Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Wheeeee! Excellent. :)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I've got the progress page set to auto refresh. The game is looking fantastic. My most anticipated game of this year. I've never been much of a MP gamer and I hope it provides a single player experience that I didn't get with Dom3.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Looking forward to COE 3 getting its own sub-forum, thats when I know it will be close to release.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

CoE3 does lend itself better to SP gaming than Dominions in a number of respects.

The variation is quite amazing so far and set to get better. The AI does have its limitations, but if you crank the difficulty up a few levels, you'll be in for a challenge.

The ten different AI difficulty levels offer quite a lot in terms of choice and the strategies usable in the game are less complex than in Dominions, meaning that the AI is not as hampered against a human. It does still have a handicap in terms of decision making, but the human choices are more limited than in Dominions and much more subject to random luck (starting spells, starting position, starting independent garrisons on important resources etc.)

If you crank the difficulty up to maximum, the most likely outcome is that the AI will simply roll over you even if you use every advantage you can wring out of the options you have and if you have a good start, that may be enough. Just. At least the ten levels offer much more granularity of choices than the five levels in Dom3.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

10 AI levels, wow, I can't think of another computer game with 10 AI levels. I'd like to know how the different levels differ in terms of bonuses the AI receives, does it "think" better, etc. I always like to play at the highest level the AI gets no advantages over me. If I'm challenged by that I will be very happy.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

As far as I know, the AI decision making is the same regardless of level, but the amount of bonus or handicap varies. The lowest level of AI gets a -25% handicap on gold, iron and special resources and is named Piss Boy. The highest level of AI gets a 500% bonus and is ranked Emperor.

Scarcity or abundance of resources is the main determining factor in CoE3 on whether you will prosper or not. Start locations are random and you can get really lucky or unlucky with them, so playing against AI that gets some bonuses is advisable. The default AI gets a 25% bonus, but I make a point of playing against AIs that get 50% or more bonuses.

The reason being that the AI can't always factor in everything when picking its fights, which can lead to really lopsided results sometimes. Also, more resources allows the AI to garrison its citadels. IF you lose all citadels, you're eliminated, so that's kind of important.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Wow, I've been away from here for far too long as life has been pretty rough, but imagine my surprise to see CoE III well in the works! Talk about a cheerful spot in the day...

Definitely added to my ever-growing to-buy list, as I pretty well trust Illwinter to deliver in spades not unlike DoM III.

On the digital distro front, meh---go for the "simple" ones first like GoG, Gamersgate(HUGE in Europe), Desura, maybe Indievania---THEN see about the more complicated ones like Steam and to a lesser extent Impulse. Though I don't really know about Impulse anymore post-Gamestop buyout from Stardock.

Pretty sure everything will work out though.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I second using GoG for digital distribution :).

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Use Steam. Get some real exposure.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I third GoG.