Pop and Loch Nessy posted:

Any new people (like myself) want to try learning the game by playing against each other? I don't see much point in playing against the AI if it's as horrible as people in this thread are saying?

Kin33 posted:

I'm not sure what Hivers do but if you want to spam undead then LA C'Tis can be pretty fun. Your priests can reanimate undead chariots and your mages can skele spam with the best of them. I'm guessing they got nerfed pretty hard with slow to recruit though(though so did most nations so maybe not). If freespawn is your thing then Pangaea and its hordes of Maenads might be a good nation to try.

BenRGamer posted:

So, what's the difference between Dom3 and Dom4?

TheDemon posted:

What's changed in Dominions 4?

Illwinter has a list here, but to sum up
- Team support
- UI Improvement & Streamlining, for example you can give orders without opening the scripting window
- Support for widescreen and big resolutions
- Gemuse toggle
- Reworked blesses
- New scripting options like Formations and Fire and Keep At Range
- New sprites
- New nations, new spells, new mechanics
- Better modding support like full Item Modding

In terms of new mechanics, these are the things you'll have to adapt to:
- Tax management removed. Big implications for blood hunting, we're waiting on new BH mechanics.
- Tax and gem income now has to be traced back to a fort. Raiding is both more difficult and more tactical.
- Rituals have a range. No more teleport across the entire map, but range 6 teleport is still pretty good.
- Research formula is now 5+2xPaths. Magic scales are now +1/-1 rp per tick. Research costs are much higher at top levels (5k at level 9).
- Some mages are "slow to recruit" meaning they take two turns. You'll need to build more forts.
- Some mages are now recruitable without forts, dependent on terrain type, like LA Pyth's revelers.
- Reverse communions are gone. Learn your standard communions.
- To get bless regen you'll now need N9 for 10%. N4-standard is no longer.
- Lots more, I'll work on a better list.

dis astranagant posted:

This made me laugh way too hard.

builds character posted:

Look at this incredibly well-written LP that discusses just such a topic (among many others, including how great the fat guy from lost really is SO GREAT!!!).

http://lparchive.org/Dominions-3-(by-Lilli-et-al)/

tooterfish posted:

I've just been leaving nation selection on random, then trying to figure out what the hell from there.

Gives an incentive to learn new strategies. Seemed to work okay for me in Civ 4.

Some general guides would be nice, the few that are around tend to be very specific. I know it's a complicated game, but an experienced player could look at a nation and see that this mage can cast X, or bless Y would be good. Or even, "these guys suck! I'd better take a blood/death pretender and bootstrap myself into vampires!"

Us new players have no bloody clue at all, it can sometimes leave us floundering!

Diogines posted:

I don't have the patience to play a game which takes weeks, yet, I rarely have the time to do a sit down game with others.

Excelsiortothemax posted:

Why did my Pretender suddenly develop diseases? He wasn't in any fights and isn't old. He just entered a province and is suddenly diseased and suffering a chest wound?

Kitfox88 posted:

Ah, that explains it then. I guess I'm gonna aim to conquer the C'tis in the game and see if I can't grab one of those mages to park on it.

I hope it spits out something horrible right next to my capital if I can manage it.

How are u posted:

Wait why do you have to be careful with bottles of living water?

Neruz posted:

I volunteer to play MA Ermor in the newbie game to give it that extra bit of authenticity.

ChickenWing posted:

EA T'ien Ch'i

akulanization posted:

Here is a metaphor for you, "When he saw the shadow vestal's ten strength, Turin Turambar felt like gravity had failed to keep him tethered to the ground."

GenericOverusedName posted:

Diplomacy.

Nuclearmonkee posted:

R'lyeh's final solution I expect.

Boing posted:

I managed to get my Son of Niefel pretender killed in the first year to a Bog Beast rebellion. I thought him and his Jotuns handled the encounter fine, albeit with a little bit of poison. But once all the bog beasts fled the game seemed to speed through about 50 combat turns or something, in each of which there was a message about 'The Independents have routed' and him taking a tick of poison damage so he died apparently out of the blue. Is that just how poison works in combat, or is that a bug?

Donkringel posted:

Libluini;

I read through your posts.

For a freespawn gem driven economy, couldnt you just do your gold/resource vortex to ensure you have no gold, then make all your units sacred to ensure they don't desert? As for temples/forts, screw em. For dom, make your commanders create a low level candle push, like the prophet, pretender and that weird giant idol at the end of construction magic line.

This will probably be unbalanced as hell, but maybe make the units weaker/only certain units have dompush. So make the balancing act between "Do I want useful commanders/units, or do I want dompush from my frail weak commanders?" That seems the easiest way to handle all the weird questions for a gem driven economy, though again I don't know how balanced it will be.

Neruz posted:

Gaghskull posted:

WHERE THE gently caress DID YOU FIND THAT FISH? YOU WERE FOUND IN A LANDLOCKED MOUNTAIN PROVINCE...

Gaghskull posted:

Cod lives in the ocean.

Carcer posted:

Cod are also much bigger than that.

Density posted:

Boy did I look like an idiot when I thought that the internet was right about patrol mechanics for blood hunting. Just assume that non-goons are always wrong about dominions. Stay safe out there.

Fat Samurai posted:

Because I haven't managed to CheatEngine my way to extra Pretender points without the game noticing.