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[Urist McScoopbeard]

So is the new Dominions more combat/conquest-centric than historically focused on what is essentially a race to construct magical superweapons?

[Cruxador]

So is the new Dominions more combat/conquest-centric than historically focused on what is essentially a race to construct magical superweapons?

Dominions 4 was already a big change in that direction. 3 was the era of the supercombatant. 4 was the era of mage support. 5 weakens mage primacy with the new real time battles and casting times, but it remains to be seen how this will ultimately change the way people play. Assuming this is the kind of thing that you're talking about, it's not really clear since "magical superweapons" is pretty broad and "combat and conquest" have always been the focus of the game.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

You nailed the hammer on the head!

[etgfrog]

Manual released: http://www.illwinter.com/dom5/docs.html
Not actualy released yet

[USEC_OFFICER]

The other manuals are released though, so I guess you could always take a gander at modding or map making to pass the time.

EDIT:

#enchrebate50 <enchantment number>
The monster will be 50 gold cheaper to recruit when this enchantment is active.

Hmmm. Does anybody know what this would be used for? I want to say it's for a new nation but nothing I've heard about jives with it. Maybe it's for a future, still in progress nation?

EDIT2:

#monpresentrec "<monster name>" | <monster nbr>
This monster can only be recruited if a unit of "monster name" type is present in the recruiting province. Montag numbers can be used.

#ownsmonrec "<monster name>" | <monster nbr>
This monster can only be recruited if a unit of "monster name" type is owned by the recruiting player. Montag numbers can be used.

#nowish
This monster cannot be wished for.

#addrandomage <years>
Makes the monster start 1 to years (a random die) older.

#mindslime <area>
Grants the mindslime ability.

#overcharged <dmg>
Grants the overcharged ability.

#addupkeep <gold>
Upkeep will be calculated as if the unit cost this much more to recruit.

#formationfighter <xsize>
A formation fighter is well drilled in using tight formations and can fit more units into one square. The xsize value indicates the extra size points that will fit in a square. Use a value of 2 for a normal formation fighting human.

#sneakunit <value>
The item will grant stealth to nonstealthy units.

More interesting modding commands. #addupkeep is really nice since you no longer have to flub that with taking away gold per unit.

Monpresentrec and ownsmonrec is really interesting to me. I wonder what it'd be used for.

These Modding commands are new for Dominions 5 and do not have detailed descriptions yet.

      #mason
      #onisummon <-1000 - 1000>
      #curseluckshield <-1000 - 1000>
      #sunawe <-1000 - 1000>
      #spiritsight
      #invisible
      #fastcast <-1000 - 1000>
      #doheal
      #undregen <-1000 - 1000>
      #spellsinger
      #magicstudy <-1000 - 1000>
      #yearturn <-1000 - 1000>
      #fortkill <-1000 - 1000>
      #thronekill <-1000 - 1000>
      #farthronekill <-1000 - 1000>
      #reanimpriest
      #norange
      #polyimmune
      #minprison <0 - 2>
      #startmajoraff <0 - 100>
      #triplegod <0 - 10>
      #triplegodmag <-10 - 10>
      #unify
      #triple3mon
      #indepmove <0 - 100>
      #indepstay <0 - 10>

Most of these we can guess what they're for but some are more questionable.

[ThtblovesDF]

Thats for the luring waters global, it makes Sirens more cheap.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Ah, thank you. I didn't know about that. Or remember it or whatever.

[BlackHeartKabal]

PTW

[Gigalith]

So is the new Dominions more combat/conquest-centric than historically focused on what is essentially a race to construct magical superweapons?

Dominions 4 was already a big change in that direction. 3 was the era of the supercombatant. 4 was the era of mage support. 5 weakens mage primacy with the new real time battles and casting times, but it remains to be seen how this will ultimately change the way people play. Assuming this is the kind of thing that you're talking about, it's not really clear since "magical superweapons" is pretty broad and "combat and conquest" have always been the focus of the game.

Out of curiosity: I keep hearing people say that Dom3 had a higher supercombatant power level than Dom4. What actually changed between titles to make this so?

[USEC_OFFICER]

Out of curiosity: I keep hearing people say that Dom3 had a higher supercombatant power level than Dom4. What actually changed between titles to make this so?

From what I've heard/read/whatever:

• Luck changing to 'Only triggers on fatal blows'. In Dom 3 it triggered on every hit, so it could migrate a ton of damage, especially if stacked with eternalness and the like.
• Common SC chassis were weakened, or made more difficult and expensive to acquire and use.
• Common SC equipment being weakened or made more difficult and expensive, along with Dwarven Hammers reducing item costs by a flat rate of 2 instead of 25% of the total cost.
• New spells being added, or existing spells being buffed and changed to make them more effective against single targets.
• Lack of non-artifact gemgens is an important one. SCs were never cheap but you were generating a ton of gems in Dom 3's late game, which made them a reasonable investment. Not as much in Dom 4.

Basically, the tools used to counter SCs were strengthened and diversified while the SC's ability to deal with those tools were reduced. To be a proper SC in Dom 4 you need need fire resistance, frost resistance, lightning resistance, MR boosts, etc, etc. Add in the fact that you had less gems to play with overall and SCs were no longer worth using. Why spend several turns worth of gems just for a single unit that'll die to a battery of mages?

[Cruxador]

Besides all that, there's two big changes that aren't directly related to SCs but still make a big difference.

The number one reason is that games are shorter now. Thrones mean you no longer need to conquer every capital, and therefore the game is decided as soon as one player is totally dominant. Because most games end before what Dom3 would call the late game, you only very rarely build up the research to make what would inevitably occur in Dom3, and because of this and the gemgen thing, you don't have the resources to pay for them anyway. In Dom3, it was all but mandatory to churn out Tartarians and heal their afflictions (which is also harder now than it used to be as fewer things can heal the undead) but now that's rarely viable before someone has won.

The other change is balance tweaks to army buffs making troops relevant longer, which pushes back the age of supercombatants further.

Oh, and it's harder to pump your MR through the roof I think, though I don't remember specific changes there.

[E. Albright]

EDIT2:

...

More interesting modding commands. #addupkeep is really nice since you no longer have to flub that with taking away gold per unit.

Monpresentrec and ownsmonrec is really interesting to me. I wonder what it'd be used for.

All of the above (except the change to formationfighter) are actually late-stage Dom4 additions. #addrandomage is literally my fault, and #overcharge is very possibly my fault. The monpresentrec, etc. stuff was modding-focused, and there have already been some good examples released using it.

Oh, and it's harder to pump your MR through the roof I think, though I don't remember specific changes there.

I'm not sure what you're thinking of here - I definitely tooled around with upper-thirties MRs in a few Dom4 games, and I don't think unmodded Dom3 saw MR in the 40s. Are you thinking of the percentage-vs-numerical elemental damage reduction change so resistance-as-immunity gave way to resistance-as-resistance?

--

Another big change from Dom3 to Dom4 is that - either due to better balance or a shorter lifecycle - Dom4 never actually had a dominant rebalancing/content mod take root, although it seemed to be gradually lurching in that direction. When a lot of veteran players talk about Dom3, they're thinking of Dom3+CBM. CBM took most of the issues that made SCs so predominant in Dom3, fixed the gemgen one, and then "fixed" the others by raising the overall base power level and offering more diverse SC options to other paths.

[USEC_OFFICER]

All of the above (except the change to formationfighter) are actually late-stage Dom4 additions. #addrandomage is literally my fault, and #overcharge is very possibly my fault. The monpresentrec, etc. stuff was modding-focused, and there have already been some good examples released using it.

Ah. The Dom 4 modding manual wasn't updated to reflect these changes so I knew nothing about that. Carry on then.

[E. Albright]

The LlamaServer is now ready for Dominions 5! And even a day before release.

[Culise]

Besides all that, there's two big changes that aren't directly related to SCs but still make a big difference.

The number one reason is that games are shorter now. Thrones mean you no longer need to conquer every capital, and therefore the game is decided as soon as one player is totally dominant. Because most games end before what Dom3 would call the late game, you only very rarely build up the research to make what would inevitably occur in Dom3, and because of this and the gemgen thing, you don't have the resources to pay for them anyway. In Dom3, it was all but mandatory to churn out Tartarians and heal their afflictions (which is also harder now than it used to be as fewer things can heal the undead) but now that's rarely viable before someone has won.

The other change is balance tweaks to army buffs making troops relevant longer, which pushes back the age of supercombatants further.

Oh, and it's harder to pump your MR through the roof I think, though I don't remember specific changes there.

A corollary to the above note on the late game: Dominions 4 also rebalanced research costs significantly.  In Dominions 3, research costs follow a Fibonacci-like pattern: 40, 60, 100, 160, etc.  In Dominions 4, research costs follow a pattern that's much closer to exponential: 50, 100, 200, 400, 700, etc. Not only does the game end before you reach the "late game", it also takes much longer to reach the late game even in a pure-conquest Dominions 4 game, and you'll still have gaps in your research pattern compared to Dominions 3 if you beeline Construction and Conjuration for that delicious Tartarian-sauce-and-fishsticks.