[Dominions] A few questions from a newbie
Tom Chick
* I occasionally see negative supply usage. Is this a bug? Is it
supply storing up in a castle?
* I presume starvation is okay as long as you keep your army on the
move? I'm rolling through hostile territory with a big army,
occasionally getting starvation messages as I go through smaller
provinces. But as long as I move on, they won't suffer any ill
effects, right? It seems like starvation from inadequate supply is
mainly a problem when you're camping an army in a province too small
to support it.
* How on earth do you guys keep track of the search for magical sites?
Should I keep a list of which level of magic use has searched each
site? Sheesh.
* What is the color coding for the army size bar in a commander's box?
Sometimes it's red, sometimes it's green.
* What is this occasional deathmatch arena for commanders? Is is
scenario specific? How can I join?
* Is there any complete unit listing? I'd love a comprehensive
Monster Manual type thing to keep track of all the units.
* The manual isn't entirely clear on victory conditions. Is winning a
game basically a matter of hunting down the other pretenders and
killing them? And do I have to then stop his priests from calling the
pretender back? If so, do I have to scour the oceans of R'lyeh and
the Atlanteans?
Finally, since I know Johan from Illwinter reads these messages, I
think there are two things Dominions *really* needs: 1) a battle
results summary and 2) some way to sort troops by experience, wounds,
etc.
-Tom Chick
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> Love the game so far, but there are some things I'm wondering:
more online players!
> * I occasionally see negative supply usage. Is this a bug? Is it
> supply storing up in a castle?
Castles add supply to a province. Certain artifacts and nature magic
generate supplies, and they are deducted from your supply usage. So you
probably had some nature mages (Man, Jotun,Panagea)?
> * I presume starvation is okay as long as you keep your army on the
> move? I'm rolling through hostile territory with a big army,
> occasionally getting starvation messages as I go through smaller
> provinces. But as long as I move on, they won't suffer any ill
> effects, right? It seems like starvation from inadequate supply is
> mainly a problem when you're camping an army in a province too small
> to support it.
The first turn of starving is pretty minor penalty,just a morale hit of -3
or -4. The second turn in a row, however can cause disease in your troops.
depending on how short you are, a couple to a large portion of your army can
be afflicted. Once diseased, they do not heal from battle wounds, lose 1 HP
per turn and can get random battle afflictions.
> * How on earth do you guys keep track of the search for magical sites?
> Should I keep a list of which level of magic use has searched each
> site? Sheesh.
One of the if not THE major sources of micromanagement left - many have
asked for some way of getting this automated like the formers in SMAC, or at
least note the highest mage that search there of each color. Never heard
Illwinter say anything about this, however, so generally either take a
rainbow mage who can find them all, or get a group of mages with different
skills (if your race has multiple mages of different powers) and just do the
best you can. Note that priests can also find magic sites too, so the
rainbow mage should always search with at least him.
The good news is Illwinter has been great about fixing things above and
beyond what people have been asking for, but I fear this change may take a
while.
> * What is the color coding for the army size bar in a commander's box?
> Sometimes it's red, sometimes it's green.
IME, green is normal non-undead and not starving troops, and red is starving
troops. I think red is also undead too. Not sure if there are other modes as
this is new in patch 1.05
> * What is this occasional deathmatch arena for commanders? Is is
> scenario specific? How can I join?
Just select any one unit who is not sieged, and it should have an option to
compete in Arena deathmatch. Note that if you are playing against a lot of
races, you will probably see a couple of pretenders in there, particularly
wyrms and manticores. Also, the winnings are both a blessing and a curse :)
If you want to be a stinker, send in a cheap boobytrapped unit:one that can
curse, cast nether darts, horror mark, medallion of vengeance, etc
> * Is there any complete unit listing? I'd love a comprehensive
> Monster Manual type thing to keep track of all the units.
None officially available yet.
> * The manual isn't entirely clear on victory conditions. Is winning a
> game basically a matter of hunting down the other pretenders and
> killing them? And do I have to then stop his priests from calling the
> pretender back? If so, do I have to scour the oceans of R'lyeh and
> the Atlanteans?
Pretty much. If they have no territories and fortresses, they lose. If the
have no Dominion (those candles on each province), they lose, and all their
troops vanish. Handy way to annex some territories blood free. But mainly
you hunt them down and liberate all their land
There are a couple of maps that have objectives - they have a little symbol
next to the map name in the map list. Haven't played much of this yet,
however, so all I've seen is take X province scenarios.
> Finally, since I know Johan from Illwinter reads these messages, I
> think there are two things Dominions *really* needs: 1) a battle
> results summary and 2) some way to sort troops by experience, wounds,
> etc.
Definitely with you on 1;I've been a PITA about it myself. I think Johan
even admitted it would be nice, which probably means next patch or so.
Number2 would be nice too...
Jasper Phillips
Tom Chick <tomc...@cutthispartout.primenet.com> wrote:
>Love the game so far, but there are some things I'm wondering:
>
>* I occasionally see negative supply usage. Is this a bug? Is it
>supply storing up in a castle?
Certain magic items and mages with nature magic reduce supply usage.
Anything is "magic supply" capacity that's unused.
>* I presume starvation is okay as long as you keep your army on the
>move? I'm rolling through hostile territory with a big army,
>occasionally getting starvation messages as I go through smaller
>provinces. But as long as I move on, they won't suffer any ill
>effects, right? It seems like starvation from inadequate supply is
>mainly a problem when you're camping an army in a province too small
>to support it.
Starvation 2 turns in a row starts to yield disease, and diseased
troops tend to die.
>* How on earth do you guys keep track of the search for magical sites?
>Should I keep a list of which level of magic use has searched each
>site? Sheesh.
IMHO this is pretty much a requirement. I would rather the game kept
track of it, but it's not really that hard to do in practice. Actually
sending around all of the searchers is more of a pain.
>* What is this occasional deathmatch arena for commanders? Is is
>scenario specific? How can I join?
This one confused me at first too. It's an order available to any
of your commanders under the normal order selection menu.
>* Is there any complete unit listing? I'd love a comprehensive
>Monster Manual type thing to keep track of all the units.
No. Makes scenario design a bit of a pain.
>* The manual isn't entirely clear on victory conditions. Is winning a
>game basically a matter of hunting down the other pretenders and
>killing them? And do I have to then stop his priests from calling the
>pretender back? If so, do I have to scour the oceans of R'lyeh and
>the Atlanteans?
Scenarios are typically won by taking a specifid (well defended) province.
Normal games are last man standing.
Chris Smith
>* How on earth do you guys keep track of the search for magical sites?
>Should I keep a list of which level of magic use has searched each
>site? Sheesh.
First turn, turn off the terrain (just black with red borders) and go
to a fullscreen view of the map. Hit Print Screen. Hit Alt-Tab.
Start->Accessories->Paint. Paste. (optional:) clip out the center part
using cut/new/paste. Tools->Invert Colors. Print. Make notes,
using pencil.
(I send searchers around in a single gang that also builds temples
and/or labs.)
Also, to save the game: alt-tab. MyComputer->C:->games->dominions.
ctrl-drag <gamename> to make a copy, 'Copy of <gamename>'. To restore
a save, delete <gamename>, make a copy of 'Copy ', rename to <gamename>.
>* What is the color coding for the army size bar in a commander's box?
>Sometimes it's red, sometimes it's green.
Red: commander has full force, can't take any more troops.
Green: there's room.
>* What is this occasional deathmatch arena for commanders? Is is
>scenario specific? How can I join?
Fun. You may send any commander, it's a command like Patrol available
only that turn. If he gets killed, his troops are left in the province
garrison. If he wins, he gets an awesome weapon. It's cursed -- he can't
give it away. Next time, he is automatically volunteered to defend the
title.
>* Is there any complete unit listing? I'd love a comprehensive
>Monster Manual type thing to keep track of all the units.
Me too. You're usually looking at a much smaller universe of choices,
though, and get pretty familiar with them. Do hit Recruit in a new
province and check what if any cool beings may be available there.
It's worth downloading the 1.05 manual just for the list of keyboard
shortcuts.
>battle results summary
Unclear if it would help very much. The bare win/loss is already there.
That is not sufficient, agreed. You must see who survived, look for
stray troops, retreated or lost their commander, possibly arrange the
formation differently for the next attack -- have spies out front,
I never manage this real well myself but it's easy enough to advise
somebody else to do it -- and other stuff. A summary would be more
interesting but couldn't cover the work, you really have to take a look
at the province. Watching the movie can give you ideas about force
composition. And detailed orders, something I don't do much yet.
The playback defaults to speed 1, hitting 2 up makes it play faster.
Johan Karlsson
>Glad you are finally playing it- hope you like it for the review. We need
>more online players!
That was good news!
>> * How on earth do you guys keep track of the search for magical sites?
>> Should I keep a list of which level of magic use has searched each
>> site? Sheesh.
>One of the if not THE major sources of micromanagement left - many have
>asked for some way of getting this automated like the formers in SMAC, or at
>least note the highest mage that search there of each color. Never heard
>Illwinter say anything about this, however, so generally either take a
I write it down on a paper. If you play a PbEM game, then it is quite
nice to have a real paper with notes on. But I agree that it is not
a good solution for single player games.
>> * What is the color coding for the army size bar in a commander's box?
>> Sometimes it's red, sometimes it's green.
>IME, green is normal non-undead and not starving troops, and red is starving
>troops. I think red is also undead too. Not sure if there are other modes as
>this is new in patch 1.05
Green = space left for more troops
>> * Is there any complete unit listing? I'd love a comprehensive
>> Monster Manual type thing to keep track of all the units.
>None officially available yet.
Someone is doing a homepage with a complete listing of all the monsters and
random sites.
We supplied him with the site listing, but not the monster listing, because
we felt that publishing all the monster stats would be too much of a
spoiler. So he pulled them out of the game using a debugger/editor or
something, oh well.
>> Finally, since I know Johan from Illwinter reads these messages, I
>> think there are two things Dominions *really* needs: 1) a battle
>> results summary and 2) some way to sort troops by experience, wounds,
>> etc.
>Definitely with you on 1;I've been a PITA about it myself. I think Johan
>even admitted it would be nice, which probably means next patch or so.
>Number2 would be nice too...
I guess that number 1 will be in the next patch, but no promises.
/Johan
Illwinter Game Design
www.illwinter.com
Tom Chick
<george...@SPAMLESSyahoo.com> wrote:
>The first turn of starving is pretty minor penalty,just a morale hit of -3
>or -4. The second turn in a row, however can cause disease in your troops.
>depending on how short you are, a couple to a large portion of your army can
>be afflicted. Once diseased, they do not heal from battle wounds, lose 1 HP
>per turn and can get random battle afflictions.
I wish there was some convenient way to tell how far into starvation
my troops were. It's hard to keep track of when they were last fed,
who's suffering the early phases of starvation and who's afflited with
advanced diseases.
This goes hand-in-hand with one of the things I think Dominions is
missing: a handy way to sort troops by experience and wounds. I want
to put by limping eyeless soldier on garrison duty and keep my
battle-hardened vets on the front line. Short of right clicking on
_every_single_blessed_last_one_of_them, there's no way to do this. I
presume starvation would be easier to manage if I had some sense of
who was simply taking a morale hit and who was wasting away.
>The good news is Illwinter has been great about fixing things above and
>beyond what people have been asking for, but I fear this change may take a
>while.
Looking over the revision history and seeing their presense here and
on the CGO forum is certainly encouraging.
>Pretty much. If they have no territories and fortresses, they lose. If the
>have no Dominion (those candles on each province), they lose, and all their
>troops vanish. Handy way to annex some territories blood free. But mainly
>you hunt them down and liberate all their land
I haven't gotten very far in the game, buy how are you supposed to
knock out R'lyeh and Atlantis?
Tom Chick
>I write it down on a paper. If you play a PbEM game, then it is quite
>nice to have a real paper with notes on. But I agree that it is not
>a good solution for single player games.
I actually don't mind keeping a sheet of paper handy, which is what
I've been doing. But it seems that requiring the player to take notes
because there's no ingame mechanism to help him is a minor sin in game
development. :) However, as I said, it's not that big a deal to me.
>Someone is doing a homepage with a complete listing of all the monsters and
>random sites.
>We supplied him with the site listing, but not the monster listing, because
>we felt that publishing all the monster stats would be too much of a
>spoiler.
Fair enough, but you guys should have at least provided a list of the
common monster types with the documentation (which is otherwise very
good!). I'd like a hard copy of this not so much because I want to
see everything, but because I'd like a frame of reference under my
nose.
At any rate, many thanks for participating in these discussions,
Johan. You guys have done some fine work and I'm glad to see you're
still invested in it!
Tom Chick
(Chris Smith) wrote:
>First turn, turn off the terrain (just black with red borders) and go
>to a fullscreen view of the map. Hit Print Screen. Hit Alt-Tab.
>Start->Accessories->Paint. Paste. (optional:) clip out the center part
>using cut/new/paste. Tools->Invert Colors. Print. Make notes,
>using pencil.
Hey, good call, Chris! Thanks for the tip.
RE: a battle results summary
>Unclear if it would help very much. The bare win/loss is already there.
>That is not sufficient, agreed. You must see who survived, look for
>stray troops, retreated or lost their commander, possibly arrange the
>formation differently for the next attack -- have spies out front,
>I never manage this real well myself but it's easy enough to advise
>somebody else to do it -- and other stuff. A summary would be more
>interesting but couldn't cover the work, you really have to take a look
>at the province. Watching the movie can give you ideas about force
>composition. And detailed orders, something I don't do much yet.
>The playback defaults to speed 1, hitting 2 up makes it play faster.
For me, it's a simple matter of wanting to know casualties taken and
inflicted. I'd like to know how many and which troops I lost, as well
as how many and which troops my opponent lost. Let me see the bottom
line at a glance rather than having to guess from watching the replay
or trying to remember what my army strength was last turn.
Juha Kerätär
<tomc...@cutthispartout.primenet.com> wrote:
>I haven't gotten very far in the game, buy how are you supposed to
>knock out R'lyeh and Atlantis?
With water magic. IIRC, commander can bring 10 units with him into
water province, for every point of water magic he has.
BTW, I love the new map available on Illwinter home page. The palette
used is much clearer and pleasing to eye than the old one. When using
the overlay that shows pretender's dominion in each province, overlay
colors are bit hard to distinguish though.
What I especially love in the new map is the use of "untravellable"
provinces, ie. having mountain chains that actually hinder movement.
Maps like Golden Coast are really a bit dull, a huge land mass without
any choke points for troop movement.
-Lunael
Martin Leslie Leuschen
: > * What is the color coding for the army size bar in a commander's box?
: > Sometimes it's red, sometimes it's green.
: IME, green is normal non-undead and not starving troops, and red is starving
: troops. I think red is also undead too. Not sure if there are other modes as
: this is new in patch 1.05
Actually, I'm pretty sure red is a "full" cammander leading all
the troops she can.
Regards,
martinl