While I think that Dominions has a lot of depth, the interface is too clumsy for me to really enjoy the game. While it is possible to do everything necessary to play, many things are ifficult, confusing, or frustrating.
Why is it necessary to click on every solider in an army to find out which ones are experienced, afflicted, or cursed? Why doesn't the game say why a unit can't move to a province? Why can't I disband unneeded units?
I've seen a lot of requests for changes in the interface, but other than the bug list, I haven't seen them collected -- or analyzed, to see if there's some common theme. I've done that.
I believe that the game's main need is to provide more information to the player, although there are few interface bugs and needed features, too. The game should provide more information in three ways: more error reporting, more information at a glance, and more clarity in separating rules from color text.
By more error reporting, I just mean that if Dominions won't let a player do something, it should say why. For example, if I try to assign Manikins to a priest, I'd like the game to say "That unit can't command magic or undead forces." rather than just erasing the highlight and leaving me wondering what's the problem.
Providing more information at a glance means eliminating the need to click on something to find out what it is. I usually run into this with leaders' heroic abilities and afflictions. A little more mouse-over text would help: "Heroic Ability: Heroic Quickness" would be great. I'd also like if the game provided more icons on things -- say, putting experience icons on soliders in the troop setup screen, the same way they're shown on the leader buttons on the main screen.
To separate the rules from the color text (the story at the end of a description), just put the actual in-game effect in the summary. What does a Rat Tail do? The description "Anyone struck by the whip will be hit by overwhelming fear" is pretty vague -- will they flee the battle, fall over dead from fright, or just lose a bit of morale? Compare this to the Skull Standard, which comes right out and says "spell: Panic".
Is it worth it to Illwinter to make these changes? I think so. I think they'll make it much easier to learn the game, and more enjoyable too. This means more players, at least in the long run.In the short run, it's worth at least $49.95 to them, since I'll keep playing the demo until they make at least many of these changes, or I find something else to play.
The rest of this message is a list of the places where I think these ideas will make the game more fun. I also mention a few bugs, and some wanted features. If you don't like lists, skip to the next message.
[*]Main Screen
[*]Leader tiles
[*]Bug fix: the leader tiles have a "hole" in the lower right hand corner that passes mouse clicks through to the map.[*]Make the frame around leader tiles inactive, so that it absorbs mouse clicks rather than passing them through to the map.[*]Bug fix: Ritual spells and forge orders sometimes forgotten if leader looked at, or ritual spell or forge screens opened but cancelled.[*]Option to have all priests Call God.[/list][*]If a unit can't move into a province, say why (not enough raw movement points, unfavorable terrain to move that far).
[*]Remember magic sites seen in provinces (when scouting or in provinces previously owned)
[*]Grey out recruit units button in unowned provinces
[*]Mercenaries:
[*]Grey out mercenaries button if none are available; keep the message to that effect if it's clicked.[*]Highlight mercenaries button if it's time to rehire mercenaries currently employed.[*]Reduce base rehire bid to correct amount (half of base hiring bid)[/list][*]Show disease icon on provinces known to spread disease (magic site, Miasma domain)[/list][*]Cast Ritual Spell Screen
[*]Show icons indicating why spell isn't available (more gems needed, more points in path needed)[*]Provide filters to show/hide various kinds of unavailable spells (more gems needed, etc)[*]Grey out spells not currently available (this is done now, but should keep working with filters)[*]Provide button to alchemy screen[/list][*]Forge Item Screen
[*]Make similar to Cast Ritual Spell Screen, as above. Now, it acts as though it has a permanent filter hiding items not available due to lack of points in a path. Also, curiously, it's the only part of the game that does provide an error message, complaining if there aren't enough gems available for forging an item.[/list][*]Alchemy Screen
[*]Needs to be more generally available via button, not only in Ritual Spell and Forge Item Screens, but any place money is spent, since earth and fire gems can be transmuted into money.[/list][*]Spell List
[*]Search function with various filters (by path, cost, type of spell, etc)[*]Sorting functions similar to above filters[/list][*]Troop Setup Screen
[*]Add disband row at bottom of screen; all soldiers placed here are disbanded at next turn generation.[*]Show icons for afflictions, experience, curses, and starving units[*]Show food usage total for each formation[*]Provide battle setup screen, which shows static image of forces at start of battle. It's sometimes hard to figure out how the overhead view used for positioning formations relates to location in battles.[/list][*]Recruiting Screen
[*]Add alchemy button[/list][*]Battle Viewer
[*]Add typical video controls (back, ff, pause, speed control)[/list][*]Next Turn for Multiplayer Games
[*]Make next turn work like single player: can submit turn then go back
and make other moves or look at battle movies.[*]Add countdown timer showing time until next automatic host update, if autohost is being used.[/list][*]Start game screen
[*]Allow saving multiple gods per race[*]Load specific god per game per race[*]Load god as template into god design screens[/list][/list]
Th-th-that's all, f-f-folks!
User Interface Improvments Wanted
Threaded Mode