New to Dom 3

[thorfrog]

I'm thinking of getting Dominions 3 since Elemental War of Magic is an epic fail. After getting the game what are some base mod that I should pick up? Any good graphic mods? I wasn't able to find anything scanning through the boards. Thanks.

[Gandalf Parker]

After just getting the game I would definitely download and install the latest patch/upgrades program from here.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwint...DOM3_page.html

After that Id say that most mods would just make changes to the game. Not much reason to do that until you play the game for awhile and get the feel for what you like or dont like about it. Not much reason to make changes for what someone else didnt like. When you have played around for abit and have some things you would like to see different then we can recommend mods for those areas.

[Tyr_Doshan]

You might want to start with just playing the game as it stands. I've hardly ever felt the need to look into mods or using the things as Dominions 3 stands strong on it's own.

[rdonj]

Conceptual Balance Mod (CBM) addresses balance related concerns that many long time competitive players have with the base version of the game. This is almost certainly the most popular mod used in multiplayer games. There are a few alternate versions of this mod using it as a base as well, but they aren't as popular thus far. Just look for anything with balance in the name if you're looking for one of these.

Armor Revamp is a fairly new one attempting to address concerns with heavy infantry being perhaps too easily killed due to having severe fatigue issues due to armor encumbrance. Basically this one changes encumbrance values of most non-magical armors and one or two magical ones, and that's it.

Endgame Diversity Mod is an attempt to bring more options to the late game, which otherwise tend to be dominated by a very small number of options which are just outright better than everything else and limited to just two magic paths, forcing everyone to develop them or lose in late game (applies to multiplayer only). Endgame Diversity is still fairly new, but is being used more and more in multiplayer.

There are some good nation mods laying around, too. Most of them can be found here. Especially anything by sombre and burnsaber. Their nation mods and llamabeast's Tomb Kings are the most commonly played in multiplayer. And pretty damn fun, too They tend to hover somewhere between middle end and high end nations in power. And are stacked with exceptionally well-done graphics.

The mods and maps section of this forum has a number of other nation mods as well. There's a lot of new mods that have been added lately that aren't listed in the mod list, so take your time when looking through that forum. The mod list is a good place to start though. Many people like Amos' mods, for example, though their balance is... questionable, at best. Some of them can make for good AI opponents, though

Last but not least, Burnsaber has made a number of other mods that can be found here or on the other website I linked with a goal of changing up gameplay a bit. UWGIM is a mod designed to make it easier for underwater and land nations to interact with (and kill) one another. Some aspects of this have been rolled into CBM from above. Others include CrossPathCombatSpells, adding a number of spells to take better advantage of low level crosspath mages and give them something to do. Or the Holy War mod, which adds in things like holy magic sites with more recruitable sacreds.

I hope this helps!

[sffrrrom]

I'm new to Dom 3 as well, but having bought both it and Elemental recently, I think you can guess which one I've been spending my time playing! So far I love Dom 3, although I feel a little pathetic that the AI has beaten me like 3 times in a row. Definitely a steep learning curve on this game.

I've finally put together a good playthrough as Agartha - I was lucky to start in a corner of the map and my first attempt at an immobile pretender seems to be going well, with maxed Order and Production scales I can crank out a lot of units every turn.

Maybe I might eventually look into Play by Email, since that seems to be doing quite well on these forums, but I'm not sure with law school starting imminently I really have the time, nor do I think I'm good enough at the game to not get stomped, very quickly.

[rdonj]

The dom3 AI may not be brilliant, but it is pretty brutal with those hordes of units it will produce. So don't feel too bad if you get beaten a number of times before your first win. Eventually you'll start learning synergies and the spell system a bit better and things will start to click.

[RadicalTurnip]

No mods are really needed, but no, there isn't anything that increases the graphics. The manual's guide for most nations is a decent build, but usually not amazing, so you can always try that out. For sure do the tutorial. Then it's just playing around until you get it and then very quickly you'll find yourself stomping the AI.

[Doo]

Originally Posted by sffrrrom

Maybe I might eventually look into Play by Email, since that seems to be doing quite well on these forums, but I'm not sure with law school starting imminently I really have the time, nor do I think I'm good enough at the game to not get stomped, very quickly.

Check out this link:

http://game.dom3minions.com/bin/vsAI_chk.cgi

Humans vs AI games with a "how to join" link at the top of the page. These games are good to learn to play on as you can team up on the AI.

Cheers GP for that one

[sffrrrom]

Thank you very much! I'm sure I'll use that in the future. I still need to be better right now though - I was so close in my recent Vampire Queen EA Mictlan game. I set up a decent blood economy but I was struggling to hold the frontiers, and eventually a nasty stack broke through and rampaged about all of my soft fleshy internal provinces, and that was that. Gonna try it again though it was fun. I think this time I'm gonna go all out and max turmoil scales and just go for straight blood production.

[Eximius Sus]

Dom3 is a great game. Check out the semi-random program by Ballbarian (in his signature all over the place) for extra AI fun when you are ready. I think mods are best avoided when playing single player. The AI is already sort of crippled and most mods adjust things for multiplayer. For that, they are very worthwhile since a lot of them fix balance issues.