Wishlist: Why magic paths are like mod Nations.

[Omnirizon]

is it a cathedral, or a bazaar?

or a bazaar around a cathedral, or inside a cathedral?

maybe its a bazaar of cathedrals.

I just can't decide!!!


EDIT:

oh, and the usage of mechanical metaphors for clearly non-mechanical matters (such as architecture mapped on software) is a large discussion in Science Studies. Actually, some of the most interesting work in understanding the way we think about design and life, and how it fits with the ontology of software and computers, comes from a researcher who went about and asked children what they thought of their Nintendo games and how they worked; something their young minds could think of and speak to in a way that older ones could not.

This was almost two decades ago when Nintendo was still new, and this person predicted the cultural (not just rational/economic/calculable) significance of new digital, non-mechanical, devices. All of which functioned in ways that human culture had never experienced. A child could understand the mechanical workings of a wind up toy car, or whatever. But open a Nintendo and there's no mechanical functions, only microchips and abstract mathematics. We can't even think about those though without a mechanical diagram.

[lch]

Originally Posted by Kristoffer O

Hmm, not sure if I said what I intended, but never mind. I said something

read as: brace for "Thank you!" storm

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks Kristoffer, I'm grateful to have gotten a meaningful answer from the Devs as to the actual "geography" of the code. It's nice to make guesses about what's possible and easy to do, and what isn't, which was the point of this thread, afterall, but less useful as vagueness builds upon supposition.

I don't mind the paths being as they are, but Kristoffer's elegant "Olympic, Oceanic, Cthonic" idea points out the fact that what we currently have-while relatively inclusive-are hardly the only options possible for paths.

"Shadow Magic" might have been a bad choice to use as an example, because it's apparently hard for people to separate darkness/light from death/necromancy. While I personally suspect latent fear of the dark being a factor for some, I can understand the popular connection and sentiment.

I do hope at some point that we'll atleast get new bless effects, since that's what I really *want*, for the most part (along with more/moddable gem types). Less paths and more blesses works, but I think that, without the ability to either mod the current bless-effects in a relatively comprehensive way, or to atleast have a more comprehensive list of bless-effect, that a lot of strategic possibility, and replayability, is being lost.

Since Dominions is a game specifically theologic in nature, it should be relatively straightforward to understand that the more *good* choices one has-as far as sacred troops and their powers are concerned-the more fun sacred units will be in the game, and the more interesting the game itself will become. This is icing on the cake, ofcourse--Dom3 is already fun to play, has a high degree of replayability, etc, etc. and one doesn't always want or need to do much with the sacred units, but why overlook the potential to make this area a whole lot more interesting?