Re: this was a bummer...
 

Take it from this sucker: yeah, early turns take 5 minutes.
You don't want to be playing multiple mid-to-end games at once though. It will eat your life.

When I first started playing dominions MP and was *really* OCD about everything, even playing 2 games at the same time (one late game, one early-mid) occupied almost all of my daily brain time. I'm serious - I could barely concentrate on my work.
These days I don't get as involved any more. I think. I still try to restrict myself to one game, or at least give each successive game a couple months' head start.

Re: this was a bummer...
 

thanks to all who weighed in. all usefull info, and im sure you are all correct on some level. as i will likely never progress much beyond a new to below average player, it sounds as though i have little to worry about. now i just gotta come up with $60 before everyone stops playing!

Re: this was a bummer...
 

Heehee. That doesnt seem to be a danger. Not like other games. Ive paid as much for games that lasted about a month then someone posted an undeniable walk-thru that won every time. Those games died.

Dominions 1, 2, 3 have stayed on some of our computers thru many upgraded machines. And years later we are still arguing about tactics and walk thrus. Even if it did ever happen, I think we can count on Johan to patch a wrench into it. :)

Re: this was a bummer...
 

Been there done that, burned the T-shirt and sacrificed the designer.

The little group I play Dominions MP with, which mixes Dom3 veterans and newbies from the Paradox forums, experiment with settings, not to prove points, but to find out what suits us - and achieve interesting results thereby. Some things that are touted as conventional wisdom in these Shrapnel forums work as well for us, some worse, and some much worse, because our culture of diplomacy is different - and successful diplomacy is at least half the route to victory.

I would be deeply surprised if other smaller groups don't do the same on a frequent basis and don't see any reason whatsoever to tell you so on the official boards.

But we probably don't play different enough that you'd consider it proving any points.

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That said, the 11 human/7 mighty AI player game on GreeceStain that ended in a turn in the 80's or 90's when the opposition saw me and my (temporary) ally teleporting in SCs all around the capital of one of our enemies (temporarily allied against the temporar alliance of the two of us), raising a fortress in one of the provinces by magic the next turn, followed by the dominion-crushing blow of my sending 17 Juggernauts into the fortress next to his capital next turn... was pretty awesome - and not too shabbily done for a player who had 2 fortresses and less than 6 provinces to his name for most of the turns 28-42, when he was under attack by three players and all alone in the world while his troops deserted. :D

Who needs blood sacrifice when you have the Arcane Nexus?

-- This, incidentally, is one of those examples where giving only the bare bones of the story will cause many Shrapnel forum MP veterans who recoil in disgust or suspect incompetence on the hands of other players for not bringing down the Nexus the moment it first went up.

I assure you that it was brought down once by one half of the other players cooperating as soon as they could, and they did it when I didn't have enough astral pearls to bring it up again, only to return 15 turns later at my hands, at which point it was opposed by the other half of the players, but not by those that brought it down the first time and, diplomatically speaking, it made excellent sense at the time for everybody to act as they did both times.

In the end, the Arcane Nexus was up for almost half the game without a single armageddon being cast.

--------

Currently we are trying out cumulative VP games with 10-15 VP to win, 1 VP per capital, no AIs to inflate the ranks, and no shared victories. Those are, not surprisingly, interesting too, just like all the previous games we have played regardless of settings.

Re: this was a bummer...
 

Feel free to check out http://www.dom3minions.com

The Mods and Maps both offer some very different methods of play. The Hosted games also showcase some very non-standard games. The Hosting link goes even farther with a link to a thread full of non-standard ideas, and a challenge to come up with a variation I cant host.

Any of those, or any other variant, can be hosted there. Most of the games hosted on that system are from forums other than this one. Anything can be run. (altho if it is entirely PbEM and fits in their menu of offerings I would prefer people use LLamaServer.net just to share the load)

Re: this was a bummer...
 

I disagree with posters here that claim everithing is fine.
I started creating MP games with random nations only because some players only play with nations that exploits an horrendous feature. They only play with nations like vanheim that can cloud trapeze a thug with sneak ability and then sneak out. Why cant you zap him with a spell like it would be logical. because he sneaks before spell. Isnt that ridiculous?
That needs to be changed by a patch.
I fixed that creating only random games. I know who are the players that like to use exploits ande they never join my games because they wouldnt perform with a random nation.

Re: this was a bummer...
 

The game does have a burnout level. The expert level tends to be the group mentioned above IMO. Cant really hold it against them for preferring to create games that allow them to win by their skills. Beyond that much play are the burnouts. They tend to produce some of the most popular 3rd party addons and services. And only show up once in awhile for really interesting variations.

But I still hold that it tends to be true of this forum more than the others. Different forums and channels have very different feels to them. And it reflects in their Dom3 games.

Re: this was a bummer...
 

well gandalf, which channel would u recommend for a beginner?

Re: this was a bummer...
 

What channel? None.
I think that all of the IRC channels tend to help new players by training them. Many months of fun and experimentation can be skipped that way.

Besides which, the best forums and channels are like gold mines. Its only best if you dont publicly announce where it is :)

Re: this was a bummer...
 

Err... wot ? It's not an exploit in any way, shape or form. It's just something Vanheim can do that other nations can't. Every nation has some proprietary feature that gives them an edge. Is it an exploit that MA Ermor/LA C'tis can vomit hundreds of free, superior undead from their caps every turn, that TC can recruit lots of superb research mages with barely any gold investment, that Hinnom will wreck your armies early game even without a bless because that's how it (literally) rolls, that Panir freespawn a dozen maenads per turn each or that Arco can afford to mindhunt even other astral nations in bulk because it has priestesses to heal the feebleminds instantly ?

Speaking of which, mind hunt alone will wreck a Vanheim player relying solely on that particular strat. Just sayin' ;).