Dominions FOUR: Sequel to the Best Game Ever

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

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

How are u posted:

It seems like a lot of the changes they've made to the game are mean to de-emphasize supercombatants and promote conventional armies and battlemagic in the end game. I think that's cool!

Yeah, it may lead to me being actually able to maybe win a game, so I'm cool with it. (Or maybe not, I'm still mentally wincing every time I remember how Lilli stamped on my great Furnace of Ulmitude. An army of 300+ fodder and a communion of dozens of mages, wiped out. Lilli lost something around five units, I think.)

# ¿ Sep 3, 2013 20:40

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 22:02

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

Dirk the Average posted:

I'm not sure how I feel about this change. On the one hand, I know they're essentially unintended behavior (since they require fiddling with unit order, which is not something that should be required). On the other hand, they've been a thing for a long time and they're a lot of fun to set up and use. I'm not sure that they're a gamebreaking thing that needs to be removed, honestly. I feel like the game is tactically richer when small squads of otherwise crappy mages can link up and rain down some hell.

Honestly, I'm relieved. I could never quite wrap my head around how reverse communions were supposed to work and hosed up again and again while trying to set them up. Making working communions was quite a feat for me already!

# ¿ Sep 13, 2013 16:54

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

Today I finally started my first Dom4 testgame, just me and two standard AIs, competing for a dozen thrones on a smallish ~70 provinces map.

Just for the hell of it I play as Lemuria. Conclusion at the end of year two: A couple provinces conquered, more ghosts then I can count and I found a combination of spirits, shades and ghost soldiers to destroy indeps even if I'm outnumbered.

Kind of neat, even if assigning all these spiritual beings I get drowned in into combat squads slowly gets tedious after a while. Also funny: I started with a death 10 imprisoned pretender with 3/3 death/cold scales. The icy wind of death personified. But since I started with my pretender imprisoned, I didn't actually have a unit to start summoning my commanders. (None of my two starting commanders could summon more than a few spirits or even fewer shades, so I had to bootstrap myself by empowering one of my commanders until he could summon more mages.)

Now I claimed my first throne and the first AI has appeared, trying to surround the ghost army holding it by conquering the adjacent provinces. Hopefully my huge wall of ghosts works as well against an actual nation as it did against independents. At least the AI has a fair chance, since I lost lots of turns on empowering my first commander, so I'm lagging behind on research quite a bit. :v:

All in all I'm impressed with the improvements, even if I started with the worst possible nation to showcase them.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2013 20:48

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

Nuclearmonkee posted:

The AI is utterly incapable of fighting off any of the freespawn horde nations. Playing one is still an exercise in self flagellation though as the micro only gets progressively worse.

I live to suffer, so all is well. So I guess giving the AI ten research turns on account of me being dumb as a brick won't hold them alive?

Oh well, at least it will be a relaxing test game then.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2013 23:34

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

avoraciopoctules posted:

I've seen the AI field respectable supercombatant pretenders on occasion. But even then, they'll never react to the counters you can develop. I took out a Wyrm with thousands of hit points just by summoning a few turns worth of ghosts and fatiguing it out with chill auras.

Lemuria should have a major advantage over the typical AI hordes, since they'll be starving by the time they start rampaging near your national core. You might want to try kitting out bane lords or something as thugs if your ghost hordes find something they are too fragile to handle. Or get one of the Protection buff spells. Do you have access to any earth or nature magic?

My pretender has earth 3 besides her death 10, so I get access as soon as she breaks free from imprisonment. Until then I use my national commanders (tons of shadow tribunes and the like) to buff my ghost hordes: A few of their priest spells protect my army quite well from enemy priests. One time a much smaller ghost army even overran an indep army with mages and priests. (The one AI I've found hasn't attacked me yet.) Most of my mages are still chained to my capital to get me research, so I have to do without magic for a while.

If I'm lucky, I can start summoning wights and banes in about a year, bane lords are still a bit out of my league, though. :v:

# ¿ Sep 24, 2013 09:04

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

jBrereton posted:

Any reason you went E3D10 over E4/5D9?

Lemuria has a fair few Sacred units, and even though you're not going to rack up fatigue just by fighting as undead, it helps their mages a bit.

I wanted to push the "Death!"-theme to its limits, so I went with a pretender with something like W2E3D10 plus full death/ice scales and 10 dominion. E3 is the odd thing out, I took it just in case I wanted to forge something which needs earth. In hindsight, not my smartest decision. Also, it forced me to take two scales in drain and turmoil to compensate for the E3-option.

If I could redo this, I would go full icy death, losing the scales in drain and turmoil, losing the earth magic and take another w instead, to get something like W3D10, 3/3 death/cold and 10 dominion.

And all this just to see what "death weapons" can do! :v:

Edit:

Ugh. Well, now I know not to use a death weapons bless. At least in multiplayer games, in my test game I still fully intend to wallop the AI with it and look what I can get out of it.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Libluini fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Sep 24, 2013

# ¿ Sep 24, 2013 10:47

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

builds character posted:

I think maybe it would be better to listen to TheDemon than to you. Because maybe this advice is not very good. Thunder strike and orb lightning require a lot of research and eagle kings are awesome.

Well, there was a certain someone who used thunder strike to great effect. Then again, if you can move 50+ mage communions to completely outclass your competition, I guess research isn't a problem anymore. :v:

# ¿ Sep 25, 2013 13:10

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

brainwrinkle posted:

The most difficult part of playing Dominions 3/4 is getting motivated to do your turns when you're losing. Playing bad nations because you like their flavor makes this happen more often.

My main motivation when I'm losing is always: Play as annoying as possible, plant forts on every province and if you're down to one last army in some random province, try to bash as many enemy provinces as possible before your dwindling numbers and rising enemy PD / armies finally catch up to you. Stuff that makes at least a last impression before you're pulled under.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2013 14:35

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

Roland Jones posted:

You're missing out. One of the greatest things to use the new formations for is making a line of mammoths/elephants that stretches across the battlefield. Not only does it look cool, but it makes it harder for enemies to surround them and thus stab them to death.

In one of my first battles against AI-independents I got massacred with my usual blob of units. In the rematch I organized my spear-carriers in a long, thin line across the battlefield. The line marched forward, crashed into the unorganized indep-blob and enveloped them, stabbing them from all sides at the end. It was glorious! Zero casualties! :black101:

# ¿ Oct 2, 2013 20:55

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

jBrereton posted:

If you've got Desura, you'll have just got a notice that an update's popped. You click the upgrade button there.

Desura still confuses the hell out of me. I didn't get a notice and I can't find an "upgrade button", but I have the newest version available. I guess I do the same thing I always do and download the new installer and hope for the best. (Hey, it worked for "upgrading" the beta to the full game, so what can possibly go wrong? :v:

)

Edit:

What do you know, it worked. Now onward to test how many times I can overwrite my install with another full install before something breaks!

Libluini fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Nov 13, 2013

# ¿ Nov 13, 2013 12:50

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

AtomikKrab posted:

Click launch game and it will tell you "UPDATE AVAILABLE, UPDATE?"

Oh, so that was it. Sadly what I'm seeing instead is more along the line of "Install Game". (I really didn't want another weird software like Steam installed, so I downloaded and installed Dominions 4 without Desura.) No wonder I couldn't find the "Upgrade-Button".

Looks like I have to continue stubbornly working around this issue if Desura doesn't let me download the patch separately. :shrug:

# ¿ Nov 13, 2013 16:37

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

goodness posted:

This is confusing since I have read most people suggest giants for beginners.

Well, they tend to walk through indies as if they weren't there. (At least my giants did.) The problem with them is when players find ways to counter your giants. Then it goes down the toilet pretty fast.

Edit:

Beaten, gently caress.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2013 10:14

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

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

It's perfectly fair. Anyone who just wants to play undead Rome for flavor should be perfectly content with undead Rome, and anyone who really wanted to play MA Ermor but won't admit it deserves to play Sceleria.

It's even worse now that you can't get away from the bastards by avoiding LA games.

Man but just one day I want to play Lemuria because Ghost Invasion.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2013 19:39

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

sullat posted:

Anyone know what determines the chance for a spy to infiltrate a capitol is? Haven't had much luck in SP and don't want to risk an international incident in MP. Was thinking that if it were simply a stealth check, one of those stealth boosting items might help.

Also if you have poo poo spies and not very stealthy stealth troops don't try to infiltrate your enemy. On the other hand, if you're prepared, do it. Accidentally turning an infiltration into an all-out invasion can be hilarious.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2013 15:35

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

Penguingo posted:

With your surprisingly awesome sacreds that you took a E9W9S9 bless for, of course!

You probably want undead to hold them in place temporarily and make them rack up fatigue, and then drown them on dry land.

That said, assuming this isn't a goongame, what's your research?

By pure coincidence, there is a goongame running were I play LA Ulm and Troika plays LA Atlantis. Also in this game, I just attacked him. So I take a mad gamble here and assume he is talking about the same game. He shouldn't worry, though. I didn't plan that far ahead. As long as he keeps routing my lovely "stealth" armies, he should come out on top.

Time to retool my army into a more mage-based approach. :v:

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Libluini fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jan 2, 2014

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 20:05

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

Neruz posted:

The drawbacks are exactly the same as going from neutral to heat 1: -5% income, -10% supplies, +2 encumberance for units. The seasonal temperature variations will mess about with it and it's not huge, but it's by no means 'free' anymore. In Dom3 heat\cold preference was literally free points.

Which was kind of stupid, if you think about it. Not that I complained, mind you. I loved making my pretender even more powerful with the extra points, even though I secretly fealt like cheating. :v:

# ¿ Jan 13, 2014 22:42

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

Jon Joe posted:

This would only be the case if sizes 4 through 6 inherently gave +1 to weapon length.

Why stop there? poo poo, now I want a race with size 6 giants styled after those ancient Greek soldiers who lugged 11 foot long lances around. With their size they could easily carry something absurd like a 33 foot long lance. What weapon length would that translate to in Dominions-terms? Infinity plus one? :v:

# ¿ Jan 14, 2014 00:08

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

The Sharmat posted:

Actually, phalangites carried a sixteen foot pike.

This is a good idea.

Which means giant phalangites could theoretically carry 48 foot long monster pikes! If 12 is the maximal possible weapon length in Dominions 4, we could assume length 12 is what normal human sized phalangites would have -and since a weapon length of sixteen foot is approximately the same as the abstract game term weapon length 12, we get a multiplier of (rounded) 1,33, which we apply three times instead of just tripling giant weapon length. Now my bad math gives me something like weapon length 28,23.

Alternatively, we could skip all that trying to be sensible and just triple everything. Weapon length 36! Wait a minute, how far reaches weapon length 36? Is one weapon length equivalent to range 1? poo poo, now we have giants who can skewer the enemy from half the map away. Maybe a bit too OP?

One question remains: Can maximum weapon length be modded? :v:

Edit:

President Ark posted:

The spear in question is called a Sarissa, and they apparently got as long as 21 feet.

Oh man, the number continues to rise. But I think at the moment we have size 6 giants mowing down the enemy with 63 foot long pikes we have left phantasy land and entered the city state of Ludicrous.

Libluini fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Jan 14, 2014

# ¿ Jan 14, 2014 13:53

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

Penguingo posted:

So how do you actually install dinomod? The modders manual says that

which appears to be rank lies.

At present I've dumped the contents of the mod .zip in \Steam\SteamApps\common\Dominions4\data\mods, but it isn't showing on the list of mods upon loading Dominions.

e: to be more specific,

Have you looked at [HDD where your OS is]\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Dominions4 instead? It's where I dumped my own little mod and it worked like a charm. Maybe your Steam-version just created a second folder, too. Took me a bit of searching to find this second folder.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2014 19:01

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 Sharmat posted:

I thought it was that the radius of the fear aura only increased per increments of 5.

That's not a a pike, that's a sharpened tree.

Not if they're making those things out of these: The one true tree.

Now add a sharp, polished metal spearhead and you get something a size 6 giant could use as a weapon of mass destruction.

Edit:

Or better, like a weapon of tree destruction. :downsrim:

OK, that was bad. I'm stopping now.

Libluini fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Jan 18, 2014

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 19:15

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

Just a question: If there are, by some weird modding-related chance, more then one of the same nation in a game, how do you find out which one borders you?

I mean, just theoretically, what if you have two MA Oceania in a game, with identical flags of course and one of them borders you? Do you send a message to both of them and hope no-one is lying? Is there some kind of method to find out which one of the players is the one close to you without sending weird messages like "do you have a border with me"?

# ¿ Feb 3, 2014 19:14

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

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now this is funny. :v:

Superterranean posted:

I'm assuming it has to be, because otherwise message sending would be out.

You can change the mod after the game is live, even just for yourself, if you want.

Yes, it's a mp game. And I don't know if I should change the mod, it isn't my mod. Also the mod is messed up enough, I don't want to add to the problems.

(It turns out Dom4 lists two MA Oceania in Waterworld when you want to send messages, but after looking under statistics, I saw one of the MA Oceania was in truth EA Oceania.)

Edit:

Also, thanks to Absum contacting me on IRC I now know which Oceania I should be talking to.

Edit:

The several restarts of Dom4 I had to do while discussing this (to make sure I wasn't suffering sudden eye problems or something) solved the issue. Both EA and MA Oceania are now listed correctly everywhere in-game.

I think this is the last time I enter a mp game where players have identical flags. This sort of confusion really makes me stumble around like a moron. :shepface:

Libluini fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Feb 3, 2014

# ¿ Feb 3, 2014 20:20

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

Waterworld is somehow getting more insane by the day. I just noticed I only have one spy, presumably because those weird tent-owners from LA Atlantis can only be recruited on land, which our map doesn't have. Also those insanity spreading weirdos in the deep sea sit directly next to me but I can't reach them. Apparently for Dom4 we're sitting on opposing sites of impassable mountains or something.

To be clear, the connections between provinces are there, just perpetually closed. Well, the game is getting more interesting by the day. :shepface:

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 20:58

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

Ilanin posted:

My guess is it's because you/him/both took Cold 3 scales for the points since temperature doesn't matter underwater, so your underwater mountain passes are permanently blocked by underwater snow.

Sadly, no. I took Heat 3 scales. Maybe he took Heat 3, too and the passes are blocked by hot steam? The mountains of madness seem to be the most likely explanation right now. :tinfoil:

It looks like this. No way in or out, at least until someone learns that army-teleportation spell at level 9 or something.

jBrereton posted:

Any way you can link the map? I'm kinda intrigued by this.

I can do better, I can show our map to everyone:

100% pure water.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 21:29

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

Neruz posted:

Doesn't matter what scales either of us took; mountain passes are only passable when both provinces have positive heat scales and deep sea provinces never have any heat scales.

Welcome to the mountains of madness

At least I'm safe from a two-front war for now. :v:

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 22:25

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

jBrereton posted:

But... heat should preclude even non-mountain-terrain-movement-havers from not being able to go over mountains... and they're both Heat 3? (also why?, Cold-3 is much better for underwater evocation)

That is some serious wtf goings-on there.

Well, if you can only pass mountain passes if both sides have positive heat scales and deep sea provinces don't get any heat scales, regardless of pretender choices, then it really doesn't matter what R'lyeh has taken. The mountains remain impassable.

I think I now even recognize this behaviour in one of my SP games. I've seen Berytos with 1 heat on one side of a mountain range, and a neutral province on the other side. The pass remains blocked.

Also I took Heat 3 because I wanted to be different this time (I almost always take cold scales), I honestly didn't know Cold 3 would have been the better choice.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 23:03

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

dis astranagant posted:

Unless it has changed since beta you most definitely can lose provinces with forts and commanders in them with the revolt. it puts everyone inside the fort outside and burns your temple. It also doesn't require mis3. Plagues don't, either, but every death scale present adds another chance to get one. Ditto magic is fading and drain scales. Ancient presence only shows up with Growth 3 and Bogus doesn't have any particular conditions.

I remember barely evading some of those bad events thanks to stacking fortunetellers in my cap-province. But if you don't have units or commanders capable of telling the future, you really should be careful with those misfortune-scales. Even when taking nations capable of protecting themselves against misfortune, the highest I ever go is Misfortune 2 and only when I can also take Order 3 to mitigate the chance of bad stuff happening a bit.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 12:13

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

Flavahbeast posted:

Noob is relative, if someone only plays mp and never practices offline they might be pretty noob despite having played in a dozen games

I confess I'm another one of those. Dozens of MP games behind me and I still get dumpstered like a chump. Really, I stop considering myself a newbie right after I stop losing one 300+ army after another. My best successes up to date were a handful of occasions were I beat back the siege on my cap and survived a few turns longer.

Still, I only join newbie games if I want to try out some stupid gimmick against live players. After all, if I will lose horridly, why not against someone who needs encouragement? Every newbie who ends up fighting me can proudly proclaim how he beat an "experienced" player. (I'll promise to never tell someone the truth.)

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 20:18

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

TheDemon posted:

They're all terrible arguments because despite losing a lot you're still a mile better than a brand new player.

I lose constantly, lose wars constantly, and run terrible gimmicks sometimes. That does not make me qualified for a new player game. It has not made me qualified for a new player game since finishing my second game or thereabouts.

To be honest, I was talking out of my rear end. The last time I did join a newbie-game myself I only remember because I felt so goddamn guilty all the time I was glad to finally lose just so this horrible feeling would stop.

Also playing a nation like MA Ermor or Lemuria isn't even fun in single player. For some reason something inside me just dies if I see too many of my provinces fall to zero population. In MP-games I always try my best to stay the gently caress away from them until someone else fights them. Taking MA Ermor or Lemuria in a MP game for newbies isn't really a good idea. Either you win so easy it makes you feel ashamed, or you lose incredibly fast because you just painted a huge target on your back and even newbies should know you're bad news and work together to take you down.

In short, after thinking it through a bit I agree with you. My earlier post was infected by some secret desire to finally win a game, which clouded my judgement. But gently caress this, losing with style is more fun than bumbling around in kindergarten. And now I go back to Waterworld. The game really goes swimmingly for me right now! (Drowning is a kind of swimming, right? :shepface:

)

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 20:55

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

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

If there was a newbie game that was having a hard time finding a 7th and 8th player, it'd be really cool to have a moderately experienced player come in playing something silly.

Also, what's wrong with MA Ermor?

MA Ermor, like LA Lemuria, is a nation that literally kills off all population and freespawns skeletons/ghosts everywhere. It turns into a chore to play, but worse is your dominion is literally growing into some sort of death cancer on the map, useless to everyone except other undead freespawn nations. So everyone has to take you down before you get too powerful, but the chumps who take you down will get a bunch of useless provinces and are most likely to lose the game thanks to their trouble.

Edit:

The only real way to play MA Ermor or LA Lemuria in multiplayer is to play it like the stereotypical villain: You have to give your enemies (Everyone.) plenty of chances to take you down, you'll have to gently caress up on purpose to emulate your stereotypical hubris and overconfidence and also you lose automatically if you win. You can only win by losing in the most fancy way possible.

Libluini fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Feb 28, 2014

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 21:12

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

Pomp posted:

Years of RTS experience have ingrained "ALWAYS BE SCOUTING" into my psyche, and the second I figured out that Pangaea can recruit Harpies from any forest province they became my new favorite nation. Does anyone beat Pangaea when it comes to scouting ability? After like 20 turns I see all.

I have the opposite problem. My RTS experience has left me with the dumb habit of "scouting in force". Which essentially means not doing much scouting at all, instead using huge stacks of units as a combined scout/conquest force. This habit is annoyingly hard to break. It also doesn't help that I'm right now in a MP-game where I have no scouts and can recruit no scouts. (I only had one, lonely scout. But thanks to our gimmick map, there is no place I could recruit more like him, regardless of how many forts I build. And now this scout has been killed of in the deep sea. Stupid squid-people! :argh:

)

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 22:39

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

Donkringel posted:

"I haven't won much" is pretty true for all Dom players since only one person (until disciples) can win. If you can handle communions, mage scripting, army scripting, expansion, research, scouting and economy to some degree, I'd say you are no longer a newb.

That being said, since everyone is talking about how domkill nations suck, what about a game where the only nations allowed are domkill? (Asphodel, Lemuria, Ermor, LA Rlyeh)

I wonder how that game would go. Call it "gently caress the 99%"

That would be a great idea for the rear end in a top hat-factor alone. Also I call dibs on Lemuria.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2014 00:02

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

I completely forgot, has enemy dominion influence on blessing sacreds? Or can you just bless your units everywhere without a care in the world?

# ¿ Mar 3, 2014 12:35

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

builds character posted:

You can bless anywhere.

Oh, thank god. It may sound stupid, but this question kept bugging me over the last days and I wanted to be sure I didn't misunderstood the bless mechanic.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2014 14:58

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

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

How do I deal with ghost armies. I've been kicking rear end in a single player game and suddenly a ghost army is just walking straight at my capital like PD or wizards aren't poo poo.

Lots of priests, banishing undead left and right.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2014 19:23

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

MagnumOpus posted:

Are there any good tricks to stopping an army so that you can fight it? I've got a game where I have been chasing a 70 or so unit army around my backfield for over a year. Every turn I move into where they are and every turn they escape me, into another one of my provinces. The province layout does not make for good prediction about where they might be going next.

Try to use PD or small, expendable armies to just make him fight every step until his army is ground down into dust. Or if that is too expensive, just make a second army and go around aiding his territory to draw his army back out of yours.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2014 20:41

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

Cardiovorax posted:

I don't really play multiplayer, so I basically just want to know whether there's enough new content to keep me entertained in singleplayer for a while, because I basically played Dom3 to death. I've been a fan of the series for ages, but 25� is a lot of money for me right now. I guess I can just wait for the next sale, though.

If you don't want to develop carpal tunnel syndrome after moving one too many armies around, buy Dom4 as fast as possible. Believe me, it is worth it.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2014 21:38

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

Nuclearmonkee posted:

Doesn't it bias the selection for larger provinces? In that case it would be more likely to select capitals and the like.

Now I'm thinking about what would happen if population is transferred from an underwater province to dry land. Would units who can't leave the water die, too? Or just become immobile in their new province?

# ¿ Mar 10, 2014 11:18

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

-Troika- posted:

Having teleported a void fungus pretender to land before () I can tell you that underwater units die instantly if they appear above water.

I'm just curious, what kind of kill message did you get? Was it some generic "X is dead" message, or something that references what actually happened like the "X drowned" messages from underwater?

# ¿ Mar 10, 2014 11:44

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 22:02

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

jBrereton posted:

There's your message.

Too late, I've already made a short test game and teleported my pretender on land. She drowned in the Shunned Lands. :v:

# ¿ Mar 10, 2014 13:19

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

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