Is D3 worth the $55 upgrade from D2?

[Nethog]

Thank-you all for your very informative and honest responses. I see that modding, multiplayer, and the Dominions community are the primary motivators for why many of you are so into D3, and from this perspective I fully understand your recommendations to upgrade to D3. For me however, when it comes to turn-based strategy games, I am not really a modder nor do I seek out multiplayer matches. This is just the way I am. I guess I could be interested in checking out new maps, and perhaps trying highly-recommended mods, however for whatever reason I typically stick to single-player and the vanilla versions of the TBS games I like to play. BUT, for any game I purchase and enjoy, I always DO like to get the latest and greatest version. Like I said in my original post, with the D3 demo, I didn't get the impression of playing a new generation of Dominions. Reading the D3 features, I do feel the lure of: more maps, nations, units, items, spells - MORE MORE MORE is GOOD! Also I love large paper manuals (BTW is the D3 manual good?). Then there are all of the minor but great UI changes (auto-tax and zoom with mouse scroll-wheel!! YAHOO!).
But then comes the $55 price - honestly if it were $25-$30 (or less) I would have already whipped out my credit card and bought the game. Or if it was 2006, and I was heavily engrossed in actively playing D2 I also would have paid the $55 if D3 was just released. But here we are almost 5 years after the release of D3 and the price is a steep (at least to me) $55. Within a month I will have upgraded my 8-year old computer to a new powerful machine, and will likely move on to Civ 5 (which barely runs on my P4 system), and/or Total War: Shogun2, and later this year other games from various genres, and will likely not play Dominions again for a while after my present "dominions fever" focus. So I will likely skip the upgrade and check back in a couple of years to see if either the D3 price is reasonable (again given my point-of-view) or D4 is released! But who knows - a week from now I may just bite-the-bullet and upgrade to D3 ;-).

[Gandalf Parker]

One thing to watch out for with a game this old, is grizzled old opinions. So opinions about solo play, the AI, the manual, vanilla (unmodded) Dom3 is abit colored by this point by the passage of time. People say disparaging things forgetting how many months they totally enjoyed it when they first got it.

As far as the manual, there is an errata page on the player-edited wiki.
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Manual_errata
Out of 300 pages of the manual there are only about a dozen true errata listed. Im also quite happy that Shrapnel realized to ring-bind a manual that large so that it lays comfortable open while its in use.

Another necessary addition to the Manual is the log of changes from the many free updates and upgrades we have received. Here is the link to the page to get the patch (you only need the latest one) and below that in the same section is a link to View Patch History which is the only complete list I know of for all of the changes.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwint...DOM3_page.html

[rdonj]

Aside from the guaranteed annual sales, the price of dominions 3 isn't llikely to go down any time soon. Dominions 3 is pretty much shrapnel's flagship game... it gets something like 3x the number of purchases as their next best seller, even now, over games released just this year, despite its age. So they really don't want to lower its price. Don't think of it as a game that was released 6 years ago... that doesn't make it any less good, and it's still one of THE premier TBS games out there. For my taste I would say it is the premier, especially for a fantasy setting. Even just the MORE MORE MORE factor and significant bug reduction imo is enough to buy Dom3. It will take you a very, very long time to get bored with a game the size and scope of dominions 3.

Anyway, my advice is to wait until the game is on sale and buy it. Shrapnel's sales are something like 10%-15%, which is a significant savings.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Anyway, my advice is to wait until the game is on sale and buy it. Shrapnel's sales are something like 10%-15%, which is a significant savings.

Add to that another 10% for the "Scholars & Soldiers Discounts" if you can qualify for it.

[LDiCesare]

Dom3, from a SP point of view (because MP is really a no-brainer), adds the following:
1) Much better interface.
I really mean it. It's still ugly as hell, but I went back to Dom 2 not so long ago to test astral weapon, and it feels clunky.
The things to consider include:
1.1) Automated tax management.
1.2) Units displayed on the map instead of big squares.
1.2) New shortcuts like shift-Z to send your bloodslaves to the lab.
2) AI builds forts.
This means the ai is no longer a pitiful pushover. I mean, it is, but if you put a lot of incredible ai's in your game, Some of them are bound to cause you problems.
3) New content.
There are many new nations, many of them added in later patches (Lanka, Fomoria, Hinnom, Gath, Bogarus and more)

The latter is enough to totally change SP on any but the smallest maps, and well worth the price.

[SsSam]

Originally Posted by Nethog

Within a month I will have upgraded my 8-year old computer to a new powerful machine, and will likely move on to Civ 5 (which barely runs on my P4 system), and/or Total War: Shogun2, and later this year other games from various genres, and will likely not play Dominions again for a while after my present "dominions fever" focus.

I've been waiting several years for my dominions fever to subside.

Civ V sits in it's shrink wrapped box.

I do play multiplayer...

[Gandalf Parker]

LLOL

Yes its amazing how many games of equal price have rolled on and off my systems while Dom3 (and a few others) continual to be included as absolutely required installments to every new machine. Most of those games dont tend to lost more than a month, maybe two.

And I still play Dom3 mostly Solo. Altho not vanilla. Dont be in a hurry to move off of vanilla. Its greatly enjoyable and should be used up. But then get with me for my "more More MORE" selections.

[Nethog]

Again thanks for all of your excellent feedback, particularly on the vanilla version of the game, the manual, D3 new features, and Shrapnel sale events. As for the $55 price, presumably Shrapnel has done their D3 marketing research and can make more profit selling say 100 games a month for $55, and figure they can't sell say 300 games a month for $30.

[Edi]

The thing is, you don't need to be a modder to use mods if you so prefer and even unmodded, you can get a lot of mileage out of the game. I also play mostly SP and there are a few mods (as well as map tricks) to make the AI more challenging. You can always ask for advice on that and you will get it swiftly.

LDiCesare did a good job of listing the main points of improvement, which along with the bug fixes and new content make the game much better than Dominions 2.

[Tecnócrata]

Seriously. If money turns you off, 55$ is cheap for what you're going to get. I try to force myself to play other games, but can't. You're saving money because you won't feel the need to buy other games.