Patch Improvements

[MrMorden]

Well, I know that this is probably far too ambitious for a patch, but if ye shall not ask, ye certainly shall not recieve. Here goes...

User-scriptable AI for spellcasting with decisions

I'd REALLY like to be able to load something like this into my priests.

if(theBattlefield.contains(UNDEAD))
cast(BANISH) //GET RID OF THOSE *%$@#@* UNDEAD! ARGH!!!

While I'm asking for the moon, why not ask for the stars along with it?

getFriendlyUnits(int radius)
getHostileUnits(int radius)
getUnitStrength(unit theUnit)
getUnitResistances(unit theUnit)
getUnitAfflictions(unit theUnit)
&c...

Yes, I'm aware that this is, in all likelihood, utterly unrealistic. But I, and those few of use who can and/or would be willing to learn how to write code would be immensely thrilled. Well, okay, at the very least I would be immensely thrilled.

[kimmitt]

Okay, I'm interested in the game, but I'm going to wait until the patch hits, to see if I buy it. The deal-breakers for me:

1) Long times for map generation and turn processing.
If you can't come up with a random map generation algorithm which is both fast and good, generate a couple hundred or so templates using your slow map generation algorithm and bundle them with the software or something. I don't want to have to choose among the maps, as that takes away the fun, but it's boring to wait for the map to generate.

The same thing applies to the turn processing. I don't know if you're drawing every battle before it starts or if the AI is hopelessly bloated, but I'm running a machine which is can guide a rocket to the moon. More to the point, I'm running a machine which is more than capable of guiding fifty rockets to the moon simultaneously. Graphics are one thing, but work with me here. Figure out where the bottlenecks are and get some damn optimization done.

Not deal-breakers, but likely to influence my decision as to whether to purchase the game and/or recommend it to friends:

1) Pretender generation. This should all be one screen, simple as that.

2) The map. I'm sorry, but the icons and such are still ugly. When it was ugly and minimalist, as in Pretenders II, that was cool -- it was what it was. But this intermediate level of ugly is atrocious. At absolute minimum, make the part of the map that flashes when I click on a province less enormous, and get rid of that absurd arrow extension. I don't need to see a sizable chunk of my screen flashing every time I click an area, and I don't need the game pretending that it's dynamic in an area where it isn't. Plus the arrow is ugly.

3) Menus in general -- get a dang GUI expert to go through and clean house, making all of the backgrounds get along with all of the sprites for the various units, et cetera. This isn't an enormous task, and it would vastly improve playability.

4) Various report options. Let me know how many x's I've killed or gotten killed. That's called flava, and it makes games fun. Let me know how many people died in a siege or assault. If a commander was killed in a battle, let me know which one. Those suckers are expensive. If critters which cost more than 100 GP per were killed in a battle, let me know. Don't make me watch every battle to see if it was my Sorceror or my Water Mage who ate it, because I can't remember who all I committed. When I whack a Pretender, throw up a summary screen of the Pretender's accomplishments (units created, etc.) and a couple of paragraphs on how I threw my enemy down before me. If you're feeling clever, tune the paragraphs to what kind of unit killed it -- if a militiaman finished the job, emphasize ignomy. If it took Joe Stoic, Holder of the Sacred Flame of Badassery, emphasize the heroics. But something. Seriously.

The game still has its overall amateur feel, which isn't a terrible thing; the idea that it is the creation of people who love gaming to give to other people who love gaming is fine. I feel the love. But you gotta take away the un-fun parts, or I can't get at the delicious nougatty center underneath.

Finally, now that Dominions 3 is out, you should totally start selling Dominions 2 for some ridiculously low price on download. Think of it as the first hit being free.

[Endoperez]

kimmitt said:
Okay, I'm interested in the game, but I'm going to wait until the patch hits, to see if I buy it. The deal-breakers for me:

Very good suggestions. Most of the changes would be closer to "Dominions 4" than to "a patch", but still very good suggestions.

[Daynarr]

I seriously don't see a problem with 'long map generation times' issue. Some things to consider about it - generation times are directly related to PC power so not everyone has problems with it. Remember that time to create random map is insignificant compared to the time you will spend playing on it and having fun.

Another thing to consider is that there are nice premade maps that come with Dom3, new official maps will be released with patches and modders will make even more. So in short time you will have a host of maps to play with even if you don�t want to mess with random map generation.

Last but not least; there are OTHER random map generators already made by other people and there is already random map site from Gandalf Parker who generates a host of new maps of various sizes on daily bases. All you have to do is pick the one you like and unpack it in maps folder.

Personally, I'd prefer if devs focus on things that are broken then on trying to improve random map generation for few seconds and risking even more things get broken in the process.

[Twan]

Some little suggestions to speed up pretenders testing and customisation :

- make possible to delete pretender gods without creating a game

- add an "edit an existing pretender god" option in the create a pretender god screen

- allow to cancel game creation / go back to the last screen at each stage of the process (not just at the beginning and the end)

- when loading a pretender in game creation, give access to the pretenders stats by right clicking on the names (with of course password verification before, if the pretender has one) ; or better, once a pretender is loaded, allow to modify it before launching the game (and re-save him eventually)

- give access to the current player's pretender stats during the game even if he's not awaken, by clicking on him in the list of pretenders gods

[tka]

Twan said:
Some little suggestions to speed up pretenders testing and customisation :
- make possible to delete pretender gods without creating a game
- add an "edit an existing pretender god" option in the create a pretender god screen
- allow to cancel game creation / go back to the last screen at each stage of the process (not just at the beginning and the end)
- when loading a pretender in game creation, give access to the pretenders stats by right clicking on the names (with of course password verification before, if the pretender has one) ; or better, once a pretender is loaded, allow to modify it before launching the game (and re-save him eventually)
- give access to the current player's pretender stats during the game even if he's not awaken, by clicking on him in the list of pretenders gods

I second everything Twan said here.

Also points 8 and 11 get my vote.

[Chazar]

Suggestion: Alternative 'HIDE TRULY'-order, which does the same as 'HIDE', but commanders set on 'HIDE TRULY' are never selected by hitting the 'n'-key. I hate to cycle through all those stationary scouts.

Supports:

I strongly support 1) 6) 7) 15),
and I like the ideas 9) 13) and E).

-----

I am a bit disappointed by Dom3, especially because of the lack of 6) & 7) for example. Don't get me wrong, I'll buy it nonetheless, since Dom2 is a good game and the tax-advisor and the 'y'-key shortcut are so useful, but for Dom3 I would have really liked to see something new that excites me, like a twist and tweak to the tactical setup, which would challenge me to rethink all the tactics I used in Dom2. From playing the demo I found that it just plays the same.

Furthermore, there where many simple and optional things in the Dom2 wishlist (like the suggestion I repeated above - which is not originally mine BTW), which were sadly ignored. Instead we got animated movement arrows... And there were many more, e.g. I cannot imagine that it would have been much work to add one or two alternate shapes to tactical setup, apart from a slight disadvantage to the AI nations.

I even doubt that a new shape would make that much of a difference in the end (unless shape affected commands would be added, like keep formation), but I would be tempted to play around with new setups nonetheless and find out for myself!

[Nerfix]

I like Dominions 3 very much, it's a great game, but 2 more months under development would have propably made it a lot better game. Less bugs, more features. Some of the stuff that is still plaguing it is old. I can't belive that for battles still generate "We captured the fort!" without details.

Creating Pretender Gods that can be loaded later is counter-intuitive. It would be so much easier, or rather sensible, if you could just save a Pretender design you made when starting a game and if you could edit previously saved designs.

More detailed battle reports that would show types of units involved, the commanders who died etc etc etc would also be nice.

Or creating a mechanic for "nation enchaments" like the Carrion Woods spell that would be cast once and permanently change the nation without eating a global spell slot.

Or heck, creating new standards for Raptors, Aboleths etc. and writing up new descriptions for Early Caelum and so on. As of now quite a number of the nations feel just like exported Dom 2 themes instead of nations mostly because they share the same banners, same unit descriptions etc etc. And the kitbashed late era nations, ugh...if they had no trouble discarding Serpent Cult Pythium they could have disbanded either of the DF/CotS, IF/BF and NE/CW pairs and not unastheticaly kitbash togather Hochmeisters and blood cultists, devils and sailors, manikins and armored minotaurs.

And so on. I do enjoy the game a lot but I also have a nagging feeling it could have been better with some more time under the works. It's good that Illwinter supports it's games really well, so we have at least a slim hope of seeing some of these things addressed.

[Talleyrand]

Daynarr said:
I seriously don't see a problem with 'long map generation times' issue. Some things to consider about it - generation times are directly related to PC power so not everyone has problems with it.

That's just not true at all. It is the programming, plain and simple. Every other game I've played that has a random map generator takes split-seconds to generate one. Why is this game so different that it requires minutes? I have an AMD 2500+ with 1.5 gigs of RAM and you're telling me it's not powerful enough to efficiently create a small random map with two AIs? How much horsepower do you think such a task needs lol? I do agree with you that there are more important things for them to do deal with but as this thread is more of a wishlist than a practical list of what will go into the next patch, I don't see how my suggestion is anymore out of place than many others.

[Graeme Dice]

Talleyrand said:
That's just not true at all. It is the programming, plain and simple. Every other game I've played that has a random map generator takes split-seconds to generate one. Why is this game so different that it requires minutes?

Most random map generators are for games where the basic measurement is a single tile of a specific terrain, while Dominions uses arbitrary, semi-realistic looking maps. While it does take longer than I'd expect it to, the results make it appear that it's using a fairly complicated algorithm.