Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

When I say learning curve I dont mean beating the game. I mean just getting to the point of PLAYING the game rather than spending all your time trying to figure out how what keys to push.

I think one of the wonderful things about Dominions is that there is so MUCH distance between those two things. Ive paid just as much money for games where learning HOW to play it was about equal to deleting it for the next pretty box from the software store. Dom1 stayed active on my machines for 3 years. I see nothing that says Dom2 wont also.

[ January 09, 2004, 17:50: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yea, that's pretty much what I meant when I asked about the length of the learning curve. Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this. I know its very much an individual thing.

I, for one, have a 3-year old and a 4-month old, which means playing time is limited to after they're both asleep and my wife and I collapse. Which means, 1 hour a night, tops. That lack of time combined with the $50 price tag makes this a tough decision. I'm not trying to ignite a debate about the price (I read that thread), I'm sure Shrapnel understands the economics of this far better than me. I'm just saying this is a tough call. I only wish I was twenty-something again and single, because then I had lots of free time (though no money http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

Anyway, I press on with the demo as I mull the decision.

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

[quote]Originally posted by tylertoo:
[QB] <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Ha Ha...this is the EASY part http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . When my kids were old enough i gave them a gaming PC, i'm breeding opponents, now that they're 7 & 9 they are gaming all the time and only bother me for hints and strategies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif . When i was twenty-something i had lots of money and time yet it was all "empty" now that i look back http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif . Kids open your eyes to the "real" world, enjoy! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Same here (CGW and the tutorial site).

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

I found the game to be extremely swift to figure out - at least in terms of the basics. I downloaded the demo, and (with particular gratitude to the between-turn tips) figured out most everything you need to play the game in a game or two.

Of course, the game is still springing surprises on me, but that's the sign of a well-made game. It's the same thing that kept Nethack going so long, really - easy to start, but there always seems to be more to discover.

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

At surface level, I thought the game was sorta like Risk when I first picked up [Dom1]. Reading Usenet, I saw people screaming about sick units and combinations (and of course, SC's); however, having been raised in an age where strong units in video games actually LOOK like strong units, it took me a while to get used to the understated-yet-still-quite-strong units in Dominions.

More complex than Dominions? Only a few roguelikes come to mind. And of course, they're all free.

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh, don't get me wrong -- I do enjoy parenthood immensely. I just miss having free time.

Now its 10:15pm, everyone's asleep. Back to the demo http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Same here (CGW and the tutorial site). </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It was CGW battle report that cinched it for me. I just got the game and haven't got over the learning curve yet so I spend most of the time crouched in my little provinces, playing with magic and hoping none of the computers notice me.

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It's funny you should mention that! I consider Warlords Battlecry II to be an exceptional game... on par with Kohan, if not Total Annihilation. And yet - I've been playing Dominions for a couple years, and am writing (to my knowledge) its only combat sim... and am still completely unfamiliar with most of the spells and 60% of the units http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I think that's what I like about it. There are just too many variables to ever do anything "perfectly"... not because it is too hard... but because there is no "perfect way".

-Cherry

Re: Bet the CGW review helped.
 

I also learned of Dom2 from the CGW review and battle report, but it wasn't the first time I'd been to Shrapnel Games. I've been playing computer strategy games for about 20 years, and Dom2 probably had the biggest learning curve of any of them. I studied the game, the manual (such as it is), the CGW battle report about 10 times, everything on this forum, and kept thinking about the game constantly for almost a week before I felt like I really knew what I was doing. My first five or six games I was VERY slow, and I got slaughtered. I finally won for the first time tonight, as Ulm against average Jotunheim and Michtlan on the Urgaia map. An easy setting, of course, but I wanted to see one all the way through.

This is a really, really good game. Definitely more difficult and interesting than AOW:SM, which is a mighty good game.