Patch Improvements

[NTJedi]

First let me say Dominions_3 is wonderful... thanks so much for creating this treasure. Patch improvements are listed to increase the games playing value. These are not bugs, but feature improvements which would make the Dominions game more enjoyable.
I will try and keep this updated and easy to read with suggested improvements which are in greatest demand.


1) Multiple Victory Conditions would be intensely more interesting for multiplayer games allowing the option of more than one type of victory condition available.
Desired By: NTJedi, BigJMoney, Chazar, MythicalMino

2) Random Computer Allies Option would greatly make SP games more interesting for experienced SP gamers. This option would allow gamers to choose how many computer teams and the possible number of allies for each team.
example:
Computer Allies: Yes/No
Computer Teams: (1 thru 9)
Allies on each Team: Min(#) Max(#)

SP gamers would be more surprised and challenged instead of manually making the changes and knowing what to expect.
Desired by: NTJedi, DominionsFan

3) Mappers Wishlist = Author: Gandalf Parker

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=451821&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

4) Modder's Wishlist = Author: DominionsFan

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=451502&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

5) AI Opponents Bidding on Mercenaries= Allow computer opponents to wager wisely when buying mercenaries. Currently human opponents are able to acquire new mercenaries most of the time since computer opponents rarely place high bids.
Desired by: NTJedi, MythicalMino

6) New Troop Orders = Allow new troop orders such as "Fire until Retreats" where archers will target the enemy group with the greatest numbers and will stop using missle weapons when the enemy is fleeing thus reducing casualties from friendly fire.
Desired by: Leif_- , Agrajag, Amos, Chazar, Hadrian_II,

7) New Formations = Currently troops only have a square formation... other formations such as a triangle, straight line and rectangle would be useful.
Desired by: Leif_-, Chazar

8) Battle reports from Storming Castles= Some of the most important battles occur while storming a castle yet no reports are available. Battle reports for storming castles would be greatly appreciated.
Desired by: Taqwus, Cainehill, Agrajag, Amos, Fate, tka, Nerfix, MythicalMino, Hadrian_II

9) Grey-Out forging items which lack the resources = Have items greyed out or faded which lack the resources for building.
Desired by: Taqwus, Agrajag, Chazar, MythicalMino

10) Reset command orders for insane commanders = Currently insane commanders choose inapplicable orders, best if insane commanders stuck with last order or returned to default of defend.
Desired by: Taqwus, Cainehill, Agrajag, Hadrian_II

11) Castle/Fort status Provide a status for the building progress of castles/forts. When a builder is killed it's useful knowing the total progress. Perhaps adding the information within the F1 province window.
Desired by: Taqwus, Cainehill, Talleyrand, Fate, tka, MythicalMino

12) Have AI opponents avoid death scales when playing non-death nations.
Desired by: moodgiesanta, NTJedi

13) Provide wrap-around option for randomly generated maps.
Desired by: moodgiesanta, Agrajag, Chazar

14) Monthly casting spells target provinces more wisely. Monthly casting should target terrains with greater chances for magic sites first, unsearched provinces should be targeted before those which have been searched, and the spell should never target provinces with a matching level_4 or higher search and/or capitals.
Desired by: Tyrian, Twan, Nerfix, thejeff, Frostmourne27, Agrajag, Quietly, Hadrian_II

15) Have fleeing units stay in the province if the owner of the fleeing units is victorious.
Desired by: Dhaeron, Twan, Talleyrand, Agrajag, Amos, Chazar, MythicalMino, Hadrian_II

16) Function to allow the disabling of specific combat spells.
Desired by: Dhaeron, Ballbarian, NTJedi, Tortanick, Nerfix, Hadrian_II, Twan, Agrajag, Amos, Hadrian_II

17) Add a commander repeat previous commands This would allow a commander to repeat the same 4 or 5 spells previously scripted and/or allow a normal commander to fire then attack once then fire then attack once and so on.
Desired by: Dhaeron, Twan, Agrajag, Fate

18) Mouse-scroll and scroll-wheel zoom on the battle map.
Desired by: BigJMoney, DominionsFan, coobe, Talleyrand, Agrajag

19) Ability to "page" through unit statistics within a squad.
Example If a squad of 10 crossbowmen are assigned to a commander, and I right click one of those crossbowmen, I can view his statistics. I'd like to be able to use the arrow keys (or click an arrow icon) to instantly page to the next crossbowman in that squad.
Desired by: BigJMoney

20) Include feature to view overall status of commanders instantly via icon, hotkey and/or other.
Example Add these lines of small text somewhere:

Commanders: 40 [11]; Scouts: 5 [2]; Mages: 20 [0]; Priests: 10 [7]

The numbers in brackets represent how many of these types of troops are either set to "defend" or "hide", or when set to "preach" but they've reached their pinnacle.
Desired by: BigJMoney

21) A feature to set default orders for all commanders of each type from the recruitment screen.
Example: Right click on a spy commander type (from the recruitment menu), then right click on "behavior" and set him to retreat. Every spy hired afterward would be set to retreat automatically.
Desired by: BigJMoney, Tortanick, Nerfix, Quietly

22) When a command is given to multiple commanders that are selected, if any of the commanders cannot accomplish that command, all commanders should immediately become unselected.
Problem If I select 4 commanders and order them to move 2 provinces, but one of them can only move one, it appears that the command was successful, but I end up with a mess on my hands.
Suggested Change: The one commander would become unselected (not white) automatically because he cannot move 2 provinces, then it would alert me to the problem.
Desired by: BigJMoney, Hadrian_II

23) The message that says, "Research in XXX Complete" should display what level of research was just completed!
Desired by: BigJMoney

24) Add new battle command for archers: Fire and Withdraw/Hide
Archers would fire for three rounds and then assume stay behind troops order.
Desired by: Fate

25) Allow monthly site searching to start at provinces nearest to the caster, thus preventing newly conquered territories from being searched. Another option for monthly site searching to search provinces which have been owned the longest.
Desired by: Xendarq, Quietly

26) Mage commander setting/checkbox to never cast spells which will cause unconsciousness.
?May exist already as 'stay behind troops'?
Desired by: Hadrian_II

27) Display total remaining battles to process during the creation of the new turn. This will provide a rough estimate of how long until the turn is finished.
Desired by: Hadrian_II

28) Global Tax Default Setting Most useful for AE Ermor: who usually wants high default tax rate of '200 and ignore unrest', since its people die rapidly anyway.
Desired by: Taqwus

29) Extra size in formation value: If there are additional modifiers that added to size -for the sole purpose of determining how full a square is- that +1 could be added to LI or similar irregulars not trained for close-formmation combat. +1 on size-2 human = 2/square instead of 3.
Desired by: Taqwus

30) Improve and/or provide options to improve delays when viewing battles. Buffing spells and magic rounds of combat will cause battles to move slowly.
Desired by: Ballbarian and Fate

31) Provide more information for commanders which have been snatched away via spells or succubus.
Desired by: Hadrian_II

32) Improve AI to invest more in province defense. The AI would be more difficult to conquer if it invested a percentage of its gold each turn into province defense.
Desired by: Hadrian_II

33) Improve AI to better evaluate province defense of enemy nation before attacking.
Desired by: Hadrian_II

34) Allow archers to avoid targets which are near friendly melee troops. Features or changes to decrease losses from friendly fire are desired.
Desired by: Hadrian_II

35) Demobilizing(disbanding) troops into the province. Disbanded 'normal' units with minds can lower unrest. Disbanded 'undead', 'magical' and 'demons' could also provide unique effects such as disbanding undead may slightly increase the effect of pillaging.
Desired by: Taqwus

36) Prevent nations from dying from loss of dominion for the first 10_turns. Perhaps the capital of each nation cannot lower below 1_dominion for the first 10_turns. Useful for new gamers and AI opponents.
Desired by: Meglobob

37) Lower pts reward for slumbering pretenders.
Desired by: biekert

38) Increase pts reward for imprisoned pretenders.
Desired by: Cainehill, JaydedOne, Frostmourne27

39) Proceed with changes cautiously as to not slow down host processing.
Desired by: Gandalf Parker

40) Ability to view current units for castle/province. Allows viewing of the army before a battle and ability to view the bonuses from global spells and items.
Desired by: BigJMoney

41) Drag-Scroll the map using left mouse button. Useful for windows windowed-mode.
Desired by: BigJMoney

42) Reduce time before arrival for imprisoned pretenders.
Desired by: Daynarr

43) Blessing not working or Blessing penalty until pretender gets free. Provides balance for the imprisonned/asleep pretender with blessing paths.
Desired by: Frostmourne27

44) Allow alt-tab to keep graphics stable.
Desired by: boltar

45) Provide save function to reload a previous turn.
Desired by: Amos

46) Add more Mac-like functionality within Mac version. Right-click is currently implemented as command-click, but it should be control-click to match the Mac standard.
Multiple selection is control-click, but it should be shift-click for contiguous selection or command-click for non-contiguous selection.
Clicking in a scroll-bar below the thumb should scroll down; above the thumb should scroll up. Neither does anything ATM.
Page-up and page-down should cause scrolling lists to scroll by one page, but does not.
up-arrow and down-arrow should cause scrolling lists to scroll by one line. They don't.
Desired by: dfsuther

47) Add monthly forging of an item. example Shift-i
Desired by: BigJMoney, Corwin

48) Add hotkey(p) which is the inverse of hotkey(n) allowing gamers to scroll backwards through commanders.
Desired by: BigJMoney

49) Cross-out or mark spells which lack gems needed for casting the spell.
Desired by: Agrajag

50) Add a kill board displaying how many units I own which died and how many units of each type my army has killed.
Desired by: Theonlystd, kimmitt

51) Include button to view more detailed battle information. Example: Within the battle report there's a button named "View Detailed Battle Results". The information displayed from this button includes how many of each troop type died.
Desired by: Corwin, Nerfix

52) Add number of wounded commanders listing to the battle result window.
Desired by: Corwin

53) Add 'Ignore' or 'Guard' command which would allow commanders to sit safely inside a castle and ignore the (n) key when scrolling thru commanders. Patrol has them guarding the outside of the castle where they are not safe.
Desired by: Corwin, Chazar

54) Allow more accurate adjustments of research points. Include a {+ -} button on each end to adjust by one point or an option to type in a number.
Desired by: Corwin

55) Improve speed and optimization of the Random map generator. Specifically 'dividing the world' and 'drawing boundaries' seems to take the most time.
Desired by: Talleyrand, kimmitt, Cainehill

56) Allow spellcasters a command option of 'move and search' or 'magic hunt'. The commander would search any province which has not been searched or spellcasted searched and then move to the next nearest province which can use his searching skill.
Desired by: Quietly

57) Allow checkbox or setting where a province can have a commander automatically purchased at the start of each turn.
Desired by: Quietly

58) Setup hotkeys for position units and commanders on the battlefield.
Desired by: ioticus, Sandman

59) Use a single screen while creating pretenders.
Desired by: Sandman, kimmitt

60) Allow easy editing and deleting of existing pretenders.
Desired by: tibbs, Twan, tka,

61) Allow pretender passwords to provide a method of recovering the password. Example: prompting the answer for a personal question as seen within accounts and email.
Desired by: tibbs

62) User-scriptable AI for battle spellcasting
Desired by: MrMorden

63) Allow an option to stop and backup during game creation.
Desired by: Twan, tka

64) Bring feature to view pretender stats during game creation while selecting what pretender to load.
Desired by: Twan, tka

65) Bring feature to view pretender stats while the pretender is still slumbering or imprisoned.
Desired by: Twan, tka

66) Allow national globals to improve nations and troops which are separate from usual global spells.
Desired by: Nerfix

67) Improve the displays and GUI for icons, maps and backgrounds. Easier to judge the displayed data from Dominions_2
Desired by: kimmit, MythicalMino, Sandman, ioticus

68) Add new victory condition(s) based on research points. Victory to the nation which has researched all paths. Victory to the nation which was first to reach XXXXX research points. Victory on a specific turn to the nation with the highest research points.
Desired by: dirtywick

69) Merge many of the game screens into one screen. Combine pretender information, stored items, global enchantments, gems and research.
Desired by: Sandman

70) Expand the computer AI battle formations to be more unpredictable.
Desired by: Sandman

71) Improve details for province information. Information such as if your province has a commander, mage or priest. The nation name owning a province when hovering above a flag longer than 3 seconds. And residual magic site information if you previously owned the province.
Desired by: Sandman

72) Provide special gem pooling to remove micro-management.
Pool bloodhunter's slaves; Pool clam's astral gems; Pool fetish's fire gems; Pool blood stone's earth gems
Desired by: Olive; JaydedOne

73) Game option to include number of turns when mercenaries will arrive. Under the number of starting provinces for each nation... add number of turns before mercenaries arrive ranging from 5 turns to 500 turns. Thus someone could even effectively disable mercenaries if desired.
Desired by: Cainehill

74) Tooltips in Army Setup Screen
Currently difficult to identify the type of units since some sprites have almost identical appearance. Afflictions; HorrorMarks, Experience can also be included within the tool tips.
Desired by: MarcinM; PhilD; Nerfix

75) Commanders/Mages killed outside of combat should have their items returned to the lab.
Desired by: Chazar; PDF; thejeff

76) More awakening options in pretender design
Examples: Post#461317 (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showthreaded.php?Number=461317 )
Desired by: Twan

77) Allow Go To Province for magic sites which have been found with spells and provide the magic site name within the spell.
Desired by: dirtywick; sandman



Date: 10/10/2006 Main topic updated... I didn't get to add everyones, but it will eventually be done.
UPDATED: 10/13/2006 minor update including Nerfix topic, eventually everyones request will be added.
UPDATED: 10/18/2006 More updates added, eventually everyones request(s) will be added.
UPDATED: 10/19/2006 Lots of updates added, eventually everyones request(s) will be added.
UPDATED: 10/24/2006 Lots more updates added, soon starting page_8, eventually everyones request(s) will be added.
UPDATED: 11/3/2006 More updates added, soon starting page_10, eventually everyones request(s) will be added.
UPDATED: 12/8/2006 Updates added, soon starting #461454 on page_12, eventually everyones request will be added.

Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.

. [b]

[NTJedi]

Suggestions below came from a matching topic generated by Nerfix. All future feature improvements will need to be posted within this topic.

================================================== =========================================

A) A way to see unit afflictions in the Army Setup screen.
Perhaps a tooltip that appears when you hover your mouse on an unit. It could also show if the unit is Old, Cursed, Insane etc etc.
Desired by: Nerfix

B) Add National spells for nations with one or no national spells... such as Marverni
Desired by: PDF, MythicalMino

C) Viewing details of troop composition for mercenaries which are available for bidding. This feature existed within Dominions_1.
Desired by: ologm

D) A way to disable the animation of the troop movement arrows.
Desired by: ologm


E) Residual scout information
"When a scout leaves a province and moves 2 away, the province troop presence vanishes. I'd like a "ghost" display of "last seen troop presence in this province" along with a timestamp. So you'd get a "2 seasons (turns) ago, this province had 50 troops and 2 magic sites" etc. "

Desired by: MarcinM, Frank Trollman, Chazar

F) Filter and sort lists of provinces & commanders. Currently seems randomly ordered like in dom2.
Desired by: Manuk


G) Gamma and volume control
Desired by: Frank Trollman

H) '?' key should also work while watching battles.
As far as I can tell, battle screen has its own hotkeys. Players not familiar with hotkeys are forced to watch entire battles because they couldn't figure out 'q' key.
Desired by: B0rsuk

I) More visible province borders on manually made maps.
Sometimes difficulty recognizing province borders and be able to plan next moves properly. It probably can't be changed painlessly, because it's hardcoded into map image, but still something to remember. Unfortunately, it will probably require replacing all .tga files, and they're pretty big to put into patch.
Desired by: B0rsuk

J) Alternate way to enter army setup screen.
Right click on a specific commander icon to display him at the top of the list within the army setup screen. This will prevent scrolling through all available commanders to change battle orders of specific commander.
Desired by: B0rsuk

K) New map filters :

K1)*Commanders :
display a red X where you have one or more commander (or a red X + the number of commanders or one X per commander or a mini-box with the sprites of your commanders in each province)
Desired by: Twan

K2)*showing numbers on the map :
instead of forcing you to count sprites or click the provinces, show you on the main map the exact amount of the thing you search in your provinces, may be concerned...
- Supplies
- Ressources
- Leadership of each kind/units
- Income
etc...

Desired by: Twan

================================================== ==================================
================================================== ==================================
Purgatory Section
This section is for requested features which have either been added within a patch, identified as already existing in the game or Illwinter has determined this feature cannot or will not be added within a patch. Any existing or future feature listed might be moved into this category.

1) Currently nothing


================================================== ===================================
================================================== ===================================

UPDATED: 10/13/2006

To simplify work/reading time for Illwinter as of 10/13/2006 only posts within this topic regarding feature improvements will be recognized.
UPDATED: 10/19/2006
Purgatory section added... if the lists above are getting too long Illwinter can let me know which ones can be moved into this Purgatory section which can save time when viewing the list.

[DominionsFan]

I absolutely agree with the Random Computer Allies Option. That way -even for hardcore Dominions fans- it would be hellish hard to win against some Impossible AIs. Very good idea NTJedi. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

Random computer Allied-AIs can be done on server games.
I can offer it if people want.

[NTJedi]

Gandalf Parker said:
Random computer Allied-AIs can be done on server games.
I can offer it if people want.


Adding the option within a future patch would give everyone an easy_to_use and powerful new feature since many SP gamers only go online to download game patches.


DominionsFan said:
I absolutely agree with the Random Computer Allies Option. That way -even for hardcore Dominions fans- it would be hellish hard to win against some Impossible AIs. Very good idea NTJedi. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif



Yes in Dominions_2 I would edit the .map file setting up multiple computer opponents as allies just to keep the challenge strong.
If this feature is added within an upcoming patch it would save time and increase replay value.

[DominionsFan]

Yep exactly, I was also playing like that in my SP games in Doms 2. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif
This would be a good little addition what you've suggested, especially because there are lot of SP fans I guess. [Like 1 of my brothers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif]

[NTJedi]

If anyone wants a feature improvement post your thoughts and it will be added to the original list.

If anyone sees a feature improvement already listed and wishes Illwinter to consider adding the feature then please post "I agree with XXXXX feature". I will then update the post to include your name on the request.

[Nerfix]

You're free to add all the stuff I have in my thread.

[Leif_-]

Having had a brief look at the demo, I'm actually rather disappointed. Sure, there are a lot of good improvements and additions, but the area of the game that I felt needed and had the potential for improvement, the tactical combat, doesn't seem to have changed at all. There doesn't seem to be any new troop orders, your archers will still gleefully massacre your lightly armoured meleers, fire-and-flee still makes the troop leave the province even if you win the battle, no formations, no terrain, no paths of attack, no nothing.

[Nerfix]

Terrain actually does have an effect. Swamps bog non-swamp survival units down.

[NTJedi]

Nerfix said:
You're free to add all the stuff I have in my thread.



Will do... I will compile the information and update the topic. I'm at work so it won't be instant, but it will eventually be done.

[Taqwus]

Battle reports for castle storms.
It's odd not to get casualty reports for them.


Forge costs listed on forging screen.
Yes, player can look this up in table according to requirements, so it's technically redundant, but it would be helpful. Could even gray-out items for which the mage has the skills but not the resources.


Resetting commands on return to lucidity.
Insane commanders tend to behave very strangely, even choosing inapplicable orders (ex. Research for non-mages). This is fine. What -is- strange is that they continue these orders when they become lucid; while it would be best if they resumed whatever orders the player last gave them (if still permitted, ex. no duplicate buildings, and go Defend if not), it would be probably simplest in terms of coding if they went to Defend -- this obviates the need to cache orders. That way, they'll show up in an iteration through idle commanders.


Indication of incomplete castle
Even spiffier would be an indication of an unfinished castle that nobody is working on because the asssigned commander is currently running around saying "F'taghn", or somebody got lucky with an assassination spell.

[Cainehill]

Gotta say, beers to Taqwus! Not so much forging screen but the others are direly needed. The battle reports for castle sieges, or lack thereof, have driven players away before.

[moodgiesanta]

My two big things are
#1 Make non-death AI nations not pick death scales http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
#2 Wrap-around option for random maps.

Not sure how easy the second would be but hey. Also casualty reports for castle stormings would be pretty nice to have.

[Tyrian]

Acashic Record cast monthly less limited
Actually, the caster don't cast the spell on region with only a few number of path searched. I think it can be useful if the spell isn't cast only on regions with all path searched at 4.

[Twan]

Monthly cast of site searching spells need many improvements. As it is, your mages will even cast these spells on your capital province (as well of course as conquered capitals), or on a province another mage is exploring with the same spell.

How it should work IMO :
1/ all capitals (provinces with a capital only site) should be excluded
2/ all provinces with a search level 4 in the concerned paths should be excluded
3/ provinces with a search level 1-3 should be concerned only after provinces without a previous search and provinces with a less powerful one
4/ when several provinces may be concerned (no search or equal search level) the spells should be cast on provinces with the best magic sites chances first (wastes and mountains before plains etc...)
5/ once the AI has chosen a search target for a mage, this province should be excluded for mages casting the same spell

As it is not micromanaging site searching is a big waste of gems.

[Nerfix]

Aye, agreed.

[thejeff]

There are a couple of other weirdnesses with Monthly Site searches.
Mostly tracing to the target being chosen as soon as the mage casts his spell. Provinces searched later in the casting sequence can be chosen. Provinces taken that turn cannot be chosen. Provinces lost that turn can be targetted (The search works too)
And the standard problem with monthly rituals, that gems are allocated to them before gems are collected from sites, so you need to have enough gems left at the end of the turn for next turns monthly rituals.

I'm not sure about the Akashic. It should at least prioritize based on the number of paths already searched.

[Frostmourne27]

While we're talking about Acashic record, remember there's a similar water spell - voice of Tiamat - that reveals all elemental sites in an underwater province. I haven't tried casting it yet, but I assume that it would be just as bad as the record.

[Archonsod]

It would be nice to have gem income displayed alongside the gem types in the upper right of the screen, rather than needing to go into the lab to see your income

It would also be nice if the grey out of troops that can't be recruited immediately due to resources was also applied to Holy.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

Archonsod said:
It would be nice to have gem income displayed alongside the gem types in the upper right of the screen, rather than needing to go into the lab to see your income.




Mouse-hover over the gem type, details will pop-up at the bottom of the screen.

[Dhaeron]

Improvements to battles

Flee definitly needs to e improved. Make units stay in a province if they fled but the battle was won anyway. If they flee for a few months, there should be way enough time for the commander to send someone after them.
This DEFINITLY should apply to units who were scripted to flee. This command could make archers a bit more useful (or rather a bit less risky) but as it is now it is completely useless since fleeing units are scattered worse than sakura petals an a samurai movie.
Also, let them flee as intact squads. I'd often rather lose a whole army than go through the micromanagement hell of collecting all my troops from 4+ provinces. Ok, when there's a BIG army with a lot of squads this would stay the same even if they fled as squads, but in that case there should be enough commanders around to make regrouping take less than half a dozen rounds. (since my favorite nation is Soulgate Ermor this is really annoying)

Now as for things i'd like to see but don't deem that necessary:

If possible get a list of spells for commanders where it can be marked which spells they're allowed to cast and which not. I don't know how much data would need to be stored to have this list for every commander seperately, but it can't be that much, can it? I mean, with modern internet transfer rates an MB or two isn't that much. If that's not possible at all, how about making it a single list? Like a checkbox besides each spell in the magic menu so spells can be disallowed for all casters at once. I sure know a few i'd like to turn off.

If even that is impossible, how about at least a new order for casters "repeat specific spell"? It makes me cringe when i see my agarthan casters slam a bladewind into the meelee that hurts my troglodytes much more than the enemy, while they could have used that round to caste a 100 accuracy smite instead.

Similarly, how about a command for troops that tells them not to use any ranged weapons in battle? That would be very useful for archers, especially if it's not possible to change flee so that they stay in a province despite fleeing orders. Not to mention many of the javelin-wielding ground troops. Those javelins are quite nice for the first strike when the enemy is literally a throw away. In the next round of battle there's usually a few casualties by friendly fire because the rear decides to throw into the meelee.


All in all, you guys did a terrific job improving the strategic game. Now if the tactical combat could be improved a bit more i'd call this game perfect. d-(o.o)-b

[Ballbarian]

Like a checkbox besides each spell in the magic menu so spells can be disallowed for all casters at once. I sure know a few i'd like to turn off.



I have suggested this before and would greatly appreciate it's implementation. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


If even that is impossible, how about at least a new order for casters "repeat specific spell"? It makes me cringe when i see my agarthan casters slam a bladewind into the meelee that hurts my troglodytes much more than the enemy, while they could have used that round to caste a 100 accuracy smite instead.



On this one, I would rather it remain a little out of control. Sometimes the combat ai surprises me with the perfect spell for the occassion that I would have never scripted otherwise. But I do feel your pain.

[BigJMoney]

I am very happy with the ability to mouse-scroll and scroll-wheel zoom on the main map! Now... when are we gonna have that capability on the battle map, too?

[Edit: Oh yeah, I second the Multiple Victory Condition idea. I don't know about the game code, but as far as the interface goes, make it possible to check multiple conditions simultaneously]

=$=

[BigJMoney]

Here are some simple ways to streamline the Dominions Interface:

I) The ability to "page" through unit statistics within a squad.
Example If a squad of 10 crossbowmen are assigned to a commander, and I right click one of those crossbowmen, I can view his statistics. I'd like to be able to use the arrow keys (or click an arrow icon) to instantly page to the next crossbowman in that squad.

II) The ability to see basic statistics instantly.
Example Add these lines of small text somewhere:

Commanders: 40 [11]
Scouts: 5 [2]
Mages: 20 [0]
Priests: 10 [7]

This small amount of text could be toggleable with the press of a hotkey. The numbers in brackets represent how many of these types of troops are either set to "defend" or "hide", or when set to "preach" but they've reached their pinnacle.

III) The ability to set default orders for all commander types from the recruitment screen.
Example I would be able to right click on a spy commander type (from the recruitment menu), then right click on "behavior" and set him to retreat. Every spy I hire afterward would be set to retreat automatically.

IV) When you give a command to multiple commanders that are selected, if any of the commanders cannot accomplish that command, they should immediately become unselected.
Problem If I select 4 commanders and order them to move 2 provinces, but one of them can only move one, it appears that the command was successful, but I end up with a mess on my hands.
Example Instead, if that one commander would become unselected (not white) automatically because he cannot move 2 provinces, then it would alert me to the problem.

V) The message that says, "Research in XXX Complete" ought to say what level of research was just completed!

=$= Big J Money =$=

[Dhaeron]

Ballbarian said:
On this one, I would rather it remain a little out of control. Sometimes the combat ai surprises me with the perfect spell for the occassion that I would have never scripted otherwise. But I do feel your pain.

You are not presenting a logical argument here. :p If you think the AI can handle it, you could just ignore the checkboxes. Having the option for more control is never bad. (Unless it disrupts game balance, like "attack commanders" would)

[Ballbarian]

I was not trying to present an argument. Just stating my personal preference. Via the checkboxes, I would not have the patience to disable a hundred spells, but I would be very tempted to select bladewind (for example) as a "cast infinite" spell. If the majority wanted it, fine. I just hope that I can resist the temptation. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

It would however be VERY nice to be able to remove breath of winter from the mage's arsenal in most situations, but not all. I still find use for it on occasion so modding it out doesn't suit my play style.

Options are always good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[DominionsFan]

BigJMoney said:
I am very happy with the ability to mouse-scroll and scroll-wheel zoom on the main map! Now... when are we gonna have that capability on the battle map, too?


=$=



Yep good suggestion. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Fate]

Why can't the "fire and retreat" order be changed to something like "fire and withdraw"? The unit would fire for 2-3 turns, and then act like the commander's "stay behind troops" command.

[Tortanick]

I don't know if its been recomended before but I'd like resarch to replace defend as the default where applicible.

And I'd also like that turn off spells feature, too many mages waste time charging their body when behind a wall of heavy infentry.

[Xendarq]

Adding onto the monthly site searching spell requests - it'd be nice if the searches radiated out from a particular province (e.g. the capital or the location of the spellcaster) rather than simply going down the list of provinces. The current system becomes a problem when the new searches are picking provinces that were just conquered (as they are now at the top of the province list) so you end up searching near the front lines rather than going through the safe ones in the back.

[Nerfix]

Tortanick said:
I don't know if its been recomended before but I'd like resarch to replace defend as the default where applicible.

And I'd also like that turn off spells feature, too many mages waste time charging their body when behind a wall of heavy infentry.

2nded.

[Nerfix]

awafour said:
Adding onto the monthly site searching spell requests - it'd be nice if the searches radiated out from a particular province (e.g. the capital or the location of the spellcaster) rather than simply going down the list of provinces. The current system becomes a problem when the new searches are picking provinces that were just conquered (as they are now at the top of the province list) so you end up searching near the front lines rather than going through the safe ones in the back.

Perhaps an inverted list? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Xendarq]

Inverted would help half the time, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif! It depends on which direction your current conquest is currently progressing - sometimes you add province on the top of the list ... sometimes the bottom.

Another note - why is the minimum for auto-taxation only 50%? (been playing Mictlan, I get some rather large unrest values from time to time)

[Hadrian_II]

Hi

I just got Dominions3 and i like it, but there are some little annoyances.

Mage casting behavior

I think it should be possible to give your mages the order to cast only spells that dont use gems, as i noticed my mages to waste their gems pretty fast.

The other thing I'd like would be to give your mage the order not to use too much fatigue. Especially on a battle that you might loose it sucks when your mages stay with 160 fatigue on the battlefield and get killed. Maybe an order, not to cast spells that would render the caster unconscious, would be nice.

Show how much battles are left while processing the Turn

This is pretty minor but it would be nice if it could show how many battles are left while processing the turn, so you can predict how long it will take.

[Taqwus]

Global tax default: Mostly useful for AE Ermor: the ability to set the default tax rate to '200 and ignore unrest', since the pop is going to die rapidly anyway.

Possible 'extra size in formation' value: Recalling discussions of light infantry formations in Dom2, it seems to be that if there were an additional modifier that added to size -for the sole purpose of determining how full a square is- that +1 could be added to LI or similar irregulars not trained for close-formmation combat. +1 on size-2 human = 2/square instead of 3.

[Endoperez]

Hadrian_II said:
Hi

I just got Dominions3 and i like it, but there are some little annoyances.

Mage casting behavior

I think it should be possible to give your mages the order to cast only spells that dont use gems, as i noticed my mages to waste their gems pretty fast.

The other thing I'd like would be to give your mage the order not to use too much fatigue. Especially on a battle that you might loose it sucks when your mages stay with 160 fatigue on the battlefield and get killed. Maybe an order, not to cast spells that would render the caster unconscious, would be nice.



The above (not casting spells) isn't implemented, but could be useful. IIRC, mages ordered to "Stay behind troops" cast spells but stop before they are unconscious. I can't verify this yet, as I don't have my Dom3 manual yet, but I seem to remember it being this way. "Stay behind troops" would also be a good enough command for mages who you don't want to cast spells , wouldn't it?

[Ballbarian]

Battle replay "chugginess":
The fact that larger armies are common is fantastic. My problem is that while watching the replays there is a long freeze while the engine loops through an army's units looking for a suitable target for buffing spells. Similar stalls occur as large groups of units have their stats updated after having a spell like legions of steel cast upon them. I have plenty of graphic power, though my cpu is getting dated (1.3 ghz) and my ram could be better (512 mb).

All that said, I wondered if there was a programming equivalent to visual basic's "DoEvents" available for the next patch. If this was placed within any large loops it would allow the player to continue scrolling the view eliminating the sense of stalling.

[Fate]

Skipping Magic

The ability to skip the magic round of combat (using the "S" or "M" key), but still seeing all the others.

It seems to me that, even on fast forward, mages take a long time to cast their spells. This is because they pause for every mage (to give the player time to read the spell?).

I often find this annoying, and I just want to skip to the melee combat.

[Hadrian_II]

Endoperez said:

IIRC, mages ordered to "Stay behind troops" cast spells but stop before they are unconscious. I can't verify this yet, as I don't have my Dom3 manual yet, but I seem to remember it being this way. "Stay behind troops" would also be a good enough command for mages who you don't want to cast spells , wouldn't it?



Mages on stay behind act the same as mages on casting spells, at least they cast and get unconscious. But the fatigue thing is not that important.


Today i noticed some other things that might be improved:

whirlwind spell description

First it would be nice if the type of the snatched commander would be shown so that its simpler to notice what you have lost. Second I'd like it if there it would say if the commander survived or not (Or can i assume that when a commander drops down in an other Province than the start he died?)

AI should build more Province defence

AI almost never has big province defences, and i think it might be worth something if the AI might build at least 20 or so. (I think you get lots of troops for just 200 gold)

AI should consider strong Province defences as dangerous

What i noticed is that the AI attacks provinces always with too less troops. Last game i was against Tien Chi and they wasted every turn about 100 units on a province with 100 defence. If the AI would notice the province defence and build corresponding armys (I did only have PD in that province) i think she (is AI feminine??) would be a lot better.

Friendly fire

I'd like an option to order your archers not to fire where own troops are in the adjacent square as in a lot of the littler battles my only losses are from friendly fire. (Especially funny is the friendly fire when your archers kill the units chasing routing enemys :/)

[Taqwus]

Demobilizing troops: It should be possible to demobilize troops. Disbanded 'normal' units with minds might contribute to province defense, unrest, both, or neither -- probably depending on dominion, unrest, existing PD, and whether they were healthy or starving (wounded units most likely to simply vanish; healthy, but inexperienced units, especially hungry ones, in a province riven with unrest might turn to banditry).

Disbanded magical, undead or demon units might simply vanish or turn to unrest only, if they have minds; and simply dissolve, otherwise.

One question would be whether the commander demobilizes with them.

[SelfishGene]

It's hard to say, but you can create some pretty obscene high-bless gods with Imprisoned. With even more points, it means you can get a dual-9, decent scales, AND a high dominion.

[NTJedi]

Date: 10/10/2006 Main topic updated... I didn't get to add everyones, but it will eventually be done.

Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.

[Frostmourne27]

I see nothing wrong with imprisoned points, if anything, I think that they are too low. However, I really wish we had more points to start with so that playing an awake pretender was a valid choice for a reason other than to get a rush/early game SC.

Another suggestion to throw out there to be ripped apart by the community: (I have not really though about this) Blessing requiring an alive god that has awoken/broken free. The obvious extension would be that dying/losing magic would hurt your bless, but that's going too far IMHO. This would make the imprisonned blessing God from heaven/hell less of a threat, since by the time it actually benefits from its bless, it is quite easy to counter superblessed vaniir or whatever. Alternatively there could be a bless penalty for not being awake/alive: say your bless is treated as one 'point' lower in all paths you get a bless from (i.e. 10 becomes 9, 9 becomes 8, 8 becomes 6, 6 becomes 4, 4 becomes unavailable) that would certainly provide a reason to take 10 in a path, something that isn't really present.

[Gandalf Parker]

There is already some complaints on hosting times. Keep in mind that some of these suggestions would vastly slow down host processing. Particularly things that affect every province (with the new 1500 limit), or every commander, or some of them every round of combat. Choosing a multiplayer option that downgrades the soloplay options might be a consideration.

Just thought Id toss that in on some of the "dont know why it hasnt been done" comments.

[Cainehill]

Gandalf Parker said:
There is already some complaints on hosting times. Keep in mind that some of these suggestions would vastly slow down host processing. Particularly things that affect every province (with the new 1500 limit), or every commander...



You mean like calculating aging for every commander? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Meglobob]

PATCH IMPROVEMENT REQUEST

Better starting AI at game start, turn 1 or 0 if u prefer (as that's where the problem lies), AI's r dieing of dominion death turns 1 - 10 or stagnating in there home province due to taking bad scales, becoming easy kills, lvls normal to difficult.

Overall the AI Is very good when it gets going, just a starting problem with a few who seem to get the game setup wrong.

[biekert]

I think the 150 points for missing only the first year is too rewarding - you can really pump up your scales to the point that it seems almost folly to take an awake pretender unless the map is tiny and you can use him as a SC. I'd recommend moving the point reward down to 100 or even 80.

I'm also a little confused about aging - it seems like units' ages are increasing much faster than the 3-8 years that a dom3 game typically plays out in.

[Cainehill]

biekert said:
I think the 150 points for missing only the first year is too rewarding - you can really pump up your scales to the point that it seems almost folly to take an awake pretender unless the map is tiny and you can use him as a SC. I'd recommend moving the point reward down to 100 or even 80.




Not sure the 150 is wrong, but the added bonus for being imprisoned and not showing up for _three_ years (two years after the slumbering ones) should be at least as much as the bonus for slumbering.



I'm also a little confused about aging - it seems like units' ages are increasing much faster than the 3-8 years that a dom3 game typically plays out in.



It's seemed that way to me as well - and of course, unless you jot down ages for _every_ unit (or at least commander) and track each unit every turn, almost impossible to actually catch. Probably won't be fun to debug either.

[Valandil]

I much prefer the idea of a spirit in the otherworld lending some portion of divine strength from afar. I'd prefer to keep bless as is. That and I like imprisonment.

[Gandalf Parker]

Cainehill said:

Gandalf Parker said:
There is already some complaints on hosting times. Keep in mind that some of these suggestions would vastly slow down host processing. Particularly things that affect every province (with the new 1500 limit), or every commander...



You mean like calculating aging for every commander? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



Actually yes. But that could be considered a fix for large maps and long games with full labs. Not to mention elites that are years away from their home province. So that fact that it impacts large maps is acceptable.

[Teraswaerto]

You can use the pretender for taking indies no matter what the map size is, and an early advantage can grow with time. I think the points you get for not having your pretender ready on turn 1 is not too high.

[JaydedOne]

Cainehill said:

Not sure the 150 is wrong, but the added bonus for being imprisoned and not showing up for _three_ years (two years after the slumbering ones) should be at least as much as the bonus for slumbering.





Agreed. A simple suggestion might be that the bonuses should be inverted.

[Kristoffer O]

For a while the imprisoned level was 300, not just 250, but we and the beta discovered that everyone went for imprisoned gods or (at times) awake ones. No dormant gods at all, so we decided to go for 250 points. Perhaps a lowering on the dormant is ok. Lets get back to this when there has been some more MP gaming.

[BigJMoney]

Streamling the Dominions interface [cont...]

VI) The ability to see how much current castle defense your troops plus other abilities/spells are granting you.

VII) The ability to drag-scroll the map using the left mouse button. Especially needed in windowed mode.

=$=

[Nerfix]

NT, you didn't add the stuff from my thread?

[Nerfix]

biekert said:I'm also a little confused about aging - it seems like units' ages are increasing much faster than the 3-8 years that a dom3 game typically plays out in.

Did you take Death scale?

[Daynarr]

Kristoffer O said:
For a while the imprisoned level was 300, not just 250, but we and the beta discovered that everyone went for imprisoned gods or (at times) awake ones. No dormant gods at all, so we decided to go for 250 points. Perhaps a lowering on the dormant is ok. Lets get back to this when there has been some more MP gaming.



Actually, I'd keep costs as they are. Right now all choices are valid. If you reduce points from dormant, they will again not be chosen.

I think that best way to improve imprisoned is to reduce time they are imprisoned from 3 to 2 years.

[DominionsFan]

Ballbarian said:
Battle replay "chugginess":
The fact that larger armies are common is fantastic. My problem is that while watching the replays there is a long freeze while the engine loops through an army's units looking for a suitable target for buffing spells. Similar stalls occur as large groups of units have their stats updated after having a spell like legions of steel cast upon them. I have plenty of graphic power, though my cpu is getting dated (1.3 ghz) and my ram could be better (512 mb).

All that said, I wondered if there was a programming equivalent to visual basic's "DoEvents" available for the next patch. If this was placed within any large loops it would allow the player to continue scrolling the view eliminating the sense of stalling.



1.3 Ghz CPU and 512mb RAM is just not enough. You should try to reduce the gfx settings, or buy a 3Ghz CPU and +1.5 GB RAM. Then you won't have any problems. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Nerfix]

I have almost exact stats except double the memory. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Ballbarian]

I think RAM is my primary bottleneck (and cpu). Guess I will be in the market for a new pc after I finish paying for my daughter's braces. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Ballbarian]

Strange, my post didn't appear... so posted again.

Must be dreamlands in the forums again. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif

[DominionsFan]

Ballbarian said:
Strange, my post didn't appear... so posted again.

Must be dreamlands in the forums again. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif



lol http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
I can see both of your last 2 replies. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

[Twan]

NTJedi said: Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.



I support all the Dhaeron ideas ( which are also mine (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=418253&page=10&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)). I think that the improvement of the tactical part of the game (a new order for skirmishers, more precise final order or repeat function for commanders, etc...) should be the priority once all bugs are fixed as it's the sole area of the game without new possibilities, as well as all these suggestions were made hundreds of times in the dom 3 wishlist or here.

[Fate]

Nerfix said:

biekert said:I'm also a little confused about aging - it seems like units' ages are increasing much faster than the 3-8 years that a dom3 game typically plays out in.

Did you take Death scale?



You might want to double check. Units don't start with exactly the listed age, more like +/- 10% the listed age.

[boltar]

using alt tab messes up the graphics really bad when you alt tab back into the game. this was never a problem in dom 2.

[DominionsFan]

boltar said:
using alt tab messes up the graphics really bad when you alt tab back into the game. this was never a problem in dom 2.



Yep it's a known stuff. I had this problem also. All you have to do is hit alt + enter, that will run the game in windowed mode, and change to full screen after that. It is fixing the problem.

[biekert]

That sounds wise to wait for MP feedback... thinking out loud, perhaps in my games the early SC theory is less palatable because I always set independents to 9. Lower settings for independents make the awake-god strategy more palatable.

[Amos]

Give us Save function pls
Its annoying not being able to play in full screen mode because i need to save outside the game.

[thejeff]

Not sure what you mean by "save outside the game"?

If you're copying the .trn files to return to old turns, then I'm afraid it's working as designed and not likely to change.
I suspect most here would view it as cheating.

That said, it's your game and the --postexec switch and a little scripting should be able to give you that functionality.

If you meant something else, I'm curious what?

[Amos]

I have been asking for Save for years. Why would I stop now?


view it as cheating



I dont know what you mean. How is it cheating? Every modern SP turn based game has Save function.
P.S. Pls dont tell me that this game is MP only.


the --postexec switch and a little scripting should be able to give you that functionality



That kind of defeats my point of playing in Full screen mode.

[thejeff]

Philosophical question, I suppose.
It seems like cheating to me because the game is designed to be played without saves. Lots of things are easily abusable if saves are used.
But as I said, it's SP. Do as you will.

As far as I know, --postexec should be able to call a script that copies the .trn file after every hosting even in Full screen mode. You'd have to rename the file and reload the game manually when you wanted to load a save game, but you should be able to play full screen. I haven't tried it.

[Morkilus]

It's your game, do what you will. But the devs designed it to NOT be the kind of game where you reload to fix your mistakes and fiddle with the random number generator. This is of course a contentious issue among gamers, so don't say that "every game should be x".

I refer you to this thread for some amusing reading, if you can take some potty language.

Qt3 (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=28463&page=4&highlight=hateable+s avebabies )

[Amos]

In my view its like censorship. Some one else decides for me what I can or cannot do. Shouldnt it be left to my discretion. You will use it if you want to. If you are against it in principle you dont have to use it. Many ppl do it anyway. Why not make it easier for us?

[Leif_-]

Amos said:
In my view its like censorship.



It's not censorship, it's game design, really no different from enforcing an ammo limit in a FSP or putting level limits on items in MMORPGs.

[tibbs]

Leif_- said:

Amos said:
In my view its like censorship.



It's not censorship, it's game design, really no different from enforcing an ammo limit in a FSP or putting level limits on items in MMORPGs.



Yep, he hit the nail on the head. It is game design. That's all it boils down to. I happen to like it. It keeps the game flowing and its similar to real life. You consider all factors before taking action and you have to live with the decisions you make. If Hitler had a restart, maybe he wouldn't have begun a two front war. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[DominionsFan]

tibbs said:
If Hitler had a restart, maybe he wouldn't have begun a two front war. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif



I am not sure about that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[tibbs]

DominionsFan said:

tibbs said:
If Hitler had a restart, maybe he wouldn't have begun a two front war. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif



I am not sure about that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif



True. He was a poor general.

[Agrajag]

While save games may be about game design, if people don't like the way saves are handled, then that's not very good game design.
I could program a game where you have to click "R" as many times as you can, until you can't anymore, at which point you get a message saying "you lose", it would be how I chose to design my game, do you think it will be popular?
To sum up my crappy example, just let the people have what they want so they can be happy, and let everyone play the way they like http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Cainehill]

Amos said:
In my view its like censorship. Some one else decides for me what I can or cannot do. Shouldnt it be left to my discretion. You will use it if you want to. If you are against it in principle you dont have to use it. Many ppl do it anyway. Why not make it easier for us?



It's not censorship. I _hate_ when people start going on about "its (sic) like censorship" when they have no clue what censorship is.

What _this_ is, is game designers deciding what to make _easy_ for you. You can still cheat - you just have to copy the files by hand. They didn't even try to make it hard by encrypting with a timestamp/crc type mechanism so you can't reload without hacking files.

So - run windowed, or switch back and forth, or learn how to use the command line options or scripts and stop whining. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Mortibus]

Exactly, Cainehill. The game is designed to be played specifically this way, and making a game a certain way is not censorship in any form.

So you choose to play a game, that's your choice, and by choosing to do so you leave certain things up to those who designed the said game, e.g. the rules.

Sure, to circumvent that is "cheating," but who cares? People cheat on video games all the time, and programmers accommodate it. Cheat away, it's your game, you bought it, make it do whatever you want. That's your call. The game itself is the makers call.

I personally spend a lot of time on many games saving and reloading when something goes wrong... I'm glad it's not an option, it removes the compulsion. Works for me.

[Twan]

I can't understand how people can be annoyed by a save feature if they won't use it. Moralism about a videogame played solo by someone else is more than ridiculous IMHO. Saves are a good tool for learning a nation by experimenting different choices at some point, and I doubt that most players didn't copy/reload saves sometimes when they were learning the game.

Anyway, as saving manually is not really hard, there is no good reason for Kristofer to spend his time making an ingame save feature. I prefer to see him adding things to the game that have more purpose than just the economy of 2 clicks for some players.

[Amos]

I just know that because Dom2 lacked Save function I only bought the game when I had nothing else to do (after a year of playing the demo). I didnt feel compulsion to buy it like I did with many other games. I guess it was a deal breaker for me.


And Cainehill that was just too hostile for me to respond.

[DominionsFan]

Amos said:
I just know that because Dom2 lacked Save function I only bought the game when I had nothing else to do (after a year of playing the demo). I didnt feel compulsion to buy it like I did with many other games. I guess it was a deal breaker for me.


And Cainehill that was just too hostile for me to respond.



Well Cainehill tends to be hostile sometimes. I guess it must be his online personality. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[dfsuther]

There are a bunch of "un-Mac-like" things in Dom III as currently implemented. Here goes:


Right-click is currently implemented as command-click, but it should be control-click to match the Mac standard.

Multiple selection is control-click, but it should be shift-click for contiguous selection or command-click for non-contiguous selection.

Clicking in a scroll-bar below the thumb should scroll down; above the thumb should scroll up. Neither does anything ATM.

Page-up and page-down should cause scrolling lists to scroll by one page, but does not.

up-arrow and down-arrow should cause scrolling lists to scroll by one line. They don't.


And of course, there's the one all-important non-bug: It runs on the Mac! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Leif_-]

dfsuther said:
There are a bunch of "un-Mac-like" things in Dom III as currently implemented. Here goes:



If it's any consolation, there are a lot of un-Windows-like and un-Linux-like things in Dom III as well. Illwinter's GUIs have always been a little ... idiosyncratic.

[Talleyrand]

Please add my support to numbers 11, 15, and 18.

[Nerfix]

Leif_- said:If it's any consolation, there are a lot of un-Windows-like and un-Linux-like things in Dom III as well. Illwinter's GUIs have always been a little ... idiosyncratic.

Best one is the CoE one. Half is run by keyboard only, other half by either mouse or keyboard. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[NTJedi]

UPDATED: 10/13/2006 Suggestions placed within Nerfix topic were added. All future feature requests will need to be placed within this topic to save work/time for Illwinter.

Any post placed here requesting a feature will eventually be added to the original 1st or 2nd post providing Illwinter a quick one stop place for feature improvements.

Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.

[BigJMoney]

Simple Ideas For Streamlining The Dominions Interface (cont...)

VIII) Hotkey (shift-i, "I") that allows you to forge an item on a monthly basis. (similar to the M hotkey for rituals)

IX) Hotkey (p) that stands for "previous commander without orders". The inverse of hotkey (n). Using both woud allow you to scroll forth and back.


DominionsFan said:
1.3 Ghz CPU and 512mb RAM is just not enough. You should try to reduce the gfx settings, or buy a 3Ghz CPU and +1.5 GB RAM. Then you won't have any problems. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



I have 2.8 Ghz and 1.0 GB RAM and the large battle scenes are usually "chuggy" for me, too. When I press "f" it's like nothing happens. A bit of engine optimization would be greatly appreciated.

=$=

[Agrajag]

I'll just quote those which I most desire. (And comment a bit on other stuff http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)


NTJedi said:
4) Modder's Wishlist = Author: DominionsFan


Obviously, I'd most love to see what I suggested, but generally, I'm a little disappointed with modding as far as the transition from 2 to 3 goes.


6) New Troop Orders
8) Battle reports from Storming Castles



9) Grey-Out forging items which lack the resources


Also, the same should go for spells uncastable due to lack of gems (perhaps a different shade of gray to differentiate them from spells uncastable due to lack of paths)

10) Reset command orders for insane commanders



11) Castle/Fort status Provide a status for the building progress of castles/forts.


There already is a status report if you hover over a commander building a fort.

13) Provide wrap-around option for randomly generated maps.
14) Monthly casting spells target provinces more wisely.
15) Have fleeing units stay in the province if the owner of the fleeing units is victorious.
16) Function to allow the disabling of specific combat spells.
17) Add a commander repeat previous commands
18) Mouse-scroll and scroll-wheel zoom on the battle map.



Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.


I just did :O

[Amos]

6) New Troop Orders = Allow new troop orders such as "Fire until Retreats" where archers will target the enemy group with the greatest numbers and will stop using missle weapons when the enemy is fleeing thus reducing casualties from friendly fire.
8) Battle reports from Storming Castles= Some of the most important battles occur while storming a castle yet no reports are available. Battle reports for storming castles would be greatly appreciated.
15) Have fleeing units stay in the province if the owner of the fleeing units is victorious.
16) Function to allow the disabling of specific combat spells.



Those are very good suggestions.

[Fate]

I will just add my support to 8, 11, and 17 (storming casualty reports, fort construction status icon, and commanders repeating orders).

[Theonlystd]

The mages realize a vast majority of the time when the Enm is to close and they'll stop casting Shards at those units and then focus on Archers. Or groups behind the front line ones.

Y dont my archers also do that? My Archers insist at firing at 5 enm guys completly encircled by my men..


And everything on the first page sounds really good


And this is a totally superficial unimportant thing i'd love to see some day.. A Kill Board or whatever you wanna call it. No idea if its possable but the game seems to track when you get kills. Id really love to know how many Bandar Warriors i sent to there death threw the game and how many ghouls i killed threw a game. I really love pointless stats like that.

[Ballbarian]

And this is a totally superficial unimportant thing i'd love to see some day.. A Kill Board or whatever you wanna call it. No idea if its possable but the game seems to track when you get kills. Id really love to know how many Bandar Warriors i sent to there death threw the game and how many ghouls i killed threw a game. I really love pointless stats like that.



That brings back fond memories of slapping imps in Dungeon Keeper just to see the slap score higher at the end. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/firedevil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Corwin]

1. It's maybe too much to ask, but it would be very nice to be able to see more detailed battle reports.

For example - in the late game there are always huge battles involving many hundreds troops on both sides. I think it would be very useful and nice feature, if in addition of simply telling me "Your troops won the battle, 30 out 150 of your non-magical troops died", the battle report would have a button whch said "View Detailed Battle Results". When the user press the battle it would tell him how many of each type of his troops die.


Many armies have some core "Elite" troops, and a lot of arrow/melee fodder. One of the big advantage of such detailed screen is that it would instantly tell you how many of your elite troops died, and how many of your trash troops die.



Currently there is no way of knowing this very useful inforamtion other than watch the battle(or count your elite sodiers after the battle). Using this option you can not only quikly know this result, but also ddecide if you want to watch this battle in replay or not.



2. Add one more statistic to brief battle result window, telling how many of your commanders has died, and how many were wounded during the battle

It is less important for the troops, but for commanders it's very good to know.


3. This has been probably said already, but please, add "monthly forging" command. This is huge timesaver. It is very convenient not to have to tell your 4 air mages to "forge Air Queels" every turn.


4. Add "Ignore Unit" command and shortcut. Ther are a lot of commanders who you just want to sit inside the castle with their troops. NOT patrol, but sit tight. Currently there is no way to permamently exclude then from being shown on "n" routine. This can be big timesaver.

5. Allow more accurate abjustments of magic reseach priorities. Like little "+" and "-" on both sides of the scale, to add one point of reseach or substract it.

[Daynarr]

Theonlystd said:
The mages realize a vast majority of the time when the Enm is to close and they'll stop casting Shards at those units and then focus on Archers. Or groups behind the front line ones.

Y dont my archers also do that? My Archers insist at firing at 5 enm guys completly encircled by my men..


And everything on the first page sounds really good


And this is a totally superficial unimportant thing i'd love to see some day.. A Kill Board or whatever you wanna call it. No idea if its possable but the game seems to track when you get kills. Id really love to know how many Bandar Warriors i sent to there death threw the game and how many ghouls i killed threw a game. I really love pointless stats like that.



I assume you order your archers to fire closest.

Try giving them order to fire/archers or fire/none. Then they will either fire at enemy archers or chose their own target.

[Agrajag]

Corwin said:
5. Allow more accurate abjustments of magic reseach priorities. Like little "+" and "-" on both sides of the scale, to add one point of reseach or substract it.


There's always the + and - keys to adjust research more accurately.
Although if you have a lot of research the increments tend to increase, so you get less accurate (atleast it was so in dom2, I haven't seen this change in dom3 yet)

[Corwin]

Daynarr said:

I assume you order your archers to fire closest.

Try giving them order to fire/archers or fire/none. Then they will either fire at enemy archers or chose their own target.



You think fire/none works better than "fire close" for archer types? I always thought they kindof the same. Like if you give melee units no orders they will always act as if you gave them "attack close". Are you saying it works differenty with archers?

[Daynarr]

Attack/closest will order archers to attack closest target. In some cases they will shoot even it they will kill friendly units as well. In other cases they will try to get closer to that target to minimize spread of arrows and friendly losses. Sometimes it may seem that they are trying to engage target in melee because of it, but it's not true - they are trying to get close enough not to shoot their own troops; and usually end up in the melee as a result.

That means that attack/closest order should be used only in specific situations or for specific troops. Orders like that usually are given to javelin troops to throw 2 javelins they have after which they will engage them melee. Giving orders to common archers in back of the field to fire/closest is BAD IDEA.

Basically, fire/something is 2 fold command. First part orders troops to use missiles instead of close combat and second one designates first target. After that first target is destroyed or routed they will choose their next target on their own. Ordering them to fire/none actually doesn't specify their first target so they chose it randomly. They can sometimes even chose commander as target that way, but they may chose closest one as well. However, they usually chose target within their current range of missiles so you want to be careful when positioning them so they always have a good choice of targets at the start of the combat.

BEST option for archers in SP is fire/archers option where they will chose archer squad as first target. Enemy archers are often (not a rule though) poorly armored and very vulnerable to missile fire. Also, they fire at your own troops from safe distance which makes them best first target. Again, you must be careful with positioning as placing archers all the way back and melee in front of them on hold/attack will result in archers running in front of your melee troops trying to get in range to shoot archers.

Hope this helps.

[Frostmourne27]

And many people (and allways computer) forget to move archers, so you might hit mages/commanders.

[Talleyrand]

I'd like to add Random map generator optimization to the list just because I think it takes much more time than it should to create a map. In particular it seems to get stuck on dividing the world and drawing boundaries more than anything. Now I know any random map generator is better than no generator and I can certainly live with it as it stands now, but I think some optimization in those two categories atleast would be nice. I brought a friend in to see the game and we must have sat there for over 5 minutes while it created a map for the new game I started. I was a little embarrassed to be honest because as a fan you want the game to make a good first impression on people.

[Maltrease]

Suggestion: Battle Log.

Basically a text file (viewable in game if possible) that shows every action and roll in a battle. Ideally it would be created in real time with the battle, so at any point you could pause the battle, pull open the log and determine exactly what happened.

Obviouslly I realize the insane size this would be on larger battles, but I think this kind of feature would be incredibly valuable for learning the mechanics.

-How does multile attacks against one person lower defense. -How varied the open ended rool can be.
-Effects of fatigue on armor penitration
-Morale rools and effects on them.
-etc...

I know all those equations are available in the manual (or online somewhere), but actually seeing them applied would shed a lot of light on how they work in practice.

These would be particurarly interesting (and understandable) on Arena battles or Thug/SC battles.

[Endoperez]

Maltrease said:Suggestion: Battle Log.

Basically a text file (viewable in game if possible) that shows every action and roll in a battle.



Like this?


Squad 148417 has 201 morale problems (fullss 23 limit 10)
leftplayer teamhp 208 max 242
Mrlreport (left): good21 broken0 autobreak0 turn4
1917 striking with weapon Spear. att25 def11
hitloc Velite strikes Dark Vines wl4 diff0 -> 4
hitunit 1917 317 dmg3 spec2097153 ba4
damage 317 dmg4 spec2097153 ba4
1918 striking with weapon Spear. att22 def14
hitloc Velite strikes Dark Vines wl4 diff0 -> 2
hitunit 1918 317 dmg3 spec2097153 ba2
damage 317 dmg9 spec2097153 ba2



Pythium starting troops fighting Dark Vines/Druids/Woodsmen. It is a text file written if you use -d parameter with dominions. I think multiple 'd's give more precision. This came with -dddd or so.

It is written to the log.txt in the main Dominions 3 folder. That is created during hosting, and contains other host information as well, and as you can see the format isn't that easy to comprehend...

1917 striking with weapon Spear. [/b]att25 def11[/b]
First, the unit ID number. Each unit in the Dom world has one. Second, those att and def values have already had the random roll added to them.

hitloc Velite strikes Dark Vines wl4 diff0 -> 4
wl -> Weapon Length

Not quite what you wished for, but here you have it.

[Quietly]

I would like the echo the improvements to magic site searching ... I think it wouldn't necessarily be too cpu intensive to keep a better list of targets.

I also wish there was a "Move and Search (for magical sites)" (monthly repeatable) option for commanders. Logic like:

searchvalue = [ ((commanderskill in fire {max 4} ) - (currently searched in fire {max 4}) + ((cskill in water {max 4}) - (currently searched in water {max 4}) + ... ]

Every turn: check search value in current province, if non-0 then search. If 0, check the search values of all provinces owned by the empire within 1 movement turn, and move to the one with the highest (non-0) searchvalue. Else, (depending on how complex you want it to be) either just switch to defend, or check the set of owned provinces within 2 moves and so on.

I'd also like to echo, monthly forge item.

Also: repeat recruiting of commanders? I suspect there is some serious design philosophy behind the descision not to allow this sort of queueing, automation, yet this is an "I wish" thread. And I do wish I could tell my province with sages to keep recruiting sages until I say stop. For that matter I wish I could tell the sages to immediately default to researching, but, well, que sera, sera.

[ioticus]

For me, the most tedious part of the game is having to keep moving leaders to the back of the battlefield since they default to the center. It would be nice if they defaulted in a line to the rear of the battlefield or if there were a hot key to automatically arrange the leaders in back and the armies up front. In fact, I think having several standard formation hot keys would save a lot of tedious movement.

[Sandman]

An unlikely wish:

Single screen pretender creation: The pretender creation interface is rather convoluted; everything could easily be combined onto one screen.

[tibbs]

Here's my request -

Give the option to edit preveiously made gods Gods using the Pretender creation tool. Make Pretender passwords viewable in plain text in case you forget them.

[MrMorden]

Well, I know that this is probably far too ambitious for a patch, but if ye shall not ask, ye certainly shall not recieve. Here goes...

User-scriptable AI for spellcasting with decisions

I'd REALLY like to be able to load something like this into my priests.

if(theBattlefield.contains(UNDEAD))
cast(BANISH) //GET RID OF THOSE *%$@#@* UNDEAD! ARGH!!!

While I'm asking for the moon, why not ask for the stars along with it?

getFriendlyUnits(int radius)
getHostileUnits(int radius)
getUnitStrength(unit theUnit)
getUnitResistances(unit theUnit)
getUnitAfflictions(unit theUnit)
&c...

Yes, I'm aware that this is, in all likelihood, utterly unrealistic. But I, and those few of use who can and/or would be willing to learn how to write code would be immensely thrilled. Well, okay, at the very least I would be immensely thrilled.

[kimmitt]

Okay, I'm interested in the game, but I'm going to wait until the patch hits, to see if I buy it. The deal-breakers for me:

1) Long times for map generation and turn processing.
If you can't come up with a random map generation algorithm which is both fast and good, generate a couple hundred or so templates using your slow map generation algorithm and bundle them with the software or something. I don't want to have to choose among the maps, as that takes away the fun, but it's boring to wait for the map to generate.

The same thing applies to the turn processing. I don't know if you're drawing every battle before it starts or if the AI is hopelessly bloated, but I'm running a machine which is can guide a rocket to the moon. More to the point, I'm running a machine which is more than capable of guiding fifty rockets to the moon simultaneously. Graphics are one thing, but work with me here. Figure out where the bottlenecks are and get some damn optimization done.

Not deal-breakers, but likely to influence my decision as to whether to purchase the game and/or recommend it to friends:

1) Pretender generation. This should all be one screen, simple as that.

2) The map. I'm sorry, but the icons and such are still ugly. When it was ugly and minimalist, as in Pretenders II, that was cool -- it was what it was. But this intermediate level of ugly is atrocious. At absolute minimum, make the part of the map that flashes when I click on a province less enormous, and get rid of that absurd arrow extension. I don't need to see a sizable chunk of my screen flashing every time I click an area, and I don't need the game pretending that it's dynamic in an area where it isn't. Plus the arrow is ugly.

3) Menus in general -- get a dang GUI expert to go through and clean house, making all of the backgrounds get along with all of the sprites for the various units, et cetera. This isn't an enormous task, and it would vastly improve playability.

4) Various report options. Let me know how many x's I've killed or gotten killed. That's called flava, and it makes games fun. Let me know how many people died in a siege or assault. If a commander was killed in a battle, let me know which one. Those suckers are expensive. If critters which cost more than 100 GP per were killed in a battle, let me know. Don't make me watch every battle to see if it was my Sorceror or my Water Mage who ate it, because I can't remember who all I committed. When I whack a Pretender, throw up a summary screen of the Pretender's accomplishments (units created, etc.) and a couple of paragraphs on how I threw my enemy down before me. If you're feeling clever, tune the paragraphs to what kind of unit killed it -- if a militiaman finished the job, emphasize ignomy. If it took Joe Stoic, Holder of the Sacred Flame of Badassery, emphasize the heroics. But something. Seriously.

The game still has its overall amateur feel, which isn't a terrible thing; the idea that it is the creation of people who love gaming to give to other people who love gaming is fine. I feel the love. But you gotta take away the un-fun parts, or I can't get at the delicious nougatty center underneath.

Finally, now that Dominions 3 is out, you should totally start selling Dominions 2 for some ridiculously low price on download. Think of it as the first hit being free.

[Endoperez]

kimmitt said:
Okay, I'm interested in the game, but I'm going to wait until the patch hits, to see if I buy it. The deal-breakers for me:



Very good suggestions. Most of the changes would be closer to "Dominions 4" than to "a patch", but still very good suggestions.

[Daynarr]

I seriously don't see a problem with 'long map generation times' issue. Some things to consider about it - generation times are directly related to PC power so not everyone has problems with it. Remember that time to create random map is insignificant compared to the time you will spend playing on it and having fun.

Another thing to consider is that there are nice premade maps that come with Dom3, new official maps will be released with patches and modders will make even more. So in short time you will have a host of maps to play with even if you don’t want to mess with random map generation.

Last but not least; there are OTHER random map generators already made by other people and there is already random map site from Gandalf Parker who generates a host of new maps of various sizes on daily bases. All you have to do is pick the one you like and unpack it in maps folder.

Personally, I'd prefer if devs focus on things that are broken then on trying to improve random map generation for few seconds and risking even more things get broken in the process.

[Twan]

Some little suggestions to speed up pretenders testing and customisation :

- make possible to delete pretender gods without creating a game

- add an "edit an existing pretender god" option in the create a pretender god screen

- allow to cancel game creation / go back to the last screen at each stage of the process (not just at the beginning and the end)

- when loading a pretender in game creation, give access to the pretenders stats by right clicking on the names (with of course password verification before, if the pretender has one) ; or better, once a pretender is loaded, allow to modify it before launching the game (and re-save him eventually)

- give access to the current player's pretender stats during the game even if he's not awaken, by clicking on him in the list of pretenders gods

[Chazar]

Suggestion: Alternative 'HIDE TRULY'-order, which does the same as 'HIDE', but commanders set on 'HIDE TRULY' are never selected by hitting the 'n'-key. I hate to cycle through all those stationary scouts.

Supports:

I strongly support 1) 6) 7) 15),
and I like the ideas 9) 13) and E).

-----

I am a bit disappointed by Dom3, especially because of the lack of 6) & 7) for example. Don't get me wrong, I'll buy it nonetheless, since Dom2 is a good game and the tax-advisor and the 'y'-key shortcut are so useful, but for Dom3 I would have really liked to see something new that excites me, like a twist and tweak to the tactical setup, which would challenge me to rethink all the tactics I used in Dom2. From playing the demo I found that it just plays the same.

Furthermore, there where many simple and optional things in the Dom2 wishlist (like the suggestion I repeated above - which is not originally mine BTW), which were sadly ignored. Instead we got animated movement arrows... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif And there were many more, e.g. I cannot imagine that it would have been much work to add one or two alternate shapes to tactical setup, apart from a slight disadvantage to the AI nations.

I even doubt that a new shape would make that much of a difference in the end (unless shape affected commands would be added, like keep formation), but I would be tempted to play around with new setups nonetheless and find out for myself!

[Nerfix]

I like Dominions 3 very much, it's a great game, but 2 more months under development would have propably made it a lot better game. Less bugs, more features. Some of the stuff that is still plaguing it is old. I can't belive that for battles still generate "We captured the fort!" without details.

Creating Pretender Gods that can be loaded later is counter-intuitive. It would be so much easier, or rather sensible, if you could just save a Pretender design you made when starting a game and if you could edit previously saved designs.

More detailed battle reports that would show types of units involved, the commanders who died etc etc etc would also be nice.

Or creating a mechanic for "nation enchaments" like the Carrion Woods spell that would be cast once and permanently change the nation without eating a global spell slot.

Or heck, creating new standards for Raptors, Aboleths etc. and writing up new descriptions for Early Caelum and so on. As of now quite a number of the nations feel just like exported Dom 2 themes instead of nations mostly because they share the same banners, same unit descriptions etc etc. And the kitbashed late era nations, ugh...if they had no trouble discarding Serpent Cult Pythium they could have disbanded either of the DF/CotS, IF/BF and NE/CW pairs and not unastheticaly kitbash togather Hochmeisters and blood cultists, devils and sailors, manikins and armored minotaurs.

And so on. I do enjoy the game a lot but I also have a nagging feeling it could have been better with some more time under the works. It's good that Illwinter supports it's games really well, so we have at least a slim hope of seeing some of these things addressed.

[tka]

Twan said:
Some little suggestions to speed up pretenders testing and customisation :
- make possible to delete pretender gods without creating a game
- add an "edit an existing pretender god" option in the create a pretender god screen
- allow to cancel game creation / go back to the last screen at each stage of the process (not just at the beginning and the end)
- when loading a pretender in game creation, give access to the pretenders stats by right clicking on the names (with of course password verification before, if the pretender has one) ; or better, once a pretender is loaded, allow to modify it before launching the game (and re-save him eventually)
- give access to the current player's pretender stats during the game even if he's not awaken, by clicking on him in the list of pretenders gods


I second everything Twan said here.

Also points 8 and 11 get my vote.

[MythicalMino]

I agree....

- casualty reports on castle storming should be a must.

- Multiple Victory Conditions I strongly agree with

- AI doing bidding wars for Mercs

- greying out Items that you do not have the resources to make

- Castle Fort Status....maybe every turn....every other turn....in the messages at the start of each turn, list what provinces has a fortress being built, and how much longer until it is completed

- fleeing units SHOULD stay if you win

- I think any nation that does not have nation specific spells should be given spells for that nation. Not sure what nations other than Marverni that does not have them, but they need at least a couple

- maybe this one was listed in another form, but a mouse-over on the map screen when you place it over a commander to show what items, and what troops he is commanding.

- really, any UI improvement....anything that makes the game interface more transparent....so any UI improvement listed, I agree with!!

Those are the ones that I saw that I STRONGLY want to see...but really...any and all I would agree on....

[Hadrian_II]

I support:

6 (i'd like a command like "cast spells without to use gems"), 8, 10, 14 (or atleast target all provinces that arent a capital, i noticed that conquered provinces are almost never searched, and i dont think the AI did it [ or let me know what the AI already searched in that province ] ), 15, 16 (maybe to deactivate priest spells non mage/priests or vice versa), 22.

[dirtywick]

This is a big thread, so I might have missed it.

For an additional victory condition, I'd like to see a research win. Where you research all paths fully, and then spend an obscene amount of gems and bloos slaves from all paths to cast a spell that ascends you into godhood after a certain amount of turns. Like building the spaceship in Civ 4.

Or something to that effect.

[Sandman]

More:

Single screen magic laboratory: Like pretender creation, the items, global enchantments, gems and research could be combined onto one screen. Only the spell list need be seperate.

Better spell list: There's something to be done here, it just seems flabby. Two columns of spells, rather than just one, maybe? An option to view the path requirements numerically (i.e D4 rather than DDDD) would be nice; counting the icons for high level spells is a nuisance.

Better province info: The province info should contain the name of the nation that owns it. Yes, you can tell from the flag, but new players may not know which flag is which. And you should be able to view magic sites in enemy provinces as if you owned them yourself.

De-uglyfied provinces: The Dom2 province icons were nicer than the Dom3 ones. In particular, the single dominion candle of Dom2 was better, and the pile of gold representing money was FAR superior to the obnoxious gold infobox.

Better army icons: I liked the old crossed boxes army style - especially the way that commanderless armies were easily viewable as not having a cross. The new system hides this information. At a pinch, it would be nice if the army icon changed according to whether an army contained a commander, mage, priest, prophet or pretender.

Smarter independents: It would be good if indies were more unpredictable in their tactics, rather than always fighting the same way. Flanking, or anti-archer ranged attacks, for example.

Whole army positioning: Often, you will want to move your entire army forward or back, depending on the enemy you're fighting. This is a tedious task, which becomes more tedious the larger your army is. A way to move your whole army would be very nice.

[Talleyrand]

Daynarr said:
I seriously don't see a problem with 'long map generation times' issue. Some things to consider about it - generation times are directly related to PC power so not everyone has problems with it.



That's just not true at all. It is the programming, plain and simple. Every other game I've played that has a random map generator takes split-seconds to generate one. Why is this game so different that it requires minutes? I have an AMD 2500+ with 1.5 gigs of RAM and you're telling me it's not powerful enough to efficiently create a small random map with two AIs? How much horsepower do you think such a task needs lol? I do agree with you that there are more important things for them to do deal with but as this thread is more of a wishlist than a practical list of what will go into the next patch, I don't see how my suggestion is anymore out of place than many others.

[Nerfix]

Good suggestions.

[ioticus]

Just want to say I agree with Sandman that the Dom2 way of representing armies, gold, and dominion was better than the current way. In Dom2 you could easily tell the dominion and gold of a province at a glance. The new way is not very clear. Also, you could quickly tell which armies had leaders and their relative size was easier to see as well.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention, I also like the temple and fortress graphics of Dom2 better.

[Graeme Dice]

Talleyrand said:
That's just not true at all. It is the programming, plain and simple. Every other game I've played that has a random map generator takes split-seconds to generate one. Why is this game so different that it requires minutes?



Most random map generators are for games where the basic measurement is a single tile of a specific terrain, while Dominions uses arbitrary, semi-realistic looking maps. While it does take longer than I'd expect it to, the results make it appear that it's using a fairly complicated algorithm.

[Cainehill]

I suspect map-creation can be sped up significantly if the graphics / message updating code is tweaked.

[Agrajag]

Talleyrand said:
Every other game I've played that has a random map generator takes split-seconds to generate one. Why is this game so different that it requires minutes?


That's the difference between colouring 2,560,000 pixels and "colouring" 65,536 tiles.
Also, considering how Dominions maps use up to 32bit coloring, compared to maybe 200 different tiles in the richer games, that's 4,294,967,296 * 2,560,000 = 10995116277760000 different options compared to 256 * 65,536 = 16777216 with other games http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Olive]

Here's a suggestion that should be easy to implement. Since you can have lot of micro management to put the gems in the lab when you have units dedicated to gem/slaves production (that should drop their gems in the lab) and units that need to keep their gems on for combat purposes, I think those 4 buttons should be added in the global screen where you manage your gems :

- Pool bloodhunter's slaves : pool the slaves of all commanders actually bloodhunting.
- Pool clam's pearls : pool the pearls carried by commanders equipped with a clam.
- Pool fetish's gems : pool the fire gems carried by commanders equipped with a fever fetish.
- Pool stone's gems : pool the earth gems carried by commanders equipped with a bloodstone.

I think that's all the ways commanders can produce gems/slaves. It should remove a lot of micro management imho. I'm waiting for this feature since I've discovered dom 2. Pleaaaasssse. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Chazar]

Cainehill said:I suspect map-creation can be sped up significantly if the graphics / message updating code is tweaked.

Yep, I too experienced that progress bars or indicators can slow down things enormously.

...but can't someone who has the full version yet easily try this out by running a graphicless server and connecting locally to it (and disconnect before hosting)? Or does even the graphicless server spit out useless progress comments?

[Manuk]

I think that the +3 attack +3 defense bonus of quickness is too much, should be removed. Acting 2 times the same turn is enough bonus. Right now it´s the same as dom2. no-brainer.

[Cainehill]

Manuk said:
I think that the +3 attack +3 defense bonus of quickness is too much, should be removed. Acting 2 times the same turn is enough bonus. Right now it´s the same as dom2. no-brainer.



Are you talking the spell? Or the blessing? Because the blessing isn't +3 attack / + 3 defense, nor is it really 2 actions per turn.

As far as the spell goes, it no longer allows casting two spells per turn, so it's already been down-graded. And it makes no sense for someone moving more quickly than everyone else to _not_ be harder to hit & have an easier time hitting foes.

[Manuk]

didn´t know of the downgrade done so far. I was talking about the spell. even then the bonuses are an unneeded plus.

[Cainehill]

One improvement that would really be nice : An option to _not_ have any mercenaries show up for the first 10 (or X) turns. An awful lot of Dom2 games had to use "no hiring mercenaries the first 10 turns" as a house rule, just because early game mercs could be so imbalancing.

And it's looking just the same with Dom3 : the nation that gets the first mercenaries is often getting the first three or four mercs, because of the leg up on expansion & thus gold income it gives.

And it should be trivial to implement, along the lines of :

IF NoEarlyMercs AND TurnNumber LESSTHAN 10
...SkipMercenaryCheck
ELSE
...CheckForMercenaries

The mercs are wonderful for SP games, but can add too much of a luck factor to MP : getting a full 20-60 temporary troops in place of 3-10 regular troops is a huge boost.

[Graeme Dice]

Manuk said:
I think that the +3 attack +3 defense bonus of quickness is too much, should be removed. Acting 2 times the same turn is enough bonus. Right now it´s the same as dom2. no-brainer.



Why shouldn't it be a "no-brainer"? It's a low level buff spell, one of the only ones for water magic, and a 3 defense boost is eaten up by the now increased defense penalty of 2 for every consecutive attack against a single target in a turn.

[Manuk]

well, if you have unit with 2 or more attacks they get multiplied by 2 and each attack gets you a +3 attack. and more defense (+3) there´s no reason not to cast it in a SC or thug, better if it´s the mass quickness (quickening?) in a group of units with multiple attacks.

[Endoperez]

Manuk said:
well, if you have unit with 2 or more attacks they get multiplied by 2 and each attack gets you a +3 attack. and more defense (+3) there´s no reason not to cast it in a SC or thug, better if it´s the mass quickness (quickening?) in a group of units with multiple attacks.



This is true. However, a SC or thug either has to have Water, which isn't too common on the suitable chassises, or makes you choose water intead of something else like Fire or Earth or Nature for Fire Shield or protection spells/Earth Power or Personal Regeneration; or the SC or thug has to wear Boots of Quickness/Jade Armor, which need Water magic; or the SC or thug needs a friendly mage to cast Quickness (Quicken Self is where Quickness used to be, Quickness is AoE 1 version of it), in which case you might want to add other SC/thug or some bodyguards to keep the mage alive.

This is Water version of Luck. Not Body Ethereal, but Luck. A considerable bonus good against almost everything but, on its own, not enough against powerful opposition.

[JaydedOne]

Olive said:
Here's a suggestion that should be easy to implement. Since you can have lot of micro management to put the gems in the lab when you have units dedicated to gem/slaves production (that should drop their gems in the lab) and units that need to keep their gems on for combat purposes, I think those 4 buttons should be added in the global screen where you manage your gems :

- Pool bloodhunter's slaves : pool the slaves of all commanders actually bloodhunting.
- Pool clam's pearls : pool the pearls carried by commanders equipped with a clam.
- Pool fetish's gems : pool the fire gems carried by commanders equipped with a fever fetish.
- Pool stone's gems : pool the earth gems carried by commanders equipped with a bloodstone.

I think that's all the ways commanders can produce gems/slaves. It should remove a lot of micro management imho. I'm waiting for this feature since I've discovered dom 2. Pleaaaasssse. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif



Are the various gem-producing items even still in the game? I don't recall seeing them...

That said, I've already loudly noted my wish for the blood-slave pooling command. How easy it'd be to implement, however, I can't say.

[Daynarr]

Is having a reason to cast a spell a bad thing?

Quickness is already nerfed by no longer allowing 2 spell castings on the same turn. It most certanly doesn't need another nerf.

[JaydedOne]

Cainehill said:
One improvement that would really be nice : An option to _not_ have any mercenaries show up for the first 10 (or X) turns. An awful lot of Dom2 games had to use "no hiring mercenaries the first 10 turns" as a house rule, just because early game mercs could be so imbalancing.

And it's looking just the same with Dom3 : the nation that gets the first mercenaries is often getting the first three or four mercs, because of the leg up on expansion & thus gold income it gives.

The mercs are wonderful for SP games, but can add too much of a luck factor to MP : getting a full 20-60 temporary troops in place of 3-10 regular troops is a huge boost.



I can readily understand your point and might even agree. I do tend to find that the mercs really -do- make a huge difference in early expansion. That said, one balancing factor might be that the bidding system helps check this somewhat. If I put half of my starting gold towards a mercenary, I'm necessarily also gutting my magic research or my early expansion if I -don't- win the bid. Even though I get the money back, that's a turn of research I've lost or, worse, I have the cash to buy soldiers but not the resources. So that makes it less of a no-brainer to buy mercs as you may have to overpay just to be sure you don't get the shaft of not only not getting the mercs, but slowing down your growth even further by not winning.

I'm not convinced that this is -enough- balance, mind you. But it's a thought.

[Graeme Dice]

Manuk said:
well, if you have unit with 2 or more attacks they get multiplied by 2 and each attack gets you a +3 attack. and more defense (+3) there´s no reason not to cast it in a SC or thug, better if it´s the mass quickness (quickening?) in a group of units with multiple attacks.



No, there's no reason not to cast it, just as there's no reason not to cast mirror image, mistform, body ethereal, personal luck, astral shield, personal regeneration, fire shield etc.

It's a powerful spell for water magic that generally lacks powerful spells.

[Graeme Dice]

JaydedOne said:
Are the various gem-producing items even still in the game? I don't recall seeing them...



They are. Clams now require W3N1, while I haven't yet looked at the stats for the Earth Blood Stone or the fever fetish.

[JaydedOne]

Ah, thanks for the tip. That certainly solves the issues of hording, I think. Or at least stalls the issue. I'll have to play out an SP game gunning specifically for clams and see just how economical the strategy is.

[Cainehill]

JaydedOne said:

Cainehill said:
One improvement that would really be nice : An option to _not_ have any mercenaries show up for the first 10 (or X) turns. An awful lot of Dom2 games had to use "no hiring mercenaries the first 10 turns" as a house rule, just because early game mercs could be so imbalancing.

And it's looking just the same with Dom3 : the nation that gets the first mercenaries is often getting the first three or four mercs, because of the leg up on expansion & thus gold income it gives.

The mercs are wonderful for SP games, but can add too much of a luck factor to MP : getting a full 20-60 temporary troops in place of 3-10 regular troops is a huge boost.



I can readily understand your point and might even agree. I do tend to find that the mercs really -do- make a huge difference in early expansion. That said, one balancing factor might be that the bidding system helps check this somewhat. If I put half of my starting gold towards a mercenary, I'm necessarily also gutting my magic research or my early expansion if I -don't- win the bid.



Which is yet another reason why the person who wins the mercs gets a big leg up : anyone else who bids is generally setback compared to if they hadn't bid. Mind, I'm not sure that losing 4 points of research is gutting research, especially with the longer research times in Dom3.

I think an awful lot of people bid, because of the large advantage, and for a good merc it might just be the person who alchemizes his or her fire gems to bid 415 instead of 400 who wins the mercs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[thejeff]

Fever Fetish is still the same cost, but it no longer works on undead. So you actually have to disease a commander to get the benefit.
Of course, you could just start an old age fetish farm of your already diseased commanders.

[JaydedOne]

But then, mightn't a smarter starting strategy for people who know they don't have the money to put out towards mercs (particularly without alchemizing) be just to not bid at all and instead use your money to buy national units?

I agree, though, that it's probably far too much of a no-brainer to hire mercs in the early game. Heck, given their relative cheapness, I tend to default to hiring mercs more often than not simply because of how quickly they arrive. It's perhaps something to be saved for Dom4, but maybe mercenaries should have a delay of a few turns before showing up when first hired or hired away from another nation. Maybe that'd counteract their element of benefit, as I know that I've often felt it a bit cheap to siege a castle and then begin hiring every mercenary band available into that province to quickly blow through the siege.

And hey! It can be up to 8-10 or so research lost, depending on eras or scales. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Okay, okay. You're likely right in that that's not at all "gutting" anything.

[Olive]

JaydedOne said:
Are the various gem-producing items even still in the game? I don't recall seeing them...



Yes, they're almost unchanged I think (except for clams that require nature gems)

[Manuk]

No, there's no reason not to cast it, just as there's no reason not to cast mirror image, mistform, body ethereal, personal luck, astral shield, personal regeneration, fire shield etc.



youre right, but body ethereal is useless later on when lots of guys have magical weapons, the same with mistform. Personal luck on the other hand is also a no-brainer, personal reg is useful also fireshield, but the latter 2 are not overpowered at all.

[Maltrease]

And Fever fetished are very unpredictable in how often they generate a fire gem. I believe the more afflictions a unit has the more likely a gem will be produced. Testing on some units with recuperation I was averaging 1 gem every 3 to 4 turns.

[Graeme Dice]

Manuk said:
youre right, but body ethereal is useless later on when lots of guys have magical weapons, the same with mistform. Personal luck on the other hand is also a no-brainer, personal reg is useful also fireshield, but the latter 2 are not overpowered at all.



I've killed more than 50 vine ogres in a single battle using only a dragon with fire shield. Does that make it overpowered?

[NTJedi]

UPDATED: 10/18/2006 More updates added, eventually everyones request will be added. This topic to save work/time for Illwinter.

Any post placed here requesting a feature will eventually be added to the original 1st or 2nd post providing Illwinter a quick one stop place for feature improvements.

Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.

[Manuk]

I've killed more than 50 vine ogres in a single battle using only a dragon with fire shield. Does that make it overpowered?



would you have done the same to 50 abyssian infantry? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
(end of replys)

[Graeme Dice]

Manuk said:
would you have done the same to 50 abyssian infantry?



No, but then, quickness wouldn't be enough to allow you to survive against a horde of longdead horsemen either. We can go around in circles for ever discussing the relative merits of each of the self buff spells, but I hardly see quickness as overpowering considering that it no longer affects spell casting.

[Cainehill]

Manuk said:

I've killed more than 50 vine ogres in a single battle using only a dragon with fire shield. Does that make it overpowered?



would you have done the same to 50 abyssian infantry? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
(end of replys)



And Quickness wouldn't do much of anything for you against a powerful enough a mage casting various battlefield spells. So obviously Quickness is useless, it doesn't keep them from killing you with Petrify / Disintegrate / etc.

[Nerfix]

I don't think Quickness needs a nerf.

[MarcinM]

Well I searched but didn't find, so ...

Tooltips in Army Setup Screen!

It's a little difficult to see whether it's a javelin hurler or a swordsman - and sometimes the "swordsmen" come in 4 varieties - axe, sword, flail, shield and sword. There is no way to check which ones you have outside of right-clicking every unit right now. :/

Perhaps a tooltip that says the Unit Name + wielded equipment?

[PhilD]

I distinctly remember this was one of my problems with Dominions:PPP (the first one!): units with different equipment and stats having the same name, and sprites that were either identical or so little different that they might as well have been the same. Not much changed in this department over the last few years...

[Nerfix]

MarcinM said:
Well I searched but didn't find, so ...

Tooltips in Army Setup Screen!

It's a little difficult to see whether it's a javelin hurler or a swordsman - and sometimes the "swordsmen" come in 4 varieties - axe, sword, flail, shield and sword. There is no way to check which ones you have outside of right-clicking every unit right now. :/

Perhaps a tooltip that says the Unit Name + wielded equipment?

Aye, and the tooltip could include stuff like exp stars, affliction icons with the name of affliction(s) and horror mark, curse etc

[PDF]

thejeff said:
Fever Fetish is still the same cost, but it no longer works on undead. So you actually have to disease a commander to get the benefit.
Of course, you could just start an old age fetish farm of your already diseased commanders.



Damn, now ppl will also have to manage a horde of Fetish-carrying scouts and check to replace the dying when they hit 1 hp ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Injured.gif
That change is useless and will just add stoopid mm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif !!

[Chazar]

PDF said:Damn, now ppl will also have to manage a horde of Fetish-carrying scouts and check to replace the dying when they hit 1 hp ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Injured.gif That change is useless and will just add stoopid mm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif !!

Is there are reason why the items of the diseased should not go back to the lab?

[PDF]

Chazar said:

PDF said:Damn, now ppl will also have to manage a horde of Fetish-carrying scouts and check to replace the dying when they hit 1 hp ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Injured.gif That change is useless and will just add stoopid mm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif !!

Is there are reason why the items of the diseased should not go back to the lab?



Yes, that would have been a welcome change instead ! Note that I didn't test if it has changed BTW...

[thejeff]

Well, I think that was the original intent of the Fever
Fetish.
It doesn't really make sense that undead can get diseases, but have no ill effects from them and still generate gems with Fever Fetish.

I do like the idea of items of dead commanders in lab provinces going back the lab. Probably not if they died in battle and maybe not if they're killed by range spells (Flames/Fire from the Sky, Seeking arrows etc), but someone dying of disease should be able to prepare a little bit.

[Twan]

Fever fetish still work on undeads, it's just slower (about 1 gem / 4 turns) because they just have one affliction (the "disease" without effect).

[thejeff]

I'll try it again. I don't remember how long I left it on him.

If Fever Fetish generates much less than 1/turn, it's probably not worth doing. Have the other generators been nerfed like that too?

[Endoperez]

thejeff said:
I'll try it again. I don't remember how long I left it on him.

If Fever Fetish generates much less than 1/turn, it's probably not worth doing. Have the other generators been nerfed like that too?



I understand that the original intention was that these items would be used to produce gems for mages that travel with armies, not to generate income. That is, to lessen micromanagement. Few fever fetishes and few undead commanders (Black Servants?) produce about 1 gem/turn, allowing e.g. Machaka to not worry that much about ferrying gems for their mages. In theory, at least.

[Graeme Dice]

thejeff said:
I'll try it again. I don't remember how long I left it on him.

If Fever Fetish generates much less than 1/turn, it's probably not worth doing. Have the other generators been nerfed like that too?



Clams still produce 1 astral pearl per turn, but are now much harder to manufacture, and cost 50% more than before.

[thejeff]

Except that you can't put them on the mages, because they get diseased and die.
You can put them on Black Servants to ferry gems along with the mages, but you still have to distribute them every turn, just as you would if you'd just shipped out gens on normal scouts. (Which you have to do anyway for non fire gems.)

I suppose it's still useful in some situations.

The description makes it sound like it should only work on those who actually suffer from disease. I always assumed it working on undead was something of an exploit. Might be the intent though.

[Taqwus]

...so, you should put it on an undead that's already been mangled (ex. was living Twiceborned mage who died of disease)?

[NTJedi]

Date: 10/19/2006 Main topic updated... I didn't get to add everyones, but it will eventually be done.
Purgatory Section has also been added within the second post.

Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.

[Twan]

I'd like to see new awakening options in god design (after all we have just 3 choices instead of lots of castles and themes options).

I imagine...
- in a far away plane (no bless effects before awakening)
- dead (need to be called by priests once available for awakening)
- petrified (will never awaken, only ascension (and/or perhaps a special endgame ritual you can't use before many empowerements) can free him, but he can give bless effects if not in a far away plane ; pretenders petrified in a far away plane are considered non-existant by most mortals and always have a base dominion of 1 - to avoid immobile petrified pretenders with dominion 10 and best scales-)

Being dead should give more points if the god is awaken or dormant as you have fewer priests (something like 75/50/25). Being in a far away plane should give more points if the god is imprisoned or petrified, as you have no bless for a far longer time (something like 25/75/100).

Standard dormant and imprisoned pretenders would have a little less points so the new options won't allow to make overpowered end game gods.

With all these options, the complete list of awakening choices would be :

- awake
- dead but awake (75)
- dormant (100)
- dormant in a far away plane (125)
- dead & dormant (150)
- dead & dormant in a far away plane (175)
- imprisoned (200)
- dead & imprisoned (225)
- petrified (250)
- imprisoned in a far away plane (275)
- dead & imprisoned in a far away plane (300)
- petrified in a far away plane (350 = with a 0 point god all good scales +3 with a medium dominion, but you have no use of anything else)

[Frostmourne27]

Why exactly should the amount of points you get be generally lowered? It is allready less than in Dom2, why would we make it even lower? Also: would dead pretenders lose one from all magic paths? Also, why are you worried about people taking dominion 10, good scales and being unable to actually take part in real world events? Sort of like real-life gods? (depending on beliefs of course) That would be cool.

[dirtywick]

If you're remote searching, I'd like an option to go to the province where you found the site instead of the commander.

[Twan]

- Why exactly should the amount of points you get be generally lowered?

Because pretenders starting imprisoned are already more powerful than a dom2 pretender, what may have become a lot more powerful with the actual base points + my options. And also because many players have said that bless strategies with imprisoned gods are overpowered in small games, and are starting to ask for nerfs, so I've reduced a little the points for the normal imprisonment.

-Also, why are you worried about people taking dominion 10, good scales and being unable to actually take part in real world events?

I'm not worried. It's just that with the "petrified + in a far away plane" option and say an Oracle you can have all scales at +3 and 10 dominion if he's allowed to have a base dominion of 4, so all players wanting a "high scales only" strategy would take an Oracle petrified in a far away plane and end exactly the same, with dominion 10. Reducing base dominion to 1 for petrified pretenders, force to make some choices even for them, they may take all positive scales at 3 and dominion 5 or go for a higher dominion but with some lower scales.

[Sandman]

Even better, why not tell the player the name of the discovered site in the message?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif Yet more:

More unit trait icons: I'm thinking of drain-immune, minor death bless, gem producers, spy ability, assassin, shape-changer etc. Almost every unusual trait should have an icon on the unit screen.

Accurate army depiction on map: There's no reason to not show every unit in your armies in the correct proportions, rather than just the most common one or two.

Better fort icons: A great city should look different from a fortified one. In an ideal world, this would extend to the map icons as well.

Jotun hurler defence boost: Is there any particular reason they have such a low defence? They only have a few shots, and then charge into battle, where they inevitably get clobbered.

Marignon mage age reduction: A fairly weak nation is made all the weaker by hobbling its priest-mages with old age.

Reworked Conquerors of the Sea: It's a fair old mess of a theme at the moment. Mixing diabolic faith and CotS was a mistake.

Reworked Black Forest: As above, but even more a mish-mash. Illuminati, vampires, villains, holy inquisitors, paladins, wolfherds, rangers, fortune tellers, ghoul guardians, zweihanders ...why? I'd remake it as a B-movie style vampires and werewolves nation, but that's just me.

I also agree with proposals 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.

[Graeme Dice]

Sandman said:
Reworked Conquerors of the Sea:



I don't see it as a mistake. It takes a weak nation and gives them the more powerful magic that they need to actually survive.


Reworked Black Forest:



The nation is horribly weak without some way to put armour on its vampire counts, and even then, is only middingly powerful. It needs earth mages.

[FrankTrollman]

The nation is horribly weak without some way to put armour on its vampire counts, and even then, is only middingly powerful. It needs earth mages.



It's pretty minimal as is. The Black Priests are capital only and old. And the benefit for being an inquisitor is proportionately less than it was in Dominions 2. They really got boned. They need their random pick back. A 100% chance of getting an Earth, an Astral, or a Nature wouldn't change the overall magical capabilities of the nation, but would do wonders for their ability to get things done.

For a team so dependent upon site finding spells, it's a travesty that noone in the empire can cast Gnome Lore. Even a 1/3 chance of getting a Gnome Lorer would set them to right to an amazing degree.

-Frank

[Twan]

A little thing very useful for MP games :

The ability to see the list of messages you are sending by clicking on "messages sent" (especially the number of gems and gold sent and identity of recievers). If you make many exchanges in a turn in a slow paced game, not having this possibility may be really annoying.

(ps : I wasn't a big mp player in dom 2 so I don't know if there is a shortcut or any way to see sent messages, if there is one it's not in the shortcut list)

[Gandalf Parker]

Ulm, Black Forest
I think that a hodgepodge is the result of any nation making it to Late Age. It almost seems to the be definition of late age.

As for the ranking of its abilities, I note that they are being done by people who tend to play large-army. No mention of the stealth at all. Ulm BF is setup rather well for using stealth armies in the field while keeping its non-stealth units closer to home defensively. Any ranking of its abilities without taking note of such things amounts to a personal play opinion Im thinking.

Altho I do feel it that could benefit from a stealth priest.

Gandalf Parker

[Graeme Dice]

No, I am definetly including the stealth when I discuss black forest Ulm, as the rangers are just about the only unit that's worth producing. Everything else is no better, or actually worse, than the mediocre troops of middle age Ulm.

[Nerfix]

Sandman said:Marignon mage age reduction: A fairly weak nation is made all the weaker by hobbling its priest-mages with old age.

Reworked Conquerors of the Sea: It's a fair old mess of a theme at the moment. Mixing diabolic faith and CotS was a mistake.

Reworked Black Forest: As above, but even more a mish-mash. Illuminati, vampires, villains, holy inquisitors, paladins, wolfherds, rangers, fortune tellers, ghoul guardians, zweihanders ...why? I'd remake it as a B-movie style vampires and werewolves nation, but that's just me.

Aye aye, agreed. I'll start working on un-mishmashing mods for LA Marignon and Ulm once (if!) they fix the age commands.

[Nerfix]

Graeme Dice said:I don't see it as a mistake. It takes a weak nation and gives them the more powerful magic that they need to actually survive.

It's an unappealing senseless mishmash, a lazy cop-out. That's whats wrong with it.

And the Diabolists who have enough magic to actually to do something are too old to do anything before they die in most of cases.

[Endoperez]

Nerfix said:And the Diabolists who have enough magic to actually to do something are too old to do anything before they die in most of cases.



Isn't it more like 15 turns, like with every other old mage in the worst case?

[Nerfix]

Diabs seemed to suffer more than the average mage from my experience.

[Graeme Dice]

Nerfix said:
It's an unappealing senseless mishmash, a lazy cop-out. That's whats wrong with it.



I see. So what would you do to make them at least as powerful as they currently are without offending your sensibilities about what combination of mages they should have?


And the Diabolists who have enough magic to actually to do something are too old to do anything before they die in most of cases.



Even if you recruit them in the winter, where age related afflictions happen, and you are unlucky enough to get them diseased, you still get ten turns out of them.

[Nerfix]

Depends really on whether we want a Sailing Marignon or a Diabolic Marignon.

[AMF]

In the main screen we can see the items leaders have with them (in reduced graphics) - and this is INCREDIBLY helpful to noobies like myself.

I WISH these items were also shown in the Army Setup screen - I am constantly having to right-click on commanders in the army setup screen to recall what goodies they have.

Any chance this could be put into the patch? Seems like it would be a simple fix.

Thanks!

[Sandman]

Nerfix said:
Depends really on whether we want a Sailing Marignon or a Diabolic Marignon.



Either way, it'd be nice if their troops reflected the theme, rather than being the same as middle era Marignon, minus knights.

[Frostmourne27]

Topic has gone a bit off since my last post, but I'd like to respond to Twan. If the concern with dual bless imprisonned gods of death and destruction playing as early era vanheim is that a single F9/W9 blessed vanir can solo independant strength 9, then FIX THE BLESSES! F9/W9 isn't great on say Marverni, although it's ok, or on any other race with weak sacreds, or to a lesser extent on races without non-capitol only sacreds. F9W9 early era T'ien Chi is not totally rigged, Warrior of the Five Elements can be shot, and are capitol only. It's units like van that are the problem. Ask yourself this: If I had a Fire 9 Water 9 bless, would I buy a helhirding for 150 gold? Honestly, they are probably worth that much. Well, atleast 100. If they couldn't be mass produced, they would dominate quite so much. Simply nerfing the points from imprissonned to counter the blessing issue isn't the answer. It may solve the problem, but it hurtsthe few people who might want to take an imprissoned god for reasons other than a bless. What if water nine game a minor chill effect instead of quickness? And fire gave a minor heat? Less characterful, and less fun, but it actually fixes the bless problem, as opposed to making the bless less practical.

[Nerfix]

I'd rather see Vans and Hels getting fixed. I'd say that even those EA Vanir/Hel infantry would win against every infantry unit of any age with possibly the exception of Niefel Giants on a battle with equal numbers.

It doesn't get any simpler. Glamour is overpowered. It's super stealth and superb combat bonus rolled into one.

The units with Glamour either need a cost increase or then Glamour needs to be reduced in power.

There are also some other units which are tremendous with the right blesses but have some weaknes. Jag Warriors can be shot unless they have an Air bless and I've seen SLINGERS pierce a low-level air shield. Eagle Warriors can get slain in the riposte that follows the round after their flying attack. Warriors of the Five Elements are glass cannons, excpet in spring, and are vulnerable to missiles. Burning Ones have encumberance and defence problems. Niefels can get ganced, though it isn't easy to pull off. And so on.

[PhilD]

At least for the Helhirdlings, the fact that they appear twice in the unit list of Helheim in the capital suggests that they were supposed to be capital-only, like the Walkyries. What makes them so efficient is that they can be produced in any fortress; take that away, and I guess they'd only be real bad on small maps (though I have exactly zero experience with Dom3 MP, so...)

[Nerfix]

I've beaten Ermorian armies a bit under THRICE the size of my forces with F9 Vanheres and two commanders shooting lightning bolts and one in melee. I've beat Sauromatian armies of 70 units made out of their comp bow cavalry and bowmen with 16 Vanheres and 18 of those axemen. And so on.

[Sammual]

I agree with the following;

2) Random Computer Allies Option

Add me to the Desired by list.

5) Improve AI Opponents Bidding on Mercenaries

Add me to the Desired by list.

6) New Troop Orders

Add me to the Desired by list.

8) Battle reports from Storming Castles

Add me to the Desired by list.

9) Grey-Out forging items which lack the resources

Add me to the Desired by list.

12) Have non-death AI nations avoid death scales

Add me to the Desired by list.

13) Provide wrap-around option for randomly generated maps.

Add me to the Desired by list.

14) Improved Monthly cast search spells.

Add me to the Desired by list.

16) Function to allow the disabling of specific combat spells.

Add me to the Desired by list.

17) Add a commander repeat previous commands

Add me to the Desired by list.

18) Mouse-scroll and scroll-wheel zoom on the battle map.

Add me to the Desired by list.

19) Ability to "page" through unit statistics within a squad.

Add me to the Desired by list.

24) New battle command for archers: Fire and Reserve
Archers would fire for three rounds and then assume stay behind troops order.

Add me to the Desired by list.

31) Provide more information for commanders which have been snatched away via spells or succubus.

Add me to the Desired by list.

34) Allow archers to avoid targets which are near friendly melee troops.

Add me to the Desired by list.

43) Blessing not working or Blessing penalty until pretender gets free. Provides balance for the imprisonned/asleep pretender with blessing paths.

Add me to the Desired by list.

44) Allow alt-tab to keep graphics stable.

Add me to the Desired by list.


I am against;

15) Have fleeing units stay in the province if the owner of the fleeing units is victorious.

38) Increase pts reward for imprisoned pretenders.


I don't care one way or another on the rest.

Sammual

[NTJedi]

UPDATED: 10/24/2006 Lots more updates added, soon starting page_8, eventually everyones request(s) will be added.
This topic is to save work / time for Illwinter.

Any post placed here requesting a feature will eventually be added to the original 1st or 2nd post providing Illwinter a quick one stop place for feature improvements.

Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.

[JaydedOne]

Desire: 1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,16,17,25,27,32,43,47,51, 56,57.

[Ubercat]

A simple interface improvement is all I'm ready to suggest now, as my Dom experience is limited to DOM 3 and I'm still learning.

When you check the spells that you're considering having a mage cast, your gems are shown at the top, but they quickly scroll off the screen. It would be useful to sticky them, so you don't have to scroll back up and recheck your stockpile.

Also, a link to the alchemy screen from the spell list wouldn't be a bad idea. It would save some clicking.

[AMF]

When forging an item using a commander with a forge bonus, the gem cost for the item shown is the base cost, not the cost after applying the forge bonus.

For example, if my smith has a forge(25) bonus, and I order him to forge something, and I look through the items list and I see "sword of spaghetti" its' gem cost is shown as 5 Earth gems. This, I presume, is the base cost, and the actual cost to me to forge it would be 4, due to the forge bonus.

Most of the time, the game is great at showing values with all the modifiers applied, but not in this case. Can we get this changed?

[PhilD]

Supporting list:

2, 6, 7 (much wanted, though unlikely to happen), 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 29 (similar in my mind to 7: give more complete "army deployment" options, to make skirmishers possible), 37, 38, 45, 47, 51

[Tortanick]

I'd quite like the list of godly names to be moddible. Idealy with no built in names.

Titles will be devided into requirements and title. A requiremnt can be any of the following:
Minimum skill in a magic path(s)
Gender
physical body
Dominion scales.

Boolean operators should be supported, e.g. Growth > 0 OR Nature > 2

The title can be simple.

King of Air.

or by useing brackets () you can have a comma seperated list and one word will be selected randomly.

(King, Lord, Prince) of Air.

And if you have a secondary bracket [] inside the first bracket you can make it chose between two lists based on requirements. The first list that passes will be selected.

([male: King, Lord, Prince] [female: King, Lady, Princess]) of Air.

If you use {} instead of () then rather than choseing the first list that passes it randomly selects a word from any list that passes. If there are no [] brackets then () and {} are interchangeible.

[Tortanick]

I'd quite like to see it that casting a global enchantment dosn't dispell existing ones.

[Manuk]

I agree with
1,2,5,8,13,14,16,17,18,19,22,25,32,33,39,41,43,44, 46,47,48,53

[PhilD]

Tortanick said:
I'd quite like to see it that casting a global enchantment dosn't dispell existing ones.



This is most likely a positive design decision from Illwinter, as well as a possible way for non-Astral nations to remove a hurting enchantment (ie, fill enchantment slots and then try to overwhelm the annoying one with a new enchantment). So I don't think they will want to "improve" this part...

[Tortanick]

IMO its better to make dispel easier than have enchantments overwrite each other.

For example they could create a whole range of dispells one for each gem type.

[Cainehill]

Agreed - the limitted number of global slots tends to ensure that 75% of the global spells _never_ get used, because you'd rather use one of the limitted slots for a more useful spell.

[Hadrian_II]

It might be interesting when there would not be global spell slots, but just the limitation that every spell can only be active once.

[Tortanick]

That dosn't make any sense though for most spells.

Dark Skies. Gift of health. Fata Morgana.

Give me one reason why those spells can't be cast in seperate empires.

Other spells like Utterdark & second sun could be limited with a message like "someone else has done the hard work for you"

And there are a few spells that couldn't really be cast more than once, Motheroak. Well of Missery. Arcane Nexus. For those spells I'd say you'd have to use more gems then the current one to redirect/relocate the spell. For balance reasons probably all the gem producing global enchantments should be in here.

[Nerfix]

I can't see why multiple empires couldn't have Stellar Focuses (Stellar Focii?) or Gale Gates or such either. I'd like to see a split into empire-wide spells (Carrior Forest, Soul Gate etc plus some other spells) and truly global spells (Utterdark, Arcane Nexus, Astral Corruption etc.).

[AMF]

I'm having trouble finding the most recent 'patch suggestions' list to give my feedback on. Is there an updated one?

I think a lot of these, most of them in fact, are pretty important, and want to make sure my vote gets counted for which should be forwarded to the developers...

Thanks.

[Hadrian_II]

Tortanick said:
That dosn't make any sense though for most spells.




I think it does not make less sense than having 5 slots for global spells, and it would be like the wonders in civ, but with the difference, that this wonders can be dispelled.

Its just an idea, but i would like it.

[Dhaeron]

While talking about global enchantments, something i'd really like to see is a setting for "max number of global enchantments" that's adjustable when creating a game. maybe something like 1-25. I don't know if it's hard to implement but imho it be a great addition without any downsides if it's easily done.

[Sandro]

Id love to see an...*drum roll*...item-creation wizard! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

A system for random-curved or fractal rivers in the map-generator would be nice too.

[bananafish]

global enchantments-

if the dispel is cast first before any global enchantments-
what i find troublesome is if i hold 2 or 3 of the globals and i want to cast another one.

if i attempt to cast the dispel and new global on the same turn, i have about a 25% chance of attempting to dispel my own global along with attempting to dispel an enemy's global.

[NTJedi]

UPDATED: 11/3/2006 More updates added, soon starting page_10, eventually everyones request(s) will be added. Sorry for the delay... life has been insanely busy.

This topic is to save work / time for Illwinter.

Any post placed here requesting a feature will eventually be added to the original 1st or 2nd post providing Illwinter a quick one stop place for feature improvements.

Please NOTE: Post your approval for suggestions others listed which you find important.
I will update the original topic allowing the developers to see which are in greatest demand.

[Cainehill]

Some changes / options on global slots would definately be nice, especially since some themes like Carrion Woods are now globals.

[Cainehill]

Could we please get some sort of normalization of home provinces, at least as an option? IE, something to minimize the effect of the number and quality of neighboring provinces, so that lucky/unlucky determination of neighbors doesn't supercharge/screw a player.

Example of why this would be nice : in a current game, I went with a strategy involving capitol-only sacred troops. Accordingly, I took a starting dominion of 7, to maximize how many I could recruit. But with only 3 neighbors, all of which are exceptionally crappy (total population, less than 14,0000, total resources 38) I wind up with my home province, even with the 50 admin fortification almost everyone starts with, having a grand total of _88_ resources. As far as recruiting / using those sacred units, I might as well have taken a starting dominion of 2 or 3.

So - something that said, "OK, every capitol should be able to pull in 200 resources (modified by productivity/sloth) after capturing all neighboring provinces" would be a huge equalizer - if said province has 10 neighbors, each neighbor gives 1/10th of 200. If there's only 2 neighbors, each gives 1/2 of 200.

[Cainehill]

Edit : Double Post

[Gandalf Parker]

There are maps that are balanced so that a games outcome can be more assured to be strategy rather than luck.
I recommend Fourmaggedon
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=464497&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=6&o=7&fpart=1

[Twan]

I think a map command #nostartif (a number) would be a good idea (making nostart all provinces with fewer than x neighbours). Many mappers have tried to solve the problem with manual nostarts, but in most cases some provinces are forgoten, making the balance worse for the unlucky starting there.

If you want maps with good start locations I've made a map file with 4 neighbours mini for Glory MP (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=459918&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1), and for cradle the last map file for dom 2 should be used, instead of the one given with dom3.

[dirtywick]

I'd like to see Rejuvenate remove afflictions when you get below the old age threshold.

[Reverend Zombie]

Cainehill said:

Some changes / options on global slots would definitely be nice, especially since some themes like Carrion Woods are now globals.



I'd suggest a separate pool for these "national globals" that does not require them to compete with the globals as we knew them in Dom2, or with each other. That is, the national globals should be Dispell-able but should not have to worry about getting overwritten by globals (either of the "old school" or the new variety).

[Graeme Dice]

I really like the idea of having those spells sit separately from other global spells. As it stands, five globals seems like nowhere near enough for 21 separate nations.

[Nerfix]

I also like it.

[reverend]

Nation pool for AI nations

Instead of completey random nations, allow us to 'enable' or 'disable' nations for the AI. This would make it possible to disallow water nations or AI-unfriendly nations like Mictlan, while still having the surprise to find out which specific nation is selected.

E.g.:

- Choose 'random' for AI nation
- A window appears with the nations listed
- By clicking you switch between greyed-out (not in pool) and normal (in pool)
- AI randomly selects one of the enabled nations

[Meglobob]

The items listed so far upto 73, I agree with the following:-

2,5,8,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,38,45,47,50,55,56,60 ,65 and 66.

Please add my approval, vote stamp. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Cainehill]

Could we _please_ get a mechanism to save in-game messages to a plain old text file? This would make keeping track of diplomatic status so much easier, as well as AARs if all messages (including random events & battle reports) could be saved there.

Nothing fancy, just :

Turn 2: A message has come from Ermor: I propose a 20 turn NAP.
Turn 2: Random event, 1500 gold and 3 magic items.

[Tyrant]

I like 5,8,11,13,18,19,22,32,47,48,60,64,67,D,G and Cainehill's request to save messages.

[aku666]

What I'd love to see is a little modification to 'M'onthly rituals, so that when the spell chosen for monthly ritual is a "magic site searching type" like acashic record, gnome lore or whatever it automatically cycles through all provinces under control, which hasn't been searched yet (and when all are searched stops casting and revert commander to defend action).

Edit. Another thing that comes to mind is an ability to buy defence to multiple provinces at once (at F1 screen) instead of doing it manually for each one.

[Gandalf Parker]

aku666 said:
What I'd love to see is a little modification to 'M'onthly rituals, so that when the spell chosen for monthly ritual is a "magic site searching type" like acashic record, gnome lore or whatever it automatically cycles through all provinces under control, which hasn't been searched yet (and when all are searched stops casting and revert commander to defend action).

Edit. Another thing that comes to mind is an ability to buy defence to multiple provinces at once (at F1 screen) instead of doing it manually for each one.



I believe that both of those are already in the game.

[Graeme Dice]

Gandalf Parker said:
I believe that both of those are already in the game.



Automation for monthly site searching spells exists, but is extremely buggy and rather limited in scope as it doesn't check to prevent overlap between two mages on the same turn.

[aku666]

Hmm. I must have missed them then.

Edit. Doh! I didn't notice that when I played this for the first time. Old Dom2 habit i suppose. Sorry for your trouble.

[NTJedi]

UPDATED: 12/8/2006 Updates added, soon starting #461454 on page_12, eventually everyones request will be added.

Sorry for the delay... was busy getting a promotion at work.

[Capt_Jack]

1.Include Province numbers on all messages that use province names.

2. Always have a way to go to the province referred to in messages.

3. Hilight the new magic sites on the province status screen each turn.

4. Have the monthly orders check for duplicate orders so you can assign more than one mage of type to search for magic site.

5. Add a print map function that includes the province number in the printout
6. For us data freaks... an export command .. for province info and current messages

7. Include messages for all commanders that are killed by causes other than battle . I still feel that I have commanders just disappear off the map. I assume some catastrophe has occurred (lightning strike, assasination, succubus) but I never know for sure.

8. Show recruitable commanders on the status screen. maybe an icon for your default fortress recruits but specific listing of others especially unique mages.
Its awful to come back to a province 6 moves after you conquered it and discover or rediscover that it has a unique mage available.

9. Show the name of the saved game somewhere on exiting. Its a drag trying to remember which game you were just playing if there are a bunch of them on your continue game list.

[lch]

Harr, I found this thread looking for something specific. And now I feel like bumping this. I think 1), 14), 67), 68), 72) have improved, yes? This list is really nice. There are some useless wishes on there, but many things that I wished for before are included. And many wishes to improve things that I took for granted, too. Even though the original people that are cited here have already vanished by now: great list!

[Wrana]

Another one:
An ability to save diplomatic messages in MP. I understand that most diplomacy occurs in forum... but it would be useful to have an ability to scroll through messages you had during the game.
Also ability to browse your own messages before ending turn. It would be especially useful if you has several trading agreements in MP & need to check whether you have already sent all that you offered... and whether you have sent someone twice the offered amount. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Also to have some ability to check diplomacy status would be nice. Probably especially with AI alliances offered above.

[capnq]

Wrana said: An ability to save diplomatic messages in MP. [...] It would be especially useful if you has several trading agreements in MP & need to check whether you have already sent all that you offered... and whether you have sent someone twice the offered amount. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Also to have some ability to check diplomacy status would be nice.

I have never understood why so many gamers are averse to taking notes. And I've never seen a computer game with an in-game notes system that was easier to use than a blank sheet of paper on a physical clipboard kept next to my monitor.

[elbnar]

One thing I want to see more than anything else is the ability to set other game modes in setup besides the normal kill-em-all mode, as well as other options.

Game mode: Teams (presumably it will be a polytheistic religion they'll make)

Assassination (NO praying back your pretender... once you're dead you lose; no immortal pretenders such as VQ allowed; twiceborn should be ok)

Capture the Flag... or Holy Artifact (the source of a pretender's power must be carried in a character's misc slot at all times. if an enemy captures it and brings it back to their capital, you lose)

No Wishing Allowed

Diplomacy... an oft-requested option such as above. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Or at least a simple in-game mechanism for establishing NAPs, and an announcement to all if a player breaks it so they know who not to trust

Customizable Units (design your own guys with the equipment available to your empire with the corresponding resource costs)