Remove Curses and Horror Marks?

[Agrajag]

I find bugs to be extremely rare. I've been playing since (a bit before) I registered on these forums (of course, I'm including dom2 play), and I've seen very very few bugs, and maybe once in my entire Dominions gaming "career" have I encountered a show-stopping bug.

As for a ingame saves... I don't think they are really needed. You can save on your own if you really want to, but there is almost no need for saves, and considering how things work right now, it will only make the interface more complicated and will waste developer time.

Last time this was discussed, someone nicely provided a way to autosave, so here it is:
Make a shortcut to the game that will run it with the --preexec command line argument, make it something like --preexec DomSave.bat (DomSave.bat will be the file that automagically saves for you, and preexec means it will be called everytime before hosting a turn.)
To make the DomSave.bat file simply create a new text file and write down something like:
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\*.2h" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak3\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\*.2h" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savedgames\GAMETOBESAVED\*.2h" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\ftherlnd" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak3\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\ftherlnd" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savedgames\GAMETOBESAVED\fther lnd" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\*.trn" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak3\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\*.trn" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak2\"
copy "D:\games\dominions3\savedgames\GAMETOBESAVED\*.trn" "D:\games\dominions3\savebak\bak1\"
Then save the file and change its extension to .bat instead of .txt.
Also, create a savebak directory and in it bak1 and bak2 and bak3.
What this will do is copy all save related files from the game you want to save into the savebake\bak1, the bak1 to bak2 and the bak2 to bak3, essentially giving you three backups that will continuously overwrite each other, so if you want to go back one turn you go to bak1, if you want two turns you go to bak2 and if you want three turns go to bak3.
Obviously, you will need to change the paths to whatever is right for your computer.

I didn't use it much, and I don't use it anymore, but I still had it on my computer, maybe it will help you

[jscott]

I'm going to leave this discussion at this point alone. There's just no point in arguing that ingame saves are needed, when most of the people playing are willing to come online, concede there are bugs that can severely impact play, but then turn around and argue that ingame saves aren't necessary.

Nearly every game that comes out, in any genre, has an ingame saving feature. It certainly is in every strategy game (turn based or RTS, from Civilizations to Gal Civ to Europa Universalis to Starcraft to whatever you want to name).

It is not a crutch that allows people to play poorly.

It is not a cheat that allows human players to outwit the AI (frankly if you need a cheat to beat the AI in Dom 3, strategy games might not be your gaming genre).

It is a convenience that keeps a person from abandoning a very long game in progress (and Dominions is a very long, deep game) and having to restart because of a bug, a flukish event, or just because something happens you didn't want to happen (like forgetting to produce or a move a unit). This is single player, against the AI, and this condescending attitude that people here have for a feature that is incredibly basic in any PC (or even console game at this point) is unfathomable.

As for it being hard to implement, if it just takes me 1 second to do it on my own, then it can't possibly be very difficult to implement.

[Endoperez]

I and llamabeast both agreed that we can see why some people would like to have it. NTJedi and Agrajag didn't agree, but told you how to do it yourself. The tone used wasn't the best possible, but I hope you see that it's overy defensive - not hostile.

Frankly, at this point, we couldn't get this changed or added in, even if the whole community was for it, unanimously. Not for Dominions 3 at least, and Dominions 4 isn't around the corner, and probably not at the end of the tunnel either, and even if it was the developers might be against the change for one reason or another. The do-it-yourself guides are the only good answer, and NT_Jedi gave you one. I think the next Illwinter game probably should focus on interface much more than Dominions series, because that's where Dominions fails, and depending a save/load system would probably be part of that.




As for bugs... There are lots of minor bugs, I agree. I didn't think they were common, but it could be I just don't notice them any more. However, the game is so complicated that it's hard to now if we have a bug, a misleading description or a misinterpreted ability/event. Lots of "well-known" mechanics have actually been hear-say, and been proven wrong, lately. It comes with the complexity.

[jscott]

The tone of several posts, Endo, was hostile. It was very hostile in one case. That tone isn't necessary.

There are many reasons that casual and even serious stratey gamers will never play Dominions 3. I think that the game makes it needlessly hard on itself. Many serious strategy gamers will overlook the graphics and presentation (which are severely lacking). But to add on top of that the mandatory, annoying difficulty increases like permanent horror marking and curses and afflictions only puts more obstacles in front of players trying to learn this game. When you top it off with no in-game save, a feature present in EVERY GAME (did I mention that before?), its just needlessly absurd.

Dominions 3 could do itself a major favor by just removing some of the needless barriers to entry.

(And, yes, a lot of this is transferred frustration because I can't get anyone I know to try this game for more than a few turns and, you know what, they are right to be turned off of the game, even if once you get into it, it can be a rewarding experience).

With that, really, I'm done with this thread. I hope certain of you really enjoy thrashing the next new player to come along and ask for the game to be a little more accessible and user-friendly in the single player experience. That really helps grow the community.

[Zogundar]

jscott said:*snip*There are many reasons that casual and even serious stratey gamers will never play Dominions 3. I think that the game makes it needlessly hard on itself. Many serious strategy gamers will overlook the graphics and presentation (which are severely lacking). But to add on top of that the mandatory, annoying difficulty increases like permanent horror marking and curses and afflictions only puts more obstacles in front of players trying to learn this game. When you top it off with no in-game save, a feature present in EVERY GAME (did I mention that before?), its just needlessly absurd.

Dominions 3 could do itself a major favor by just removing some of the needless barriers to entry.

(And, yes, a lot of this is transferred frustration because I can't get anyone I know to try this game for more than a few turns and, you know what, they are right to be turned off of the game, even if once you get into it, it can be a rewarding experience).*snip*

Wow, I didn't expect to see any new replies to this thread.. that was an interesting read.

I never did buy the game, by the way. I did want to 'check in on' it though to see if anything had changed.. I guess the community is still too divided between the unrelentingly-hardcore camp and the hardcore-but-not-insistant camp for things to swing in the latter's favor. As far as save games go, yes, that would be nice, but for me the barrier remains the curses/horror marks/insanity/any other permanent afflictions. If there were a Remove Curse/Banishment/Restoration spell or effect to remove these or just a simple toggle that switches all that crap off I'd fork over $50 right now.

I don't suppose anything has changed in the few months since anyone last posted in this thread?

[Endoperez]

No, not really. We got three new nations in a patch.


I wonder how many of us who did get into Dominions played roguelikes before playing Dominions. That would give the player the kind of mentality needed to enjoy Dominions.

[Zogundar]

Actually, I do play roguelikes (Well, just Nethack, Slashem and Dwarf Fortress.)

But even Nethack has Explore & Wizard Mode!

[Zogundar]

So. Looks like I'm back again. Well.

My position hasn't changed. Obviously the game still has Curses and Horror Marks et al. So I suppose I want to know if modding has improved to the point where modifying/adding spells is possible. Or if a mod already exists that accomplishes what I desire: No incurable states of condition.

Failing that I would like to know the full extent to which I can personally modify the game. For example, rather than just removing a type of site entirely, changing its properties. Or replacing by removing one and adding another.

Though one thing I didn't see addressed was insanity. How would you go about removing that from the game, assuming there is no way to create a spell effect to accomplish it? And while I'm at it, are there any OTHER such nuisances that I just don't know about yet?

[NTJedi]

Originally Posted by Zogundar

I suppose I want to know if modding has improved to the point where modifying/adding spells is possible. Or if a mod already exists that accomplishes what I desire: No incurable states of condition.

...

Though one thing I didn't see addressed was insanity. How would you go about removing that from the game, assuming there is no way to create a spell effect to accomplish it? And while I'm at it, are there any OTHER such nuisances that I just don't know about yet?

All this can be accomplished... you simply remove each unit, spell, nation, weapon/item which causes the curses, horror_marks, and insanity. Start with a simple mod removing the biggest pains and as you discover the other units, spells, and weapon/items then you can add them into the mod. At least that's what I did for the AI Opponent Balance mod which took quite a long time for the first version and the next version is being worked on. Any SP gamer looking to balance the scales of fairness would like the mod.

There's no super cure potion/spell for the game. You should try the original base game of Dominions_3... that's where the horrors were massively out of control.

[chrispedersen]

er, who says you don't have game saves, anyway?

theres a mod that saves the game everytime you run it. And even if you can't find it - write a little batch file to do the same thing..

No big deal.