2 Things this game desperately needs

[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.

[Gandalf Parker]

Nick_K said:
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.

I think that might have been a discussion on how such sites could be done with map commands

[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.

[Meglobob]

Endoperez said: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

I disagree, I have played over a 100 games of Dom3 now and I have not seen this special province, that is far, far too rare. There is no point in having something in the game if it never turns up or the chance is 1 in a 1000 or higher. Making them uncommon would keep such provinces special and spice the game up more.

[Endoperez]

I think there IS a point to it: the game can throw something totally unexpected at you even after you've played over a hundred games. It'd be nice if there were enough unique sites, mainly those of mediocre rewards and mediocre defenders, to make these provinces just uncommon instead of incredibly rare, but that isn't the case.

[Meglobob]

Endoperez said:
I think there IS a point to it: the game can throw something totally unexpected at you even after you've played over a hundred games.

Shame the vast majority of players will have stopped playing Dom3 before this happens thou.

The best solution would be leave it upto the game player to decide, by giving the gamer the option when setting up the game. For example, Special Provinces which you can set from common, uncommon, rare, very rare, none.

[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