questions (and is there a FAQ anywhere?)

[merlinme]

Thanks Twan, that was interesting too. It would be nice if this were all in one place. Any chance of a FAQ sticky, with all the different versions, edited to remove duplicates and remove things which have changed from Dom2? Or putting them on a website somewhere?

[Edi]

I'm in the middle of constructing a comprehensive document of the units, weapons, sites and other things in the game. Once that is complete, it will go along way toward producing a FAQ with detailed information regarding what kind of sites you can find in what territory and many other things.

A more generic FAQ would probably be easy to produce just by combining and editing existing Dom2 FAQs because a lot of the mechanics are still the same.

Edi

[merlinme]

On the subject of what type of magic site can be found in which types of terrain, I found an extra column I'd missed on the Excel spreadsheet complete list of sites which is at http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/, which gives the terrain the site can be found on. Which is very interesting. Actually I see the list was compiled by your good self, Edi, thanks for that.

Anyway, I can now see that there was little point casting Haruspex on mountain provinces, as there are precisely 0 Nature sites which only appear on mountains. Forests, swamps and water provinces appear to be the places to be. Which I guess kind of makes sense, but I hadn't realised there was _such_ a low chance of finding a Nature site in other provinces. I wasted a lot of turns doing that, but never mind, all part of the learning experience I guess.

[Edi]

You're welcome.

And, it seems, one learns something new every day. I didn't pay any particular attention to that relationship between mountains and nature sites when I did that list, so even I didn't know it. We have a saying about "not seeing the forest because of all those trees" and that seems rather appropriate here...

Edi

[Taqwus]

Some units do heal battle-caused afflictions naturally; these are mostly Pangaean units and certain pretender types, and have a particular icon representing recuperation. Immortals also probabilistically heal over time, regardless of whether they're in their own dominion.

In addition to EA Ermor Shroud priests, and Arcosephale priestesses, Faerie Queens and the TC immortal healer (all eras, if memory serves... but it wouldn't surprise me if they're swapped out in LA in some patch), there's a formidable Sauromatian heroine who can heal troops.

[thejeff]

There may be NO Nature sites that only appear on mountains, but there are Nature sites that can appear in any land province, and thus in mountains.

Also, as you probably know, that's the Dom2list. There have been additions, so there may now be mountain Nature sites.

[merlinme]

Yes I realise that the "Any Land" Nature sites can appear in mountains. However if (as I assume) the game compiles a weighted list (allowing on rarity) for each site in a province, then the chances are significantly lower of getting a Nature site in mountains. If we just look at Common frequency sites, then in a mountain province you would have a chance of 3 Nature sites, one of which doesn't give gems so is fairly useless. So that's two Common sites giving a Nature gem. There are 21 Any terrain Common sites which don't give a Nature gem, and 15 other Common sites which can appear on Mountains. So, if a mountain province has two sites, the chances of one of them giving you a Nature gem are (very approximately) 1 - (36/38 * 36/38). Which I make to be about 10%.

In a Forest province there are 5 Common Nature sites which give a gem, and eight other Common Forest sites. So the chances of getting a Nature gem casting Haruspex are (very approximately) 1 - (22/29 * 22/29). Which I make to be about 42%.

Obviously the maths is all very approximate and I'm sure there will be some errors there, and it depends on the exact formula. But the fact remains that if you check two Forest sites in Dom2 using Haruspex, the chances are you should get a Nature gem, whereas you can check 6 mountains provinces using Haruspex (as I did) and still only be about 50/50 to find a Nature gem.

[Gandalf Parker]

merlinme said:
Thanks Twan, that was interesting too. It would be nice if this were all in one place. Any chance of a FAQ sticky, with all the different versions, edited to remove duplicates and remove things which have changed from Dom2? Or putting them on a website somewhere?

Sounds like a good idea. Go for it.

Besides my docs collection (mostly for mappers and modders)
http://www.Dom3Minions.com/docs
I also hope to have a collection of How-To articles. So far my list is:
How-To::
keep multiple gods (left over from Dom2)
do switches/config
make an icon for each game Im in
battle simulator
save/restore
screenshots
alarms so I dont miss real-world things
host
take notes in the game
make notes on the map
make a map
make a mod
make an AI (i.e. play against myself)
change the music
speed up the game
beat the AI
beat Ermor
beat that perfect strategy (changing game types)
bank my money
run a game without leaving my machine up 24/7
run a pbem game
host a blitz game
see the scoreboards with dead-nations included
see what the AI is "thinking" when it processes
play on a lan with one copy

Gandalf Parker
-- DOMINIONS 3:
the Everliving, the Emperor of Strategy, the Tyrrant of Time, the Destructor of Health, the Stealer of Sleep, and a game too.