Any improvements in the tactical part of the game?
I'm a little disappointed to find nothing about this in the announced features, but for me the 1st priority for an improvement of dominions is the tactical part of the game : how combats work, especially after round 5. If the unpredictable results have some charm, I think that long battles are too much out of control in dom2, making victory too often the result of random choices made by the tactical AI, when most important fights are 10+ rounds long.
Is the scripting for mages going to continue to be limited to 5 orders without more precise options than "cast spells", "attack" or "retreat" after ? (I hope there will be a final order like "cast summoning/dammage/buff spells in priority", or a "repeat orders from x" option -seems easy to implement and more precise, after the 5 first rounds the mage repeat for example the orders 3,4,5 as long as he can-). And/or consigns like "never cast spells of this school/path" (to say for example to a water/fire mage to use only his fire spells as he's with creatures sensible to cold), "never use gems after your script", etc...
Or will the tactical AI for mages be improved at least (or are we going to see mages continue to cast all the shields they can after round 5 even when the closest ennemy is at 40' and engaged, or to kill their own companions by casting heath or cold auras, or to summon lots of useless troops when they should use damage spells, as the troops are blocked at the entrance of a fortress ? or to make strange uses of their gems, etc...) ?
Will the orders for the troops / commanders remain all the same (without an option for example to say to a pack of mounted archers to fire and use their superior movement to stay at range -the first time I played dom2 I was thinking that "fire and flee" was for this kind of guerilla, and was very disapointed to see my skirmishers definitively retreating instead of fleeing melee to continue to harass their opponents- , or to say to a mage to go at the appropriate range then cast his spell -how many short range spells are never used in scripts because of the lack of this order ?-, etc...)
Anyway, I will buy and play dom3 even if there is no improvement in this area, and I'm pleased by all other announced features and to see such a lot of content added to the game, but I will be really decieved if the battle system / scripting / tactical AI are all exactly the same (what will mean even more chaotic battles in dom3, as we will have more troops the fights will be longer, but if it's with the same options / scripts limited to 5 rounds it's the out of control phase that will be longer).
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