Help a newb, please!

Wellsee · #1 June 15th, 2008, 07:18 PM

Wow, this game is pretty overwhelming. I'm on my 20th SP game, having only won once and am currently struggling to manage a medium sized map. Anyway, I have an interface question that I didn't find an answer for: Is it possible to re-map keys? Too many times I've hit 'e' when reaching for 'r' and prematurely ended my turn. Augh!!!

I quickly scanned the mods document but didn't see it in there.

Also, is there any way to change the game volume? My Sound System is set to default but I doubt that matters. The game sounds are too loud compared to all my other system sounds.

I appreciate any help. Thanks!

Ballbarian · #2 June 15th, 2008, 07:55 PM

No way to remap keys and no sound volume options in the game that I know of.

I have heard of other folks using 3rd party solutions to temporarily remap their keyboard, but I don't use any such method myself.

(Oh, and welcome to the forums!

)

Twan · #3 June 15th, 2008, 08:24 PM

Fun I remember having expressed the same complaint about "e" about one week after release.

The best ways to avoid the "e" trap are to always use mouse instead of the dangerous "r" shortcut, or other neighbours of "e"... or only play MP games (guess it's why I never have problem with "e" now).

Gandalf Parker · #4 June 15th, 2008, 08:41 PM

There are command switches. Such as:
--musicvol X Set music volume, 0-100
--clickvol X Set mouse click volume, 0-100
-s --nosound No sound effects or music
--arts Route sound through aRts (default)
-o --oss Use direct oss sound output (best quality)

Some people made changes to certain sounds (elephants, screams, click) in the sound files themselves. For example, if you go to the dominions directory and copy emuller.smp to elephant.smb then you get an elephant sound that is alittle easier to live with.

MaxWilson · #5 June 15th, 2008, 08:46 PM

There'

[...How ironic. I hit the wrong key while typing this message and it posted early. I've never had that happen to me before, either.]

There's no way to remap keys, so I would recommend the second-best option which is to use the dom3.exe --postexec command to back up your files every turn. That way if you accidentally finish too early you can restore. The other possibility, if you have a slow computer, is to immediately Alt-Tab out and kill the process using xkill or Task Manager (whichever is applicable). If your computer is too fast that won't work, of course.

-Max

Wellsee · #6 June 15th, 2008, 11:56 PM

Thanks for the welcome and hints everyone.

I'm disappointed to find there is a click volume control, but none for sound effects! Ah well.

I didn't know about the command switches, so that is useful to know. I would like to use that postexec one, but I am not sure how. I see the description is

--postexec CMD Execute this command after each turn generation

Is CMD inline DOS commands (windows install)? A batch file? Got an example for me to play with?