Well, I'm through with the game

[Aezeal]

play MP, I don't play SP either... did it, saw I woul'dn't learn much from playing SP (to advance my MP skills) and so I just play MP now..

I maybe have played 5 finished SP games... 10 max... who needs it anyway

[sector24]

I'm surprised you got to turn 100. In single player I find the micromanagement after turn 50-60 to border on the unbearable. Who wants to recruit from 12+ castles and attack on 8 different fronts while bloodhunting from 12 different provinces? Once you start making SCs, you know you've won because the AI has no counter and automatically loses. It doesn't matter if all their scales are 3, you can wipe out thousands of units with a single commander.

Just like in Galactic Civ II, there's a point at which you know you've won, but you may have to spend a hundred boring turns to prove it. It's not unique to Dominions, I think it happens in most turn based strategy games. Instead, you have to find the enjoyment in fighting the first or 2nd war to establish dominance. That may be deliberately taking less than ideal scales, or just sitting in your capital doing nothing for 5 turns to give the AI a head start. In the end you just have to find a way to make the game enjoyable.

[AreaOfEffect]

Single player is a suitable testing ground for testing out your first year of a new strategy or for testing out a modded faction. Aside from that, its all about the multi-player.

[Foodstamp]

If your gripe is the death scale, why are you not playing against enough opponents to insure that atleast a few of them have a growth scale?

[DonCorazon]

I agree that MP is the only way to go. I have only just this weekend played an SP game long enough to get to a Wish spell and that SP game was only played because some of my MP games that started back in November are getting to the point where my lack of end game knowledge was killing me so I needed a dry run.

But in the end the SP experience is dry and tends to lead to speedy, thoughtless turns. MP in comparison is quite juicy and fun.

I had avoided MP games til Dom3 (after logging into Diablo battlenet and getting annihilated the second I set foot in the dungeon), but the community here is great and the games a blast. It has caused me to wonder whether other games from my past (AoW maybe) might not have received more of my love had I only given the MP experience a chance...

[Lingchih]

I can think of no other game where the SP is more different than the MP game. This is almost purely a multi-player game. I think the devs threw in SP mainly as a testing field. There has been very little dev work put into the AI since early on.

But the multi-player... oh my. That is a different world. I have yet to win an MP game (although I keep trying). Methinks maybe I am too dumb to win in MP versus the great minds that play this game.

[Ballbarian]

I cannot resist any longer.

/* Begin Rant...
Thank god that I did not see post after post beating the single player portion of dominions to a bloody and unrecognizable pulp before I had already purchased the game or it is very likely that I would have simply moved on to something else. Yes I enjoy multiplayer, but I still find the single player game to be quite enjoyable as well. Everybody has their own tastes. Perhaps I am just a mindless weasel that just enjoys bullying the helpless AI nations into predestined submission. Truth is, I happily struggle through the early stages of the game without backing up turns or any such nonsense and then, if I get the upper hand, I reward myself with the relentless massacre of any who remain to oppose my rightful rule! If this takes 100 turns then so be it sayest Ballbarian!!!
...End Rant*\

-Edit:
Wow. Just noticed that this was my 666th post. This does not bode well for humanity...

[AstralWanderer]

Hmph...I only do SP since my gaming habits are sporadic enough to rule out MP, so is there any possibility to mod a better AI? Or would a note to Illwinter asking for more improvements here be a better approach?

Obviously, doing good AI for a complex game is a real challenge but having separate scripts for each nation (controlling pretender setup, scales chosen, preferred troops and favoured spells along the lines of the strategy suggestions made in the manual) should avoid the worst errors without reducing variety.

[Dedas]

Forget SP. MP is the only way to go with this awesome game.

[Saulot]

Hear Hear Ballbarian.

I too very much enjoy SP. While nobody would say that the AI is great it still is sufficient. I play the game with settings that make it easier for the AI to work (like high supplies, moderate indeps, many provinces per AI, etc). I also tend to play smaller maps of 100-150 provinces, so that I never get bogged down with too much late-game micro. I modify all my maps to have no independents, which keeps the AI from using useless chaff. I never buy mercenaries. If I'm playing a nation that I think is particularly strong, I just pass the first few turns. All of this allows the game to be quite enjoyable, at least for me.

For variety, I'll sometimes play a 3-4 player map with a mod which modifies the enemy nations to give them extra gems, as I suspect the AI doesn't sitesearch enough.

Anyway, for me, it's about trying out all the different nations, and trying out different strategies. Even after all this time, I still haven't played through a full game with each and every nation, not to mention all the various interesting mod nations that you can find on the forums as well.

While the AI could use improvement, SP is very much about discovery and experimentation, setting your own goals and challenges, and creating your own enjoyment. Obviously there are probably many people who enjoy the more visceral experience of crushing (or being crushed by) a human entity, over the more sandbox nature of SP strategy games. I'm still pretty confident that there are plenty of SP players who are lurking, or don't even visit these boards, who are enjoying the game without MP.

One can enjoy climbing a mountain, and feeling satisfaction at reaching the top, without grabbing a dozen people and saying "Race you to the top!".