Wish-List for Dominions 4

[Sombre]

The problem is that for the Devs making new units and races and spells and whatnot is /fun/. Fixing bugs and improving the GUI is less so.

But I agree, Dominions doesn't really need more content. It mostly needs interface and AI improvements and more modding options (such as ability to mod AI etc).

[Horst F. JENS]

I like to have a way of scripting the Tactic and Strategic AI with a mod. Preferable in Python :-)

[Reay]

I think the most important thing to add is: when hitting Y to see which troops are moving to the selected province, it properly displays the troops that are STAYING in the province and remove the troops moving out.

It would be better if we could get an idea of what troops will be fighting the battle in the province next round with out all the other exiting troops complicating the screen. (I guess if there was a castle in the province, it should also exclude other troops that are not patrolling.)

Also, there is another bug with Y where we can not edit or see the position of the existing troops. Hopefully this is the Y bug fix that the dom 3 progress page is showing.

[Baalz]

More in the vein of reducing gem micromanagement:

Blood sacrificers should automatically use slaves from the lab if there is one and blood hunters should automatically place captured slaves there - again if available.

Automatic non-spell site searching - give an order such that a mage repeatedly moves to the closest unsearched (by his magic paths) province and searches it.

It'd be nice if when scripting specific gem using spells you specify how many gems to use. It's kinda frustrating when your second scripted spell doesn't go off because the AI decided to use more than the minimum gems on the first spell to reduce fatigue.

Monthly forging like the monthly ritual casting. Somebody mentioned some more ambitious suggestion which included this, but I'm guessing this would be pretty easy to implement.

[HoneyBadger]

Feel perfectly free to rehash old ideas here, MaxWilson, et all. That's one of the reasons I started the thread-to collect and preserve the ideas that have come before in other threads.

I'd like more dynamic Pretenders.

I'd like the ability to "build my Pretender from the ground up". The ability to choose a chassis (hoburg, jotun, wyrm, obelisk, horror, etc.) and then add abilities and stengths/weaknesses to it, including extra hit points, magical ability and dominion, immobility (almost anything can be in the form of a statue), special abilities (for instance, you can choose the "great dragon" chassis and then fire breath/heat resistance, if you want a red dragon) based on a point-system, rather than choosing the Pretenders that are available, but which might not fit your playing style. So, I could have a mighty SC Pretender that I've designed around my own playing style, and little or no points to spend on my Nation, or, I could have an elderly hoburg midwife who's worshipped just because she keeps more babies and mothers alive during births than not, and a nation that starts out with good dominion, extra gold and gems, and whatnot.

Ofcourse, customization doesn't have to be *that* dramatic, but I think it has a place and an appeal, when it comes to your Pretender. It could simply be the optional ability to choose, in-game, between different sets of graphics.

I'd also ideally like to see Pretenders having their own line of experience, and gaining said experience from doing "Pretendery" things, like casting mighty spells, leading large armies, coming back from the dead, and just surviving (people tend to feel their gods should be immortal). Immobile Pretenders currently suffer from the handicap of a greatly-reduced ability to gather experience, for no really good reason-even though they kill a lot of their "enemies", I don't think mass-murderers are great examples of "personal growth", do you?. I'd then like to see Pretenders able to add directly to their abilities over time, based on that experience-maybe your Pretender *starts out* immobile, but he wouldn't have to stay that way. This would represent the real-world incarnations of gods, which tend to change form and power over time and culture (Example, Odin, the God of the Norse, wasn't always the chief god of that pantheon).

Along those same lines, I'd like the ability to customize my starting nation-make them more or less magical, technologically advanced, add or take away troop types and national summons, etc. Basically, adding back Themes, only in a pay(points)-to-play basis.

[Belcarl]

I'd like some units that grow in power with age, and sometimes with a disadvantage too this. Like a vampire lord, slowly eating your population but growing in power about one upgrade every 4th turn or so perhaps...

Kind of like the eater of the dead, but less expensive, and more useful I guess

[Shovah32]

And maybe giving mages a chance to increase their magical abilities when they naturally age(dont want any basic mages getting hit with decay and turning into gods here )?

[HoneyBadger]

What if bless effects were independent of the magic schools? I think that would be a nice feature too, if you separated the two. That would let you build up your physical Pretender-choosing areas of dominion, instead of magic paths, and these "areas of dominion" (War, Nature, Death, Love, Medicine, the various elements, Forging, whatever) would then grant your Pretender stat bonuses, and your sacred troops blessings.

For instance: A high Forging "area of dominion" might grant additional strength, protection, and a Forging bonus, while Love area might grant awe, 'unit heals afflictions', and perception.

The magic paths could still be incorporated-like you could choose your Pretender to have dominion over Fire, and maybe a high enough dominion would grant bonuses to fire magic, or you could choose him or her to have dominion over Magic, and through that, gain a research bonus and a nice discount when purchasing Paths.

It would allow spells to be kept along the same lines they are now-with the potential for expansion still in the future-but allow for many more Bless effects, and allow you to personalize (and pimp out) your Pretender.

You'd pick a Chassis-which might come with some Areas of Dominion and starting Magic Paths, or just great stats/special abilities.

Then you'd pick your Areas and pay for them, which would increase some stats, maybe lower a few others. Then (while I'm brainstorming) maybe you could pick a special ability or two and pay for them (fire resistance, an extra head, an additional form, whatever), or an affliction of your choice (limp, lost an eye, low MR, etc.) for a few extra points, and then finally, you add magic paths-which can still bump up your stats a bit.

Instead of just paying for Dominion, your Dominion would be equal to your number of Areas. You'd no longer get Awe based on your Dominion, it'd be a special ability that you'd either have to pay for, or that came with an Area.

[jutetrea]

Turn memory

Multi-month rituals. Similar to Domes you spend gems on to make last longer, but in reverse. The longer you take to cast the spell, the fewer gems it takes or the more powerful the spell is.

random thought, single turn rituals to convert gems. Similar to alchemy, but would take a mage-turn and have a better conversion rate. I'd probably do higher level/limits too, takes 50 fire gems to make 40 earth gems or some time of equation Alt 5, 4F to cast. Essentially costs X gems to gain a 1:1 conversion on a limited amount.

[HoneyBadger]

Head shots.

I don't think the game currently incorporates units' bodies and heads as separate combat targets. If I'm wrong, fine, good, but if not, let's have this updated. Everything else is in place for this to work, it just needs to be separated.

Then we can see some nice critical hits, including decapitations. It shouldn't be too hard to add, even as simply a sort of affliction.