Item tweak mod

[Zerger]

Originally posted by Calanor:
Well, I frankly don't know if this will be that interesting to the public, but I might just as well offer it for download, I guess. Chances are that these tweaks will become completely obsolete as soon as the mod tools are released.

I've made some item tweaks to the demo - my main intent is to restrict item creation a little. In this Version, I've basically just added +1 to the required skill levels and tweaked the way the gem costs are calculated a bit. Not that special perhaps, although it will probably affect gameplay a bit - especially for rainbow mages, I'd expect.

This is a patch that will make changes to the Dominions 2 exe, but you will the option to make a copy of the original file during installation. Also, it has not been tested at all in multiplayer, so I have no idea if it will behave properly in such games.

Also included is a master list of all items that can be created in the Forge, along with their original skill requirements as well as the tweaked, new ones. Far from all of the items listed can be created in the demo Version, though. Some might feel that an item list is kind of a spoiler - if you are one of them, don't download the package or refrain from reading the list

If you think this might be interesting, click on this link to download the package. Note that this patch will only work with the Windows Version of the demo.

Is it legal to modify the .exe?

[Calanor]

That probably varies, depending on what country you live in. Usually, I wouldn't expect devs to mind all that much, unless we're dealing with outright on-line cheats or cracks. Out of common courtesy however, I asked Johan if going public with this tweak was OK and he didn't mind.

[Sammual]

I can't access the zip file.
Any chance you could pass it on to Sunray_be or DominionsX?

Sammual

[Calanor]

Originally posted by Sammual:
I can't access the zip file.
Any chance you could pass it on to Sunray_be or DominionsX?

Sammual

OK, farewell to GeoCities - try this link instead.

[Sammual]

Originally posted by Calanor:

quote:

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Originally posted by Sammual:
I can't access the zip file.
Any chance you could pass it on to Sunray_be or DominionsX?

Sammual

OK, farewell to GeoCities - try this link instead.

---

That worked.

Thanks,
Sammual

[Pocus]

Calanor, I'm unsure why you would tweak the items to such extent. That is not to say that I dont see potential in having the ability to changes items, but frankly I think you should play several dominions games before engaging into raising by one all requirements.

You see, the items requirement in doms are really fine tuned. By adding one level to each, you are totally screwing some races. I will take one example amongst many : you raised the earth boots to earth 3. This prevent Ulm smiths to create them, which in turn prevent them to reach the dwarven hammer. In fact, you are denying Ulm of 80% of his forging potential, and you cripple the whole race.

Now, if your application is only a kind of 'technological' demo of what you can do, then congratulations, I'm sure there is much potential there, but I would never play with such a mod, as it unbalance the whole game.

[Calanor]

Originally posted by Pocus:
Calanor, I'm unsure why you would tweak the items to such extent. That is not to say that I dont see potential in having the ability to changes items, but frankly I think you should play several dominions games before engaging into raising by one all requirements.

You see, the items requirement in doms are really fine tuned. By adding one level to each, you are totally screwing some races. I will take one example amongst many : you raised the earth boots to earth 3. This prevent Ulm smiths to create them, which in turn prevent them to reach the dwarven hammer. In fact, you are denying Ulm of 80% of his forging potential, and you cripple the whole race.

Now, if your application is only a kind of 'technological' demo of what you can do, then congratulations, I'm sure there is much potential there, but I would never play with such a mod, as it unbalance the whole game.

Um, no, it is not meant as a "tech" demo - it's frankly not that difficult to pull this kind of tweak off, provided you possess some basic understanding of what you're doing. As I believe I've mentioned in the read me, this is basically just a simple tweak in it's earliest phase, where I have made a very generalised adjustment to the reqs.
As for Ulm, I must admit that I don't really see why the increased difficulty in making the Earth Boots would outright cripple the race. All races have been affected by the change. Ulm receives a resource cost bonus when forging items - that's it. Why should Ulm in particular be treated/considered different from other races in this case? Personally, I would have liked to see Ulm receive some special forging bonus that would actually affect the power level of the items they create, but this is not currently the case.

Mind you, I never expected this to appeal to everyone - quite the contrary, actually. I expected most players to arch an eyebrow and question the wisdom in releasing a 3rd party patch now, considering that the demo was recently released. Much like you seem to do