Dom 3 Single-player - I don't get it..

[Sammas]

Okay, first off let me just say that Dom 2 was an awe-inspiring game, and I will be purchasing Dom 3.

But I really, really don't see why more is not done for single-player customers. The hard work has been done - the game is made - surely stringing together some modded maps for a campaign would not be a ridiculous amount of effort?

Alternatively, allow for players to create their own campaign, or extend/provide hints for the AI. Something so that longevity of the single-player game can be improved. Dom 3 does not need to be a niche game - it is a rich, interesting game which could be enjoyed by a lot of players if they could play lesiurely games at their level.

But by making single-player an afterthought, many inferior games will still be more attractive to those players who can't be bothered with multiplayer. That's my take anyway, for what it's worth - because for me, single-player in Dom 2 was synonymous with multiplayer strat testing.

[Gandalf Parker]

Since most of us havent seen Dom3 I guess we will have to wait and see if any of that is true. All we know is that Dom2 was created concentrating on the multiplayer thing. Even then they were nice enough to add many single-player things after we asked for them.

Personally I think that many of the things we asked for in Dom2 required too much rewrite of the code to NOT be a whole new game. Now lets see if Dom3 put those in

And we did have some campaings. Did you look at the Dom2Minions site?

[Nerfix]

Well, campaign would be odd since thematicaly you ascend to godhood every time you vanguish all of your enemies on a map...

Of course this could be changed for campaign but uhhh, what would you do there? Vanguish enemies one map after another?

[Arralen]

Actually, every game of Dominions is a whole campaign.

One should not get fooled by the fact that there are single commanders and heros - Dominions happens at a much more strategic level than Wesnoth or Age of Wonders or whatnot.

And concerning the replay value: I'm not sure if a campaign with a fixed order of scenarios really adds replay value. You would only get to play the same battles again if you start anew, wouldn't you?

Illwinter is working on making the AI more challenging, as far as I understood, including but not limited to building castles and more heavy national troops.

If we'll get random opponents (what shouldn't be too hard to do) on random maps, that would add much more replay-value then a set of canned scenarios, at least for me.

edit: forgot to mention the random maps

[Gandalf Parker]

The scenarios I had for Dom2 included

"a Poke in the Eye"
This might be the world BEFORE you chocse to be a god. Every province on the map has new commanders thrown in so there is a chance of randomly chosen pretenders in every province trying to lead the independents there to become a new nation.
(rating: difficult)

"WE vs THEM"
A harder game (hopefully) for those wanting smarter AI's. In the lower-left corner of this map there is the Deadly Atlantis Rlyeh Ermor alliance. It is Ermor sandwiched between Atantis and R'lyeh. DARE is all allied against you which means they will ignore each other and concentrate on everyone else. To survive I highly recommend co-operation with other nations. (Ermor, Rlyeh, and Atlantis cannot be chosen and I would advise NOT adding any other AI's either)

"the Independents Unite"
The Independents have begun to form their own nation WITHOUT a Pretender! They have a headstart on you and have been joined by many angry deserters from other nations so you had better get busy. Their leaderless nation must not spread further! (Man cannot be chosen)

available at www.Dom2Minions.com

[Saber Cherry]

Arralen said:
Actually, every game of Dominions is a whole campaign.

It doesn't support some of the neat features found in HoMM and etc., though, like events, triggers, and pre-scripted messages. So it's only a campaign in the questionable way that MoM or Civ are campaigns.

Some possible events that would allow a more multi-map-campaign-like feel might be the sudden appearance of a new nation, or a glacier melting, which suddenly connects two provinces through an otherwise impassable mountain range.

[fahdiz]

Arralen said:
And concerning the replay value: I'm not sure if a campaign with a fixed order of scenarios really adds replay value. You would only get to play the same battles again if you start anew, wouldn't you?

That's exactly my feeling as well.

[NTJedi]

I suggested several times the editors from Heroes_3 and AgeofWonders:SM be used as blueprints for the editor in Dominions_3. Let's take a moment and pray.
If Events have been added into the game, events like we see in Heroes_3 and AgeofWonders:SM... then map makers could effectively make a campaign on a single map.

A campaign using multiple maps means transitioning data such as research, gold, gems, and possibly some troops with items between maps which I doubt we'll see. It certainly sounds nice... especially with a multiplayer campaign using multiple maps! Thus after a specific day research, gold, gems, and possibly some troops with items are moved for all players to the next map.
I doubt we'll see this feature... but it sure sounds nice.