Question dump #1

[Slith]

So after getting Dominions 3 and playing with it for the first time, I was completely dazzled by the extreme amounts of information that faced me. Now, after playing Dom3 for a bit more than a week (against normal AIs, testing various nations), I'm starting to get the hang of things but I still think I have much to learn. I figured I'd hop in to ask a few questions about certain game mechanics.

1. I've slowly figured out how to get into magic: get a level 2 mage (or whatever level is required for the site-searching spell in question) and remote search for sites. (After finding one or two sites for a basic income, if necessary.) If possible, cast Acashic Record to discover everything. Now that I've figured this out, though, I often find I have a massive excess of gems and no way to use them. This is partly because I don't find enough spells that cost gems and are worth casting. There are sometimes the conjuration spells, but little more. So what are some of the typical things that gems are used for? For example, I'm currently playing as EA Tir Na N'Og against ~5 normal AIs, with an imprisoned oracle that has 9 Astral. I already have quite a lot of nature and air gems, even though I haven't searched all that much. However, all my air gems are used for is Wind Guide to help my indy archers (other air spells, like the Evocation-school attacks which I have researched up to level 5, seem to be gem-free). My nature gems might go into summoning Cu Sidhe, though that, on the other hand, seems a bit pricey. Basically, what sort of spells should I spend my gems on? I have so many choices but many of them seem unimpressive.

2. While we're there, how do I tell how many mages I should get to research and how many should do other things like site search or participate in battles? In this same game, I got lucky finding a Library where I can recruit Sages, who I use to get the majority of my research. Right now I'm somewhere around 120-130 RP/turn, with a few Bean Sidhes in the capital doing some extra research. In other games, I'm not so lucky and I'm forced to choose between national mages doing research or getting out into the field.

3. One of my other games was with LA Ermor, which I picked because nothing sounds cooler than undead Romans. It turned out to be a walkover, although it leads me to ask two more questions now. First of all, branching out into other magic paths. Do I simply do that by finding all possible sites then Empowering my mages? It seems like an awfully slow process to me and then there's also the risk of my mage dying later, nullifying the investment. I suppose that's a general fear of mine. I hesitate to forge items, for example (for battle purposes anyway) because I'm afraid that I'll lose the commander if I try to send him/her into the fray and then all the forging was in vain. Casting 5 different protective spells might keep the commander alive, but by the time he/she gets into battle, it often seems to be decided anyway. So, any good tips for commander survival?

4. Finally, by the end of the game, it was getting tedious to manage LA Ermor, so I eventually decided to just build temples and let my dominion slowly spread all over the map. This worked, but eventually my dominion exterminated my own population, putting my income below my upkeep. Despite having full Turmoil/Luck scales I never even got an event of 200/3000/whatever gold, so after that there was little to do anyway. So is there a way to disband enemy units that doesn't involve sending them off to die?

[Edi]

First off, you are better off asking questions at the new official forums at Desura. That said...

1) Remote site searching spells are the height of inefficiency. It is most of the time a massive waste of both gems and mage time, because you need eight mages to search all eight paths. Acashic Record is way too expensive unless you have set site frequency to something ridiculously high.

In order to maximize your efficiency in site searching, read the site searching guide.

The long and short of it is that an across the board level 2 search finds 85% of available sites and a level 1 search finds 50%. So the best searchers are mages who have level 2-3 in two or more magic paths simultaneously. If you have a mage with three paths at level 2, they are excellent.

Gems should also be used to forge items to boost your mages, thugs and super combatants.


2) There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this. The rule of thumb is that you should recruit a mage every turn in every fort where you can and the ones who are not site searching (you need small parties for this) should be researching if not required in combat. A research pool of 130 points per turn is actually not a whole lot after a while in the game.


3) Branching out should be done by taking magics on your pretender that your nation doesn't have and doing proper site searching so you can snag any independent mages from good sites. Nature searches are especially important for this since with luck you can get excellent sites that get you high nature plus elements and astral. There are practically entire guides for this.


4) The AI does not know how to handle LA Ermor (either as an enemy or very well under its own control). As far as scales go, turmoil + luck is a crap combo. For Ermor it's the right one, though many events also have other scale requirements, so you can't bank on those big treasure events. The dominion of LA Ermor will kill your population anyway, even if you had growth 3, so you can't avoid that and need to plan strategies for it. It's not a nation for beginners, really.

[JonBrave]

In *SP* I use *auto*-spell-search for 2 reasons:

1. It's less micro, and I figure it might be more even with how the AI opponents search.

2. If you're a bit OCD like me, you'll end up haunted by the possibility that your level < 4 mage search *might* have missed something, and then end up going remote-casting over it to make sure

The time I would think casting is definitely best is when you've only got one level-2 certain-path mage available --- it seems to me a single(-unique)-path mage searching takes 2 turns per province and 2 turns of upkeep.

[jBrereton]

Thing 1: Yeah, TNN has big problems with endgame magic. Basically you're going to have to try to get some thugs up and win as fast as possible by just taking your opponents' territory. If you're playing with CBM1.94 (which you absolutely should), Bean Sidhes are good for making gear with a discount.

On remote searching: if you don't have the paths to have your mages (especially cap-only mages) able to travel around the map instantly, it's pretty valid. TNN might have it easier than some, with A2 giving you Cloud Trapeze (a type of Teleportation at Enchantment 4) for 3 air gems and Ris having alrightish diversity to search with, but some nations like *shudder* MA Pan get none of that.

Site-searching 'in person' is pretty sluggish. Totally understandable with a rainbow pretender (lots of little paths) as someone like MA Marignon that gets utterly garbage paths. But for other nations like Tien Chi, with lots of x2 paths, I'd rather have a few mages acting as a kind of searching artillery battery from the capital.



Thing 2: Difficult to tell, always. If you're doing relatively well in the charts for research (how well that is will vary by nation), it's often worth sending mages off with your army.




Thing 3, Commander Survival: This is one of those "nothing ventured, nothing gained" type things, although there are some 'thug chassis' that are better than others. One of the best is the Bane Lord, because:

- They have relatively high health
- As undead, they don't get fatigue without casting
- They have Fear
- They have a Cold aura
- At Conjuration 5, D4, and 12 gems, they're not super difficult to get hold of
- They have all the 'normal' slots, meaning they can get an X Brand (area attack 1h weapon), shield (Gleaming Gold fan for Awe, myself), Helmet (like a Horror Helm for extra Fear), Armour (Rainbow for +MR is always good) and Misc for Luck and +MR.

It's not cheap in gems, but it is a very good combination to kill PD and armies with, especially in teams.

Other good candidates are summons like Sleepers, basically any of the mounted mage commanders like Vanir or Ris, and other commanders (especially sacred ones, so they can be made regenerating for the affliction reduction, or reinvigorated to keep fatigue as close to 0 as possible) with good Att/Def, MR and strategic mobility (at least 2 Map Movement).





Thing 4:

Nope, you have to kill your units off to get rid of them. Many an expensive but old and feebleminded cap-only mage has been sent off to the wilderness to die to enemy PD, and the seas are often littered with the diseased bodies of LA Rlyeh's expensive-to-maintain but fairly crap freespawn.

[Slith]

Thank you for the responses, everyone. I didn't know I ought to ask at that Desura forum - is it because it's more active? Regardless, I'll ask one more thing now that we're here. Often, I get this problem that I have a load of units defending a fort. (They have the Defend command active, not Hide or such.) Yet, when an enemy attacks it, I get the report that they defeated my patrolling units (my PD, I assume) but I still have my fortress. Next turn, I can simply break out with the army defending the fort, but for some reason, my units always refuse to stop the enemy before they start the siege. Is there any way to get my armies to defend "normally"?

[chelubey]

Originally Posted by Slith

Thank you for the responses, everyone. I didn't know I ought to ask at that Desura forum - is it because it's more active?

Its incomparably more active.
Shrapnel was distributor of dominion3 for ages.
However since about 2013 dom3 is distributed by desura. So this forum is outdated and people gradually shift on desura (as long as new players which come there.

Originally Posted by Slith

Regardless, I'll ask one more thing now that we're here. Often, I get this problem that I have a load of units defending a fort. (They have the Defend command active, not Hide or such.) Yet, when an enemy attacks it, I get the report that they defeated my patrolling units (my PD, I assume) but I still have my fortress. Next turn, I can simply break out with the army defending the fort, but for some reason, my units always refuse to stop the enemy before they start the siege. Is there any way to get my armies to defend "normally"?

"Patrol" command.
Patrolling armies join PD on defence.