Dominions FOUR: Sequel to the Best Game Ever

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dominions FOUR: Sequel to the Best Game Ever

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

LeSquide posted:

So, I'm about to get back into Dominions with a late era game; it's my first time playing against human opponents in over a year. I'm going Bogarus; is a communion based strategy viable, or am I just going to get Mind Hunted to death?

A communion based strategy is viable, especially if you mainly stick to it as a way of getting Astropeligiasts (sp???) to be good at casting evocations. Masters of Names have maybe too much potential to to gently caress everything up by casting in weird paths and killing your slaves a lot after your blood mages stop casting Reinvigoration.

Magic Duel costs way too much in terms of gems to be useful for much other than sniping specific astral users.

Like if you're fighting a nation with a specific hero who gets it, or some kind of Cool Mercenary, or a pretender that has Astral built in (but not at 9 or anything, more like 4 or 5), it's sometimes worth going for.

When it's pretty much spend a gem for a coinflip chance to kill a mage or maybe die, it's less appealing for your opponents.

# ? Jan 19, 2016 21:35

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 28, 2024 13:55

Rotekian: Jan 1, 2013

Libluini posted:

The AI loses 500+ units

poo poo happens.

The ai has at least another 2 armies that size on my border.

# ? Jan 20, 2016 01:08

TheDemon: Dec 11, 2006; _{...on the plus side I'm feeling much more angry now than I expected so this totally helps me get in character.}

Magic Duel is useful in three general situations:
1. When you want to kill one specific astral mage dead, like a pretender. In which case you throw as many S1s at it as you can.
2. When you have something that specifically survives losing a duel. Immortal S mages. Turkey mages (does this still work?).
3. When your astral greatly exceeds the enemy's and you can snipe several low-astral mages for the cost of a handful of ungeared mid-astral mages. Eg, the enemy has all S1s and you have noncap S3s (very rare).

In the case where you throw a poo poo ton of low S mages at a low/mid S communion, that would be an attrition tactic, but not one that will necessarily win a battle.

# ? Jan 20, 2016 01:18

Lord Koth: Jan 8, 2012

Libluini posted:

The AI loses 500+ units

poo poo happens.

While not quite 500 kills, these were both against (at the time) active human players instead of the AI. :smug:

TheDemon posted:

Magic Duel is useful in three general situations:

2. When you have something that specifically survives losing a duel. Immortal S mages. Turkey mages (does this still work?).

As far as I'm aware, no. They changed the shapeshifting mechanics, so damage well in excess of their hp just kills them outright now.

# ? Jan 20, 2016 01:26

Roland Jones: Aug 18, 2011; by Nyc_Tattoo

TheDemon posted:

Magic Duel is useful in three general situations:
1. When you want to kill one specific astral mage dead, like a pretender. In which case you throw as many S1s at it as you can.
2. When you have something that specifically survives losing a duel. Immortal S mages. Turkey mages (does this still work?).
3. When your astral greatly exceeds the enemy's and you can snipe several low-astral mages for the cost of a handful of ungeared mid-astral mages. Eg, the enemy has all S1s and you have noncap S3s (very rare).

In the case where you throw a poo poo ton of low S mages at a low/mid S communion, that would be an attrition tactic, but not one that will necessarily win a battle.

Second shapes apparently die now if they take enough damage that the leftover exceeds the second shape's HP as well, so no more immortal turkeys. I think it can also result in things like skipping multiple elemental forms if there's enough damage, etc. Probably a good change for the most part, really.

# ? Jan 20, 2016 01:36

Enjoy: Apr 18, 2009

akulanization posted:

This is a pretty cool mod, I have some nitpicks though:

First, this is the Imperial Enclave and yet it doesn't feel particularly related to the empire. Currently the empire is contributing 3 troops and 2 commanders, one of each is cap only too. Compare this with 6 sith units and 5 sith commanders (admittedly mostly cap only) the nation feels more like a KotOR era sith nation than a movie era imperial one.

Second, outside of sacreds you have no units that can fight in melee. Everyone who isn't a sith has a dagger if they get into a melee fight, even the 25 gold stormtroopers. I would recommend giving them either a melee blaster bonus attack, for the elites only, or a better weapon. Otherwise you have a nation that has literally no front line units if you don't get some kind of bless. Even then two of the three recruit anywhere sith are basically light infantry with a broadsword and no shield, which isn't a worldbreaking unit.

Third, force choke on the one sith unit is super underwhelming. 8 AN MR negates damage at 15 range with two ammo is about as valuable as a javelin, I think it needs more range and/or ammo if you want it to be compelling against the Steel Warrior sith and the WotFE-lite sith. Right now it may about kill a single guy on average and afterwards you are left with a guy with alright stats, medium armor, and a broadsword like weapon good against high protection troops. Unfortunately you needed to use a very unexciting unit long enough for it to upgrade to get there.

Fourth, you have no national priests outside of the capital and no leaders with more than 80 leadership period (and the 80 leadership guy is cap only). I don't know if it is intentional, but you end up completely reliant on your Sith Masters and indy commanders to lead and bless your armies. I think they need a noncap priest, and it feels off that a nation so alien to the dominions world has average guys with swords as its primary leaders.

Finally, while I think in general the troop lineup is a strength of the nation right now, it is quite literally helpless against anyone that can recruit fire resistant troops. All of your elite units deal exclusively fire damage, all of your ranged units deal exclusively fire damage, and your unevolved sith are not particularly great. I mean it's surprising to say this but the fearsome Abysian Light Infantry is an unstoppable force against this nation. Maybe have one of the sith use a vibroblade or something?

Cheers, I lost my internet after I posted that but I think I've addressed most of the problems you had.

As for the era I've used a lot of stuff from both, Stormtroopers are way cooler looking than the pseudo-Stormtroopers from KotOR, but you can't really pass up the Sith in a Star Wars game can you?

# ? Jan 20, 2016 02:13

TheDemon: Dec 11, 2006; _{...on the plus side I'm feeling much more angry now than I expected so this totally helps me get in character.}

S Immortal pretender or S empowered immortals should still work, regardless.

# ? Jan 20, 2016 02:55

jsoh: Mar 24, 2007; O Muhammad, I seek your intercession with my Lord for the return of my eyesight

you can also magic duel free of worry about dying if you cast life after death first, since that works separately from secondshape

# ? Jan 20, 2016 07:16

Libluini: May 18, 2012; I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...; Grimey Drawer

Rotekian posted:

The ai has at least another 2 armies that size on my border.

They also have at least four more armies of about half that size in the south. :shepface:

# ? Jan 20, 2016 10:40

Roland Jones: Aug 18, 2011; by Nyc_Tattoo

My favorite (and thus far, only) use of Magic Duel was against Monkee's pretender in EASucks. His god was an F9E4S2 (or something like that) Statue of War. I was expecting him to teleport it into a fort I was about to take from him, and I knew I couldn't kill it via normal methods, so I moved my own god, an E5S6 Shedu, onto it the turn before I stormed in and had it prepped to cast Magic Duel. I predicted correctly, and, as a four level S difference gives the one with a higher path a 91.7% chance of outright winning (and a 5.5% chance of both dying, for a 97.2% chance of killing the other god overall), I felt pretty sure my plan would work. And it did; lobotomized his god turn one, proceeded to take the fort. Still have it, despite his efforts to change that.

Sadly I think that was the high point of the game for me and I wish it was over.

But, yeah, if your path difference is overwhelming (six levels or more higher guarantees victory, five guarantees the death of the other subject with only a 2.8% chance of your caster dying as well, and four levels over is a >90% chance of survival and such as I described above) you can gamble on winning it pretty safely, though as opposed to TheDemon's above examples this is something of an edge case, as this generally requires you to have a high S god and something worth deploying it against that is low S (so, probably not another god, since people will generally take either no S or high S on gods) that you can't easily kill otherwise. And you need to remember that only natural/empowered S levels count; boosters don't make your Magic Duels more powerful. Still, having math on your side is very, very nice for Magic Duel.

# ? Jan 20, 2016 10:57

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Libluini posted:

They also have at least four more armies of about half that size in the south.

Don't worry I'm sure they're carrying Banners of War.

In other news, a new version of De Dana is out!

There's a bit of minor power creep as Swordsmen are A Gold cheaper, but then your cap-only mages are more expensive so it's a bit of a wash. Mainly it was just to tidy up a few things like Macha not always being called Macha.

Download here

Obligatory sizzle reel pic:

jBrereton fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jan 20, 2016

# ? Jan 20, 2016 11:03

amuayse: Jul 20, 2013; by exmarx

A picture for hoburgs

# ? Jan 22, 2016 04:18

Samog: Dec 13, 2006; At least I'm not an 07.

LeSquide posted:

So, I'm about to get back into Dominions with a late era game; it's my first time playing against human opponents in over a year. I'm going Bogarus; is a communion based strategy viable, or am I just going to get Mind Hunted to death?

heres my professional bogarus advice: please sub for guy deborgore in the newbie game

# ? Jan 22, 2016 06:45

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

jBrereton posted:

Don't worry I'm sure they're carrying Banners of War.

In other news, a new version of De Dana is out!

There's a bit of minor power creep as Swordsmen are A Gold cheaper, but then your cap-only mages are more expensive so it's a bit of a wash. Mainly it was just to tidy up a few things like Macha not always being called Macha.

Download here

Obligatory sizzle reel pic:

Once Mu's new and rad mod is done im going to assemble another mod game but this time it will be only goon nations cause we actually have enough now.

# ? Jan 22, 2016 15:55

Density: Nov 12, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

Make it use those goon blood slave sprites and then we'll truly have ourselves a goon mod.

# ? Jan 22, 2016 21:04

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Are they curvy goonettes or what?

# ? Jan 22, 2016 21:49

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

jBrereton posted:

Are they curvy goonettes or what?

I forgot to set them as male so they still do maenad_death_scream.wav

# ? Jan 23, 2016 02:31

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

lol

# ? Jan 23, 2016 02:48

goatface: Dec 5, 2007; I had a video of that when I was about 6.

I remember it being shit.; Grimey Drawer

Nuclearmonkee posted:

I forgot to set them as male so they still do maenad_death_scream.wav

Seems appropriate.

# ? Jan 23, 2016 02:50

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

Nuclearmonkee posted:

# ? Jan 23, 2016 04:34

Culka: May 20, 2007; Nothing

I made a mod about a two decads old game. Again. And to celebrate a certain game coming out in a few weeks!

Introducing friendly aliens from Mars to Dominions:

The aliens are a mostly shooty faction a 'la MA Man, but with some decent melee units too. Their cost per unit is high, both in gold and resources, so that hopefully will balance it out somewhat.

Things of note:

Sectoid and muton leaders do abduction missions when you blood hunt with them, giving a chance to get blood slaves despite them having no blood skill.

Cyberdisks require construction 5 to build, sectopods construction 7. Small launcher is a one handed item at const 4, W1, blaster launcher a two handed item at const 6, F2 E1.

Chryssalids can be used only as a remote attack spell, at blood 5, and they last only for the battle. They are still really really good.

Ethereals enslave as their melee attacks, and can survive pretty well in melee due to their invulnerability. They conquer provinces and get you free units if you recruit more than a few or get a bless. (until you run into someone using magic)

Download:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8210580/xcom.zip

# ? Jan 24, 2016 17:44

Boing: Jul 12, 2005; trapped in custom title factory, send help

That owns

# ? Jan 24, 2016 19:05

amuayse: Jul 20, 2013; by exmarx

http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/index.php?showtopic=1689
Funny you made that

# ? Jan 25, 2016 02:17

Kitfox88: Aug 21, 2007; Anybody lose their glasses?

Culka posted:

I made a mod about a two decads old game. Again. And to celebrate a certain game coming out in a few weeks!

Introducing friendly aliens from Mars to Dominions:

Where's the X-Com faction. :supaburn:

edit: EA: UFO MA: TFTD LA: Apoc

# ? Jan 25, 2016 03:35

amuayse: Jul 20, 2013; by exmarx

Everyone's Jomon
https://www.mediafire.com/?om42wjvehi4y66b
Thanks jsoh for the basic framework

# ? Jan 25, 2016 20:34

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Have you ever sort of wanted to play EA Rlyeh but also not wanted to kill yourself after starting in a 2-province lake with no way to get anything good on land?

Here is a mod to help with that.

Features are:

- Aboleths and things like them can project themselves onto land in an ethereal form with a bit less health and defence. They will Rek many indies but get stomped later on by magic weapons/damage, but hey you can get yourself a bit of a beachhead even against some of the more hardcore indies, which is a LOVELY change.

- Slave Princes and Slave Mages are recruitable commanders on coasts, along with your merman slaves with a net, armoured atlantian guys, and lobo guards to serve as chaff.

- Aboleths (or actually any W2S2 mage, which includes some Slave Mages) get a version of Song of Bravery which makes their low-morale troops a bit less likely to gently caress off since you don't have mobile H2s to cast Sermon of Courage with (the hero Aboleth guy also has taskmaster since it was weird that he didn't before).

- Some events! Sometimes your Aboleths (in either their real or projected form) will teach your Slave Priests a bit of Astral Magic. Sometimes your projected mages will get noticed by horrors! (but both are uncommon).

- Their stuff doesn't rust.

Feedback etc. welcome.

jBrereton fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Jan 25, 2016

# ? Jan 25, 2016 20:36

ChickenWing: Jul 22, 2010

jBrereton posted:

Have you ever sort of wanted to play EA Rlyeh but also not wanted to kill yourself after starting in a 2-province lake with no way to get anything good on land?

Here is a mod to help with that.

Features are:

- Aboleths and things like them can project themselves onto land in an ethereal form with a bit less health and defence. They will Rek many indies but get stomped later on by magic weapons/damage, but hey you can get yourself a bit of a beachhead even against some of the more hardcore indies, which is a LOVELY change.

- Slave Princes and Slave Mages are recruitable commanders on coasts, along with your merman slaves with a net, armoured atlantian guys, and lobo guards to serve as chaff.

- Aboleths (or actually any W2S2 mage, which includes some Slave Mages) get a version of Song of Bravery which makes their low-morale troops a bit less likely to gently caress off since you don't have mobile H2s to cast Sermon of Courage with (the hero Aboleth guy also has taskmaster since it was weird that he didn't before).

- Some events! Sometimes your Aboleths (in either their real or projected form) will teach your Slave Priests a bit of Astral Magic. Sometimes your projected mages will get noticed by horrors! (but both are uncommon).

- Their stuff doesn't rust.

Feedback etc. welcome.

at first glance that's a hecking cool mod that makes a lot of sense

quick someone come tell me why it's garbage and imbalanced

# ? Jan 25, 2016 20:50

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

jBrereton posted:

Have you ever sort of wanted to play EA Rlyeh but also not wanted to kill yourself after starting in a 2-province lake with no way to get anything good on land?

Here is a mod to help with that.

Features are:

- Aboleths and things like them can project themselves onto land in an ethereal form with a bit less health and defence. They will Rek many indies but get stomped later on by magic weapons/damage, but hey you can get yourself a bit of a beachhead even against some of the more hardcore indies, which is a LOVELY change.

- Slave Princes and Slave Mages are recruitable commanders on coasts, along with your merman slaves with a net, armoured atlantian guys, and lobo guards to serve as chaff.

- Aboleths (or actually any W2S2 mage, which includes some Slave Mages) get a version of Song of Bravery which makes their low-morale troops a bit less likely to gently caress off since you don't have mobile H2s to cast Sermon of Courage with (the hero Aboleth guy also has taskmaster since it was weird that he didn't before).

- Some events! Sometimes your Aboleths (in either their real or projected form) will teach your Slave Priests a bit of Astral Magic. Sometimes your projected mages will get noticed by horrors! (but both are uncommon).

- Their stuff doesn't rust.

Feedback etc. welcome.

A truly excellent mod that should become standard. Is there a change that allows aboleths to wear hats in there?

# ? Jan 25, 2016 20:50

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

You want hats?

You got hats.

Redownload it using the same link.

# ? Jan 25, 2016 20:59

Kitfox88: Aug 21, 2007; Anybody lose their glasses?

someone run a game with this mod so i can finally play ea ryleh and not get dickstumped

# ? Jan 25, 2016 22:15

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

Kitfox88 posted:

someone run a game with this mod so i can finally play ea ryleh and not get dickstumped

You'll still get dickstumped. Could put it in with Ermor Mod

# ? Jan 25, 2016 22:52

Kitfox88: Aug 21, 2007; Anybody lose their glasses?

Nuclearmonkee posted:

You'll still get dickstumped.

let me dream

# ? Jan 26, 2016 21:21

Turin Turambar: Jun 5, 2011

After four months of stopped development on Dom4 updates (they were more focused on CoE4), they continue now with it. Which is nice, as this point I expected them to look more into doing whatever next game (Dom5?).

quote:

2016-01-28 15:11:07 +0100
Spell modding #spec takes a 64-bit value

2016-01-28 13:11:54 +0100
Gorgon can no longer petrify stone beings
Map editor insert/remove province didn't move along names and special borders
Typos
g can now be used instead of # for goto province number
Foul Vapors got wrong enchantment icon in battle
Stat fixes
Modding: no more 'pointltess ...fx' after setting an ability to zero

2016-01-27 18:09:01 +0100
Modding: first/secondshape can now use negative montag values
New monster command: #slothpower
New spell command: #onlyatsite
New item command: #sneakunit
New nation command: #killcappop

2016-01-25 09:38:09 +0100
Fixed host crash involving Strands of Arcane Power
file handle cleanup

2016-01-24 12:06:51 +0100
Fix for potention battle inconsistency with Vafur Flames
Minor fixes

2016-01-23 10:28:36 +0100
Potential battle inconsistency fixed

2016-01-22 12:41:33 +0100
New event mod command: #transform
New spell mod commands: #notfornation, #farsumcom

2016-01-22 10:49:40 +0100
Memory cleanup after using lists
Make sure incorporate cannot give negative effects
Typos
Event fixes & new events
Fix potentially weird host bug

#slowthpower! #killcappop!

# ? Jan 28, 2016 19:57

Speleothing: May 6, 2008; Spare batteries are pretty key.

Turin Turambar posted:

After four months of stopped development on Dom4 updates (they were more focused on CoE4), they continue now with it. Which is nice, as this point I expected them to look more into doing whatever next game (Dom5?).

#slowthpower! #killcappop!

Replace all Yomi chaospower with slothpower. Nation fixed.

# ? Jan 28, 2016 20:37

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Speleothing posted:

Replace all Yomi chaospower with slothpower. Nation fixed.

This is specifically why I asked JK for slothpower.

# ? Jan 28, 2016 20:39

Barono: May 6, 2007; Rich in irony and most satirical

jBrereton posted:

This is specifically why I asked JK for slothpower.

There should be a power for every scale really. Most of them wouldn't see much use, but why not?

# ? Jan 28, 2016 21:05

Speleothing: May 6, 2008; Spare batteries are pretty key.

Die germans use die orderpower for die making of die panzers.

I'm guessing that killcappop will start the nation with low or no capital population, so Lemuria doesn't start with 40,000 people living in it who suddenly start dying off.

# ? Jan 28, 2016 21:10

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

Speleothing posted:

Die germans use die orderpower for die making of die panzers.

I'm guessing that killcappop will start the nation with low or no capital population, so Lemuria doesn't start with 40,000 people living in it who suddenly start dying off.

Popkill nations already have very low pop now.

# ? Jan 28, 2016 21:10

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Speleothing posted:

I'm guessing that killcappop will start the nation with low or no capital population, so Lemuria doesn't start with 40,000 people living in it who suddenly start dying off.

It's specifically for tailoring the level of pop in your cap, I think.

# ? Jan 28, 2016 21:15

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 28, 2024 13:55

jsoh: Mar 24, 2007; O Muhammad, I seek your intercession with my Lord for the return of my eyesight

killcappop might also be for things like break the seal, as a spell effect?

# ? Jan 28, 2016 21:51

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dominions FOUR: Sequel to the Best Game Ever

«‹›417 »