless changes you would like

[Twan]

Out of things that can actually be modded and things needing a full remake of the engine, what would you change in dominions ?

Personnally my list is :


Making all bless comparable to see more pretender diversity :

- Air level 9 bless : 75% SR is a too situationnal and very strange bless (with this gadget bless for the not extremely powerful air magic why fire don't give 75% FR nor water 75% CR instead of their superpowers?). I think a better bless effect for air already exists and is coded as the eagle warriors ability : first round fly (would be very useful for nations with slow sacred or wanting to attack before ennemy mages buff the troops, but still not overpowered at all compared to bless affecting stats or dammage).

- Blood level 9 bless : blood curse is a joke, it should be blood vengeance instead. If blood vengeance is too powerful I would say a blood vengeance with MR negates easily instead of MR neg.


Magic power secondary effects :

- water nations are too quiet in the seas, I'd give back the water mage power to lead troops underwater ! (eventually half the defense bonus to compensate) Or perhaps give it to air mages instead.


Scales :

All usually are less interesting than order and magic.

- production (there was a thread about that) should have another interest like reducing fort construction time or price

- the maximum number of events per turn should be made in relation with map size, to balance luck with order even for big empires on big maps ; once event are checked everywhere for a nation the best should be kept if the nation has a positive luck national scale (luck is the only scale losing global power if you conquer provinces out of your scales/dominion ; your order provinces don't lose income if you add some with turmoil)

- growth is only usefull in very long games and/or for old mages nations ; an additionnal cool effect would make it more interesting in all settings ; something like a mini gift of health effect (3% of curing affliction per growth scale ? or one bonus hp for national units ?) would be a good addition IMO

[Niarg]

I'd like to see more variety in the cost of everything, at the moment it feels like almost everything costs about 40 points, which is really annoying when you only have 30 points left.

Production I'd like to see the income increased to about 5%, that way there would be a way to increase your income and take luck as well (currently not really an option as growth is too long term, production is too little and order pretty much means you'll take misfortune).

[chrispedersen]

I actually think Dom 2 superior in this regard - that you could buy themes and forts.

The point system is not granular enough - too often you will have 20 pts left and have to discard the build as it is not optimized or efficient.

I'd like options you can buy for points- so for example:

Buy an extra starting national scout - 5pts.
Buy an extra starting 200 gp - 5 pts.
Start with a prophet.. 5 pts.
Extra 10% HP for pretender - 5 pts
Extra +1 Atk on Pretender ... you get the idea.

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Second thing I'd like to see:

Make a unit creater. Allow each nation to create its own units. Give each nation unique advantages to reflect its themes.

So for example, all atlantean units have either amphibious or underwater - but underwater is free and amphibious is half cost.

All abysian units are fires resistent 25% and 50% and 100% are half cost. Additionally, all abysians get 5 pts of pd.
(whatever).

Then, have people 'buy' strength, movement, magic resistance etc - the weapon they want to use.

Each troop type would cost a number of points. The number of points you get would depend on the number of points you allocate to miliary.

So for example, out of a starting 1000 pts, abysia allocates 234 pts to troops ( a low number)

From that he creates a militia type, a flame wielding heavy infantry type, a national mage and a prophet. But thats all he has points for!

Adds almost infinite variety

[Zeldor]

Twan:

Yeah, I would like to see much more possibilities with events, so amount of max events depends on map size. Though I don't think it is moddable. I would also want more events, especially national ones, or pretender depandant.

Other interesting thing could be increased initial armies, to lower awake pretenders or sacred strength.

I would also like an option of fast start, when you create the game check the option to divide all land between players, equally, with some armies, PD and mages recruited. I would also want to be able to give specific amount of RP to every nation, so they can divide it. Game would start then with for example 1000 rp per nation.

[Endoperez]

Won't happen for Dominions, but something like that could work for almost any kind of game if done well. Perhaps better for scifi than fantasy, though.

[Omnirizon]

I agree with Endo. Too much variety in choice and unit design would make the game a 'unit design' game and _then_ a 'strategy' game. unit designs simply become the new lowest common denominator and serve no purpose but to add unneeded complexity to the game, slowing down gameplay and taking away from the strategy and diplomacy.

the game has great balance as is. something adding unnecessary complexity may appeal to some people; and perhaps some chicks dig fat sweaty guys too.

on another note, how many points is too many points leftover? I guess I make my cutoff at 15 or 20. any lower than that and you have to make scales/dominion so goofy trying to fit points as to just be stupid.

[Ewierl]

chrispedersen said:
I actually think Dom 2 superior in this regard - that you could buy themes and forts.

The point system is not granular enough - too often you will have 20 pts left and have to discard the build as it is not optimized or efficient.

I'd like options you can buy for points- so for example:

Buy an extra starting national scout - 5pts.
Buy an extra starting 200 gp - 5 pts.
Start with a prophet.. 5 pts.
Extra 10% HP for pretender - 5 pts
Extra +1 Atk on Pretender ... you get the idea.

Now, I like the theoretical idea of having something to do with leftover points. However, permanent bonuses to your pretender of any kind would be a bad bad plan. Just think of the SCs you could make if you decided to focus your point expenditures on this kind of boost, instead of just using them to sop up a few spare points.

And if it gave you gold, think of what you could do to turbocharge a rush strategy; sacrifice a point of scales, and get how many extra sacreds your first few turns?

Basically, bonuses of those sorts would have to be so limited as to be clearly not worthwhile- a poor and wasteful way to spend points, as long as you have any other options whatsoever.

[thejeff]

My suggestion, it this was to be implemented, would be to absolutely limit it to 39 pts. Less than the cost of a scale.
No selling off scales to get more extra pts, but just a way to use up left overs.

[Sombre]

I'd be interested in the leftover points being spent in a random way - you would be told by a message at the start of the game what they'd been converted into. You could get 20 points worth of militia, a crappy trinket item, a 10% discount on all future temples,.. stuff like that.

Of course I don't actually want anyone wasting their time coding that ;]

[Foodstamp]

Order/Turmoil - Leave as is
Production/Sloth - I really like the idea of reducing fort build times.
Hot/Cold - Leave as is
Growth/Death - Leave as is
Luck/Misfortune - Leave as is
Magic/Drain - Make the research bonus scale per step, instead of every two. 3 Magic yields a research bonus of 3, magic 2 yields +2 research etc.

Fire Bless - Leave as is
Water Bless - Leave as is
Air Bless - Charge Body instead of Lightning Resist.
Earth Bless - Leave as is
Astral Bless - Leave as is
Nature Bless - Leave as is
Death Bless - Leave as is
Blood Bless - Horror Mark whoever gets deathblow (Could be a good SC counter?)