Introduce yourself!! :-)

[KermNelson]

Hi folks,
I've been a member for a while but obviously not very active. I tend to research a game I'm interested in and then "explore" play it while looking into the game files and enjoying interacting with the game itself. Bartles test helped me recognize my desires in and with gaming. I explore so don't expect me to go multiplayer unless I feel really sociable and don't mind getting thumped.

I started serious gaming in HS during the early '70s. I played chess and a member of our HS team brought a copy of S&T's USN which we mostly looked at but this got me to subscribe to S&T (Strategy & Tactics) for several years. In college I not only played Napoleonic minatures (Column, Line & Square: 25mm) but when in Army ROTC went to Jump school and learned D&D with the small boxed set and the AD&D Players Manual that had just come out. The army when at Ft Bragg decided to train me on the Apple II+ in the very early '80s and I bought one of the first Macs in Feb or Mar '84. I had games on both my Apple II+ and Mac but eventually surrendered to PC popularity and moved on to PCs & their games. I've MMO'd EQ, AC, & SWG. I tend to play MMOs to explore but I will group with friends. I've explored (dissected?) games from the start looking at hexcode all the time. I've bought Austerlitz & SE IV here and I am looking at Dom 3. I've got a lot of Strategy First, Paradox, and Total War games and have enjoyed editing them. I'm not dedicated enough to really 'mod' a game but enjoy exploring the mods other players have made.

I'm 'here' to see if Dom 3 is interesting enough for this explorer. I don't like suffering through tough learning curves so I like to quickly learn to edit a game so I can stumble along enjoying the very weak competition while I see how the game plays. If I can't hexedit or find tools to allow me to stumble along easily I probably won't buy Dom 3. But I'm willing to put a fair amount of time into puzzling through game structure and editing to enable me to roll along in game.

[Panpiper]

KermNelson, you sound a lot like me. You will definitely enjoy Dominions 3.

[llamabeast]

KermNelson, you can make Dominions as easy as you like if you want to. The AI on Easy is not too tough, but you can make it even easier by playing on a large map, doing a super-simple map change to give yourself extra gold, etc..

[KermNelson]

Thanks for the welcome Panpiper, details?

llamabeast ... is that with included tools or something from the modders forum. I've been searching and reading some of the posts with 'editor' and other mod tools.

Recommendations?

Thanks again!

[llamabeast]

Well, the maps and also mods are just plain text files (the maps actually consist of one image file, with a pure white pixel for each province to tell the game where they're located, and one text file), so the only tool you need is a text editor. The game comes with PDF modding/mapping manuals, and while they're now slightly out of date there is lots of help in the modding forum.

It is all astonishingly doable actually - it's really quite a moddable game.

[KermNelson]

Thanks llamabeast ... I like text based files because I don't have to do as much guesswork in hex. I've pretty much decided to 'jump' in with a online order. Sounds like I won't be able to patch until I get the hardcopy???. I was hoping that something like a province editor would allow me to really cheese my starting province to eliminate my frustration while stumbling around learning the game.

Panpiper ... heh heh I went looking for your intro. Unfortunately I didn't use my head and start looking from page 30 backwards. So after several hours today of reading everyones introduction from page 1, I found yours on page 30. There seems to be a few of us near 50 somethings. Lots of D&Ders, strategy boardgamers, and early computer users.

I also like the multi-national community here(one of the great pluses of internet/online gaming). Now I need to go find my coupon from Shrapnel and my credit card.

Thanks !!!

[KermNelson]

Hmmm,
"I'm sooo confused."
Somewhere I got the impression I could d/l the full game once I bought a copy from GamersFront. Oh well it looks like I will wait for snail mail.

At least I can play the demo !!!

Hey llamabeast can I get away with editing the demo to cheese my gold, base resources, et al ?

[Endoperez]

KermNelson said:
Hey llamabeast can I get away with editing the demo to cheese my gold, base resources, et al ?

If you play on a large map, just one enemy and increase the gold/resource/supply multiples (and magic site chance) you'll get more stuff. Independents won't benefit from it, so for most of the time you can play around as much as you like. Once you meet your enemy you could be in trouble, or you might have your full game already.

[KermNelson]

Hi Endoperez,

Yeah I've been trying odds & ends in hexediting and I think I'll add some text commands to a map file duplicate.

I did one small map 1v1 and found I had one province between me and Ulm with lots of useless plains and water around. Large map sounds good ... after I tinker with some map commands on a duplicate of the small map I may move one to bigger and better things. I've spent some time looking in Map & Mod subsection with "Editor" as my search criteria. Found lots of stuff for 3.10 but most is probably questionable on the demo while I wait for snail mail to get here during the Christmas season. (I am too tight on cash to buy high price delivery.) Since I'm bored I wouldn't mind suggestions on modding the demo if that is an allowed topic since there should be legitimate concern on expanding the 'free' demo too much. Maybe our Illwinter guys have that covered - let me know what policy or even 'good' advice is on whether tinkering with demo is taboo.

Thanks!

[Lord_Neko]

Hey everyone,
I'm new to these forums and to Dom 3. So far I am liking the game. I am a fan of 4x games so Dom 3 is an amazing game in that regard. Strategy games in general is one of my favorite genres for gaming. And yes, I plan to contribute to the modding community here as well.