2 Things this game desperately needs

[Taqwus]

Some of us actually enjoy realism. Would you prefer a game which ignored morale, fatigue, maintenance, inaccuracy, friendly fire, the ability to do pre-battle order assignments... like nearly every cookie-cutter RTS out there?

[Sandman]

Taqwus said:
Some of us actually enjoy realism. Would you prefer a game which ignored morale, fatigue, maintenance, inaccuracy, friendly fire, the ability to do pre-battle order assignments... like nearly every cookie-cutter RTS out there?

This has nothing to do with realism and everything to do with imagination. I could just as easily write a ton of paragraphs 'justifying' why disbanding shouldn't cause unrest. The decision is arbitary, and should err on not punishing the player for doing something entirely normal.

[Meglobob]

Sandman said:

This has nothing to do with realism and everything to do with imagination. I could just as easily write a ton of paragraphs 'justifying' why disbanding shouldn't cause unrest. The decision is arbitary, and should err on not punishing the player for doing something entirely normal.

Ah...the old debates are the best, do you want realism vs playability/enjoyment. Its a matter of personal preference really.

Just for the record I prefer playability/enjoyment in a game rather then realism/micromanagement, so I am with the sandman on this disbanding with no strings attached.

This is a fantasy game as well with powerful magic, so there is no 'realism' anyway, nations with magic at there disposal would soon do away with 'realism'.

[WraithLord]

Adhering to the spirit of this thread here are the two things I'd most like to see added.

1. Improve the arena death match. Give better, randomly selected prizes, like money/gems/good items and xp. Add a new death match for squads, i.e. one commander and all the troops he can command.

2. Add, maze/labyrinth/dungeon type of sites, ala MOM magic nodes. Those sites are protected and their defenders must be defeated prior to the benefits of the site can apply.

[Endoperez]

WraithLord said:2. Add, maze/labyrinth/dungeon type of sites, ala MOM magic nodes. Those sites are protected and their defenders must be defeated prior to the benefits of the site can apply.

Isn't that modeled in as provinces with special sites and special defenders? Two Cyclops skilled in Earth and Death, one wielding Hammer of the Cyclops with 50% Forge Bonus, that mountain or hall or forge or whatever Of The Cyclops (death, earth gems)... or something like that. I don't remember the details any more.

[Meglobob]

Endoperez said:

Isn't that modeled in as provinces with special sites and special defenders? Two Cyclops skilled in Earth and Death, one wielding Hammer of the Cyclops with 50% Forge Bonus, that mountain or hall or forge or whatever Of The Cyclops (death, earth gems)... or something like that. I don't remember the details any more.

I have not come across this particular example but it could be just very rare. That's the problem really provinces with special sites and defenders are incedibly rare, I would prefer them to be uncommon not rare. At the moment 80% of provinces are really virtually the same and thus boring and bland. The only differences between them are income/terrain, wether it produces a nature gem or fire gem or whatever. In order to spice things up you after mod the map/game or set special sites really high.

[Nick_K]

I haven't seen them myself, but according to a thread a while back there are some 'dungeon' sites. A commander can enter these and possibly find treasure, but he might get attacked or hit by traps.
They seem to be super-rare though. I think someone put up a map file with some pre-placed.

[Endoperez]

There aren't that many special provinces like that, and I haven't seen all of them myself. They are very, very rare. However, if they were any more common, they'd be boring because we'd all have seen them many, many times now. In that respect, without more unique provinces being added to the game, the special provinces can't really be made more common.

Thankfully we now have a program (Ballbarian's SemiRandom) for making random maps with randomized province features chosen from a player-made list. It doesn't have that many provinces yet, mainly the special provinces from Edi's Faerun and perhaps some other maps and some rather random provinces.

[WraithLord]

Endoperez said:

Isn't that modeled in as provinces with special sites and special defenders? Two Cyclops skilled in Earth and Death, one wielding Hammer of the Cyclops with 50% Forge Bonus, that mountain or hall or forge or whatever Of The Cyclops (death, earth gems)... or something like that. I don't remember the details any more.

Leaving aside the fact that this is very rare, I was referring to something more atmospheric. Maybe an example will help:

Your army enters province X and defeats the indie defenders. your water mages search for magic sites and find a layer of a blue dragon, the site is "locked" i.e. you don't get the gems from it or whatever other benefit it has. The site has an option "enter site" that is added as a possible command to commanders in the province. You order your army to enter the site. The battle then takes place in a scenery of a giant icy cave with very cold temperature against a blue dragon that is equipped with items and commands an army of say humanoid slaves. Only after you win the battle does the site become functional for you. That's my suggestion.

[jutetrea]

I use both Jack's site
http://dominions.realites.org/

and ballbarians tool occasionally to spice up my SP games. I generally use Jack's site and jack it up to 50% + starting provinces. So random commanders, buildings, and items sprinkled about the map...some so dangerous that they're still indy after 6 years of gameplay I also love having the starting province be randomized, so the AI and myself get a free commander, maybe some low level items, and a few extra troops. It can occasionally prove messy when one AI gets a really good pull and beats everyone else up...but that's the fun of it

I agree the game needs:
disband
some form of diplomacy
Hold and Fire command
Site search coordination