About Dominions 6
Changes
Documentation

Dominions 6, New Features

There are too many new changes between Dominions 5 and Dominions 6 to mention them all. But here is a list of the most important changes to the rules and mechanics that make up the world of Dominions. This might be useful if you are already familiar with how the world of Dominions 5 works.

Glamour

A new magic path called Glamour. Glamour deals with illusions, dreams and luck and fits in among the sorcery paths. Blood Magic is no longer part of sorcery and is a path outside the traditional elemental and sorcery paths.


Previously illusions were part of the air path and many nations have now been reworked to either get new glamour skill or get glamour instead of their old air path. This leads to a greater diversity of the nations as there are more different magic paths to specialize in.

Battlefield Terrain

There are now bushes, rocks and other obstacles to be found on the battlefield, all with their own stats that can be affected by e.g. area of effect attacks in the vicinity. These terrain obstacles can easily be crushed by large monsters, but smaller ones might have to navigate around them.

There are also nature spells that can animate bushes or trees found on the battlefield, so burning them down before that happens might be a good idea.

Assassination Locations

Assassinations now usually take place in confined areas appropriate for the target, e.g. a mage might be assassinated in the library and an ordinary commander might be assassinated while visiting the local tavern. Local bystanders might be also be dragged into the assassination if they happen to be present.

In the screenshot an Abysian assassin tries to assassinate a human commander while his is enjoying himself in the tavern. The bystanders are confused at the start of the battle, but might decided to help get rid of the assassin later on.

Legendary Spells

Research level 9 now contains legendary spells. Legendary spells are usually very powerful, but can only be researched one at a time. You have to choose carefully which one to research first once you reach that level.

Mount Stats

Mounts now have stats of their own that are tracked separately from the rider. So in a battle it is possible to hit rider or mount, or maybe both in the case of an area of effect hit. If the mount is killed the rider can continue to fight on the ground. There can also be mounts with multiple riders like elephants or the other way around, carriers with a single rider.


The horse now has its own hit points and can be killed in addition to the knight that rides it.

Extreme Dominion Scales

Pretender Gods can usually only choose Dominion Scale values between -2 and 2. But some Pretenders or Nations can add to this limit to make it possible to pick more severe scales. Scales at values 4 and 5 are known as extreme scales and usually comes with some special effects that are not necessarily good.

Larger

The scale has increased. Dominions 6 is able to handle many more units than before, both population and armies are now about 50% larger for more epic battles.

Hidden Map

The map is hidden from the start and has to be explored in order to find out what kind of provinces are available.

Multiple Planes

The map can now contain multiple planes that can be discovered and conquered.

The default map generator adds an underground realm of caves as well as the void plane. Certain cave dwelling nations will start on the underworld plane if it is available, whereas the void plane cannot be accessed until a special ritual has been cast.

Alterable Map Terrain

The terrain type of provinces on the world map can now change. This is a quite rare, but can happen if a province is under the influence of an extreme Dominion scale for a long time or if the province is targeted by a high level ritual that affects the terrain.

Seven new nations

Three new LA nations that appeared from the fall of Ind. Muspelheim is a new nation of both hot and cold giants. Pyrene, the cave dwelling giants are available in both the early and mid ages.

Official Network Lobby

It is now easier than ever to start a multiplayer game. Just enter the lobby and create a new game.

Diplomacy

There is now optional formal diplomacy in the game and it is possible to form binding non aggression pacts with both players and the AI. A game setting can change the diplomacy to non-binding if desired.

Improved AI

The AI is now able to create a better opposition than before. It is better at building new forts and create more of the better national troops. The AI has also learned to better plan for high level expensive rituals like global enchantments and dispels. In addition to the AI opponents, the spell casting AI for battles has also got some improvements.

Of course there are also many new monsters, magic items, spells, magic sites, bless effects and random events that were not present in the world of Dominions 5.

Other New Features

• Rituals targeting remote provinces are shown on main map.
• More granular combat spells, more spells now have mid sized area.
• A new screen to find where your different magic items currently are.
• A larger magic item inventory.
• Scoregraphs are now easier to read and more accurately depicts your real income, e.g. taking random events into account.
• A new scoregraph for blood slave income.
• Summaries for income and upkeep costs.
• Summary of all gold spent in the current turn.
• Flames from the Sky and similar far attack rituals now gets a battle replay.
• Many new modding capabilities.
• Workshop support for mods.
• Castle guards that guard the castle gates, in addition to the old wall defenders.
• Certain commander can give orders to undisciplined units
• Easier to create army setup. Drag box to select and move multiple commanders/squads at once.
• Moving to province army setup (y) can now include magic phase teleportations.
• Graphics effects on map for many global enchantments. Also thrones will be lit up once they are claimed.
• Many global enchantments are now centered on a single province that mustn't be lost.
• Map arrows have different sizes depending on how large the moving armies are.
• New music by Everrune.
• New intrinsic powers for high magic paths.
• Fear effects reworked.
• Scrying dominion can now detect glamoured units.
• New graphics for many battlefield effects.
• The cataclysm is now much more difficult to counter.
• Conjuration monster summonings are now more cost effective.
• Raid command has changed and is now move + pillage (and no return).
• Battle cloud effects have changed. The same type of clouds no longer stack in the same square, instead they spread further.
• Resistances now also protects against a percentage of the incoming damage.
• Horses can be equipped with magic bardings.
• Magic armors now gives extra HP as well.

There are many more changes since Dominions 5 that haven't been mentioned here, but these are some of the major ones. Dominions 6 is available on steam for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.




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