The Dominions 3: "Wishlist"

[Olive]

Maybe brackets are useless ? Here's how It could be (at least for the left part, and the money seems to be included already) :

[Fate]

Just a thought. Could gem income from items be listed?

[OG_Gleep]

I don't see it being done easily unless theres an auto pool option.

[shovah]

free rituals: free monthly ritual to summon something weak, higher path requirement than would be expected for their cost

[Morkilus]

shovah said:
free rituals: free monthly ritual to summon something weak, higher path requirement than would be expected for their cost

Aargh! Nooo! No more vine ogres! [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Envy.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Envy.gif[/img]

[shovah]

lol, i meant things weaker than that (such as a lvl 2-3 nature spell that would give 1-2 vinemen or maybe a few weak animals)

[Tyrant]

I'm sure these things have been said b4, but i want to put in my 2 cents and cannot be bothered to read 56 pages of posts, so here's my list of stuff i want for #3:


1) A public host (like Mosehansen). I am equiped for and capable of hosting public games, but i do not because i do not want to be stuck hosting a game for *months* if i should happen to be defeated in the early game. A quick look at the forums will show that the number of public games has dropped way off since Mosehansen retired his service. I really think that this would be the single biggest thing that could be done to help the game. Personally, i'd pay a modest annual fee for a pro host.

Failing that, anything that would make hosting easier would be good. Would it be possible to arrange turn transfers through an FTP site so that one could host without having a 24/7 dedicated machine? ie you fire up the host and have it go check a file storage site on the web for the turn files.

2) Tactical UI. I have done quite a bit of evangalizing for this game, and the tactical UI has been a sticking point nearly every time. A single screen for unit deployment deployment instead of one per unit and commander would help alot! I'd also like to see a persistent graphical interface for repeat unit order.

3) Easier site searching. The other complaint i always hear when teaching noobs is "Too much micro-manegment".
This puzzled me for awhile until i figured out that site searching was what was bothering them. i don't have any brilliant idea for how to improve this one, just passing it along.

4) Workable multi-turn building que. In a game that lasts months, missed turns are a certainty. As it stands now the consequnces of missed turns are so severe that players often quit. A building que would provide some mitegation.

5) An option to set the game for random duration within a range. For awhile the gigantic, beutifull, and excellent Fearun map was quite popular, but it turned out that it was really quite impossible to conclude a game on a map that big.(duh) Many of us, however, like big pretty maps.
It would be nice to be able to set up games with VPs that ended randomly between turns xx and yy and ranked the finishers based on how many VPs they had at the end.

6)Global random events. I'd like to see random events that affected the entire world - Harsh Winter, Population Surge, etc.

7)Support for formal team games where some other players would be friendly. Given the way the basic game works i realize that there is only so much that can be done in this regard, but anything would be a plus. Perhaps as little as simply not moving into a provence that already has a an allied army and not taking contol of an allied provence that you occupy.

8) Better fort/siege rules. This one has gotten plenty of attention and i'm sure that there are plans in motion already. I'd like to see some fort types serve as a multiplier to the defender's siege strength (ie defenders count 110% in fort type x), and i'd really like to see siege engines on the battlefield.

9) Water magic that works underwater! I think water is a good but narrow suite as is, but it does not, in my experience, provide much of an advantage in underwater combat. There ought to be a few water spells that kick some serious butt underwater.


11) An option to start with national heroes. The Heroes are fun in SP, but i have yet to actually get a cool one MP.

12) More special abilities. The HoF stuff is cool and fun without normally having a big impact on the game. i'd like to see minor abilites pop up on anyone who gets 3 stars exp. on top of the bigger powers from the HoF.

13) A little more control of BF casters. Just a little. Specificaly i'd like to see "Cast Spells" expanded to three options: "Cast Destructive Spells", "Cast Buffing Spells" , or "Cast Hindering Spells". Another possibility would be a selectable national default tendency for after the mages finish their scripted spells.

14) More powerfull Dominion effects. As it now stands most good players use crappy scales and powerfull pretenders, that's all wrong- Dominion is the name of the game! Whatever the effects of the scales are, they should be strong.

______

Kinda late in the devo process for input i suppose, but that's my wish list. DomII's my all time favorite PC game and i'm looking forward to the new one. Thanks for making it!

[Wick]

#14 is funny since several Dominions II changes were in reaction to the Dominions I tendency of throw-away pretenders. It's a matter of taste.

For #13 add "Bravely cast" such that if the caster is out of range, they move! A wraith lord should be able to cast Hand of Dust sometimes.

For #5 I'd be happy being able to use monthly ritual for vaccum clean^H^H^H site searching spells. An decent algorithm considering many sites terrain, known sites, and known searches isn't that hard.

[Chazar]

For #3:

Yeah, the AI should offer a preset of commands. You press a button and all commanders tagged as searches move somewhere where they can search. The automatic set movement should have a different coloured arrow and its own "n"-key to cycle throught them.

Really, commanders should have 1-3 tag boxes and for each tag there should be a key for cycling through them (i.e. cycling through searchers, forgers,etc. - with the tag being idependent to their current action, so that you can find four forgers the next turn again), as well as a key which removes a commander from the current cycle just for the time being (i.e. unless the turn is saved and reloaded later). I hate it to come back to commanders by an 'n'-key that I had already considered to leave as they are...

[Saber Cherry]

Sounds like a good list, Tyrant. I never really thought of #2, but I agree.
#4: Especially a leader queue and a way to enque more than 1 unit per click.
#7: Great in practice, bad in theory (the opposite of most cases In other words, strict teams would be loads of fun, but The Son of the Sun teaming with a Frost Giant aganst the Prince of Death and Virtue is conceptually pretty silly More diplomacy optinions are always good, though, regardless of what you have to do to rationalize it.
#9: Yes! I was about to send my rainbow pretender underwater as support, but then I realized... he had no spells he could cast underwater It's a bit annoying, too, that there is no good script you can put on an amphibious water mage that will work above and below water.
#12: I'd just settle for a 25-slot Hall of Fame But sub-heroes are an interesting idea. Like "Big-fisted Bob" or "Hank, the thief that usually escapes".
#14: Totally agree. I've been advocating a 5-point scale rather than a 3-point scale for a while... 4 usable points, and an fifth reserved for e.g. a Cold 4 nation that gets hit by Wolven Winter. A couple more balances might be nice. What would they be... fiestiness/meekness, giving stat bonii and malii to national recruits... and science/superstition, balancing unit resource, gold costs, and leadership versus undead and magical leadership, the probability of getting random magic picks and extras levels on mages, and extra preaching effectiveness.

A science/superstition scale that adjusted weapon and armor strength, and bow range of the nation's troops would also be neat, but a +-3 swing on protection and damage would be pretty severe. If only Illwinter went floating-point, it would be possible....