Wish-List for Dominions 4

[Grottnikk]

Some of these have been mentioned before, but I'll mention them quickly again (perhaps the number of people requesting a certain addition/change gives that item more weight).

1. Unit formations - at the moment they're all squares. I'd like to make a line of archers or a wedge of cavalry without the need for 20 different commanders and half an hour to individually assign each troop their orders

2. Amazons! Amazons! Amazons! I like the ones that we get from individual provinces, and would like to see them made into a full fledged nation. Early age, I'm guessing. Or perhaps Middle Age, when Sauromatia is no longer around, the Amazons could make a comeback.

3. Custom Pretenders - choose the graphics, choose the abilities and stats based on a point system, write a description all your own.

4. The ability to view battles from lands where my spies are hidden.

5. The ability to choose your own starting location when in single player.

6. The ability to back off from attempting to assassinate a target. Many times my assassins have been killed because they picked the wrong target. Perhaps a better way to do it would be to have a list of potential targets in the region and let the player pick which one the assassin will go after. Perhaps for balance, no more than one assassin can attack any one character per turn? Another balancing option would be to have a random chance that the assassin just doesn't get an adequate opportunity to attempt an assassination and therefore no battle that turn.

7. I know someone will horror mark me for this one , but what about the ability to command units on the tactical level in a turn based mode, thus eliminating the need for orders and such? Maybe it could just be an option for those of us who enjoy micromanaging battles?

8. More spells and more research to do. Love the tech tree!

9. The ability to see and approve the random name generated for your Pretender before the game starts. This would avoid players getting unwanted names for their gods.

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by Grottnikk

4. The ability to view battles from lands where my spies are hidden.

9. The ability to see and approve the random name generated for your Pretender before the game starts. This would avoid players getting unwanted names for their gods.

#4 is already possible. It shows up in your regular list of battles in messages, or you can just type "V" on the map with that province selected.

Re #9, you might want to check out Gandalf's recent tip on generating LOTS of names for your gods. If you create the pretender beforehand in the "Create a Pretender" screen (from Options, before starting a game), you will already know what his random names are.

-Max

[Grottnikk]

Okay, so I screwed the pooch on a few of those

The tactical level change (#7), though, is one that I think might work well because it would make the Pretender even more godlike - I'd think controlling the individual movements of my minions on the battlefield would be more of a power trip. Oh well, to each his own. I love Dominions either way

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by Grottnikk

The tactical level change (#7), though, is one that I think might work well because it would make the Pretender even more godlike - I'd think controlling the individual movements of my minions on the battlefield would be more of a power trip. Oh well, to each his own. I love Dominions either way

Maybe once you Ascend and are no longer just a pretender to the thone, you get to have perfect control of all units. If you are interested in playing out tactically-rich scenarios using Dom3's rules and units, you might check out Omniziron's project "The Fourth Age" which he started recently. It's a roguelike inspired by Dom3, and KO said he doesn't mind if Omniziron invents a future history for the Dom3 nations as long as he doesn't mess up past history. So if you want to make up a 18th century Abysia you might consider contributing to that.

Personally, though, I liked and enjoyed Master of Magic and I liked tactical battles in that game, but it wouldn't seem right IMHO to have tactical-level control in a game where Morale is an important consideration. Imperfect control is part of the game.

[AstralWanderer]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

IMHO to have tactical-level control in a game where Morale is an important consideration. Imperfect control is part of the game.

Imperfect control could certainly be implemented with a tactical system (and is currently present in part with the rout rules). I would certainly like the option of being able to play out individual battles tactically (perhaps with limitations like "Pretender/Prophet must be present" or "Battlefield must have Dominion level X") since the scripting system seems inadequate in dealing with all the possible options and it requires players to understand how the AI works in order to best position their units.

However I think the big killer feature for Dominions 4 would be a release date!