Dominions 3

[General Ludd]

Anyone played it yet? Discuss.

[Skanky Burns]

No.

[solo]

Yes, I've been playing it since it came out in October. and recommend it highly.

[LDiCesare]

I'm playing two PBEM games for the moment.

The game's very deep and interesting as Dom2 was, but with national spells that make a difference. The ai also builds forts now, which is good for training and SP games (or cooperative MP).

My PBEM include:
One Middle Era with Bandar Log, where I got so many bad events in the start that I'm almost crippled in gold and provinces. I don't even think I had misfortune on my pretender. It's a bit annoying, and misfortune is definitely a pick that should be avoided in Dom3.
One Late Era with Agartha. They are quite strong, with the ability to summon fire gnomes and earth elementals early, but their units have such a poor attack that it requires a lot of them to achieve anything.
I believe that Vanheim and such nations (Helheim in EE in particular) are overpowered. Stealthy mirror image high defense sacred cavalry... In ME recruitable everywhere. Add air magic to that. It's astoundingly powerful.

[Sandman]

I'm playing a PBEM at the moment as well.

It's a decent game, although it's not significantly better than Dom2. And the user interface is uglier.

[LDiCesare]

There are indeed few significant differences with Dom2.
Three eras: Strong magic with poor armors (Early) to low magic and strong armors (Late).
Many national spells and some new nations.
A better ai (it builds forts).
A few tricks here and there (dormant pretenders, castles depending on terrain type, ... )
I think the national spells are a big plus from Dom2. A better ai is nice, but the game's focus is really mutliplayer. Auto tax management is a very big plus (particularly for SP).
I just wish they had included more tactical orders (like repeat casting the same spell).

[Sandman]

I'm not wildly keen on the national spells. They just seem to have been scattered about randomly; some nations have loads, others have hardly any. And there are loads that can't be cast with national mages.

[LDiCesare]

Yes, those national spells which national mages can't cast are a bit silly, though you can tailor your pretender around it.
Some nations are only playable with national summons (T'ien Ch'i, which already had some in Dom2, Bandar Log). Some are quite usable (Agartha). Other nations don't have any.
The real problem wiht the game is that the designers don't care much for balance but for flavor. This results in jaguar toads that are fun but don't make much sense, and Helhirdings or Vans which are awfully powerful for their cost. Still, the national spells provide more diversity to the game, and since indeps are weaker than in Dom2, each nation has to play more to its own strengths than it used to.

[General Ludd]

I actually like it when game is designed with flavour rather than balance (and it's partly for that reason that I've always liked the dominion games - because the designers work hard for the "flavour"). It makes things more interesting.

[LDiCesare]

Interesting indeed but with some flaws. If you play a duel vs. Mictlan AI, you may win before meeting the ai because it's unable to extend its dominion and can die all by itself.
Still, the richness of the game and the variety of units and spells is great. The designers more or less leave game balancing to modders by providing them with the ability to mod heavily everything in the game. See Conceputal Balance mod for Dom2, some ideas of which - clams cost for instance - were reused in Dom3.

[solo]

Besides one thing I really don't like, I've noticed other changes not mentioned yet, that improve the game.

First the thing I do not like is the harder to read interface. What was once clear and easy to read has become dark, causing almost indistinguishable sprites and magic items. What were they thinking when they changed to the dark brown backgrounds with a white font?

As for improvements, not yet mentioned here:

1) SC's are no longer as powerful and durable. In melee, an SC is much more vulnerable to multiple attacks. They may also rout, which can lead to death if surrounded by enemy provinces.

2) Quickness no longer allows mages to cast twice as many spells, something exploited a lot in Dominions II. Having water magic no longer allows non-amphibious units into the water.

3) Relief is now much harder to cast.

4) Several new unit attributes, such as old age, darkvision, the amusing insanity and gluttony, among others.

5) More of the magic skills obtained from many recruitable and summoned mages are selected at random than before, but the variety of obtainable skills has been reduced.

6) Several of the bless effects have been changed and improved.

7) The magical strengths and weakenesses of the various nations have been given more emphasis, leading to more specialization.

8) Mentioned before, but there are many new and very interesting spells, nations and units to choose from.

[Sandman]

Anyone fancy a Poly game? I'd prefer not to host, though, since the hosting player has a small advantage.

[solo]

Sure, I'll play.

I also prefer not to host, but will if no one else wants to do it.

Which era shall we try first?

[Sandman]

Middle or Early, with my preference being for the middle. The Late Era seems fairly boring.

[Sandman]

Bump. Anyone else interested?