\"How it started.\"
 

I thought since there seems to be more activity with the lure of Dominions 3 coming out in the foreseeable future and the tidbits that Kristoffer has given out to the changes that I would start this thread.

I was thinking back and wanted to ask other people who are currently playing or at the least are still very much are interested in playing the game Dominions and anticipate it's newest incarnation a question.

Do you remember when you realized that you really enjoyed playing Dominions (1 or 2)? If you do, do you remember how it started and will you relate it?

I myself decided to think back and I wanted to relate to everyone my own, since it would be unfair to ask what I myself wouldn't do.

For me the moment I thought Dom2 was one of the best TBS games I had played in a long, long time was back before the final release of Dom2.

I was still playing the limited demo before the release of Dominions with it's limited selection of Nations and Research. I had a hell of a time figuring out what exactly everything ment. I understood the concepts that were presented to me but I had no real idea how they all worked together to make the game. I had played a few game as different nations, they all sounded interesting and it felt as if each one held it's own mythology that I was creating. I was crushed quickly in those first few games. I had learned over the past few games to keep my Pretender, no matter what he was the hell away from combat. I had finally started looking in depth at the commands on my units as I was playing a game with C'tis. I was sneaking around with my empoisoners and actually killing most of the independants I was dealing with. My Pretender was at the head of the greatest C'tis army I had ever known composed of a few Lizard Kings, a Sauromancer and what I thought was a ton of troops, snakes, undead, poison slingers, animals that no army could destroy.

I was at the hind end of the magic, I had spent most of my money on building up my fortresses and amassing my huge army of destruction. It was on a big map with only 2 other AI, I had learned I was immediately in trouble with more than 4 or 5 opponents, since I didn't know what was going on and got smashed to bits. It was about turn 35 of the Demo so I knew it was soon over.

I wasn't ready when Abysia came in and declared war on me. He attacked with some lame force initially in a corner of my provinces, I drove over my superarmy and was about to smash into this force. I didn't notice that there was a huge block of enemies ready to reinforce because the province lines were hard to read. I sent in my army and it came to meet with a massive Abysian firefest of destruction. The AI had tons of Salamanders, Summer Lions, heavy black infantry with smoke drifting off them and smack in the middle was a red dragon. He had nearly as many troops as I did between all his own, plus he had some Warlocks and heroes.

I watched the battle and I saw my huge masses of troops get decimated by these salamanders. My lizard kings were keeping my troops moving forward and they just got crushed in the middle. When the Salamanders broke my units were fighting Summer Lions they didn't seem to be able to hit. The dragon was buffing and casting spells but the Warlocks, AnaSalamanders, and demon-bred were casting fireballs all over the place, imps coming out of everywhere as blood slaves were sacrificed.

Needless to say my army didn't last long after that point and not many escaped that day due to the Lizard King's insistant Fantatisim. My God had bit the dust too, not looking too damn impressive as he went down. His equipment of trinkets and some heavy armor didn't last long since he was very encumbered and fatigued, though I didn't know that at the time. The stragglers I did have were all over provinces and that enemy block looked huge and my capital wasn't very far away from it. I knew I had just been schooled I was pretty stunned. In a fog I clicked on my Lizard King , who had the sense to flee at the end, to see what I had left and my eye caught the command "Call God". I suddenly knew I had to be able to play this game more than 40 turns.
That is also when I knew that this game was awesome.

Any takers?

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

I remember how I heard about Dom2. I was actually really pissed. I read the last article in CGW, the one where they go head to head. That month, think it was last October, they played Dom2. It souned so cool, I went straight to EBGames.com and looked it up. Nada. Finally found the homepage and ordered it. I found out it had been out for months when I hit the forums. I had been fed up about the computer magazines for a while (I subscribe to 3), and their lack of proper coverage. Its often months before you see a review, even on big name releases.

At first I was lost, only after a settling on Ulm did I begin to make sense of the game. Half of the fun for me is smithing items and decking out commanders. The fact that Ulm has solid core troops helps out a lot also.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

It's a lot simpler for me. There aren't many turn-based strategy games one can play on OS X on a 5-yr old iMac (400Mhz G3).

I downloaded the demo and had great fun as Machaka, marching my spider armies up the "Iberian" peninsula on the Aran map. I had no idea what I was doing, and I remember being surprised and delighted every time my mages starting casting a new evocation spell on the battlefield.

On turn 39 (last demo turn), I figured I would see what a god could do in combat. So I sent my Ghost King against a big enemy army only to find...he sneaked!

Of course, by then the check was already in the mail for the full game.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

Started with "Conquest of Elysium"
Grabbed Dominions (one) early on and became a fanatical "fanboi" in the usenet newsgroups about it. Kindof strange actually since its not really "my kind of game". But that meant I explored facets of it that the main gaming group didnt.

Fought the changes in Dominions 2 for a long time. But finally developed a trust of the programmers even though I still wish some of the original features had been kept and builtup more rather than removed. Became just as fanatical about Dom2. Especially scripting random maps.

I will probably fight the changes in Dom3 but it will most likely be a shorter "battle" this time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Gandalf Parker

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

I knew Dominions was cool before I played it. Really. I used to read the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic newsgroup a lot, back before it became mostly porn spam. Dominions generated the most interesting discussion I'd ever read. People debated which troops had an edge against which others, which Pretenders made sense for a particular strategy, discussed the merits of the various nations (which there seemed to be an amazing number of), chortled with joy over a particular spell combo they'd discovered - and I was hooked. It was apparent that the game had a lot of detail, and what's more, a lot of depth. Some games have a lot of complexity that doesn't add to variety, but not this game. I've been playing it for years, and it still surprises me. Then there's the premise - design a pretender god and battle it out, physically, magically, and dominionally (see! we even need new words to talk about it!).

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

I remember that I read a short strategy guide to Dom I in the local gaming mag.

I downloaded the demo, started a game as C'tis on the Old World map and I was sold. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I was pretty confused at start of course but I had an expectionally low age for a Dominions player anyway.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

Almost the same for me. Except that I was maybe 14 years old when I played Conquest of Elysium, and never ordered it. It was still fun...

I was really into fantasy at that point, and Dominions was "cool". I had no close friends with which I could really talk about fantasy, I spent too much time on my computer, and then used too lot of time playing Dominions.

I haven't felt the same kind of exploring feeling with DomII, because I already knew the nations and units so well. But I never thought it wasn't worth the price I payed, or the wait of half a year. I didn't even notice the fact that maps were static at first, but it's understandable, and the news maps were beautiful. I miss the old "story" maps much more. The Coven is much better than the Eye, IMO.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

More than two years ago, as I did often at that time, I was travelling back home for the weekend in an InterCityExpress train in Germany and started the demo of Dom2 on my laptop. I had been greatly disappointed by WarlordsIV, which I had anticipated for soooo long, and someone on the Warlords forum had recommend Dom2. This led me to download the demo before I went on the train, so that I had some amusement during the four hour train ride. Little did I know about what awaited me in this file...

The amazing music and the cool descriptions of the pretenders kept me immediately spellbound. I was captivated by the non-tolkienesque mythology and read each pretender's descriptions with delight before playing at all. My first steps then as clusmy Ulm were quite pathetic, but I liked the interface and the graphics of the Aran map. It was all so refreshingly different! So deep! There was always more to explore and behold! I also liked the simultaneous PBEM turn concept: I had tried PBEM with WarlordsIII with my friends who also liked strategy gaming, but it was hopeless since it took to too long for a turn to return to oneself (I also despise the awful mixed realtime-yet-turnbased network play of WarlordsIII ). Now Dom2 was at last a fantasy strategy game that could be succesfully played against my friends. Hence I immediately decided to order the full game...

When it eventually arrived I was at first disappointed by the lack of additional music tunes and the crappy manual (Who needs all those stupid item descriptions anyway, where you cannot find anything you are looking for, if you can have Zen's formidable MagicItemQuickReference document?!). However, my tries as Caelum became fruitful. Caelian magic suited me well. With the help of the scribes of this forum, my power steadily increased. Spell after Spell was researched and mastered. Eventually, my Blood-Fountain incarnation lead a Frozen-Blood-Caelum to utterly defeated my enemies (five strategy-gaming friends I had recruited meanwhile). Even their Alliance right from the start of a game could not defeat the electric wrath of my caelian storm troops! Ascencion was mine...BUWARHAARHAAARHAAAAR! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/stupid.gif


PS: Nowadays, I do not like that bloody GUI of Dom2 anymore. I also play without music. However, sometimes I like to put on the Falsobodorne CDs that I now own and revel in the memory of that train ride through a dark rainy afternoon, where everything was flavor and not just stats and probabilities...

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

I used to play MOM back at 95 and I have enjoyed this game so much that many years later I was looking for a fantasy TBS in it's caliber.
I think I've probably tried most of the fantasy TBS created. Be them freeware, shareware or commercial, but I didn't find that one game that has depth and character as MOM had.

That is until I d/ld dominions-I demo. I've heard about it in a MOM fan site and decided to check it out.
I've installed the demo, didn't understand what was going on, closed it and didn't look it again for six months.

When I did try it again I was willing to put more effort in understanding the game. My first nation was atlantis on the old world map. I remember being so frustrated with not being able to recruit the top troops and mages... Since then I was and still am ensnared in the dominions universe http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

It might be worthwhile to mention the fact that the one that recommended Dom2 was quite an annoying person and flame-warrior. In fact, he recommended Dom2 as (this isn't a quote) "A game that kicks the **** out of WarlordIV you lamorz".
Atleast, if we're talking about the same guy.

Anyway, my memory is pretty bad, so not only do I not remember much of the days of WarlordsIV, I also don't remember my "early days" with Dom2.
I do vaguely remember the flame-warrior having a Diablo avatar and being called something with UN, and being a cheater (that got caught, with his hacked dwarf Wodan). Or maybe I'm confusing him with the Warlords: Battlecry 2 flamer...

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

A friend of mine had been asking me to join him and his friends in playing various games online. UO was one of them, some space strategy game (VGAPlanets? Some SE? Can't remembet) the other. I had told him I've got better things to do with my life than play computer games several times when he brought up Dominions. "Okay, how bad can it get?" I asked myself and joined their PBEM MP of demo version of Dominions1.

...If I only had known...

Every one of us was a total newb and if I remember correctly I hardly had played even a test game before creating my MP pretender. Okay, Marignon, those flagellants probably have a proper attitude. Hm, I'll pick a pretender who can kick ***... that flaming head looks like a tough one. I'll probably beat everyone up with him easily.

One of my first lessons was that the Baphomet is immobile and such units can't move. D-oh. Learning happened on the fly, we had six or seven players on the Urgaia map so there was quite a lot of action. On turn 2 C'tis had conquered the sole province separating our capitals. That time we agreed for a peace to last all ages, but as by turn 10 all the indies had been conquered I and Abysian player agreed to fight each other "just to find out how it is done".

While I was happily sieging Abysian capital, Caelum declared a "peace keeping" mission and landed on my capital (our capitals were a flight's distance apart). When my Baphomet swept the floor with the winged blue berets a cease fire was made with Abysia and I proceeded to drive the flying menace to the sea. Immediately after Caelum was purged from the map by the Righteous the treacherous saurolich of C'tis led his army on my capital and renewed Abysian forces blocked my army's way back home.

By turn 25 or so the skin of the slain saurolich decorated some public loo in Marignon, nearly all the mages of Abysia were kille by the lucky flagellants and we had to agree that none had any standing army to speak of anymore. So, we'd be better off starting a new game. Properly this time.

Those were the times. Hooked from the first try, several of us ordered the game right away.

We played, what, two or three games with that group. Then came Dom2, and as I was the only one of us to buy it, the move to international circles was an obligatory one. I was first put off by the graphics (what, no more possible for a chessboard view of the provinces?), but I've grown to like them. It just takes a bit time. (In other words, where are all the promo pics of Dom3?!?!?!!1 ;p) Besides, now it's even easier to order the game as I've got my visa, no more hassles with international money transactions (really, cheques. How... 70s...).

My first encounter was, what, in the early 2002? And it's 2006 now... geez.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

I discovered Dominions in the Paradox-Forum http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.
There was a thread about "your desktop" and one of the guys had a Dominions 2 shortcut in his desktop and then a lot of ppl said wow Dominions 2 that's a really good game.
I then quickly looked up a review and got the demo and instantly fell in love with Dominions 2.
Before Dominions 2 i already liked fantasy strategy games a lot. I played much Lords of Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic Series, Age of Wonders Series and the old MTG game from Microprose.
For me Dominions was what Age of Wonders and HoMM should have been. Dominions is quite similiar to them but much much better because it has real variety and some really cool unique features like the upkeep free summons.
If you remember when i was a newb i complained that summons should have upkeep but meanwhile i think the dominions system is better.
Now i am really looking forward to Dominions 3.
But in the meantime i am still very content with Dominions 2 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

For me it was in the Spring and summer of 2003.
In Spring I was, as often, seeking the Holy Grail of fantasy strategy games, as for some years before since MoM... I stumbled - don't remember where - on some web resource directing me to the deep buried IW site http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. It was Dom:PPP time still ! But as I read the game description I was mislead by all the religious references and thought it was some sort of "god game".. Quit without trying it !

Instead I bought AoW2... Played it some, then, in july or so, get bored by the lack of "epicness" of it. But I roamed the AoW2 forums, and some guy (can't remember who..) started a thread on other games, and talked about Dominions. The thread growed and other posted infos and bits about the game.
Now it looked better, I went back to IW and tried the demo.. I think I was hooked nearly instantly, the game smelled of untold deepness http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .
I played solo for a time, then quickly roamed csipg ng, contacted the smallish French speaking Dom community of the time (namely Fa, Nagot Gik Fel, Pocus and Sunray), and had my first MP game, still with the demo !
It acted as some permanent binding spell - I was crushed in this first MP but still remember the first big battles between my proud army of Arco hoplites and elephants and a much smaller Vanheim army... that had much more mages, my hoplites were decimated by Van lightning, my Elephants wounded by Dwarves'Wind Blades, then they routed and trampled my survivors ... ugly !
At that time I realized how deep and rich it was, and I voluntarily bought Dom:PPP just a couple months before Dom2 was released just to "help" IW http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.
Needless to say I wanted to get my hands on Dom2 as soon as possible ! I get it and immediately played it MP.
Since then I've always played Dom2, with 1 to 6 simultaneous Pbems going, never got bored.

Still enthralled and waiting for Dom3 ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

Dom2 was released in the middle of November 2003. The review of Dom2 in CGW and the head-to-head article were both in the issue that shipped to subscribers in December. That's very fast coverage, especially for a small game from an independent publisher, and considering that the magazine has to be put together a month before readers can even see it.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

Thats right I got my months wrong. When I came to the boards, I asked someone when it was released when I first came to the forum. I am pretty sure I was told October, though I can't be sure.

Although I can't check, my wife made me throw out every magazine older than 1 year, I did a search cuz I remember participating in one of the magazine threads.

Heres a quote from it:

Yes, Computer Games (aka CG), and Computer Gaming World (aka CGW) are similar magazines, both excellent, and often confused for each other. The CGW review (4.5 stars, by Bruce Geryk) is on page 67 of their Feb 04 issue (and a game between Bruce and Tom Chick is on pages 120-122 of the same issue), the CG review (4.5 stars, by Tom Chick) is on pages 82-83 of their Feb 04 issue. The CGW articles are what prompted me to download the demo, fall in love with the game almost instantly, order it a week ago, receive it 3 days ago and lose much sleep ever since.

It doesn't help confusion-avoidance that Tom Chick, who's reviews I think are great, writes for both. He also lurks in these forums.


Cheers!

I am one of those types of guys that likes to get things on the day its released. Very seldom will you see a computer game reviewed prior to release, while for Console games, they are reviewed often weeks before release. Honestly the only reason I subscribe to computer magazines is for the previews. If that quote is right, which I assume it is because I came to the forums right after I read the article, Nov 03 - Feb 04 is a long time to wait to see if a game is worth buying or not. At the time I wasn't subscribing to magazines, but even so, its not uncommon to see a 5 month old game reviewed, and even some big releases can be 2-3 months in the wind.

Edit: One interesting note...I just got my Xbox 360 tonight...and after the intial buzz wore off, I found myself back at my computer playing just one more turn.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

I am still playing the demo, can I qualify?

I know how I first saw this game. I am what you could call a game junkie. I love to look at them all, computer games, board games, word games, socking your friend, whatever (what can I say, I'm 15). Anyway, I know what I like in game (sort of). The thing that always tickles me pink is listening to people talk about strategies and interesting facts, like in history books. But they are always long and, of course, they don't really involve you (it has already happened).

So I find games provide the same story telling plus interaction, so you can find out if a different set-up would really make a difference. Board games are one thing I have looked into, but it has nothing to do with Dominions, I will leave that aside.

I have learned the hard way what kind of game I like. I have many different kinds (mostly strategies, though. I knew that from the start). I have a lot of big-shot games, too. And I have played them a good deal, for a while. But there a couple small name games that just bring me back everytime. One is nemesis of the roman empire, great game, rts, look it up. The other wasn't really Dominions until recently.

I have a hobby that I like to do if I got bored, and that is to drift around downloading demos for any game I can find (it doesn't really work anymore, as I have played all the demos I can find that look even remotely interesting). One day I downloaded the Dominions II demo (note: this is how I have gotten every one of my favorite games. All the worst ones were bought before playing the demo.)

So I looked at the interface. I pride myself in how many games I have played and how quickly I can pick up on the controls to a game, so it only took me one or two play-throughs to understand most of what the buttons did (though I had to read the guide to understand the background equations and why everything mattered). I looked at it and I knew it was a good game. I never really lost, as I played easy AIs. I also did not play it night and day. It just ins't my style, I guess. But it was there, in my mind, for a month or so.

Then I went to a friend's house. We didn't know what to do, so I suggested we play Dominions II demo hotseat. We loved it, fell head over heels for it. By the turn limit, we had just been about to fight our first battles (on the second, wrap around map in the demo, rather big for 2 people). He had an incredibly large battle and I had just resummoned my god (who had died to indys around turn 10-15). But we did hit the limit. Neither of us had money, so that was it, game over.

But I can't forget perfection like that, so I found this forum. I saw the N6's and BN's (I am making the shortenings up) and I knew I had to know what you guys were talking about. Had spent ages reading this, and have finally begun to understand some of it. But I knew there had to be another way.

I found the Dominions 1 demo, no turn limit! I sent my friend an email, and we were lost to it again. Again, we don't play it day and night. We are not organized or whatever else you call it to do that. But we agree that it is one of the best games either of us has ever played, and we plan to get Dominions II asap (we considered delaying for Dom III, but who has that much patience?).

I liked reading your stories, btw.

Re: \"How it started.\"
 

The Feb 04 issue did not come out in February 2004 - it came out in December 2003. The date on a magazine is generally the date the newsstand is supposed to take it off the shelf. Nov to Dec 2003 is a little over one month.

The review was in that particular issue because the magazine waits until they can play the game in its final form. If you would like reviews of unfinished games (betas) so that you can see the review the day the game hits store shelves, that's a preference that has been debated endlessly.