Warmachines for Dom3

[HoneyBadger]

Since this has been brought up over in the Oceania thread, I thought I'd make a space to post ideas for seige weapons for either general use as new Construction summons, or if anyone has any ideas for seige weapons for other nations, feel free to post those too.

Note: It's my opinion that small, mobile weapons of this type are the most appropriate, but it might also be possible to include larger capital-only defensive seige weapons, probably immobile, as a boost to capital PD. I think it's safe to suggest that in no case should they outdo a spell already present in the game.

We already have chariots, and seige-type weapons are becoming more popular in mods, so there's some precedent for this type of weapon already.

[JimMorrison]

I only see 2 problems with the inclusion of siege weaponry.....

First, being that if they are "summonable", where would they go other than Earth? As a stretch, perhaps could say since a catapult is mostly wood and fiber (rope) that Nature could do it, but it seems anything is sort of a stretch, as summons.

But then if recruitable, who gets them and who doesn't? If all they really get is a siege bonus, the problem may be that the nations they are the best fit for, already have addressed that issue (sappers, etc). If they have high powered projectiles (likely AOE) in addition to or in lieu of a siege bonus, then it is hard to not either make them unattractive (capital only, unlikely anyone would buy them), or overpowered (recruitable anywhere, essentially Fatigue free evocation spam).


I do kind of like the immobile idea - essentially a way to just invest into the tower defenses to make any attack that much more difficult. I'm not sure those should be cap only, they'd add an interesting strategic point if they could be used on any castle.

I do understand that you say small and mobile..... I guess I've been thinking of them as essential commander type units, but perhaps Ballista and Scorpions, which would sort of be like the ancient technological answer to thugs and SCs - single target AP attacks with very high damage. Just give them a move of 1/4 or something, and high enough HP to not die to a stray arrow, but low enough to probably die from one good melee swing from a giant.

[HoneyBadger]

Well, before they were "summoned" they didn't exist So I guess you could say they were summoned from the Outer Limits (Dimension of Time, Dimension of Space, Dimension of the Mind.). Construction works this way, because we don't ask where magical items came from, someone created them, just like they create mechanical men or juggernauts.

I personally don't want them recruitable. That's an issue of national balance, so ideas for that are welcome, but they come with other considerations attached.

[Aezeal]

crushers!!!!

[HoneyBadger]

Crushers. Yes.

[Omnirizon]

i think this is just asking for unnecessary complexity. Dom3 has never been about being a 'hyper-realistic' wargame; I, in fact, find those types of games to be pure dross for a complexity of both ontological and gaming reasons that aren't worth going into right now.

we could imaging that a nation does in fact build siege engines, thus why mindless and animals aren't as good, since they don't grasp the architectural concepts. Or whatever, use your imagination. Modeling siege engines is just not something Dom3 is equipped to do, nor what it is even about.

And for all these points, there already are units and summons in the game that get siege bonuses.

[HoneyBadger]

It's not about actually using them in a seige, they'd just be warmachines, so maybe that's a better term? Some ofcourse might get seige bonuses, but that's not the ultimate focus here-it's more for standardized, non-nation specific, machines that could be used either in the field, or for specific purposes, including supporting PD, and also supporting seiges.

[JimMorrison]

Death Ray Squid Tanks!

Sorry, I cannot resist. >.>

Also, the Ulmish Mammoth Chariots. So awesome. <3

[Tifone]

Omnirizon said:
i think this is just asking for unnecessary complexity. Dom3 has never been about being a 'hyper-realistic' wargame; I, in fact, find those types of games to be pure dross for a complexity of both ontological and gaming reasons that aren't worth going into right now.

we could imaging that a nation does in fact build siege engines, thus why mindless and animals aren't as good, since they don't grasp the architectural concepts. Or whatever, use your imagination. Modeling siege engines is just not something Dom3 is equipped to do, nor what it is even about.

And for all these points, there already are units and summons in the game that get siege bonuses.

I actually agree with everything of that.

Also, making the gifs and the statistics, and resolving the balance issues of catapults, ballistas, trebutchets, some of them possibly magic to add a bit of variety and fantasy in this... would be a huge load of work, for something the game isn't IMHO in the real need of. And even doing all this, the result could possibly break many balances anyway nonetheless- many nations just don't fit IMHO the state of mind of building and carrying around catapults, ballistas, trebutchets. Intantly come to mind Abysia, Pangaea, Niefelheim, EA Marverni, and possibly many others. Playing Dominions 3 already requires sometimes big stretchs of imagination - as it's a fantasy game, and as it has not be done with full hi-res graphic showing everything that happens in the story like other titles. Imagining my soldiers building some war engines to bring down the gates of a fort, and the ones with the siege bonus being better at this than the other, is a minor one

I'm not of course saying, do not improve the game, you can imagine whatever is not there. Just that for me, siege engines are a minor thing that I don't really feel the need in this game. I prefer the battles continue involving just hordes of soldiers, archers, cavalry, undeads, demons, big mythologic monsters of all kind, animals, powerful mages... it is enough for me, and we can already do much to improve just those things ^_^

[Sombre]

Not a fan of this idea at all.

I have made 'war machines' of a sort for a couple of mod nations, but they work in much the same way as existing units like crushers, chariots, fire drakes, archers etc.