your thoughts on Dominions II - Page 5

Kristoffer O · #41 October 28th, 2003, 07:22 PM

You can use + and - (IIRC) to adjust the research bars a few points if you hover above a school.

Saber Cherry · #42 October 28th, 2003, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
Not sure if JK would like this. It was very difficult to persuade him to remove the hotseat mode.

WOAH there, tiger!!! Don't you DARE take out hotseat mode and blame it on me - people would have me drawn, quartered, and evicted from the forums!

No, I'm just suggesting that in addition to the current main menu selections, and additional selection is put in, for a pure singleplayer game, so you can click on that, and never see the main menu again. If you wanted to play a hotseat game with only one human player (the current DomII singleplayer mode), you would still be able to do that.

And, yes, for your reference, I thought the original Dom I singleplayer mode was more straightforward. But my primary issue with the interface is not that you have to click "host" in between each turn... rather, that there are a whole bunch of steps you have to go through to start a new singleplayer game, which is the first thing that anyone will do upon installing the demo.

-Cherry

[ October 28, 2003, 17:29: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Dekent · #43 October 28th, 2003, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

quote:
Originally posted by Kristoffer O:

quote:
Originally posted by Dekent:
Could yall streamline the single player interface a bit then Kris?

In what way? We are open to suggestions, but make it concrete.
I'm thinking, something along these lines...

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000180

I'm just crosslinking it in case it was overlooked, as you did ask. Well, you didn't ask me, but I'm loud

-Cherry

Yeah it's basically all in that topic heh

MythicalMino · #44 October 28th, 2003, 09:39 PM

ok, something else I really like, is when you go to view the battle....you see where the battle is taking place, with the map zoom in....helps me keep track of where and what I am trying to do

ok, back to playing

Chris Byler · #45 October 28th, 2003, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by licker:

quote:
Originally posted by cpbeller:
perhaps this is already there, and i just cannot see it....but could there be added a "lock" function in the research screen, where you choose what schools to research? It seems that it would make it easier to have certain points going to certain schools...like more than 2 schools being researched at the same time...

perhaps not, but I am just wondering....

you know, like the tech research points lock in some other games (the only one that I can actually think of right now is MoO3...and that is not a good game to use as any example of how to do something....)

Heh, especially since the lock feature in MoO3 didn't even work correctly

EU2 has a lock feature though I think, you could reference that game instead.

I'd like to see this lock feature myself, or a way to enter the value from the keyboard (not +,-), but it's not such a big deal really.

Well, the lock feature worked fine in MoO1. Chalk it up to technological progress, I guess.

Basically: each bar can be either locked or unlocked (there's a checkbox or something). Locked bars can't have their values adjusted. When adjusting the value of an unlocked bar, research points are never transferred into or out of locked bars. This may mean that you may be unable to adjust any bars (if all your research points are in locked bars), or unable to adjust beyond a certain level, which would require some extra coding.

Example: I have 20 rp, currently all in Alteration. I notice that it will take only 7 rp to finish my Alteration research, so I lower Alteration to 7. The extra points are dumped into some other school (let's say Conjuration). Then I decide I want the extra points to go into Construction instead, so I lock Alteration, then click near the right end of the Construction bar. The game would transfer as much research as possible to Construction (up to the point where I actually clicked), but wouldn't take away points from the locked Alteration bar to do so. The end result would be Alteration 7 (locked), Construction 13, everything else 0.

This is much more convenient than the current system where I have to estimate about where I want Construction, then see if it took points from the right place, put them back in Alteration if necessary, etc - which could take several adjustments. It would be worse if I had a lot of RP (say 50), was close to finishing a level in one school, wanted to research only one level of another school, and put the remaining points into a third school.

Fyron · #46 October 29th, 2003, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by licker:

quote:
Originally posted by cpbeller:
perhaps this is already there, and i just cannot see it....but could there be added a "lock" function in the research screen, where you choose what schools to research? It seems that it would make it easier to have certain points going to certain schools...like more than 2 schools being researched at the same time...

perhaps not, but I am just wondering....

you know, like the tech research points lock in some other games (the only one that I can actually think of right now is MoO3...and that is not a good game to use as any example of how to do something....)

Heh, especially since the lock feature in MoO3 didn't even work correctly

EU2 has a lock feature though I think, you could reference that game instead.

I'd like to see this lock feature myself, or a way to enter the value from the keyboard (not +,-), but it's not such a big deal really.

A better example would be BOTF (Birth of the Federation).

MythicalMino · #47 October 29th, 2003, 02:38 AM

hmmm....here are some more things (little details) that i have liked...

1. it rains during the battle sequences...or did i imagine it? I could swear that there was rainfall...and, if so, does that affect the battle in any way? or is it just for looks?

2. Again, i have to say i really like the main maps...These really do look great...my wife actually said yesterday that she thought the maps were beautiful...hehe...take that as a compliment coming from someone who really couldn't care less about computer games and all...

3. Just the openness of the info...I don't have to click click click like i did before to get info on the province...like, gold and all...especially concerning the overall empre gold...

4. The nation overview...to me, this was a HUGE step up. To be able to see who is in what province....great job...

5. Love the background for the battles...I ended up fighting in one where there was fog...thought that was a great visual affect....

6. Spiders spiders and more spiders...I really do like the Machaka race....Even though i hate spiders in real life...I do lilke the Spiders inthe Machaka race...

7. A great game made even greater....I tip my hat to you guys in this one...I liked Dominions I, but this one I think has become my absolute favorite game...

Psitticine · #48 October 29th, 2003, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by cpbeller:
1. it rains during the battle sequences...or did i imagine it? I could swear that there was rainfall...and, if so, does that affect the battle in any way? or is it just for looks?

It rains, it snows, it storms, it gets a bit foggy . . . it's all good.

Rain and snow will affect missile fire for the worse, plus give penalties (double fatigue cost) for Fire magic use. Flying units (aside from a unit Caelum can roll out) are grounded during storms. Fire-loving units are just generally do poorly in the rain. Abyssia ain't happy in a roaring thunderstorm!

Chris Byler · #49 October 29th, 2003, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Psitticine:

quote:
Originally posted by cpbeller:
1. it rains during the battle sequences...or did i imagine it? I could swear that there was rainfall...and, if so, does that affect the battle in any way? or is it just for looks?

It rains, it snows, it storms, it gets a bit foggy . . . it's all good.

Rain and snow will affect missile fire for the worse, plus give penalties (double fatigue cost) for Fire magic use. Flying units (aside from a unit Caelum can roll out) are grounded during storms. Fire-loving units are just generally do poorly in the rain. Abyssia ain't happy in a roaring thunderstorm!

Many summoned units could also fly in storms in Dom I - air elementals, spring hawks, storm demons, Queen of Air, sylphs, Pazuzu, not sure about draconians. Some of those units also got their stats increased when fighting in a storm.

I can't confirm yet whether any of those are changed in Dom II (except, come to think of it, I don't remember seeing Pazuzu in the blood magic spell list. Maybe he's one of the level 9 demon lords now?)

Psitticine · #50 October 30th, 2003, 01:19 AM

Yep, Pazuzu is one of the Demon Lords now. I'm not sure about flying summoned creatures in storms, but I'd suspect they are mostly if not entirely the same.