Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

Thufir, a game lobby cant be bad, dont even try to tell me that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Sure we cant compare and RTS to a TB game so what?! Just because Dominions is a TB game, does that means that its not worth to have an own lobby???? Trust me, a lobby would be a very good thing, and many players would like it. Who the hell wanna use a web-based server all the time and wait for the emails etc, when we could have an awesome lobby, host directly from there, chat with the others etc.
Do not tell me that this is bad! Since Dominions is very MP oriented this should be a must have.

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

I'm not saying that, at all! But I do question what priority it should be placed at. And a large part of my questioning is based not on the value it would provide to players, but rather on what it would cost Shrapnel/Illwinter to create.

Can I ask you - have you ever played an MP game using mosehansen as the server? Personally, I think MP games work on this very nicely. IMO, the biggest problem with mosehansen is not the lack of features, but rather it's limited availability. Since this server is provided by a private individual entirely free of charge, it's kinda hard to complain about that. Bottom line: I would personally place as a higher priority having Shrapnel (or a 3rd party - if such a deal could be done), providing/maintaing a small number of PBW servers running Esben Mosehansen's Dom II web front end. This would be relatively modest in cost, and would greatly improve our ability to conduct MP games.

Well, clearly since there is a sizeable community already playing Dom II, it's not quite a must have. Perhaps, if Shrapnel found a way to make this happen for Dom III, and the interest in Dom III skyrocketed, and the sales therefore skyrocketed, and the investment in the game lobby were thus payed off - I would be proven wrong. I'm a bit skeptical about that prospect, but I sure would be happy to see such a thing occur http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

What exactly makes it non-commercial? Dont get me wrong, i love the attitude IW has for it's games, but I think you just blatantly misused the word. They get money from it, they sell it, we buy it, it's commercial.

(edit) just found out, it's possible to edit something without marking it as edited. Should be fixed. (/edit)

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

Im still not seeting what a lobby built into the game is going to give that makes it so worthwhile. The host saves a MP game and can start up at any time? Dom does that now. In fact it does it with every turn and is part of some complaints against it. You can chat and start games? The Dominions IRC channel does that now. You can signup thru a web interface? MoseHansens site does that. Tournament play? the-battlenet does that now. Not to mention what what can be done just by creating a thread in a forum and using file attach.

Im not saying it would be worthless. It would be one-stop, probably friendlier, easier to use especially for those who are used to such systems, and could be used to advertise. Im just saying that I dont see it as a "must have".

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

One thing that radically changes the play level of the community is replays. Nothing exposes flaws in the game quicker than replays. I can't say enough about how they change the competitive landscape.

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

I don't see what good a lobby would do, given that the great majority of the games don't run with all of the players playing at the same time, and the games that are done with all the players Online at once (blitzes) have serious issues in that some players take half an hour (or longer) to do a turn, while another player is finished in 5 minutes and has to wait on the sluggards who take 40 minutes for the 1st turn, and the ones whose empire is larger enough to require a lot of management.

For chatting with the other players, IRC works just fine - far better than the chat facility in most of the lobby software out there right now, even ones done by relatively huge companies like Blizzard (Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft, etc).

So - since the majority of the games run with 24 or 48 hour turns, how does a lobby do anything that benefits the game or the players?

The one thing that would be nice would be an official server that could be set up like Mosehansen, with a bit more dedicated resources so that more games could be hosted.

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

Guys, I understand you all, sure maybe this is not a must have but a lobby with mp system would be lot better and easier and more user friendly, than the current Dom 2. MP system.
Perhaps the IW devs can do something about it.

Yes as it is now, 1 turn takes hella lot of time to play in MP, with a lobby/mp system this would speed up drastically. You have 1 hour to play? Hell you are logging in, and if a game is up you join. No games up? Others in the lobby? You can talk with the others in the same place about hosting a game etc. You wont have to wait for an email to do your turn. You won't have enough time to finish a game? There should be a save function for the host.
Seriously imho this would be an awesome addition for the MP. Hopefully IW will consider to add something like this. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

That sounds like the #Dominions IRC channel.

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

Okay maybe it does Gandalf, but that is just an additional little part of the MP system. The key features here are the host a game, join to a game features, the saving in MP.
Also I am pretty sure, that almost all players will be able to host their own games. This game wont require a powerpc in MP, also it wont require a very fast connection at all.
Later on maybe even an Online ladder could be added as well, or some statistical features like in Kohan 2 for example.

Re: My 2 wishes for Dominions 3!!
 

The "lobby" won't do anything to help with hosting a game, as the only issue there is having a 24/7 Online connection and, preferably, a stable IP.

You keep going on and on about not having to wait for an email - what's the difference? You're not waiting for an email, you're waiting for all players to complete their turns and/or for the turn to be hosted. If the turns are hosted at a particular time - as a number are - then again, the lobby doesn't do a thing.

Saving in MP? It's already saved on the host, and once the player gets their turn, it's essentially saved on her or his computer as well - they can look at and tweak that turn all they want.

And the _next_ turn isn't going to host until the time limit, or until all players have finished their turns. So, what benefit would several months of programmer effort for a half baked lobby provide?

PBEM games are still going to ignore the lobby, and are still going to be popular, since it allows a game to be hosted and run by someone with a dialup network connection. (In case you didn't know, many Dominions players are outside of the USA, in places where their Online time is billed by the minute, sometimes at expensive rates.)

And people wanting to host a non-PBEM game, already can. I've done so, and a lobby wouldn't have done anything to eliminate the real problems of doing so, which include things like reconfiguring firewalls to allow the players to connect to the server without eliminating security.