Preparing for game delivery

Yskonyn · #1 October 29th, 2009, 12:38 PM

Hello people!

As you might have read in the introductory thread I am new to Dominions and to these boards.
The game has been ordered and in the mean time I have to settle for the demo to get my D3 fix.

Anyway, in order for the real meat when the game gets delivered I was wondering if there are some tips to get prepared.
Of course downloading the latest patch will be a sure thing to do, but maybe there are also 'must-have' mods to download which enhance the game one way or another, great guides to download and read and utilities to download.

Of course any advice you might have for me is more than welcome. By reading through threads on these boards I have come across dozens of abbreviations and terms which are all abracadabra!

But I guess it'll all become clear in time.

I am looking very much forward to meeting some great people and playing a wonderful game!

Quitti · #2 October 29th, 2009, 01:14 PM

Well, for general database and what-to-do you might want to refer to lch's wiki here.

For mods, I'd suggest finding CBM 1.6 (Conceptual Balance mod), and perhaps the magic site mod, though that one is more of a personal preference. It's somewhere in the scenarios & mods forum, too lazy to dig it out at the moment.

Oh, and come over to visit the IRC if you haven't already

quantum_mechani · #3 October 29th, 2009, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quitti

Oh, and come over to visit the IRC if you haven't already

Incidentally, if you pop in, be warned it can be quite slow moving sometimes, so don't be surprised if it takes a few minutes before anyone says anything...

Ironhawk · #4 October 29th, 2009, 01:33 PM

The FAQ is a good place to start as a new player.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=33869

About abbreviations, there are a lot of them but the key ones you need to know are the magic paths:
A - Air, E - Earth, F - Fire, W - Water, S - Astral, N - Nature, D - Death, B - Blood.

And also, SC - SuperCombatant. These are commanders (usually very strong summoned ones) that when equipped with magic items are capable of defeating entire armies by themselves.

Most other abbreviations are just for specific spells or items. You will learn those over time...

Fantomen · #5 October 29th, 2009, 03:31 PM

If you plan to participate in multiplayer games, and you should because that´s where the fun is, get used to playing with CBM right from the start. Most MP games are using this mod. What it does is basically minor changes to make more different strategies and units viable, balancing too weak and strong nations a bit and altering a few mechanics that are considered "broken".

A good way to start learning the trade is to play some nations using the strategies outlined in any of the guides in the strategy index.

Don´t hesitate to start a newbie game yourself in the multiplayer forum if there is none recruiting.

Read the manual. Yes seriously, read the manual.

Ironhawk · #6 October 30th, 2009, 12:53 PM

Eh, I dunno about that. While I'm a big fan of CBM, I wouldnt suggest a new player use it from the get-go. They should see the game as the devs made it. Then, once they have some understanding of how things work, they can apply the mod and appreciate the changes.

Gandalf Parker · #7 October 30th, 2009, 06:55 PM

Id have to agree with IronHawk on some points.

I dont particularly like CBM but many find it an interesting variation on the game. There are also other mods which can change the games play quite abit. But the vanilla game is also fantastic. It can take up to a year to play all of the features of the game and get tired of it. Then you can decide what variations you would like to try.

As to "most MP games are using this mod" that isnt true. Altho most of the games in the IRC chat room seem to. But in general, in the mp forum, on LLama's server, and on my server it doesnt seem to be. However most of the games do seem to like the Banners, and the Worthy Heroes mods.

A couple of hints I would give:

1) The nations are all fairly unique. They each have strong and weak points. Also this game is not 1-on-1 balanced. Its more rock-paper-scissors. So dont be quick to tell us that a particular nation is unbalanced by being too strong or too weak. Chances are that later you will come back and say that you have discovered that nations particular ability vs another nation. Also what seems strong/weak has alot to do with your playing style. Try them all and find the nation that fits your style. Armored? Research? Defensive? Stealth? Barbarian Horde? When you finally decide what nations are strong and weak, dont announce it because yours arent going to match other peoples.

2) If you find your games too hard to win in the beginning then there are two things which can help slow down the AI. Make the maps abit larger. And set the independents to a higher setting. For some reason new players always feel that setting the indepts weaker will make the game easier. You can make smarter decisions about attacking independents than the AI can. Setting the independents stronger helps to keep the AI from swarming you early in the game.

Gandalf Parker

llamabeast · #8 October 30th, 2009, 07:05 PM

I would definitely recommend playing with CBM. It's a great mod that really keeps your options interesting in terms of what's viable and allows for very interesting and varied play.

Yskonyn · #9 October 30th, 2009, 08:28 PM

A lot of advice, some contradictory but that's the nature of preference I guess.

All tips are welcome, though, so don't hesitate to throw in your 2 cents.

I received a message today that the game has been shipped. Should be here within a week I hope.

Quitti · #10 October 30th, 2009, 08:54 PM

Indeed. Like Gandalf said, just playing the vanilla game can keep you occupied for long, and Streamers and Standards -mod and Worthy Heroes (latter comes packaged with CBM) are very useful mods. But still, I'll have to agree with llama, I recommend playing with CBM on, since it fixes things here and there, and makes plenty of more options available for nations that might not have them otherwise. Mainly it makes few vanilla-unusable things somewhat more useful. I feel it as an important part of my games. If a MP game wouldn't use CBM, I'd think twice about joining it - but like said, it's a preference issue. There are few things I disagree with qm in CBM, but mainly it's a very solid modification to the game that enhances the gameplay.