Nagas and other "lost" pretenders

[st.patrik]

So it seems that Dom II (at least as played by beta-testers) doesn't have such a reliance on scripting mages as Dom I - presumably because in Dom II mages aren't as foolish with their spell-casting options as Dom I mages.

My question is this: a prominent way to destroy armies in Dom I was to cast a ward spell, followed by the appropriate battlefield damage spell, e.g. Thunder Ward, followed by Wrathful Skies etc. Is this as important a part of winning battles in Dom II as it was in Dom I? I can see one reason why it wouldn't be - wards do not give total protection against their element anymore.

I guess a related question would be whether the AI would ever do the above combination - ward then battlefield damage spell. If not, and if such combos are still a viable way to do lots of damage to your opponent, then it would seem that scripting is still a really important part of the game.

The way Dom I is, if you want your mages to do anything really useful you've got to script. It seems like with Dom II IW are moving away from script-intensive battles and more toward getting the mages with the right abilities and research level out into the battlefield and letting them do their thing. In fact it seems like scripting might be a liability at times, and it's maybe better to let the mage decide what's best.

Since I'm kinda lazy I don't mind the trend , but on the other hand I think scripting is a key part of tactical combat in Dom I [perhaps the most key part]. I wonder if a well-scripted mage would beat one on autopilot, or vice versa - I guess that's what all this rambling is about

p.s. We all have ideas about what we'd like Dom II to look like - I myself have suggested several, and had several shot down by IW. But you can't really fault IW for taking their game in the direction they want. I think it's great that they have a presence in this forum, and actually interact with our suggestions & comments - but I don't think at all that they have a responsibility to do so - more like they're doing us a favour. That said, I do hope they implement some of the suggestions that have been made.

[johan osterman]

I am not sure this have been obvious enough, or perhaps you do not think it is enough of an improvement on scripting etc. There is in the latest Version of the beta the ability save a script or a set of orders and copy it to another commander. You can have up to ten scripts in memory simultaneously by pressing [ctrl]+[number] to copy and [number] to paste.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by johan osterman:
I am not sure this have been obvious enough, or perhaps you do not think it is enough of an improvement on scripting etc. There is in the latest Version of the beta the ability save a script or a set of orders and copy it to another commander. You can have up to ten scripts in memory simultaneously by pressing [ctrl]+[number] to copy and [number] to paste.

I read that, I think the suggestion was from Daynarr. I was unsure if this would be implemented for true, or was just a feature in testing. If this is validated & found in the final release, then is it great news.

thanks for your time.

[Truper]

Originally posted by MStavros:
IW should take a lesson from Timegate [Kohan developers], they are an awesome company.
They are always communicating via their message board with the fans, and they are always listening to them. That is the key to make a successful game. If you say things like: 'We like it this way, this won't be changed.', you will loose more fans for sure.
Think about it, before posting that sentence in any form. [/QB]

Are you aware that Illwinter released no fewer than 15 patches to Dominions 1, and that the vast majority of them were for the purpose of implementing improvements suggested by the player community? Implying that Illwinter is unresponsive is absurd.

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by MStavros:
That is the key to make a successful game. If you say things like: 'We like it this way, this won't be changed.', you will loose more fans for sure.
Think about it, before posting that sentence in any form.

It all depends on how you define 'successful' - a lot of fans' suggestions aren't very good; if you as a company incorporate all (or even most) of them you may be popular because you listen to what players want, but chances are your game will suck. I think IW (rightly IMO) are more interested in making a well-balanced game than having every player suggestion included. And again, I say this as someone who has made plenty of suggestions, so I'm not against making suggestions.

[ October 06, 2003, 15:28: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

[licker]

I don't think there's any real animosity between illwinter and any of their fans, just people who want to see Dom2 be the best that it can be, though that 'best' can and is different for different people

I will second (or third or whatever number I am) the suggestions that would leed to Dom2 becoming more of a macro oriented game, I think everyone has done enough micro games, and Dom1, while containing elements of micro, really is more of a macro type game than it is micro. For the sake of clarification (sticking with fantasy themed games) I consider HoMM and AoW to be micro oriented games, what they consist of mostly is learning the proper order in which to build up your cities, then doing it, then learning the proper order in which to build up your troops. Its fun for a while, but it gets really dull and annoying (especially HoMM) after a while, becasue you *have* to do things in a certain order, and you can't automate it very effectively.

Dom is much better in lessening that aspect, partially because it abstracts all the improvment building into the province statistics, but also because it isn't as geared toward that type of thinking. Where I run into problems with Dom1 is in the issuing of orders to troops and mages, for this some saved scripts (as has been impemented apparently) would be a real god send. It would also be nice to be able to issue permanent orders for anything (already done for patroling and repeat rituals), and stacked orders for site searching mages or sneaking commanders/armies.

It sounds like Dom2 is orders of magnatude more user friendly then Dom1 already with the empire screen (F4 right?) and other already implemented improvments, so I am hopeful now that once Dom2 has been out for a few weeks and people have kicked it around, working out any remaining bugs or balance issues, the devs will have the time and desire to address further UI, or 'player friendly' improvments.

[Kristoffer O]

Thanks for the support!

We like you too!

[ October 06, 2003, 18:58: Message edited by: Kristoffer O ]