Newbie questions Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

I couldn't find a thread for beginners' questions, so here we go:

Can the "cursed" status be removed? I remember reading somewhere that pretenders heal all their afflictions over time, but does the same happen with the cursed status?

Feel free to hijack this thread for asking your own questions.

No, in Dominions you are cursed for life ;-)

Edited by: mighty_scoop

@mighty_scoop: Thanks! I guess I'll just have to test how it affects the survival of my Virtue who beat some independent stacks almost by herself (which is how she got it) in the first few months.

Leave those lizards alone, silly!

Edited by: amuys

jokim wrote: I couldn't find a thread for beginners' questions, so here we go:

Can the "cursed" status be removed? I remember reading somewhere that pretenders heal all their afflictions over time, but does the same happen with the cursed status?

Feel free to hijack this thread for asking your own questions.

Also pretenders do NOT heal there own afflictions over time..
Unless they have the recuperation?/ are immortal ability. Or are reborn (in that case they also lose their curse) (not true)
I'm 99% sure about this..

Edited wrongs..

Edited by: GoodKnight_IL

I am also new in Dominions 4 and have some questions:

1) how can I move two provinces. I have a unit with movement 2 (World Map) but he can only move 1 Province
2) Are there boats (or anything) to travel over water or rivers?

A hint like amuys said sort of Avoid lizards with your pretender. The shaman curse.

Only way to heal afflictions are recuperation, immortality or access to a unit with the autohealer ability. If you're undead or lifeless, only the first two options work.

Curse is never removed, whether you die and are brought back or not. It's permanent.

With mapmove 2 units, you can move two provinces if they are both plains, farm or border mountain. If one of the provinces you're moving through (going in or going out of) is any other terrain, all units and the commander in the army must either have the relevant survival skill or be able to fly (or float, not sure if floating negates terrain penalty).

Units with mapmove 3 or more can move two provinces if one of the two is plains and the other is either forest or waste. Mapmove 4 can move two forests or two wastes, or plains + mountain or plains + swamp, IIRC. If you have less mapmove than the terrain would require (without survival), you still move that one province and there is no carryover penalty. The manual will explain movement mechanics in detail when it's ready.

@Edirr: thx

I am playing atm and have another question

1) Is it possible to decruit soldiers?

I was looking for a special fansite for dominions but I couldnt find one. Is there any online? And will there be a dominions 4 manual?

Yes, there will be a manual. It's not quite finished yet, though. And no, it is not possible to disband recruited troops. You have to kill them off somehow.

As far as fansites go, there are some mostly Dom3 related, though the Invision board run by Sombre is making the switch to Dom4 footing (or has more or less made it already).

amuys wrote: Leave those lizards alone, silly!

Lizard provinces are awesome actually, in my opinion, They give you access to Body Ethereal.

GoodKnight_IL wrote: Also pretenders do NOT heal there own afflictions over time..
Unless they have the recuperation? ability. Or are reborn (in that case they also lose there curse)
I'm 99% sure about this..

Recuperation and Immortal both heal afflictions over time.

Being recalled from death via Call God has a chance of healing some of your afflictions but will not un-curse you.

Curse isn't that bad, though. It increases the chance that you'll pick up afflictions from damage, but you can mitigate that by simply taking less damage, e.g. forging yourself a magic shield.

DeutschRitter wrote: 1) Is it possible to decruit soldiers?

Not in vanilla. It's possible to mod in a free remote spell that can kill your own troops but not enemies.

Edited by: wilsonmax

Is it possible for population to grow from 0? I've seen it go to 10-20 then drop again to 0 but even after a year or two it never truly regrows.

There are some random events or were that add population. Otherwise no. Growth needs something to work from.

And wilsonmax is doing a very fine job of dealing with this thread. Very nice

And Edi! And even Goodknight although he's still a hopeless noob. At least he told me so today on IRC!

Edirr wrote: Only way to heal afflictions are recuperation, immortality or access to a unit with the autohealer ability. If you're undead or lifeless, only the first two options work.

There's also the helexir and the spell "gift of health".

There's also the Chalice.

Gift of health has always been my favorite global enchantment, it is really a nice way to get rid of those annoying afflictions and the health bonus means that tour units are very tough where you have strong domain.
I really find it strange that you can’t disband units. It makes no sense and is highly annoying if you have lots of units with afflictions that make them useless in combat, and such are just a useless drain on your economy.
(This is one of the reasons that I like to play Pangaea)

Edited by: Kris_Lighthawk

Once the bless (if any) is set in the pretender design, it will be constant for the rest of the game, isn't it.? Well, apart from the efect of thrones (maybe something else?).
I'd like to empower the pretender during a game, to get better his bless.

I guess that to keep some balance (and avoid tricky X3 Y3 Z3) I might understand that if the pretender design don't know a bless, empowering later, should not work to get it.
But with an already known bless...why not getting it better via empowerment? The amount of gems needed is really big at those stages to justify the improvement. Is that unbalancing or something I'm not considering?

Edited by: Solosol

Yes, once your bless is set, it's set forever.

It doesn't become worse if you get - paths if your god dies and has to be recalled.
But it also doesn't become better with empowerment.

Maerlande wrote: There are some random events or were that add population. Otherwise no. Growth needs something to work from.

And wilsonmax is doing a very fine job of dealing with this thread. Very nice

And Edi! And even Goodknight although he's still a hopeless noob. At least he told me so today on IRC!

hey even after all the time I spent playing I got some parts wrong (the curse and forgetting that immortals also heal afflictions)
and let's not forget reaches from beneath

Do gods get their own bless? I know disciples get their over-god bless automatically, bot does that god 'bless itself', so for example if it has high nature it would get regeneration?

Edited by: TheZonk

Not, god don't bless themselves. Even the sacred one.

I think they do get bonuses from the magic paths.. like accuracy from A?

Yes, they do, but the bonii have changed since dom3

Fire give +1 fire resist (instead of +1 attack in dom3)
Air give +1 lightning resistance (instead of +1 accuracy)
Water give +1 frost resistance (instead of +1 defence)

Nature give +1 poison resistance in addition to the tradional supply bonus.

The other bonus seem the same as far as I know.

In short, air mage aren't especially accurate anymore. That's bad news for old air mage like staret who could counteract their old eye with their air magic. The amount of elemental resistance are too small to be enough, it's pretty minor overall.

Edited by: Ohlmann

Wow, I remembered Dom 3 had stat bonuses for magic, but didn't know these were being changed. Quite a surprise. I guess it does fit with..Earth giving +physical protection, though.

Oh oh oh, newbie thread, grand.
Can someone tell me what the minor deathbless IS... what does undying do?
I know this is just me being impatient and the manual will tell me... but still

Edited by: Mowinckel