combat

[snake]

I played the DOM 2 demo and was quite intrigued enough to consider purchasing DOM 3.
My question is: Do you have any control over combat? I mean, I would love to have some control of the tactical battle like Age of Wonders.
In DOM 2 I could only replay a battle and watch which, to me, is rather lame - why waste the time after a few viewings.

[NakedLunch]

No, combat is automated but there are many things you can do to affect the comat. For instance, you can set your units to do specific tasks like guard the commander etc. Formation also plays a critical role in combat so it's good to get acquainted with it.

The reason I watch all my combat replays is to see where I went wrong if I lost and try to fix that.

I hope you can overcome the lack of interactivity because there's a whole lot more to the game besides that and it's a shame if you skipped all that just because of the combat.

[Fate]

You will notice there is some control over combat in dominons (enough that strategies are built around it).

First of all, there are tactics in squad mixing, as archers with infantry will not fire unless commanded to (which would cause the infantry to just sit there). Also, while larger squads have more morale, smaller squads can create longer fronts, and thereby inflict more casualties.

Also, in the squads menu, you can click on the green, white, and red colored block to position a squad's starting position. The white block is the squad, the red block is other squads under the same commander, and the blue blocks are other friendly squads.

You can also click on the squad's orders (next to their name) and change them. For troops, possibilities include "guard commander" (making them bodyguards for the commander in case of an assassination attempt), and various forms of attack, with optional targets. For commanders, you can also script their first 5 turns of combat, especially usefull for mages, before giving them similar general commands.



Anyway, I consider this enough control, and any in-battle control would not work with the game's P(lay)B(y)eM(ail) multiplayer.

As for watching battles, I sometimes need to (possibly from my niavity - is that spelled right?) to see how the enemy wooped me. I also enjoy the movie-ness of just having to watch the battle, without any involvement.






Besides all of this, if you got this far, I know of no plans to drastically increase combat control. A little more leeway has been requested, but I am not sure how much will make the cut.

[NakedLunch]

As for watching battles, I sometimes need to (possibly from my niavity - is that spelled right?) to see how the enemy wooped me. I also enjoy the movie-ness of just having to watch the battle, without any involvement.

Heh, yeah. I do that too sometimes, especially if I won and I just get to watch my army stomp all over the other and in my head I'm hearing Braveheart screaming "FREEEEEEEDOOOOOMMM!"

[Edi]

I also happen to like not having total control over everything, because that is how things would be in reality. The general commanding the army issues orders and the troops will execute them if able. The general does not control each soldier individually like puppets, which is the case in AoW.

Not to say that AoW is bad or anything like that, I liked the original even if the sequels weren't as good, but it's a rather different type of game than Dominions in many respects.

Edi

[Argitoth]

Edi said:
I also happen to like not having total control over everything, because that is how things would be in reality. The general commanding the army issues orders and the troops will execute them if able.

Dominions is extremely limited compared to real life. Just think about it.

[Edi]

Argitoth said:

Dominions is extremely limited compared to real life. Just think about it.

*watches point whoosh past Argitoth's head*

That's one of those "Ya think, Sherlock?" Captain Obvious comments you just posted there. Doesn't affect the damned point at all that the Dominions combat model is, in the control of the battlefield aspect, much more realistic than e.g. the tactical combat in Age of Wonders where the commander can use all of his units like puppets down to the last step they take.

The same is true of real world battlefields, commanding officers give orders and the troops execute them to the best of their ability, but the CO is not there hovering over each individual soldier's shoulder telling them "Step there! Fire on that enemy NOW, sprint there, fire some more, now hold position until that particular enemy goes there" etc.

Edi

[Randar]

Well I liked AOW:SM (which was the best out of the Age of Wonders series, in fact it is the only TBS game that I keep coming back to) and the Tactical combat was the best part of the game. It is a shame that DOM3 gives you none of that thrill. I do have a question though, is the combat similar to the Total War games or it combat just hands off?

[Tharivol_Street_Prince]

Fate said:
[i]~More features and control than what I expected Illwinter to contribute and in ways that I was even thinking about.~

*joygasm* Holy crap! That's awesome! I don't have to hope that my archers will kill the enemies before the "Hold" part of "Hold and Attack" wears off!

The only thing I could ask for, compelled by the human impetus to emote regardless of the relevancy or impact, is that spies could relay the positions of soldiers back to you. (It'd be a guess, of course. The enemy could switch up his army positions the turn before the battle and the spy couldn't report real-time changes like that.)

[Agrajag]

Then at the very last you should be able to command a single "leader" unit on the battlefield that will dinamically send your instruction and share combat progress.

(And I don't propose to instruct all the individual soldiers in a battle as you watch it going along, I'm just saying thematically it makes sense)