The problem of low hit points on humans

[Epaminondas]

Potatoman said:
It's amusing that the primary arguments used to defend the current model of national heroes being only slightly stronger than generic HI are "realism" and "common sense".
This is a game in which knife-wielding assassins charge at their targets over an open field, Minotaurs won't swing their axes at any enemy smaller than themselves, and magic is everywhere. Realism and common sense take a back seat to playability and theme in dominions.

In both real legends and "shallow fantasy RPGs" (quoted to preserve the snootiness), heroes are heroic because of their extraordinary skill, strength, power, etc. But this didn't really translate that well into dominions, where most of the heroes didn't get enhancements that are statistically significant enough to make them survivable in combat. I'd really like to see an official implementation of the Worthy Heroes mod or something similar.

You took the words out of my mouth.

1. It's not like this game is intended to be historical or "realistic" a la the Total War series. Even then, the Total War series had certain units (remember the sword saint in the original version? and Generals after certain boots became near-superhuman in many versions) that defied conventional logic, units that could single-handedly take on hundreds of units.

2. I also noticed the "snoot[y]" comment you isolated--which must've been directed at me since I am the original poster. I suppose I must be a total loser because I must've played "shallow fantasy" games in the past (which is an unwarranted speculation itself, as I prefer strategy games). Truly amusing. I didn't know that there was a caste system among hardcore gamers.

3. To put things in perspective, I think I should re-emphasize it's not a dramatic HP point increase I am asking; i.e., I am not asking human commanders to be in anyways comparable to Basalt Kings or Niefel Jarls or what not. Not even close. I am asking an increase to the extent that the more heroic or successful or exceptional human commanders can reach around 20 HPs, without being a Prophet or acquiring an HP-enhancing Heroic trait. 20. That is all. You would still have less than a third of what a Niefel Jarl has and way less than half of other heavy hitters like Dai Onis or Basalt Kings.

4. In general, I am very disappointed at the level of interaction on this forum, if I may so. Sure, this is still a gamer forum but I'd expect better than what you'd find in, say, Warcraft III forums, given the complexity of this game and the comparatively high age of its fan base. But newcomers are persistently treated rudely by some posters (see Arralen's reponse to my damage question--even though I clearly said that I don't have the game manual and I apologized in advance if the question were so elementary; in particular, see the rather innocuous thread where a new poster posted his game impressions and what needs to be improved--causing an orgy of flame fest among the believers here).

In the end, I doubt Shrapnel or even the gaming community benefits much if you guys are so intent on offending those very potential customers who are relatively new to the game (e.g. me) but have enthusiastically embraced the Demo and wish to know more.

[Mind Elemental]

Epaminondas said:

4. In general, I am very disappointed at the level of interaction on this forum, if I may so. Sure, this is still a gamer forum but I'd expect better than what you'd find in, say, Warcraft III forums, given the complexity of this game and the comparatively high age of its fan base. But newcomers are persistently treated rudely by some posters (see Arralen's reponse to my damage question--even though I clearly said that I don't have the game manual and I apologized in advance if the question were so elementary; in particular, see the rather innocuous thread where a new poster posted his game impressions and what needs to be improved--causing an orgy of flame fest among the believers here).

In the end, I doubt Shrapnel or even the gaming community benefits much if you guys are so intent on offending those very potential customers who are relatively new to the game (e.g. me) but have enthusiastically embraced the Demo and wish to know more.

Commanders: What would be nice would be twofold:

- multiple levels of the standard ability (so a Firbolg with Valor, or an emerald lord, would have a greater effect than an ordinary Pythian standard bearer or centurion);

- lower all troops' morale, and to compensate give every commander a standard. Now taking along plenty of commanders to inspire the men -- and bringing good commanders -- would be important!

Heroes: I agree with what's been said here, and in the thread where someone first suggested giving the national heroes a boost in HP. The human melee heroes have awesome flavour, and are indeed superior to ordinary humans, but ultimately aren't much more useful than ordinary commanders. Try to use them as thugs, and you will be down a hero. Since all the fancy abilities (lifedrain, regen, etc) won't matter much if one lucky sword stroke can cut them down, I think increasing their HPs to 20ish is the simplest, most balanced way of boosting them. You still won't see them taking on armies by themselves, but with proper equipment, they could be quite decent army-supporting mini-thugs.

EDIT TO CLARIFY: I prefer, in principle, the better gear/abilities approach. However, I'm not sure it would be as useful in practice, for the reason mentioned above. Besides, you could also argue that heroic persistence/determination could lead to more HPs...

Rudeness: I see your point, but it only seems to be a minority. Please, hang around? The more of us here -- even as lurkers, like myself -- the better.

[Agrajag]

Epaminondas said:
4. In general, I am very disappointed at the level of interaction on this forum, if I may so. Sure, this is still a gamer forum but I'd expect better than what you'd find in, say, Warcraft III forums, given the complexity of this game and the comparatively high age of its fan base. But newcomers are persistently treated rudely by some posters (see Arralen's reponse to my damage question--even though I clearly said that I don't have the game manual and I apologized in advance if the question were so elementary; in particular, see the rather innocuous thread where a new poster posted his game impressions and what needs to be improved--causing an orgy of flame fest among the believers here).

In the end, I doubt Shrapnel or even the gaming community benefits much if you guys are so intent on offending those very potential customers who are relatively new to the game (e.g. me) but have enthusiastically embraced the Demo and wish to know more.

If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that Arralen thought that the lack of manual on your side has less to do with you playing the game's demo, and more to do with you obtaining a copy of the game in what we call here* cynically "my uncle from america"
Furthermore, I'm sure by looking at the date I registered and my post count you can see I've been here for a while (though much less time than the veterans, and quite a lot of none-veterans like myself), and I can tell you from experience that this community usually treats other people (including new guys) quite well, and often much better than in other communities I frequent**, with the exception of few who tend to be a bit more flame-happy (but are otherwise nice people).


*-here being Israel, but I'm sure you get my point.
**-This has a bit to do with the average age over here, but also about this being a small and "sheltered" community, in another forum I visit, seeing spam posts from random bored people, registering just to annoy other people, is not uncommon.

[Epaminondas]

Agarajag,

I am not sure what you meant by the following statement:

"If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that Arralen thought that the lack of manual on your side has less to do with you playing the game's demo, and more to do with you obtaining a copy of the game in what we call here* cynically 'my uncle from america'".

Regardless, I have made it clear that the primary reason I don't have a copy of the game is because my old computer has a CD-drive malfunction, and that I have ordered a new computer from Dell to replace it. Further, it makes no sense for me to have the full game when I can't play it until the new computer arrives. In fact, I have even started a thread asking what computer specification is needed to play the game tolerably, and further posted the specification of the computer I have ordered from Dell.

[Agrajag]

Epaminondas said:
Agarajag,

I am not sure what you meant by the following statement:

"If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that Arralen thought that the lack of manual on your side has less to do with you playing the game's demo, and more to do with you obtaining a copy of the game in what we call here* cynically 'my uncle from america'".

'my uncle from america' is an expression, describing something obtained from dubious sources, specifically, pirated games.
Furthermore, check out the Lich pretender, he has 30 HP, and that's because his body is "leathery and dry and lacks all organs of importance"
The ***** Queen has 25 hp, and she is a giant werewolf.
A Pheonix has 15 hp.
And I'd say its pretty obvious that there are more pretenders with even less HP, which are less worthy of mention.

So a boost to 20 HP is not minor thematically, and besides increasing a unit from 13 hp to 20 hp is a ~54% boost! (which would make them more than ~54% more valuable and useful)

[Endoperez]

I wouldn't say boost to 20 hp is thematically major, but it IS huge when compared to other units.

I don't think low hp are a problem. It makes some people's preferred tactics hard to pull off. There are many theoretical ways we can fix this, some of which might get more uniform support. We can't mod these things yet, and perhaps never will be able to, but here we go:

- Every star of experience gives an extra hitpoint. Some would opt for more than 1 hp, e.g. 1,1,2,1,2 hp. A 3-star human would have 3-5 extra hp (depending on suggestion), so 16 to 18 (if they started from 13, common for melee commanders).

- Lycanthropos' Amulet boosts the base unit instead of transforming the unittype. +1 att, +4 str, +10hp, "Bite" attack, regen, a downside or two. Again, details change between people.

I'm not sure why I even wrote this post, btw. It doesn't really add anything.

[Epaminondas]

Agrajag said:

'my uncle from america' is an expression, describing something obtained from dubious sources, specifically, pirated games.

If that is the case, then he was being a jack ***--pure and simple. Someone comes to a game forum looking for more information on the game before he buys it, and he is warrantlessly treated like a common thief?

WTF?

It also says a lot about the intelligence of such a person. If I actually had a copy of the full game (pirated or not) why would I be asking Endoperez and others for more photos of units that interest me--and ask other questions that clearly indicate that I do not know what happens in late-game?

But then I suppose behind the veil of anonymity online, you can throw out any kind of scurrilous accusations about someone, because you are not accountable.

[Epaminondas]

Endoperez,

I don't mind an HP boost via additional levels; in fact, I have already thrown out that suggestion.

Since you have broached the topic of what is possible and what is not possible in terms of modding, can base unit stats be easily modded by a computer illiterate like me?

[Endoperez]

Epaminondas said:
Since you have broached the topic of what is possible and what is not possible in terms of modding, can base unit stats be easily modded by a computer illiterate like me?

Modding is done by editing text files. There is a syntax (simple rules). As an example, to give MA Ulm's Black Lord mounted commander 20 hp instead of 14, you'd have to :

1) select the correct unit
2) change the things you want
3) deselect the unit

In this case, it'd be just the matter of writing:

#selectmonster "Black Lord"
#hp 20
#end

into a valid mod file. A valid mod file is a text file with ".dm" ending instead of ".txt", and at least line #modname "Something".

To change Ulmish infantry units, you can't use just their name, as they all have the same name. You have to use their unit id number. You can see this number by pressing Shift+i (I) while viewing a unit's description. To change the hp of all MA Ulm's infantry, you'd have to change hps of units 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80.

Demo doesn't support mods, and the modding.pdf only comes with the full version. All existing modding commands are described in there. If there's no command, you can't add or change the ability.

[Agrajag]

Epaminondas said:

If that is the case, then he was being a jack ***--pure and simple. Someone comes to a game forum looking for more information on the game before he buys it, and he is warrantlessly treated like a common thief?

WTF?

It also says a lot about the intelligence of such a person. If I actually had a copy of the full game (pirated or not) why would I be asking Endoperez and others for more photos of units that interest me--and ask other questions that clearly indicate that I do not know what happens in late-game?

But then I suppose behind the veil of anonymity online, you can throw out any kind of scurrilous accusations about someone, because you are not accountable.

Well, I did just say that's my guess as to what he thought.
Beyond that... The veil of anonymity is also a great way for someone with an illegal copy of the game to go unnoticed, and in this case make do without a manual.
Also, since the manual is one of the selling points of this game, I could see why we would not want to make manual knowledge available to those who don't pay for it.

Also, did you consider that option that Arralen just didn't see the part where you had no manual (and maybe even felt a bit upset at how lazy you are not checking the manual )


Either way I don't see why you have to get so upset, you did get your answer after all, and considering how you are just another anonymous person over here, there's no reason not to be suspicious. Other than being curteous to other people.