Wish-List for Dominions 4

[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!

[Gandalf Parker]

#2 been done I believe. Its a playable mod

#3 already available both as mod and as map commands

#5 available as map commands

#7 I think the devs feel this just doesnt fit the "I am a god" thing

#8 being done in mods

[Dectilon]

The game needs 3 things as I see it, to break into the mainstream:

- Better visuals obviously. There's a pain barrier there for a lot of people, sadly.

- A better interface. There are still a lot of details that make the game hard to play and somewhat confusing. They're too many to bring up in a short summary.

- Tighter control of units. I'm not talking about micromanagment, but things like target priority, the ability to force spellcasting (i.e have a caster cast a very powerful spell even if the AI deems in unnecessary) etc. Having your mage cast a strenght boost on your priests instead of your knights and not really knowing why is sure to put people off.

[Loren]

Originally Posted by Dectilon

The game needs 3 things as I see it, to break into the mainstream:

- Better visuals obviously. There's a pain barrier there for a lot of people, sadly.

- A better interface. There are still a lot of details that make the game hard to play and somewhat confusing. They're too many to bring up in a short summary.

- Tighter control of units. I'm not talking about micromanagment, but things like target priority, the ability to force spellcasting (i.e have a caster cast a very powerful spell even if the AI deems in unnecessary) etc. Having your mage cast a strenght boost on your priests instead of your knights and not really knowing why is sure to put people off.

Also, separate battle orders.

Battle plans for: Battle, skirmish & assassination. The skirmish plan would take effect in any situation the game currently thinks is too weak for gems. If you want the big guns to be used in an apparently wimpy battle you script them for skirmish.

I would also like to see options like "cast offensive" or "cast defensive"--telling the guy how to behave for the rest of the battle.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by Loren

Also, separate battle orders.

Battle plans for: Battle, skirmish & assassination. The skirmish plan would take effect in any situation the game currently thinks is too weak for gems. If you want the big guns to be used in an apparently wimpy battle you script them for skirmish.

I would also like to see options like "cast offensive" or "cast defensive"--telling the guy how to behave for the rest of the battle.

I like these.

[Bananadine]

This isn't about Dominions 4 so much as it's about Dominions 3, is it? Well here's what I want to see patched in: different fortress icons on the main map! Just a simple little change, purely cosmetic, requiring only a few dozen new icons, perhaps even easily derived from the existing fortress close-up images (the ones you see when you're looking up a fortress' Administration etc.). A great city, a kelp fortress, and a wizard's tower should not look exactly the same. This change would improve the interface and the role-playing experience both!

Another, less likely change I want: more wraparound map support! The map generation is quite cool as it is, but... it always generates corners (as far as I know), and corners are LAME. If the world is really supposed to be flat, then let it be round at least, and surrounded by some kind of stylized void (possibly starry), not by water. (Okay maybe that one is for Dominions 4.) But more importantly, let it be round! I mean, without extensive manual labor on the user's part.

My greatest and least likely to be satisfied desire (for Dominions 5, to be released in 2014 for your Xbox 1080): Full integration of the multiplayer game threads, the game client, and LlamaServer (or its functional equivalent), so that I don't have to have five browser tabs open all the time to play in two multiplayer games, and so that I don't have to keep track of the ever-changing mappings between forum names and nations, and so that I can send somebody a message and get the answer within a single turn without having to worry about whether or not they ever bothered to hook up their forum account to their e-mail address. (N.B.: All of this hassle is still a pretty good price for such an awesome game as Dominions 3.)

[lch]

You didn't play Dom1, did you? The worlds were round and flat there.