The Dominions 3: "Wishlist"

[Gandalf Parker]

Since the beta-test group from Dom2 still exists Im not sure if there will be any mass additions for a Dom3 test group. Most of the new beta-testers will probably be needed for brand new games that have no test-group at all and need many new minds to examine it well. They do have a nice list of upcoming games and if you figure alpha-test at 10-20 and beta-test at adding another 20-30 fresh looks then thats a lot of beta-testers needed for a brand new game. They are trying to increase that pool to offer it to new developers.

Although.... Im not sure if the "speaks Swedish" bonus still applies. On Dom1 it was like a +50 luck item for addition to alpha and beta-test.

[Edi]

I'm not in the beta test pool and wouldn't probably do much good there anyway, but if you guys (IW) want to tap me for producing documentation (both manuals and the type of stuff I've done on my own) or proofreading stuff you are doing for Dom3, I'm available. And you won't even have to pay me anything, I'll do it for free.

Edi

[Saber Cherry]

Problem: Dominions II stats are too granular (not adjustable to a fine enough degree to make every unit, weapon, and armor distinct).

Solution: Below.

I suggest you read the preface first, unless you are just scanning rapidly for brilliant ideas (like I imagine developers do - in which case, skip to the bottom).



~ Preface ~

Last night, after I thought (incorrectly) that I had finished and correctly posted files to be used in the Rebalance test mod, I went to bed. And I had this Brilliant Idea. So brilliant, I almost got up to write it down, but I thought "It's so brilliant, how could I forget it?" And I went to sleep and forgot it. Then, I just remembered it now, 5 hours after waking up... and here it is!

When examining weapon stats and unit stats, and trying to mod them... I always run into the same problems. How do you make a longspear slightly worse than a spear, without making it worthless? How do you make Full Scale Mail less bad without making it identical to a Chain Mail Hauberk? How do you give units Leather or Chain cowls or Bronze helmets that are beneficial, but not quite as good as a steel helmet? How do you give a unit stats slightly above normal (hp 10, mor 10, att 10, def 10)... but below elite (hp 11, mor 11, att 11, def 11)? How do you differentiate a Ring Mail Hauberk (7, -1, 1, 6 res) from a Scale Mail Cuirass (7, -1, 1, 7 res) without making one worse than the other in any possible situation? How do you make Drain 1 (with its .5 MR bonus) useful in any way?

Answer: YOU CAN'T! Dominions' combat mechanics, based on 2d6 (open ended) and low integers, do not allow such things.

The solution: If you want those things to be possible...









Solution:

Modify the 2d6* (shorthand for "two 6-sided, open-ended dice") to 2d6.0* (shorthand for "two 6-sided, open-ended dice plus a 10-sided, decimal die").

Implementation:

Dominions II dice rolls are usually competing sets of 2d6*, which generate an integer in the range (98% of the time) of about -14 to +15 (see the Dice Roll Chart for details). To get accuracy in the .1 region (allowing rolls of 6.1 or 14.7) is quite simple. Change (2d6*) to ((2d6*) + (1d10)/10). As long as each side gets an additional ((1d10)/10) on all rolls, nothing in Dominions II will change much! Also, make unit stats (and hit points, during combat) floating point numbers with 1 decimal place instead of integers.

With rolls providing sub-integer precision, equipment can be modded much more precisely. A ringmail cuirass can give -.3 defense and +.5 encumbrance, instead of the (unrealistic) 0 defense penalty and 0 encumbrance that it currently gives. A helmet can give +.1 encumbrance and -.3 precision. Longspears can give -.2 attack and -.2 defense, becoming slightly worse - but not vastly worse worse - than normal spears. Ulm could get +1.5 MR from drain 3, instead of the current 1 MR. Elites could get 11 strength / 11 attack, heavy infantry could get 10.7 strength / 10 attack, medium infantry 10.4 strength / 10.2 attack, light infantry 10 strength / 10.5 attack, trained militia 9.5 strength / 9 attack, and peasants 9 strength / 8 attack... and it would all matter!

Maybe nobody else cares about this degree of arcane number-crunching complexity. But I DO! And I hope there are others out there who feel the same way

[Saber Cherry]

I think I mentioned this once before, but... if Dominions III allows magic sites to have text descriptions, I (and probably other people in the forum) would be more than happy to fill them out

[Oversway]

Please make castle attributes (point cost, admin, defense, supply, build time, gold cost) modable. There is a hidden request here to allow for build time to not have to equal gold cost/150.

[Scott Hebert]

My brother and I the other day were commenting on the increase in national spells announced in Dominions III. We agreed this was a 'good thing'(tm).

My brother then made the suggestion of pretender-specific spells. As an example (this is not part of the request), Nagas have all of these bonuses with Lamias. Why not let the Naga start with Call Lamia? (I can think of quite a few reasons, off the top of my head, but it was a brainstorming session.)

In a similar vein, the Vampire Queen could start with the Vampire-summoning spell.

Then, another thought that crossed our minds was to have pretender-specific Sacred units.

Again, using the Naga as the example. If you choose the Naga as your Pretender, Lamias (and Lamia Queens) are Sacred for you. Vampires could be Sacred for VQs, Ghosts for Ghost Kings, Astral mages for Oracles (), etc.

Anyway, just a suggestion.

1) Pretender-specific spells.
2) Pretender-specific Sacred troops.

[Endoperez]

Scott's idea could be worked through |> themes <| that are only available for certain pretenders. That would open up some other interesting possibilities, too.

I like the pretender-spesific ideas, and would like to add nation-/pretender-/mage-spesific items only forgeable by a spesific nation, nation under the rule of a spesific pretender or a spesific mage-type commander.

EDIT: I meant pretender-spesific themes, not mods. Both would be nice, but I think themes would be easier to make.

[Scott Hebert]

Yes, just giving us the ability to mod this in would be great.

[silhouette]

Seems like a good idea to define a half dozen "empty" nations who's only purpose is to be modded (maybe with a set of some empty pretender, hero, weapons, units). Having a set of empty nations would allow nation mods to not have to replace existing nations, so you could have Loren vs Pangea vs Oglala vs TC easier. New nation mods could all be written for Empty1 and could easily be adjusted to play as Empty2 or 3... since they would all have the same template (Empty1 weapons are 730-739, Empty2 weapons are 740-749, etc). Even if the game itself didn't support loading these nation mods directly, it would be easy to make scripts to combine them and make combo mods with multiple new nations in selected empty slots. Resolving mod overlaps is no fun now.

Sill

[Kristoffer O]

Adding a couple of empty slots is no big problem. Nation modding will be a lot easier in dom3. Themes are made as different nations and most stats can be modded or enabled for a given theme (province defence, production bonus, blood sacrifice etc).