Impartial MASTER LIST of issues/problems [Archive]

st.patrik

October 29th, 2003, 09:04 PM

Ok, lots more good stuff. Here's the list so far:

� Strategic AI
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� Castle battle results
� More than one god for each nation
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Bug fixes
� Moddability
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies - I think this is what Kristoffer was referring to with 'jumpstart game'
or maybe he was referring to this:
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales

Saber, I'm not sure if I understood all of what you were saying.

Let me know if I missed something important.

As far as dividing this into two lists, I was thinking primarily in reference to the upcoming poll. So, for example, you could vote for 5 minor tweaks (that wouldn't take that many man-hours to implement) and 1 or 2 major additions/changes (things that would take many man hours). I don't think that this biases it at all really.

Any more additions to the list? The guideline you should probably keep in mind (so that we don't get dozens of minute tweaks) is that if it would come in your top 5 things you'd want changed, then post here and I'll add it, otherwise save it for another day.

As soon as there's a significant break from new things being posted I'll make a poll.

[ October 29, 2003, 19:12: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

Pocus

October 29th, 2003, 09:11 PM

strengthening the effect of dominions candles (eg : rising the cost of overland army destruction spells in a province with an enemy dominion)

st.patrik

October 29th, 2003, 09:14 PM

Originally posted by Pocus:
strengthening the effect of dominions candles (eg : rising the cost of overland army destruction spells in a province with an enemy dominion) I'm not sure if I understand what you mean... Is there a thread talking about this? or can you explain a little more?

[ October 29, 2003, 19:14: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

Windreaper

October 29th, 2003, 10:35 PM

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but I'd love to be able to tell AI _not_ to use certain spells. Something like having little checkboxes next to the list of available spells. For example, I don't want my machakan sorceresses to cast stuff like fire flies/raise skeletons when they got other spells available and within range.

Casting some spells is also rather dangerous for the caster (and everyone else around him/her). I'd love to tell them stop using them too. But on the other hand, casting AI represents some sort of "random" factor in the combat system even if they don't make sense to me. Oh well, mages have always been the weird bunch of people to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

st.patrik

October 29th, 2003, 10:49 PM

Originally posted by Windreaper:
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but I'd love to be able to tell AI _not_ to use certain spells. Something like having little checkboxes next to the list of available spells. For example, I don't want my machakan sorceresses to cast stuff like fire flies/raise skeletons when they got other spells available and within range.

Casting some spells is also rather dangerous for the caster (and everyone else around him/her). I'd love to tell them stop using them too. But on the other hand, casting AI represents some sort of "random" factor in the combat system even if they don't make sense to me. Oh well, mages have always been the weird bunch of people to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif You mean a kind of 'negative scripting' for mages: "I don't care what spell you cast, just don't cast these ones"? Is this what you mean?

Zerger

October 29th, 2003, 10:59 PM

Holy! long list heh. As I see the list begins with the most important things. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

st.patrik

October 29th, 2003, 11:06 PM

Originally posted by Zerger:
Holy! long list heh. As I see the list begins with the most important things. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Actually it's intended to be impartial, and therefore the order is merely the order things were added in - no implication of importance should be taken from the order whatsoever.

Anyway, when I make the poll you will all get the chance to speak out about what you think is most important. Until then, lets avoid talking about which are more/less important.

st.patrik

October 29th, 2003, 11:20 PM

Here's the updated list, broken up into 4 categories:
1. Tweaks/Easy things to add
2. Additions of relatively minor features
3. Additions of relatively major features
4. Balance considerations.

1. Tweaks/Easy things to add
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Negative scripting for mages (i.e. telling them what you *don't* want them to cast)

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death

Additions? Comments?

licker

October 29th, 2003, 11:26 PM

Strategic AI should probably go in #3.

I don't really understand the difference between #s 1 and 2 and why you broke out what you did into them, but since they are all 'minor' issues I don't think it matters that much.

Bugs should be their own catagory or not even in these lists, bugs should be fixed as a top priority in all cases (yes BUGS not FEATURES http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif )

Windreaper

October 29th, 2003, 11:41 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
You mean a kind of 'negative scripting' for mages: "I don't care what spell you cast, just don't cast these ones"? Is this what you mean? Sort of. But it'd work both ways.
Let me make a poor example here. Checked spells are the ones that the mage is allowed to cast. Unchecked ones would be the ones that won't be casted. All spells would start checked.
.
.
.
[_]Flying Shard
[_]Fire Flies
[x]Magma Bolts
.
.
.
[select all][clear all] <-- important buttons

Saber Cherry

October 29th, 2003, 11:46 PM

Oh, I mentioned this in another thread. For Category 1):

Line up numeric unit stats. So instead of like this:

Strength 10
Attack Skill 10
Defense Skill 10
Precision 11

It looks more like this:

Strength ......... 10
Attack Skill .... 10
Defense Skill . 10
Precision ....... 11

-Cherry

P.S. I hate cross-posting, but:

I don't like scrolling down a menu to find the exit button. Every exitable menu should have a big "X in a Square" in the upper-right corner, where you click to exit... just like in MS-ish standardized programs. Or at a minimum, never have to scroll to the bottom to exit (like in the spell lists).

[ October 29, 2003, 21:50: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Gandalf Parker

October 29th, 2003, 11:46 PM

Originally posted by licker:
Strategic AI should probably go in #3.
I don't really understand the difference between #s 1 and 2 and why you broke out what you did into them, but since they are all 'minor' issues I don't think it matters that much.I thought it was a good breakdown (without personal knowledge of the game code) of what seems easy fix and what seems like it would mean coding for abit.

PhilD

October 30th, 2003, 12:32 AM

I'll add a few, because apparently some of you experts don't remember what it is to discover this game and its hundreds of unit types...

Unit names together with icons (in recruitment screen, and in army screen; maybe just where it says "12 units" it should say "10 Heavy Infantries, 2 Light Infantries")

More detailed lists of losses in battle reports, again with the list of unit names (at least for the units you lost)

Bring back the battle simulator, and make it more tweakable. OK, maybe only when there's a way to speed up battle replays, but still.

Short list of troops under a given commander when you right-click on him.

I'm pretty sure there are other UI issues, but I'm forgetting them. Someone mentioned they'd like the Exit button to always be available in scrollable lists; that, and right-clicking out of the list (when something is supposed to be selected) should close the list.

Sammual

October 30th, 2003, 12:54 AM

What about beefing up the Bless effects by starting them off at level 3 and 6 not 4 and 8?

Sammual

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 02:45 AM

Originally posted by Windreaper:
Let me make a poor example here. Checked spells are the ones that the mage is allowed to cast. Unchecked ones would be the ones that won't be casted. All spells would start checked.
.
.
.
[_]Flying Shard
[_]Fire Flies
[x]Magma Bolts
.
.
.
[select all][clear all] <-- important buttons I think I get the picture. Maybe this should be summarized as "enabling/disabling spells" - though that's not incredibly informative. Can you think of a better way to put it?

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 02:46 AM

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Oh, I mentioned this in another thread. For Category 1):

Line up numeric unit stats. So instead of like this:

Strength 10
Attack Skill 10
Defense Skill 10
Precision 11

It looks more like this:

Strength ......... 10
Attack Skill .... 10
Defense Skill . 10
Precision ....... 11

-CherryI have this on the list, as "alignment of stats in unit info screens." Your post is a better explanation though. Is there a way to better summarize what you're getting at?

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
I don't like scrolling down a menu to find the exit button. Every exitable menu should have a big "X in a Square" in the upper-right corner, where you click to exit... just like in MS-ish standardized programs. Or at a minimum, never have to scroll to the bottom to exit (like in the spell lists). I'll add this one

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 02:46 AM

Originally posted by PhilD:
I'll add a few, because apparently some of you experts don't remember what it is to discover this game and its hundreds of unit types...

Unit names together with icons (in recruitment screen, and in army screen; maybe just where it says "12 units" it should say "10 Heavy Infantries, 2 Light Infantries")

More detailed lists of losses in battle reports, again with the list of unit names (at least for the units you lost)

Bring back the battle simulator, and make it more tweakable. OK, maybe only when there's a way to speed up battle replays, but still.

Short list of troops under a given commander when you right-click on him.

I'm pretty sure there are other UI issues, but I'm forgetting them. Someone mentioned they'd like the Exit button to always be available in scrollable lists; that, and right-clicking out of the list (when something is supposed to be selected) should close the list. Adding:
� Unit names with icons/detailed breakdown of mixed squads
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Battle Sim
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command

Good input. The list is growing...

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 02:46 AM

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen & Titles to for each

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Closing dialogues without having to scroll down or press 'esc'
� Unit names with icons/detailed breakdown of mixed squads
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells (see Windreaper's post in this thread for details)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects (perhaps starting at an earlier level)

Any more additions? Anything in the list that needs to be explained/re-articulated?

Licker: for now the AI stays in #4, primarily because it doesn't fit in any of the other categories - it is neither a trivial change (aka tweak), nor an addition, either small or large - isn't it is continued development of something already in the game. The difference between #1 and #2 is that things in #1 are very minor changes of things already existing, by and large; whereas things in #2 are new features, albeit new feature that aren't very large/wouldn't require too much coding to implement (on my best guess)

*edit: added some stuff, moved some stuff.

[ October 30, 2003, 01:31: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

Saber Cherry

October 30th, 2003, 03:00 AM

In the recruitment screen: an obvious border (e.g., a line) between regular units and commanders. This should be labeled "Commanders" below the line, and something like "Normal Units" (that sounds dumb, but what are they called?) above the line.

Ideally, a commander queue in the production screen would be nice, even though you'd still be limited to 1 commander/province/turn.

-Cherry

October 30th, 2003, 03:11 AM

Ability to shift click (or something similar) to add or subtract more than one unit to the production queue, say 5 units of the chosen type per shift-click.

[ October 30, 2003, 01:14: Message edited by: HJ ]

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 03:24 AM

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
In the recruitment screen: an obvious border (e.g., a line) between regular units and commanders. This should be labeled "Commanders" below the line, and something like "Normal Units" (that sounds dumb, but what are they called?) above the line.

Ideally, a commander queue in the production screen would be nice, even though you'd still be limited to 1 commander/province/turn.

-Cherry Edited in - see below.

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 03:29 AM

Originally posted by HJ:
Ability to shift click (or something similar) to add or subtract more than one unit to the production queue, say 5 units of the chosen type per shift-click. edited into the post below.

Keep them coming http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 03:44 AM

Re-posted just to keep it at the top http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen & titles for each

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Closing dialogues without having to scroll down or press 'esc'
� Unit names with icons/detailed breakdown of mixed squads
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells (see Windreaper's post in this thread for details)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects (perhaps starting at an earlier level)

Comments/Additions?

[ October 30, 2003, 01:46: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

October 30th, 2003, 08:22 AM

This is something that hasn't been mentioned before, but it crossed my mind while playing, so if you feel it's a worthy addition, add it to the list. Otherwise, we can discuss it in some other thread.
I noticed that some spells and abilities show the exact value of the effect: for example fire shield clearly stated that it inflicts 7ap damage, or fear effect shows the exact modifier. Would it be possible to add the same amount of detail to other effects from spells and skills? For example, instead of saying that chill makes units more tired, to have an exact number available during the battle when you right-click the ability, since the formula has to be applied anyway and has to take into account the climate as well; it just remains invisible, but it's running in the background. Or instead of saying that survival decreases chance of starvation to actually say by what amount. So, I guess this can be summed up as more detailed effect descriptions.

Pocus

October 30th, 2003, 09:01 AM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Pocus:
strengthening the effect of dominions candles (eg : rising the cost of overland army destruction spells in a province with an enemy dominion) I'm not sure if I understand what you mean... Is there a thread talking about this? or can you explain a little more? <hr /></blockquote>there was a quite raging thread about how the army destruction spells (overland, not in tac battle) were felt by the players. Most people speaking in the thread were vets of doms I, and their opinion varied from 'I find then a bit too potent' to 'they must be seriously toned down'.

So one of the solution would be to reduce their effectivness if you cast them in an enemy dominions, or increase their cost (you have to cast a major ritual into another god land, so you play more magical resources).

Aristoteles

October 30th, 2003, 03:00 PM

patrik, you should fire up that new poll. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 03:14 PM

Originally posted by Pocus:
there was a quite raging thread about how the army destruction spells (overland, not in tac battle) were felt by the players. Most people speaking in the thread were vets of doms I, and their opinion varied from 'I find then a bit too potent' to 'they must be seriously toned down'.

So one of the solution would be to reduce their effectivness if you cast them in an enemy dominions, or increase their cost (you have to cast a major ritual into another god land, so you play more magical resources). Ok. So this would be something like "reducing the effectiveness of artillery-like spells in hostile dominion"? How is that?

I'll add this one, and HJ's one

Aristoteles: Maybe soon; it seems that people are still adding things, and I want to make sure everyone's had a chance to add their suggestions. Having said that, it's been a day, so maybe later today I'll fire it up.

Jasper

October 30th, 2003, 03:18 PM

Jasper

October 30th, 2003, 03:23 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
Ok. So this would be something like "reducing the effectiveness of artillery-like spells in hostile dominion"? How is that?I'm not sure that would really stop the nastiest effects of it, which basically limit the offensive use of anything not resistant -- strongly favoring Super Combatants.

What about expensive wards, that stay with the caster when he moves? Or perhaps items with a simimlar effect? My real problem with these spells is the complete lack of a counter.

PDF

October 30th, 2003, 03:34 PM

While we're at asking changes, one thing that bothers me in Dom is that you have to pay "cash" all the builds in a queue, even if the units are only build X turns later.
In the end this means you should build only one turn worth of units and change the queue each turn, unless you like spending money earlier.

A welcome change would be that costs be calculated on a per-turn basis, so on one turn you only pay what you get (and this is how nearly all others strat games work BTW http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )
.
This is maybe not that simple, cause in this case the program will have to keep track of funds to find if you can afford a build you've queued earlier, then "kills" queued builds if you can't, but it'll be cool nonetheless http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 03:54 PM

Originally posted by Jasper:
My real problem with these spells is the complete lack of a counter. I think that is fairly summarized by "reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells" - whether it be by introducing counters or by making them weaker, you are still making them less potent.

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 03:55 PM

Updated list. People who posted suggestions, check to make sure I got it, and got it right.

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen & titles for each
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Closing dialogues without having to scroll down or press 'esc'
� Unit names with icons/detailed breakdown of mixed squads
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells (see Windreaper's post in this thread for details)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects (starting at an earlier level/increasing exponentially rather than by addition/magic cheaper in general, etc.)
� reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion)

Any more? As soon as it slows down I'll make a poll.

[ October 30, 2003, 14:03: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

Pocus

October 30th, 2003, 04:16 PM

Originally posted by Jasper:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Pocus:
there was a quite raging thread about how the army destruction spells (overland, not in tac battle) were felt by the players. Most people speaking in the thread were vets of doms I, and their opinion varied from 'I find then a bit too potent' to 'they must be seriously toned down'.I didn't get quite that impression out of the thread, more that people just didn't like them.

I myself am not so sure they're unbalanced per se (provided you're prepared for them), but I don't like the way they dominate the game, forcing one towards a guerilla strategy, and away from large battles. <hr /></blockquote>basically the opinion was that people wanted something to be changed, either reducing their effectivness, or having real counter, and not poor work arounds, or something like that. I gave my solution, but others are ok too.

Saber Cherry

October 30th, 2003, 08:02 PM

From the list,

"Closing dialogues without having to scroll down or press 'esc'"

...might be a little more clear if rephrased to:

"Standardized mouse interface for closing windows, without scrolling: an "X" in the upper corner."

Also, I'd like to see:

"Standardized keyboard exit command: 'Esc' should exit battles."

-Cherry

[ October 30, 2003, 18:08: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Leif_-

October 30th, 2003, 08:36 PM

For my part, there's a series of changes to the UI I'd like to see:

1. Close the battle-view with "Esc" in addition to "q"

2. An option to turn off the "zoom into the province" animation before a battle.

3. Exit buttons placed below scroll-lists, rather than as the Last element on the scroll-list, so we don't have to scroll to the end of the list to press it.

4. Being able to change the sub-screen / report you've opened without going back to the main map view, and then returning to the main view by pressing a single "Esc". I.e. I want to be able to press "r" to open the recruit screen, then "t" to go to directly to the army setup-screen, then "F1" to get to the province overview report and then a single press on "Esc" to return to the main map. (As it is today I have to first press "r", then "esc", then "t", then "F1" and finally a Last "Esc")

5. Be able to scroll through the options in a list with the arrow-keys - both for ordinary lists (such as the list of commands you get for a commander when your press "space") and scroll-lists. Also to be able to use PgUp/PgDown to scroll in scroll-lists.

6. All options in lists should be selectable through the keyboard. This goes for the command-list, the list of Messages to read, the "which nation to play / host game / cancel" list between turns and so on. Preferably both by hot-keys (which ought to be shown in the list) and by selecting with the arrow-keys and space/return.

7. A key to select the next province I control (or a pair of next-province / Last-province keys to cycle through them with)

8. The borders between provinces you control and provinces you don't control, ought to be another colour than the other borders.

9. A key to select the next commander in the currently selecty province. If the commander is part of an army-group, select the whole army-group.

10. A key to select the next province bordering to the start province (the province you had selected when you first started pressing this hot-key.) So, if you have a province Centre and you press this key, you'd select province North. Press it again and you'll select East, then South and finally province West.

11. The # hot-key which lets you jump to a province by its province number would be a lot more useful if in addition to the province name, you also had a filter for showing the province numbers on the map.

12. If you press F1 to open the nation overview and selects a commander by clicking on him, you'll jump to the province this commander is in - but the commander is not selected. He ought to be.

13. The score overview is ... not very pretty, and it should at the least have an x-axis at the bottom with the number of turns.

14. One should be able to change the research using just the arrow-keys. (Choose between the schools with Up-arrow and down-arrow, and increase and decrease the research in the selected school with right-arrow and left-arrow)

15. "Translucent brightness display" on the main map to show the strength of such things as dominions, province income, province production, province defence, unrest and tax-levels. I.e. some sort of coloured alpha-transparency which will show the strength of the currently selected variable by being more or less transparent over each province on the map (an improved Version of the grey-scale map of dominion from Dominions 1.)

A couple of non-gui issues.

1. The battle report ought to also include the number of "province defense soldiers" that were killed. (Just a very minor annoyance this, but it always did bug me in Dominions 1 too.)

2. When a commander is killed, there ought to be a text-message about this in the battle-display (i.e. same as there is when a commander casts a spell.)

[ October 30, 2003, 18:42: Message edited by: Leif_- ]

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 08:43 PM

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
From the list,

"Closing dialogues without having to scroll down or press 'esc'"

...might be a little more clear if rephrased to:

"Standardized mouse interface for closing windows, without scrolling: an "X" in the upper corner." Not sure if I agree - especially considering not all people playing this game are playing it on Windows.

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Also, I'd like to see:

"Standardized keyboard exit command: 'Esc' should exit battles."

-Cherry I'll add this to the list.

October 30th, 2003, 08:46 PM

Originally posted by Leif_-:

2. An option to turn off the "zoom into the province" animation before a battle.
You can click "ok" as soon as it starts to go to the battle view immediately.

Leif_-

October 30th, 2003, 08:48 PM

Originally posted by HJ:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Leif_-:

2. An option to turn off the "zoom into the province" animation before a battle.
You can click "ok" as soon as it starts to go to the battle view immediately. <hr /></blockquote>Ah, sorry - I should have been more clear. I want an option to turn it off entirely - just like the "no fade" option in Dominions 1.

Saber Cherry

October 30th, 2003, 09:01 PM

Unarmored mages and priests should never rush out to engage in melee, even when there are no appropriate spells, unless specifically scripted to attack. Currently, they rush to the front lines.

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 09:05 PM

Originally posted by Leif_-:
9. A key to select the next commander in the currently selecty province. If the commander is part of an army-group, select the whole army-group.

10. A key to select the next province bordering to the start province (the province you had selected when you first started pressing this hot-key.) So, if you have a province Centre and you press this key, you'd select province North. Press it again and you'll select East, then South and finally province West.

A couple of non-gui issues.

1. The battle report ought to also include the number of "province defense soldiers" that were killed. (Just a very minor annoyance this, but it always did bug me in Dominions 1 too.)
various things snipped

#9 - I believe you can do this currently, if I'm understanding what you mean

#10 - I can't quite fathom this, but I'll add it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

#1 non-UI - You should try to get some discussion going on this one - maybe start another topic? I suspect this may not be a popular feature.

Having said all that, this is an impartial list, and so I will add all this stuff. Thanks for posting.

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 09:07 PM

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Unarmored mages and priests should never rush out to engage in melee, even when there are no appropriate spells, unless specifically scripted to attack. Currently, they rush to the front lines. This has got to be a bug, don't you think? If it is it'll come under the general heading of "bug fixes" in #4 and you should post it in the "list game bugs here" thread. If it's not a bug I can add it.

Leif_-

October 30th, 2003, 09:19 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:

#9 - I believe you can do this currently, if I'm understanding what you mean
Well, if so I haven't figured out how. The only keys that seems to have anything to do with selecting commanders is "n" for the next commander without orders, "a" for select/deselect all commanders, "return" to deselect all commanders (seems a bit useless since one or two presses of "a" will do the same) and + and - which "scrolls commanders" but doesn't seem to do anything for me.

#10 - I can't quite fathom this, but I'll add it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Well, suppose you have a map with only 9 provinces, #1 through 9, arranged in a square pattern as shown below, where the middle province 5 borders all the other provinces.

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

Select province number 5. Press the magic key (say ":") once, and you'll select one of the provinces bordering 5 - let's say we start with the northernmost province, so one press of ":" will select province 2. As long as we don't press anything else but ":" the "central province" for the selection won't change, and each press of ":" will select the another border-province of 5, with the clock.

So, press ":" once and we'll select province 2. Press ":" again and we'll select province 3, and another press brings us to province 6. Now, we press "t" here to look at the forces we've got in province 6, so the "central province" now changes from province 5 to province 6. When we now press ":" again, we'll go to province 3 (due north of province 6), and another press of ":" will take us to province 9 (the next province that borders province 6) and so on.

It's basically a "I've now got this province selected, and I want to select _that_ province, but I don't want to move my hand over to the mouse to do so."

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 09:27 PM

Leif - I must not have understood what you were getting at with #9 - could you explain it more fully.

I summarized a couple of your points (including #10) as: "Way to select provinces using keyboard (e.g. entering province #, key to cycle through provinces, etc.)" - is that ok?

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 09:29 PM

List updated again. If you made suggestions check to make sure I got everything right.

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen & titles for each
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
� Able to quit battles using ESC
� When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
� X axis labeled in score overview graph
� Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
� Unit names with icons/detailed breakdown of mixed squads
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
� Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
� Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
� Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
� Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
� Way to select provinces using keyboard (e.g. entering province #, key to cycle through provinces, etc.)
� Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible or not]
� Keyboard interface for research screen
� Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells (see Windreaper's post in this thread for details)
� Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects (starting at an earlier level/increasing exponentially rather than by addition/magic cheaper in general, etc.)
� reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion)

Any more? (I'm afraid http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif )

[ October 30, 2003, 19:31: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

licker

October 30th, 2003, 09:31 PM

"It's basically a "I've now got this province selected, and I want to select _that_ province, but I don't want to move my hand over to the mouse to do so.""

AHH HA!

Have we found a 1 handed gamer? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Anyway since the provinces arn't layed out in a grid I don't see how this will work. Sure you can 'make' it work, but doesn't seem like that big of an advantage...

Unless you really are a one handed gamer... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Saber Cherry

October 30th, 2003, 09:37 PM

This is terrible, we're giving IW so much necessary work that they'll never be able to add anything cool, like new heroic abilites http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Leif_-

October 30th, 2003, 09:43 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
Leif - I must not have understood what you were getting at with #9 - could you explain it more fully.Basically, I want to be able select and cycle through all the commanders (or army-Groups) in the currently province. So, say using , and . as the keys. When you first select a province none of the commanders are selected. I want it so that when you now press "," the first commander in the province (top-left in the commanders box) is selected, and additional presses of "," and "." scrolls through the commanders in the box, selecting each in turn.

I summarized a couple of your points (including #10) as: "Way to select provinces using keyboard (e.g. entering province #, key to cycle through provinces, etc.)" - is that ok? Sure.

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 09:49 PM

Originally posted by Leif_-:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by st.patrik:
Leif - I must not have understood what you were getting at with #9 - could you explain it more fully.Basically, I want to be able select and cycle through all the commanders (or army-Groups) in the currently province. So, say using , and . as the keys. When you first select a province none of the commanders are selected. I want it so that when you now press "," the first commander in the province (top-left in the commanders box) is selected, and additional presses of "," and "." scrolls through the commanders in the box, selecting each in turn.<hr /></blockquote>So this differs from pressing 'n' in that the next commander is selected even if he already has orders?

Leif_-

October 30th, 2003, 09:50 PM

Originally posted by licker:

Have we found a 1 handed gamer? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
Almost, but not quite. *g* You've found a gamer that writes touch and has taken the effort to get a proper Dovark keyboard and learnt to type on it, and who feel that he's slowed down from what he's doing every time he has to move a hand away from the keyboard over to the mouse (well, Waco tablet as it happens to be.)

Anyway since the provinces arn't layed out in a grid I don't see how this will work. Sure you can 'make' it work, but doesn't seem like that big of an advantage...

Unless you really are a one handed gamer... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif The grid-layout was just for demonstration. Basically the rules would be "first press of : sets the currently selected province as the pivotal province, and selects the province due north of the pivotal province. Additional presses of : selects the next (in clockwise direction) province that borders on the pivotal province."

It might be tricky to calculate which province is due north and which is the next clockwise neighbour, but it's not insurmountable.

Leif_-

October 30th, 2003, 09:52 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
So this differs from pressing 'n' in that the next commander is selected even if he already has orders? Yes, and that only commanders in the current province will be selected.

licker

October 30th, 2003, 09:53 PM

Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone (or hotkey... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

Use "," and "." to cycle though commanders when a commander is selcted (limited to one province or not?) and to cycle through provinces when a province is selected. Though I'd rather be able to cycle through recruitment screens for all my provinces, I find that F1 gives enough info on the provinces for the most part, at least the info that I can't see right away on the main map.

-Storm-

October 30th, 2003, 09:53 PM

Patrik, I have a feeling! The poll will be HUGE! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 09:56 PM

Originally posted by Leif_-:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by st.patrik:
So this differs from pressing 'n' in that the next commander is selected even if he already has orders? Yes, and that only commanders in the current province will be selected. <hr /></blockquote>I think pressing 'n' stays within the current province...Or are you saying you want it to jump to the next commander in a different province?

I'll add this next time I update the list.

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 09:57 PM

Originally posted by -Storm-:
Patrik, I have a feeling! The poll will be HUGE! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif No kidding! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Leif_-

October 30th, 2003, 10:01 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
I think pressing 'n' stays within the current province...Or are you saying you want it to jump to the next commander in a different province?

I'll add this next time I update the list. No, "n" will jump to the next commander without orders anywhere on the map.

st.patrik

October 30th, 2003, 10:17 PM

Here's the latest list :

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen & titles for each
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
� Able to quit battles using ESC
� When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
� X axis labeled in score overview graph
� Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button [i]below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
� Unit names in addition to icons in recruitment/deployment screens
� Detailed breakdown of mixed squads in deployment screen
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
� Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
� Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)
� Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
� Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible or not]
� Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
specifically including:
� Keyboard command to select next commander within province, even if he already has orders.
� Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
� Way to select provinces using keyboard (e.g. entering province #, key to cycle through provinces, etc.)
� Keyboard interface for research screen

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells (see Windreaper's post in this thread for details)
� Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects (starting at an earlier level/increasing exponentially rather than by addition/magic cheaper in general, etc.)
� reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion)

Just in case you are interested, that's 14 tweaks, 24 minor feature additions, 8 major feature additions, and 6 balance considerations.

-

Anyone reading this who wants to vote in the upcoming poll should make sure s/he understands what all these suggestions mean.

If not, feel free to post questions so that I, or the poster (or someone else) can explain it/point you to the thread specifically talking about it. Even if you know what is most important to you, you'll want to understand what each suggestion is about.

As soon as the suggestions trail off I'll post a very large and complicated poll about all these options http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif , so that everyone will have a chance to express their opinion.

[ October 30, 2003, 20:31: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

PhilD

October 31st, 2003, 12:03 AM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
From the list,

"Closing dialogues without having to scroll down or press 'esc'"

...might be a little more clear if rephrased to:

"Standardized mouse interface for closing windows, without scrolling: an "X" in the upper corner." Not sure if I agree - especially considering not all people playing this game are playing it on Windows.
<hr /></blockquote>I don't think this has much to do with Windows; maybe with preferred (or default) window behaviour being different across platforms, but having an always-available widget to close a popup window seems to me to be a reasonable UI matter.

The game's UI doesn't appear to have any differences across the two Versions that I tried (Windows and Linux x86); conforming to one set of habits will make life slightly harder for fanatics of another set of habits, but this seems minor...

Chris Byler

October 31st, 2003, 12:11 AM

Originally posted by PhilD:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by st.patrik:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
From the list,

"Closing dialogues without having to scroll down or press 'esc'"

...might be a little more clear if rephrased to:

"Standardized mouse interface for closing windows, without scrolling: an "X" in the upper corner." Not sure if I agree - especially considering not all people playing this game are playing it on Windows.
<hr /></blockquote>I don't think this has much to do with Windows; maybe with preferred (or default) window behaviour being different across platforms, but having an always-available widget to close a popup window seems to me to be a reasonable UI matter.

The game's UI doesn't appear to have any differences across the two Versions that I tried (Windows and Linux x86); conforming to one set of habits will make life slightly harder for fanatics of another set of habits, but this seems minor... <hr /></blockquote>Although I use Windows, I would be equally happy with a Mac-style close box in the upper left corner. (I don't know where X keeps its standard close-this-window widget - although I assume it does have one).

Actually, by now I'm used to Esc. But it was annoying at first - I was used to right-click! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

geo981010

October 31st, 2003, 12:46 AM

Minor Typo/bug:
The Diseased affliction description says your troop will "loose" hit points each turn, where it should be "lose"

October 31st, 2003, 01:42 AM

Spellcasters with nothing to do should stay put and not move around aimlessly to meet an unitmaly death (check the list game bugs thread for explanation...).

We're listing typos now? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
- Demon description should say "spells that target undead" instead of "spells that targets undead".
- When scouting provinces, military report says that "the army is composed mainly of hastatus", while for all other units the plural is used. So, princeps (I think this is wrong in the unit description as well, it's called principe or something) - principes, hastatus - hastati, triarius - triarii.

Psitticine

October 31st, 2003, 05:46 AM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
Way to select provinces using keyboard (e.g. entering province #, key to cycle through provinces, etc.)
You can do this now. Type "#" and then the province's number. The map will zoom to the province as well as selecting it.

Saber Cherry

October 31st, 2003, 05:59 AM

While you're here, can we get a sticky on this thread?

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 06:58 AM

Originally posted by HJ:
We're listing typos now? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
No we're not. Typos and bugs should go somewhere else I think. This thread is more about what we want the developers to add/change in terms of features.

All: post bugs in the "list game bugs here" thread, which is stickied. That should probably go for typos too.

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 07:03 AM

Originally posted by Psitticine:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by st.patrik:
Way to select provinces using keyboard (e.g. entering province #, key to cycle through provinces, etc.)
You can do this now. Type "#" and then the province's number. The map will zoom to the province as well as selecting it. <hr /></blockquote>Oh good - well I'll remove this from the list then.

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 07:11 AM

List bumped.

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen & titles for each
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
� Able to quit battles using ESC
� When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
� X axis labeled in score overview graph
� Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
� Unit names in addition to icons in recruitment/deployment screens
� Detailed breakdown of mixed squads in deployment screen
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
� Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
� Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)
� Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
� Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible or not]
� Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
specifically including:
� Keyboard command to select next commander within province, even if he already has orders.
� Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
� Keyboard interface for research screen

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells (see Windreaper's post in this thread for details)
� Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects (starting at an earlier level/increasing exponentially rather than by addition/magic cheaper in general, etc.)
� reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion)

-

There haven't been a lot of new things recently... If it's quiet between now and tomorrow (friday) I'll go ahead and get that poll rolling. Once again, read over the list and see if everything makes sense to you; ask if it doesn't.

I might be good to sticky this topic, as Saber Cherry suggested. Even after the poll it would be helpful to have a central place to post requests - besides, this topic was made at Kristoffer's request (he probably wanted us all to see how much we're asking for http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif )

-

PhilD & Chris Byler: Is the current explanation adequate: "Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)"?

[ October 31, 2003, 05:15: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

geo981010

October 31st, 2003, 08:00 AM

Sorry about adding typos - the topic name tricked me. Will move them to other thread St.P

But these are real ones http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1) See Provinces Independent Race Type in Nation Overview (ie Jade Amazon, Feudal, etc)

2) Link Nation Overview to Province Build Queue

3) Prevent Redundant Site Searched (Don't allow search if better mage already searched)

4) When winning a game, you get the "You Win!" message and the game exits. Be nice to go back to the main menu, and possibly prompt for deleting that game (it stays active).

5) Show undead/magic leadership in leader screen (like movement 2/13).

[ October 31, 2003, 06:08: Message edited by: geo981010 ]

Leif_-

October 31st, 2003, 09:38 AM

Originally posted by Psitticine:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by st.patrik:
Way to select provinces using keyboard (e.g. entering province #, key to cycle through provinces, etc.)
You can do this now. Type "#" and then the province's number. The map will zoom to the province as well as selecting it. <hr /></blockquote>Yes, but as you can't see the province numbers on the map, it's pretty useless.

Besides, a hot-key to cycle through your (controlled) provinces will in many cases be a lot more convenient than "#" + "province number" + "return" - even if one gets the province numbers shown on the map.

Alneyan

October 31st, 2003, 09:55 AM

Originally posted by Leif_-:
Yes, but as you can't see the province numbers on the map, it's pretty useless.

Besides, a hot-key to cycle through your (controlled) provinces will in many cases be a lot more convenient than "#" + "province number" + "return" - even if one gets the province numbers shown on the map. The numbers are shown either in the province option, or in the top left window in the main screen, but I do agree a function allowing to cycle through your provinces would be much easier to use than numbers.

4) When winning a game, you get the "You Win!" message and the game exits. Be nice to go back to the main menu, and possibly prompt for deleting that game (it stays active). And the same thing when you lost a game perhaps? Although hopefully it will happen less often than the "You Win" situation. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Leif_-

October 31st, 2003, 10:15 AM

Originally posted by Alneyan:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Leif_-:
Yes, but as you can't see the province numbers on the map, it's pretty useless.
The numbers are shown either in the province option, or in the top left window in the main screen,
<hr /></blockquote>Err, yes - but to see either of those you first have to select the province, which means that to use the # hot-key (lukewarm-key?) you have to memorize the province-numbers for all the provinces you're interested in. That makes it rather useless as a hot-key in my book.

Well, actually you can see the province numbers of your own provinces in the nation overview too. It's still annoying to have to open that just to jump to another province, and as long as you can't scroll through the nation overview with the keyboard, it's not even a semi-workable solution.

[ October 31, 2003, 08:19: Message edited by: Leif_- ]

Alneyan

October 31st, 2003, 10:23 AM

Originally posted by Leif_-:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Alneyan:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Leif_-:
Yes, but as you can't see the province numbers on the map, it's pretty useless.
The numbers are shown either in the province option, or in the top left window in the main screen,
<hr /></blockquote>Err, yes - but to see either of those you first have to select the province, which means that to use the # hot-key (lukewarm-key?) you have to memorize the province-numbers for all the provinces you're interested in. That makes it rather useless as a hot-key in my book.

Well, actually you can see the province numbers of your own provinces in the nation overview too. It's still annoying to have to open that just to jump to another province, and as long as you can't scroll through the nation overview with the keyboard, it's not even a semi-workable solution. <hr /></blockquote>Yes I agree with you, the numbers are hard to memorize, except if you have really a good memory. And even then, the hotkey are not that convenient.

Hmm, I gather I was a bit unclear in my Last post. *Grumbles* I was not going against your suggestion. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Wendigo

October 31st, 2003, 01:43 PM

I'd like to see the grid in the little map to position & script comanders.

Sometimes when scripting support mages to cast spells to boost troops/commanders distance is important (as you want to avoid damage auras, but also be in range to cast the spell).

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 04:28 PM

Originally posted by geo981010:
Sorry about adding typos - the topic name tricked me. Will move them to other thread St.P

But these are real ones http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1) See Provinces Independent Race Type in Nation Overview (ie Jade Amazon, Feudal, etc)

2) Link Nation Overview to Province Build Queue

3) Prevent Redundant Site Searched (Don't allow search if better mage already searched)

4) When winning a game, you get the "You Win!" message and the game exits. Be nice to go back to the main menu, and possibly prompt for deleting that game (it stays active).

5) Show undead/magic leadership in leader screen (like movement 2/13). Let me make sure I understand these:

1. You're talking about either a. spies' reports before you conquer a province, or b. what kind of independant troops you can recruit in that province when you own it. Which one?

2. You mean like a button which takes you to the recruitment screen? Or more than this?

3-5. no questions. I'll add these when I update the list.

Thanks for the input - keep it coming http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 04:29 PM

Originally posted by Wendigo:
I'd like to see the grid in the little map to position & script comanders.I'll add this to the list.

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 04:44 PM

The following posted by Pocus in the 'bug' topic:

Originally posted by Pocus:
while we are at battle orders, I have a request:

Can we have units on bodyguard order fire their missiles weapons? We had already a discussion on the newsgroup about that, but got no feeback from IW, so perhaps there is a design decision about this.

My opinion is that allowing units on bodyguard to fire missiles would fix 2 problems at once:

1- it dont appears logical that - say velites - on bodyguards never use their pilum.

2 - more importantly, it would fix the problem of seeing our archers running to the front to get in range of the enemy, just to be caught in melee the next round because of advancing opponents. In essence, this would allow the much requested order of :

'fire, or stand still until you have somebody in range, you stupid archers!'.

Thank you for your time. I see two things there:

1. Soldiers with "guard commander" orders fire their missile weapons if an enemy is within range

2. New command for missile units: Hold or Fire

which I will add if that's ok with you Pocus

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 04:57 PM

Updated list. I don't have the first two of yours, geo981010, because I'm not sure I understood them - see post below. I added back in the one about being able to cycle through friendly provinces with the keyboard.

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made Gods for New players
� Newbie 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for Newbies
� End/quit/save/host button remake
� Bless effects more prominently displayed when creating a God's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen & titles for each
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
� Able to quit battles using ESC
� When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
� X axis labeled in score overview graph
� Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle
� When you win/lose a game, instead of exitting the program, get brought back to main menu
� Show undead and magic leadership in unit info screen (e.g. 25/0/10)
� Soldiers with "guard commander" orders fire missiles if a target is within range

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Castle battle results
� '?' accessible on main menu
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename, or at least add epithets to commanders
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
� Unit names in addition to icons in recruitment/deployment screens
� Detailed breakdown of mixed squads in deployment screen
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
� Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
� Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)
� Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
� Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible or not]
� Prevent redundant site searching (or have a message like the one you get when you try to preach in a province with high dominion?)
� When game ends prompt for deletion of game file
� Ability to toggle on/off battle grid in squad positioning screen
� New Command for missile units: Hold or Fire
� Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
specifically including:
� Keyboard command to select next commander within province, even if he already has orders.
� Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
� Keyboard interface for research screen
� Keyboard command to cycle through friendly provinces

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� More than one god for each nation
� Moddability
� Ability to search for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells (see Windreaper's post in this thread for details)
� Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)

4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects (starting at an earlier level/increasing exponentially rather than by addition/magic cheaper in general, etc.)
� reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion)

-

Keep them coming. Poll deadline is approaching http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

licker

October 31st, 2003, 05:12 PM

One thing I suggested that isn't on the list is to be able to cycle through province recruitment screens. That way you can quickly and easilly set up recruitment in several provinces without haveing to go to each province directly.

Is there a way to do this from the F1 screen? That is to set up recruitment directly from that screen? If there isn't then I'd like to see that added as well.

licker

October 31st, 2003, 05:21 PM

One other thing... can the transfer gems screen be made slightly larger to accomdate more than two commanders at a time?

Is there any functionality to add the same gems to multiple commanders at the same time?

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 05:43 PM

Originally posted by licker:
One thing I suggested that isn't on the list is to be able to cycle through province recruitment screens. That way you can quickly and easilly set up recruitment in several provinces without haveing to go to each province directly.It's hard to see how this could be implemented - presumably you don't make troops in every province - just in the few you have castles in most of the time. If this was added you'd have to cycle through 5 or 6 province recruitment screen where you didn't want to recruit units before you could get to the province you did want to recruit units from.

This is an impartial list, so I'll put this on if you want - I'm just checking to make sure you really want to suggest it.

Originally posted by licker:
Is there a way to do this from the F1 screen? That is to set up recruitment directly from that screen? If there isn't then I'd like to see that added as well. This is kinda like what geo981010 was suggesting maybe. Are you thinking recruiting literally directly from this screen? or are you thinking a link from this screen to the recruitment screen in the province you click on? The latter especially makes sense to me. I'll add it, if that's what you meant.

I'll also add the gem screen transfer thing.

[ October 31, 2003, 15:50: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

geo981010

October 31st, 2003, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:

1. You're talking about either a. spies' reports before you conquer a province, or b. what kind of independant troops you can recruit in that province when you own it. Which one?

2. You mean like a button which takes you to the recruitment screen? Or more than this?
1) I was talking primarily about what you could recruit there, thinking of the provinces that I own. However, that might be good to see what enemy troops are where too - have to think about that and may add that later http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

2) A button to take me to the recruitment screen is exactly what I want. Preferably when exiting from the recruitment screen it will take me back to the Nation Overview, too.

[ October 31, 2003, 16:17: Message edited by: geo981010 ]

licker

October 31st, 2003, 06:47 PM

Originally posted by geo981010:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by st.patrik:

2. You mean like a button which takes you to the recruitment screen? Or more than this?
2) A button to take me to the recruitment screen is exactly what I want. Preferably when exiting from the recruitment screen it will take me back to the Nation Overview, too. <hr /></blockquote>Yes what geo said.

Also the recruitment screen cycle would be quite useful for me, I gaurentee you I'd use it nearly every turn just to see where I had recruitment going on and what it is. Its not that hard to pass over the blank provinces quickly. I think this along with direct recruitment from the F1 screen would cut alot of clicks and micro out of the game, especially when you have more provinces.

Psitticine

October 31st, 2003, 07:14 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by HJ:
We're listing typos now? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
No we're not. Typos and bugs should go somewhere else I think. This thread is more about what we want the developers to add/change in terms of features.

All: post bugs in the "list game bugs here" thread, which is stickied. That should probably go for typos too. <hr /></blockquote>Just FYI, my editing partner (the splendiferious Bionic Giraffe) and I are planning to help (as needed) with any grammar problems or other typos that appear in the gold Version. We couldn't edit all the ingame text since a lot of it was imbedded in the game, and there is a HECK OF A LOT OF IT, so any contributions folks want to make by pointing out text issues would be greatly appreciated. Having them in a seperate thread is a good idea too. Organization is key! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Psitticine

October 31st, 2003, 07:21 PM

Originally posted by Alneyan:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Leif_-:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Alneyan:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Leif_-:
Yes, but as you can't see the province numbers on the map, it's pretty useless.
The numbers are shown either in the province option, or in the top left window in the main screen,
<hr /></blockquote>Err, yes - but to see either of those you first have to select the province, which means that to use the # hot-key (lukewarm-key?) you have to memorize the province-numbers for all the provinces you're interested in. That makes it rather useless as a hot-key in my book.

Well, actually you can see the province numbers of your own provinces in the nation overview too. It's still annoying to have to open that just to jump to another province, and as long as you can't scroll through the nation overview with the keyboard, it's not even a semi-workable solution. <hr /></blockquote>Yes I agree with you, the numbers are hard to memorize, except if you have really a good memory. And even then, the hotkey are not that convenient.

Hmm, I gather I was a bit unclear in my Last post. *Grumbles* I was not going against your suggestion. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <hr /></blockquote>I agree as well: the #+province number system isn't that useful. I just wanted to point out the specific thing requested was already there.

Keys to go up/down the list sounds like an ideal solution to me, and it shouldn't be hard to implement at all.

Hopefully, I didn't confuse anybody. I didn't mean to suggest the idea should be dropped; I was just trying to point out "#+province number" is there already, for what it's worth. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Saber Cherry

October 31st, 2003, 09:52 PM

I'd like to see resource usage in the nation overview screen. That way, you could know which provinces are being underutilized, and need to have some stuff queued, without going to each production screen to check. As per the suggestions below, clicking on the resource usage number would take you to that province's recruitment screen.

Also, I'd like certain numbers to change color in the F1 overview menu: Supply usage, if above the province's supply, should become red so it is obvious (without checking your Messages) where starvation is occuring. Unrest numbers above 0 should be orange, and 100+ should be red, IMO.

-Cherry

st.patrik

October 31st, 2003, 11:09 PM

Ok, I think I have most of the changes in there...check the list to make sure it's right if you made a suggestion

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays [to make sprites easier to see/look better]
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made pretenders for new players
� New player 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for new players
� End/quit/save/host button remake [so that 'end turn' takes you directly to next turn]
� Bless effects displayed when creating a pretender's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen
� Titles in recruitment screen for unit section and commander section
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
� Able to quit battles using ESC
� When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
� X axis labeled in score overview graph
� Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle
� When you win/lose a game, instead of exiting the program, get brought back to main menu
� Show undead and magic leadership in unit info screen (e.g. 25/0/10)
� Soldiers with "guard commander" orders fire missiles if a target is within range
� Link from nation overview (F1) to recruitment screen in each province
� Show resource usage in nation overview [so that you can see at a glance which provinces aren't being used to their full potential]
� Warning colours in nation overview (e.g. red for supply usage when higher than supply availability, etc.)

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Battle results (i.e. list of casualties) when storming a Castle
� '?' accessible on main menu (i.e. as a button)
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename commanders, or at least add epithets
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button [i]below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
� Names of units in addition to icons in recruitment/deployment screens
� Detailed breakdown of mixed squads in deployment screen
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander in main screen gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders (even though there is only one recruitable per month)
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
� Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
� Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)
� Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
� Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible]
� Prevent redundant site searching [or have a message like the "preaching cannot be used to raise the dominion of this province any higher" message]
� When game ends prompt for deletion of game file
or
� When game ends, automatically delete game file
� Ability to toggle on/off battle grid in squad positioning screen
� New Command for missile units: Hold or Fire
� Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
also including:
� Keyboard command to select next commander within province, even if he already has orders.
� Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
� Keyboard interface for research screen
� Keyboard command to cycle through friendly provinces
� Expanded gem-transfer screen, showing more than 2 commanders
� Label in nation overview identifying province types [feudal, amazons, etc.], and therefore the troops recruitable there
� Ability to cycle through recruitment screens without exiting to main map

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� Ability to store more than one god for each nation
� Modability
� Search function for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells
� Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)

[b]4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects [e.g. starting at an earlier level (lvl 3?), increasing exponentially rather than by addition (1,2,4,8 vs. 2,3,4,5), magic cheaper in general, etc.]
� Reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion), or provide counters

-

This is now 21 tweaks, 32 minor feature additions, 8 major feature additions, and 6 balance considerations. It's getting big.

[ October 31, 2003, 21:12: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

st.patrik

November 1st, 2003, 07:16 AM

I'm posting this again because I'm about to post the poll, and I have one addition to the list to make - a suggestion I made much earlier, which pretty much got shot down. It's a suggestion to rework the way province defense is done. Check out the thread here (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=74;t=000051). Not all original ideas - some discussion on usenet about this. Anyways, read about it if you're interested. Then go take the poll. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays [to make sprites easier to see/look better]
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made pretenders for new players
� New player 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for new players
� End/quit/save/host button remake [so that 'end turn' takes you directly to next turn]
� Bless effects displayed when creating a pretender's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen
� Titles in recruitment screen for unit section and commander section
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
� Able to quit battles using ESC
� When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
� X axis labeled in score overview graph
� Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle
� When you win/lose a game, instead of exiting the program, get brought back to main menu
� Show undead and magic leadership in unit info screen (e.g. 25/0/10)
� Soldiers with "guard commander" orders fire missiles if a target is within range
� Link from nation overview (F1) to recruitment screen in each province
� Show resource usage in nation overview [so that you can see at a glance which provinces aren't being used to their full potential]
� Warning colours in nation overview (e.g. red for supply usage when higher than supply availability, etc.)

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Battle results (i.e. list of casualties) when storming a Castle
� '?' accessible on main menu (i.e. as a button)
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename commanders, or at least add epithets
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button [i]below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
� Names of units in addition to icons in recruitment/deployment screens
� Detailed breakdown of mixed squads in deployment screen
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander in main screen gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders (even though there is only one recruitable per month)
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
� Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
� Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)
� Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
� Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible]
� Prevent redundant site searching [or have a message like the "preaching cannot be used to raise the dominion of this province any higher" message]
� When game ends prompt for deletion of game file
or
� When game ends, automatically delete game file
� Ability to toggle on/off battle grid in squad positioning screen
� New Command for missile units: Hold or Fire
� Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
also including:
� Keyboard command to select next commander within province, even if he already has orders.
� Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
� Keyboard interface for research screen
� Keyboard command to cycle through friendly provinces
� Expanded gem-transfer screen, showing more than 2 commanders
� Label in nation overview identifying province types [feudal, amazons, etc.], and therefore the troops recruitable there
� Ability to cycle through recruitment screens without exiting to main map

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� Ability to store more than one god for each nation
� Modability
� Search function for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells
� Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)
� Rework of province defense

[b]4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects [e.g. starting at an earlier level (lvl 3?), increasing exponentially rather than by addition (1,2,4,8 vs. 2,3,4,5), magic cheaper in general, etc.]
� Reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion), or provide counters

iRichard

November 2nd, 2003, 10:30 PM

I don't know if it has been noticed but with Pythium/Serpent Theme you have access to some sort of acolytes. These guys are descripted as acolytes who were able to drink poison without being killed. But they don't have ant poison resistance.

BTW : is there any search engine on this forum ?

[EDIT : of course this is not of a great importance]

[ November 02, 2003, 20:31: Message edited by: iRichard ]

November 2nd, 2003, 10:52 PM

Originally posted by iRichard:
I don't know if it has been noticed but with Pythium/Serpent Theme you have access to some sort of acolytes. These guys are descripted as acolytes who were able to drink poison without being killed. But they don't have ant poison resistance.

BTW : is there any search engine on this forum ?

[EDIT : of course this is not of a great importance] They have to drink poison to be promoted - and the serpent priests (or whatever they are called) are immune to poison. Acolytes haven't drank the poison yet. I think that was the idea.

The search function is in the top right corner.

Nerfix

November 2nd, 2003, 10:59 PM

Kind OT, but poison (usualy) won't hurt/kill you if it doesn't get in to the bloodstream...

iRichard

November 2nd, 2003, 11:01 PM

They have to drink poison to be promoted - and the serpent priests (or whatever they are called) are immune to poison. Acolytes haven't drank the poison yet. I think that was the idea.
Ok

The search function is in the top right corner. In french I would have said "Autant pour moi" (my fault), I was looking for a text field

November 2nd, 2003, 11:08 PM

Originally posted by Nerfix:
Kind OT, but poison (usualy) won't hurt/kill you if it doesn't get in to the bloodstream... I wish I knew how the poison damage is calculated, and what does the length of the poison bar mean (I know it's relative to the strength of posion, but what does that mean exactly). Also, what's the difference in poison strength from the attack description? If it says weak posion, does that mean that it will wear off sooner, but the damage is the same, or that the damage is higher, or both? Does death posion mean that the posioned unit will always die and it cannot wear off? Are poisons cummulative, i.e. several weak posion attacks that damage the unit will be the same poison-wise as one strong poison damaging attack? This is the kind of things I would really like to see in the manual. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ November 02, 2003, 21:10: Message edited by: HJ ]

Kristoffer O

November 3rd, 2003, 01:02 AM

Originally posted by iRichard:
I don't know if it has been noticed but with Pythium/Serpent Theme you have access to some sort of acolytes. These guys are descripted as acolytes who were able to drink poison without being killed. But they don't have ant poison resistance.

BTW : is there any search engine on this forum ?

[EDIT : of course this is not of a great importance] Sounds buggy. They should be.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Nerfix

November 3rd, 2003, 02:04 AM

Sorry to post here "too late", but i find it bothering and unbalancing that Elemental Hauberk gives 100% resistance from all elements and it is only construction 2 or 4 and it costs only 5 earth and 5 fire gems.

Some evocations seem to have too low precision...
I'm ok with nerfed Blade Wind, but most fire and couple of other spells seem have realy low precision(Fire Flies being perhaps the worst case), excluding Fire Darts that seems to be more precise than i was in Dominions I.

NOTE:Abysians have less precision.

Is Fires from Afar instant-kill damage?

Have the artilery spells(Leprosy, Murdering Winter etc.) and assasination spells changed from Dominions I?

[ November 02, 2003, 12:30: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

Truper

November 3rd, 2003, 05:07 PM

Thanks to St. Patrick for this thread. A very good idea indeed - well done.

Saber Cherry

November 3rd, 2003, 08:03 PM

Currently, a lot of people argue or complain about the gold economy in Dominions 2, as well as the viability of light versus heavy units.

My suggestion:

For the game setup screen, take out "World Richness", and put in "Gold Richness" and "Resource Richness" as independant settings. Instead of 3 settings - low (50%), normal (100%), and high (200%) - give each 20 settings: 10% through 200%, in 10% increments.

Master List bullets:

* Add separate gold richness and resource richness settings for new games
* Allow finer adjustment of map richness levels, in 10% increments

-Cherry

Sammual

November 3rd, 2003, 08:58 PM

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Currently, a lot of people argue or complain about the gold economy in Dominions 2, as well as the viability of light versus heavy units.

My suggestion:

For the game setup screen, take out "World Richness", and put in "Gold Richness" and "Resource Richness" as independant settings. Instead of 3 settings - low (50%), normal (100%), and high (200%) - give each 20 settings: 10% through 200%, in 10% increments.

Master List bullets:

* Add separate gold richness and resource richness settings for new games
* Allow finer adjustment of map richness levels, in 10% increments

-Cherry 10% increments are a bit much. How about these increments?

Very Low (50%)
Low (75%)
Normal (100%)
High (150%)
Very High (200%)

Sammual

Saber Cherry

November 3rd, 2003, 09:26 PM

Originally posted by Sammual:
10% increments are a bit much. If it makes it in at all, I'll be happy. Smaller increments are just icing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Saber Cherry

November 3rd, 2003, 10:03 PM

Currently, you can tell a mage to "cast monthly ritual" with shift-m, but there is no way to select that in the orders list. I didn't realize it was possible until I saw the tip between turns.

So:

* Add "Cast Monthly Ritual" to commander orders list

Saber Cherry

November 3rd, 2003, 10:12 PM

It's really annoying when your mage runs out of scripted spells and does dumb things like cast "Charge Body" (happens to me a lot, even when they are not elec-immune).

So, in addition to the "Cast spells" order, how about three more options:

"Cast Support Spells" - e.g. fanaticsm, stoneskin, regeneration, heal, aim, wards
"Cast Summon Spells" - e.g. phantasmal warrior, elementals
"Cast Attack Spells" - e.g. fireflies, blade wind, geyser

I assume that any battlefield spells you'd want to script http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

That way your battle mage won't goof off. Ideally, you won't even have to script him anymore.

Bullet:

* Add tactical "Cast Support Spells", "Cast Summon Spells", and "Cast Attack Spells" commands

-Cherry

Nerfix

November 3rd, 2003, 10:25 PM

More of a question than an issue:
If an Astral mage runs out of script, will he go on self-boost frenzy a la Dom I? I can swear i have lost countless of batless in Dom I because of the spell AI casting (unneeded) Twist Fate, Astral Shield and Body Ethereal instead of Star Fires, Soul Slay or Stellar Cascades.

November 3rd, 2003, 10:39 PM

Saber's Last suggestions about the monthly ritual command and different casting scripts are excellent. I wish they made it into the poll (but then again, the devs can read them this way as well).

Kristoffer O

November 3rd, 2003, 10:58 PM

Originally posted by Nerfix:
More of a question than an issue:
If an Astral mage runs out of script, will he go on self-boost frenzy a la Dom I? I can swear i have lost countless of batless in Dom I because of the spell AI casting (unneeded) Twist Fate, Astral Shield and Body Ethereal instead of Star Fires, Soul Slay or Stellar Cascades. I'm not sure, but I know that mages are cowards http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Nerfix

November 3rd, 2003, 11:18 PM

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Nerfix:
More of a question than an issue:
If an Astral mage runs out of script, will he go on self-boost frenzy a la Dom I? I can swear i have lost countless of batless in Dom I because of the spell AI casting (unneeded) Twist Fate, Astral Shield and Body Ethereal instead of Star Fires, Soul Slay or Stellar Cascades. I'm not sure, but I know that mages are cowards http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <hr /></blockquote>Yeah, but it gets annyoing with 125 Hp Pretenders that have decent equipment y'know?

st.patrik

November 4th, 2003, 01:00 AM

Good suggestions Saber - I'll update the list tomorrow because I'm overwhelmed right now.

Truper: Thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Saber Cherry

November 7th, 2003, 02:05 AM

*bump*

Remember, if you want your issue addressed, put it here!

Keir Maxwell

November 8th, 2003, 05:57 AM

These are the issues I would like to see addressed in the short term:

1. Increase evocation accuracy on the battlefield - Fire in particular looks silly in the hands of Abysian mages and they arn't killing their own guys. Decrease the damage dealt to maintain balence.

2. Change strategic moves to 2 for HI and have the cost of moving through difficult terrain provinces as 1 for LI and 2 for others.

At present LI move faster than HI in the open but the same speed in the rough. Changing this provides an extra role for LI in holding areas of provinces with rough terrain and makes more sense.

3. Fire and Retire orders which when used for LI/LC allow them to avoid combat with slower troops by retiring behind their main battleline (ignore troops on guard commander for this calculation).

4. The first 20 LI/LC in a province do not count against supply due to their role as foragers.
----------------------

Concerns with balence should generally await the full game - although Blood of humans seems a bit weak for Abysia.

Bless effects may need tweaking but do not seem to be weak in general.

cheers

Keir

st.patrik

November 8th, 2003, 10:52 PM

Ok, here's the updated Version of the list. I've added Saber and Keir's suggestions. Check to make sure they're right.

Keep on posting here as a central place where the devs can tell at a glance what people want changed - this way it is really convenient for the devs, since they don't have to comb through all the threads to find each suggestion. Feel free to include links to the threads which talk about the suggestion in more detail.

1. Tweaks/Easy changes to implement
� Darker colours/textures in unit displays [to make sprites easier to see/look better]
� Alignment of stats in unit info screens
� Pre-made pretenders for new players
� New player 'get started' guide
� Quick start game for new players
� End/quit/save/host button remake [so that 'end turn' takes you directly to next turn]
� Bless effects displayed when creating a pretender's magic
� Actual effects of scales explained when creating a pretender's scales
� Line between commanders and regular units in recruitment screen
� Titles in recruitment screen for unit section and commander section
� More details on exactly what different effects mean (e.g. exact benefits of mountain/forest/swamp survival, etc.)
� Able to quit battles using ESC
� When selecting commander from F1 screen, have the commander be highlighted when it jumps to him
� X axis labeled in score overview graph
� Message in top left when Commander is killed in battle
� When you win/lose a game, instead of exiting the program, get brought back to main menu
� Show undead and magic leadership in unit info screen (e.g. 25/0/10)
� Soldiers with "guard commander" orders fire missiles if a target is within range
� Link from nation overview (F1) to recruitment screen in each province
� Show resource usage in nation overview [so that you can see at a glance which provinces aren't being used to their full potential]
� Warning colours in nation overview (e.g. red for supply usage when higher than supply availability, etc.)
� Allow finer adjustment of map richness levels
� Add "Cast Monthly Ritual" to commander orders list
� Increase accuracy of Evocation spells - if necessary reduce damage to balance
� Change strategic move to 2 for HI and increase the 'cost' of moving through difficult terrain for HI [net effect: LI can move through difficult terrain quicker than HI]

2. Additions of relatively minor features
� Battle results (i.e. list of casualties) when storming a Castle
� '?' accessible on main menu (i.e. as a button)
� Research point 'lock' for schools of magic
� Random nation AI opponents
� Map and Scenario triggers [not sure where this was mentioned]
� Ability to rename commanders, or at least add epithets
� Enhanced start (starting with more than one province)
� Ability to close screens without having to scroll down or press ESC (e.g. Windows-style [x] or 'Exit' button [i]below instead of at the end of scroll-lists)
� Names of units in addition to icons in recruitment/deployment screens
� Detailed breakdown of mixed squads in deployment screen
� Detailed lists of losses (most importantly commanders)
� Right-clicking commander in main screen gives you list of troops under his command
� Build queue for commanders (even though there is only one recruitable per month)
� Shift-click to add higher multiples of units [e.g. 5 at a time] in recruitment screen
� Build queue doesn't charge you for units which won't be built that turn
� Ability to turn off pre-battle zoom animation
� Number of local defense force killed show up on battle report (even though they're automatically replaced)
� Ability to enter new subscreen (F1, recruitment, etc.) without ESCaping out of the current one
� Hostile borders different colour than province borders within your nations [don't know if this is possible]
� Prevent redundant site searching [or have a message like the "preaching cannot be used to raise the dominion of this province any higher" message]
� When game ends prompt for deletion of game file
or
� When game ends, automatically delete game file
� Ability to toggle on/off battle grid in squad positioning screen
� New Command for missile units: Hold or Fire
� Keyboard selection (hotkeys or something else) for every command available with mouse
also including:
� Keyboard command to select next commander within province, even if he already has orders.
� Ability to scroll lists with arrow keys instead of mouse
� Keyboard interface for research screen
� Keyboard command to cycle through friendly provinces
� Expanded gem-transfer screen, showing more than 2 commanders
� Label in nation overview identifying province types [feudal, amazons, etc.], and therefore the troops recruitable there
� Ability to cycle through recruitment screens without exiting to main map
� Add separate gold richness and resource richness settings for new games
� Add tactical "Cast Support Spells", "Cast Summon Spells", and "Cast Attack Spells" commands
� New unit command: Fire and Retire. missile units fire a couple of rounds, then retreat to behind the main battle-line
� Supply bonus for a certain number of LI/LC - in accordance with their role as foragers

3. Additions of relatively major features
� SP diplomacy
� Increased battle replay functionality (various speeds, etc.)
� Ability to store more than one god for each nation
� Modability
� Search function for items on commanders
� Battle Sim
� Enabling/disabling spells
� Translucent filters for map instead of icons (for dominion strength, production, province defense, etc.)
� Rework of province defense

[b]4. Balance considerations
� Improve Strategic AI
� Bug fixes
� Less focus on supercombatants
� More regrowth possibilities / less emphasis on population death
� Greater 'bless' effects [e.g. starting at an earlier level (lvl 3?), increasing exponentially rather than by addition (1,2,4,8 vs. 2,3,4,5), magic cheaper in general, etc.]
� Reduce effectiveness of artillery-like spells (esp. in hostile dominion), or provide counters

geo981010

November 12th, 2003, 02:45 AM

This thread seemed to slow down, so here is some fodder:

1) compress trn files for Online play. In a big game, the files can be over half a meg, and this sucks for modem players/overseas connections!

2) Allow changing pretender in design screen (right now you choose once, and then you have to start over if you want change from a GM to a BoF)

3) Research estimate in recruit screen should reflect research with current drain scale

4) In enemy/indie province screen, link unit names to description (even if it is just generic).

5) In battle screen, link spell casting notification to spell description

6) Special Guard commander order "Surround Body Guard":Auto position body guards encircling the commander

7) prevent blood slave harvesting in provinces where no chance exists to get slaves (pop too low), and show estimated blood harvest for each mage (ie command would be "Blood Hunt 3.2" for a mage who would find on average 3.2 slaves per turn under these circumstances)

8) Combine Blood Harvest reports into one, linking to each commander

9) new Order in map screen "Collect Gems/Slaves" - collects all the gems/slaves held by any commanders in a province, and gives them to the selected commander (Note: this is very important for "blood ferries" - usually scouts that go to a province where mages are gathering blood, and collect them up and return them to a lab. This is the most cash efficient way to run a harvest, and right now is tedious beyond belief. I stopped blood harvesting in Dom1 because of it, and likely will in Dom2 also).

10) When using the "N" key to cycle through commanders and a commander in a group gets selected, select the whole group of commanders. Currently Groups are made, but then with the N key you only get the first commander in the list, and so have to select him again with the mouse to get the group.

11) New battle order "Hold or Cast Spells"

12) When a magic site is found, include the level required to find it in the site info window. Rarity would be nice too

13) Show actual adjustments to stats from fatigue (ie 0 defense, half armour, etc)

[ November 12, 2003, 00:50: Message edited by: geo981010 ]

Sammual

November 12th, 2003, 03:02 AM

Originally posted by geo981010:
1) compress trn files for Online play. In a big game, the files can be over half a meg, and this sucks for modem players/overseas connections!
I agree with this one.

Originally posted by geo981010:
2) Allow changing pretender in design screen (right now you choose once, and then you have to start over if you want change from a GM to a BoF)
Not all that big of a deal. Keep it in mind for Dominions 3.

Originally posted by geo981010:
3) Research estimate in recruit screen should reflect research with current drain scale
I think that would confuse people more than it would help.

Originally posted by geo981010:
4) In enemy/indie province screen, link unit names to description (even if it is just generic).
Keep in mind for Dominions 3.

Originally posted by geo981010:
5) In battle screen, link spell casting notification to spell description
??? Do you want the battle to pause and the spell description window to pop up when a spell is cast???

Originally posted by geo981010:
6) Special Guard commander order "Surround Body Guard":Auto position body guards encircling the commander
Isn't this what happens now (At least when the commander is not moving)?

Originally posted by geo981010:
7) prevent blood slave harvesting in provinces where no chance exists to get slaves (pop too low), and show estimated blood harvest for each mage (ie command would be "Blood Hunt 3.2" for a mage who would find on average 3.2 slaves per turn under these circumstances)
I agree with the first part but the second part is too much info. Let people learn from experence.

Originally posted by geo981010:
8) Combine Blood Harvest reports into one, linking to each commander
Hmmmm.. I am not sure if I like that one. If it was done correctly it would be very nice but I think the message system needs a bit of an overhall (See Master of Orion 3 for a nice one).

Originally posted by geo981010:
9) new Order in map screen "Collect Gems/Slaves" - collects all the gems/slaves held by any commanders in a province, and gives them to the selected commander (Note: this is very important for "blood ferries" - usually scouts that go to a province where mages are gathering blood, and collect them up and return them to a lab. This is the most cash efficient way to run a harvest, and right now is tedious beyond belief. I stopped blood harvesting in Dom1 because of it, and likely will in Dom2 also).
I build too many Labs so this is not a problem for me.

Originally posted by geo981010:
12) When a magic site is found, include the level required to find it in the site info window. Rarity would be nice too
Too much info. People get overwhelmed as it is. A link to more info about the site might be nice.

Originally posted by geo981010:
13) Show actual adjustments to stats from fatigue (ie 0 defense, half armour, etc)
I agree.

Most of these would be nice for Dominions 3.

Sammual

geo981010

November 12th, 2003, 05:39 AM

5) In battle screen, link spell casting notification to spell description
??? Do you want the battle to pause and the spell description window to pop up when a spell is cast???
Sorry - I was unclear on this!

In the battle screen when a mage casts a spell, the top left will say "(Mage Name) casts (Spell Name)". Right clicking on the spell name could give you a pop up link to the spell book, so you can see exactly what the mage is casting.

6) Special Guard commander order "Surround Body Guard":Auto position body guards encircling the commander
Isn't this what happens now (At least when the commander is not moving)?
Not exactly. My request would have been clearer if I said "Auto position body guards encircling the commander at the start of the battle"

The troops will do that eventually, but they start off where ever they are positioned and have to move there. The problem is they start off in a block, so your commander has only one side covered initially. Flying troops have a very good chance of getting free attacks on him before the guards get in position. So to overcome that, you can split your bodyguards into 4 Groups that are arranged around him, but that is very tedious and you have to be careful you are positioning things right. So I'd like to have this done automatically.

9) new Order in map screen "Collect Gems/Slaves" - collects all the gems/slaves held by any commanders in a province, and gives them to the selected commander (Note: this is very important for "blood ferries" - usually scouts that go to a province where mages are gathering blood, and collect them up and return them to a lab. This is the most cash efficient way to run a harvest, and right now is tedious beyond belief. I stopped blood harvesting in Dom1 because of it, and likely will in Dom2 also).

I build too many Labs so this is not a problem for me.
Building too many labs will prevent this and is easier - but is a lot slower and in MP you would suffer. A scout costs only 1/10 of the cost, which is enough to get another blood hunter out there. The scouts are useful too - any commander killing spells that hit them is a blood mage saved (note: your most common unit should be scouts for this purpose - you can get 10 of them for the price of one mage, so you can make your mages largely safe from seeking arrow/Mind Hunt/etc)

Plus, lightly guarded labs are dangerous - your enemies can gateway reinforcements into that province if they take it, they can resupply all their mages with gems, and inanimates (golems/undead) will heal.

So IMHO ferries are more economical and safer, but will seriously increase micromanagement.

12) When a magic site is found, include the level required to find it in the site info window. Rarity would be nice too

Too much info. People get overwhelmed as it is. A link to more info about the site might be nice.
Apologies again - I don't want the message changed, I'd just like the popup window for the magic site from the map screen to include that info.

Shael

November 12th, 2003, 11:06 AM

different types of battle terrain
ie battling in a mountain province the battle area is still squered some sort of canyon ? would be nice and other stuff like this
trees in a forest province (brining cover from archery fire) this would increase the tatic's usage ie it might be a smart idea to let opponet have couple provinses and then keep em at bay at some canyon where they cant use their numbers so badly against you

Sammual

November 12th, 2003, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by Shael:
different types of battle terrain
ie battling in a mountain province the battle area is still squered some sort of canyon ? would be nice and other stuff like this
trees in a forest province (brining cover from archery fire) this would increase the tatic's usage ie it might be a smart idea to let opponet have couple provinses and then keep em at bay at some canyon where they cant use their numbers so badly against you Another item I would like to see in Dominions 3, too much work for a patch.

Sammual

Sammual

November 12th, 2003, 12:55 PM

Originally posted by geo981010:
In the battle screen when a mage casts a spell, the top left will say "(Mage Name) casts (Spell Name)". Right clicking on the spell name could give you a pop up link to the spell book, so you can see exactly what the mage is casting.OK, now I like the idea better. Once we get the full game I will be playing Dominions2 in a window with the Spell List and Unit List open next to it. I would like to see this added in Domions3 so I don't have to do this.

Originally posted by geo981010:
Not exactly. My request would have been clearer if I said "Auto position body guards encircling the commander at the start of the battle"

The troops will do that eventually, but they start off where ever they are positioned and have to move there. The problem is they start off in a block, so your commander has only one side covered initially. Flying troops have a very good chance of getting free attacks on him before the guards get in position. So to overcome that, you can split your bodyguards into 4 Groups that are arranged around him, but that is very tedious and you have to be careful you are positioning things right. So I'd like to have this done automatically.*nod* OK, now I understand.
I just place the commander to be guarded in the block or behind it.

Originally posted by geo981010:
Building too many labs will prevent this and is easier - but is a lot slower and in MP you would suffer. A scout costs only 1/10 of the cost, which is enough to get another blood hunter out there. The scouts are useful too - any commander killing spells that hit them is a blood mage saved (note: your most common unit should be scouts for this purpose - you can get 10 of them for the price of one mage, so you can make your mages largely safe from seeking arrow/Mind Hunt/etc)

Plus, lightly guarded labs are dangerous - your enemies can gateway reinforcements into that province if they take it, they can resupply all their mages with gems, and inanimates (golems/undead) will heal.

So IMHO ferries are more economical and safer, but will seriously increase micromanagementThis shows that I have only played the demos and no MP (yet). I never thought of Labs as such a liability (Never had to deal with high level spells) or Scouts as Commander Meat Shields.

Originally posted by geo981010:
Apologies again - I don't want the message changed, I'd just like the popup window for the magic site from the map screen to include that info. I like that better but do we really want to see this much info in the game? If we know everything then the game becomes a graphical spreadsheet.

Sammual

Kaljamaha

November 13th, 2003, 11:45 PM

Originally posted by st.patrik:
� Expanded gem-transfer screen, showing more than 2 commandersI'd like to add to this. Currently right-clicking does not work in the gem-transfer screen, which means you have to remember which mage wanted which gems. Really annoying, especially if you have mages with random magics. Or to put it shortly:

� Right-click should bring up commander details in gem-transfer screen (as it does everywhere else).

K.

Vger

November 16th, 2003, 05:20 AM

Hi,

I wanted to add a suggestion that was spawned by a conversation on Sissypigs. When get a message that there has been a battle you can:

A. Go to the province
B. Get a gross list of casualties on both sides
C. Watch the battle.

For my purposes, most of the time, I just want to know what I lost. I only watch the battles if I want to know WHY I lost whatever units I lost.

What I would like is instead of the gross list of commanders/units killed on both sides, we had a complete list of who was involved on both sides, what they started with and what their casualties were. I'd also like to be able to click on any unit/commander and have the normal info screen show up so I could see if they picked up any afflictions I should be aware of.

This thought was spawned when someone on Sissypigs said that what they really wanted was a "flash to the end" button for the replay, so they could see what was left.

Just thought I'd toss this out to see what y'all think.

Ciao,
V'ger gone

Saber Cherry

November 20th, 2003, 01:42 AM

*bump* Boy, this needs to be stickied! It's like the second most important thread, after bugs.

I saw a post on IBM.Strategic that I agree with: Province military information (for enemy provinces) should be displayed in the main window when the province is selected, without having to click on "Province Info", since military info is possibly the main reason for selecting on hostile provinces.

Also, like in Dominions I, mercs should be auto-bid on every season. I've lost mercs several times because I forgot that every third month I have to renew the contract! When the contract is renewed, the gold amount should default to what you bid the previous season or half of what you bid the first season, not the merc's asking price.

It would be REALLY useful commanders in a province auto-arranged themselves by type on the screen, so that if you had 3 priests, 2 druids, 8 scouts, and 3 indy commanders, they were in contiguous blocks for easy selecting. Simply arranging the commanders alphabetically by type (and subsequently by name) would accomplish this.

Lastly, in provinces, it is hard to determine the province value from the main screen. There is treasury, upkeep, resources, supply, supply usage, and province gold, all kind of jumbled together. It would be nice to instantly identify the province-specific data without being distracted by irrelevant global data.

So:

New Tweaks:
� Seasonal autobid for mercs, like in Dom I
� Default bid price on mercs should not reset itself to the asking price
� Clearer distinction between province and global gold stats
� Net kingdom gem and gold income displayed in F1 screen
� Autoarrange commanders alphabetically by type, then name

New Minor Feature:
� Military info for hostile provinces displayed on main screen

-Cherry

[ November 19, 2003, 23:49: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

Gandalf Parker

November 20th, 2003, 02:59 AM

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
*bump* Boy, this needs to be stickied! It's like the second most important thread, after bugs.If it were called something like wish list or somehow alittle more requesting then it might pinned to the top. The way it is now it seems to keep rolling to the bottom

Truper

November 20th, 2003, 04:03 AM

One more word on mercs in addition to Saber's comments - it would be really useful if, as in Dom1, you got to see what *kind* of troops the merc captain has with him. I remember most of the old ones from Dom1, so for those its not a problem for me - but there are some new ones, and I'd like to know what kind of troops I'm bidding on, in addition to how many.

Sly Frog

November 20th, 2003, 04:53 PM

I imagine this one has been said many times, if so I'll repeat:

Please put a speed control on the battle replays so we do not have to watch 10 archer volleys in slow motion missing routing troops after the battle is already over.

Gandalf Parker

November 20th, 2003, 05:15 PM

Originally posted by Sly Frog:
Please put a speed control on the battle replays so we do not have to watch 10 archer volleys in slow motion missing routing troops after the battle is already over. You can quit the battle using the "Q" key.

But I would like a speedup because Im usually interested in the end of the battle. Who specifically was left, how much were they damaged, did they use all their gems. Its important info for whether or not I want to attack them again with whatever army I have left.

Taqwus

November 20th, 2003, 06:54 PM

When magical sites are found with "Strands of Arcane Power", it would be decent if the relevant provinces were listed/linked in the message.

Taqwus

November 21st, 2003, 05:29 PM

When scrolling the spell list, it would be nice if the gem counts didn't scroll as well.

Keir Maxwell

November 21st, 2003, 11:47 PM

Troops with missile weapons should fire while on the hold part of hold and attack and especially when on Guard Commander as this is about the only way to get subtle using multi-armed LC/HC.

Tien Chi Barbarian Kings theme needs at least +2 precision for the cavalry to reflect the superior archery of the steppe nomads who have counquered Tien Chi. Barbarian Kings is very hard to play and some thematically appropriate improvements are called for.

Tien Chi Spring and Autumn could really do with a new unit - non-commander noble chariots with a limit (say 1 a turn) on how many you can build in a castle. Adding in the chariots is so tantalising and current Spring and Autumn Chinese ancient army lists allow more than just general chariots. This would be a nice addition to another hard to us theme.

Cheers

Keir

Nerfix

November 22nd, 2003, 12:12 AM

I agree with Keir. I would like to see more Barbarian units with BK Tien, Barbarian units getting pillage bonus and getting Khan heroes (insted of immortals).

Chariot troops would also fit S&A Tien.

Saber Cherry

December 1st, 2003, 07:23 AM

Sticky!!! Please? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

BTW. Anyone want to recompile the list with the new additions, or is Patty-chan still around?

December 1st, 2003, 09:25 AM

It would be nice if the confirmation screen would pop up when you click on "throw it away" in item redistribution screen. I just accidentally threw away an item that I wanted to put in the lab, since I clicked just below the lab tag, and there were lots of commanders in the same province and I was scrolling down. It's unrecoverable and it's terminal, and it can be really painful, while at the same time it's not that often that you would want to throw something away either, so it wouldn't hamper the gameplay otherwise. A simple screen with clickable yes-no options would do.

[ December 01, 2003, 07:27: Message edited by: HJ ]

PhilD

December 1st, 2003, 09:44 AM

Originally posted by HJ:
It would be nice if the confirmation screen would pop up when you click on "throw it away" in item redistribution screen. I just accidentally threw away an item that I wanted to put in the lab, since I clicked just below the lab tag, and there were lots of commanders in the same province and I was scrolling down. It's unrecoverable and it's terminal, and it can be really painful, while at the same time it's not that often that you would want to throw something away either, so it wouldn't hamper the gameplay otherwise. A simple screen with clickable yes-no options would do. I won't say there shouldn't be this kind of confirmation popup, but if you're really mad for losing your item, you can "quit without saving" and replay your turn.

Of course, depending on how far you are in your game, that may be a LOT... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

December 1st, 2003, 10:04 AM

Originally posted by PhilD:
I won't say there shouldn't be this kind of confirmation popup, but if you're really mad for losing your item, you can "quit without saving" and replay your turn.

Of course, depending on how far you are in your game, that may be a LOT... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Ehhh... Didn't think of that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif Thanks for the tip. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
But still, if it's not a big deal do implement, it would be one of those UI-friendly additions. For those who forget that they can restart the turn. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Gandalf Parker

December 1st, 2003, 04:35 PM

Originally posted by PDF:
An improvement I would like :
When starting a game we should FIRST be asked to choose a map/scenario, THEN nations in play.
Currently it's bothersome, if you include some nations some scenarios become unselectable, then you can also have to go back because you've got too few/too much nations according to map size, etc.. Then we would have people complaining because they chose a map which didnt allow the race they wanted to play.

Maybe the game-create could be submenu'd the way creating a pretender is (domain, magic, castle). The game create could offer settings, map, players, start.

PDF

December 1st, 2003, 05:00 PM

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Originally posted by PDF:
Then we would have people complaining because they chose a map which didnt allow the race they wanted to play.

Maybe the game-create could be submenu'd the way creating a pretender is (domain, magic, castle). The game create could offer settings, map, players, start. Usually the map description specifies what nations can/cannot play, and anyway it should do it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
I'd still find it easier to get back to another map than get back to the nation screen, try to remind what nations should be in, change and repeat... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Gandalf Parker

December 1st, 2003, 05:27 PM

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Sticky!!! Please? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

BTW. Anyone want to recompile the list with the new additions, or is Patty-chan still around? I think I already mentioned that getting this one stickied might require starting it again with a less condemning title. Something like "wish list" maybe.

How about "Santa, all I want for Cristmas is....."

Chris Byler

December 1st, 2003, 06:18 PM

Originally posted by PhilD:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by HJ:
It would be nice if the confirmation screen would pop up when you click on "throw it away" in item redistribution screen. I just accidentally threw away an item that I wanted to put in the lab, since I clicked just below the lab tag, and there were lots of commanders in the same province and I was scrolling down. It's unrecoverable and it's terminal, and it can be really painful, while at the same time it's not that often that you would want to throw something away either, so it wouldn't hamper the gameplay otherwise. A simple screen with clickable yes-no options would do. I won't say there shouldn't be this kind of confirmation popup, but if you're really mad for losing your item, you can "quit without saving" and replay your turn.

Of course, depending on how far you are in your game, that may be a LOT... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif <hr /></blockquote>This trick is also handy if you did alchemy in the wrong direction, bought too much province defense, or any other "immediate" action that you then regret. (I don't know why you can't cancel province defense that you bought this turn - but you can't, without this kind of trick.)

You don't need to quit without saving though - you can just finish your turn normally, but don't host, instead click on your nation again, and when it says you have already played your turn, click on "Redo turn from start".

In both cases though you will have to redo your entire turn.

st.patrik

December 1st, 2003, 11:28 PM

sorry to all that I haven't updated this list - I lost my internet connection almost 2 weeks ago, and won't have it again until friday (right now I'm writing from work - an emergency situation only). I do intend to update the list once I get connected again.

sorry about the delay.

PDF

December 2nd, 2003, 02:37 AM

An improvement I would like :
When starting a game we should FIRST be asked to choose a map/scenario, THEN nations in play.
Currently it's bothersome, if you include some nations some scenarios become unselectable, then you can also have to go back because you've got too few/too much nations according to map size, etc..

[ December 01, 2003, 12:40: Message edited by: PDF ]

Saber Cherry

December 10th, 2003, 07:27 AM

bump

Lord_Devi

January 27th, 2004, 06:16 PM

I have another issue with the game..

5 Global enchantments? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Limits are for police, I think you should be able to have every beneficial global enchantment in the game cast at the same time.

Arryn

January 27th, 2004, 06:47 PM

Originally posted by Lord_Devi:
I have another issue with the game..

5 Global enchantments? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Limits are for police, I think you should be able to have every beneficial global enchantment in the game cast at the same time. More than five would be abusive. In my R'yleh game I have all five of the slots used myself. No one else in the game has the magical power to challenge me effectively. More slots would just make the disparity sicker.

What might make the game more fun though is to distinguish between rituals that affect only the caster's dominion, and those that affect others (or the whole world). Truly global enchantments should remain limited to 5. Or perhaps even reduced to 3. Dominion-wide enchantments could have limits removed. So more than one nation could have Gift of Health active at the same time. You can still Dispel someone else's enchantments if you want to be the only one to have it.

Strages Sanctus

January 27th, 2004, 07:23 PM

I like that suggestion Arryn

Japher

January 27th, 2004, 08:51 PM

I hav't read this whole thread, so if this has already been mentioned... oh, well.

I would like to see items forged be able to contain spells that the forger has, instead of a set list of items that can be made. I.e. put combat spells that the caster can use into an item, give it to a hero, and send them off with it to use that spell in battle (even if the hero cannot cast that spell)... It could either be permanent, require the caster to carry gems, etc. I would also like permanent unit enchantments, if there aren't any already.

Also, I would like better production and battle qeues Queues as have been mentioned...

Kristoffer O

January 27th, 2004, 10:10 PM

Originally posted by Japher:
Also, I would like better production and battle qeues Queues as have been mentioned... Better? Be more specific, please.

Unwise

January 27th, 2004, 10:27 PM

A method of moving the map with the mouse would be nice. Almost everything in Dom2 can be done with mouse-clicks except panning and zooming the map.

Purely a convenience thing - I enjoy playing with my feet up and the keyboard drawer stowed, but I find that I must occasionally shift my ungainly frame to access the arrow keys.

SurvivalistMerc

January 27th, 2004, 10:41 PM

st. patrick...might you consider revising the title of this thread per Gandalf's suggestion?

Japher

January 27th, 2004, 11:28 PM

Better? Be more specific, please.How about any? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

You select enough guys to take up all your production for one turn, and then you have to go back the next turn to give it the same orders again... Gets rather redundant.

Also, if you select a commander they get pushed to the front...

Battle Queues that you can take out orders, assign "if" variables. Orders like hang back and shoot spells for a couple turns, unless THIS unit falls than attack... or something like that.

Also Queues for non battle actions (blood hunt, item creation, research, etc.). Yet, you would need warnings that say HEY, you ain't got enough gems for that!

Another thing I think would be kewl is if the message screen would be a side screen after you exit it... Not sure if this the best idea, but why I want it is so that I don't have to go back to the message screen all the time to find a)where that commander died, b) where the new one showed up, c) where my people are rioting, d) where I was attacked, e) where an udefended province was taken over, f) where I go volunteers, etc... This list becomes rather big after you get a lot of provinces.

I guess in general I would like to have certain things appear on the screen that I have to click through multiple links to get into and out of just to check on (magic progression and gem counts are two that come to mind)... Yet, I don't want the screen to get cluttered like CNBC in the mornings. Maybe that's asking to much, but if certain icons were built into pull down menues or smaller icons it would be possible.