FRAG! Newsletter

[Zen]

FRAG! Newsletter here

Developer's Diary from both Kristoffer O. and Johan K.

If you haven't already joined FRAG and are interested in the Development of Dominions 3, this might be an opportunity to do so.

Enjoy

[PvK]

Yes, that was fun to read.

About the part about insanity versus feeblemindedness in the Void Gate... in Dom 2, are they the same thing? e.g. Black Bow of Botulf gives feeblemindedness, or something else?

PvK

[Cohen]

Good I'd say.

National spells and summons rocks!!!

I still hope in a nation based upon the myth of uberintelligend and overgrown tapyr warriors.

[liga]

Kristoffer O. said:Morale system is remade. Perhaps we will be able to explain how it works now.

[johan osterman]

This is the second time you have mentioned the Tapyr. Apparently you are not talking about Tapirs, the shy bignosed quadropedes. Googling yields no results in english except Tapir references. So where are these Tapyrs a myth? Do you have any reference to this?

[ckfnpku]

I think it's hillarious that the unit count is the measurement of progress. Cracks me up.

[liga]

johan osterman said:
This is the second time you have mentioned the Tapyr. Apparently you are not talking about Tapirs, the shy bignosed quadropedes. Googling yields no results in english except Tapir references. So where are these Tapyrs a myth? Do you have any reference to this?

I would also like to see a Rat (skaven-like) race ... but I think it is only in the GW mythology!

[Cohen]

I've explained in another thread, a friend of mine talked about, but I believe it's something about literature or fable (I lack of any reference), and not any real myth, because it mixes chivarly and with oriental martial arts, with those Tapyrs, that acts likewhise the christian angels, as warden of the heaven (in that case the heaven of the dead Warriors) and of Good, created by a Tapir God.
The myth is that the Tapir God sent his Tapirs in the material world to fight the forces of evil generated by the Shadowlord. The Tapirs are however covered of thick furry, and have pointy noise (I'd say they seems more like rats than tapirs), gifted with intelligence and magical powers. The magical Tapirs aided the mankind to subdue the forces of evil, but the Shadowlord managed to seal the gate that allowed travel from the Tapir Heaven (I'd translate with Flegrean Field in English, but I'm not so sure) and the material world.
The Tapirs now secluded in a world not belonging to them secluded themselves in the mountains, inhabited by mystics and monks, who were a mix of knights and martial artists. In the tresspassing of the time, the Tapirs and that community befriended, and the Tapirs teached those humans about the Shadows, the Evil, and made them guardians against a potential return of the Shadowlord. The Tapirs allowed those humans to ride them in case of battle since an human oracle forecast the return of the Evil to menace mankind.
For what I recall the Tapirs are ordered by their furry, the most powerful was the White Tigrated Tapir (an all white tapir, with tigerlike black "lines"), below in order there were the Black Tapir, the Dark Grey Tapir, the Tigrated Grey Tapir, the Brown Tapir and the Grey Tapir. (like Seraph, Cherubin, ArchAngel, Angel and so on).
Among they powers I recall an attack that is a combo of blink and trample (they're so fast that they could likewhise teleport to another spot of the battlefield, but they really move ... trapling everything in their way), and the ability to jump all around splatting under their massive more the enemy, meanwhile the rider is able to fight.
The land where the Tapirs and the hermits lived was plentiful of forests surged of magical power, and mountains, the human inhabited monasteries-fortresses mostly dig into deep inside the core of the mountain and used the power of the sun and of the justice. That land was called Paffust Hengia, and there was here the Last epic struggle. At the end, when all seemed doomed, the Last white tigrated tapir sacrified itself granting a choosen man, renamed thereafter Tapyrion, all his powers, combined to those of the man, to enable him to duel the Shadowlord himself and to slay it.
About their magic, I don't recall ... it was time ago when I was 14-15 that my friend talked to me a lot about them.

That's all ... I really doubt this could find a spot for a Nation in Dom3, but I'd bet on, it will be for sure an original nation!

[deccan]

Wow, all the while I thought you were joking about the tapir animal.

[Zen]

Here is the latest developer diary edition of Frag for Dominions 3 (Issue 43) reposted from the Email for those who don't Subscribe to the newsletter.

5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominions III Developer Diary

Developer Diary 02
------------------

Happy New Year!

Time flies. Another month, another year, another Frag!.

Christmas was good. Perhaps not for the development of Dominions, but for me, and
that is good for Dominions. The Last couple of days on the other hand has been a
productive time.

Yesterday I enjoyed a game of Dominions for the first time in several months. Lately
the game has been more or less unplayable. All nations and themes have been reworked
and placed in one of three eras. Until a few days ago it was not meaningful to play
games in the early or late era. The middle age is more or less the default themes and
has not changed that much. So when I started to play a game of the early Version of
Ermor I had a bLast.

I decided to try the small Faerun map. I have never played on it and must say that I
liked it a lot. With eleven opponents of which several are untested I was excited. I
reduced research cost and increased gold, res and supplies to 200%. I got a good start
and found that my legions did a great job against the independents of this early
era. Soon I was the most wealthy of the players, but I ran into Niefelheim, Jotunheim
in the early era. The AI had good taste. He made Bolvitner, a Niefel Jarl with heroic
toughness his prophet. When I first met him he had 135 HP. Next time 203. But Bolvitner
wasn't my main concern. It was his neifel skinshifters. They replace the woodsmen in this
early mythological era. They are not quite finished and I had all but forgotten about
them when they hit me. Skinshifters turn into wolfmen with additional HP when slain. So
do the niefel skinshifters. Skinshifters regenerate. The niefel skinshifters are
sacred. This particular skinshifter was blessed with berserker fury. My main army defeated
the niefel army, at a high cost. It did not defeat the skinshifter. It defeated my
remaining army including my Augur Elders and Pontifices. The problem with the skinshifters
was not that they were unbeatable, but that they only cost 70 GP. A slight oversight
that made my conquest of Niefelheim a real bother.

At the same time I was at war with T'ien Ch'i and Sauromatia.

Sauromatia? What?, you say. Before Christmas we begun a remaking of themes that will
make things easier. Both changing stuff and modding at a later date. Each theme is now
made as a separate nation. This makes it easy to add, remove and change nations. This also removes the need for a nation to exist in a given era. There was no Pythium before
the break from Ermor, but another nation lived near the marshes of Pythium. There are
hydras in Sauromatia, but the theurgs have not yet come. Witch kings, enaries and
oiorpata rule the steppes.

More of the recent stuff? National spells and summonings. Mictlan got a couple of new
blood summons. C'tis got a Devourer of Souls and a Sirrush. I was annoyed when I saw an
old archer and remade some early rezoomed sprites from Dom 1. It felt good. It felt
really good. Then I realized thet there are about one thousand sprites that needs a
remake and went back to Mictlan blood summons again.

Next step? Not sure. We just got some new fun ideas. Probably not very important for
game play, but great fun, especially for role players I believe. Take that you
grognards .

/Kristoffer