Another "I'm on the fence."

[drakythe]

Hello all, newbie here.

I was recently going over my list of things to maybe do with my Christmas haul and Dom3 has made the cut. I would probably use it mostly for SP, but I am curious about how a mp game plays out. What is the time commitment, mp learning curve, etc?

Oh, and as Dom 3 is a bit older, any real word on Dom 4?

[Gandalf Parker]

Most mp games are done as "one turn a day" for most of the early game at least, then extending later. Doing that turn can start out at 10 minutes and run into a couple of hours in late game.

The learning curve? Some will say jump right in after the tutorial. Others will say try out each nation and find the one that matches your style first.

We have gotten insider word that the new project Illwinter is working on is NOT a Dom4.
And a Dom4 is "not in the pipeline"

But we do still get free patches and upgrades once in awhile.
http://ulm.illwinter.com/dom3/dom3progress.html

[drakythe]

Thanks for the response. That is helpful to know.

[thejeff]

There are newbie games organized fairly often. They're a good place to start MP. You're not up against veterans who know all the optimized tricks from the start, but you get a good intro to what mp play is like.

The other standard caution is that games will last for months and turns can get long and involved in the late game. Don't get impatient with only having 5-10 minutes of play a day to start with and sign up for a whole stack of games. You'll regret it when turns take 2-3 hours. Then you'll drop a bunch of games and everyone will be mad at you.

[Adept]

I've played Dominions games since the original, and Dom3 remains one of my all time favorite games. I'm usually always involved in a multiplay game

[Kobal2]

The time commitment involved in an MP game really depends on the kind of player you are IMO.

The actual playing of your turn (giving orders, scripting etc...) usually doesn't take more than 30 minutes per turn (so, usually, per day) even in the late game. However, talking to your fellow players, thinking your moves 1, 5, 10 turns from now etc.. can take a big chunk of your day. As an obsessive person myself, I find that a single game can eat up my whole evening, just because I'm examining my options, testing my battle strategies in Debug games, diplomacing and so forth. Also, paranoia attacks in the middle of the night because I suddenly realize something I hadn't even seen coming and need to re-do my turn from scratch ASAP at 2 in the morning

[drakythe]

All very helpful guys, thank you!

I think I will be getting Dom3 now, I'll let you guys know when I'm looking for a game