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[USEC_OFFICER]

Is Dominions that good? I mean, I can see that it's old and ugly, that's pretty much par for the course for really complex games. How does it compare to... say, Master of Magic? Civilization? What makes it good?

In a word? Volume of options. Which probably sounds bad, but... Consider this. You have 3 ages with 25~ nations in them, and each nation has their own (generally) unique mages, commanders and units. You have 8 different types of magic, with tons of spells to cast. You have magic sites and thrones which can grant useful bonuses, and pretender gods and dominions that affect your strategy throughout all parts of the game. So unlike some games a handful of optimal strategies don't exist. Yeah, some spells/nations are considered more powerful than the rest, but with so much variety in the game it's impossible to pick one as the strongest in all situations. You're always going to encounter something or someone that forces you to rethink your tactics and try something else. Which admittedly is something that happens in many other games, but with so many tools at your disposal in Doms it's a much more interesting and engaging proposal. Especially if you lack the magic paths for the traditional counters and must find a way to improvise.

Alternatively, it's a good game because it provokes multi-paragraph posts about why it's so good from its players/fans.

[E. Albright]

It's also undergoing continual development. This is not a game that was rolled out and then "done". It's been being progressively expanded and upgraded continually, and will continue be so for the foreseeable future, both in terms of content and engine. E.g., we got two new nations (one for all three eras, one just for one) last month, and we got a major expansion to event modding maybe two months before that. Since Dom4 released, we've seen two old nations get major updates, and another new nation beyond those I'd mentioned got added as well. There's also been more work on the AI, so while it's still pitiful compared to a good human player and MP remains where this game shines, it's a lot more competitive and it'll usually take a new player a while before they can regularly mop the floor with it.

[TripJack]

Is Dominions that good? I mean, I can see that it's old and ugly

no it's new and ugly

only advice i can give is don't get Dom if you're just looking for a singleplayer game, multiplayer PBEM is where it really shines

[Sean Mirrsen]

Is Dominions that good? I mean, I can see that it's old and ugly

no it's new and ugly

only advice i can give is don't get Dom if you're just looking for a singleplayer game, multiplayer PBEM is where it really shines

Yeah, I've already figured out as much, heh. Unfortunately I'm not excited by games with lots of mandatory micromanagement, especially those that require reading the entirety of the manual before even playing the tutorial.

As much as I appreciate the potential depth, every submarine has its limits.

[Frumple]

Pfft, I've still only read like four pages of the manual. Either for D3 or D4. Also haven't played the tutorial!* What parts of the interface aren't pretty obvious are laid out in the in-game ? pop-up whatsits. Most of the rest of the particulars you can figure out checking out the mod inspector or just askin' someone, heh.

Seriously though, at least give the D3 demo a shot, if only to gaze in awe and wonder at the spell list. If you're micromanagement adverse (though I'd personally say it's about on par with something like a late-game Civ match, at its worst...), it's definitely not going to be up your alley, but still...

*... there's a tutorial?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Pfft, I've still only read like four pages of the manual. Either for D3 or D4. Also haven't played the tutorial!* What parts of the interface aren't pretty obvious are laid out in the in-game ? pop-up whatsits. Most of the rest of the particulars you can figure out checking out the mod inspector or just askin' someone, heh.

Seriously though, at least give the D3 demo a shot, if only to gaze in awe and wonder at the spell list. If you're micromanagement adverse (though I'd personally say it's about on par with something like a late-game Civ match, at its worst...), it's definitely not going to be up your alley, but still...

*... there's a tutorial?

In the D3 demo there is. And it told me to read the manual to get acquainted with game mechanics and lore before getting started.

[Sirus]

That's odd. I was reading the manual along with the tutorial (required, since there's no instructions in-game at all )

[Sinistar]

I got Dom3 some time ago but never even downloaded it. The 300 pages long manual alone intimidated me enough to excuse myself with "eeeeh, I, uh, don't have time, right now..."

Still, I DO want to dive into this game one day. But do you guys think I should get Dom4 instead? Or is online Dom3 still alive and kicking enough to wait for some time?



Also, to stay a bit more on topic: is it just me or is this year's Steam sale kinda... lacking? Both in terms of offered deals AND offered extras (a year or two ago there was this whole mini game with coal/coupons, now it's just cards and ONLY if you vote...)

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Also, to stay a bit more on topic: is it just me or is this year's Steam sale kinda... lacking? Both in terms of offered deals AND offered extras (a year or two ago there was this whole mini game with coal/coupons, now it's just cards and ONLY if you vote...)

It hasn't just been you, I've also been pretty underwhelmed. The daily deals just aren't great (50% off CS:GO when it's -75% every other week?) and their range has been pretty mindling (doesn't help that 2014 was the year of hyped failures, with notable exceptions of course).
While there's a lot of pretty decent "hidden deals" (like E.Y.E. for 90 cents), the majority are the smaller titles that have already had massive discounts in the past and most seasoned Steam users likely already have.

Valve sadly moved away from the whole minigame/eventa thing due to the abuse of a christmas event a couple years ago. The process that gave out free games was exploited by people buying a ridiculous amount of humble bundle keys (for $0.01) and creating simple "bot nets" to farm games.
There's also no incentive to create interesting events since they realised they can print free money with the trading card system. What kind of person actually spends money on that crap I can't even mentally construct.

Fake edit: I'm likely going to pick up Brothers since that was the indie darling for a while and at that price I'm sure it can't disappoint ...

[BurnedToast]

Planetary Annihilation is 80% off, still has only one faction.

I wonder how the people who payed $90 6(?) months ago feel about this.

Also, to stay a bit more on topic: is it just me or is this year's Steam sale kinda... lacking? Both in terms of offered deals AND offered extras (a year or two ago there was this whole mini game with coal/coupons, now it's just cards and ONLY if you vote...)

People say that about every sale, and I think it's the same thing every time - you've already bought a lot of the games you want on sale the last few years, so it seems worse because the only thing you see are games you own already, games that aren't discounted as much (because they are newer or whatever) or games you aren't interested in.

I think the sale has been pretty normal so far, and I've picked up a few things and am hoping a few more go on sale in the next few days.

[Shadowlord]

The only thing in the manual that I keep looking up is the turn order rules
- since all players' turns are executed simultaneously and turns are divided into phases, knowing the order of the phases can be useful. PBEM definitely works well here, since you're submitting orders, generally with a couple days or more of time with extensions (or rollbacks) if necessary.

Although to be perfectly honest I'm one of those crazy people who, with a game like this, read, or at least skim (because I won't understand some of it until I've experienced it) the entire manual before playing. IN MY DAY GAMES CAME WITH THREE HUNDRED PAGE MANUALS INCLUDING A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF WORLD HISTORY AND WE READ THEM ON THE WAY HOME AND LIKED IT!

[Delta Foxtrot]

Regarding Dominions micromanagement, it's not as bad as Dom3 was, so at least part of it is just lingering reputation that's less deserved these days. Additionally it varies. Blood magic has a bit more micro, as do Communions if you use them. Neither of which are mandatory or even possible for a lot of nations. And even then you can do very complicated communions or very simple ones, same as you can be very efficient and microintensive about your Blood magic or you can do it in more broad strokes, losing some efficiency but retaining more of your sanity
Sure there's some micro everywhere, but we're talking about a (very war focused) 4X, there's bound to be some micro as the game develops.

Just don't join more than one game at a time if you're worried, as the micro increases steadily and you don't want to find yourself in the middle of three endgames at once.

Also I never did the tutorial (only got on board with dom4 about a year ago), and while I've certainly browsed through the manual, lot of it is stuff that you pick up elsewhere if you're the kind of person who likes reading community guides and whatnot.

Dom3 MP scene is mostly dead, there's little reason to get Dom3 these days as the price difference isn't huge and even the SP parts of it are moderately improved.

[Sinistar]

People say that about every sale, and I think it's the same thing every time - you've already bought a lot of the games you want on sale the last few years, so it seems worse because the only thing you see are games you own already, games that aren't discounted as much (because they are newer or whatever) or games you aren't interested in.

I think the sale has been pretty normal so far, and I've picked up a few things and am hoping a few more go on sale in the next few days.

Dunno, I have a few games on my wishlist that I know for a fact had bigger discounts last sale AND the already mentioned things like CS:GO with only 50% stick out like a sore thumb... but that's just my opinion.

IN MY DAY GAMES CAME WITH THREE HUNDRED PAGE MANUALS INCLUDING A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF WORLD HISTORY AND WE READ THEM ON THE WAY HOME AND LIKED IT!

And how I long for those days to return. 
I appreciate games that still come with a comprehensive pdf manuals but reading those just isn't the same.

Dom3 MP scene is mostly dead, there's little reason to get Dom3 these days as the price difference isn't huge and even the SP parts of it are moderately improved.

gundammit

[Frumple]

And how I long for those days to return. 
I appreciate games that still come with a comprehensive pdf manuals but reading those just isn't the same.

If you want a printed manual which is highly recommended, then you can order one here from Lulu.. The printed manual is almost 400 pages and comes with a good index and a nice shiny cover. It costs $11.34 which is the lowest price possible for a manual that heavy (no royalties for Illwinter or the author Bruce Geryk).

... and yes, that means the printed manual costs more than the game itself, right now.

[Delta Foxtrot]

But is it up to date?