Is D3 worth the $55 upgrade from D2?

[Nethog]

I played Dominions 2 five or six years ago and have just recently begin to play again, and I am actually enjoying the game now more then I remember then before. I did download the Dominions 3 demo and my impression of the game is, yes there is new music and some minor but very nice user interface changes, but it really feels like the same game as Dominions 2. When I looked at the price for D3 I was a little shocked at the $55 price for a game that has been out for almost 5 years. I *would* pay the price if I saw a lot of new content in D3 but to me it felt more like content I would get with a D2 patch. Or if the price was say $30 I would pick it up right away. Am I missing something or is there more to D3 then meets the eye?

[rdonj]

You're missing a lot of things. Like how if you want maps/mods, D3 is where you want to be right now. Or multiplayer. Or that dom3 has gone through a bunch of patches since release and has a huge amount more content and presumably a lot fewer bugs than dom2 at this point.

I can't fathom any game that would release that much new content/etc without at least turning it into one or two expansions costing at least $30. Have you ever played starcraft, for example? In the original starcraft, the first expansion consisted of something like 6 new UNITS, split across the game's 3 facctions. It didn't even add any new races. Then compare that to Dominions 3, which added two entire new eras consisting of something like 20 new races, which all have at least a dozen or more units per race. Dominions 3 is a steal.

[Hrum]

I can't tell you what it'd be worth to you, I can only tell you what it's worth to me. Also, I never played Dom2 so I can't make that comparison.

Following Rdonj's lead, I can compare Dom3 now to Dom3 at release, and there have been a lot of additions. Even if the devs hadn't been adding to it (as well as the community creating new maps, mods, nations, etc) I think I certainly would have gotten my $55 out of this game many times over. I still count myself as a newb around many of the guys on these forums, but between fooling around in SP and the few multiplayer games I've played (both LAN games with friends and MP on llamaserver / dom3minions) I've probably racked up a couple hundred hours playing this game. I still enjoy it.

Dominions 3, like Dom2 I believe, was never about the latest shiny graphics. It's about gameplay, a richly thematic world, and near endless replayability. The gameplay hasn't gotten any weaker in the years since it's release.

If you never play anything but unmodded Dominions maybe this won't mean much to you, but the number of mods people have made for the game is quite large. You can find links to a whole host of them on the mods section of these forums. Or you can check out the other forums that host mods, such as:

http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/...hp?showforum=1

Some of the mods are so widely used, they're almost canon (Conceptual Balance Mod; Endgame Diversity Mod). CBM tweaks the costs of various things with the goal of changing the balance between nations and units to make those that were rarely used in MP games more viable while reducing the utility or increasing the cost of the most commonly used units / summons / items / etc. EDM introduces a bunch of new mid to end-game summons that give Tartarians a run for endgame supremacy.

Don't know if you like MP games at all, but there's a whole other side to the game that you discover when you start playing MP games. Granted, it may ruin SP for you (the AIs never seem like as much of a challenge any more once you've been pounded on by another human).

BTW, If you have any interest in MP games (or if you're curious but you're not certain about it) there are some great Let's Play threads on the SomethingAwful forums for dominions, including screenshots and everything (though now that I went looking, you might have to register there to read them - looks like they've started archiving old threads). Gives you a decent idea what to expect from multiplayer games. There are also "newb" games starting in the Multiplayer and AARs section of the forums here, as well as on the Modding Forums.

And if you like the idea of being in a cooperative game with other players, I'm currently in one w/ other players vs buffed AIs. The AIs haven't put up the resistance that a player would have, but between the buffed AIs and the tough / unusual independent forces thanks to the Semi-Rand (Ballbarian's map tweaking program), it's been an interesting game. The game was proposed by one member of the forums here, hosted on the server of another (Gandalf - who helped us with custom settings for the game), and the map and pretenders were designed by a 3rd (NTJedi). Gandalf and NTJedi aren't playing in the game, they just volunteered to help us get it up and running because they found the concept interesting.

Anyway, I think Dom3 is a really great game; it's given me years of enjoyment. Does that answer your question?

[SirMu]

If I had to summarize why you should buy Dominions 3 in one word, it would be this: Community.

We have a great community here based on what I've seen so far, and while you don't necessarily need to own the game to be a part of it, it helps.

There's nothing Dominions 2 can offer that can come close to the fun that is in-game diplomacy in a multiplayer Dominions 3 game. Especially if you like role-playing. And, of course, renaming. Assuming you aren't completely anal and have to name your mages 3D1E, you can have a lot of fun doing funny little renaming things in a multiplayer game for all to enjoy. The only thing better than a cyclops crushing your opponent's armies is a cyclops named Ai, I Eye crushing your opponent's armies. Sadly, there is not a mod to give the cyclops a top hat and monocle. Yet.

[samoht]

I haven't posted in some months, but I came back just because I wanted to let you know that yes, D3 is absolutely worth it.

[Jarkko]

Nethog, if I had to choose one reason why to buy Dom3 (after having played Dom2, that is), it would be taxes. Checking and setting taxes in Dom2 was for me the most boring thing in the game, in Dom3 you can (and usually do) let the taxes be set automatically. That is a bless in itself

Then there are of course the new nations, new units, new spells, better UI (then again, just because the UI in Dom3 is better than in Dom2 doesn't actually mean the UI of Dom3 would be that super ). The fact that you don't have to choose before the game starts what sorts of forts you build is absolutely great too, you choose where you want to build forts, as this makes a difference The pretender designing phase is even more of a game than it was in Dom2, because of the option to take a dormant/imprisoned pretender; the decission to take or not take an awake pretender changes your strategy a lot.

I can't say if Dom3 would for you be enough value for $55. For me it has most definitively been

[Tecnócrata]

Just for the modding capabilities, worth the investment. There are never too many modding capabilities.

[Gandalf Parker]

I can totally understand the question. Why pay full price for a game that has been out for so long. And on most games I would agree.

But then again, on most games you would need an incentive to jump in so late. On monst games, going to the forum even one month after buying it will totally ruin it for me. On most games there would already be lists of walkthrus, and exploits, and easter eggs, and always-win tactics.

This game has been out for years. And we all KNOW that there are some nations that are too powerful, and some that are too weak, and some exploits no one should use, and some killer strategies. But the real glory of this game is that even after years of discussion we still cannot agree on what those are. We are still debating them. And trying various mods on them. And daily enjoying the testing of new strategies and tactics. There are not many games that fall in that category and I would have no problem paying full price for them for as long as they can maintain that new-game exploration factor.

Just my opinion
Gandalf Parker

[Fantomen]

I'd say it's very well worth it if you intend to go multiplayer and/or wants to have access to mods and community support. For me that's absolutely essential and the big WHY in "why I'm playing the game".

If you don't care about these things and only go by the strict difference between vanilla dom2 and vanilla dom3, for the sole purpose of casual single play in elevated solitude. Then actually no, I don't think it's worth the money.

[Edi]

As someone who played both Dom2 and Dom3 extensively, I will say that it's definitely worth it.

There are tons of new nations spread across several different eras. There are more maps and the modding capabilities and possibilities that the mods open up leave Dom2 looking like a beggar in comparison.

Furthermore, a lot of bugs that are still extant in Dominions 2 have been fixed along the way in Dom3, which means the game is more stable. You can get an idea of what all has been fixed by taking a good look at the bug shortlist stickied at the top of the forum.

And the AI knows how to build castles! If you're into SP, that's a huge deal. In MP it's not an issue.