Theme knowledge

Gandalf Parker · #1 October 15th, 2003, 03:54 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

Quote:

I wonder how scouting will work in Doms II. In Doms I a scout/spy provided no knowledge on the scales of the province he was in. Which seems a bit odd - aren't scouts not supposed to feel the heat or the cold, or notice if people in a province are industrious or not, if the flora and fauna are thriving or if "corpses litter the landscape", etc.

Excellent point. Now how would you recommend making scouts different than spys? I think of scouts as getting a wider, faster lay of the land. Spys would be more specific info on the province they are in. Maybe scouts should be able to get some small bits of info from provinces next to the one they are in other than just whether or not there is a castle there.

Daynarr · #2 October 15th, 2003, 04:07 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:

quote:
Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

Quote:

I wonder how scouting will work in Doms II. In Doms I a scout/spy provided no knowledge on the scales of the province he was in. Which seems a bit odd - aren't scouts not supposed to feel the heat or the cold, or notice if people in a province are industrious or not, if the flora and fauna are thriving or if "corpses litter the landscape", etc.

Excellent point. Now how would you recommend making scouts different than spys? I think of scouts as getting a wider, faster lay of the land. Spys would be more specific info on the province they are in. Maybe scouts should be able to get some small bits of info from provinces next to the one they are in other than just whether or not there is a castle there.

You can see enemy castles in neighbouring provinces.

Nagot Gick Fel · #3 October 15th, 2003, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
how would you recommend making scouts different than spys? I think of scouts as getting a wider, faster lay of the land. Spys would be more specific info on the province they are in. Maybe scouts should be able to get some small bits of info from provinces next to the one they are in other than just whether or not there is a castle there.

In Doms I spys are just better scouts with a couple extra abilities (spot sites, instill uprising) and I'm happy with that. I have a few ideas on how to add flavour to the many scout variants - eg, a forester catched by enemy patrols in a forest province could retreat to an unowned neighboring province instead of dying - a Mother of Avalon or Dryad could attempt to trigger a Vine Ogre invasion (like the random event), etc. Funny things like that, although not necessary to the game.

LordArioch · #4 October 15th, 2003, 05:09 PM

One thing I can think of I found lacking from dominions 1 was that although you could see hostile domain....you never knew who's hostile domain it was. You could guess some from the scale setup but it would be nice if it just said who had domain in a province as part of the description along with ownership.

Nerfix · #5 October 15th, 2003, 07:38 PM

I would like that scouts/spies would give you info about the scales in the province.

Adding flavour to scout variants would also be nice.

st.patrik · #6 October 15th, 2003, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:
In Doms I spys are just better scouts with a couple extra abilities (spot sites, instill uprising) and I'm happy with that. I have a few ideas on how to add flavour to the many scout variants - eg, a forester catched by enemy patrols in a forest province could retreat to an unowned neighboring province instead of dying - a Mother of Avalon or Dryad could attempt to trigger a Vine Ogre invasion (like the random event), etc. Funny things like that, although not necessary to the game.

I do like the idea of adding more stealth options - maybe adding certain rituals which are only castable while stealthy in hostile territory. Of course you'd need to figure out how to make them work without a lab somehow. It would make sense that a stealthy nature-mage (such as a Mother of Avalon or Druid) could go behind enemy lines and try to raise natural forces against them - it would add a nice extra strategic element, if it was balanced.

Perhaps another ability of stealthy mages would be to alter the scales of the hostile province they were in - so a death mage could sneak into an enemy's territory and start spreading death/blight. Similarly a fire mage could enact some covert rituals to heat the place up a little.

It would be interesting (though perhaps too detailed) if, for example, the forester was better at hiding in provinces with lots of forests (and worse in tundra), or the Abysian assassin was better at hiding in warm provinces (and worse in cold provinces), etc. But this would mainly be a colourful detail. The other stuff (above) I think would be cool and might add to the 'special ops' side of the game.

Endoperez · #7 October 15th, 2003, 08:52 PM

For the rituals... It would be a normal ritual, but instead of resolving instantly it would give you a pentagram or some such marker, giving you an ability to once something happen in the province you use it (thourgh the <>). Like independent forces coming to conquer a province.

I can't really see any use for mages' anility to alter the scales of a province. Mages are too costly for that. And situations in which I could do nothing better than this are rare... But I like it. Just like the little bonuses in stats. Elegant.

[ October 15, 2003, 19:54: Message edited by: Endoperez ]