New Dom2 Quick Reference Sheet

[Gothmog]

Well, I'm trying to get my little brothers into this game, and, as you all know, the documents and interface (of this AMAZING game, don't get me wrong now.) are kinda.... UNWIELDLY at times.

Therefore, I took some time to draft up a one sheet nation overview table. I slapped a key shortcut table on it too... well 'cause I had the room. Now, I really intend this sheet to be geared toward newbies who are trying to choose what race(s) they might like to play. You'll notice a 'quick summary' column, where I made up a short phrase that, to me, sums up the race. (and is kinda funny, too)

Keep in mind this is still a rough draft, so the information might still be a tad incomplete or just plain WRONG. That's where you guys come in. Please download this and let me know what you think might need to be added, subtracted (multiplied? divided? ), changed, rebuked, flogged, hugged, etc.

So without further ado, here's the link:
Gothmog's Somewhat Nifty Dominions II Quick Reference Sheet

I know some of my quick summaries are a little dry, too. Feel free to give me suggestions!

[MythicalMino]

I think it looks very nice....puts it all in one spot (the nation overviews)

Chris

[Saber Cherry]

Well, I think your chart is AWESOME!! It looks great! In fact, I think it ought to be distributed with the game=)

A couple suggestions on how to make it even better:

First, I think the magic icons rather then magic names are an excellent idea; it lets you see what magic the nation has much more quickly than reading the words. But you might want to take it one more step... specifically... under Priests, instead of "weak, average, etc" you could show the holy symbols, so "weak" would be replaced with 2 holy symbols, "strong" with 4 holies, "blood sacrifice" with a blood symbol or bloodslave symbol, and "unholy" or "reanimate" with unholy candles, corrseponding to the number on their highest-level unholy priest.

Second: Again, the magic icons are cool. And you seem to have them in order of strength (Ulm goes Earth, then Fire, for example). But it would be (IMO) even better if you could represent the max level in each path. For example, giving Ulm 2 earths and 1 fire icon, with the earths stacked together, overlapping like the way experience stars overlap so they don't take too much space. Hope that describes it well enough=) So Ulm would become "EE F", Abysia would become "FFF BB AA", and so forth.

Third: Randoms would also be good here! If you could also add random path symbols, that would be nice... if you know ahead of time that a nation gets a mage with 2 or 3 randoms, that could certainly affect pretender design!

Fourth: The themes can be VERY different and often have completely different magic. So... this would be twice as much work as you've already done... but rather than starting a game with each theme each time to check it out before designing a REAL god, I'd love to have a chart just like yours, but whith a complete entry for each theme, as though it was a nation.

Well, those are my suggestions. But I think what you've done is excellent, and I applaud it=)

-Cherry

[Johan K]

Very nice!

I think we'll put on the Illwinter page if you don't mind.

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by Johan K:
Very nice!

I think we'll put on the Illwinter page if you don't mind.

I don't mind at all, but please wait until I release the final Version. I'm pretty certain I'm going to incorporate changes gleaned from this thread.

[Taqwus]

Damn spiffy. Themes do change things, 'tho.
Jotuns -- technically giants, not titans. Titans are more of a Greco-Roman concept, aren't they?
Man -- the Tuatha make me think more of Ireland than England. "British", perhaps, or the Isles of the Mighty.
Marignon -- more French.
If you're going to note assassins (e.g. Machaka), they also are available to Abysia, C'tis, Marignon, Pythium, R'lyeh.
Pythium -- under 'special', I'd suggest easy Communion.
Pangaea -- add Blood, for Pandemoniacs.

[aldin]

Whoa! Awesome! Love it! The nation descriptions are wonderful. If you make the changes Cherry suggested it'd be worth laminating. Thanks for doing it and making it available.

~Aldin

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
under Priests, instead of "weak, average, etc" you could show the holy symbols, so "weak" would be replaced with 2 holy symbols, "strong" with 4 holies, "blood sacrifice" with a blood symbol or bloodslave symbol, and "unholy" or "reanimate" with unholy candles, corrseponding to the number on their highest-level unholy priest.

On second thought, newbies would not know that unholy candles mean you can reanimate stuff, so keep the "reanimates dead" statement under the priest info, in addition to the unholy candles

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by Taqwus:
Damn spiffy. Themes do change things, 'tho.
Jotuns -- technically giants, not titans. Titans are more of a Greco-Roman concept, aren't they?
Man -- the Tuatha make me think more of Ireland than England. "British", perhaps, or the Isles of the Mighty.
Marignon -- more French.
If you're going to note assassins (e.g. Machaka), they also are available to Abysia, C'tis, Marignon, Pythium, R'lyeh.
Pythium -- under 'special', I'd suggest easy Communion.
Pangaea -- add Blood, for Pandemoniacs.

Thanks for the corrections and suggestions, Taqwus, I'll implement them soon.

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Well, I think your chart is AWESOME!! It looks great! In fact, I think it ought to be distributed with the game=)

Thanks!

A couple suggestions on how to make it even better:

First, I think the magic icons rather then magic names are an excellent idea; it lets you see what magic the nation has much more quickly than reading the words. But you might want to take it one more step... specifically... under Priests, instead of "weak, average, etc" you could show the holy symbols, so "weak" would be replaced with 2 holy symbols, "strong" with 4 holies, "blood sacrifice" with a blood symbol or bloodslave symbol, and "unholy" or "reanimate" with unholy candles, corrseponding to the number on their highest-level unholy priest.

I love this idea, I'm going to have to shrink the icons down a bit to get it all to fit... hmmm. Maybe I'll cut the key shortcuts out entirely and stretch the table to take up the whole page.

Second: Again, the magic icons are cool. And you seem to have them in order of strength (Ulm goes Earth, then Fire, for example). But it would be (IMO) even better if you could represent the max level in each path. For example, giving Ulm 2 earths and 1 fire icon, with the earths stacked together, overlapping like the way experience stars overlap so they don't take too much space. Hope that describes it well enough=) So Ulm would become "EE F", Abysia would become "FFF BB AA", and so forth.

Yeah, I tried to put them in order of strengh. You're right, adding multiple magic icons would make it much easier to get a good overview. Thing is, I don't exactly know all that info. You think you could either a.) look it up and post it here, or b.) point me to an already made xls that has the info?

Third: Randoms would also be good here! If you could also add random path symbols, that would be nice... if you know ahead of time that a nation gets a mage with 2 or 3 randoms, that could certainly affect pretender design!

Ooh, another good idea. I'll put that in too.

Fourth: The themes can be VERY different and often have completely different magic. So... this would be twice as much work as you've already done... but rather than starting a game with each theme each time to check it out before designing a REAL god, I'd love to have a chart just like yours, but whith a complete entry for each theme, as though it was a nation.

Well, this is perhaps the greatest idea yet! I love to do this, but I confess gathering the info for it is probably too much of a task for me. If you guys would like to post the info here, tho. I'd be happy to incorporate it.

Well, those are my suggestions. But I think what you've done is excellent, and I applaud it=)

-Cherry

[apoger]

Absolutely outstanding!
Great work.