Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log

[Bossman]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

It can be taken down and put back up. It does have autosave, game restore, etc.
So if people wanted to play 100 turns then drop it till another day, that would work. But there is no in-game communication so without IRC or Skype or something then it would be hard to manage

So, the game doesn't have a text chat? I really think you should add that if possible because it's a pretty important feature for multiplayer gamers.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Bossman

So, the game doesn't have a text chat? I really think you should add that if possible because it's a pretty important feature for multiplayer gamers.

I have strongly recommended it in the server discussions. Thats one of my main testing areas. So I am trying to get an impression of how an MP game would run, and how hosting would be done. IMHO the speed of play makes this more of an IRC game than Dom3 is (and even Dom3 does that a lot)

ON THE OTHER HAND I have always supported Illwinters stance that adding things which are already available by 3rd party programs is not good and fun use of our one programmer. Common requests like backup, restore, file cleanup, screenshots, video record, mp3 playing, alarms/timers to not overdo the playing, macros, editable keypress tables, winner ladders, spreadsheet calculators, in-game messaging, in-game chat, in-game voice, etc etc. I do make the request when I feel it will help the game, and we do get some of them. But if its not an easy add for Linux/Windows/Mac then I dont press the goodies.

But again, yes that is a good idea. And some simple chat window has been requested.

[Gandalf Parker]

They dont have to play at the same time. But really, even in late game the turns are so quick that I dont see a game being done one-turn-a-day. I guess it will probably be tried so someone might like it but it doesnt seem likely.

Ive always said everything has its pros and cons. I guess that goes for MicroManagment also. If there is none, there isnt much of a turn. The game goes quick but doesnt work well for the usual Dom3 style games

[Doo]

Whats it like managing the wandering neutrals who steal your towns, gallows, forests ect., ?

Playing CoE2 yesterday I was reminded what a pain they are. I guess in CoE3 you don't need to click on a stack to see what "type" it is (for neutrals) and in CoE2 generally only certain types steal your captured points, so this probably makes it easier. And being able to zoom out means monitoring the map is easier. In CoE2 I'd forget to check part of the map and then find a stack of two bandits have stolen everything.

On this point is there a way to see exactly where other players, including neutrals, move to? An optional button to display a path where stacks have moved from might be good.

[Gandalf Parker]

In the usual glorious manner of Illwinter, the answer becomes "its different for each nation".
They are all nicely unique. Some have to worry about takeovers and sneak-ins more than others.

the Baron nation is able to create PD in towns and cities

the Witch, and the Druid, claim forests and swamps. So anyone entering them takes off the ownership. It makes it hard to sneak up on them

Troll King takes the Ancient Forests. His Mum and witch doctors can change those, and normal forests, into troll forests which generate carrion creatures. So they have a wandering PD

Bakemono generates continual new troops at mountain mines. Also the Dwarfs do if they have turned it into a colony by placing a Dwarf Queen there.

High Cultist (Chulhu/Rlyeh) creates spawned aquatic hybrids and insane peasants automatically at any seaside town or port they take

There are others but you get the idea. The ones that do not have some sort of spawned help tend to have lots of cheap commanders and cheap troops to do patrolling with. Some also have better abilities to see what is going on

[NTJedi]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

High Cultist (Chulhu/Rlyeh) creates spawned aquatic hybrids and insane peasants automatically at any seaside town or port they take

Hopefully the land AI opponents are smart enough to attack water provinces in Conquest of Elysium 3, because in Dominions_2 and especially in Dominions_3 most of the AI opponents had critical problems with attacking water provinces.

[Edi]

The management of wandering independents is basically done so that you need to recruit cheap commanders like captains or goblin chieftains or similar, give them some troops (10 spearmen/swordsmen and 5-10 archers) and put them on snake patrol to kill anything that wanders around.

As for why any wandering stack is generally "snakes", is because they often are (swamps can randomly spawn snakes and serpents sometimes) and because the wandering stacks sneak up on you and snake all the stuff you spent so much time and blood (and consequently treasure, troops don't come cheap) conquering.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Huh, so you can set units to automatically patrol areas? Or do you mean manually patrolling?

[Edi]

Manually. Just station a patrol stack somewhere close enough to react to nearby important places like mines and such. There's no automatic patrolling.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes the "patrolling" I do is just to make sure that in each large area I at least have one commander and some troops barracked to be able to move if something takes one of my sites.

I can place the commander on "sentry" so that it is not in the "n" key rotation of active commanders. Or if the game has gone on awhile and its a large map I might leave some unsentried so the n key will at least jump there so I can see what is going on in that area.