Dom-III screenshots

[WraithLord]

PrinzMegaherz said:

Well, not necessarily. Dominions III offers no state of the art graphics, so you really can't convince the audience with screenshots.

I believe that most dom players (myself included) aren't especially interested in the game's gfx.
For me, the point of screenshots is that they hint at new directions the game is taking and in general opens a place for interesting discussions.

[Gandalf Parker]

I can see that point though. Screenshots with nothing else might turn away more of the average gamers than it gains. With Dom2 it was helpful to be "armed" with an available downloadable demo. I could pitch the strategy of the game and say "its at least worth checking out the demo IMHO".

[NTJedi]

WraithLord said:

I believe that most dom players (myself included) aren't especially interested in the game's gfx.
For me, the point of screenshots is that they hint at new directions the game is taking and in general opens a place for interesting discussions.

WraithLord is correct... how pretty the graphics look is not that important. The screenshots could tell us about possible new battlefields, obstacles on the battlefield, new forgeable items, map and province improvements, new battle orders, etc., .
This type of information would increase the buzz talk about Dominions in the gaming community. Currently the only thing we can tell fellow gamers is 'release date spring_2006'. Not much information to buzz interest in other forums.

[OG_Gleep]

Most old school gamers don't care about gfx. This is however a small small minority in the market. GFX>>>Gameplay in most cases. Any word on a release date yet though?

[shovah]

Q1 2006 is all we have iirc

[Endoperez]

OG_Gleep said:
Most old school gamers don't care about gfx. This is however a small small minority in the market. GFX>>>Gameplay in most cases. Any word on a release date yet though?

It plays a big factor for trying the game, which quite often means buying the game. Gameplay is certainly favoured over graphics in the games which people continue to play. Counter Strike is a good example of old, but still rocking. Unless CS Source has become the new norm, I have no idea and don't even care, to tell the truth.

But yes, better graphics would bring in more customers. The graphics won't be changed this late to the design, although some of the old units might have gotten new sprites.

[PDF]

shovah said:
Q1 2006 is all we have iirc

I have Q2 in my books

[NTJedi]

bummer if it did get pushed back to Q2 2006...
hopefully they don't add any bad features like the 'auto_surrender' we saw with AOW:SM. Luckily they made this feature optional in a later patch... but this is just another reason why Developer Diaries are good.

[WraithLord]

NTJedi said:

bummer if it did get pushed back to Q2 2006...
hopefully they don't add any bad features like the 'auto_surrender' we saw with AOW:SM. Luckily they made this feature optional in a later patch... but this is just another reason why Developer Diaries are good.

I agree. I think fan feedback can help the developers. I know that Illwinter are attentive to their fan's feedback. This is why I don't get this relative hush.

Come to think of that I remember reading in the shrapnel newsletter that it will include IW dev diaries. IIRC it has included only one, quite some time ago.

[Endoperez]

There were at least two, but at most three, DomIII Dev Diaries. They are very interesting. Early Era Jotunheim (there will be three eras, each with different nation selection) will have Niefel Giants, and sacred Niefel Skinshifters...

I posted the Dev Diaries, as well as a heap of forum information, sometime in the autumn, in this thread.