Approved Abbreviations

[DominionsFan]

Endoperez said:
It's Dom3, not DomIII, though. I'd rather have roman numerals, but 3 is the official number, so 3 it is.

Eh yeah, I dunno why, but personally I would prefer Dominions III. over Dominions 3.
No idea why was it needed to change to arabic numbers from roman. Anyways this is just some minor stuff, I just wanted to post my opinion in the topic.

[Morkilus]

I do believe we need a poll. I vote for Dom3 regardless.

Other abbreviations I've seen used regularly:

Magic:

A: Air
E: Earth
F: Fire
W: Water
S: Astral
D: Death
N: Nature
B: Blood
BoW: Breath of Winter


Nations:

EA, MA, LA: Early Age, Middle Age, Late Age
TC: T'ien Ch'i
Don't know much about these! Will the old names stay the same if they're not changed? If so:
BK: Barbarian Kings (TC theme)
BF: Black Forest (Ulm theme)
BE: Broken Empire (Ermor theme)

Units:
VQ: Vampire Queen
GK: Ghost King
ID: Ice Devil
AQ: Air Queen
HI: Heavy Infantry
LI: Light Infantry
VO: Vine Ogre [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Envy.gif[/img]

Misc. Gameplay:
PD: Province Defense
VP: Victory Points
SC: Super-Combatant
LD: Life drain (usually refers to weapon effects)
AoE: Area of Effect


In other news, I'm having a hard time waiting to get my hands on this game. Perhaps I'll go into hibernation... wake me up when September ends. (ducks)

[Caduceus]

Thanks Morkilus, that's what I meant.

I was kidding about getting more sleep when Dom3 arrives, but it is hard to tell when one is being sarcastic without a wink.

Illwinter/Shrapnel went from Dominions II to Dominions 3...

Why the change from Roman to Arabic numerals, I don't know.

[Endoperez]

Oh, and of course, here are few more:

EA - Early Age
MA - Middle Age
LA - Late Age

And then we'll have to come up with some kind of a system for special randoms. What is 100% chance of FAWEN and 10% chance of FAWEN? 110% x FAWEN, or 110?FAWEN, or something else?

[Manuk]

wake me up when September ends. (ducks)

I'll go with the same theme. lol.[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/MusicalNote.gif[/img]

[DominionsFan]

Morkilus said:

In other news, I'm having a hard time waiting to get my hands on this game.

We all feel the same, don't worry.

[Fate]

What about El for elements and EEl is elements minus earth (like in the IV roman numerals). Ne could be Non-elemental, using the same scheme (so NNe is Astral, Death, or Blood).

Therefore WElBS is elements (El) minus water (W) plus blood (B) and astral (A). We could also use decimals to minimize writing: 1 WElBS is a 100% chance of +1 elemental (sans water), blood, or astral. To save the (outrageous) work of writing periods (an extra character, ugh) we could always assume the first digit is the ones place: 01 WElBS is 10% chance for another fire/earth/air/blood/astral.

Two numbers could be used for more than one random, eg: 2-1 WElBS = 2 100% earth, fire, air, astral, or blood randoms.

If we are willing to get more advanced, it could even extend to accomodate different chances, eg: 2-1 + 1-01 WElBS is 2 100% randoms of fire/earth/air/blood/astral and 1 10% chance for a fire/earth/blood/astral.

*whew* I hope I didn't lose anybody there.

[Endoperez]

Fate said:
What about El for elements and EEl is elements minus earth (like in the IV roman numerals). Ne could be Non-elemental, using the same scheme (so NNe is Astral, Death, or Blood).

Therefore WElBS is elements (El) minus water (W) plus blood (B) and astral (A). We could also use decimals to minimize writing: 1 WElBS is a 100% chance of +1 elemental (sans water), blood, or astral. To save the (outrageous) work of writing periods (an extra character, ugh) we could always assume the first digit is the ones place: 01 WElBS is 10% chance for another fire/earth/air/blood/astral.

Two numbers could be used for more than one random, eg: 2-1 WElBS = 2 100% earth, fire, air, astral, or blood randoms.

If we are willing to get more advanced, it could even extend to accomodate different chances, eg: 2-1 + 1-01 WElBS is 2 100% randoms of fire/earth/air/blood/astral and 1 10% chance for a fire/earth/blood/astral.

*whew* I hope I didn't lose anybody there.

Sorry, that's a bit too confusing. At least use # instead of El for elements, and $ for sorcery. Those were used in some of the fan-made guides.
W#B$ is still confusing. Besides, having SIX random paths is VERY rare nowadays. Most mages have four paths as
randoms, some have three, others five, but I don't think I've seen six yet. There can be, of course, especially in LA.

[Frostmourne27]

"most mages have four paths as randoms, some have three, others five, but I don't think I've seen six yet. There can be, of course, especially in LA."

Late era has more random magic? Can you please elaborate a bit...?
P.S. Sorry for O.T.

[Endoperez]

Frostmourne27 said:

Late era has more random magic? Can you please elaborate a bit...?

Early Age is often very specialized. Pangaea, as an example, has Panii with E1N4B1, 100?EB, 10?ENB - three paths, total! Caelum has strong Air, but other paths at 1, with only 10% randoms raising them. Harab Seraphs have 10?D random, Eagle Kings 10% elemental random.
There are other nations that have more lapse randoms, or more varied magic. Tien Chi randoms are of course inspired by Five Elements, so Masters of the Five Elements have FAWEN.
In Late Age, most nations have quite varied magic. Midgård theme of Vanheim, with Astral and Air naturally, and very interesting randoms of 100?AEDB and 100?EDNB of the Galdermen, Pangaea having N3E2 Panii and N3D2 Panic Apostates but no randoms better than 10% except possibly on the Carrion summons, Marignon and Ulm special themes quite varied now that Diabolic Faith has combined with Conquerors of the Sea and Iron Faith with Black Forest, etc etc.

It isn't as big a difference as I had thought, though. The nations seem to have access to about the same amount of paths, but with (usually) one strong path in Early Age and more balanced (i.e. every path is quite weak) in Late Age. Maybe it's just an illusion of D1, sometimes 2 being weaker when your best mage has Air 4 instead of when your best mage.

There are still powerful mages even in Late Age, but nations start with income of only 4 gems (probably all of them, I'm not aware of any exceptions) and magic sites are less common (unless the settings are changed).