Dominions Enhanced (thedemon): 0.09-0.10 changelog

[TheDemon]

Oh, I have a question. When the crone starts to throw around the first suicidal #onebattlespell, what are the things I should try to do to survive it? It says the second spell is MR negates so I was thinking an AMA for that might help, but the text doesn't say how the first spell goes about trying to kill the crone.

She will automatically survive both spells at 1 hp. Don't let her get damaged any more than that and she'll be fine. Regen will also help.

[Username17]

Like I said in my goal statement, I don't care about the initial flavor of Ulm greatly. DE Ulm is purposely no longer themed the same as vanilla Ulm.

But why have it be "Ulm" at all at that point? If you're going to jettison the entire flavor of a faction, why not make a new faction?

You could make Teslastein or Davincia or something. If you want to make a new faction, why take a shit all over an existing faction instead of just making a new faction? It's not like there's some sort of magic barrier that prevents you from adding a country or seven. In fact, you're explicitly intending to add some factions like Muspelheim anyway.

And eventually there will be internal balance, but that's really far away. Internal balance, I note, compares the mod to itself rather than the vanilla game or another mod.

Do you have any methodology, at all for making that internal balance actually happen? This seems like one of those CBM-like projects where in one revision people go apeshit conquering the world with bog beasts and in the next they go apeshit conquering the world with fire drakes. Throwing random shit on the wall and hoping to have a new balance work itself out emergently through the process of evolution will work, but only after thousands or millions of revisions. It is not a practical design strategy. What are your actual balance goals? Looking at the changelog, I seriously don't see one.

-Username17

[TheDemon]

Like I said in my goal statement, I don't care about the initial flavor of Ulm greatly. DE Ulm is purposely no longer themed the same as vanilla Ulm.

But why have it be "Ulm" at all at that point? If you're going to jettison the entire flavor of a faction, why not make a new faction?

You could make Teslastein or Davincia or something. If you want to make a new faction, why take a shit all over an existing faction instead of just making a new faction? It's not like there's some sort of magic barrier that prevents you from adding a country or seven. In fact, you're explicitly intending to add some factions like Muspelheim anyway.

Because I do not care whatsoever about whether or not I am taking a shit over an existing faction. It's that simple.

Muspelheim is what we call a Bad Example because I'm going to overwrite Early Age Abysia with it. Talk about taking a shit on an existing faction!

And eventually there will be internal balance, but that's really far away. Internal balance, I note, compares the mod to itself rather than the vanilla game or another mod.

Do you have any methodology, at all for making that internal balance actually happen? This seems like one of those CBM-like projects where in one revision people go apeshit conquering the world with bog beasts and in the next they go apeshit conquering the world with fire drakes. Throwing random shit on the wall and hoping to have a new balance work itself out emergently through the process of evolution will work, but only after thousands or millions of revisions. It is not a practical design strategy. What are your actual balance goals? Looking at the changelog, I seriously don't see one.

I stated in the foreword that the overall mod goal is that every spell, unit, item etc have a useful niche. The initial iterations of the mod need to carve this niche, which is where DE is at right now, then later iterations need to adjust it so in some situations the entity is better than similar entities in some way and worse in other ways.

By my personal definition useful in this context means a rational knowledgeable player whose goal is to win might cast/recruit/forge it in a multiplayer game if it met a multiplayer game situation they faced. The niche need not be common, but shouldn't be astronomically rare either. That's probably the biggest challenge. To extend your analogy, I'm only slightly concerned if Fire Drake spam is the go-to strategy, so long as Bog Beasts and everything else have a use (and that use does not have to be combating Fire Drakes). Of course if all of the dozens upon dozens of summons have a niche, Fire Drake spam won't be the only go-to general-purpose gem spender.

I use my sensibilities as a fairly experienced player to set the initial values of the entities I mod. After feedback from playtesting, these values are adjusted. In terms of balance, small stuff like 30g vs 25g or 12 att vs 10 att doesn't really bother me. Like you said, it would take thousands of iterations to adjust unit stats precisely. Although I will note that since there are multiple players in each game, thousands of iterations comes much sooner than one might assume. (In terms of niche-making, small differences in unit stats can help create the right niche. Long Spears and Pikes are a good example from the current DE: they each got +2 def, which makes them better at holding a line compared to Short Sword or Spear troops.)

I guess you could say the definition of balance I'm working by is more a playable balance than a precise balance.

Yes, one modder with all of his inherent biases sets the initial values and determines the adjustments without a methodical testing strategy. It's right there in the foreword. It's a "Whatever TheDemon wants mod".

[Korwin]

So whats up with this Priest Smith and their Test Devices spell?
How does it work?

[Avoraciopoctules]

So whats up with this Priest Smith and their Test Devices spell?
How does it work?

Pretty much as described. To get a mapmove>0, the unit needs to wait 6 months, then cast the spell to trigger an attack by special monsters.

If you mean mechanically, I think there's at least 8 different "priest smith" commanders which shapeshift forward into the next form to keep track of the progress counter. Later forms may have better MagicBoost tags.

[Korwin]

I played around with them a little. Not shure if you dont need a battle before the 6 months mark. Need to try again. Got confused with different Priest Smith's.

After they get mobile they are back to 2?, but can change at will to an inmobile form (over the course of 2 months, after the first month they are a 3? unit, after the second month a 4?).