Question before buying!

[Spacemutiny]

I just saw that there is a digital download available. I've been eyeing this game for quite some time, but before I take the plunge and download it, I wanted to ask long time players a question.

Is it worth it if I only want to play singleplayer? I'm not big on multiplayer, so I don't want to purchase a game that has inadequate AI. So how is the AI in Dominions 3? Will I find it at all challenging?

Thanks for any input!

[Ink]

the answer is no. the game was designed from the ground up as an MP game. the AI is terrible, and the game gets tedious and boring without the excitement of playing other people.

that's the true answer, no matter what GP jumps in to tell you.

OTOH: why don't you like MP? It's a shame the game's distribution format is such that you are unable to test out MP with the community at large and get to see what it is really like.

maybe with DD now a reality, someone really ought to organize a set of demo MP games, or keep some slots for such games available.

[Gandalf Parker]

Its always a surprise to the multiplayers here how many folks play Dom3 solo. Most of the people in this forum are MP players. Ive been playing Dominions thru 1, 2, and now 3. And I still love solo games. Thats my true answer. Dont let the jaded turn you away.

Of course no AI is good AI for most people. But this is one better than most games which tend to be barely capable of keeping you interested thru the tutorial. And learning the game well can take almost a year if you want. Of course the forums here will be glad to tell you how to make the AI worthless if you want to know in a hurry.

Then there are maps, mods, various ways to extend the AI. Ive spent this much on many games that lasted a month on my machine. I can safely say that this game outdoes that.

I suppose I should turn the demo games back on at the Dom3Minions.com server. Thanks for the suggestion Ink.

[Ballbarian]

that's the true answer, no matter what GP jumps in to tell you.

Ink, buzz off. Speak for yourself and leave it at that.

I have played multiplayer and loved it, but 99% of my dom2 & dom3 games over the last 5+ years have been single player, and I am still playing.

[BigDaddy]

Also, don't rule out just playing 2player. I've played mostly solo, but a lot of 2 player as well. 2 player blitz is very exciting... but it can move too fast and not really get to late game most of the time.

[Krec]

the game is great solo or mp. you will get more gameplay and variety out of this game then any other turn based fantasy game around. with all the different races, you can play for months and still not cover all the different aspects that are offered. actually thats the fun of the game, finding out all the cool spells and trinkets you can make and different combos you can play. take the plunge, guarantee you will not be disappointed.

[Fantomen]

The AI is challenging at first. And you can crank up the difficulty to keep it so. The sharp learning curve of this game will probably even make you lose a lot of games initially.

However challenging does not mean smart or complex, when you learn more and more advanced strategies the AI will not match it, simply because the game is too complex for the AI and most of the strategies have been developed by players long after the AI was written. And you cannot learn much from watching the AI play. You could say the AI resembles a more or less powerful mob of mindless monsters.

Like Gandalf mentioned, as time passes you can also adjust the game so the AI gets more easy access to the few strategies it can actually handle, involving predesigned gods, settings, modding out useless units and so on. But it will still be stupid. It's more like putting the sharp knives on the top shelf so the baby can't reach it, what you cannot do is teach it to use the knife.

The game is still worth it for SP in my opinion, but as a MP game it's downright outstanding.

[BigDaddy]

When I first got it, I just played SP. I thought this game was throughly awesome then. The AI is only tough for the first 20 or so turns. If you make it that far, then you probably won the game. Some nations are fool proof vs. the AI that aren't against human players. And 2 player stategies might get you killed in multiplayer... or at least heavily nerf you after you win (the MP guides never tell you to pack up all your mages and march toward your enemy, for instance, and they often have you recruiting mages that are impractical in the combat sense... for instance).

There are a lot of different ways to play this game.

The AI also is ferocious in a rich game with impossible AI (they get additional stuff so the richness magnifies even more in a rich game). I had it come at me with a 1500 unit force. I lost in the traditional sense of the word.

I hope you buy it. I think you'll like it. I've even played myself.

[13lackGu4rd]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned this yet but Dominion3's(and 1+2 as well for that matter) Multiplayer is not your standard Multiplayer in other games, be it RTS(Red Alert, Starcraft, Age of Empires, etc), FPS(Counterstrike, Doom, Quake, etc) RPG(World of Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights, etc), or others.

in the Dominions series Multiplayer is mostly played by PBEM(played by email) which means that you don't need to wait for other people to get online before you can actually play together with them. instead the host puts up a game on a server(Llamaserver is the most popular, but there are others such as Gandalf's) than everybody submits their turns whenever they complete them. when all turns are submitted the server processes all the turns at once and than sends each player his new turn.

this however does have some key differences compared to the more standard Multiplayer types. since it's a PBEM system each Multiplayer game takes quite a while, Blitzes can be fast but if they drag on for some reason than they can also become long. standard games can take months to complete, especially if played on large maps.

another thing is that your time spent while playing(be it Singleplayer or Multiplayer for that matter, is in a static environment, so if you don't like this type of games than don't bother at all... if you do like them however than Dominions3 is 1 of the best games of the genre, very complex and with a very steep learning curve.

so overall, if you enjoy this type of games than I'm sure you'd enjoy Dominions, both on Singleplayer and Multiplayer. also before saying "I'm not a Multiplayer person" I'd suggest you try it first, because it's different from the majority of Multiplayer games.

[Edi]

I've played all of one MP game of Dom3 and two of Dom2 and I've invested enough time in this game to have produced a lot of documentation and run the bug lists, because I found it that good. Needless to say, I've played a lot of single player, so for me it was definitely worth it.