Dominions 3 is out

[Crandaeolon]

Just a heads-up for those who might be interested. ~;)

Game information and demo available at the following link:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwinter/Dom3/1.htm

Dom 3 is a turn-based fantasy strategy game of vast complexity. Its primary strength is PBEM play, though even the singleplayer mode is quite entertaining. The new installment is an incremental improvement over Dom 2, with some improvements to the interface, better documentation, more nations and more units. No generic fantasy kingdoms either; most are based on real-world mythology.

It's an indie game through and through, with substandard graphics and sound and minor bugs everywhere. It'll probably be constantly patched, each patch fixing some stuff and adding new little bugs, but fortunately these are usually minor. And the substance is meaty, which is what counts. ~;)

Some select features (from game info page):

- Three different eras: Early Magical Era, Middle Era, and Late Era. The Early Magical Era boasts many new nations, the Middle Era features most of the nations from Dominions 2, and the Late Era features an emphasis on more conventional warfare and less magic.

- Fifty different playable nations. Some of the new nations include Ermor, New Faith, based on the early Republic of Rome. Marverni, inspired by Gallic tribes. Kailasa, Rise of the Ape Kings, inspired from Indian and Hindu mythology. Jomon, Human Daimyos, born from ancient Japan.

- Less micromanagement than previous Dominions titles.

- Random map creation.

- Rebalanced rates for income, supply, and resources enable larger conventional armies.

- 1500+ unique units to wage war with. A deep combat model encompasses everything from battlefield morale to the use of magic.

[Ser Clegane]

This looks pretty interesting - I guess I'll give the demo a try as soon as I find some time ~:)

:bow:

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

Is it like a new version of Master of Magic? Cranda, any chance you'd give a complete review?

I'd like to know more about that game.

Louis,

[Beefeater]

Have been enjoying Dom3 for a while now. I'll be posting a mini-vignette (a 'detail'?) shortly.

[Crandaeolon]

Is it like a new version of Master of Magic? Cranda, any chance you'd give a complete review?

It's not very MoM-like in my opinion. The scale is larger; armies are bigger, there are more commanders/heroes to keep track of and generally more stuff to consider. Everything happens in fewer but bigger chunks to accommodate multiplayer play better. Settlements play much less of a role. Dominions maps are divided into provinces, and there's not much to do to "build them up." Dominions series focuses on management of armies and commanders, and management of magic resources.

I did a pseudo-review of Dom2 in another thread, here's a copy-paste. Dom3 is practically the same game - I've added some comments where Dom3 clearly differs from Dom2.

---

Dominions 2 is a turn-based, PBEM oriented game. You can play it against AI opponents, but the AI is not particularly good. It does its job, but the game has so many features that only human beings can fully utilize them.

The theoretical maximum number of troops per side (2 sides per battle) is about 3000 AFAIK. In practice, major armies typically reach 200+ living units (that consume supplies) plus magical and undead units on top of that. EDIT: Dominions 3 has rebalanced gold and resources. This results in larger armies, and the settings are further tweakable by the user.

Troop dynamics change heavily from early to mid to late game, early game being dominated by normal units and late game by strong individuals (supercombatants) and summoned units. By late games, conventional armies typically get delegated to a supporting role. EDIT: This is somewhat true in Dom3 too, though supercombatants and magic units are a tad less effective. Still, the creative player can find ways to annihilate entire conventional armies with spells and summoned units decked in magic gear.

You can't control the units directly in combat, but you can pre-plan their locations and initial actions on the battlefield. The actual battle is a fairly detailed simulation, taking into account factors like morale, fatigue, weapon length plus the usual attack, defense, protection (=armour) and movement factors, among others.

There are well over 1000 different units in the game, and of course not all of them are usable in practice... but the game _is_ surprisingly well balanced, perhaps because there are so many available strategies to pursue. EDIT: Dom3 has around 2k unique units.

Downsides are rather antiquated graphics and sound, a steep learning curve (if you want to have a chance against decent human players; AI is no problem), no diplomacy with AI opponents, very bare-bones empire building and of course it's a fantasy game, so it won't appeal to those who want a historically accurate game. That being said, I don't think the simplistic empire management is a weakness because that allows the game to focus more on armies and the magical aspect, which is the heart of the game.

Some of the biggest faults of Dom2 were lack of documentation and an unusually opaque interface. Dom3 improves on this a bit, though the interface is still only adequate.

Overall, Dom3 is a fantastic game (probably the best) in its niche - a complex medieval/fantasy -themed PBEM game that is best played against human opponents. If you're looking for an entertaining singleplayer game, there are probably better alternatives. In any case, it's worth it to check out the demo.

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

I gave a try to the demo last week, tutorial SP only.

It is kind of MoM like in its setting, which is good, and yes, it seems there are a lot of options that are potentially fun to investigate. How does that translate into actually different strategies, I'll leave that to more expert players to assess ;)

Compared to MoM, it opens the door to the same kind of questions about effective combinations of faction abilities/ unit/ magic with the additional "dominion" effect adding a dimension. Yes, I feel like I might want to try to a necromancer with a faction not using food supplies per default (+undead on a strict ennemy brain diet) and then go heavy on Death Dominion to deplete supplies in all province causing starvation for the ennemy... but not myself.
Or be a warrior oriented god, pick a tough faction, and pick low magic dominion... Just like you'd pick low mana world for MoM with a godly power wizard to benefit from temple while other mana source brings nothing.
On the other hand, considering MP, I wonder if anything is played right from the beginning, and that if someone outguessed other god picks, it's good enough to bring victory.
I guess I'd have to play MP to figure that out :)

It is much faster paced that MoM. Partly because empire management is much simpler combined with a good province system. I actually like the province system better than MoM sometimes a bit slow hex by hex move. Not to mention, it's less micromanagement.
It's also faster because the player has no control over the battle which could become a micromanagement hell in MoM :dizzy2: However, I used to like that micromamagement.

Interesting. I've always wondered when someone would mix TW and MoM. Dominion is not polished enough to be that kind of mix, it's fun nonetheless.

... Now... am unsure if I'll buy it, or just play the demo a bit more :)

Louis,

[Crandaeolon]

On the other hand, considering MP, I wonder if anything is played right from the beginning, and that if someone outguessed other god picks, it's good enough to bring victory.

One of the biggest differences in mentality between MoM and Dom is that in MoM, your initial magic picks largely determine what kind of magic you can use in the course of the entire game, whereas in Dom it doesn't make that much difference. In Dom, recruitable mages do most of the spellcasting and enchanting. Often, sensible Pretender magic picks are those that your national mages do _not_ use, or picks that result in strong bless effects and/or supercombatant ability.

Independent mages (Amazons etc.), summonable mages and magic-boosting items tend to result in quite a lot of magical diversity in the late game. So nope, outguessing someone's pretender picks doesn't hold much importance.

[Martok]

How good is the AI? I've read elsewhere that the multiplayer experience is very good, but I still tend to prefer singleplayer mode....and I know that primarily rests on the strength and ability of the computer opponents.

[Crandaeolon]

The AI is quite mediocre and "AI-like", for want of a better term. Depending on game parameters, it can offer a decent challenge - mostly due to its ability to micromanage things like recruitment and troop movement better than human players. However, the AI falls short in the more creative aspects of the game, like finding and aiming for effective spell and item combinations. It conducts research and magic site searching in a rather haphazard manner. It cannot create effective supercombatant units.

I'd sum it up like this: the AI is capable in the beginning and maybe middle stages of a game (if it has managed to develop an advantage in the early game), but is at a disadvantage in mid/late game. For a greater challenge, I'd suggest lowering the strength of independents so the AI has an easier time to expand.

Another thing worth mentioning is that there is no real diplomacy in a game vs AI only. Since the premise of the game is a battle of the gods where only one can triumph, the developers seem to feel that diplomacy is antithetical to the game. (On the other hand, multiplayer games often have lots of diplomatic wrangling, as can probably be expected when playing against other human beings.)

[Martok]

Thanks for the answer, Crandaeolon. :bow: