Supplies?

[Nerfix]

NakedLunch said:
I believe the type of fort you build is automatically selected based on the province and whatnot. I guess it's part of the whole slimming down on the micromanagement front. Personally, I'd rather be able to select your own type of fort (I know this is getting a bit on the "wish" side, but it would also be great if you could build your own custom forts like you can with pretender gods) because what you want to be built can be different that what the computer calculates. Hopefully it'll be back in, but if not it's no big deal.

Well, the "select your own castle" system caused problems in lategame in Dominions 2, and many people complained about this in vocal manner.

Removing the thing altogether was admitedly a bit radical but if it works...then it's good.

[NakedLunch]

It does work pretty well, actually. I agree that removing it was a bit too rash, but perhaps Illwinter couldn't create a workable version that satisfied the fans? Better to just get rid of the problem than just to exacerbate things by trying to fix it.

[Nerfix]

BTW, I heard that the castles are much expensive now, but that the money income has increased...is there enough money to have a castle in every province, or has it become prohibtively expensive?

And now that the castle part of spending pretender points into is gone...have the pretender/scale/magic path costs changed?

Also, how exactly does the whole Awakening bussines go?

[Sandman]

Having different kinds of fort for different kinds of province is interesting. I wonder how it will work?

Will each nation have a series of forts for certain types of terrain? That is, Man has a forest tower, a farmland castle and mountain fort. And nothing for plains, wastes or swamps.

That would be alright, I think - particularly if you could choose your starting fort type (and thus starting terrain). It would also limit madcastling.

[NakedLunch]

BTW, I heard that the castles are much expensive now, but that the money income has increased...is there enough money to have a castle in every province, or has it become prohibtively expensive

Well, fortresses cost about 1000gold and hillforts and labs and the like are about 500g so it's not too bad. If you manage your money right, yeah, it's possible to get a castle in every province you own.

And now that the castle part of spending pretender points into is gone...have the pretender/scale/magic path costs changed?

Hmm, I forget the exact costs from Dom2 but I'm guessing that's the case.

Also, how exactly does the whole Awakening bussines go?

That's top sekrit info, bub.

[Nerfix]

NakedLunch said:
Well, fortresses cost about 1000gold and hillforts and labs and the like are about 500g so it's not too bad. If you manage your money right, yeah, it's possible to get a castle in every province you own.

That's a lot in Dom II money...but we shall see what's the case with D3.

[DominionsFan]

Well, imho these are good changes. 1. No more watchtower spam. 2. The AI gonna build castles as we know, and if this is true [probably the castle type what you can build will depend on the size of the province?] the AI can handle the castle building very well.

[NTJedi]

DominionsFAN said:
The AI gonna build castles as we know, ...

Yes, but hopefully the AI has been developed to know where on building these castles and staff/guard correctly. If it just randomly selects provinces leaving few or little units it will be more of an AI weakness.
Each province should be considered for a castle based on the following variables:
Bottleneck province ( 2 or 3 connecting provinces )
-castles built here are important for defensive purposes
Highway province ( 7 or more connecting provinces )
-castles built here are important for offensive purposes
Gold income for the province ?
How many magic sites in the province ?
How much gem income for the province ?
Total population should be considered, but not as important as the other variables.

DominionsFAN said:
and if this is true [probably the castle type what you can build will depend on the size of the province?] the AI can handle the castle building very well.

Yes it would be nice if certain provinces couldn't have castles for most nations. For example only a few nations can build a castle type in the swamp... such as C'tis.

[Truper]

Watchtower spam is more of a Dom2 myth than an actual problem. The technique was advocated an popularized by a player who had... well, let us say unnatural amounts of resources.

[ioticus]

Truper said:
Watchtower spam is more of a Dom2 myth than an actual problem. The technique was advocated an popularized by a player who had... well, let us say unnatural amounts of resources.

I agree. I've never seen "mad castling" as a problem at all.