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Dominions III - 6/16/2007 11:00:16 PM

ravinhood

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Wow, have you guys seen or played this? I just got it yesterday in the mail after some heated bidding on it just a few days ago on ebay. Got it for $40.50 ;)

But, man this has so much chit in it. There's so much to do than in like MoM or AOW series. It comes with a 295 page printed spiral bound manual also. I am just amazed that such a small outfit like Shrapnel could put out such a finely made manual. Great bathroom library reading materail. ;) I've only just delved thru the tutorial attempting to get a reasonable grasp on the game before diving into a full scale war against TWENTY COMPUTER OPPONENTS. I don't know of another game that has that many opponents indvidually wrapped with nationals types, and personalities like aggressive, defensive and all things inbetween. 21 opponents that's more than Civilization IV has. It also in this version comes with a MAP GENERATOR, my favor aspect of games I buy nowadays. Some random element of maps and AI and random personalities. This game has it all.

It's auto calc battles, but, you get to watch the battles and actually setup your forces and combat commands like in SPARTAN (another one of my favorite games). Spells galore over 600 of them and over 300 different units. Probably more as mods come out. The map looks simular to the AGEOD maps of BOA and ACW. And in this you get to recruit lots of units and commanders and mages and druids etc per turn instead of the traditional 1 unit per turn per city of most all other games of the like. Making the combat engine the way they did I can see playing this PBEM as it won't take a lifetime to playout one game. This engine was built around autocalc so the outcomes are reasonable and realistic compared to say the likes of RTW where you got rediculous outcomes when you had overwhelming odds vs your ai opponent and even lost.

The map generator will create maps based on number of players from small 10 provinces per player to medium 15 provinces per player to large 20 provinces per player. I like that, gives equal province amount possibilities to every player. Imagine a 21 player game you + 20 ai players on a large map. 420 provinces, man that's awesome. Even Warlords never had those kinds of possibilities for size of maps.

Initial reactions are this game is like MoM/AOW in that it's fantasy based and has loads of spells, from that point on it leaves those models to become origional in army size, map sizes and the battle engine as I said takes on the light of Spartan's battle engine. Just loads more men and spell casting ability and command orders before entering a battle.

It will take me days to really learn the nooks and crannies. I always start out on hard levels so I expect to get spanked by the ai a few times maybe a lot of times before I find the strategy that always beats it as per all ai's I've ever played against. Usually the he who gets there firstest with the mostest wins strategy always works. We shall see here if this is still so. I'll keep you informed.

Post #: 1

RE: Dominions III - 6/16/2007 11:22:05 PM

TheHellPatrol

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I've had it since release...one of the best fantasy series ever IMHO and a game you could play literally forever without discovering everthing. Haven't played much as i was tied up with Forge of Freedom and life's little(big

) suprises. I know YOU got your money's worth

.

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RE: Dominions III - 6/16/2007 11:26:00 PM

cdbeck

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Its so good. I love creating Gods to rule the world with. So much strategy. The combats play like Spartan, as you basically set up orders then watch them go. I have been a big fan since Dominions II, and Dominions III is so much better. One bad thing, the AI is pretty dumb (you won't see it pull off many cool tricks) and I hear the game is practically MADE for PBEM. I have never done this, because I typically see the game as a solitaire battle to test my own tactics rather than tooth-and-nail fight against a clever AI. Still, some have criticized it for this.

The magic system is awesome and I love to summon all manners of creatures. This one added in national summons and spells, giving each nation some really neat flavor. I also love to create awe-inspiring artifacts and create a supercombatant that can literally clean areas alone. Great stuff...

$40.50 doesn't seem to be a great deal though, could you not have got it from the website for near that?

SoM

_____________________________

"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!"
(Kill them all. God will know his own.)

-- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade

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Post #: 3

RE: Dominions III - 6/16/2007 11:27:16 PM

Hertston

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Top game, as was its predecessor. Amazing depth while still being very easy to learn and play, and the AI is challenging enough although not up to Galciv standards (not a lot is). Unlike Galciv, though, it does have the MP.

It's frustrating that Dominions remained so obviously 'indie' in its third incarnation. If the game design had been taken on board by one of the big boys to improve the graphics and presentation (imagine Dom 3 gameplay mixed with HoMM 5 graphics) it could have been HUGE.

(in reply to ravinhood)

Post #: 4

RE: Dominions III - 6/16/2007 11:33:58 PM

ravinhood

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quote:

I know YOU got your money's worth.

I can always tell how good a game is by how hard it is to find cheap after it's released several months. You can't even find a copy of Dominions II anywhere that I search. So, that told me even it is a great game if nobody is unloading it as used even. This was the ONLY copy of Dominions III used I could find. Fortunately the auction ended at those wonderful wee hours of the morning and I think I stole it for $40.50. Everywhere else it's $54.00 so it was a good buy for me and because this version has a random map generator I jumped at it. This is really my first shrapnel purchase at a near retail level.

There is definitely a lot to absorb. And it looks like 1000's of ways to create your god. I don't know where to put points haha or if I should make him dormant and get the extra points for magic books. Don't tell me though I want to explore and find the optimum build myself cause if you let people tell you all the secrets what use is it playing the game? Or using cheat codes. Never understood that in people.

I think a huge PBEM game of this if you could keep all parties interested and wouldn't quit when they are losing or going to lose it would be fun. Sadly that is usually what happens in huge PBEM games, do you know that if one player drops or doesn't play their turn for a reasonable amount of time if this game has modded something in to allow the AI to take over? I really hate it when people are sore losers and quit or just don't even send in their turns.

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Post #: 5

RE: Dominions III - 6/16/2007 11:42:25 PM

JeF

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Dom III is a very fine game. The highest level of AI seems nearly impossible to beat.
The game really shines in multiplayer though. As there is no diplomacy module, everything is possible. The only thing is that there is no friend or foe stance. All parties are supposed ennemies of each other.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
do you know that if one player drops or doesn't play their turn for a reasonable amount of time if this game has modded something in to allow the AI to take over?

As far as I know, this is standard behaviour of the game. Anybody can be replaced by an AI (normal level) when he drops. It happened in my first game.
Multiplayer is also very modding friendly : you can have mods activated per game.

Be prepared to give away your life.
Oh ! And dont forget the latest patches : must have.

Cheers,

JeF.

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RE: Dominions III - 6/16/2007 11:51:28 PM

ravinhood

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Aright that sells me lets start a 21 player multiplayer game ;) No attacking Ravinhood though for the first oh say 30 turns. ;)

quote:

Oh ! And dont forget the latest patches : must have.

Hah that's the first thing I do after ordering a game is download the latest patch.

< Message edited by ravinhood -- 6/16/2007 11:52:10 PM >

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Post #: 7

RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 1:15:31 AM

cdbeck

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I'm game! Just let me be R'lyeh...

Oh and RH, there is no "optimum" way to create a God. Its all about plan and how you want to act in the game. That is the beauty of Dom III. One game you can have a God with no magic but TONS of combat skills and huge HP. The next game you can have a 12 HP mage that literally hides in his castle warping the universe to his will. Its great that way.

SoM

< Message edited by Son_of_Montfort -- 6/17/2007 1:18:35 AM >

_____________________________

"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!"
(Kill them all. God will know his own.)

-- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade

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Post #: 8

RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 3:33:26 AM

ravinhood

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Ok since you want R'lyeh you can't have R'lyeh because it must have some advantage for you you're not telling us.

Nope Nope Nope everyone has to take a RANDOM selection that's only fair in MPer games. ;) In MoM I was always pretty much death magic with just enough blue magic (always forget the name of it) so I could get those counter magic and confusion spells. With Death magic and those two spells I could always rule the world. Looks like Death magic is sorta split up in Dom III. Whereas Blood and Death sorta go together but are separated.

Also question, does the game end for you if you lose your god or capital? Or do you get to play on with your other provinces? I hated that in AOW where if you took out the capital and wizard it was game over. It IS pretty much over in those games when you lose your star leader I know and HOMM is way too much like that. How is it in DOM III if you lose your star hero/leader/god?

Oh that's another thing I like about the game, the castle defense. You don't have to keep units there, you just buy castle defense points. The more you buy the stronger the castle defense and harder to take out the castle/province. But, I presume you can keep an army in the field as well as having the castle defence correct?

It does look like in this games magic is unlimited to use in combat unlike MoM or AOW where you were restricted by mana or energy. I know there are gems used for higher spells/conjurings, but, I don't see any mana banks for just regular/divine casting type spells. Like Banish in the tutorial I could use it 5 times on 3 different druids and there was no cost that I could see for energy being used. It just looks like you can setup 5 combat spells per caster and then after that the ai takes over and keeps casting stuff on it's own. Correct me if I'm wrong on this it's just the way it looks from the tutorial.

I also think it's rather neat like if you have a lot of commanders in one group or attack that you can setup the placement of two squads for each commander and it starts to look like a long battle line like you'd see in the ancients or napoleonic or civil war battles. Heavy Inf in the front, missle/archer units in the back but in different positions and the heavy artillery mages druids commanders etc in the very back within the range of their spells and specials. Lot more to the combat than Spartan/Troy I must say. The way you can tell them what to attack as much as when to attack during the battles. Pretty neat combat engine still using command and control.

(in reply to cdbeck)

Post #: 9

RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 5:00:06 AM

cdbeck

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IIRC, when your god dies you can, over the course of several turns, reincarnate him using priests at your capital. Gods with the immortal trait, if they die within their dominion, immediately reincarnate at their capital (this is usually only vampires, liches, and undead type things).

The magic is very spread out and rather well balanced. The only real limiting factor is the type of gems your nation generates from the beginning. If you have a fire/death god but your capital generates water/air, you will have to send that pretender out early to search for sites. There are pretty much summons, artifacts, and enchantments for every combination (sometimes more than two different spheres).

Be careful about using mages in combat. They are not limited for all spells, but magic costs an amount of fatigue. Your mages can end up draining themselves, making themselves immobile and easy pickings with too many castings. Some combat spells do require gems, and sending a mage with some gems makes his spells more powerful and cost less fatigue. Enchantments create powerful bonuses, as do blessings (but the effect of the blessing depends on the magic path your pretender chose, some are very unbalanced, with quickness and fire weapons being some of the best in the game).

I'm willing to play any but Arescophale (whatever the greek one is). They bore me to tears.

SoM

_____________________________

"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!"
(Kill them all. God will know his own.)

-- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade

(in reply to ravinhood)

Post #: 10

RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 11:28:41 AM

ravinhood

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Uh huh I SEE why you want to play the R'lyeh now. ;) Commanders with built-in life drain (very powerful spell I've even been looking at it to synergize with another path. ;) ) : UN-ROUTABLE recruitable troops. Uh huh what an advantage that is not to have to worry abour routing units. Shame on you for wanting to play such a powerful race. ;) Not to mention this is an UNDERWATER race and I see LOTS of spells that CAN'T be used underwater. Nice comfy place to start for you eh? hahah Nosir, you must play a land based race. Nobody gets to play an underwater race MY first PBEM game except me if I choose to....hrmmmm these R'lyeh doo look nice for a start hahahahah. ;)

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RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 4:58:22 PM

cdbeck

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You forgot to mention that their slaves troops are pathetically fragile, their commanders are horribly expensive and also fragile (I wouldn't want them to get close enough to use life-drain) and, in some ages, their troops go insane and lock up.

Its all pretty balances actually.

I did a random game last night and got Vanheim. I found them to be very fun (haven't played them much). The only unbalanced race, I feel, is Ermor. Its crazy as it summons troops rather than buys them and can end up with MASSES of undead.

SoM

_____________________________

"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!"
(Kill them all. God will know his own.)

-- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade

(in reply to ravinhood)

Post #: 12

RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 6:22:35 PM

ravinhood

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Haha I was just reading from the manual what their strengths were in the early age. This manual is one of the best manuals I've ever seen/read. It has charts and tables for everything all the spells by path and usage. I've been reading over each spell seeing what they do to determine what kind of pretender I want to make. Darn I need D4F2 + W3N2 for what I really want. haha Is that possible to obtain within the game that complete combo of paths?

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RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 6:56:00 PM

Erik Rutins

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Yep, I've had a lot of fun with the Dominions series, great fantasy strategy games.

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RE: Dominions III - 6/17/2007 11:10:16 PM

cdbeck

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D4F2 + W3N2 is a bit more complicated to get, but it can be done. Using one of the Archdruid/Archmage/Enchantess/Crone line pretenders would be the best bet. Early Age T'ien Chi can use its wide variety of capital only mages to do it, probably. With a large number of gems you could train up your pretender or mages. Remember some of the early artifacts give you +1 bonuses to spheres, so you can easily turn a W2 into a W3 with a helm or staff. There are later rings of Sorcery and Wizardy, as well as the Staff of Elements that give +1 to N,D,Ast and E,F,W,A respectively. Also, your hired mages can forge too, do use them to the best advantage. The biggest challenge would be finding all the gems for that combo.

What you should do is begin by playing all easy AI with a heavy mage pretender and on easy magic research with a high number of magic sites. This will give you a chance to train yourself in using the item creation stuff, see what items work and which items don't and see what each spell does in game rather than just on paper. It really allows you to see the full extent of the system.

Erik, I have always though Illwinter would be better handled by Matrix... Maybe some corporate piracy?

I'm kidding of course, although I feel that Dominions is the best offering that Shrapnel has.

SoM

_____________________________

"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!"
(Kill them all. God will know his own.)

-- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade

(in reply to Erik Rutins)

Post #: 15

RE: Dominions III - 6/18/2007 12:47:17 AM

ravinhood

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No, no, no, don't want Matrixgames to get them I'd never find it on ebay or Amazon.com then. lol Though I would like them to pickup the SPIRAL BOUND MANUAL idea. I love this I can flip the pages completely over without breaking the binding like you can and do with regular manuals. That is one plus for Shrapnel if all their games have spiral bound manuals. ;)

I'm still reading the manual and playing with the tutorial SoM. There is so much to absorb. Looks like we can pickup Erik for a MPer PBEM game later on as well. ;) Someone else will have to host this though. I was reading the PBEM rules and hell they look more complicated than learning the game. Host does this must have save files. gnf whatever, save to special directory run the game send files back to players...blah that's too much for me. ;) YOU DO IT! haha

Or maybe Matrixgames could host a server for this and many of their online readers could join in ?? I don't quite understand the MP play yet, but, it looks like one person can host the game online and others just logon play their turn and then go do something else and I guess on a daily basis the host runs the turn? Yeah I know it's not a matrixgames title, but, remember we should support ALL wargame/strategy turn based games right? ;) Heh

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RE: Dominions III - 6/18/2007 8:37:18 AM

pad152

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Dom 3 and Dom 2 are basicaly the same game with interface and refinements. It's funny when you first start there doesn't seem like there is much too it, then it just sucks you in. It's one of the few games where each race plays differently, what works for one won't work for another, a true strategy game that requires real strategy to win.

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Post #: 17

RE: Dominions III - 6/20/2007 2:33:06 AM

ravinhood

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Hey cmon there's a network game starting. just type in www.evilzombies.com for the ip address and 8095 for the port to join. Need just a couple more players to start. I won't even know who you are or what race you chose or you me haha. Be sure and have your pretender saved and ready to go for the race you want to play you can't make it up on the join screen selection for race. Hurry, I'm waiting. I'm gonna get stomped, but, this game is fun win or lose. ;)

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Post #: 18

RE: Dominions III - 6/20/2007 3:16:20 AM

cdbeck

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Crap! We are going out of town for a bit, and I will be away from the email. Give me a raincheck, cause I really want my first MP game to be against the great Ravinhood! We will be back in about 10 days, so hopefully this game will be over and you will be ready for another!

SoM

_____________________________

"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!"
(Kill them all. God will know his own.)

-- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade

(in reply to ravinhood)

Post #: 19

RE: Dominions III - 6/20/2007 3:27:16 AM

ravinhood

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Lol I'll probably be first one out. I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but, no better place to learn than against some other grogs. I plan to try to hide away and maybe nobody will notice me and then I can dominionate the map in�a blinding flow of power since I set my dominion level quite high. ;)

OMG OMG OMG I just found a mod that allows you to play with over 64 players AI included. OMG OMG OMG what a great game. You really should get this game I don't approve many games you know. ;) I learn something new about this one everyday. The MP game has started. I'm scared. lol I just know someone is right on my borders I just know it, I'm going to get stomped. lol Hehe, but, nobody knows who I am so it doesn't matter. ;)

< Message edited by ravinhood -- 6/20/2007 11:33:20 PM >

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RE: Dominions III - 6/21/2007 1:52:19 AM

Titanwarrior89

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Good luck! Yes it is the best. Been playing it since release. I am totally hooked on it. Don't play much Multi player though. Maybe I will.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

Lol I'll probably be first one out. I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but, no better place to learn than against some other grogs. I plan to try to hide away and maybe nobody will notice me and then I can dominionate the map in�a blinding flow of power since I set my dominion level quite high. ;)

OMG OMG OMG I just found a mod that allows you to play with over 64 players AI included. OMG OMG OMG what a great game. You really should get this game I don't approve many games you know. ;) I learn something new about this one everyday. The MP game has started. I'm scared. lol I just know someone is right on my borders I just know it, I'm going to get stomped. lol Hehe, but, nobody knows who I am so it doesn't matter. ;)

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RE: Dominions III - 6/21/2007 2:02:31 AM

Fredk

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Wow...I might have to put on my wizard hat and give this a spin!

Seriously though, I might actually buy this.

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Post #: 22

RE: Dominions III - 6/21/2007 2:41:03 AM

BlackSunshine

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How does this compare to Age of Wonders 2? That is the best turnbased fantasy game ive played.

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Post #: 23

RE: Dominions III - 6/21/2007 3:01:49 AM

Hertston

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quote:

ORIGINAL: BlackSunshine

How does this compare to Age of Wonders 2?� That is the best turnbased fantasy game ive played.

Both are excellent, but of different styles. Dominions 3 is much closer in gameplay to the space '4X' games like Master of Orion or Galactic Civilizations than it is to the Age of Wonders or Heroes of Might and Magic games.

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Post #: 24

RE: Dominions III - 6/21/2007 4:54:41 AM

Titanwarrior89

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I think Age of wonders 2 shadow magic is excellent I bounce back and forth between it and Dominion 3 but like Hertston says it is of a different breed.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BlackSunshine

How does this compare to Age of Wonders 2?� That is the best turnbased fantasy game ive played.

_____________________________

"Before Guadalcanal the enemy advanced at his pleasure. After Guadalcanal, he retreated at ours".

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Post #: 25

RE: Dominions III - 6/21/2007 8:36:07 AM

Zap

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Its good for me when there is a consenses on a game. It makes me think that in its genre this game is one that meets most requirments for a classic. Almost makes me want to buy it.

< Message edited by Zap -- 6/21/2007 8:38:31 AM >

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Post #: 26

RE: Dominions III - 6/22/2007 8:38:12 AM

Tanaka

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Yep I fell in love with this series. Dom III is a must have for turn based strategy gamers!

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Post #: 27

RE: Dominions III - 6/22/2007 8:55:46 AM

Plodder

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I've been checking out the demo and playing through the tutorial. I haven't even scratched the surface and quite like it.Love the batle orders and formations. I'm thinking of getting this..

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RE: Dominions III - 6/25/2007 5:44:12 AM

Plodder

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Well, I bit the bullet and bought it

. Had to take advantage of the strong NZ dollar, US$66.45 = NZ$86 which is about what you pay here for a recent release anyway.

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Gen. Montgomery: "Your men don't salute much."
Gen. Freyberg: "Well, if you wave at them they'll usually wave back."

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Post #: 29

RE: Dominions III - 6/25/2007 7:59:18 AM

pad152

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A good way to get this game at a reduced price is to trade in some of your old games at the NWS store for store credit.(http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/).

(in reply to Plodder)

Post #: 30