Sample gods from DomI - help getting started

PhilD · #1 November 4th, 2003, 08:34 PM

A post from Gandalf on Usenet made me discover that there were sample gods for DomI on Illwinter's site. Strangely, there was no link to download the god files, only pictures of the Gods' stats (without fortress info) and some background and playing tips. While I cannot understand why sample gods (together with some tips) were not included in either the DomI or DomII demos, I'd like to make it easier for new players to get into this game...

So I copied the gods into DomII - at least for the nations that are available in the demo, and saved the files. I'll email the files to anybody who asks... (If someone with Web space wants to store the files, it'd be even better)

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How to copy God files?

You should have a dominions2/newlords directory somewhere in your install (or, on my Linux install, in your home directory); this is where files for new Gods are stored. Copy the file there, under the name "nation".2h [the exact file name depends on the nation; just create any god for the nation to see the exact file name]. If you already have a God for that nation that you want to keep, just rename the file or it will be overwritten (stupid feature!).

Where are the originals?

http://www.illwinter.com/stuff.html

Are they any good?

I don't know. Never played them. I'm a beginner myself. Plus, I had to make guesses for fortresses and special dominions. They're just possible examples. The playing tips on the Illwinter site should be somewhat useful, at least.

How do I get them?

Send me a message on this board with your real email address. They're pretty small files (well under a Kb each).

ywl · #2 November 4th, 2003, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PhilD:

> snipped <

Are they any good?

I don't know. Never played them. I'm a beginner myself. Plus, I had to make guesses for fortresses and special dominions. They're just possible examples. The playing tips on the Illwinter site should be somewhat useful, at least.

> snipped <

They were reasonable but they were not the most competitive pretenders for winning the game in Dom 1. I'm not sure how they would be for Dom 2.

But on the other hand, should we have a sample-pretender project for Dom 2, so that new players will know how to start? Hopefully, the submitted pretender would also have a short guide on how to use them.

Nerfix · #3 November 4th, 2003, 09:48 PM

I would say that a fresh sample pretender competition wuld be good. Things have changed from Dom I.

Gandalf Parker · #4 November 4th, 2003, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nerfix:
I would say that a fresh sample pretender competition wuld be good. Things have changed from Dom I.

OHHHHh my. Memories of the long conversation THAT sparked in the newsGroups the first time.

If you are going to do this I would split it into 2 threads. The initial desire was to give newbies something they could play with, learn with, and soon develop a desire to improve on. And to do it soon.

Designing a pretender for that purpose IMHO is quite different than designing the best and winningest pretender for each race. Deciding for example that a race has its best chance pursuing a purely astral path and pushing fast toward a particular spell is a very different discussion than what a newbies starting god should be.

Hmmm we would need 3 new ones though.

[ November 04, 2003, 20:30: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

PhilD · #5 November 5th, 2003, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:

quote:
Originally posted by Nerfix:
I would say that a fresh sample pretender competition wuld be good. Things have changed from Dom I.

OHHHHh my. Memories of the long conversation THAT sparked in the newsGroups the first time.

If you are going to do this I would split it into 2 threads. The initial desire was to give newbies something they could play with, learn with, and soon develop a desire to improve on. And to do it soon.

Obviously, this is what is needed right now. Anything that will make the game easier to approach for new players.

I'd say we need this quickly, to make the demo usable by people who don't know DomI at all. Preferably the races in the demo, obviously. It would be even better if the whole lot covered a wide range of different strategies, and provided an interesting setup if 6 people used them in a game. With no manual available, it's even more important.

(Honestly, this should have been part of the original package provided with the demo; "I don't understand what's happening in this demo" seems to be the most common complaint about it from new players who never played DomI)

ywl · #6 November 5th, 2003, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:

quote:
Originally posted by Nerfix:
I would say that a fresh sample pretender competition wuld be good. Things have changed from Dom I.

OHHHHh my. Memories of the long conversation THAT sparked in the newsGroups the first time.

If you are going to do this I would split it into 2 threads. The initial desire was to give newbies something they could play with, learn with, and soon develop a desire to improve on. And to do it soon.

Designing a pretender for that purpose IMHO is quite different than designing the best and winningest pretender for each race. Deciding for example that a race has its best chance pursuing a purely astral path and pushing fast toward a particular spell is a very different discussion than what a newbies starting god should be.

Hmmm we would need 3 new ones though.

The problems are what are the criteria of being appropriae for new players and who is to judge.

There are some simple examples:
1) Pythium or Arco:
Green Dragon; 80 pts castle; Nature Magic 5;
Order +3; Productivity +2; Heat 0; Growth +1; Luck +2; Magic 0; Domininion Strength 4.

2) Ulm:
Prince of Death; 80 pts castle; Death Magic 6; Order +2; Productivity +3; Heat 0; Growth +2; Luck +3; Magic -3; Dominions Strength 6.

These are simple combat pretenders. Are these what you're thinking about?

Gandalf Parker · #7 November 5th, 2003, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ywl:
These are simple combat pretenders. Are these what you're thinking about? [/QB]

Could be. Particularly the dragons. But its not just the stats and playability of them. I also like the story and feel of the game. RPG is my gaming preference after Strategy.

I rather liked the suggested gods at Illwinter http://www.illwinter.com/stuff.html and feel that they are fine if they are still allowed in Dom2 (some gods seem to be missing now). They were fun to read, fun to debate, showed off many of the special gods which were available only to particular races. The starter docs could include links to those pages so newbies could read those descriptions. Improvements arent a big thin (in my opinion) since part the desire is to give the new players something they can see a need to try something else.