idea about newbie guide . plz share your opinions

[Ironhawk]

Speaking of...

I've actually been writing a .. not a newbie-guide per se. Cause there are a couple of good tutorials that explain game basics. But what I consider a mid-level strategy guide. It covers some of the nuances of the game which are not apparent to a newer player. Take a look at tell me what you think:

http://benatar.snurgle.org:8080/~quinn/guide.html

Obviously still a work in progress. Comments are welcome and appreciated!

[Boron]

starting to read now .

finished chapter 1 lol

i like that chart
Early Game Mid Game Late Game
Blitz Strong Medium Weak
Balance Medium Medium Medium
Turtle Weak Medium Strong

you could add a description with map sizes and state that blitz strats are good to use at small ( - 100 provinces ) maps , while turtle strat is especially a good idea for faerun .
further you could include the hint if you chose to blitz attack you have to have in mind that if your enemy plays turtle but right guesses movement of your main army if you aren't ´prepared for that you are screwed too .
especially a vq is hard to come by for most nations in the first 20 turns .

[Ironhawk]

Yeah, great point boron. Also after reading this thread I'll need to add in a section on unit experience, leveling, and heroic abilities.

[Boron]

Originally posted by Ironhawk:
Yeah, great point boron. Also after reading this thread I'll need to add in a section on unit experience, leveling, and heroic abilities.

therefore you could just say : read ligas manual addendum
or make a new guide .

otherwise it will get too long .
i think you should make for each major chapter a new site / guide

5 guides 4 pages each are much easier to read than 1 guide 20 pages .
it is a phsychological trick but true . at least for me .

so far nice work .
when i finished reading it i will let you know my opinion if i think you could somewhere be more specific

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Boron:
really amazed if this is really true

Get over it. You have to learn to accept that Dom 2 is not Diablo or any/all other games.

Frankly, the idea that you only get experience for killing is stupid, and it leads to game play abuses. First, in the real world, you learn by doing. If you were practicing martial arts, or marksmanship, or whatever, you do really learn by trying to hit an opponent. If you only learned by defeating them, no one would ever learn anything, because beginners could never defeat experts. As for the gameplay abuses, it's not fair that one character gets all the XPs because they were lucky enough (or in MP, aggressive/sneaky enough) to land the Last blow, regardless of whether someone else did 99% of the work to kill the target. Which was one of the things I liked about the SWG MMORPG: you got XPs proportionally based on your share of the damage that was inflicted when you gang-banged an enemy.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Boron:
in every rpg i know you only get xp for KILLING units not hitting them .

Which is the single largest problem with Fantasy based strategy games like AOW. There you have to do silly things like save weakened units for your heroes to kill so that you get the most benefit out of the fight.

[Boron]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Boron:
in every rpg i know you only get xp for KILLING units not hitting them .

Which is the single largest problem with Fantasy based strategy games like AOW. There you have to do silly things like save weakened units for your heroes to kill so that you get the most benefit out of the fight.

---

i would this call rather a feature than a silly thing .
you have to chose whether to risk your hero or not . i liked that in aow and especially in aow 2 shadow magic .
in aow + aow 2 until a patch heros were too strong but in aow 2 shadow magic balance is a bit better .

but aow 2 shadow magic is not good anymore since i know dominions 2 .
only 2 uses for aow 2 shadow magic that come to my mind after knowing dominions 2 :

you can play it if you are really sick ( like flu ) and dominion 2 is too exhausting but want to have at least the feel to play something similiar to dominions .
you can let you small children play aow 2 as a preparation and practice for dominions 2 .
like duplo then lego

[Boron]

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Boron:
really amazed if this is really true

Get over it. You have to learn to accept that Dom 2 is not Diablo or any/all other games.

Frankly, the idea that you only get experience for killing is stupid, and it leads to game play abuses. First, in the real world, you learn by doing. If you were practicing martial arts, or marksmanship, or whatever, you do really learn by trying to hit an opponent. If you only learned by defeating them, no one would ever learn anything, because beginners could never defeat experts. As for the gameplay abuses, it's not fair that one character gets all the XPs because they were lucky enough (or in MP, aggressive/sneaky enough) to land the Last blow, regardless of whether someone else did 99% of the work to kill the target. Which was one of the things I liked about the SWG MMORPG: you got XPs proportionally based on your share of the damage that was inflicted when you gang-banged an enemy.

---

well in diablo 2 party play expierience in party was shared too if the members were in the same area ( something like 1 screen ) .
but the one who killed the target got 10% bonus .

and getting xp only for killing would delay getting xp that would be good .
you get xp far to quick .
if i really get for every hit one xp than after smashing 2-3 indie provinces my sc pretender has already 5 stars .
have never paid much attention to that but at least my vq's were always quite quick 5 star .

if the sc only gets xp for kills he would much slower reach the 5ths level .

the downside of that would be of course that for non sc's it would be almost impossible to reach a higher level than lvl 2-3 .

but it would make sense logical . a sc is always a very mighty being either a pretender or a mighty demon etc. so they do get more expierience because of their already higher power and semi divinity compared to mortals like knights .
makes sense from fantasy view points or ?

[Cainehill]

[quote]Originally posted by Boron:

strange .
in every rpg i know you only get xp for KILLING units not hitting them .
just look at diablo 2 e.g.
if you hit baal 1 million times with fists for fun but don't kill him you still get no exp.

First - Dom2 isn't an RPG. Second, in Diablo 2 (which also isn't an RPG), you bloody well do get experience without killing anything. Join a party and leech mega experience without ever swinging a weapon.

so really amazed that dominions should be the only fantasy game so far where this is not the case .
afaik no other fantasy game rewards you for just hitting someone and not killing him.

Most certainly Dom2 is _NOT_ the only fantasy game to do so. The Disciples line of fantasy turn based strategy games (ie, the exact same genre as Dom2) units got experience for hitting opponents, meaning that you had to work to ensure that units actually got to do some damage.

A console RPG that did the same - Final Fantasy VIII or IX or X or some such - it was a _huge_ PITA because if you want your people to level up, you had to swap each of them in long enough to take an action.

Paper and Pencil RPGs such as Runequest, AD&D and the like certainly never insisted that a character make a kill to get experience, or 1st level mages would never reach lvl 2; similarly, support characters such as clerics would rarely.

I'd suggest that your exposure to RPGs, and to computer games, is somewhat more limitted than you might like to believe.

[atul]

Originally posted by Cainehill:
A console RPG that did the same - Final Fantasy VIII or IX or X or some such - it was a _huge_ PITA because if you want your people to level up, you had to swap each of them in long enough to take an action.

Arcanum? The amount of xp for kill was so minor compared to the one you got for bashing the critter up you could leave them lie unconscious if you were the kind type (and without followers, as they butchered without mercy).

Originally posted by Cainehill:

Paper and Pencil RPGs such as Runequest, AD&D and the like certainly never insisted that a character make a kill to get experience, or 1st level mages would never reach lvl 2; similarly, support characters such as clerics would rarely.

I really liked RoleMaster series (and MERP) in the sense you could actually level up from all the xp you gained for getting hit yourself. All those imaginative criticals yielded tons of xp when felt in first person.