Player controlled battles???

st.patrik · #1 September 30th, 2003, 07:25 PM

If you could control your troops directly it would be a fundamentally different kind of game - RTS [Real Time Strategy] rather than TBS [Turn Based Strategy]. I personally enjoy both genres, but they are incredibly distinct. The fun of a RTS (for example, Warcraft III) is to try to micromanage your army to maximum effect, using about 6000 mouse-clicks a minute

On the other hand, the fun of a TBS is scripting a battle by giving orders ahead of time, and then seeing how well your best effort at guessing the opponent's tactics does against his best effort at guessing your's.

The two are mutually exclusive - you can't have the fun of planning how a big battle will go down if you have the fun of micromanaging your army on the spot. And they are both fun.

I would probably enjoy a RTS game which had the same units and abilities as Dominions, but it would be a completely different experience from playing Domionions itself.

Pocus · #2 September 30th, 2003, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Daynarr:
That�s not all! If AI decides to go at war with you he will place his troops before that and strike at ALL your provinces he can reach simultaneously. I was attacked like that two times so far by Panganea and Atlantis (from sea!). I'll tell you, AI is BAD boy.
And even that is not all. I thought I have figured him out so when 1 of his provinces borders 2 of mine and I have army in one of them while other is undefended (only local force), I would move that army to undefended province and intercept his attack. But noooo! Now he attacks BOTH of my provinces with just enough troops to take down one of them if only my local force is defending. I�ve lost lots of provinces nearly by surprise (more like shock) that way.

Basically AI is teaching ME how to play.

sound cool, but ... in dominions I it is relatively easy to toast even Impossible AI, mainly because of two big drawbacks they have.

They are totally unaware that a supply rule exists, so every big army they have starves.
They are totally screwed by battlefields spells, because they dont protect themselves with wards, or if they do, you see them coming one hundred miles away (they are unsurprising).

So Psitticine, Daynarr, are these points a bit alleviated in doms II ? Have you checked if the big enemy armies are not starving? Have you tried to prepare for battlefields spells, how the AI reacted???

Kristoffer O · #3 September 30th, 2003, 08:32 PM

God, I must be smart!

I beat the AI every time.

Nerfix · #4 September 30th, 2003, 08:34 PM

Well, the fact that you know how The AI works won't affect the outcome...?

BTW, is the AI called "KristofferNet"?

[ September 30, 2003, 19:35: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

Mortifer · #5 September 30th, 2003, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Daynarr:
That�s not all! If AI decides to go at war with you he will place his troops before that and strike at ALL your provinces he can reach simultaneously. I was attacked like that two times so far by Panganea and Atlantis (from sea!). I'll tell you, AI is BAD boy.
And even that is not all. I thought I have figured him out so when 1 of his provinces borders 2 of mine and I have army in one of them while other is undefended (only local force), I would move that army to undefended province and intercept his attack. But noooo! Now he attacks BOTH of my provinces with just enough troops to take down one of them if only my local force is defending. I�ve lost lots of provinces nearly by surprise (more like shock) that way.

Basically AI is teaching ME how to play.

OMG! I WANT TO PLAY DOMINIONS II. NOW!
*whining*

Nerfix · #6 September 30th, 2003, 08:54 PM

Well, the Dom II AI only proves that Scandinavian people are evil. Or sadistic. Or both. Or neither.

But seriously, sounds very good.

Psitticine · #7 September 30th, 2003, 08:55 PM

The only time I've noticed a problem with the enemy supply situation is when I've got them boxed in with superior forces. Then, they'll often grow and shrink as they try and deal with supplies. Given a normal amount of room, or a less than overwhelming force bottling them up, they seem to deal with it OK. I haven't studied it though, so I'll keep a closer eye on that.

I'll watch their usage of warding spells more closely, but they seem to be quite willing to guard themselves. They lay a lot of protection spells of various kinds about, although not anything that wouldn't actually come into play. (i.e. no anti-missile spells if the opposition has no ranged troops!) I think they actually tend to use more defensive than offensive spells, but that's something I'd have to analyze more closely before being 100% sure.