Impartial MASTER LIST of issues/problems

[Keir Maxwell]

These are the issues I would like to see addressed in the short term:

1. Increase evocation accuracy on the battlefield - Fire in particular looks silly in the hands of Abysian mages and they arn't killing their own guys. Decrease the damage dealt to maintain balence.

2. Change strategic moves to 2 for HI and have the cost of moving through difficult terrain provinces as 1 for LI and 2 for others.

At present LI move faster than HI in the open but the same speed in the rough. Changing this provides an extra role for LI in holding areas of provinces with rough terrain and makes more sense.

3. Fire and Retire orders which when used for LI/LC allow them to avoid combat with slower troops by retiring behind their main battleline (ignore troops on guard commander for this calculation).

4. The first 20 LI/LC in a province do not count against supply due to their role as foragers.
----------------------

Concerns with balence should generally await the full game - although Blood of humans seems a bit weak for Abysia.

Bless effects may need tweaking but do not seem to be weak in general.

cheers

Keir

[st.patrik]

Ok, here's the updated Version of the list. I've added Saber and Keir's suggestions. Check to make sure they're right.

Keep on posting here as a central place where the devs can tell at a glance what people want changed - this way it is really convenient for the devs, since they don't have to comb through all the threads to find each suggestion. Feel free to include links to the threads which talk about the suggestion in more detail.


1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
• Darker colours/textures in unit displays [to make sprites easier to see/look better]
• Alignment of stats in unit info screens [i.e. in a column]
• Pre-made pretenders for new players
• New player 'get started' guide
• Quick start game for new players
• End/quit/save/host button remake [so that 'end turn' takes you directly to next turn]
• Bless effects displayed when creating a pretender's magic
• Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
• Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen
• Titles in recruitment screen for unit section and commander section
• More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
• Able to quit battles using ESC
• When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
• X axis labeled in score overview graph
• Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle
• When you win/lose a game, instead of exiting the program, get brought back to main menu
• Show undead and magic leadership in unit info screen (e.g. 25/0/10)
• Soldiers with "guard commander" orders fire missiles if a target is within range
• Link from nation overview (F1) to recruitment screen in each province
• Show resource usage in nation overview [so that you can see at a glance which provinces aren't being used to their full potential]
• Warning colours in nation overview (e.g. red for supply usage when higher than supply availability, etc.)
• Allow finer adjustment of map richness levels
• Add "Cast Monthly Ritual" to commander orders list
• Increase accuracy of Evocation spells - if necessary reduce damage to balance
• Change strategic move to 2 for HI and increase the 'cost' of moving through difficult terrain for HI [net effect: LI can move through difficult terrain quicker than HI]

2. Additions of relatively minor features
• Battle results (i.e. list of casualties) when storming a Castle
• '?' accessible on main menu (i.e. as a button)
• Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
• Random nation AI opponents
• Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
• Ability to rename commanders, or at least add epithets
• Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
• Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
• Names of units in addition to icons in recruitment/deployment screens
• Detailed breakdown of mixed squads in deployment screen
• Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
• Right-clicking commander in main screen gives you list of troops under his command
• Build queue for commanders (even though there is only one recruitable per month)
• Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
• Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
• Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
• Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)
• Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
• Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible]
• Prevent redundant site searching [or have a message like the "preaching cannot be used to raise the dominion of this province any higher" message]
• When game ends prompt for deletion of game file
or
• When game ends, automatically delete game file
• Ability to toggle on/off battle grid in squad positioning screen
• New Command for missile units: Hold or Fire
• Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
also including:
• Keyboard command to select next commander within province, even if he already has orders.
• Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
• Keyboard interface for research screen
• Keyboard command to cycle through friendly provinces
• Expanded gem-transfer screen, showing more than 2 commanders
• Label in nation overview identifying province types [feudal, amazons, etc.], and therefore the troops recruitable there
• Ability to cycle through recruitment screens without exiting to main map
• Add separate gold richness and resource richness settings for new games
• Add tactical "Cast Support Spells", "Cast Summon Spells", and "Cast Attack Spells" commands
• New unit command: Fire and Retire. missile units fire a couple of rounds, then retreat to behind the main battle-line
• Supply bonus for a certain number of LI/LC - in accordance with their role as foragers

3. Additions of relatively major features
• SP diplomacy
• Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
• Ability to store more than one god for each nation
• Modability
• Search function for items on commanders
• Battle Sim
• Enabling/disabling spells [being able to indicate which spells your mage should pick from]
• Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)
• Rework of province defense

4. Balance considerations
• Improve Strategic AI
• Bug fixes
• Less focus on supercombatants
• More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
• Greater 'bless' effects [e.g. starting at an earlier level (lvl 3?), increasing exponentially rather than by addition (1,2,4,8 vs. 2,3,4,5), magic cheaper in general, etc.]
• Reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion), or provide counters

[geo981010]

This thread seemed to slow down, so here is some fodder:

1) compress trn files for Online play. In a big game, the files can be over half a meg, and this sucks for modem players/overseas connections!

2) Allow changing pretender in design screen (right now you choose once, and then you have to start over if you want change from a GM to a BoF)

3) Research estimate in recruit screen should reflect research with current drain scale

4) In enemy/indie province screen, link unit names to description (even if it is just generic).

5) In battle screen, link spell casting notification to spell description

6) Special Guard commander order "Surround Body Guard":Auto position body guards encircling the commander

7) prevent blood slave harvesting in provinces where no chance exists to get slaves (pop too low), and show estimated blood harvest for each mage (ie command would be "Blood Hunt 3.2" for a mage who would find on average 3.2 slaves per turn under these circumstances)

8) Combine Blood Harvest reports into one, linking to each commander

9) new Order in map screen "Collect Gems/Slaves" - collects all the gems/slaves held by any commanders in a province, and gives them to the selected commander (Note: this is very important for "blood ferries" - usually scouts that go to a province where mages are gathering blood, and collect them up and return them to a lab. This is the most cash efficient way to run a harvest, and right now is tedious beyond belief. I stopped blood harvesting in Dom1 because of it, and likely will in Dom2 also).

10) When using the "N" key to cycle through commanders and a commander in a group gets selected, select the whole group of commanders. Currently Groups are made, but then with the N key you only get the first commander in the list, and so have to select him again with the mouse to get the group.

11) New battle order "Hold or Cast Spells"

12) When a magic site is found, include the level required to find it in the site info window. Rarity would be nice too

13) Show actual adjustments to stats from fatigue (ie 0 defense, half armour, etc)

[ November 12, 2003, 00:50: Message edited by: geo981010 ]

[Sammual]

Originally posted by geo981010:
1) compress trn files for Online play. In a big game, the files can be over half a meg, and this sucks for modem players/overseas connections!

I agree with this one.

Originally posted by geo981010:
2) Allow changing pretender in design screen (right now you choose once, and then you have to start over if you want change from a GM to a BoF)

Not all that big of a deal. Keep it in mind for Dominions 3.

Originally posted by geo981010:
3) Research estimate in recruit screen should reflect research with current drain scale

I think that would confuse people more than it would help.

Originally posted by geo981010:
4) In enemy/indie province screen, link unit names to description (even if it is just generic).

Keep in mind for Dominions 3.

Originally posted by geo981010:
5) In battle screen, link spell casting notification to spell description

??? Do you want the battle to pause and the spell description window to pop up when a spell is cast???

Originally posted by geo981010:
6) Special Guard commander order "Surround Body Guard":Auto position body guards encircling the commander

Isn't this what happens now (At least when the commander is not moving)?

Originally posted by geo981010:
7) prevent blood slave harvesting in provinces where no chance exists to get slaves (pop too low), and show estimated blood harvest for each mage (ie command would be "Blood Hunt 3.2" for a mage who would find on average 3.2 slaves per turn under these circumstances)

I agree with the first part but the second part is too much info. Let people learn from experence.

Originally posted by geo981010:
8) Combine Blood Harvest reports into one, linking to each commander

Hmmmm.. I am not sure if I like that one. If it was done correctly it would be very nice but I think the message system needs a bit of an overhall (See Master of Orion 3 for a nice one).

Originally posted by geo981010:
9) new Order in map screen "Collect Gems/Slaves" - collects all the gems/slaves held by any commanders in a province, and gives them to the selected commander (Note: this is very important for "blood ferries" - usually scouts that go to a province where mages are gathering blood, and collect them up and return them to a lab. This is the most cash efficient way to run a harvest, and right now is tedious beyond belief. I stopped blood harvesting in Dom1 because of it, and likely will in Dom2 also).

I build too many Labs so this is not a problem for me.

Originally posted by geo981010:
12) When a magic site is found, include the level required to find it in the site info window. Rarity would be nice too

Too much info. People get overwhelmed as it is. A link to more info about the site might be nice.

Originally posted by geo981010:
13) Show actual adjustments to stats from fatigue (ie 0 defense, half armour, etc)

I agree.

Most of these would be nice for Dominions 3.

Sammual

[geo981010]

5) In battle screen, link spell casting notification to spell description
??? Do you want the battle to pause and the spell description window to pop up when a spell is cast???

Sorry - I was unclear on this!

In the battle screen when a mage casts a spell, the top left will say "(Mage Name) casts (Spell Name)". Right clicking on the spell name could give you a pop up link to the spell book, so you can see exactly what the mage is casting.

6) Special Guard commander order "Surround Body Guard":Auto position body guards encircling the commander
Isn't this what happens now (At least when the commander is not moving)?

Not exactly. My request would have been clearer if I said "Auto position body guards encircling the commander at the start of the battle"

The troops will do that eventually, but they start off where ever they are positioned and have to move there. The problem is they start off in a block, so your commander has only one side covered initially. Flying troops have a very good chance of getting free attacks on him before the guards get in position. So to overcome that, you can split your bodyguards into 4 Groups that are arranged around him, but that is very tedious and you have to be careful you are positioning things right. So I'd like to have this done automatically.

9) new Order in map screen "Collect Gems/Slaves" - collects all the gems/slaves held by any commanders in a province, and gives them to the selected commander (Note: this is very important for "blood ferries" - usually scouts that go to a province where mages are gathering blood, and collect them up and return them to a lab. This is the most cash efficient way to run a harvest, and right now is tedious beyond belief. I stopped blood harvesting in Dom1 because of it, and likely will in Dom2 also).

I build too many Labs so this is not a problem for me.

Building too many labs will prevent this and is easier - but is a lot slower and in MP you would suffer. A scout costs only 1/10 of the cost, which is enough to get another blood hunter out there. The scouts are useful too - any commander killing spells that hit them is a blood mage saved (note: your most common unit should be scouts for this purpose - you can get 10 of them for the price of one mage, so you can make your mages largely safe from seeking arrow/Mind Hunt/etc)

Plus, lightly guarded labs are dangerous - your enemies can gateway reinforcements into that province if they take it, they can resupply all their mages with gems, and inanimates (golems/undead) will heal.

So IMHO ferries are more economical and safer, but will seriously increase micromanagement.

12) When a magic site is found, include the level required to find it in the site info window. Rarity would be nice too

Too much info. People get overwhelmed as it is. A link to more info about the site might be nice.

Apologies again - I don't want the message changed, I'd just like the popup window for the magic site from the map screen to include that info.

[Shael]

different types of battle terrain
ie battling in a mountain province the battle area is still squered some sort of canyon ? would be nice and other stuff like this
trees in a forest province (brining cover from archery fire) this would increase the tatic's usage ie it might be a smart idea to let opponet have couple provinses and then keep em at bay at some canyon where they cant use their numbers so badly against you

[Sammual]

Originally posted by Shael:
different types of battle terrain
ie battling in a mountain province the battle area is still squered some sort of canyon ? would be nice and other stuff like this
trees in a forest province (brining cover from archery fire) this would increase the tatic's usage ie it might be a smart idea to let opponet have couple provinses and then keep em at bay at some canyon where they cant use their numbers so badly against you

Another item I would like to see in Dominions 3, too much work for a patch.

Sammual

[Sammual]

Originally posted by geo981010:
In the battle screen when a mage casts a spell, the top left will say "(Mage Name) casts (Spell Name)". Right clicking on the spell name could give you a pop up link to the spell book, so you can see exactly what the mage is casting.

OK, now I like the idea better. Once we get the full game I will be playing Dominions2 in a window with the Spell List and Unit List open next to it. I would like to see this added in Domions3 so I don't have to do this.

Originally posted by geo981010:
Not exactly. My request would have been clearer if I said "Auto position body guards encircling the commander at the start of the battle"

The troops will do that eventually, but they start off where ever they are positioned and have to move there. The problem is they start off in a block, so your commander has only one side covered initially. Flying troops have a very good chance of getting free attacks on him before the guards get in position. So to overcome that, you can split your bodyguards into 4 Groups that are arranged around him, but that is very tedious and you have to be careful you are positioning things right. So I'd like to have this done automatically.

*nod* OK, now I understand.
I just place the commander to be guarded in the block or behind it.

Originally posted by geo981010:
Building too many labs will prevent this and is easier - but is a lot slower and in MP you would suffer. A scout costs only 1/10 of the cost, which is enough to get another blood hunter out there. The scouts are useful too - any commander killing spells that hit them is a blood mage saved (note: your most common unit should be scouts for this purpose - you can get 10 of them for the price of one mage, so you can make your mages largely safe from seeking arrow/Mind Hunt/etc)

Plus, lightly guarded labs are dangerous - your enemies can gateway reinforcements into that province if they take it, they can resupply all their mages with gems, and inanimates (golems/undead) will heal.

So IMHO ferries are more economical and safer, but will seriously increase micromanagement

This shows that I have only played the demos and no MP (yet). I never thought of Labs as such a liability (Never had to deal with high level spells) or Scouts as Commander Meat Shields.

Originally posted by geo981010:
Apologies again - I don't want the message changed, I'd just like the popup window for the magic site from the map screen to include that info.

I like that better but do we really want to see this much info in the game? If we know everything then the game becomes a graphical spreadsheet.

Sammual

[Kaljamaha]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
• Expanded gem-transfer screen, showing more than 2 commanders

I'd like to add to this. Currently right-clicking does not work in the gem-transfer screen, which means you have to remember which mage wanted which gems. Really annoying, especially if you have mages with random magics. Or to put it shortly:

• Right-click should bring up commander details in gem-transfer screen (as it does everywhere else).


K.

[Vger]

Hi,

I wanted to add a suggestion that was spawned by a conversation on Sissypigs. When get a message that there has been a battle you can:

A. Go to the province
B. Get a gross list of casualties on both sides
C. Watch the battle.

For my purposes, most of the time, I just want to know what I lost. I only watch the battles if I want to know WHY I lost whatever units I lost.

What I would like is instead of the gross list of commanders/units killed on both sides, we had a complete list of who was involved on both sides, what they started with and what their casualties were. I'd also like to be able to click on any unit/commander and have the normal info screen show up so I could see if they picked up any afflictions I should be aware of.

This thought was spawned when someone on Sissypigs said that what they really wanted was a "flash to the end" button for the replay, so they could see what was left.

Just thought I'd toss this out to see what y'all think.

Ciao,
V'ger gone