Dominions FOUR: Sequel to the Best Game Ever

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

StoryTime: Feb 26, 2010; Now listen to me children and I'll tell you of the legend of the Ninja

Fauxbot posted:

Do the various Dome spells, like Dome of Solid Air, prevent your own spells from entering a province you've cast it in? Like if you tried casting Trade Wind or Cloud Trapeze on it...

*bonk*

# ? Nov 6, 2016 11:42

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# ? May 23, 2024 11:25

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

This also means if you use the domes with a high chance of collapsing you can basically hit two frogs with one mallet by accidentally wasting a spell and destroying your dome.

Edit:

Triple-defecta bonus points if your mage gets hit by magic backlash roasting him and his lab

Libluini fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Nov 6, 2016

# ? Nov 6, 2016 13:40

How are u: May 19, 2005; by Azathoth

Fauxbot posted:

Do the various Dome spells, like Dome of Solid Air, prevent your own spells from entering a province you've cast it in? Like if you tried casting Trade Wind or Cloud Trapeze on it...

If you put up a Dome of Flaming Death and, say, have a mage remote-searching for sites in some other province who casts Haruspex or something at the domed province you will find that that mage does in fact get blown to pieces by a fireball and the lab in his province will burn down half of the time.

Definitely not something that has happened to me multiple times. Definitely not.

# ? Nov 6, 2016 15:58

Fauxbot: Jan 20, 2009; I need more wine.

Well I'm glad I decided to ask before I splotted any more mages on the side of a Dome of Solid Air like so many flies on a windshield.

# ? Nov 7, 2016 03:19

immolationsex: Sep 16, 2002; ASK ME ABOUT HOW I ENJOY RUINING STEAK LIKE A GODDAMN BARBARIAN

Fauxbot posted:

Well I'm glad I decided to ask before I splotted any more mages on the side of a Dome of Solid Air like so many flies on a windshield.

With Dominions, it's generally safe to assume that if something can go wrong, it will. A few hypotheticals:

If you have a poison-fume monster front and center of your battlefield ranks (a hydra, for example), will your humanoid infantry (positioned on the flanks) run up to him for safety? Since he's the bigger target for missile fire and all that?
If you want to teleport in some outside talent to help your besieged troops break siege, will the teleporters drop in first, before troop movement is resolved, thus leading to them being butchered?
Will your troops in the first rank happily chase down a routing enemy, exposing themselves to friendly fire from your archers who still have said enemy in range?
Will your dragon pretender fly straight into the middle of the enemy, then forget he has a fire-breathing attack and opt to pick off the enemy mans one by one, until he is routed/killed?
If it's important that you catch an enemy on the strategic map with a pincer movement, because neither of your individual armies are sufficient to defeat him alone, can you assume a single enemy scout ordered to move without sneaking against one of your armies will head off that army, forcing it to stop?

Always assume the answer is yes because it is

# ? Nov 7, 2016 07:41

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

The last one, at least is no longer an issue since Dom 4.

# ? Nov 7, 2016 09:36

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

Mo Money Mo Problems II, Part 33

In this episode we learn we shouldn't keep our very loud IRC-signals on when making sound recording.

# ? Nov 7, 2016 17:19

Harrower: Nov 30, 2002

You can make dragons use their breath weapons more often by setting them to fire at [target]. It also prevents them from flying into the middle of the pack for whatever reason, so you order them to attack first, then breathe for the next 4 order slots. Of course after the order slots are finished they just gently caress off and do whatever.

# ? Nov 11, 2016 13:43

Lead out in cuffs: Sep 18, 2012; "That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."

immolationsex posted:

With Dominions, it's generally safe to assume that if something can go wrong, it will. A few hypotheticals:
If you have a poison-fume monster front and center of your battlefield ranks (a hydra, for example), will your humanoid infantry (positioned on the flanks) run up to him for safety? Since he's the bigger target for missile fire and all that?
If you want to teleport in some outside talent to help your besieged troops break siege, will the teleporters drop in first, before troop movement is resolved, thus leading to them being butchered?
Will your troops in the first rank happily chase down a routing enemy, exposing themselves to friendly fire from your archers who still have said enemy in range?
Will your dragon pretender fly straight into the middle of the enemy, then forget he has a fire-breathing attack and opt to pick off the enemy mans one by one, until he is routed/killed?
If it's important that you catch an enemy on the strategic map with a pincer movement, because neither of your individual armies are sufficient to defeat him alone, can you assume a single enemy scout ordered to move without sneaking against one of your armies will head off that army, forcing it to stop?
Always assume the answer is yes because it is

Lol I just discovered this the hard way with my pretender. I honestly did not realise there were two separate combat phases. Now I know. :v:

# ? Nov 11, 2016 14:08

Decrepus: May 21, 2008; In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.

Lead out in cuffs posted:

Lol I just discovered this the hard way with my pretender. I honestly did not realise there were two separate combat phases. Now I know.

if you don't lose games you've spent months playing because of one mechanic you don't understand or because you misclicked or you forgot to give someone a gem.

# ? Nov 11, 2016 14:45

Harrower: Nov 30, 2002

Another public service announcement to remind you to password your pretender at creation so jerks can't just log in as you and gently caress up your turns.

# ? Nov 11, 2016 16:17

Ramc: May 4, 2008; Bringing your thread to a screeching halt, guaranteed.

Decrepus posted:

if you don't lose games you've spent months playing because of one mechanic you don't understand or because you misclicked or you forgot to give someone a gem.

Even when I think I have a lock on a win I constantly wait to find out that there is some sort of heretofore unknown-to-me corner case scenario where all natural law is suspended and I epically self-own.

# ? Nov 11, 2016 18:11

uguu: Mar 9, 2014

immolationsex posted:

Sorry to necro this, but what if I don't currently have Dom4 installed on any of my devices in the first place? Could I download the Dom3 demo and patch that up to 4.27? I know, it sounds stupid, but I can't think what else to try at this point. Desura seems to be well and truly dead.

For reference, here are the instructions Great Gray Shrike dug up:
Would installing the Desura client (if it's even available anymore) allow me to find the CD key somehow?

Just came back to this game too and I still had the appdata on my pc.
If you do too, you're in luck, as your cd-key is just chilling out there!
C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Roaming\Dominions4; file is named dom4key, just add it to steam and you're good to go.
If you don't have it, maybe check with Illwinter?

# ? Nov 12, 2016 01:14

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

Mo Money, Mo Problems? Part 34

# ? Nov 13, 2016 00:19

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Decrepus posted:

if you don't lose games you've spent months playing because of one mechanic you don't understand or because you misclicked or you forgot to give someone a gem.

Don't forget your mages inexplicably going off script and doing their own thing.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 01:39

frankenfreak: Feb 16, 2007; I SCORED 85% ON A QUIZ ABOUT MONDAY NIGHT RAW AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY TEXT

#bastionboogerbrigade

Safety Factor posted:

Don't forget your mages inexplicably going off script and doing their own thing.

That's one of the mechanics you'll learn to understand well before the finer nuances of turn resolution or dome spells, though.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 02:19

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

The thing I learned to hate the most about mage scripting is the way mages just kind of shrug and go off-script if the range of their scripted spells is too short.

There's nothing stupider then looking at your mages casting the same few buffing spells over and over because the only attack spells they can (and should) cast can't reach the enemy positions.

I mean what the hell, was it too hard to program a precision-penalty for ranges beyond normal? Or at least let them do what archers do if they can't hit something and let them move a couple steps.

When playing Ys, my Ysian Druids when engaging enemies under water would mow down every tiny squad of walking bait like magical machine guns, but completely ignore everything behind them. Enemy mages were always completely and totally safe. Oceania's pretender in that game learned he could just hang back, buff himself for five turns and then attack into my mage stacks, who in turn then would buff themselves some more instead of using attack spells against the giant squid directly in front of them.

(The mage-AI is also bad when not scripted, fancy that.)

Coincidentally, by putting all my mages in front as far forward as possible I learned the range of their underwater-spells is still too short to hit someone who put all his dudes in the back instead.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 11:56

Rotekian: Jan 1, 2013

Libluini posted:

Coincidentally, by putting all my mages in front as far forward as possible I learned the range of their underwater-spells is still too short to hit someone who put all his dudes in the back instead.

Welcome to the world of needing to cast blink to maybe get into range.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 14:15

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

The only spells that matter under water are summon water elemental, summon sharks and skeletons until very late in the game.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 20:17

Diabl0658: Dec 10, 2008; These are the games we play.

Libluini posted:

The thing I learned to hate the most about mage scripting is the way mages just kind of shrug and go off-script if the range of their scripted spells is too short.

There's nothing stupider then looking at your mages casting the same few buffing spells over and over because the only attack spells they can (and should) cast can't reach the enemy positions.

I mean what the hell, was it too hard to program a precision-penalty for ranges beyond normal? Or at least let them do what archers do if they can't hit something and let them move a couple steps.

When playing Ys, my Ysian Druids when engaging enemies under water would mow down every tiny squad of walking bait like magical machine guns, but completely ignore everything behind them. Enemy mages were always completely and totally safe. Oceania's pretender in that game learned he could just hang back, buff himself for five turns and then attack into my mage stacks, who in turn then would buff themselves some more instead of using attack spells against the giant squid directly in front of them.

(The mage-AI is also bad when not scripted, fancy that.)

Coincidentally, by putting all my mages in front as far forward as possible I learned the range of their underwater-spells is still too short to hit someone who put all his dudes in the back instead.

My kraken pretender was pretty much immune to water strike, especially when he was frozen in a giant ice cube (it increases a units protection). As for being out of range, you can tell your mages to attack x2 or x3 to get in range before casting spells.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 20:44

uguu: Mar 9, 2014

Put up two vanilla games, find em here ma and ea.

No mods, no rules, maps tbd.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 22:01

Applebee123: Oct 9, 2007; That's 10$ for the spinefund.

uguu posted:

Put up two vanilla games, find em here ma and ea.

No mods, no rules, maps tbd.

*MA Ermor has cast burden of time*

# ? Nov 13, 2016 23:08

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

Diabl0658 posted:

My kraken pretender was pretty much immune to water strike, especially when he was frozen in a giant ice cube (it increases a units protection). As for being out of range, you can tell your mages to attack x2 or x3 to get in range before casting spells.

poo poo, I have to remember this next time.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 23:09

Diabl0658: Dec 10, 2008; These are the games we play.

You could also tell your troops to attack instead of guard commander so that you didn't lose your entire army to a single foul vapors caster.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 01:55

Lead out in cuffs: Sep 18, 2012; "That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."

So I'm only in my first MP game ever, but in this game there's only one ocean power (MA R'lyeh), who has easily become the biggest power in the game because nobody else yet has the capability to fight in the ocean (it's around turn 40), and they basically just took a handful of land provinces then proceeded to take all the ocean.

Is this a common occurrence in games? Are single ocean powers (especially ones with move-10 teleporting thugs) just basically OP?

# ? Nov 14, 2016 03:02

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

Lead out in cuffs posted:

Is this a common occurrence in games? Are single ocean powers (especially ones with move-10 teleporting thugs) just basically OP?

No, that's just a product of the ocean player being allowed to get away with bullshit. Generally you can kick water nations back into their ponds and steal their lunch money if you know what you're doing.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 03:07

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

Lead out in cuffs posted:

So I'm only in my first MP game ever, but in this game there's only one ocean power (MA R'lyeh), who has easily become the biggest power in the game because nobody else yet has the capability to fight in the ocean (it's around turn 40), and they basically just took a handful of land provinces then proceeded to take all the ocean.

Is this a common occurrence in games? Are single ocean powers (especially ones with move-10 teleporting thugs) just basically OP?

it really sounds like everyone in your game is loving bad

# ? Nov 14, 2016 03:14

Flavahbeast: Jul 21, 2001

Lead out in cuffs posted:

So I'm only in my first MP game ever, but in this game there's only one ocean power (MA R'lyeh), who has easily become the biggest power in the game because nobody else yet has the capability to fight in the ocean (it's around turn 40), and they basically just took a handful of land provinces then proceeded to take all the ocean.

Is this a common occurrence in games? Are single ocean powers (especially ones with move-10 teleporting thugs) just basically OP?

It's possible the map wasn't balanced correctly for the number of water nations. If there's only one water nation in a 10 player game and a third of the provinces are in a contiguous ocean the water guy will probably do pretty good

# ? Nov 14, 2016 03:38

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

Teleporting thugs can't take thrones. MA Ryleh has it better than any other water nation, but still has a very poor chance of winning.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 04:00

Decrepus: May 21, 2008; In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.

Water nations just exist to allow one player to ruin the game for an unlucky land nation and then die in irrelevance. Ban all water nations imo.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 04:07

Lead out in cuffs: Sep 18, 2012; "That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."

violent sex idiot posted:

it really sounds like everyone in your game is loving bad

Well it is the game where only people who have never won a game before are allowed to play, so yes. :v:

Flavahbeast posted:

It's possible the map wasn't balanced correctly for the number of water nations. If there's only one water nation in a 10 player game and a third of the provinces are in a contiguous ocean the water guy will probably do pretty good

Hmm ... no I checked, there are only 14 contiguous ocean provinces near their start (15 if you count an island), and a total of 24 on the whole map. I think what happened was that they took a bunch of land provinces first as a buffer, and their neighbours just befriended them instead of kicking them out.

OK also because it's the bad player game, two nations staled out in the first few turns, and another one staled out around turn 30, and these were all near R'lyeh, so that happened too.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 05:00

ChickenWing: Jul 22, 2010

Lead out in cuffs posted:

Hmm ... no I checked, there are only 14 contiguous ocean provinces near their start (15 if you count an island), and a total of 24 on the whole map. I think what happened was that they took a bunch of land provinces first as a buffer, and their neighbours just befriended them instead of kicking them out.

OK also because it's the bad player game, two nations staled out in the first few turns, and another one staled out around turn 30, and these were all near R'lyeh, so that happened too.

Okay yeah that's just a case of "y'all bad"

Decrepus posted:

Water nations just exist to allow one player to ruin the game for an unlucky land nation and then die in irrelevance. Ban all water nations imo.

I mean you could say the same thing for patala or (ma) mari :v:

# ? Nov 14, 2016 14:49

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

ChickenWing posted:

Okay yeah that's just a case of "y'all bad"

I mean you could say the same thing for patala or (ma) mari

Those usually can't pull off the ruin another nation thing, just the getting wrecked part.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 15:59

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Lead out in cuffs posted:

So I'm only in my first MP game ever, but in this game there's only one ocean power (MA R'lyeh), who has easily become the biggest power in the game because nobody else yet has the capability to fight in the ocean (it's around turn 40), and they basically just took a handful of land provinces then proceeded to take all the ocean.

Is this a common occurrence in games? Are single ocean powers (especially ones with move-10 teleporting thugs) just basically OP?

Three step programme to beat MA Rlyeh:

1) Amass some death and/or water mages. Make sure the water mages have gems so they can definitely cast elementals (useful for battles and for assassination attempts by Star Children) and shark attacks/friendly currents I guess (sorta unnecessary). Death mages will skelespam, forever.
2) Move them underwater with some mind blast bait.
3) Beat up stupid Rlyeh's utterly craven and bad troops and then laugh as you have defeated MA Rlyeh's primary defence mechanism: being underwater.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 16:36

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

jBrereton posted:

Three step programme to beat MA Rlyeh:

1) Amass some death and/or water mages. Make sure the water mages have gems so they can definitely cast elementals (useful for battles and for assassination attempts by Star Children) and shark attacks/friendly currents I guess (sorta unnecessary). Death mages will skelespam, forever.
2) Move them underwater with some mind blast bait.
3) Beat up stupid Rlyeh's utterly craven and bad troops and then laugh as you have defeated MA Rlyeh's primary defence mechanism: being underwater.

3) is actually "lose everything you have in a single battle as Rlyeh spams water elementals and casts shark attack at you. Also your commanders are all dead to star kids toting water bottles and all of your S coverage died to magic duel so on the off chance there are any survivors they are being mind hunted."

# ? Nov 14, 2016 17:19

MF_James: May 8, 2008; I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

The reason Ry'leh is so big? He got Ulm and Machaka to attack me (pan) and also ate a bunch of the not AI'd but not playing people, also someone forgot to password their pretender and someone is being a dick and logging into their turn and loving it up.

Basically, instead of kicking the squid into the water as they should have, people let him get big.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 19:08

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Losing to Machaka as Pan is pretty gauche.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 21:51

MF_James: May 8, 2008; I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

jBrereton posted:

Losing to Machaka as Pan is pretty gauche.

I didn't lose to him?

Ulm and Machaka have since backed off, but 3v1 typically does not end well.

*edit*

but please, tell me how you would be winning right now :allears:

MF_James fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Nov 14, 2016

# ? Nov 14, 2016 21:59

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

New LP-part is ready for your consumption:

Mo Money Mo Problems II, Part 35

# ? Nov 14, 2016 22:30

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# ? May 23, 2024 11:25

frankenfreak: Feb 16, 2007; I SCORED 85% ON A QUIZ ABOUT MONDAY NIGHT RAW AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY TEXT

#bastionboogerbrigade

Sore Losers, an aptly named game. :v:

# ? Nov 14, 2016 23:12

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