Patch v3.25 released!

[Amonchakad]

Woot!:D Thanks Illwinter for working so hard for us!

I'd say this is one of the meatiest patches in Dom's history, here are the best changes:

- Battles in cave provinces now autocast Darkness.

-The Air 9 bless no longer gives SR 75% and instead gives flight for the duration of the battle.

-Zamzummite gold cost increased, random paths % reduced to 50.

-EA and MA Oceania gain a new amphibious sacred, the Crab Rider.

-Forge Monthly command(!!!).

-All three monkey nations gain a new national spell, Markata Swarm.

-The Prince of Death is now immortal.

And lots of other balance changes.
Oh, this is going to be GREAT! Enjoy people:
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwinter/DOM3/DOM3_page.html (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK2tWVj6lXw)

[Kheldron]

That's a nice one. You even made me check :doh:

[militarist]

Yeah, by tradition, all best news about Dominions progress come April 1st..

[Herr Heimlich]

And here I was almost excited :D

[Sombre]

It's interesting that other games tend to get bad news on April 1st, while dom3 gets good news.

[WraithLord]

that was good :lol

[Swan]

Nicely done

[Makinus]

That was funny!

[Gandalf Parker]

Nicely done. In particular for not choosing things wildly unlikely. Nice choice of improvements for your purpose

[thejeff]

Well, not wildly unlikely until you got to Markata Swarm anyway. :)

[lch]

Well, two years ago we had skimpy girl ads for April's Fools, an idea so great that we still keep it in fond memories up to this day. So in all fairness there is no reason not to expect this additional spell. I, for one, welcome our new Markatan overlords.

[Sombre]

I know you all think this is a joke, but if you look under conjuration as Bandar Log, there is already a Markata Swarm spell! :O

They must have slipped it in the recent patch and not said anything. I had no idea until it was actually used on me in the Scruntlefut MP game.

[Belac]

I think the Air bless thing is pretty cool, actually. It'd totally make A9 blesses more worthwhile. As is, 75% isn't enough to totally protect against massed air evocations, and the extra 25% doesn't do much except in very niche circumstances (sacred commander with a ring of tamed lighting casting Ironskin).

[Psycho]

The link redirects me to youtube saying "this video is not available". What was it supposed to be?

[rdonj]

Probably this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

[Amonchakad]

Uh, odd. The link in the OP works fine for me. Anyway, it's good old Rick Astley;)

Regarding the "patch notes" I originally started with highly unlikely things for the comedy value, but then switched to more realistic changes so as not to spoil the joke immediately. Actually, the new Air bless is part of a long list of ideas I have to improve Dominions - not that I expect such drastic changes to happen by now:)

[Zeldor]

There was discussion about blesses on IRC many times. I think that best idea [mine! :P] was to get precision bonus from air bless, so it could be another bless for mages/archers.

[Belac]

That's another good idea.

To hijack this thread further, what about making the B9 bless more useful? It could grant bonus fatigue damage on each hit, like F9 and D9.

[lch]

There was discussion about blesses on IRC many times.

Speaking of which, as per Jurri's suggestion, who still adheres to his strict code of not posting on the forums anymore, here's the official theme song of the IRC channel:

<object codebase='http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0' width='464' height='384' > <param name='allowScriptAccess' value='always' /> <param name='movie' value='http://www.clipfish.de/cfng/flash/clipfish_player_3.swf?as=1&videoid=1216785&r=1&area=e&c=990000' /> <param name='bgcolor' value='#ffffff' /> <param name='allowFullScreen' value='true' /> <embed src='http://www.clipfish.de/cfng/flash/clipfish_player_3.swf?as=1&vid=1216785&r=1&area=e&c=990000' quality='high' bgcolor='#990000' width='464' height='384' name='player' align='middle' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed></object>

[Foodstamp]

The official song of IRC shows up as a Red Square for me. Much like a red square you find in the capital of a communist nation. I am neither surprised nor amused. P.S. Please be sure to tell anyone who refuses to post on the forum that we are deeply devastated.

Regards,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_EcybyLJS8

[lch]

I am sorry about the technical issues that this forum is presenting, Foodstamp.

You can see the video here: http://www.clipfish.de/video/1216785/

I'd say that the "Run along gang" would be a better name, myself, but Jurri was adamant that this would be more PC and fitting for the IRC channel. I'd welcome to hear an opinion from an honorable man like you on this issue, Foodstamp.

[Sombre]

That's another good idea.

To hijack this thread further, what about making the B9 bless more useful? It could grant bonus fatigue damage on each hit, like F9 and D9.

It could do literally anything and it would be more useful than it is now.

[Squirrelloid]

Wait, there are websites that block US access to them? Weird. Well, that made that link useless lch.

[lch]

Wait, there are websites that block US access to them? Weird. Well, that made that link useless lch.
Just very fitting, then, since I can't access the OP's link. Tit for tat.

[Calahan]

Wait, there are websites that block US access to them? Weird. Well, that made that link useless lch.
There are a ton of US sites that block access to them from the UK. Mostly because of restrictions regarding broadcast rights.

[Foodstamp]

Blocked by the Iron Curtain of the Denmarkian Internet Censoring Agency. I'm disappointed I won't get to see the video :( but I am sure it was great :).

[vfb]

I see Maerlande in the video, but how come he's not holding his jug of applejack?

[Cammorak]

I was excited up until I saw the hover tooltip, then I was laughing. Is it sad that whenever we see a youtube link that doesn't match the stated URL, we automatically know it's Ricky professing his love?

[kennydicke]

Unfortunately, I was Rick-rolled twice yesterday. I had never experienced the phenomena before and I'm still trying to recover from the shock.

On an unrelated note, Markata Swarm is living up to the hype.

[Amonchakad]

Pray that Markata Swarm never *ever* gets implemented. No army of fully kitted tartarians could ever hope to defeat a throng of mighty Markatas.

[Calahan]

Pray that Markata Swarm never *ever* gets implemented. No army of fully kitted tartarians could ever hope to defeat a throng of mighty Markatas.
Markata's own Tarts in vanilla. They don't need a swarm. No point wasting gems on a spell to summon 1,000 Markata's when 1 Markata can do the job just as well.

Maybe if the spell was made available to non monkey nations, then it could be useful as a way of balancing the game. All that would be needed then is a spell that converts any nations PD into Monkey PD. But guess that's too damaging to the game balance since it would make magic raiding almost impossible (unless you empowered a lot of Markata's in Air or Astral)

[Sombre]

What do you mean unless you empower them in astral? How else are you going to get a markata wish empowered to wish for more markata?

[Calahan]

Well I think it'd be pretty stupid to risk your S5/S6 Markata's for raiding, since if you lose those you'll fall terminally behind in the wishing for Markata race. So for raiding, it's far better to take a newly wished for Markata, empower him to S1, then throw on Star Cap and Coin/Ring for an almost unbeatable magic phase raider.

Can't see any logic in raiding with your Wish casting Markata's, since the only possible niche use that would have is to cast Maser Enslave. But Markata's are immune to puny mind tricks, so you'd certainly lose him if the enemy has just one Markata in the province. (and only newbs don't have Markata's defending all their provinces)

[Sombre]

Ah but the opponent will send out his S7 empowered markata to drop some magic duel on your ***.

It's a classic rock paper markata situation.

[Calahan]

Well, if my opponent wants to lose his Wish casting Markata's then that's all good by me :) Since Markata's are immune to magic duel, and if two Markata's magic duel the result is a draw.

But if you don't want to lose your newly empowered S1 Markata's to drawn Magic Duel's, then empower them in Air instead.

[Rookierookie]

That's another good idea.

To hijack this thread further, what about making the B9 bless more useful? It could grant bonus fatigue damage on each hit, like F9 and D9.

It could do literally anything and it would be more useful than it is now.

Not necessarily. Say, Berserk...

[Trumanator]

That's another good idea.

To hijack this thread further, what about making the B9 bless more useful? It could grant bonus fatigue damage on each hit, like F9 and D9.

It could do literally anything and it would be more useful than it is now.

Not necessarily. Say, Berserk...

Berserk is useless?

[rdonj]

Berserk certainly can be useful. It's not my favorite bless generally, but it has its uses. And is already taken with nature. Blood, on the other hand, is pretty much completely pointless. It could give 1 extra hp to the blessed unit and be better :)

[Sombre]

I would take 1 extra hp over the current B9 effect for sure.