Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

wow nice, when I get my copy, my first game will be against a couple of impossible AIs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

I've been playing with various aggressive/defensive AI's, and well, the aggressive ones do declare war on you quickly. Like I would hope. One thing new that I've seen (probably due to the prevalance of more relatively powerful priests) is that the AI likes to take at least a couple priests into battle every time. This makes skelly spamming alot less viable, and they always have a source of magic damage for those few tanks you may field. It makes for some exciting magic battles at times.

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

I did see huge armies in Dom 2 as well... but the ones in Dom 3 seem more likely to have heavy use of national troops, rather than generic militia / slingers / et al. I've also been dealing with more assassination attempts.

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

Eh - given that Aby declared war on turn 4, and I eventually found there were 8 provinces between our capitols, I'm quite certain that none of those were the case. Abysia isn't known for scrying spells, has no flying scouts other than a solitary hero, and our dominions had no time to even think about touching. Meanwhile, there was only 2 provinces between Ermor's start and I, but he never declared war.

The only remotely plausible explanation is that Abysia started with the Warlike / Offensive AI personality - but it's still crazy (and not in a good way) for AIs to declare war on nations they haven't even had _any_ contact with. As it was, Aby and Kailasa were near neighbors who I watched trade provinces back and forth, yet Aby declares war on me. Stupid.

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

I'm not sure I get the stupid. In MP, you can declare war on anyone on the map and are aware of all players in the game, even if you don't know their location. If you hate Ermor or whomever enough, go right ahead. So, what's so wrong with the AI deciding to declare war?

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

Where was your scout at the time? Was your scout and his scout together?

Im sure there is some sort of contact but I could see where it might be a "computer stupidity" of not being able to tell that the two scouts dont count as contact.

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

There couldn't have been contact by turn 4, as my scouts hadn't gone far enough in that direction. And Jayded, it makes _no_ sense to declare war on a nation you don't even know the location of. Yes, a player _could_ do it, but it's pointless and stupid, and happens even with score graphs / info off. It's an example of the AI cheating, just as it also managed (in Dom2, and I'm betting Dom3) to target commanders with remote spells long before the AI had made contact to know their location.

It makes the SP game damn near an exercise in irritation, rather than a fun experience.

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

I don't know if you can trust those numbers, but in any case they certainly don't apply to Dominions. The main reason more people don't play MP is that very few games implement MP properly. Most of strategy games are hard to do in one sitting and arranging time to continue is a nightmare. That's not the case with Dominions and playing against live opponents is more challenging than vs AI.

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

Well I dont agree.

If what you said was true then I would have 50 nations declaring war on me by turn 10. Ive never been challenged by more than a few nations and they were always within a few provinces of me.

Re: Are we paying more for less?
 

It is different in Doms, Im pretty sure. I would say at least half of the Doms players are focusing on MP mainly, but hell knows the exact percentage. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif