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 I'll fill in this F.A.Q. with more information whenever I find a few minutes. The answers may be a little jumbled up. General Story Gameplay - Campaign Gameplay - RTS Important Tips General I don't know what to build? Any tips or strategies? Here's a Steam Guide for Dragon Commander, which I contributed to. It has a lot of useful information about unit roles, strategies, and such. Anyplace else for more information? See the official Dragon Commander FAQ for some more questions. Will this be DRM-Free? Yes! It's available on Steam, and also on Gog.Com, and through the Larian Vault. What's the difference between all the different versions (Steam, Larian Vault, GoG, Retail)?
ForkTong posted:Steam version uses Steamworks for matchmaking. Lar posted:If you want to take advantage of the Steamworks features, you do need to have the game installed in your Steam library. The gog.com version will automatically pick up that you have it on Steam and thus open up the Steamworks tab in the game (with matchmaking, leaderboards etc...). I forgot to add that. What is the Imperial Edition? The Imperial Edition was a free bonus for those who pre-ordered, but for those who bought it after release, it should be available for purchase soon, I think. Imperial Edition Features:
I heard something about a board game, when can I get that? Not for this release. There wasn't enough time or money. If they ever do come out with a board game, it'll likely be a super-special edition which also adds a lot of extra content. Can I use the Original Sin editor to make maps for this game? No. While both games use the same engine, the tools used to create Dragon Commander are much different. This game is really hard! I'm getting stomped on Normal! The game does have a learning curve. You're not alone, it happens to a lot of people just getting into the game. It's important to familiarize yourself with the units and their roles. There's also a "Training Grounds" map under the Tutorial which has AI set to none, letting you play around with units and see how they work, and their upgrades. (With a building selected, hit "J" to open the research menu.) If you're still getting your butt kicked, lower the difficulty and play skirmish modes against the AI to get the hang of it. You'll get better. Story Do I have to marry one of the princesses? Yes, it's required. It's a political marriage to get support from another faction - which is why you can't marry a normal human girl (the closest you can come is the undead princess, Ophelia). Can I play as a female Dragon Commander and marry a male prince? No, unfortunately. It was too much money to re-do everything for different genders. Why are there no Human territories? I'll let the writer himself explain: Macbeth posted:We always thought: look, the player is human (with a bit of dragon in there) and he, as the emperor, decides what goes in his empire, based purely on his own convictions and/or the opinions of the other dominant species in the world whose political support he needs. But the player is himself the human councillor and therefore represents their viewpoint. He just happens to be the king as well. Just do what I do and wave it off with "Yes, there are human-majority countries there, but their views cancel each other out and thus it's X race which has the most influence there." Gameplay - Campaign What happens when multiple countries can have a fight in the same turn? - In a multiplayer campaign , there's a vote on whether each battle should be auto-resolved or played in real-time. If anyone wants to play a battle in real time (even if it's 3 against and 1 for), the battle will be played in real-time. - In the single player campaign, you have a choice: Fight in RTS mode yourself, deploy a General to the territory (and get the bonuses that general provides) to auto-resolve it, or rely on the local militia to auto-resolve it. Because these battles are happening at the same time, you can only personally command one of them, and only send a general to one of them. Any other battles will be auto-resolved without your attention or the aid of a general What does a General do? Generals boost your chances to win a battle. Each general specializes in an area (light units, naval units, etc...), so different Generals offer different chances to win. Generals do have a fee associated with deploying them for a battle, but it seems like if you can't afford to pay them, the balance is taken off the top of next turns income. Occasionally, decisions may come up that send one or more of your Generals on missions, meaning that they won't be available for that turn. Generals stats improve over time as you advance their story arcs. Unfortunately, as your empire's income goes up, so does the cost to deploy a general. Any battle cost over 15 gold isn't really worth using a general on. How does the auto-resolve work? It's not a matter of more numbers = better. The composition of the forces, and the general efficiency are the key factors. Unit type X may be very good at dealing with unit type Y, so they get a bonus. The upgrades of each side are also considered. This is still a dice roll though, and even a highly favourable matchup can be lost, or a highly unfavourable matchup can be won. When the game says that there's an 80% chance that you will win a country, it does not mean 100% chance, it means that 20% of the time, the enemy will win. What are the victory conditions for a campaign? It's the same in both single and multi-player: capture an enemy faction's capital territory, and all remaining territories and units of that faction are captured and become yours. Once this is done for all enemy factions, you win. The single-player is divided into three chapters, each chapter has you conquering all the enemy capitals of a certain map, then you move on to another section of the world and begin again, with a single territory. All cards acquired, and any unspent Gold and research points (RP_ are carried on to the next chapter, but you do not get the benefit of gold/RP income from the previous chapters you conquered. (You could just assume that is devoted to maintaining your army and empire there.) What are the resources in the Risk-like mode? Gold, Research Points, Cards, and Defense. Gold is the main income, each country generates a certain amount of gold per turn, indicated by the number on the sack icon (if you like, consider it to be in in thousands). Gold is used to purchase troops, construct buildings and buy cards from card shops. Research Points are acquired by occupying countries. The more countries you own, the more Research Points flow in (the more people you can get to work on it), and the faster you can research things and more expensive things. Research Points are spent on upgrading your army units and your dragon skills. They both take from the same pool, so you must balance them. Cards will be explained in their own section. Defense is not exactly a resource to be spent - it's a measure of how protected they are. Each turn, countries you own that are surrounded by other friendly countries get a bonus to their defense. The higher a countries defense, the more their territory will be defended in RTS mode, making it harder for the invader (so don't try to send all your troops on a beeline for the capital territory, it will probably end badly). Conversely, countries that are next to hostile countries or have enemy units stationed beside it will see their defense lower each turn until it reaches the basic level of defense (no bonuses for the defender). There are cards that can increase or decrease the defense level of a country. What are cards? Cards are basically one-use powerups/debuffs you can apply on the strategy map or before entering RTS battle. They come in several types:
Cards can be bought from the Emporium building on the campaign map for gold, and in single-player, you receive cards as a consequence of your decisions. Unlike other buildings, Emporiums are not buildable normally, you can only build them yourself if you receive a Diplomacy card granting you a free one. Some maps have buildings pre-placed in neutral countries, but none of the story campaign maps do. How can I move and capture countries? Each unit has a specific number of movement points that indicates the number of countries it can move through. A unit can move through and capture enemy-held territories which do not have any enemy units in them, but they cannot move through any countries that have enemy units stationed in them - that will trigger a battle. Countries can only be captured by ground units. If you invade a country with only air and naval units and defeat all the enemies, the country will still remain in the hands of the enemy faction until you move ground-based troops into it. In the single-player and custom campaigns, there may be neutral units in some territories. These will join your forces if you capture that country. What does your popularity do in the country? Popularity affects Entrenchment, Support & building speeds. What is Entrenchment? Entrenchment determines how many "free" units & buildings you get at the beginning of a turn. Is there a unit cap? Yes, but it's flexible. On the Campaign map, your unit cap for strategy map units is the total population of all your countries divided by 100. You're not likely to hit this without deliberately trying to, it's mostly there to keep the game from crashing because you thought it would be hilarious to make 9999 of each unit. When entering RTS battle, there is also a unit cap, depending on the Support you have in that country, and a formula based on the Support cost of your units. If you have more units than you can support, the remainder are held as "reserves" that can be built instantly at no cost from the appropriate unit-producing structure as your Support either increases or your number of troops falls below the support cap. What is Support? Support (or Supply as Starcraft players would call it) determines the max amount of units you can build. The less support, the more you need to bring. Increase your level of support in RTS mode by building more Recruitment Centers, and in single-player, by increasing your popularity with the majority race of that country. What is a faction arc? A faction arc is a series of decisions you get from one of your Councillors once your faction standing with a race is high enough. Faction questions are not explicitly labelled as such, but you can recognize them when talking to the Councillors. Only the Councillor who proposed the idea is in favour of it, everyone else is opposed. It's possible to enter multiple race's faction arcs if you get your favour high enough with other races. If you approve a faction decision, your popularity with the other races will decrease, but you will gain a Permanent card that grants you some bonuses. Gameplay - RTS I'm tempted, but I'm not very good at RTS games. Can I skip the RTS parts? Yes, in single-player at least. In Multiplayer, if any player wants to fight in RTS mode, you all players will have to fight in RTS mode.). When two factions have units in the same country, there's a battle. You have the option either to participate in RTS mode or have the computer auto-resolve the battle. I will note though that auto-resolve might mean that you lose battles that you could have won if you were controlling the RTS mode. Help, I'm being attacked by blobs of units, how can I beat a blob? Interestingly, 11 of the 13 units have an upgrade or ability that is more effective when enemies are clumped up. Try researching one of these:
Your Dragon also does splash damage, and they have some skills that are also great against enemy blobs, like roars that cripple groups of units or spells that do massive AoE damage. What are the different Dragons? There are three Dragons, each with their own strengths and learned skills, and each gets a bonus unit. Statistics for damage and overheat are estimates.
Important Tips Anything I should know before leaving Act 1? Yes. Research Ironclads. You'll thank me. It's also not the best idea to rush. I would try and capture ever territory, even ones out of your way before leaving the act. It'll probably be helpful. What's the best unit to counter X? Here is a list of the units, their class, and their counters. Are there any secret shortcuts? You bet, lots of them. Larian has taken interface cues from other RTS's.
Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Mar 14, 2014 |
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Apr 17, 2013 22:36
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Dragon Commander: Meet the People Yorrick - Councillor, Undead Race The ambassador of the undead, Yorrick is the man ('Hardly a man!', scoffs the dwarf) who safeguards the interests of his skeletal fellows aboard the Raven. Like all undead he is deeply religious, so as long as your decisions don't sin against the commandments of the Seven Gods, you should find Yorrick to be a congenial councillor, albeit a bit tiresome in his rather effusive piety. (Voiced by Harry Hadden-Paton) Lohanna - Princess, Elf Race Raised at the court of the elf king, princess Lohannah has always lived a sheltered life in strict accordance with the elf ways of old. Now she finds herself aboard the Raven amid the representatives and traditions of many other cultures and it will be up to you to try and make sure she doesn't abandon her own customs - like the elves will want you to - or to encourage her to become a more urbane person, and risk the ire of her kin. (Voiced by Alix Wilton Regan) Henry - General (Human) Henry is a man of action; a general as loyal as he is brazen. Battle may have lost him an arm and an eye, but that has not diminished his lust for combat. You won't find another officer who doesn't admire Henry's military talents, but you probably won't find anyone who calls him a friend either. Arrogant and prone to fly solo, he is not what you would call the social type. If you do want to sit down for a chat with this old warhorse though, bring a bottle. He may not like you, but he'll like the moonshine. (Voiced by Alastair Parker)  Edmund Augustus III - General (Lizard) General Edmund Augustus the Third is an extremely able and intelligent general, and he knows it. His arrogance is legendary, which endears him very little indeed in the hearts of those who know him, but he would not have it otherwise. If he has the choice between solitude - loneliness even - and having to suffer the vagaries of inferiors, his decision is quickly made. His cold and analytical mind desires the game of chess that is strategy only, and he takes great pleasure in obliterating his enemies, especially those who are non-lizards; base and lowly creatures he detests with a passion. (Voiced by Harry Hadden-Paton) Sir Falstaff Silvervein - Councillor, Dwarf Race Rich and corpulent, Falstaff embodies everything that is dwarven. He loves gold, beer, upholds family values and speaks plainly. One could easily dismiss him as a loud-mouth dwarven don, out for wealth and power only, but to do so would be very foolish indeed: behind his gruff exterior a cunning politician is at play. Underestimate him and you'll leave the table empty-handed while he reaps all the rewards. (Voiced by Christopher Fairbank)  Ophelia - Princess, Undead Race The undead are in essence immortal creatures, trapped as they are in an eternal state of 'semi-being' that touches the boundaries of both life and death while crossing neither. Some of them though, eventually do traverse the lien and die, either by being destroyed in combat or of disease. This last instance happens very rarely indeed, but unfortunately for Ophelia, she is one such exception, afflicted as she is by a cancer that is eating away her marrow. She is withering away and nothing can be done about it, at least, that's what the other undead say, who believe this disease is a punishment from the gods. Ophelia though, doesn't want to give up without a fight and she is determined to find a cure or any sort of alternative that may keep her alive, even if it goes against her own faction. (Voiced by Amy Shiels) Trinculo Shortfuse - Councillor, Imp Race If one wants to sum up the impish spirit with one word, it is unpredictability. Trinculo may often surprise with his meandering points of view, but like all imps he is as clever as he is fickle. Science and progression are his bywords; for gods, men (or anything else really) he has little to no use. (Voiced by Sebastian Cardinal) Scarlett - General (Human) Scarlett is an upbeat young woman with a passion for combat, liquor and all the pleasures of life. There is another side to her though, one she keeps strictly secret, though in time she'll reveal this secret to you. (Voiced by Laura Aikman)  Aida - Princess, Dwarf Race Aida is as true a dwarf as Sir Falstaff Silvervein, but despite her jovial ways she is actually a very troubled young woman who has always lived in the shadow of a father that never loved her: Thelor, king of all dwarves. Even on the Raven his influence lingers, to her great discontent - and possibly yours. (Voiced by Simone Lahbib) Prospera - Councillor, Lizard Race The epitome of reason and liberal ideals, Prospera is like a steadfast buoy amid a tumultuous sea of shouting elves, quarreling dwarves, preaching undead and babbling imps. Always she is cool, calm and collected a far cry from the other hot-headed Councillors. (Voiced by Lydia Leonard) Catherine - General (Human) Catherine used to be a queen in her own right, but ever since the enemies of the empire have been conquering kingdom after kingdom, her throne has toppled. Lusting for revenge, she has joined your cause to serve as a general, but she has a hard time of it. 'To serve' is a new concept for her, especially to serve a man. Catherine used to reside over a matriarchal society after all, in which all key positions were filled by women and wherein men were good for few other things than manual labour and procreation. She definitely needs to adapt to what is a new world for her, and when it comes to matters that relate to the equality of men and women, she is a staunch proponent of all matters feminist. (Voiced by Denise Gough)  Camilla - Princess, Lizard Race Camilla was raised in the royal household of lizards in a very strict, indeed authoritarian way. Her parents did not shy away from severe punishments for the slightest infractions and this rigorous upbringing has given shape to her character in a fundamental way. All she has known all her life is law and order, and that is what her life is still about : she is a judge with a reputation for handing out harsh, uncompromising sentences. Aboard the Raven, she will remain a servant of the law, though you - perhaps - can influence her decisions. (Voiced by Lydia Leonard) Oberon - Councillor, Elf Race A staunch defender of the 'Green Mother', Oberon defends nature where he can, so serving elven interests. Elves try to keep a balance in a ruptured world, not wanting dwarves to destroy it with mines and factories or undead to make it all too rigid with dogmatic beliefs. (Voiced by Daniel Curshen)  Grumio - Chief Engineer (Imp) To humans and perhaps even dragons, all imps seem a bit ... odd. Grumio forms no exception. He is the one who constructs new technologies aboard your command ship the Raven and though he may look like a glorified grease monkey, there's more to him than meets the eye. As an engineer, his skills are quite simply unsurpassed. (Voiced by Harry Hadden-Paton) Maxos - Wizard (Human(?)) Maxos is an age-old (some say immortal) wizard, grey of beard, but keen of mind. The depth of his knowledge is unfathomable and you - just like Arthur had Merlin - are lucky to have him on your side as a guide and a mentor. (Voiced by Lewis Macleod) Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Apr 21, 2013 01:27
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JB-lJ7zc44 Larian has decided to go nuts with their Original Sin Kickstarter, and now Every DIGITAL pledge of $95 or more gets a free digital download of Divinity: Dragon Commander. Because of the increased cost of Physical pledges, every PHYSICAL pledge above $150 will get a free digital copy of Dragon Commander. (If that's all you're interested in, though, a minimum $25 pledge will let you add on Dragon Commander for $40.) Oh, and there is a little bit of DC information news: Larian posted:Gandalf: Yes, you can command as a dragon (it's actually a last minute feature that was added to the list of things to do fairly late, but it should be in at release) * * * * * RPG Codex Preview - Scroll down past the Original Sin preview. quote:Before visiting Larian I had assumed that Dragon Commander was an RTS that allowed you to enter the battlefield in your dragon form and take a direct part in the action; I thought that would be the gimmick that would set it apart from the rest of real-time strategy games. Bear also in mind that I'm no great fan of the RTS genre although I do enjoy some of them occasionally. However, Dragon Commander turned out to be much, much more than what I had expected. In fact, it isn't even an RTS but rather a hybrid of different genres, something that has become very rare these days. In one package, you'll find social interactions and political decisions where your choices actually matter, turn-based strategy with a strong board game feel, and real-time strategy with an action twist. Contains some spoilers for the storyline directions of some characters. quote:The map isn't fixed and, just like in Civilization, you can choose the size of the map when starting a new game, thus allowing you to set the length of the campaign according to your preference, or you can pick one of the pre-made maps available. This also applies to the multiplayer. So, it looks like the single-player campaign will have a variable-size map. Lots of other details in this as well. A good read. * * * * * No new news on Dragon Commander, but with the successful $1 million funding of the Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter, the media focus will be shifting back to Dragon Commander. It's already beginning. PC Gamer Hands-on Preview quote:There’s no real cost to using dragon mode except your attention. But that’s in short supply: you’ve often got multiple bases to manage, build queues to keep going, enemy squadrons to watch and armies to control. Taking time out from all that to zoom around and shoot stuff is dangerous, and most of my major failures were things I didn’t see happening until it was too late. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 20:34 on May 2, 2013 |
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Apr 29, 2013 03:32
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Divinity: Dragon Commander Update https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK9PtqBr0yc There's only one month to go until release! Please, ask any questions you have and I'll try to answer them and put them into the FAQ, even though I don't have many answers right now.
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Jun 3, 2013 17:00
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Threesome with skeleton princess and lizard princess: yes/why not?
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Jun 3, 2013 17:05
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Divinity: Dragon Commander Update When do the people who got a copy of dragon commander through the Original Sin kick-starter get their key?
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Jun 3, 2013 17:09
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How easy will it be to start up a multiplayer game? Will there be a sort of matchmaker service?
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Jun 3, 2013 17:23
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New Blog Update: To Listen or Not to ListenSwen Vincke posted:We received feedback today from a group of journalists about what they thought of a hands-on session with a beta-version of the game. Specifically, they were asked to name three things they liked and three things they disliked. From that list a few issues got flagged, and the question now is whether or not we’ll address those issues. Megazver posted:Threesome with skeleton princess and lizard princess: yes/why not? Probably not, because that would depend on a pretty complicated formula. You can only really improve the relationship with your princess by fulfilling her requests. There are probably multiple ways of doing that, if what I've heard about the Undead princess is correct. Marrying one princess probably makes the other one unavailable to interact with (although there may be divorce in the game, but that may have been taken out). I'll ask on the Larian forums about the other questions. It should only be another week or two maximum before David Walgrave finishes upgrading the Larian Vault to allow management of Kickstarter pledges and such. I finally got a chance to actually watch the video. - For the RTS mode, you can play the battle in Dragon form, the generals can "lead in battle", or you can leave the battle to its own devices (I think that means combat resolution algorithms). - There are both single-player and multiplayer levels, which means that there will probably be some maps that are campaign specific and not pure symmetrical stuff for use in the multiplayer campaign. This will include the opening and closing stages of the campaign.
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Jun 3, 2013 20:35
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Alright, I'm pre-emptively challenging all of you to a match. My dragon could beat your dragon in a fight.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:00
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In like Flynn.
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Jun 4, 2013 07:00
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Divinity: Dragon Commander's release date has been pushed back to August 6th. I guess they did decide to add a different difficulty setting after all. All pre-orders from GoG.com will now come with Master of Magic for free! Also, retail boxes of Dragon Commander will come with a digital copy from on GoG. Larian has been oddly quiet for the last few weeks, but that was deliberate - they're waiting for the noise of E3 to blow over. That makes sense. I don't mind the delay, I'm just glad that we're finally being told that there is in fact a delay. Now I can postpone my worrying about the lack of information for another month. 
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Jun 12, 2013 18:24
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Month-long delay sucks, definitely. But if they need the time, they can have it.
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Jun 13, 2013 03:19
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 Here is the list of the game’s units and their upgrades, along with a brief summary of their role and counters. Updated July 31st. Official Dragon Commander Units Page Ground Ground units are the backbone of the army, the only units capable of seizing building points. They come from one of two structures: the Battle Forge for the lighter units, and the War Factory for the heavier ones. Trooper   Class: Light Ground UnitStrong against: Light Ground units, Armours. Weak against: Hunters, Heavy Units, Air units. A Light-class ground unit, troopers are individually weak, but are quite cheap. They are good against other Light-class infantry units - easily defeating equal costs of Grenadiers (when neither side uses abilities). They can even beat an equal support amount of Armours, if the latter don’t focus fire or use abilities. The Trooper’s speed upgrade is basically essential if you plan to field Troopers. Their ability to capture buildings can be quite useful, and if all else fails, a group of Kamikaze troopers can cause chaos. Abilities:
Grenadier   Class: Light Ground UnitStrong against:Medium-Class Units, Dragons and Air units. Weak against: Troopers, Hunters, Heavy Units. A Light-class anti-air/anti-armour ground unit, Grenadiers are a good thing to keep mixed with your army. In an unmanaged fight, they beat Armours at equal recruit costs (but NOT Equal Support costs). Despite Hunters being classified as Medium, Grenadiers do quite badly against them. Their skills are all geared to improving their damage output, especially against clustered units. Abilities:
Shaman   Class: Light Amphibious Support UnitStrong: When mixed in with other units as a support. Weak: When alone. Shamans are a Light-class amphibious defensive caster unit. They’re welcome in any group for their healing abilities, but their skills are exceptionally useful. Shamans cannot heal themselves, but can heal a number of other units at the same time. They are an amphibious unit, which means they can move across both land and water equally well, letting them take shortcuts or support naval units. Cripple is a good anti-cluster spell that renders enemies helpless for a short time, Immunity is a defensive buff that reduces damage and prevents/dispels debuffs on your own units. Charm is a spell geared at turning a single powerful enemy unit against its allies. Abilities:
Warlock   Class: Light Amphibious UnitStrong: When used as an offensive spellcaster, against Ironclads and Air Units. Weak:In direct combat. Warlocks are a Light-class amphibious offensive caster unit. Like the Shaman, they can travel over both land and water. Unlike the Shaman, they have an attack which can hit land and air units. Their fast, but weak attack is only something for them to do on their downtime, though. Their skills and exceptionally long casting range (longer than a Devastator in siege mode) are what makes them dangerous. Their cloak is self-only, but it lets them traverse large distances unseen, making them good potential targets for the Hunter’s Teleport ability, or in groups to act as a mobile strike team. They can also now attack while remaining cloaked, making them a menace to any enemy lacking detection. Their Meet the Beetles upgrade lets them remove enemy units for a short time, and their Death from Above attack is long distance and very good against clustered units. Abilities:
Hunter   Class: Medium Ground UnitStrong against: Light Ground units, Air units and Dragons – with “A Bird in the Hand” upgrade. Weak against: Armors, Heavy Units, Air units and Dragons – withOUT “A Bird in the Hand” upgrade. Hunters are a Medium-class anti-infantry unit. They’re the fastest ground unit in the game, letting them cover territory quickly. They can attack while in motion, letting them exploit certain slow-firing enemies caught alone. Their Teleportation ability lets them instantly reinforce any friendly ground unit on the map, their Revelation lets them see cloaked units and mines, and their last upgrade (“A Bird in the Hand”) lets them hit air targets, making them more versatile. Abilities:
Armour   Class: Medium Ground UnitStrong against: Medium units, Heavy units, Buildings Weak against: Troopers, Air units, Dragon Armors are a Medium-class anti-mechanized unit. Strong and powerful, they’re good against nearly all ground units – save the armour-piercing rockets of Grenadiers. Their thick armour lets them shrug off blows from most foes, and their double-barreled cannons deliver powerful retaliation. They are strong counters to Hunters and Devastators, but are completely defenceless against to air units. Like Hunters, Armours can fire while moving. They can be upgraded to carry three Troopers or Grenadiers, drop ground mines, or deal a short-ranged attack which is most effective against infantry. Abilities:
Devastator   Class: Heavy Ground UnitStrong against:Ground Units, Sea Units, Buildings Weak against: Armours, Air units, Dragon. Devastators are a Heavy-class siege unit. They are slow to move and fire, but their shells deliver powerful blows. They are especially dangerous to clusters of the slow-moving infantry – a few well-placed shots can vaporize whole groups. They have no defenses against air units, and are also weak against Armours. Their upgrades include the basically-mandatory Besiege, which lets them enter siege mode to extend their range, Improved engines to let them move faster – also quite useful, and “Double Time”, which lets them shoot two slightly-lower damage shells at once, boosting their overall damage by 50%. Abilities:
Air Air units are uninhibited by terrain, and can unleash devastating strikes on distant points, however, they are relatively fragile and must be protected. Neglect creating air units of your own at your own risk. Imp Fighter   Class: Medium Aerial UnitStrong against: Air units, If ‘Bombs Away’ researched: Armours, Devastators, Juggernauts, Most Infantry units. Weak against: Grenadiers, Ironclads, Imp Fighters are a Medium-class anti-air fighter. Fragile, but cheap to make, Imp Fighters can easily sweep the skies clear of enemy aircraft. They have upgrades to increase their health, allow them to drop missiles on ground units, and deliver a slowing attack that cripples the firing speed of the victim. Abilities:
Bomber Balloon   Class: Heavy Aerial UnitStrong against: Heavy Sea Units, Ground Units Weak against: Air Units, Ironclads. Bomber Balloons are a Heavy-class anti-ground Aerial unit. They have the most powerful normal attack, with a good-sized splash radius even without upgrades, but their range is the smallest of any unit. Their formidable damage capacity can be increased with Enhanced Explosives to add a much larger splash radius to the explosions. They can also reveal invisible units, and lay air mines. Abilities:
Zeppelin   Class: Medium Aerial Support UnitStrong: When mixed in with other units as a support. Weak: When alone. Zeppelins are a Medium-Class Aerial Support unit. They lack a normal attack and are quite slow, but their abilities are devastating when used properly. All Zeppelins can increase the range of allied units by 33%, providing an advantage of at least one shot of fire before an unaccompanied foe can retaliate. While lacking weapons, a Zeppelin is not completely defenceless. The “Fly, my Flaming Pretties” upgrade shoots a barrage of flaming missiles at an airborne target. “Mustard Gas” is a bomb that inflicts long-lasting radioactive damage on a wide area of the ground – devastating to clustered forces. The Zeppelin’s Cloak is the prize of its abilities, though. It can cloak the Zeppelin and areas in a radius around it for a few real-time minutes, and units can attack while cloaked (it’s only using abilities that decloaks them). This is more than enough time to destroy an enemy base which lacks detection. Abilities:
Sea Control of the waterways is often important, as it can let you bypass troops and chokepoints to assault enemy bases Shamans and Warlocks are also supplemental units that can move over water, and their abilities can greatly enhance your own naval fleets, and disrupt the enemies’. Transport   Class: Heavy Sea Support UnitStrong Against: None Weak Against: All. Transports are a Heavy-class Naval support unit. They are armed with missiles that can hit all targets, but their weapons are weak and slow-firing. They have one critical job: transporting land units across water. Their abilities are build around that purpose. Cloak lets them silently slip behind enemy lines, so the only warning the enemy has is when the units unload on her shores. Minesweeper lets the Transport automatically defuse any enemy mines that may be blocking its path. If all else fails, there are too many ships blockading it, a transport can set its reactor to overload and ram them, causing a massive explosion. Abilities:
Ironclad   Class: Medium Sea UnitStrong against: Sea Units, Air units, Dragon. Weak against: Ground units, Warlocks. Ironclads are a Medium-class Anti-sea, anti-air sea unit. These cruisers are intended to protect sea units from attack by air, and attack enemy sea units. They can both plant and detect mines and invisible units, and their “On Guard” skill lets them shoot down all hostile projectiles for a short time. Their only weakness is land units, which their torpedoes and anti-air missiles cannot hit. Warlocks are a particular menace, as they can follow the Ironclads out to sea and cannot be targeted by them. Abilities:
Juggernaut   Class: Heavy Sea UnitStrong against: Ground units, Sea units, Buildings Weak against: Ironclads, Air Units Juggernauts are a Heavy-class anti-ground unit. They are the prize jewel in an army. They have the longest range and highest health in the game. Their already fearsome range can be extended with Imp Binoculars, letting them hit targets far inland. Juggernauts have no way to attack air, but the Imp Backup upgrade will allow them to build Imp Fighters onboard when an Aerofactory is just too far away. Their final upgrade is the Imp Bunker Buster, a weapon of last resort. This launches a missile that can hit anywhere on the map. It takes a while to build a Bunker Buster, and it costs almost half as much as the Juggernaut itself. The projectile is fairly slow and can be destroyed, but it makes a devastating impact on whatever it hits. It is a base-killer. Abilities:
Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Aug 13, 2013 |
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Jun 22, 2013 20:53
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You’re Mine: Allows Armours drop ground mines into the field.
Mine High Club: Gains the ability to plant air mines.
Sea Mine-Maids: Allows Ironclads to deploy sea mines.
Imp Bunker Buster: Launch an extremely powerful tactical warhead that does an enormous amount of damage in a target area. The warhead is slow, and is targetable and can be destroyed before impact.
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Divinity: Dragon Commander Beta – First Impressions I am currently participating in the ongoing Dragon Commander closed beta, and I’ve been having a lot of fun. There’s explicitly no NDA, so I am allowed to talk about it. The Beta only has Skirmish mode, RTS fighting on a single map, so I don’t know much more about the Single-player and Strategy map gameplay than what’s already been said and what I can glean from the manual. The game looks great and runs great – I’ve only experienced a little bit of slowdown on only one or two occasions, and it was only briefly. That’s pretty good considering that I’m running the game at high resolution with bells and whistles on, on a computer that’s five to eight years old. I even managed to play and win a game where one player (me) was in North America, one was in the UK, and a third was in Belgium with no sign of lag after the start.  Pictured: My forces going in for the kill on a human opponent in Maxos Crossing at dawn Each unit and building casts a shadow. There is no day-night cycle, BUT each map has several variations on time of day and weather. This is the Maxos Crossing map at Dawn, but I’ve also seen this map be in the day, in the day with additional haze and fog, and at sunset. This is a minor thing, but no one at all would have missed it if it wasn’t implemented and each map only had one look and one time of day. I love the attention to detail that the multiple times of day add.  I’ve played some RTS’s in the past – most recently Starcraft 2, but I haven’t played that game or any other RTS in a couple of years so I’m rusty. This game also doesn’t play quite like that. There is only one resource in the game – Recruits taken from the country’s population, and that’s shared between all players. Population is gathered from Recruitment Centers – the more you own, the faster you drain the population. All buildings are constructed on specific pre-placed platforms, and Recruitment Centers have their own specific building platforms that they can only be built on – and nothing else can be built there either. My first playthroughs were pretty poor until I learned the critical rule: You cannot afford to sit back and build troops, you have to seize and defend those sites, because they’ll fill the enemy bank account. Pictured Below: My entire remaining army beating an enemy which skimped on its air defenses.  To support your efforts, you can join the fight yourself as a Dragon. Controlling the Dragon is simple and intuitive. You move with the WASD keys (although you can reassign if you want), your right mouse is a dash key – use it when strafing for a quick burst of speed - it works to dodge incoming rockets for an extra second, but they are homing, so it won’t save you forever. The Dragon is extremely effective at cleaning up infantry units, but it doesn’t do a great deal of damage, so it’s much less effective at heavily armoured units. Even against ones that are unable to fight back, it takes some time to kill those units.  Pictured: The Dragon’s Pillar of Flame skill. It takes some amount of your recruits to join the fight as a Dragon, either 5/10/15/20, I’m not sure how it’s calculated exactly, so you shouldn’t just spawn in willy-nilly, especially once the resources run out. You can stay in Dragon form as long as you like, assuming you aren’t killed. The resource cost is pretty minor given the benefits it provides. The real cost to entering Dragon form is time. While you’re in Dragon form, you can’t produce troops or research upgrades. Once the resources run out, the match changes from fast paced to more tactical. Each player has to carefully use the resources and troops they have left to defeat the enemy. A player is not out until all their buildings AND attacking units are destroyed. Just wiping away all their buildings won’t eliminate a player. If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll try to answer them as best I can, although I haven’t tried every upgrade, and things are still in beta and are subject to change. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 12:19
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That looks good, though I'm a little afraid that I'll get overwhelmed at first. It seems to be very hectic, and I'm terrible at multitasking. Did they also let you play the roleplaying part? Did you manage to seduce the skeleton princess?
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Jun 24, 2013 12:57
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Phlegmish posted:That looks good, though I'm a little afraid that I'll get overwhelmed at first. It seems to be very hectic, and I'm terrible at multitasking. Did they also let you play the roleplaying part? Did you manage to seduce the skeleton princess? It is definitely hectic, but thankfully, one of the options for the AI is "NONE", which lets you happily play around and play with the units to figure out what they do. No to the skeleton princess, it's only Skirmish mode, no single-player gameplay, no campaign (Risk-like map). The Skirmish mode starts off with a higher population cap (5000) than it will probably be in the campaign modes, but that's because you have nothing researched in a Skirmish. In a campaign, things researched from the Stragegy map will carry over.
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Jun 24, 2013 13:20
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Do you think that the game is too simple since it only uses one type of resource?
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Jun 24, 2013 18:31
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Deakul posted:Do you think that the game is too simple since it only uses one type of resource? Good question. I think I'll say "no", although the way the game plays makes it harder to give a concrete answer on this. It plays out much differently from say, Starcraft (tons of plentiful nodes around the map), or Battle for Middle Earth (free resources forever at a trickle as long as your resource production buildings are intact). It is its own game. The way the resources work in Dragon Commander is that each map has a population - 5000 total (in Skirmish mode), a pool shared between all players. It represents the country's battle-ready population. It is transformed into a private fund called "Recruits" that you use to build things. You get 5 Recruits a time every 5 seconds for every Recruitment Center you own on the map. You gain 5 recruits, the overall remaining pool available to all players decreases by 5 recruits. There's also bonus recruits that you can get from capturing Once the population pool is used up, the players only have the Recruits they have in the bank (and whatever they can get from selling structures). EDIT: And capturing resource platforms. It presents an interesting wrinkle to the end-game, although I haven't been able to explore it too much with other human players. The AI doesn't really do much once the income dries out. Recruitment Centers can only be built on specific platforms that can only hold Recruitment Centers, so those will probably be the focus of the early battles. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Jun 25, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 19:36
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Not as a simple as I thought it was, neat. Pretty cool idea behind it really. Thanks.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:50
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Three bits of news today! They remastered the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq2cDhcVmOA Next is a video showing how one complete turn plays out in the single-player campaign. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAF-AAudfp8 Next are two more personalities! Edmund - General (Lizard Race) General Edmund is an extremely able and intelligent general, and he knows it. His arrogance is legendary, which endears him very little indeed in the hearts of those who know him, but he would not have it otherwise. If he has the choice between solitude - loneliness even - and having to suffer the vagaries of inferiors, his decision is quickly made. His cold and analytical mind desires the game of chess that is strategy only, and he takes great pleasure in obliterating his enemies, especially those who are non-lizards; base and lowly creatures he detests with a passion Sir Falstaff Silvervein - Councillor, Dwarf Race Rich and corpulent, Falstaff embodies everything that is dwarven. He loves gold, beer, upholds family values and speaks plainly. One could easily dismiss him as a loud-mouth dwarven don, out for wealth and power only, but to do so would be very foolish indeed: behind his gruff exterior a cunning politician is at play. Underestimate him and you'll leave the table empty-handed while he reaps all the rewards. * * * * * Plus I am in the ongoing Dragon Commander multiplayer skirmish-mode beta, so if you have questions on how the RTS combat plays and how the Dragon affects the balance of the multiplayer game, ask and I shall answer (well, as best as I can). EDIT: I'll start now, by explaining what exactly I have access to. Skirmish mode is a single match on a single map. Every player starts out on equal footing, with no units, no resources, no research completed, just one recruitment center and a single building platform. The population count on the map is 5000, which is higher than it would be for a map played in campaign mode, but it's enough to let you build a sizeable army and research a lot of things. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Jun 26, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 15:39
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Has the pledge management system gone live yet (I thought it was supposed to be a couple of days ago but I don't think I've seen an update)? Do we know when the Divinity backers are going to get their Dragon Commander codes?
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Jun 26, 2013 15:47
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Darkhold posted:Has the pledge management system gone live yet (I thought it was supposed to be a couple of days ago but I don't think I've seen an update)? Do we know when the Divinity backers are going to get their Dragon Commander codes? Good question. The Pledge management system IS working, however it is not available, because they're adding extra features. (Game Designers  ).EDIT: It seems to be available now. Larian posted:Hi gang! Long time no see. I've been lurking now and then, but we've been busy with Original Sin, obviously, and with Dragon Commander, and with the Backer Management System. Larian posted:So it may be tomorrow instead of today. We are waiting for something that needs to be given to us by another company. I'm sorry I have to be so cryptic. All will become clear Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Jun 26, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 16:05
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Those who backed the Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter at a tier high enough to get Dragon Commander, Sign up to the Larian Vault and link your Kickstarter account to get free access to the Dragon Commander beta on Steam. For those in the Beta, join this Steam Group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/BetaDragon to make it easier to find matches and other players. quote:Pre-order Dragon Commander and get a free upgrade to the Imperial Edition (and recieve immediate access to the beta) EDIT: Anyone who pre-ordered Dragon Commander through the Kickstarter receives the Imperial Edition upgrade free! Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 20:29
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Alright, I'm looking at it right now...basically, the add-on system for D:OS is online now, though most of the stuff 'isn't accepting input' yet? And it's through Larian Vault? Well, we'll talk about this in the D:OS thread. Going to see if I can figure out how to get access to the DC beta. Edit: got the key, going to activate it on Steam. Phlegmish fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Jun 26, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 20:38
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I'm in. Anyone up for a match? There are only three dudes online, and two of them told me to leave their lobby because they were about to record a video. Edit: one person online and I can't join his lobby because I don't have the same game version. Second edit: zero people online 
Phlegmish fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Jun 26, 2013 |
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Jun 26, 2013 21:24
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Phlegmish posted:Second edit: zero people online You might want to play against the AI to get the hang of things first, anyway (set the AI to None in the difficulty list, and they will not start building or recruiting).
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Jun 26, 2013 22:16
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Well downloading the Dragon Commander Beta now. Thankfully a painless process linking accounts and getting the code. Don't really have much interest in playing against random pubbies but I might get around to a few matches against other goons.
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Jun 27, 2013 06:57
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Darkhold posted:Well downloading the Dragon Commander Beta now. Thankfully a painless process linking accounts and getting the code. I've just been playing against the ai for now. It's quickly obvious that it can't compare to what a human can do, but it's nice to play that for a while to see how poo poo works.
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Jun 27, 2013 07:02
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Really enjoying it so far. Too bad you can't save during a MP match... I had a 4 player match going on for a long time before it crashed  ... Uploading a bug report didn't work sadly enough.
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Jun 27, 2013 12:22
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I've been playing this as well and find it rather fun. How do I switch back from dragon to commander though? I can't figure it out.
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Jun 27, 2013 21:00
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Excelsiortothemax posted:I've been playing this as well and find it rather fun. How do I switch back from dragon to commander though? I can't figure it out. "R" is the morph key in both RTS and Dragon modes. It costs recruits to spawn the first time, and every time you respawn after dying. However, if you leave Dragon form voluntarily, without dying, respawning as a Dragon is free. The Skirmish mode Dragon was pretty powerful the last time I played, but so far my experience with the Campaign mode Dragon is that they're incredibly fragile and melt to anything anti-air in seconds. I haven't had enough time to play a lot with it, though.
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Jun 27, 2013 22:29
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Huh, Larian has been going nuts with their IP all of a sudden. I haven't played the Divinity RPG's yet, though I've wanted to try Divinity 2. Definitely going to be giving Dragon Commander a shot. Always wanted a RTS where I could actually run around and gently caress some dudes up.  Referring to me as Emperor instead of being an omnipotent hand in the sky helps as well.e:Long shot, but is modding going to be a thing with this game? I saw one of their concerns in that writeup is how to go about balancing, but if they leave that open to the community then suddenly there's a billion difficulty mods ranging from a flat percent to entirely new units with a bunch of gently caress you mechanics. Blast of Confetti fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Jun 27, 2013 |
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Jun 27, 2013 22:40
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So in the campaign mode, does the game keep track of units bought via recruits and units imported from the turn-based map? If you buy units with recruits in the real-time battle, do they then transfer to permanent units on the turn-based map if they survive the battle? If not, does the game somehow distinguish visually between temporary units and permanent ones so that I can screen my valuable turn-based-factory-produced units with disposable real-time-recruit-bought units?
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Jun 27, 2013 22:43
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Wow, I'm terrible at this. I don't really play RTS games so what should I be focusing on at the start of a battle? I used my dudes to capture some points but they still ended up overwhelmed 5 minutes later.
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Jun 27, 2013 23:10
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I set up a 2v2 with AI on the strategy type mode; it was me and green vs red and yellow. I managed to win a battle without auto-resolve, but it's still all pretty hard for me. I'm not exactly sure how to give up my control of my dragon in order to produce more dudes, other than getting myself killed. Then, back in the map mode, my AI teammate takes over my capital and knocks me out of the game. It seems like territories work super weird in team games.
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Jun 27, 2013 23:48
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I played a 2v2 match this morning, with a couple guys from Larian (one on each team) and another player. The gameplay was really smooth, despite me being in Canada and the game being hosted in Belgium. I got my butt kicked pretty badly. I'm not all that great at the RTS mode yet (while I have played them, I don't play them often, or recently). Unrelated, but in 2v2 campaigns, all 4 players participate in battles, even if only 2 sides have units in the country. If you have no units, you don't start out with any, but you can play Mercenary cards to boost your ally's chances. Mercenary cards are consumed after use and don't count for or against unit survival calculations. They are entirely disposable and are pretty plentiful, so feel free to spend them. Mzbundifund posted:So in the campaign mode, does the game keep track of units bought via recruits and units imported from the turn-based map? If you buy units with recruits in the real-time battle, do they then transfer to permanent units on the turn-based map if they survive the battle? If not, does the game somehow distinguish visually between temporary units and permanent ones so that I can screen my valuable turn-based-factory-produced units with disposable real-time-recruit-bought units? Any units you buy in the RTS mode are not transferred back to the campaign mode for balance reasons. I'm not entirely sure what the formula is for getting units back at the end, but I think it has to do with the percentage of your units that survive (not counting mercenary units.) I wanted to test and see hiding your starting units at your base and winning with recruit-based units would work, but the map where I tried that I ended up getting my butt kicked and losing the map, so I'll have to try that again. I think it's a matter of efficiency in not losing units. Unfortunately the fast-paced swarms of unit gameplay is not really conducive for preserving your units. I think the best you can hope for is to wipe out all of the enemy's campaign map units and hope your losses were less expensive than his. DrManiac posted:Wow, I'm terrible at this. I don't really play RTS games so what should I be focusing on at the start of a battle? I used my dudes to capture some points but they still ended up overwhelmed 5 minutes later. First build your Battle Forge, and while it's building, shift + right-click the rally point to the nearby the white construction sites so your troops will automatically capture them as they walk past. You get bonus recruits for capturing a construction site, so at the start you want to produce a lot of cheap units (preferably fast) and spread them out to capture as many free construction sites as you can. That'll give you an instant ton of cash you can use to get up other buildings and Recruitment Centers and start building units. There are unlimited queues when building units, so you can be auto-building for a while if you spam the build unit button. "R" is the Dragon Morph button in either Dragon mode or RTS mode. Teammates taking over your territories sounds like a bug which should be reported. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jun 28, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 00:15
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Is there anyway to have your units just attack anything near a designated point? Hold just seems to make them stand still.
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Jun 28, 2013 02:53
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DrManiac posted:Wow, I'm terrible at this. I don't really play RTS games so what should I be focusing on at the start of a battle? I used my dudes to capture some points but they still ended up overwhelmed 5 minutes later. First of all set the difficulty to easy! In any case; most maps seem to be made for 4-players. So what I usually do I is send a few guys to capture the other "empty" main bases. That way you get a 2 free recruitment centers and you can fortify 'em with anti-ground turrets. If you notice that the AI has the same idea and is moving towards one of these bases then just morph and take 'em out so your guys can capture without problems. Then just try to capture some points close to their base and overwhelm them. Or just make a stand there until he runs out of manpower which is a bit safer than attacking base defenses.
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Jun 28, 2013 10:14
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DrManiac posted:Is there anyway to have your units just attack anything near a designated point? Hold just seems to make them stand still. Press "a". Your cursor will change into a crosshair. Then click to attack-move there.
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Jun 28, 2013 10:15
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Yannos posted:Press "a". Your cursor will change into a crosshair. Then click to attack-move there. I believe you mean "q", as a is "move camera/dragon left" by default.
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Jun 28, 2013 12:42
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