Wish-List for Dominions 4

[Bananadine]

Originally Posted by Wellsee

And finally, as a now and probably forever *single* player type, I want to either be able to configure keys or move the the damned 'e'nd turn key away from 'r'ecruit key! I'm never closer to punching my keyboard than when I make that mistake.

You might try this EZ workaround: http://www.typematrix.com/ezr2030/dvorak.html

Okay I'm joking, mostly. But it really is a fantastic keyboard.

[Wellsee]

Originally Posted by Bananadine

You might try this EZ workaround: http://www.typematrix.com/ezr2030/dvorak.html

Okay I'm joking, mostly. But it really is a fantastic keyboard.

haha! Thanks for the outside-the-box idea. I'm not sure which would be more painful, though: Learning to type dvorak style (and switching back and forth with qwerty since I work on multiple stations in different states) or the upside-down-tack-on-the-e-key solution I've been toying with.

[Gandalf Parker]

Are you windows? This is pretty easy in linux. Not sure in Mac. I thought there was a keymap program in windows. On my WinXP I use AHK.

There are macro programs which can be used to define your own actions to a hotkey. Some will let you override a keypress's default action. Ive gotten AutoHotKey to override the "e" in Dominions. It basically says "when e is pressed send E". It keeps me from using it to do things like name my pretender or rename units to anything with an "e" in it. Im sure there is a way in AutoHotKey to tell it "when e is pressed then just send e" but I havent bothered to find out. Its just as easy to turn the macro on and off.

Its also great for late-game micromanagement, or for setting automatic go-to for build queues, or for automating build queues.

[sourdust]

1) Custom forging. Allow players to improve ordinary or magical equipment by selecting from a broad range of existing traits. For example, I could add "luck" to an item - but it would be more expensive than forging a luck pendent. Maybe S3, instead of the S1 that a pendent requires. Also perhaps a chance of failure.

2) Prevent tiny suicide armies from being able to pin down much larger armies. I've been frustrated by AI attacking me with 11 suicidal militia, but in doing so holding up a 200-unit army for an entire turn. I think that if an army takes less than 5% casualties, it should be allowed to continue with a plotted move rather than held up for the turn.

3) Better controls for battle replays - give us rewind and fast forward buttons. I frequently find myself wanting to go back a few frames for a closer look at something, but having to replay the whole battle to do that.

4) Related point - have an event-by-event log for battles that one has the option to view. ie, click on "battle log" and you get a blow-by-blow text description of everything that happened.

5) Better info on dominion changes. I would love to be able to see via map shading where dominion has changed over the previous turn, and/or last 5 turns. ie, "red" provinces are where I lost dominion, "green" are where I gained, with darkness indicating the degree of change.

6) spells that affect the dominion contest. for example, an air spell that spread the voice of your god, increasing the effectiveness of your temple checks by 20% for that turn. Or a death spell that reduces enemy dominion in a province you own by 3 steps, at the cost of unrest and population loss. You get the idea...

7) Better audio cues for what's happening in a battle. I'd love a different sound for attacks that miss completely, attacks that are blocked by shield, attacks that hit but cause no damage due to protection, and attacks that hit and cause damage.

8) Ability to see # kills for any unit, not just those in the Hall of Fame.

9) Better spell control and AI - some of the options canvassed in this thread are good. I want my Black Dryads to cast Banish on enemy undead, not summon pitiful skeletons!

10) More statistics - per turn and lifetime kills, points of damage inflicted, casualties taken, kill ratio, gems collected and spent, etc etc. I love seeing this info!

11) At end of game, ability to review the game in various ways - ie, replay key battles, view a map-based movie of the expansion and contraction of dominion and ownership of various nations, etc. I used to love this feature of "Warlords II", that old SSG classic!

12) Ability to revert to earlier versions of a saved game, rather than always playing "hardcore" mode. Of course, "hardcore" is the only real option for MP, but I play single player mostly, and would like the ability to reload if I've misclicked or forgotten something really important.

13) Even more nations! I love how most existing nations are inspired by actual human mythology. Some cultures with very rich traditions that don't yet have a Dom3 nation include: Indigenous australian, melanesian, polynesian, inuit, North American indian.

14) Much more diversity in random events and magic sites. The existing usual random events (unrest, gems, etc) get quite boring after a while.

15) A really s***-hot online support site, incorporating an officially supported wiki but also with downloads, maps, mods, etc... A forum is generally not the best way to present all of this information!

[Gandalf Parker]

Nice stuff, well thought out. Some points though...

3. in BATTLE VIEW
q -- quit out of battle view
Space -- pause
w -- toggle map grid
f -- fast-forward the battle movie
n -- advance battle movie to next round
Sorry, no rewind that I know of.

4. COMBAT LOG the command line switch -d or -dd for more will create a debug log with that information and much more.

12. REVIEW TURNS As a pbem game it creates an entire turn file ech time you host. Saving that will save that turn which can be reviewed later. there are some player done utilities that can copy the game directory to a backup.

13. MORE NATIONS The game has extensive modding ability. In the mods directory you will find many player created nations. Some fill the ones you requested and are very well done. You can play with as many as 95 nations in one game.

14. EVENTS/MAGICSITES For diversity in magic sites there is a "Magic Site Mod" which adds many interesting ones. There is also Epic Heroes and Worthy Heroes which adds more heros to pop up. And Mytheology mod adds many interested pretenders. The program SemiRand can add many surprises to a map. One of the servers www.Dom3Minions.com has some variant games which can be quite a change and some of the versions can be played solo.

15. ONLINE SUPPORT We have a really great official wiki but its down at the moment. Im not sure if anyone has told Shrapnel. If you visit one of the main MP servers www.llamaserver.net there is a mod/map browser which is fairly complete

Gandalf Parker

[Olive]

Is a Dominions 4 really in development or scheduled ? Or those are just player's wishes ?

Okay, here are mines :

- Better AI for SP. Maybe using something like Open AI ?

- Real 3D. Maybe using an open source 3D engine ?

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by Olive

Is a Dominions 4 really in development or scheduled ?

No.

[John_Madlock]

Province Defense based on independent units.
Taxes depend on the presence of the garrison.
Uprising for independence!
Commanders production queue and no "one per turn" limit anymore
Army setup for the whole army on one screen.

[nordlys]

Well, if we can dream...

AI diplomacy. Being able to trade, NAP, ally with AI and then AIs doing that too between themselves. Supported by game functions (i.e. allied armies able to pass one's territory without combat, and fighting together if engaged by third party). Some nations would be naturally more friendly or hostile to one another, gifts could be used to improve their disposition, and then some nations could be "disgusting" (cue MOO2) and nobody would ever want to have anything with them (yes, LA Ermor, I am speaking to you )

With that comes a proper trading interface. Should also include units and lands alongside gems and items. Maybe even the knowledge of spell schools.

A global army list detailed either on nation overview screen or in a separate screen.

An army mode and a nation overview NOT slowing down the computer to a crawl when more than a couple of screens long would be helpful, too.

Rewind and text log for battle replays are welcome too. Like it's done in many soccer management games, there is a visual display of a match accompanied with a running commentary on who does what. Could be used to quickly jump to a point in a replay you actually need to see (i.e. when your uberSC was battered to death by a monkey PD) without having to skip 30 turns of nothing going on.

Some more creature tags to make a variety of things more exclusive would be nice too. Like, "needs not breathe" (and so, when lacking an UW capability, can't get one from UW-breathing items). Or immune to shapeshifting effect from lycanthropos amulet and pebble skin suit (couldn't possibly work on undead, could it?)

Some exclusive ways to remove the curses (how good a god are you if you can't remove a curse from your follower?). Maybe some national unit-exclusive ability like Arco's healers, an artifact to hold (again, like the chalice), a high-level holy ritual to cast on a single unit, a rare site to enter or some kind of a simulated quest to undertake (as a random event or as a kind of "claws of kocytos", with a commander disappearing on a quest and then either perishing or eventually returning redeemed).

[John_Madlock]

Originally Posted by nordlys

(how good a god are you if you can't remove a curse from your follower?).

And prophet or priest may cast Smite, bless etc. but God can't. This is unrealistic too.