FAQ: The Dominions 3 Faq & IRC Channel Info

[Edi]

REPORTING BUGS

Q: How and where do I report bugs?
See the Bug Shortlist thread for detailed instructions. Make sure you check that the issue you have is not already on the shortlist and then post it in the Bug Discussion thread.

Q: Should I post a separate thread to make sure my bug report gets noticed?
If the issue is a complex one, it may merit its own discussion thread which will be linked from the shortlist once the entry is added, as mentioned in the instructions. Otherwise you should use the bug discussion thread. Don't worry, your report WILL be noticed.


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UNIT STATS, OTHER STATS, THE DOM3 DB & OTHER DOCUMENTATION

Q: Is there a list of unit stats?
Yes. See the Dom3 DB.

Q: What is the Dom3 DB?
The Dom3 DB is a spreadsheet file that contains the stats for all units, weapons, armor, magic sites, poptypes and forts in the game. It was made by Edi and originally appeared only in Open Office format (.ods). The latest version also contains a static version (without formulas, just numeric data) in both Open Office in Excel format. You can find a discussion thread for the latest version here. Older discussion threads are buried somewhere in the forum.


Q: Where can I find the Dom3 DB?
There is a download link in the discussion thread. The Dom3 DB will not be available through other public channels.

Q: The unit stats are great and all, but are the graphics available for modding purposes?
Yes. EricM has kindly organized the sprites and provided them for the community.
Unit sprites v3.10.
Unit sprites for new units in v3.14, not including the v3.10 sprites.
Unit sprites v3.17.
Burnsaber's Sprite Editing Tutorial contains v3.21 sprites, which is the most recent available batch.


Q: I'm hopeless with making graphics. Is there a tutorial for editing sprites?
A: Why yes, there is! Burnsaber's excellent Sprite Editing Tutorial will help you get off to a flying start. You can also find the sprites for all units in v3.21 in that thread in an attached zip file.


Q: Are there guides for modding and making maps? It's not in the manual...
Yes. They are located in the doc directory inside your Dominions3 installation directory. The documents are named modding.pdf for modding instructions and mapedit.pdf for instructions on how to make new maps.


Q: Is there an improved modding manual? The official one is kind of confusing and hard to use...
Yes. The Unofficial Reorganized Modding Manual v3.17 contains all the information in the official modding manual, but it has been reorganized categorically to make modding easier, especially for beginners. The mod commands have been organized categorically instead of alphabetically, meaning that commands that give similar abilities or do similar things have been grouped together for easy access. There have been minor edits in some places and a few references to seek more detailed lists in fan-made documentation. You will find the most complete lists of things in the Dom3 DB.

This FAQ question is no longer relevant, since in patch 3.20 the Dominions 3 modding and mapmaking manuals were updated to a new version that used the UORMM format as a base. A new unofficial mod manual with the old alphabetical organization for advanced monster modding may be posted later for those who wish to use it.

[Edi]

AFFLICTIONS

Q: My units have one or more red hearts in their display screens. What does that mean?
Your units have accumulated afflictions. Afflictions are permanent wounds that hamper the unit in some way and there is a wide variety of them, some more severe than others. Each heart indicates one affliction.

Q: How do units get afflictions?
They may get afflictions if they are hit and suffer damage in battle. They may also get afflictions from old age. Accumulation of old age afflictions is checked at the end of each game year (i.e. every 12 turns). Any unit with the affliction Diseased has a high chance of getting one or more additional afflictions every turn until it dies. Undead and demons are not affected by disease. Being cursed will double your chances of getting a battle affliction. Having regeneration will reduce your chance of getting a battle affliction. The reduction is dependent on the amount of regeneration, the greater the regeneration as percentage of hitpoints, the less likely the unit is to get an affliction.

Q: How do I tell what afflictions my units have and what the afflictions do?
Right-click on the heart icon. It will tell you what penalty that affliction gives to the unit (e.g. Chest Wound: -1 str, +5 enc)

Q: I want to place all of my units with afflictions in a separate stack. How do I do that quickly?
Click to select any unit in a stack. Press 'w' and all afflicted units will be selected. Put them in a separate squad. Remember to check whether the unit you first selected had an affliction or not and put it back if it didn't.


Q: Can I get rid of afflictions? How?
Yes, but it depends on whether the unit with the affliction is undead, non-undead or non-undead suffering from old age. A short summary of how afflictions can be removed:

• Units with the special ability Recuperation heal afflictions on their own over time. So do creatures with immortality. Recuperation apparently does not work if the creature is suffering from old age.
• Units that have an involuntary shapechange ability, such as Mictlan's Jaguar Warriors, may heal afflictions when they change back to their normal shape after battle. This is checked every time they change from their secondshape back to their firstshape. It is not a reliable method of healing afflictions, but can sometimes give you pleasant surprises with shapechanging commanders (e.g. Machakan Black Sorcerer)
• Battle afflictions can be healed by units that have the Heal troops ability. Units with this ability have an icon (since patch 3.14) that says 'Healer (value)'. Some units with the Heal Troops ability are Priestess (Arcoscephale, all ages), the Faery Queen (a Lv 8 Conjuration summon, requires Lv 4 Nature) and the Mother of Serpents (a pretender goddess available to certain nations). There are other units with this ability as well, but they are mostly restricted to certain nations.
• The chance to heal a battle affliction differs for each of these units and some afflictions are more difficult to heal than others (Never Healing Wound being the most difficult). Healing works so that the number you see is the chance to successfully use a healing ability that turn. If the check is successful, it checks against the difficulty of the affliction and if that succeeds as well, the affliction is removed.
• Units with Heal troops command CANNOT heal afflictions on undead units or non-undead units who are suffering from old age.
• Afflictions on undead units can ONLY be healed if you have cast the global enchantment Gift of Health or have built the artefact The Chalice and equipped it on a commander in the same province as the afflicted units. Without Gift of Health or The Chalice, you're out of luck.
• Afflictions on non-undead units that are old can only be healed within the same limitations as afflictions on undead units. However, if you can make a unit young again its afflictions can be healed normally. You can make a unit young by empowering it with the appropriate type of magic (see aging mechanics later in the FAQ) or if it already has that kind of magic, by giving it a path booster. Depending on how much younger you need to make it and how much its base maxage is, an increase of one point may not be enough.
• You can prevent afflictions caused by old age by forging the magic items Boots of Youth or Elixir of Life, which freeze the aging process on the owner.
• There are also two magic sites that heal afflictions: Healing Spring and Lyfjaberg. It is unknown if they heal old age afflictions as well as battle afflictions, but they probably only affect battle afflictions. It is also unknown if undead are healed of afflictions, but probably not.
• Finally, afflictions caused by items such as Black Heart or Eye of Aiming cannot be healed in any way. They can be healed only if the item is removed, which is very difficult in most cases.

Q: How do I remove cursed items that cause afflictions?
These are the currently known methods:

• Shape change (and alternative form must not have the slot the cursed item is equipped in, e.g. Armor of Thorns on a Dragon's human form because the Dragon form has no body slot) - Cursed items get placed into lab.
• Transformation spell (again new form must not have the slot the cursed item is equipped in) - Cursed items get placed into lab.
• If the cursed item is unique, it can be wished away by using the spell Wish - Cursed item is lost (if wished away by another player) or transferred to the mage that cast Wish (if it was the player who wished it away)
• A Wished for item can replace the cursed item in some instances. - Cursed items get placed into lab
• Dying and being brought back to life. Either via Call God (if Pretender) or resummoned (if unique unit) or automatically if died in positive friendly Dominion for Immortals - Cursed items are not placed into lab.
• Ritual of Rebirth for mummified version of the unit if it's in HoF - Cursed items are not placed into lab.
• Twiceborn should also work, the unit must die before being reborn as a wight mage - Cursed items are not placed into lab.

Q: My units in <province> are getting diseased. How?

• If your troops are starving due to lack of supplies, they will get diseased
• Troops can get disease if you're getting random events indicating that somebody is hammering the province with disease causing spells or there is a sneaking enemy commander equipped with Bane Venom Charm or possessing the equivalent intrinsic ability in the province.
• You may have a magic site in the province that spreads disease. Disease causing sites will cause them even if they are not discovered. There are four sites that spread disease: Inkpot End (always visible), Chillsick Swamp, Leper Fens and Crown of Darkness. Only undead and demonic troops will be safe in that province.

Q: My units in <province> are getting cursed/horrormarked. The whaa-at?
Congratulations. You seem to be the proud owner of a province that contains a site which gives out curses/horrormarks. Curse/horrormark is checked separately for each unit in the province every turn. Consult the magic site section of the Dom3 DB by Edi for a list of probable culprits and the chance of curse/horrormark for each. It's best to keep units out of those provinces or they will eventually get curse/horrormarked.

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CURSES & HORRORMARKS

Q: My unit has been cursed. What does that mean?
It means that the unit will be twice as likely to get battle afflictions if it's hit in combat and suffers damage. See the manual for details on how afflictions are accumulated and what the normal chance of getting an affliction is.

Q: How do I remove the Curse?
You don't. Curse is permanent and will stay with the unit for the rest of the game. There is NO way to remove it. At all. Removing curses will NOT be added in a patch.

Q: How do I avoid getting cursed? If I can't, how do I avoid getting my god cursed?
Don't attack provinces with lizards as the independent defenders with your god. Especially if the god is a titan, wyrm or other large monster. Mages capable of casting curse will generally always target the biggest monsters first, so your pretender will get hit first. Generally, you need to be careful and pay attention to what you're doing. That way you can stave it off for some time at least. Unless of course you get hit by a random event that curses your units.
In multislayer games with other people, your god WILL get cursed sooner or later if it's a super combatant (SC) and your opponent has access to nature and astral magic on the same mage.

Q: My unit has been horrormarked. What does that mean?
It means that the unit is now a magnet for astral creatures called horrors. Horrors summoned into battles will attack the horrormarked units before they consider any other targets. Horrormarked units also have a chance of being attacked by horrors every turn. Such attacks are treated as assassination attempts.

Q: I heard that horrormarks are different in strength. What does that mean?
It means that horrormarks are not binary attributes (i.e. on/off). Horrormarks have varying strength. Generally when a unit gets its first horror mark, the horror mark will be weak and will only attract weak horrors, most often lesser horrors. Note that 'weak' is a relative term. Lesser horrors are perfectly capable of having most recruitable human-sized commanders for lunch unless the commander is a powerful mage or is properly equipped with magic items. If a unit is hit by a horror in combat, the strength of the horrormark increases. Some items also increases the strength of a horrormark. A stronger horrormark will attract stronger horrors, which typically results in either the unit dying or having its horrormark strengthened if it survives, trapping it in a vicious circle of an increasingly strengthening horrormark that results in attacks by increasingly stronger horrors.

Q: My commanders are getting attacked by <insert description of ridiculously powerful horror here>. How do I get them to survive?
These monsters are collectively known as Doom Horrors and they are unique. The answer to your question is that generally your unit will not survive, period. If it's a strong unit such as one of the unique summoned creatures, a SC and/or a powerful mage, is properly equipped, with proper bodyguards, properly scripted and gets very lucky, it may survive one of the weaker Doom Horrors. Most of the time getting attacked by a Doom Horror means that the target might as well bend over and kiss its backside goodbye. Unless there is a spell like Returning scripted or the unit is immortal and in friendly dominion. If the unit in question is your god, too bad. Bringing him back will just get him attacked again and again.

Q: How do I remove a Horrormark?
You don't. A Horrormark is just as permanent as Curse.

Q: How do I avoid getting my units horrormarked?
The same way you avoid getting them cursed. Pay attention and be careful. Mages with level 2 in Astral magic can cast a spell that horrormarks units and they tend to prioritize targets the same way mages casting Curse do. So avoid tangling with them.
In multislayer games, your SC is going to get horrormarked sooner or later when you run up against an opponent with access to Astral magic. That's a fact of life in Dom3.

[Edi]

BLESSINGS

Q: What are blessings?
Blessings are special combat abilities and bonuses granted to sacred units when they are blessed in combat by a priest. They are dependent on the magic paths and levels of the nation's god.

Q: What is the difference between a strong bless and a weak bless?
A strong bless is reserved for occasions when the player suffers from a strong sneeze. (You can all thank Wish for this one... *grin*)

The actual answer is that a weak blessing is a level 4 to level 8 bless and is granted if the god has level 4 or greater in a magic path. Most weak blessings increase the benefit at every other level, meaning additional bonuses at levels 6 and 8. Some weak blessings increase the benefits at every level, but the increase is not as great in effect. A strong blessing is a level 9 or 10 bless, meaning that the pretender god has 9 or 10 levels in that particular kind of magic. A strong blessing has all the benefits of the weak blessing and also adds a more powerful special ability unique to that path of magic.

Q: Can I increase blessings during the game?
No. Blessings are set during pretender god creation and the effects cannot be increased by empowering your god to higher levels in magic paths. Conversely, if your god dies and loses magic levels, blessing effects are not decreased.

Q: What are the bless effects? (Effects by Jazzepi)

• Fire 4: +2 Attack
• Fire 6: +3 Attack
• Fire 8: +4 Attack
• Fire 9: +4 Attack, Flaming Weapons (dmg 6 AP fire)
• Fire 10: +5 Attack, Flaming Weapons (dmg 6 AP fire)
• Air 4: Airshield 20% (+10% per level)
• Air 9: Airshield 70%, Shock Resistance 70%
• Air 10: Airshield 80%, Shock Resistance 75%
• Water 4: +2 Defense
• Water 6: +3 Defense
• Water 8: +4 Defense
• Water 9: +4 Defense, 50% Quickness (extra action every other round in combat)
• Water 10: +5 Defense, 50% Quickness (extra action every other round in combat)
• Earth 4: +2 Reinvigoration
• Earth 6: +3 Reinvigoration
• Earth 8: +4 Reinvigoration
• Earth 9: +4 Reinvigoration, +4 Prot from armor
• Earth 10: +5 Reinvigoration, +4 Prot from armor
• Astral 4: +1 MR
• Astral 6: +2 MR
• Astral 8: +3 MR
• Astral 9: +3 MR, Twist Fate
• Astral 10: +4 MR, Twist Fate
• Death 4: +100% Affliction Chance (+50% per level)
• Death 9: +350% Affliction Chance, Death Weapons (dmg 2 AN, MR negates)
• Death 10: +400% Affliction Chance, Death Weapons (dmg 2 AN, MR negates)
• Nature 4: Regeneration 5%
• Nature 6: Regeneration 10%
• Nature 8: Regeneration 15%
• Nature 9: Regeneration 15%, +2 Berserk
• Nature 10: Regeneration 20%, +2 Berserk
• Blood 4: +2 Strength
• Blood 6: +3 Strength
• Blood 8: +4 Strength
• Blood 9: +4 Strength, Death Curse
• Blood 10: +5 Strength, Death Curse

Q: Which bless is the strongest?
That depends on several things. Mostly it depends on the intrinsic abilities of the available sacred units. For example, sacred units with high defense will benefit proportionally far more from a high Water blessing because it can increase their defense to levels where they become almost impossible to hit. A sacred unit with very low defense to begin with will not become substantially harder to hit, so it might benefit more from a bless that allows it to do more damage and hit easier (Fire). A sacred unit with a lot of hit points will benefit more from a Nature bless (regeneration) than a weakling with few hit points and so on.

Generally, Fire, Water, Earth and Nature are considered the most powerful blessings while Air and Blood are considered the weakest. Death Blessing can be powerful, especially for sacred mages with damage dealing spells. The usefulness of Air and Astral blessings is more dependent on the specifics of your sacred units than the FWEN blessings. A strong Astral bless can be powerful, especially if combined with a strong Water or Fire bless. A weak Astral bless is generally considered to be very weak unless you have low MR sacred units.
A weak Air bless can be sometimes be useful but it is considered very weak. The most effective bless differs from nation to nation and according to your particular play style, but the above categorization is generally the accepted view of the majority of Dom3 veterans active on the Shrapnel Games forums.

It should be noted that sometimes getting access to magic paths that the nation normally does not have is much more important than the secondary benefits of a blessing, whether strong or weak. This is especially true of Astral and Death magic, which are considered by many to be the strongest magical paths of all.

[Edi]

MAGIC RESEARCH COSTS

Q: How much does magic research cost for the different difficulties?
Here is a breakdown by difficulty. Note that the aggregate total is for one school of magic. To research all levels of all schools, you need to multiply the aggregate total by 8. Research costs appear in the Fibonacci series pattern, meaning that each level of magic requires research points equal to a sum of the two previous levels.

• Easy: 20, 40, 60, 100, 160, 260, 420, 680, 1100, aggregate total 2840
• Normal: 40, 60, 100, 160, 260, 420, 680, 1100, 1780, aggregate total 4600
• Hard: 60, 100, 160, 260, 420, 680, 1100, 1780, 2880, aggregate total 7440
• Very Hard: 100, 160, 260, 420, 680, 1100, 1780, 2880, 4660, aggregate total 12040

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AI BONUSES FOR DIFFERENT DIFFICULTY LEVELS

• Easy AI: -30% gold, resources & gems, 0 design points
• Normal AI: 0% gold, resources & gems, 0 design points
• Difficult AI: +30% gold, resources & gems, +50 design points
• Mighty AI: +60% gold, resources & gems, +100 design points
• Impossible AI: +100% gold, resources & gems, +150 design points

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AGING MECHANICS

• The maxage of lifeless creatures is increased by 50% of original maxage per point of Earth magic. Default age/maxage not tested, presumably ???/2400 (Monolith, Sacred Statue, Colossal Fetish, Oracle etc)
• The maxage of undead creatures is increased by 50% of original maxage per point of Death magic. Default age/maxage for undead is 187/500
• The maxage of demonic creatures is increased by 50% of original maxage per point of Blood magic. Default age/maxage for demons is 370/1000
• The maxage of all other creatures is increased by 50% of original maxage per point of Nature magic. Default age/maxage for them is 22/50
• Fire magic decreases age by 5% of maxage per point, or by 1, whichever is greater. It is currently unclear (i.e. not systematically tested) whether the maxages of some of the creature types affected by aging mechanics (lifeless, undead and demons) are affected by Fire magic at all.
• Order of ascendancy for the different types of creature properties is Lifeless, Undead, Demon, Other. This means that e.g. lifeless undead do not get increased maxage from Death magic, but use Earth magic as the determining factor instead.
• Changing a creature's type (lifeless/undead/demon/other) by modding it will automatically reset its age/maxage values to the default for that type. This means that e.g. a light infantry that is modded to be a demonic unit will have its normal 22/50 age/maxage changed to 370/1000.

[Edi]

CASTLES

Q: Can I choose what types of forts to build?
No. Each nation has a set of predetermined fort types for different sorts of terrain, so you can only build the specific type of fort for any given terrain. In provinces with multiple terrain types (e.g. forest and mountain), it will be one or the other, probably the fort for the terrain that has a lower terrain type number in the map file.

Q: There is a command for 'Continue fort construction'. I was building a fort and the commander was killed by an invading enemy (nation or independents from an event). I took the province back, why can't I use that command?
You are out of luck. The money's gone, your enemy tore the half-built fort down to rubble. You must start over and pay the full cost for the fort again.

Q: Why can't I build enemy national units from castles I've conquered from him?
Because the developers did not want that in the game and to keep all nations unique. You can only recruit your own troops and the native population type independent units in castles. This is not going to be changed.

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UNABLE TO RECRUIT/SUMMON ANY UNITS

Q: I can't recruit any more units, they just don't appear and the same happens with summons. What's wrong?
This behavior looks like a bug, but it is not. If you have unrest 100 or more in a province, recruitment is impossible there. If you only have problems in one province, this is the likely cause. Dominions 3 also has a built-in limit for maximum number of units simultaneously in the game. If your recruited and summoned units are not appearing, you have reached that limit and no new units can appear until enough units die off first.

Q: How high is the unit limit?
9k commanders and 140k units in the game simultaneously. Once these limits are reached, no new units can appear until some die off.

Q: What causes this problem to appear since I only get it in some games?
The problem most often happens in Late Era games where R'lyeh Dreamlands and/or Ashen Empire Ermor are present, since both of these nations generate massive numbers of freespawn units. Avoid including them in games on large maps and you will not likely experience this problem. It can potentially appear in large Early Era and Middle Era games involving Pangaea whose Pan units generate Maenad freespawn units, but this is a rather unlikely occurrence. A more likely reason would be the AI recruiting massive amounts of chaff units everywhere.

Q: Are there any other solutions besides excluding Late Era R'lyeh and Ermor?
Yes. See the Better Independents mod. It can mitigate the problem significantly in large games, especially SP games, but it is not without its issues and was originally created to address a different issue (monotonous AI chaff hordes). Read the thread and try it out, but there are no guarantees.