The Dominions 3: "Wishlist"

[The_Tauren13]

I think it would be good for PD to be more useful. Then you would have an option other than madcastleing to stop raiding. But that would probably require a total rework of the PD system to balance.

[Graeme Dice]

The_Tauren13 said:
Then you would have an option other than madcastleing to stop raiding.

The other option is that you can always go on the offense.

[The_Tauren13]

Yeah, but what fun is a purely offensive scortched earth raid fest? Ok, so I guess that does sound kinda fun. But still, there should be better options for defence.

[Tominator2]

More Diplomatic Options

• trade - money, territory, units
• cooperation - ceasefire, safe passage, joint efforts
• victory - voting (ala MoO1), pantheon (with primary victor), domination (to end boring endgames)

Building Scripts

• recurring recruiting - I'd like a Sage every turn, please
• equipping - create items a, b, c, and d for my Bane Lord

Other

• the Dwarven Hammer should be auto-assigned to the forger of the most expensive item - playing "who has the Dwarven Hammer?" is boring
• a multi-turn "auto-move and search for magic sites" order would be nice
• 3D for just pretenders would look cool

Geeking out on the AI
The only things really needed for an AI are the current situation (the map, troop locations, money/gem levels, etc.) and a list of valid orders (build troops, cast spells, attack, etc.). A summary of the previous turn would be nice, too.

What would be needed then is:

• CP - a text-based, human-readable file describing the current position (also CP', CP'', etc.)
• O - a list o1, o2, ... on of operations (e.g. o5 might be "build n soldiers of type x in area a")
• V(oi) - a function that determines whether oi is valid given the current game position, where oi is an instantiated rule (e.g. oi might be "build 1 hypasist in Great Waste")
• L - a list of moves that the AI wishes to make this turn (this will be the file sent to the server)
• A(CP, oi, L) -> (CP', L') a function that applies oi to CP, resulting in CP' and adding the appropiate entry to L, resulting in L'

[liga]

I read all the Messages ... a lot of idea ... I try to see the most 3 things I want:

1.an improved order system

just imprved ... it is funny and realistic looking your troops and command behave like they want during the ed of the battle. But something like "guard position" (stay firm until an enemy is in reache). fire and retreat and so on ...

2. an imporved manual and/or ingame descriptio

at least in the manual (or ingame description) I must know what a spell really does (summon 2+ ghosts is not enouhg for me) or how the squad size alter the morale of my squad

3. reduce the strenght of ritual spell in the nd of the game

it must be not easy (more difficult/costing) cast spells on provinces far away form your mages and/or your scouts

[PvK]

* If "target commanders" etc. were added back in, add a difficulty to spot and indentify those targets. The player may get a bird's eye view of the map with perfect information about what everything is, but a soldier in the field has to see through obstacles, people, has limited knowledge and limited time to make decisions.

* Either modify the sequence of play in combat, or the AI, so that units do not just charge into certain death against foes that can wipe them out. This could be handled in a variety of ways, but in general, give units a chance to back away from charging hordes of enemies, if they have the room and speed to do so. Thus, faster units (especially Light Infantry and Cavalry) could and would avoid being caught by superior Groups of enemy Heavy Infantry, for example. Also, small Groups and commanders could avoid engaging (or at least, avoid getting totally mobbed by) larger Groups that they could outrun.

[Pocus]

woud it be possible to enhance the scripting possibilies of scenarios? It would be a boon, for solo and MP, as we are still really lacking in 'real' scenarios, with triggers, events, etc.

as an exemple, I would like to be able to script an independant or AI commander in the scenario file, because as of now, a fully equiped independant queen of air will cast spells until she passes out where as she would surely only cast mistform, mirror image and then attack in the hands of a player.

[DragonFire11]

First I want to say that Dom2 is fantastic, and if they only made superficial changes in Dom3 I'd still give them my money. It’s more likely, however, that the skill and motivation that created Dom2 makes that possibility unlikely and happily so. I have dozens of minor thoughts that probably aren’t worth their consideration or time. I will tender my personal recommendations where I think they might have the most impact:

1. Some simple interface changes might go a long way. For instance, Medieval Total War had this nice feature that you could simply push the shift button (or was it Tab or ctrl?) and the map would reveal a color-coded means of determining the degree of unrest: green, yellow, and red each specifying a degree of risk of revolt. This feature was a huge time saver. Also, the ability to give orders and script commands needs simplification. Yes, I like the way researching mages can be grayed out but more in this respect can be done. For example: I say you should be able to group all commanders and mages. You should also be able to group by those lacking orders, or by those with particular spell skills and in ascending or descending order by strength. There should also be an easier way to access and read spell paths.

2. A tutorial. Let’s face it: this game is utterly recondite. I say this with great affection because the abstruse nature provides the some of the best moments of gaming. But learning the game at even a modest degree is a chore and you certainly lose gamers (and profits) to the intimidated. You might want to add a list of basic combination spell and attacks just to get folks started.

3. This is probably a tall order: idiot server setup and interface. Now I don’t know anything about this type of thing (thus I am the idiot in need), but it seems to me that the easier to set up servers, and the more user friendly, the happier your customers will be.

Also, for email games, which is a very nice thing by the way, you might want to create some sort of utility that automatically backs up user files by moves because we make mistakes and it’s a real shame to lose a game when you confuse two email games.

4. Trade. Ok, so I’m a hopeless capitalist. But trade among provinces and nations add wealth, and a weakness to attack. In my mind, trade can be quite simple and depicted in a basic fashion. As long as there is a way to obstruct trade with military, spells, and weather, it might be worth considering.

5. Titans. Some games are long. Some games are long and you know you are going to get beat bad because the other player is so much better. Introducing Titans (as inspired by Warlords Battlecry) might be a nice way to add a little chaos to the system so someone might invest energies building up a really bad baddie. Obviously, this would have to work with the balance of the game, but it’s something to consider.

6. Buildings. Hey we can build temples, labs, and keeps, why not other good stuff like smiths, carpenters, war colleges, armories, devil forges, added defenses, etc. Make them expensive so you might have to choose between quality or quantity and have something to lose if invaded.

7. Family. My god is worshiped like a rock star, so maybe he should act like one. If he has offspring, these mini-gods might add extra goodness to a great game.

8. Hostages. If you can have valuable family members, perhaps you can hold or take key individuals hostage like in the Shogun books.

9. More ritual spells. Those things are so cool I want more. For instance, you could make a spell that makes armies eat more, so that starvation is a bigger issue. Maybe make weak ritual spells that have less impact but need less research.

10. More individuals. Perhaps the comment regarding family members address this, but it would be nice to see certain commander progress more in terms of experience and ability. I know this is a touch like RPG, but think adding a few more key individuals along with the gods would add a personal aspect, and the risk reward of certain attacks might be increased.

11. Pacts. Ok, this one is a bit strange, but diplomacy might take on a twist if players could enter pacts enforced by the game that if defined agreements are breached, the collateral or pledge is forfeited.

Just a few thoughts. I have more thoughts, but these came to mind first at this sitting. Now the only problem about the Dom3 announcement is that I have to wait for it.

[deccan]

Recently there was some discussion of wards and whether or not they stacked. I requested that the different kinds of wards be made stackable (e.g. Thunder Ward + Storm Warriors) so as to allow armies to get 100% resistance to something though it would expensive in terms of gems and getting the right casters in place.

However this was voted down by the devs.

How about we add battlefield spells that give susceptibility to a damage type to targets, which would effectively give say -50% fire (or whatever) resistance to whatever in its area of effect?

If we imposed a max of 50% susceptibility from spells of this type, then people would need 150% resistance to be absolutely safe, but it would then be more viable to allow resistance wards to stack.

The idea is that a player should be forced to have several mages working together to cast the appropriate ward type or susceptibility type spells for maximum effect, reducing the power of having just 1 powerful mage killing entire armies with Wrathful Skies type spells.

[Saber Cherry]

If sub-100% resistance are stacking is multiplicative rather than additive, it might work better... in other words, if a unit has three different 50% fire resistances (perhaps one from an artifact, one from the unit's nature [e.g. a demon] and one from a battlefield spell) then they could stack like this:

50% and 50% and 50% = .5 + .5 + .5 = 150% (additive)

or like this:

50% and 50% and 50% = 1-(1-.5)*(1-.5)*(1-.5) = 1-.125 = 87.5%


By the way, did I mention that it would be nice if national and indy units were useful in the mid and late game in Dom III? I think I did, but wishing twice never hurts

Edit: Ooops, just noticed Chazar already said this exact same thing in another thread...