Machaka-What are they?

[Nerfix]

Ummm...
I considere the fact that i will have to produce less A4(papere) pollution a significant thing...
And yes, i'm talking about national overview.

[licker]

While the topic of Mirco has been brought up...

Empire management has been made easier you say, is there a place to see what the changes are? Or can they be quickly elaborated here?

Are there improvements to the army screen, in as far as assigning troops to commanders and setting up the orders/positions for the units and comanders?

Is there an overview of all comanders, sortable by magic/command/piety/...? This one would be of great use I'd imagine as once you get a decent sized empire you have so many commanders running around its hard to keep track of them all. It'd be even nicer if you could issue orders to the commanders directly from an overview screen, rather than having to go to the province they are in and select them there.

Is there any way to give sequntial orders to commanders? For example you have a new sage with different magic schools that you want to search 5 or 6 provinces. Can you set him to do so automatically? Can you give sequential orders so he will search/move/search/move/... without having to be ordered each turn?

Don't take these as complaints or criticisms, they are just questions or suggestions (though its a bit late for any new implementations to the code I'd imagine, short of future patches).

I really gave MoO3 and its Macro approach a long shake, and while in the end I turned away from MoO3, it wasn't due to the Macro approach (it had more to do with broken or missing features), I'd be really really happy if Dom2 added more macro abilities. The tediousness of keeping track of a large empire with potentially 100s of commanders is right now my only concern with Dom2, not to say I won't get it and enjoy the hell out of it, just that I think more Marco control is a good thing

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by licker:
While the topic of Mirco has been brought up...

Empire management has been made easier you say, is there a place to see what the changes are? Or can they be quickly elaborated here?

Changes dating from november 2002 and later can be found at http://illwinter.com/dom2progress-html but it might be difficult to find useful info there.

Are there improvements to the army screen, in as far as assigning troops to commanders and setting up the orders/positions for the units and comanders?

Squad orders and positions are not reset when you transfer troops between commanders (I cannot remember how it worked in DOM I). You can use 'w' to select all wounded units in a squad, 'e' to select experienced units, 'a' to select all units etc.

Is there an overview of all comanders, sortable by magic/command/piety/...? This one would be of great use I'd imagine as once you get a decent sized empire you have so many commanders running around its hard to keep track of them all. It'd be even nicer if you could issue orders to the commanders directly from an overview screen, rather than having to go to the province they are in and select them there.

The nation overview allows you to issue orders, set taxes, raise defense, goto commanders, informs you on mage skills and site searches.

Is there any way to give sequntial orders to commanders? For example you have a new sage with different magic schools that you want to search 5 or 6 provinces. Can you set him to do so automatically? Can you give sequential orders so he will search/move/search/move/... without having to be ordered each turn?

No sequential orders at this time.

Don't take these as complaints or criticisms, they are just questions or suggestions (though its a bit late for any new implementations to the code I'd imagine, short of future patches).

I really gave MoO3 and its Macro approach a long shake, and while in the end I turned away from MoO3, it wasn't due to the Macro approach (it had more to do with broken or missing features), I'd be really really happy if Dom2 added more macro abilities. The tediousness of keeping track of a large empire with potentially 100s of commanders is right now my only concern with Dom2, not to say I won't get it and enjoy the hell out of it, just that I think more Marco control is a good thing

All in all there are many changes to improve micro management. Changing orders of all or some commanders collectively is one. Research pool another. The long awaited search log. Many user friendly popups to make newbies comfortable. The nation overview is probably the feature you will like the most.

The problem with your question is that I havn't played Dominions I for about a year or so. I cant't remember exactly how the game was back then. Perhaps I should indulge myself in an old game of Dominions I

[licker]

Wow thanks for the prompt answers. I like alot of what I heard. The nation overview does sound very functional to me

How easy will it be to add more features to it though? I'm guessing (well in my case I know) that once I get my hands on it I'll have suggestions for additions to it (unless its just soooooo damn perfect the first time )

I'm really looking forward to this now

Probably worth a game or two Dom1 to refresh the memory, but I'd guess you'd rapidly begin to hate the micro since it sounds like you made alot of improvements to it in Dom2

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by licker:
- snip -

How easy will it be to add more features to it though? I'm guessing (well in my case I know) that once I get my hands on it I'll have suggestions for additions to it (unless its just soooooo damn perfect the first time )

- snip -

There will probably be a lot of suggestions. You always had (all of you) . Some of these will probably be added in upcoming patches, but for now we are working on the most urgent and easily corrected issues. Our beta testers help us decide what these issues are, but they have almost gone silent on the beta forum. This is probably a good sign.

[Pocus]

Well understood Johan. I can understand the logic of doing the tweaks which satisfy either the dev teams, or most of the players. Anyway, you spoke of the ability to change the scripting of commanders by Groups. This is a new thing in Doms II, and will already alleviate a bit the problem. My view is perhaps biased by the people which dwells in the csipg newsgroup, but many of these dominions players are kinda hardcore in their micromanaging approach.

So on the other hand I dont think that features which simplifies how to handle 80 mages on the battefields (saving and reloading orders templates) would only be enjoyed by an handful of players. Perhaps we can make a poll on the most wanted features, when the forum will be at full speed.

[Strider]

I didn't get to play DomI, so I'm not sure if this was part of it...
Scripting: Each 'commander' can have 5 'squads'. Squads can be a mixture of units, so it's really 5 seperate 'lines' under the commander. Not only can each commander be assigned a script, but also each squad can be assigned one independently of the others. These are 'set' scripts you choose from a menu.

In the same screen, you can also choose independent 'starting' positions of commanders and squads, in relation to others, instead of just starting the battle as one 'mass' group.

Bear in mind, you adjust these settings prior to a battle...you have no control over the battle once it starts. If a script doesn't apply to the unit(s), it will fall back on it's 'default' setting. So if you set your unit(s) to attack enemy archers, and there are none, they'll find something else to beat on Of course, you're going to check on what you're fighting, right