Most commonly used game settings

[Jiggymike]

Well I think I'd like to eventually move onto MP but my goal was to first practice on SP since I've played so few games, so I was hoping to mimic the MP settings while still keeping SP somewhat entertaining. Thanks for the replies so far.

[kianduatha]

It is more or less impossible to practice MP by playing SP. The strategies are so unimaginably different. The only real thing you can do via SP play for MP is to familiarize yourself with what various spells and items do and the units of other nations. But they're used for different purposes and have different relative values in MP games. Your best bet is to find a newbie-only game or a newbie-only game. Every once in a while there are games where more experienced players give feedback to newer players. And best of all, just join us on IRC! server = irc.gamesurge.net, port = 6667, channel = #dominions. Especially with players new to MP around, we tend to hold friendly blitzes and give advice on strategies. I've seen 'new' players become quite competent after hanging around IRC and playing blitzes for a few weeks, shockingly fast if you think about it.

[Gandalf Parker]

You can also use SP to get your fast-burn strategies down for the first 10 turns or so. Many MP games, especially blitzes, are on small tight maps. Winning or losing can be based on who got just 1 more province than the others or the most important spells before meeting another player

[Chazar]

I think map-size is the biggest game changing factor. I play vanilla MP games with 10-15 provinces per player for 5-6 players. All settings remain on default.

I don't see the need for the CBM yet. How many clams can one nation forge in the 50-60 turns that the game lasts anyway?

[llamabeast]

Chazar - removing clams is by no means the only change that CBM makes. It alters many other things, such as spell costs, unit costs, unit stats etc..

The intention in all cases is to address options which appear to be present in the game, but are actually clearly "bad" to an experienced player. For example, in base-game dom3, light cavalry are very expensive and not very good. New players might think that recruiting light cavalry is an interesting option, but experienced players will know that it is essentially never a good idea. Similarly for summoning drakes (seems cool, but far too expensive). And similarly for many many other things.

CBM addresses these issues to make these options viable. Light cavalry are still pretty niche - but within their niche they are potentially useful. Similarly most people will still never summon a drake, but if they are in a situation where drakes are useful, or they've come up with a cunning drake-based strategy, there's some hope that it'll work out well for them.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes CBM makes a few more changes...
CBM 1.84 has 13,873 modding commands in it.
Many many answers, guides, wiki references, manual references have to be prefaced with CBM or not CBM.

IMHO you can learn to play games and join games with CBM, or without it. Its hard to go both ways. Personally I play without it, mostly solo. I dont care to have game options taken away. I play with lots of mods, but mostly more More MORE mods (more gods, more spells, more heroes, more nations, more magic sites)

[llamabeast]

I dont care to have game options taken away

The whole point of CBM is to add game options.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yeah yeah I know. I hear it often in IRC. And I even agreed with it in the earliest versions.
Now with later versions I dont agree. Especially for SP
But thats just my opinion

[llamabeast]

Fair enough.

[Foodstamp]

13,873 is just a number. It can take over a dozen mod commands to add a new unit or make minor changes to an existing one. I joined a game to help test an earlier version of the mod and steamrolled my two nearest neighbors without once glancing at a single reference of the changes the mod makes to the game.