Dominions 3 kicks ass

[Rpgsaurus]

So, more of an unpolished diamond then?

Not really.

The hellish amounts of micro you can do each and every turn are heaps of fun when you take day or even week-long breaks from taking every turn in PBEM. They do, however, get very tedious very quick in single player (the sub-par AI doesn't help either), but that's beside the point since it wasn't designed for single player in the first place.

A Dominions 3 clone with simplified micromanagement and good AI (while retaining the variety of its gameplay) would be amazing, though...

 

[PorkaMorka]

In a lot of games an improved interface would be a luxury, as you can get used to a wonky interface eventually. But in this case an improved interface would literally shave hours off those 3 hour multiplayer turns (note these are only in the end game, early on it's not a big deal). Moving through your hundreds of units, hiding guys you are done with for the turn, managing orders, saving orders, combined assaults from multiple provinces could be handled much better, and in some cases are handled downright poorly.

I have to say the interface along with a group that plays 48 hour time limit on turn 70 were the two main contributors to me burning out on this game.

 

[ecliptic]

It's like Master of Magic high on meth raping VGA Planets which passed out from all the booze. On the Risk bedsheets.

Haha, props for the VGA Planets reference.

 

[DakaSha]

So, more of an unpolished diamond then?

Not really.

The hellish amounts of micro you can do each and every turn are heaps of fun when you take day or even week-long breaks from taking every turn in PBEM. They do, however, get very tedious very quick in single player (the sub-par AI doesn't help either), but that's beside the point since it wasn't designed for single player in the first place..

This is one of my fav games but lets not make gay ass excuses.. The game is extremely unpolished and the AI is absolute shit and it ISNT besides the point.. this is from the site:

♦ An already challenging AI made even more challenging. If you can't handle the unrelenting computer player, you can always try your hand at playing against humans with Dominions 3 robust multiplayer suite.




But I guess it goes to show just how awesome the underlying gameplay is that I (you) and others love the game so much despite its huge ass flaws.
As you said a clone (or sequel which isnt happening anytime soon) that fixes the issues would be nice..
Or fuck if it was just possible to mod the AI

 

[Rpgsaurus]

So, more of an unpolished diamond then?

Not really.

The hellish amounts of micro you can do each and every turn are heaps of fun when you take day or even week-long breaks from taking every turn in PBEM. They do, however, get very tedious very quick in single player (the sub-par AI doesn't help either), but that's beside the point since it wasn't designed for single player in the first place..

This is one of my fav games but lets not make gay ass excuses.. The game is extremely unpolished and the AI is absolute shit and it ISNT besides the point.. this is from the site:

♦ An already challenging AI made even more challenging. If you can't handle the unrelenting computer player, you can always try your hand at playing against humans with Dominions 3 robust multiplayer suite.




But I guess it goes to show just how awesome the underlying gameplay is that I (you) and others love the game so much despite its huge ass flaws.
As you said a clone (or sequel which isnt happening anytime soon) that fixes the issues would be nice..
Or fuck if it was just possible to mod the AI

Yeah, they actually do promote this game as a "great single player experience" to make it sell more copies. I remember on their forums there was a huge topic where one guy was bashing the AI for being shit. Well, guess what: the topic got deleted, the guy got banned (although I'm not so sure if there were other reasons as well).

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Yeah, I could be up for some pbem though I'm not sure if it works with removed from inventory version, I can't buy much shit right now.

I don't care about the AI, the real game is always with other people anyway.

 

[Monocause]

The AI can get quite challenging if you avoid using some overpowered strategies and stick to RP'ing more. Which leads to another cool thing about DOM3 - the number of options is so huge that you can actually RP in this game while still remaining a viable opponent, not becoming a pathetic larper.

I'd play multi but I still haven't got the funds for a legit copy. If anyone would like to play a pirate dom3 multi (the last working version was v3.14 last I checked) drop me a msg.

 

[DakaSha]

You can use the 'Better Independents' mod and play against a an opponent that also doesn't recruit purely chaff..
Its nice to see giants actually BUY FREAKING GIANTS.

Also there is an AI balance mod that removes some crap the AI cant handle but although i was gonna try it i never did.

Oh and you can play with semi-randomized gods which actually have decent scales.. Instead of COMPLETELY RANDOM SCALES.. what a pathetic attempt at coding even a functioning AI.. random scales in a game where scales can kill your population

 

[coldcrow]

Well I am not into online paying either. The keygen generates almost correct serials - the last patch of numbers is variable.
If it is wrong you will eventually lose the UI. Restarting the game can help there, although I am not sure if the copy-protection kicks in right away again.

 

[DakaSha]

it seems to get more and more annoying as the game progresses.. once i started actually playing the game i was very happy i dished out the horrendous 60 bucks for a legit copy.

at least it comes with a GREAT (although outdated by now) manual.

 

[Excommunicator]

Well I am not a frequent multi-player but this game sounds rather interesting and impressive even with all the talk against the singleplayer.

I think I will have to get my hands on it.

Although I am not entirely sure why the graphics are so bad. It wouldn't take much at all to do a complete high-quality overhaul of the visuals at rather low cost, which would no doubt increase sales. Might even have a look into that myself.

 

[mondblut]

It wouldn't take much at all to do a complete high-quality overhaul of the visuals at rather low cost, which would no doubt increase sales.

ORLY? With over 2 thousands units? Wouldn't take much indeed.

As for sales, everyone who could be remotely interested in Dominions already bought it or not removed it from inventory anyway. It's been 5 years FFS. Who are you going to market it at now, bioware's "numbers are teh hard" gaylords?

 

[Excommunicator]

It wouldn't take much at all to do a complete high-quality overhaul of the visuals at rather low cost, which would no doubt increase sales.

ORLY? With over 2 thousands units? Wouldn't take much indeed.

Wait, you mean an indie game that was drawn entirely by a single person, where some 10 units at a time use the same template, some of which are barely recoloured versions of the original 30px image? Shit, yeah, you couldn't possibly improve on that.

I mean I know the game is just OVERFLOWING with high quality non-unit art that would make the task even more massive, but some people can do better, you know?

As for sales, everyone who could be remotely interested in Dominions already bought it or not removed it from inventory anyway. It's been 5 years FFS. Who are you going to market it at now, bioware's "numbers are teh hard" gaylords?

For an enhanced re-release or sequel, obviously, to go with the polish and other enhancements that the game apparently needs.

I would also be pretty damn certain that the game hasn't saturated its market already. This game is clearly obscure, and as much as you might not want to admit it, Graphics is the perfect foundation to re-release a game for increased exposure. For an indie studio who apparently feels they can't do much better, overhauling visuals alongside iterative enhancements to mechanics and UI would be a great move.


Stay off the vodka when you post in the future.

 

[Malakal]

They could learn about combat from Spartan, adding some tactical depth would sure be nice. Preplanned positions and troop movement would make sense here. They could even ditch this pseudo 3D battle rendering bullshit and give us clear 2D view...

 

[mondblut]

Wait, you mean an indie game that was drawn entirely by a single person, where some 10 units at a time use the same template, some of which are barely recoloured versions of the original 30px image? Shit, yeah, you couldn't possibly improve on that.

With a dozen of pixel art professionals on a decent salary, you could. Care to fund them?

For an enhanced re-release or sequel, obviously, to go with the polish and other enhancements that the game apparently needs... For an indie studio who apparently feels they can't do much better, overhauling visuals alongside iterative enhancements to mechanics and UI would be a great move.

Reality check: sequels with polish and overhauling visuals and iterative enhancements to UI is what they were doing in the first place since late 90s. It's called Dominions 3 for a reason, and this reason is anything but "3 totally different games".

They could learn about combat from Spartan, adding some tactical depth would sure be nice. Preplanned positions and troop movement would make sense here.

True. Except that would make the already overwhelming pre-battle micromanagement five times as annoying.

They could even ditch this pseudo 3D battle rendering bullshit and give us clear 2D view...

First Dominions was 2D, and something makes me feel they are not going back. At least 3D allows to fit way more units on a battlefield, stacked one behind another.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

The AI can get quite challenging if you avoid using some overpowered strategies and stick to RP'ing more. Which leads to another cool thing about DOM3 - the number of options is so huge that you can actually RP in this game while still remaining a viable opponent, not becoming a pathetic larper.

I'd play multi but I still haven't got the funds for a legit copy. If anyone would like to play a pirate dom3 multi (the last working version was v3.14 last I checked) drop me a msg.

I'm pretty sure you only need Hamachi or something similar and you're good to go. Well, we play with that at least.

What's wrong with the graphics? The map and the UI look good. The units look good enough, and I'm sure the battle replays could be reduced to a text description anyway, at least I only watch them to see what spells the opponent has and perhaps in what formation their troops march. But really the map looks perfectly fine.

 

[Excommunicator]

Wait, you mean an indie game that was drawn entirely by a single person, where some 10 units at a time use the same template, some of which are barely recoloured versions of the original 30px image? Shit, yeah, you couldn't possibly improve on that.

With a dozen of pixel art professionals on a decent salary, you could. Care to fund them?

My point: it could be improved easily under the right circumstances and they would benefit from doing so.

Your point: Arguing for the sake of arguing.

Reality check: sequels with polish and overhauling visuals and iterative enhancements to UI is what they were doing in the first place since late 90s. It's called Dominions 3 for a reason, and this reason is anything but "3 totally different games".

To quote Daka Sha

"its the third one and they arnt planning a 4th"

Seriously, work out your own conclusions.

 

[DakaSha]

Well I am not a frequent multi-player but this game sounds rather interesting and impressive even with all the talk against the singleplayer.

I think I will have to get my hands on it.

Although I am not entirely sure why the graphics are so bad. It wouldn't take much at all to do a complete high-quality overhaul of the visuals at rather low cost, which would no doubt increase sales. Might even have a look into that myself.

What a pretentious retard statement

 

[Excommunicator]

I do try.

 

[DakaSha]

 

[mondblut]

My point: a guy making a game as a hobby must spend the evenings and holidays of the next 5 years of his life redrawing 4000 sprites because graphics are teh hard for me. Instead of doing something more entertaining, like making a real sequel, or an entirely different game, or just fucking whores and doing drugs, because what the Dominions fanbase absolutely needs first and foremost is fully updated graphics. That might cause nearly every Dominions 3 customer to buy another copy and maybe would even bring a few hundreds more into the fold. All for the puny 5 years of slaving off!

Your point: ...right

Fixed.

 

[Excommunicator]

 

[DakaSha]

For the record the whole franchise isnt some obscure thing in desperate need of more sales (of course more sales never hurt)
Its an extremely well known franchise considering its an indie company. Just check out the activity in the forums.

If they want to sell more they need to lower the fucking horrendous pricetag.. im not saying that will make for more income overall but the (non-pirate) userbase would def expand (again.. its not small by any means as it is though)

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Well a factor in buying a game like this is if other players have bought it, because you need people to play with.

 

[DakaSha]

I wont dispute that but the point of my post was to make clear that its actually a quite successful franchise

Also the game is actually 'meant' (whatever that means) to be played in epic scales.. so really if you want the 'true' Dom experience you need to play with strangers off the net anyways.. and the forum is freaking FULL of people to play with. its extremely easy to get a 18+ player game going..