Control of your Pretender in battle

[Oblivious]

Hello! I am new to Dominions (dl'd the demo, ordered the full version). While I like the limited control you have over an army in the game (issuing orders before battle), I wondered if an *option* could be added to allow players to control their pretender (and only their pretender) directly during battles. This would work such that a battle would pause when a Pretender's turn came up (only when the option had been selected for the given game), and the player would have the option of issuing any of the normal orders for his pretender (i.e. cast specific spell on specific target, attack nearest, etc).

While this would slow turns down and require pauses in the battle outcome generation, it would allow players an option to control their pretender (which represents them in the game) when willing to take the extra time out for this. Players might only choose this in single player mode or when just a couple of close friends are enjoying a long, slow game together.

Anyway just an idea, not sure if it might actually be possible as a patch for this version, but it might appeal to those who would like just a little more control over their pretender in battles. Players who did not like it could turn it off.

[Meglobob]

Perhaps a spin off game, Pretender Duels...just a idea.

[CharonJr]

Would surely be a nice idea for SP games.

Due to the nature of (non-online) MP games it would not be possible (i.e. 20 battleturns would need 20 "orders" by each participant).

CharonJr

[Edi]

Not possible. All battles are resolved simultaneously and the battle replay is just that: a replay, as if watching a recording of a football or ice hockey game afterward. Changing things to allow control of pretender in battle would mean completely rewriting most of the combat resolution code and could not be implemented for MP. So it's not going to happen.

Edi

[Nick_K]

I think I read somewhere in an old dom1 forum that the devs felt that controlling spellcasters directly in battle would make them overpowered. I can certainly see this myself. If you could pick targets such as enemy commanders it'd give you a massive advantage over the ai.

Of course, this would act as an incentive to use battle-mage pretenders, but I doubt that any extra fun from this would justify the extensive re-design to the way the game works and the inevitable balance issues.

[jutetrea]

I kind of like the idea for a side game though using the engine.

There used to be some internet game where all you had were purchasing points and a list of troops. You made an army and challenged someone, winner got more points and moved up in rankings. Pretty much all text based. In reality, very boring and lame.

Take the same deal with pretenders armies - starting points, use points for gold/resources and create a pretender and an army and then either have it be resolved as now or do a turn based.

Actually...nah