Forthcoming patch notes

[Tifone]

Meh, SCs are one of the funniest things of this game ^^

[Makinus]

Didn�t read the enitre thread, so if anyone alreadya nswered this, sorry:

Any turn processing speed improvements? I�m still playing mostly dom2 as dom3, even with minimal graphics, is still too slow for my notebook, and i most play in it as i�m constantly traveling...

[Edi]

No word on speed improvements. Just on the basis of the progress page. The attempt at speed improvement with the 3.17 patch did not succeed because it caused a fatal crash and had to be removed.

[Loren]

Gandalf Parker said:
Well if it did get imcreased I would DEFINETLY want it adjustable. The hosting times are long enough for me now. Those of you playing on maps of a couple of hundred provinces and 4-8 players could live with an enforced increase much better than I can with 1500 provinces and 20+ nations. Keep in mind that even the independents have combats.

How often does the battle time limit trigger due to truly insoluble situations?

[Loren]

Taqwus said:
Meh. If you wanted the limit changed, it should probably be changed to have a different mechanic and not just an arbitrary higher number -- like allowing the battle to continue some N turns, and after that threshold allowing it to continue as long as at least one side has a monotonically declining moving average of total hit points.

I think it should be based on a peak over a period of turns rather than an average but both are probably workable.

Whatever the exact mechanic, the basic idea is the battle continues so long as progress is being made. So long as there are no loopholes in the progress detection the battle *WILL* end at some point and that's really all we need.

[Edi]

Anytime the AI sends two incompetent mages to the arena, for example, which is often. I've seen it happen more than once that two AI mages keep spamming each otehr with spells they just can't make hit or can't do any damage and it ends with the attacker autorouting due to turn limit.

[Gandalf Parker]

I would hate to have my game held up waiting on the results of combats involving independents attacking independents. And having a ton of IF statements to decide when to quit wouldnt help much either.

I dont mind the AI and Independents having chances as us, but Id prefer a limit on them and us to having some sort of "continue until someone wins". (which I guess is ok as a max setting on an option altho I dont think Id ever choose it)

[chrispedersen]

NTJedi said:

SC's have existed throughout fantasy history... everything from the ancient story of Beowulf to Superman to even Lords of the Ring !! If the SCs are removed from these stories, there's not much remaining. If you prefer games without SC's you'd have to lean towards games which are purely military historical with not even a tiny spice of fantasy... yet these games still have thug types.

I didn't say I hated hero's and anti heroes, or characters.

I hate SC's. To be specific, Dominions(x) implimentation of battlefield heros.

Why? Hmm.. because there doesn't seem to be anything *heroic* about them. The game doesn't set up as a MMRPG; its more spreadsheet and battle tactics. Were it otherwise, I would strongly enjoy them. We argue whether frost brands are more effective than fire brands due to the 2 extra pts of damage....

Why? Because we have 8-10 army units - each supposedly crafted to reflect their nations strengths and tastes. And yet uniformly all but 1-2 of them are pointless in just a few turns.

Why? Games, like theatre, involve a suspension of believe.
We play in a certain fantasy world - with a certain map.
As part of those rules - we are told that these nations exist, and their militaries are primarily composed of these units.

You can imagine a history of military combats - of battles won and lost. Only you can't. Because those army units would never exist. Nations would have evolved SC's - not army units.

The logical disconnect - the loss of 'suspension of disbelief' is irritating. Its like interrupting the writing of Xanadu, or more prosaicly, someone interrupting your favorite TV show. Every time I play.

Now THAT would be an interesting Mod.
A Mod where there were no army units - only starting SC's, and starting equipment you could make. Starting spells.

[llamabeast]

Presumably the nation has been making do with mundane units and primitive spells before the pretender arrived to Inspire their research.

[Sombre]

Sounds like you'd enjoy a game set up with very hard research and no level 9 blesses allowed.