Just an idea of mine - the Dom3 Q&A thread

[SafeKeeper]

I had this idea that instead of having several separate "Questions on Dom3"-threads from those of us without the game, we could have a single one where the uninitiated ones could ask the developers and those with the game questions about what it's like.

I'll start:

1. During nation-creation, when for example assigning magical powers to a Pretender, is there a way to see what types of magic your nation specializes in without having to go back to the Nation-selection menu?

2. In Dominions II, to my experience, the AI "players" would always gang up on you (in the demo, at least). Has this been improved?

[Ygorl]

1) No, unfortunately. In fact, there's also no way to go back from the pretender design screen to the nation selection screen. You have to accept the pretender, then hit cancel on the *next* screen. Kind of annoying.

2) I don't know if it's different; the AI attacks you if you've got a high ratio of provinces to troops. Humans typically don't buy mobs of crap troops, and are typically pretty good at expanding through indies, so we get attacked a lot. You can somewhat offset this by buying province defense (and PD is both better and easier to get in Dom3), I believe, as I think those troops are counted. So the basic mechanic is unchanged, the details might be (but I bet not), but there seems to be less piling on because of cheaper troops and cheaper PD (and increased difficulty in getting small elite armies early).

[Kristoffer O]

1. If you have the manual there is a nations/strategy section that gives you a basic knowledge on each nation and a pretender suggestion.

If you just have the demo you won't have the same guidance.

2. Not sure. The AI was never designed to gang up on anyone in dom2, but if you were at war you would probably have less troops in border territories and thus get attacked by other AI's. This might or might not be the same. Most likely you can still get attacked by several AI if you appear weak.

[Morkilus]

2) It helps to avoid gang-up if you don't attack everyone you see from the beginning. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm very guilty of that, I admit.

[Gandalf Parker]

The AI in Dom3 also has multiple settings;
defensive, standard, aggressive, and random.
Thats besides the ratings from easy to impossible.

So if you start the game with all randomly assigned AIs then when they DO find you the chance of war should be different with some of them.

[Mortibus]

Here's a question- is a couple minutes processing between turns normal on the largest map with maximum AI players?

[Daynarr]

Well, at later stages of the game on huge maps it's quite normal.

[Mortibus]

Okay, I'm at year 6 or 7 on the hugest map. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't an issue on my end.

Would increasing the size of my page file accelerate the process? Thanks for your reply!

[DominionsFan]

Mortibus said:
Okay, I'm at year 6 or 7 on the hugest map. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't an issue on my end.

Would increasing the size of my page file accelerate the process? Thanks for your reply!




You could use some extra memory. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Mortibus]

I've got 2 GB, it's not like I'm trying to run this on a Commodore 64 or something!

I can increase my page file another 1000MB, I'll do so tonight and report the results.

[JaydedOne]

Even with 1.5 gigs of RAM on mine, the processing time on such turns is pretty long. I think it's just to be expected, given the complexity of crunching all those numbers in sequence.

[DominionsFan]

Mortibus said:
I've got 2 GB, it's not like I'm trying to run this on a Commodore 64 or something!

I can increase my page file another 1000MB, I'll do so tonight and report the results.




I see. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

Hosting time is to keep us from starving or dehydrating or bursting our bladders. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Ive been able to get the hosting time up to ten minutes. But that was 1500 provinces and 79 nations after 50 turns into the game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif And 20 minutes 70 turns into the game.

[Mortibus]

Wow that's a big game... mine is at 300 provinces or so (the largest included map). How do you get 79 nations, are most of those independent?

I'll increase my page file to 4000 MB and see if I notice any difference.

Okay, another question- is there a limit to how many of those magic places you can find in a province?

For instance, I've found two places of magic in one province, a sunken ship and I think an oyster breeding ground or something. Could I discover more in the future with a mage of superior ability?

[Twan]

4 magic sites maximum.

[Cainehill]

Remember that random events (possibly other things, like scales shifting) get evaluated for _every_ province, so large maps take longer even without extra AIs. Adding in a full quota of nations and it'll get ugly fast. Happened with Dom2 also, was noticed easily on the Forgotten Realms map.

[Gandalf Parker]

Dominions lets you create games of era 1 or era 2 or era 3, and about 23 players in the game. That includes human or computer players.

But the map commands allows you to add AIs. There are 79 nation slots. Some are special monster nations, some are unfinished nations for the modders to work with so they dont overwrite the games nations. Anyway, I go ahead and add them all. All 3 ages, specials, modder slots. Its pretty insane. Its possible altho most players wont be doing it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[MarcinM]

Noob questions from the tutorial.

Q1. The tutorial has me send my scout all over the place, but as soon as he gets too far from my dominion the provinces go blank. Wouldn't I want to get more scouts to hang out in indie provinces so I can get constant info updates?

Q2. The tutorial javelin bearers and bare-chested warriors seem very similar on the screen (their sprites, I mean). Is there an easier way of managing army squads that doesn't rely on purely visual recognition? I mean they're identical except for a few tiny pixels where the sword/javelin is rendered http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif Am I too old (vision failing) to play Dom3? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Q3. Why would you ever want to play Undead? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif First Banishment priest you come across, you're screwed.

[JaydedOne]

q1 - Your dominion already gives you some information. The scout is there to extend beyond your dominion's reach and see what's going on in other dominions.

q2 - Well, double-clicking on a unit type highlights all units of that type. That can help.

q3 - Undead nations get spells that bolster resistance to banishment effects. There are other nasty tricks out there as well that help undead overcome banishment. There're also some spells that Death magic gets that can target enemy commanders. That makes those priests think twice about showing up to a fight. Finally, undead multiply much faster than living units. You can only banish so many before they overrun you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[JaydedOne]

q3.5 - BTW, the other huge benefit undead get is that they don't have to eat. Death nations usually have jacked up Death dominions, meaning they'll destroy your ability to eat within their reach. Your men'll be starving and diseased, easy pickings for Ermor and the like by the time the leftovers reach their capital.

There are of course counters. But that's half the fun. Let's just say that as a lover of all things evil and undead, I don't worry at all about their viability in this game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[ceremony]

Q1. Sure. The idea was to get your scout far enough across the map to reveal the AI before the tutorial ended. If you want to start building scouts early, feel free. The indies aren't going to change, though, and the AI is far enough away that you shouldn't have anyone encroaching on nearby provinces until well after the tutorial ends.

Q2. Have you adjusted the screen resolution in the Options menu? If you can go to 1600x1200 the sprites will be much sharper.

Q3. Undead priests can cast Unholy Protection/Protection of the Sepulchre, which gives undead +4 magic resistance, which helps a lot with the MR roll against Banishment. Spamming Banishment is a basic anti-undead tactic but has many counters. When you get the full game you'll be able to explore the various magic combinations. There are lots of ways to play undead (and lots of ways to play against undead).

[Ballbarian]

Something that I have not had problems with yet, but anticipate trouble with, is not having the 'X' for armies with a commander. Is there a marker on the overland map that I have not noticed for provinces containing a commander of some sort? I suspect that when I start a game with Ermor undead or other spawning armies that it will become difficult to track shuttle commanders.

On further thought, I can probably live without it by relying on the 'n' shortcut key. (next commander)

[MarcinM]

Follow-ups to above:

Q1. Hmm, if the indies aren't going to change, would it be possible to patch in a greyed-out "ghost" display, as a "last known recon" for previously explored provinces (this is more for the devs obviously http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif)? I see what you were going for there though. Still, I'm nervous not knowing what's in the province that's just 2 away from my castle.

Q2. Unfortunately my LCD only does 1280 max, but even that helped - turns out I was at 1024 by default.

Q3. I should've figured there was a counter (and a counter's counter I'm sure)! It's just that Banishment looked soooo powerful!

[Tyrian]

Q1: What's the effect of Death weapon? I don't totally understand this "2 an + mr". I suppose the an = armor negating and mr = magic resistance.

Q2: Death curse effect is always to curse the slayer of the blessed unit?

[Nerfix]

Death Weapons do Armor Negating damage that can be resisted.

Death Curse has a chance to curse the slayer of the blessed unit.

[hoo]

Question: Any troops that are there as a result of Province defense is in ADDITION to any troops there with a general correct?

Example: I have a small 5 person army there but a PD of 10. I get the 10 soldiers for the PD of 10 in addition to the 5 person army there.

wahoo

[Nerfix]

When attacked, yes.

[Archonsod]

hoo said:
Question: Any troops that are there as a result of Province defense is in ADDITION to any troops there with a general correct?



Yup. Even troops without a commander will participate in province defence (so if you lost your commander conquering the province, the left over troops will join the PD defence when attacked).

[thejeff]

Troops detaching from commanders

After winning a battle, I've found occasionally found troops from the army in the same province, but no longer in a squad under their previous commander. The battles were won, no commanders were lost or retreated.

I've also not noticed this and moved the commander on without all his troops. That's annoying.

Just occured to me: Is this new behavior for troops that route, but don't leave the field before the battle ends? If so, I don't like it. It adds micromanagement for no real effect. You just have to remember to check Army Setup in each province with a battle.

[Archonsod]

No, it existed in Doms 2. If troops rout of the field, then they end up detatched from the commander (in Doms 2, they'd usually end up in a different province).
With the new leadership stuff in doms 3, you'll probably see this a little more often than your used to (well, unless your Ermor http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

[thejeff]

So the difference is routed troops will sometimes wind up in same province? (Assuming the battle is won, of course.)

That's good.

I'll have to double check, though. I'm pretty sure they didn't route off the field.

[Archonsod]

I don't think they need to actually leave the field, it seems to occur as soon as they rout.

[thejeff]

If so, that's new and doesn't really add anything except the hassle of checking for them and reorganizing your army.

[PDF]

I just had the case of a battle *won*, *no* rout nor commanders killed, yet a group was disbanded.
Kind'o strange/buggy...

[thejeff]

Yeah, I've had it happen again.
Since I was looking for it now, certainly no rout or lost commanders. The group in question ended the fight chasing the defeated enemy off the field.

Look like a bug to me.

[Daynarr]

It's odd. I didn't have that happen to me. Can you attach a save game with it?

[thejeff]

Sure.
It happens in The Bottleneck (40).

[Daynarr]

It looks odd indeed. Just checked that savegame and I see no reason why that group would be disbanded. I never had that happen to me.
Maybe you could post this in the bug thread and attach that same savegame with it?

[vanedor]

I noticed the same thing while playing the demo. Kinda annoying.

[Daynarr]

Did anyone experience this in full game or does this happen only in demo?

[thejeff]

I've got the full game.
It was in the tutorial. It happened a few times there.
I'm playing Agartha now and haven't seen it. It might be linked to Marveni, or to the tuturial, or just to tactics I was using there.

I'm also using Linux. Not likely to be a factor, but ...

[Archonsod]

Only time I've seen it is when troops have routed.

[MarcinM]

Range question for archers/slingers.

I use the troop disposition square to put my javelin hurlers in the back, others in front. It seems like the Bandar I'm playing against have a HUGE firing range from even farther back ... so is there a range value somewhere in the stats?

I notice later in the battle, both sides tend to fire on their own troops a little bit, but some are more accurate than others. Is there an accuracy value somewhere as well?

Note I don't have the manual (my game is either en-route or hasn't shipped yet), so sorry if this is explained there...

I can't wait for it to get here, I think I don't understand many things (magic, for one), just from the tutorial http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Nerfix]

Strenght affects the range of some ranged weapons. Javelins and Sticks and Stones are such IIRC, Boulders also. Lightning too.

[Agrajag]

Range is a property of the (ranged) weapon your troop wields, click on the name of the weapon on the bottom of the unit's description window.
"Accuracy" is a property of both the unit and the (ranged) weapon, a unit has a Precision score, and each (ranged) weapon has a Precision score as well, the effective Precision of a certain unit with that certain weapon is the sum of those precision scores IIRC.

[thejeff]

Precision is the accuracy stat.

Range is listed on the weapon itself. Click on it, stats should come up.

[Theonlystd]

Say does Undead Archers Banefire affect the units struck after the battle or just battle only?

[Taqwus]

If the banefire's Decay effect is not resisted, there usually won't be any "after the battle" for the affected units.

At least in Dom 2, Decay was survivable IF you had very, very high regeneration and base hp, but otherwise, you'd die -- it'd iterate through turns of damage and kill you.

[tibbs]

Here's a question.
I am playing late Ulm and I have a hero whom is a vampire. He is immortal, has regen6, flying and is undead. He has heroic quickness. I have him equipped with a heartseeker sword,terror helm?, and antimagic amulet.He has his default armor on which gives him I think around 15 protection.He gets two or 3 attacks a round due to his quickness.

The question is, when I watch him in battle he never gains one point of fatigue. He doesn't have life drain listed as an attack. Shouldn't he be gaining at least some fatigue with all that swinging?

Thanks

[thejeff]

Undead only gain fatigue from spellcasting.

[Endoperez]

Or more spesifically, units with 0 Encumberance aren't burdened down by their armor. They get fatique only from magical sources, that is, from casting spells and from being targeted by fatique-increasing spells. They have no metabolism and can't get tired.

[hoo]

Two questions about pretender blessings from takign high paths:

1) What does Reinvigoration +2 mean? Do you lose 2 pts of fatigue each turn?

2) Does REgeneration 10%, regen 10% of hit pts or 10% of damagE?

ty

[tibbs]

1) Reinvigoration helps reduce fatigue for the wearer.

2) I'm not sure. I thought regeneration always had a value assigned to it. Like regeneration 6 meant the unit regained 6 HP back each turn.

My own question. Is there a way to have a mage forge the same magic item every turn? I tried shift+f but next turn he is set back to "defend" status.

It would make it much easier to mass produce those skulls that give you +9 to research.

Thanks,
Chris

[thejeff]

1) Reinvigoration +x is just that: An extra x points off fatigue every turn.

2)Regeneration is by percentage of max hp. Thus much more useful for high hp creatures. Note that for pretenders (and prophets) max hp and thus regen varies with dominion.

And I'm pretty sure there's no way to set someone to forge the same item every turn. It's been requested more than once though.

[Endoperez]

Taqwus said:
If the banefire's Decay effect is not resisted, there usually won't be any "after the battle" for the affected units.

At least in Dom 2, Decay was survivable IF you had very, very high regeneration and base hp, but otherwise, you'd die -- it'd iterate through turns of damage and kill you.



It ages the target in Dom3. I don't know how much, but I quess it won't kill now, at least not directly.

[Taqwus]

Yah, noted that in the manual last night. Less guaranteed-kill... and if it's solely age-based, it's less universal. Used to be that Decay would kill undead, too.

Not that the game is lacking in instadeath or near-instadeath... high Blood seems to have gained some very, very nasty spells that would seem useful for sending an enemy SC to Hell (literally).

[Nerfix]

Cocythos is better. They'll be stuck in ice for all eternity, and if they are big enough traitors Satan (or is it Shai'tan, Enemy of Gods and Men in Dominions? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ) will chew on them for all eternity.

[malichai11]

Am I understanding properly that nations with heat/cold scales are good things, since your Pretender would set his heat/cold scale up or down, thereby gaining extra points to spend on things? For example, Abysia wants a heat scale of +3, so your Pretender sets his heat scale to +3 and gains 120 points to spend on other stuff.

[Nerfix]

Yes, they are very good things.

[malichai11]

How can you tell which nation's buildings can build whatever outside of the capital. Specifically, which nation's non-capital labs can produce mages?

[Agrajag]

Bear in mind though that your dominion can screw up other people, and their dominion can screw you up.

[Fate]

Capitol-only units have a site that allows their construction (sort of like horse's vale. It was common in the Dom2 Demo, but I haven't actually seen it in Dom3 yet...).

Right-click on a site and it will tell you what it allows (it will only allow it for that nation, though. As opposed to other sites, which allow it for everyone). Alternatively you can build a second castle and see what doesn't show up.

[Theonlystd]

Do Supply items stack?

Can my commander carry 2 bags of wine and supply 100troops with them?

[Frostmourne27]

No, though 2 commanders, each with a sack of wine, will work fine.

[Theonlystd]

Frostmourne27 said:
No, though 2 commanders, each with a sack of wine, will work fine.



mkay what about a cauldron and a bag?

supply 150 or just 100?

[dirtywick]

That should add up to 150. From what I know, identical items won't stack, but different items with the same effect should.

[Frostmourne27]

dirtywick said:
That should add up to 150. From what I know, identical items won't stack, but different items with the same effect should.


That also applies to gem generating items. Don't stack clams.

[hoo]

One more question about blessings:

Level 9 waters gives quickness. I know this is different from the spell. Does the quickness characteristic give an extra attack or extra move pts?

I tried it last night and it didn't show up on the sacred units the way Regeneration or twist fate does.

[Graeme Dice]

hoo said:
Level 9 waters gives quickness. I know this is different from the spell. Does the quickness characteristic give an extra attack or extra move pts?



It's a 50% quickness effect, meaning that the unit can move 50% farther every turn, and gets an extra attack every other turn.


I tried it last night and it didn't show up on the sacred units the way Regeneration or twist fate does.



Take a look at the movement statistic before and after the unit is blessed.

[Taqwus]

Played a bit with banefire archers last night -- Decay appears to age ordinary Arcosephalian human soldiers 5yr/combat turn. If it's proportional to the Old Age threshold, that's 10%.

[Theonlystd]

Taqwus said:
Played a bit with banefire archers last night -- Decay appears to age ordinary Arcosephalian human soldiers 5yr/combat turn. If it's proportional to the Old Age threshold, that's 10%.



Its 5 with everyone it appears.


One of my Soldiers got hit with Decay.. The only one he was aged to like 65..Had old age icon when battle ended

So after battle i looked for him... He was no where to be seen so i asume he died of old age?

[Morkilus]

Question: Anyone know if you can adjust the sound level as a percentage, such as from a command line switch (I didn't see it on the list, but there's one for the mouse click)?

I'm having a hard time balancing my Schoenberg with my Screams of the Dying. My wave out slider on my software mixer seems to adjust both Dominions sound and my media player (it might be a system-specific thing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif)