Newbies and Confused People - Look Here!

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
But I think multiple god profiles per race should be supported, as with your suggestion, when a new user designs a new god, he permanently destroys some of the game's original data using the current 1-god-per-race system.

I can't believe this is still the case - I don't see how having each newly designed god overwrite the previous one can seem to be a good idea, and it cannot be that hard to have, say, a directory for each nation with a file for each god, and letting the player select one...

[Psitticine]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
I think it would really help new players and not hurt things at all if the demo (and probably the game) included default gods and a started game.

I think people want to dive into the game and look at it first, then twist their minds around what kind of settings would work well in a pretender.

Zipped-up game directories with starter games would be a nice thing. People could come up with what they feel are good easy-to-understand starting positions for their favorite nations and upload them to the mod forum here.

We could eventually build a rather nice library of them, and anytime a newcomer (or even just somebody who's never tried a specific nation before) wants to sample, say, a nice straight-forward set-up for Marignon, complete with a good map and suitable Pretender God, then they could just download the file, unzip it back into its directory off the Dominions installation, and just start playing via Play An Existing Game.

Don't see a downside myself, and it could be interesting to see everybody's ideas on what makes a good not-too-complicated-for-starters set-up for the various nations. That'd be another good use for them, in fact: they'd act as a sort-of "tips and tricks for set-up" brainstorming project.

Excellent idea!

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by PhilD:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
But I think multiple god profiles per race should be supported, as with your suggestion, when a new user designs a new god, he permanently destroys some of the game's original data using the current 1-god-per-race system.

I can't believe this is still the case - I don't see how having each newly designed god overwrite the previous one can seem to be a good idea, and it cannot be that hard to have, say, a directory for each nation with a file for each god, and letting the player select one...

---

Actually Id like to be able to tweak a god. I never remember what god I made for a race and Id like to be able to bring it up and look at the settings then change some. But multiple gods with selection would probably be easier.

Hmmmmm I cant think of any reason why a third party God making program cant be made by someone. I wonder if the shift to a "properly marketed game" has also added 3rd party programming restrictions.

[ October 28, 2003, 16:34: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[PDF]

Originally posted by Daynarr:

quote:

---

Originally posted by PDF:
Well, I've a problem with the keyboard : looks like the still game "hardcodes" some keys, on my French keyboard I can't "find" the ? key for a shortcut list (even using the one that is normally mapped as "?" on a US keyboard...).
Tried all the keys to no avail ..

Make sure CAPS LOCK key is not turned on. ? works fine for me even though I don't use US keyboard layout and ? is on different spot.

---

Ah ok, with CAPS LOCK on, the ? works at its "French" place
Thx

[Psitticine]

I doubt Shrapnel would have the slightest problem with 3rd party development. There's been so much work done with SEIV, Runesword II, and other products that I can't see why they'd be anything but pleased to see other people getting involved. And Illwinter certainly doesn't seem to mind, from what I've heard and seen.

I agree that being able to tweak the gods is much more satisfying, not to mention giving the whole thing that personal touch, and a third-party editor would be a great tool.

Maybe that same tool or another could add a game library management system that would promote selected games out of an archive system and into subdirectories, and vice versa, on command? It'd be nice to have all the old games around, to be able to pull something like these "add-water-and-stir" games for newbies and the curious we're talking about off the shelf, and to have various special games where the map and other settings have been set up to be a certain way all ready to play once they've been extracted.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Psitticine:
I doubt Shrapnel would have the slightest problem with 3rd party development. There's been so much work done with SEIV, Runesword II, and other products that I can't see why they'd be anything but pleased to see other people getting involved. And Illwinter certainly doesn't seem to mind, from what I've heard and seen.

Well the random map generator and such didnt cross an imporant line. I dont see how a god-creator program can be done easily without snagging alot of images and such directly from the game.

I agree that being able to tweak the gods is much more satisfying, not to mention giving the whole thing that personal touch, and a third-party editor would be a great tool.

Well since the gods are in their own directory (newlords) and in seperate files that should make some things easier. The files seem quite encrypted/compressed so it might take alot of experimentation to get things right without help from Illwinter.

[Nerfix]

Wractale is gonna go ballistic when he gets "Noob Demo Guide v.4" this soon...


He says he will soon retire if i won't stop bombing him with new Version of noob demo guide every 12 hours...


Edit: The orders are like this:
Defend Castleefends the castle in the province if it has one

Patrol Province:Patrols the province, reducing unrest and defending the province itself, if the province has a castle. Reduces more unrest if the commander has troops under his command.

Search for Magic Sites:Tries to find sites of magic power in the province. Only mages and priests can find something

Preach the Techings of God:Tries to increase your Dominion in the province. Only for priests

Blood Hunt:Tries to find Blood Slaves. Increases unrest. Commanders with skill in blood will have better succes than those who have not

Construct Building:Builds either a laboratory, temple or a fortress in the province

Pillage:Kills population and gives you gold. Dependant on the amount of troops you have and you get more gold the more people you kill.

Research:The commander contributes his research points to the research pool

Cast Ritual Spell:Casts a ritual spell

Forge Magic Item:Forges a magic item. The item goes to the laboratory

Alchemy:Converts magic gems to money or diffrent magic gems

Empowerment:Makes commander more skilled in magic by sacrificing magic gems

Become Prophet:Makes the commander your prophet, making him permanently belssed and giving him bonuses to stats when inside a friendly Dominion. You can only have one prophet.

Blood Sacrifice:Sacrifies blood slaves in order to increase your Dominion

Assasinate:Attacks an enemy commander in the province. The assasin figths the commander and his possible bodyguards.

Instill Upspring:Tries to instill an upspring in the enemy province

[ October 29, 2003, 18:08: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

[st.patrik]

Great job Saber!

[Nerfix]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
Great job Saber!

Yeah, (s)he has saved me a lot of work!
Truly great work Saber!

[Endoperez]

Some corrections:

Being a prophet also increases your stats.
There is a bug with which you can make your god a prophet, this is not advised and, as said, is a bug.

Forge item - researching in Construction helps. Different magics allow different items. Level one item costs 5 gems, level 2 10, level 3 20 and level 4 40. The few items needing level 5 in a path take 80 gems, IIRC right.

A few hints about when it is appopriate to use a command (like empower) would be nice, because this is for those who don't know such things...
For empowerment, I would suggest against it unless it allows you to cast a very good ritual, item or spell, or lets you use otherwise useless gems for rituals/items.

Some hints about different magics when creating a pretender would be nice. Short descriptions, like:

Fire magic lets you cast many different damaging spells. It also has Fire shield that greatly improves the efficiency of your Super Combatant. Evocation lets you cast most fire battlefield spells. Conjuration allows you to summon fire elementals in battle, as well as summer lions through a ritual. First level of enchantment lets you cast the fire shield.

Okay, they are not that short, but give some idea about the different schools.
Oh, damn. *slaps head* You see short descriptions from the choose magics screen. Oh well.
It is good that they did that before us, though.