allied races cooperating in battle?

Merry Jolkar · #1 April 23rd, 2004, 07:37 AM

As I understand it, two races, even if they are allied (using the #allied command in the map file) cannot fight alongside one another in battle. Wouldn't this be a nice advance? Like the elves joining the defense of the Hornberg, or the final battle in the war of the rings. Besides, it would introduce another interesting element: will you hold some troops back, and let your ally take the brunt of battle? One possible issue is: who controls a province when allies both occupy it? But, couldn't one simply allow allied troops to pass through one's territory? This would also keep allied races from blocking one another's access through choke points.
Merry

Gandalf Parker · #2 April 23rd, 2004, 02:48 PM

I havent played with it as much as I should have, especially since my maps and downloadable program are the biggest pushers of it. If combined armies could be done I know players who would love to be able to do it as human players.

But for now the AI's have the same option. They can both attack, they just have to attack from different provinces and one will end up going first. I see no reason that woiuldnt happen now.

What the AI is going to fail miserably at is moving armies THRU an allies territory. Thats one area the human players will do much better.

HotNifeThruButr · #3 April 23rd, 2004, 04:11 PM

The problem with that idea is that people will take advantage of the each other or AIs if they station troops at allied provinces and suddenly break their alliance.

on another note, don't you just hate it when you invade puny Pythium and end up killing troops from a mighty Machaka because you both attacked the same province.

Cohen · #4 April 23rd, 2004, 04:16 PM

Well ... this is nice ... and for problems of penetrating allied territory and break pact ...

When a pact is broken, immediately all the troops in the allied territory are withdrawn:

The breaker of the pact find them in the capitol.
The other in the nearmost province.

This because how break the pact (with a particular command) is ready for that. And has the penalties to find some armies in his capitol. Probably not in the front line.

The one suffering the breaking of the pact finds at least his troops in a defensive position, even if they can be a little spread and bad positioned.

Merry Jolkar · #5 April 24th, 2004, 06:24 PM

I think being able to join battle on the side of allies would add a whole new dimension to the game, and would enable players to later enjoy discussing particularly cool battles they participated in (think the battle of five armies from the Hobbit!). How does one make a suggestion about possible improvments to the game engine?

Norfleet · #6 April 24th, 2004, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cohen:
When a pact is broken, immediately all the troops in the allied territory are withdrawn:

The breaker of the pact find them in the capitol.
The other in the nearmost province.

That's an exploit. Say you actually are allies, and have no real intent of actually attacking each other: If you use this "Break Pact" trick, you'll be able to auto-teleport your troops in his territory back to your capitol.

Merry Jolkar · #7 April 25th, 2004, 08:22 AM

I think the simplest solution would be to revert back to the standard rules if you break pact. i.e., you fight. If there are other races at that location, you fight in the order you would normally fight in, had there been no pact.
If, however, you ally with the enemy on the same turn you break pact with your former ally, you switch sides and fight on the side of your new ally against your old ally.

Yossar · #8 April 26th, 2004, 11:05 AM

Dominions is about Pretenders trying to become the one true God. Alliances aren't supposed to be anything more than the most tenuous of relations since working with another Pretender gives credence to them being equally powerful. As such I don't think diplomacy was ever really intended to be anything more than superficial.

Gandalf Parker · #9 April 27th, 2004, 01:55 AM

Yes the idea of forming a "pantheon" like the greek gods wasnt really in the early works. But with 17 in a game now I think there is room for 1 or even 2 or 3 pantheons fighting each other.

Still I think this is probably more a solo play thing then multi since multi already allows most options