Message from Abysia

Kristoffer O · #1 October 10th, 2006, 03:54 AM

> Ah, Real Life. In Real Life, one doesn't get to skip over hours of boredom simply to get to the interesting bits. Why does Dominions allow one to skip forward an entire month in seconds via the turn mechanism? For that matter, Real Life doesn't have graphics options to speed things up - why does Dominions? People (and not-people) are _dying_ and getting _maimed_ in those battles, why should the player be able to fast forward through their suffering???

My real life has splendid graphics and i accidentally skipped this month

> For that matter - does this mean that we can look forward to Babies Crying, Inlaws, and Nagging Spouses ("Zeus, when_ are you going to finally clean up Thebes?") in Dominions 4?

Dominions 4 - Infant Gods. Ares still in dipers attacking Afrodite with a fork

Twan · #2 October 10th, 2006, 08:29 PM

Personnally I'm not against the aging system but I think making global mod commands to change it would be a good idea to please everyone(something like #longlives [x years] adding for all characters x years to the old age limit, or #allyounger [x years] reducing all start ages by a number of years).

Anyway mods will probably be done to change max ages, even if the modding stay manual, but giving a command like #allyounger would make more players use a soft version of the age system instead of using the "10000 years max mod" that will very probably be made.

Fate · #3 October 11th, 2006, 01:07 AM

I love the old age system, actually. I am playing MA Agartha, and I have two diseased mages, one of which is feeble-minded. So, I "retired" them with a title (Lord [name], Master Mage) and retired them to a "nursing home" province.

One thing I would like to see is for units to "upgrade" due to old age (eg, hastati -> principes -> triarri being the most common one). Especially for those Polypal Spawns to grow into Aboleths (envisions a couple "missed" decay spells to "force grow" some Mind Lords).

KissBlade · #4 October 11th, 2006, 01:09 AM

Like I mentioned before, this is a strategy game, not a roleplaying game.

JaydedOne · #5 October 11th, 2006, 01:13 AM

Oh, I think it's a little column a, a little column b, Kissblade. There are definitely RPG qualities at work here and people can enjoy it in a variety of ways.

thejeff · #6 October 11th, 2006, 01:28 AM

I like the upgrade with age idea. Only applies to some units, obviously, but there are enough obvious upgrade paths in the descriptions that it's worth thinking about.

Even mages: Daughter -> Mother -> Crone?
Obviously balance would have to be considered. Might make more sense if only old and experienced units upgraded?

How about a nation that couldn't recruit its top mages, but had to wait for the lower tier ones to age? And hope they didn't die or get crippled first.

AAshbery76 · #7 October 11th, 2006, 01:30 AM

The more roleplaying elements the better.

Cainehill · #8 October 11th, 2006, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Fate said:
I love the old age system, actually. I am playing MA Agartha, and I have two diseased mages, one of which is feeble-minded. So, I "retired" them with a title (Lord [name], Master Mage) and retired them to a "nursing home" province.

Ah yes - yet another bloody way to have to pay expensive upkeep on troops because you don't dismiss them from service when they become crippled & useless. Nifty.

Morkilus · #9 October 10th, 2006, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Cainehill said:
Ah yes - yet another bloody way to have to pay expensive upkeep on troops because you don't dismiss them from service when they become crippled & useless. Nifty.

You mean you're not having any fun sending those feeble old wrecks to the front lines, ahead of the pikemen to slow down a cavalry charge? You either have no sense of humor, or are just a soft excuse for a pretender god bent on the destruction of the world for your glory.

An aside: I immediately sent that joke of a mercenary Madame Fortuna into the front lines when she hired on with a feeble mind. Then I realized my commander had was feebleminded immediately after the battle. Off he goes to the front! It happened again. I then read the text for this slave collar that was being passed down. Oops.

Cainehill · #10 October 11th, 2006, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Morkilus said:

Quote:

Cainehill said:
Ah yes - yet another bloody way to have to pay expensive upkeep on troops because you don't dismiss them from service when they become crippled & useless. Nifty.

You mean you're not having any fun sending those feeble old wrecks to the front lines, ahead of the pikemen to slow down a cavalry charge? You either have no sense of humor, or are just a soft excuse for a pretender god bent on the destruction of the world for your glory.

Problem is that those old, feebleminded mages tend to often have map movements of one - guess incontinence makes it difficult to travel fast. In dom2, I often saw where it would take 10 turns or more to drag useless troops (and "free" militia) to a valid front line to get them killed off. Given that _every_ turn you have to find that army and update orders, since there's no pathfinding or waypoint mechanism, it's a royal PITA.

And I have another gripe about the age system - following up in new post.