Mods to use!

[Wrana]

Second Gandalf's opinion. Actually, I wouldn't even try to "research nations, strategies, etc." before playing. It's much more interesting to discover them by yourself. Of course, if you want to start playing MP right away, then you should know your nation and strategy before start - just to not be a boring opponent! Otherwise, it's better just to plunge in and see what interesting bits you'll discover. And another thing - many strategies you'll find here are min-maxed from a point of view of a particular player with his personal style of play. And sometimes they also require a particular patch or mod version to use verbatim, while before getting some personal experience you just don't see which things of them are more generally applicable.
The only thing I'd say is essential is "Lies my rulebook told me" thread. This you should study right after the above-said rulebook.

[Eximius Sus]

Originally Posted by Wrana

Second Gandalf's opinion.

Which opinion? He seemed to express a lot of them. I don't really follow this comment.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by Eximius Sus

Which opinion? He seemed to express a lot of them. I don't really follow this comment.

Look up his 1st post in this thread. All my following words are growing from it..

[Eximius Sus]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

The developers have continued to provide free patches thru the entire life of the game (and another in the works). So unlike other games, there arent any must-have player created fixes IMHO. What is a very VERY large factor is that you download the latest patch (only the latest is needed to catch you up) and install that.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwint...DOM3_page.html

CBM is the only one that might be considered IMPORTANT to install and use. And maybe EndGame Diversity.

But even thats a split opinion. CBM is supposed to balance the game but it makes so many changes that it becomes a choice of either knowing how to play with it, or without it. EGD is considered to be a fix for the limited end-game strategies that seem to show up with the cbm crowd.

My personal opinion is, why shorten the game? Dont be in a hurry. You can enjoy a year of solo play learning each of the nations and its quirks. If you find its imbalanced then take a look at one of the (3 at the moment) balance mod projects. If you decide you like solo and want a better AI then use one of the AI improvement projects. Or just the mods that add more nations into the game. More maps, more nations, more spells, more equipment.

And of course, once you find a nation that totally fits your gaming style, and some strategies you feel work well for you.. then there is always multiplayer games. Stretch it out. Enjoy it.

I see a number of opinions expressed here Wrana.

1) There are no must-have player created fixes. Only the official patches are must-have.
2) CBM doesn't balance the game. It just changes it.
3) EDM is really only needed if you play CBM.
4) Play lot's of single player to stretch out your gaming of Dominions 3.

Which of these are you agreeing with? Or is there another in that post?

[Gandalf Parker]

Of those I would agree with 1 and 4.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Of those I would agree with 1 and 4.

You mean "second" and "actually"?

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont think that 2 and 3 were quite worded as I said. They assumed that I felt certain ways all the time.
I didnt say cbm doesnt balance. And I didnt say that edm is only needed if you play cbm. I like edm. But then I like anything that adds stuff to the game.

But its a slightly different discussion if you are trying to justify something as "must have". Its the unarguable importance that comes into question.

[Eximius Sus]

I paraphrased you. I think my paraphrase was a pretty accurate interpretation of what you wrote. Your paragraph regarding CBM is full of implicit criticism.

"CBM is supposed to balance but..." I don't think it's unreasonable to interpret this as a criticism of CBM. So if you didn't mean to criticize CBM perhaps you should work things differently.

"EGD is considered to be a fix for the limited end-game strategies that seem to show up with the cbm crowd."

Let's analyze this sentence. EGD is for the CBM crowd. EGD is a fix for limited end-game strategies used by the CBM crowd. Again, you imply that EGD if really only useful if you use CBM. And you imply that there is a "crowd" that plays CBM. You also set yourself outside this crowd and the use of the word crowd connotes "mob" or "clique". Again, there is implicit criticism.

So I stand by my analysis of your post. If you meant something else, you should have written something else. I can't possibly know what you meant to write.

And wrana is still being cryptic and not answering my very clear question.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by Eximius Sus

And wrana is still being cryptic and not answering my very clear question.

Is it so difficult to find Gandalf's first post in this thread? Or the difficulty is with reading it?
I personally don't see that Endgame Diversity requires CBM nor its author ever said anything to this effect. Nor I see any such implication from Gandalf's post.
As for your reading some "implied criticisms" into Gandalf's posts - maybe you should just look at what he actually says...

More serious:
1st point you decided to isolate is the main part of the post in question. Other points were there mostly as examples.
About CBM - while I would be among the first to criticize that, I do not see it to be particularly criticized in Gandalf's post. What he says and I would second is that the latest developments made CBM quite unwieldy. I do not know whether it was its authors' purpose or not and I do not agree with some of their decisions. I agree with some of other ones. Your mistake here is that you want yes-or-no answer in a situation where one doesn't exist. It's the same as if you wanted to know which operation system is the best.
About Endgame Diversity answered above.
About SP it's your call, Gandalf pointed out that it holds some interest, too. On the other hand, you should keep in mind that he's interested in tinkering with AIs. I play it periodically, especially as it's too late to study a nation or map in the middle of MP. This also makes me better player in midgame than lategame, though, as AI is weak in parrying lategame threats - a trade-off I'm OK with.

To Gandalf:
I thought 1 & 4 were in relation to my own reply as your post came online right after it, sorry.

[Eximius Sus]

Gandalf's first post in this thread is the third post in the thread the one I quoted above. Unless there is a post invisible to me.