Dominions 3: Speculation Wars

[Endoperez]

Hmm, Kristoffer mentioned that some themes have been merged, and also that early, middle and late versions of Caelum are quite close to each other... And much earlier, in one of the dev diaries, "Caelum now has it's three themes almost finished. Now I like the raptor theme, not just the idea."

So, does this mean that Caelum has wider range of magic (some Raptors) in all of its themes? Or have the Raptors become closer to the other Caelumians?

[Sandman]

You could have 'Age of the Tuatha' before Last of the Tuatha. Tuatha units would be recruitable everywhere - but no longbowmen, bards or monks.

[Nerfix]

BTW, I think that it was mentioned in a dev diary that the late era is an "unit era" so I guess that many of the nations have stronger units, steelier plate armors and less potent mages.

[Chazar]

Yes, I recall that too, so if late era means the advent of mechanical powers and thus heavy armored units, etc. Which one is the high magic era? Early era, were powers are still primordially raw and mould the face of the earth?

I wonder whether the available magic spells will change with the era one plays in, i.e. mechanical men are only available in late era, while the demon summonings from the early era got forgotten slowly... That would be interesting!

[B0rsuk]

Endoperez said:
Has anyone wondered why Dominions players are pretty contempt with what they have? While recently there have been more threads about DomIII, the topic hasn't been given much thought. Also, I think this is the first thread ever started so that people could quess what DomIII will be like. This is also very spesific, unlike the Wishlist, and asks for speculation, unlike most threads about DomIII.

The point is... um. I don't have Dominions2. I own only demo.
Ocassionally I go to my friend who's got full version, and we pretend we can finish one game in just one evening. Then we start another game, because by the time we see each other again we tend to forget what was the game about. And where all the scouts are (*B0rsuk looks at Kristoffer/JK in a threatening manner*).
So I mostly play demo. You can still have some fun with it. Eventually news of Dominions3 reached me. It made me uneasy about buying full Dominions2, because it would become obsolete - more less.

However, there's one BIG obstacle for me buying Dominions3, and I'm quite worried about it. Dom2 is being sold (to my knowledge) by shipment only, and it is very, very hard to find a way of transfering money abroad. Banks in Poland don't support it, generally speaking. I know because I recently did a research (I was going to buy full new version of DROD). My internet bank doesn't allow transfer to other countries, so I would have to
1. Create an account elsewhere (it costs)
2. Allow them to charge me (about) 50zl just for transfering money abroad
3. Pay for Dominions, which would be something like 40$ = 120zl.
This means at least 190zl - assuming I can set up an account for free (unlikely). To compare, my half-time job gets me circa 650zl monthly, and I didn't mention paying for studies (2400zl/6months), food, clothing, etc. I would gladly pay the equivalent of 40$ for the game, but I'd be mercilessly ripped, and there's lots of beaurocracy in my way. I hate beaurocracy. My friend was lucky, he was in the USA last year.
If you didn't get it at this point, B0rsuk is very frustrated.

Kristoffer: Thanks, you've been very helpful ! Your insights are very inspiring.

I wonder if ability to take "special" theme and, say, Restless Worshippers would really change anything. I just learned hard way that not taking Order/Productivity is effectively a suicide. And there are some themes with Sloth/Turmoil...ugh.

[Vicious Love]

I think we've been pointedly ignoring the real topic of this thread for long enough. Not like all those other nations were ever more than a thin smokescreen, anyway. Let me just get us back on track:

R'lyeh. Discuss.

Last I heard, there were aboleths involved.

[Nerfix]

Chazar said:I wonder whether the available magic spells will change with the era one plays in, i.e. mechanical men are only available in late era, while the demon summonings from the early era got forgotten slowly... That would be interesting!

Yes, intresting is the word...and it could have some real effect on play strategies...

[Ironhawk]

B0rsuk said:
Then we start another game, because by the time we see each other again we tend to forget what was the game about. And where all the scouts are (*B0rsuk looks at Kristoffer/JK in a threatening manner*).

Borsuk brings up a good point in a tangential manner. I know this thread is about the themes upcoming in dom3. But I *hope and pray* that there have been some UI advancements! Being able to find scouts would be a treat. As would finding equipped magic items on commanders. The list goes on.

Kristoffer: Thanks, you've been very helpful ! Your insights are very inspiring.

Yeah, really Kristoffer. Stop playing the Sphinx.

[Kristoffer O]

There are UI changes. All commanders' items are shown above each commander in the main menu (very small, but discernable).

I like sphinxes. Also I do not wish to end this thread by telling you what dom3 is like.

[Evil Dave]

Kristoffer O said:
There are UI changes. All commanders' items are shown above each commander in the main menu (very small, but discernable).

YAY! All praise the mighty developers! I'm already enjoying Dom 3.