Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

Ok, I'm a bit late because I couldn't get the demo started, but I'd still like to give my first impression of the demo.

WOW! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Aha. That sounds useful. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hum, the bars represent a PROPORTION of total research, the RP depends on the number of mage studying.. So a bar locked halfway with 40RPs total shows 20 RPs, but would mean you will lock 50% of RPs into that school, not the 20 RPs, so if you remove some mages and are down to 16 RPs only 8 will go there !

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

And likewise, if you have more research points at your disporal, you will spend more than 20 points per turn in this particular school. It would be more like "You shall dedicate half your efforts researching Conjuration spells, and split evenly the rest of your time between Blood Magic and Evocation" than "You spend 20 points in Conjuration, 10 points in Blood Magic and Evocation".

But it would be useful nevertheless, for a single turn or to plan your researches in the long run.

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

I would rather just be able to queue research, than have to fiddle with slidders. When you get right down to it, I don't care exactly how many research points go into what, I just want to control what gets researched next.

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I agree - something like the Space Empires IV research queue would be better than the slider-based system, because it never benefits you to split research unless you are going to finish your current research. But it would probably take significant recoding of the research system to change it now. If only we had been beta testers... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Aha. That sounds useful. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hum, the bars represent a PROPORTION of total research, the RP depends on the number of mage studying.. So a bar locked halfway with 40RPs total shows 20 RPs, but would mean you will lock 50% of RPs into that school, not the 20 RPs, so if you remove some mages and are down to 16 RPs only 8 will go there ! </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not necessarily, it would depend on how they implement it, as a lock on Raw RP or a lock on the %. In either case having a lock is better than not having one. Though locks are still only really useful for when you have lots of RP and the ability to finish research in more than one area in a turn... that probably won't happen all that often really.

The SEIV method is fine, but seems a bit of overkill for only having 7 (or is it 8) research areas. A simple lock seemingly is easy to do, and would make life easier, mostly becasue you could lock certain schools at zero...

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

Alternatively, they could improve the research system by making it so having everyone research the same thing is less efficient... though I expect this would annoy some players.

PvK

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

Personally I think it costs to much. Way to much. I was sold by the demo and ready to buy it until I saw it was $45. That's just insane. I've never payed that much for a game and I won't now. Same reason I decided not to buy space empires also.

You guys need to consider a more realistic price structure for what your offering. You'd get ALOT more business selling this game for 30, or 35 tops. 45 your out of your mind.

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Tell me your favorite game and i'll go and spam in their Boards, ok?

[ October 30, 2003, 20:30: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Never paid $45 for a game???? You must never buy new games then... well *most* new games anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Its easy to say $45 is too much, but until you actually compare the product to other $45 games (or $30 games for that matter) its kinda pointless.

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

It's a valid concern, I think. $39.99 seems a lot cheaper than $45. And I think a lot of people actually choose which game to buy based on the price... though I would have suspected that those are the same people that buy all their games at Walmart. That's not a slam, BTW; a lot of people do buy their games at Walmart, and most people resent paying more than they expect for anything.

So, if a $39.99 price would remove that resentment (the feel of "gouging"), it would certainly be a good idea. But Shrapnel would never do such a thing unless they had reason to believe it would make a big difference.

Poll time...

-Cherry

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Minor nitpick: I can see a situation where you might actually want to split your research: if you expect contact or war with another nation within a few months, and splitting this turn will let you choose next turn which school of magic you want to research next... anything that lets you decide later is good.

Still, you're basically right - a research queue would be better 95% of the time.

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I agree - something like the Space Empires IV research queue would be better than the slider-based system, because it never benefits you to split research unless you are going to finish your current research. But it would probably take significant recoding of the research system to change it now. If only we had been beta testers... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">ah, it could not have been. You knew doms I. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: your thoughts on Dominions II
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, in fact it's only a $5 difference, I can't believe that people are so attached to $5 !
However from a marketing pov you're right : $39.99 looks like $30, that's "much cheaper" that >$40, and $45 is an above average price, this can also be a deterrent.
But as the game won't be in stores I don't think sales will be much impacted by the price anyway...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif