On the cusp...

[Nerfix]

I just realized I haven't touched the tax during the time I've played Dom 3. At all. D:

[thejeff]

I agree about the maps. Even an SP game is likely to last many hours. Waiting a few minutes on start up is no big deal. If it's a concern about demonstrating it to new players, who might be turned off before getting hooked, start with an existing map.

I do think the animated map arrows are silly. Turning them off isn't an answer. You need to see where the troops are going, but there was no need to animate them.

More detail in battle reports would be nice. Being able to see at a glance which commanders died and whether you lost any good troops or just the arrow fodder.

And I do still touch taxes. Mostly because the minimum (50%) is too high. If a province has high unrest, say 50+, I want taxes to 0, to get it back up quickly.

[Agrajag]

kimmitt said:
I'm running a machine which is more than capable of guiding fifty rockets to the moon simultaneously.

That doesn't say much, consider the computers on the earlier spacecrafts.


Now, without reading all of the thread (I'm a bit busy on time right now, sorry :\)

1) I don't know what kind of CPU you have, but hosting and map generation both run fine on my computer.
You haven't even told us what kind of CPU you have.

2) I like it the way it is, but I can see how it could be more comfortable for some if it was in one screen.

3) Yeah, a coupld of guys making the game as a hobby are going to get a proffesional to do their work, that sounds like a bright idea

4) Not high on my priorities, but I agree that it could be cool.

[Foodstamp]

Someone dropped the post count bomb. I got news for ya, post count does not mean anything. I have been lurking these boards forever. Forever, meaning literally for the past 5 years or longer since I found the site googling for a TBS engine or something.

I watched all you guys post through the entire life cycle of dominions 2 without making a post. My point is, post count means nothing.

This guy has some good points, and some bad points IMO...

1) I have mixed emotions about the RMG. I have written an RMG before and I am amazed at how organic illwinter's implementation is. The initial map generation time does not bother me because I know that I am going to be rewarded with a nice long game.

Pretender design on one screen, excellent idea considering you use a set amount of points to make the pretender. Would save a small bit of hastle.

Turn generation is just too slow on this game. It should not take as long as it does. I find myself spending more time surfing the net than making my moves. Not such a big deal for MP players I imagine, but I am primarily a single player guy and it is annoying. The only fix being to play smaller maps with less AI players, which is a let down.

2) This game keeps a team of 2 people, it is a bit unrealistic to ask for state of the art graphics using 3dstudio max or maya ffs. That being said, the castles atleast could be fixed, they are ugly and take up way too much space on the map, covering the nation flag normally.

3) Yeah, a two man company can afford to "pay" a GUI expert to come "clean house" .

4)Your turn report ideas sound good for the most part, most importantly give me a battle report from a storm the castle event or from "so and so was the victim of an assassination attempt."

5)Selling dominions 2 cheaper. I find it weird also that this game series does not seem to follow the laws of economics, atleast from the consumer's perspective. From our side of the field it does seem like some poor business choices have been made. That being said, we as consumers cannot say that with 100% certainty without knowing the full scope of production costs, and other various aspects that go into publishing the game. (Even with those things at an extreme, it is probably still a business flaw because the publisher has not found a way to optimize that process over the years, or found a better cheaper way to implement it).

[Sindai]

Foodstamp said:
Someone dropped the post count bomb. I got news for ya, post count does not mean anything. I have been lurking these boards forever. Forever, meaning literally for the past 5 years or longer since I found the site googling for a TBS engine or something.

I watched all you guys post through the entire life cycle of dominions 2 without making a post. My point is, post count means nothing.

It's a good thing he also explored the content of the three posts or this would be a valid criticism.

I do agree with him about the UI (obviously hiring somebody else would be impractical, but there's plenty of books on UI design out there) and battle reports, plus the inexplicable un-fixedness of a handful of things like siege battle reports.

[Archonsod]

kimmitt said:
1) Long times for map generation

To be honest, I can live with that. At least you only need to do it once at the start of the game.My only complaint regarding the map generation is the lack of options. Not that the maps it usually generates are bad, but it would be nice to be able to generate a land only map, or lower the ratio of mountains to plains and similar.

The same thing applies to the turn processing.

That's probably your system I think. I'm looking at less than a minute to process 10+ player games, and this isn't exactly a fast machine.

1) Pretender generation. This should all be one screen, simple as that.

Personal preference. I like the different screens. Besides, I'm not sure how you could fit all of the magic paths plus the dominion setup and the pretender choices onto one screen.

2) The map.

Again, your preference. I happen to like the map and the little arrow.

3) Menus in general

Haven't seen any problems there?

4) Various report options. Let me know how many x's I've killed or gotten killed.

Not something I would use, but it shouldn't be too hard to track. Would be interesting fluff for commanders and the like though - see just how many foes your hero has personally dispatched and the like.

Let me know how many people died in a siege or assault.

Agree there.

If a commander was killed in a battle, let me know which one.

I can see how this might be useful. Thing is, if it's a battle I didn't intend to view in which he was killed, I'm not likely to be expecting a commander to die, so I'll end up watching it anyway just to see how some pathetic independents or similar managed to take out one of my hero's.