What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Dear all,

I bought dominons II a while ago and thought it was a good game, not the best ever but deffinitely a good game.

I downloaded the dominions 3 demo and honestly can not find a single thing different.

Same graphics, same battles, same build options

I think the full game has added a few extra races but dominions II had lots of races. What has been significantly added to the gameplay?

I am not trying to upset any hardened fans, as a casual fan I just want to know why I should upgrade to Dominions 3?

Ta

Captain Kremmen

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Well, besides the new races (including the likes of Kailasa, which rely heavily on the improved national spells), the new mechanics (like the fact that Kailasa's White Ones reincarnate into new bodies, and awakening of course), the updated inner workings of old spells (Decay causing rapid aging instead of killing, Horror Mark and Horrors updated, all protection spells making you vulnerable to something), the updated mechanics (Water path increasing defence instead of allowing Water mage to go underwater, dominion values 9 and 10 giving Awe)...

well, Dominions 3 has more similar stuff, some totally new stuff, some balance updtes, and lots of updates to modding, and the changes to economy, and changes that help against micromanagement. If you're interested in trying out some mods, or perhaps making a mod yourself, Dominions 3 looks very promising.
Also, the game's also worth it just for multiplayer. Most old players here have updated to Dom3, and the game's very different in multiplayer. The balance changes are more visible in these games. "Okay" strategies aren't good enough unless you get lucky. In DomII, armies weren't really used, and summons rocked from very early on. In Dom3, national units have uses for much longer. Legions of Steel and Strength of Giants are suddenly good spells, and get used.

If you are content with the single-player of Dominions II, these don't matter. In that case, the only reason to buy Dominions 3 would be if you wanted even more stuff, with a shinier, more stream-lined interface (taxes handled automatically, easier to handle armies attacking the same target from different provinces)... and the manual. The games comes with a huge paper manual that explains almost all the rules from repel to battles to heat aura to poison damage to stun to fatigue effects to blesses (some new ones, like the aging mechanic, were seemingly missed), all the nations get a short overview and an example strategy, and then there's a short but VERY useful chapter about strategies in general. The manual also lists all the spells (except national global), all items, etc. It has its own chart for path-boosting items! Also, unlike the DomII manual, this list is efficient and fast to use, and shows more actual numbers. It lists all the summon spells and the stats for the units they give, or at least give one as an example (in the case of e.g. Cross Breeding or Bind Demon Lord).

See the missing spells for an example of what the manual would be like in this regard:
http://download.shrapnelgames.com/do...l_Enchants.pdf

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

I guess someone has to compile a list of important changes, because somehow developer, publisher and marketing team failed to do so. Result: very, very few Dominions3 reviews, less than Dominions2 reviews.

- All nations split into eras: early, middle, late. No longer you have seemingly weak* nations placed against devastating war engines, such as Tien Chi: Barbarian Kings against Arcoscephale in Dominions2.
Eras also serve a bit like difficulty setting.
Early era has lots of magic (6 from capitol), few archers, no crossbows, no knights and few units with lances, and heavy infantry has 10 protection. There are some very powerful mages to recruit in early era, or even divine beings.
Mid era is quite similar to Dominions2 and most of your old friends are there.
Late era is quite decadent, having nations like TC:Barbarian Kings, Black Forest/Iron Faith Ulm, C'tis: Desert Tombs, a bit corrupted Marignon, R'lyeh:Dreamlands etc. Late era has fewer magic, lots of heavy armor, and crossbows are possibly as common as bows in early age.
- There are no special themes, each nation is independent. As a result, you're no longer forced to take any scales to play any nation (except common sense - preferred heat etc). You can experiment more.
- Some new nations: Japanese-ish Jomon/Shinuyama/SomethingElse, Sauromatia, Kailasa/Bandar Log/Patala, Marverni (Celts-Gauls), Agartha(subterrean/troglodytes/etc), Helheim, Lanka (last patch),
Some nations/themes gone and are now national global spells:
Carrion Woods, Soul Gate...
- There's 2x more supplies, 2x more gold income, and research is 2x harder by default. National units see much more play. Buildings are 2x more expensive, too.
- There are very varied and defined random magic picks now, for example machakan mages have FEDN in addition to their static paths. This means nations have certain magical identity they never had before.
- all independent mages became weaker, to promote use of national ones.
- no one seems to be complaining about SC's anymore. They complain about bless strategies, which are more powerful than ever.
- At the start of game, pretender may be awake, dormant, or imprisoned for extra design points. They wake after some time. Scales and blesses aren't bothered by sleeping pretenders.
- old age mechanic: some more powerful mages (and few regular units) start old, resulting in penalties to stats, and occasionally causing aflictions, eventually disease and death. Many ways to remove aflictions won't remove ones caused by old age.
Growth scale reduces chance of getting old age afliction, as opposed to Death. Nature magic greatly increases mage's lifespan. Death magic reduces chance of getting old age aflictions. Fire magic users live slightly shorter (5 years/level ?)
- much, much more national spells. In extreme cases, like new nation Lanka, around 15 spells exclusively available to one nation.
- interface improvements. Scouts now visible on map. Same for commanders with gems or aflictions.
- suprisingly good random map editor. And maps generated by it are visually much prettier than I expected.
- Ghost Riders now level9 and requires around DDDDDD.
- You can no longer choose your fort type. Fort type now depends on province's terrain. This makes many provinces strategically important, and makes watchtower spam impossible. And people actually use other forts now.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

I agree, its pretty much the same. There are some new units, new spells, but thats about it. A couple of small new features.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

I think dominions 3 is worth it just from the manual.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Well regardless that the "engine" is the same, Doms 3 is a must have for all Doms fans, am I right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
there are many new awesome stuff in the game, so I wouldn't say that it's the same btw. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

The biggest change I noticed is national units actually get used now. From Dominions_2 I recall most of my armies being summoned creatures... like 95%. Now with Dominions_3 early and mid game are most units which are purchased with gold.
So you have actual national troops marching for each nation instead of stacks and stacks of summons.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

And the AI actually builds castles ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

... and you haven't known fear until you have the dom3 AI starting to attack you with 1500+ units armies

And when you win against such an army, you truly feel epic

Of course you can also lose, as even a force of double-blessed elite units can die from fatigue against such numbers.

SC are less dominant in dom3 and, it's a good think : you can still have an unit that can win against large armies (by dom2 standard), but it will be more a way of raiding your opponents that winning the war.

As the AI construct castles now, and as a lone SC cannot hope to harm the walls, armies are now really used even in the late game.

^_^

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

New and improved game inbalances and bugs. More double-blessed sacred troops, a detested age system, shields more effective against arrows than air shield or maxed air blessing, the AI not reducing castle defense properly when sieging, less variety because special dominions were removed, etc.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Dont be so critical cainehill http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif imo it has changed for the battle(most overpowered things have been weakened but blesses are very good now).

Alot of new nations, units, spells and the addition of national summons is very nice.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Cainehill is just living up to his sig, bitter taste indeed... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

There aren't that many more double-blessed sacred troops that are overpowering, the few that are good are just much better than they used to be. Still, it is rather visible in blitzes. Vanheims, and Helheim, are exteremly strong as an example.
Many people dislike the aging system, but many others find it fitting. No one actually likes their expensive mages dying, of course, but few people like how it sometimes makes most expensive mages worse for e.g. research than younger ones.
Shields AREN'T more effective than Air shield, even though going through the formula math would suggest so.
There is some kind of a bug that makes AI inefficient at besieging. There are many other bugs, too.
Themes have been removed, so the recruitable troops will always be the same when someone plays a spesific nation. Of course, the fact that randoms have been changed and/or limited to be spesific to nation and mages, and the fact the old summons most often used to diversify magic have also changed, makes differences between nations' magics more widespread. That improves diversity. The fact that national units are used also increases diversity. Of course, it's not as diverse as it would be if the themes were still in AND we had these changes, as they change diversity of slightly different things and in slightly different ways.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the effort. Deffinitely sounds like an evolution of Dom II rather than a revolution.

Unfortunately I only play it single player, so not sure yet whether a good buy for me. As I live in the UK it can be expensive.

The changes you mention all sound good, and I do like the sound of the manual

Ta

Andy

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

I live in the UK and play alot of SP too, its great http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. You should try to get into some MP server games as you only need to give up a few minutes each day, you get alot of time to think about your next move and its both fun and challenging.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Currently I play only single player as well. I played dom2 for 2 years and loved it. I had the same concerns as you. The demo doe not give a good view of the changes made in the game. It was well worth the money. This is from a guy who usually never spends more than $10 on a game.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Maybe i overlooked it in the prior postings: The new battle graphic engine shows actually the damage of each hit with red numbers. Much like in World of Warcraft or Guild Wars.
I also play mostly single player but won't go back to Dom2.

Re: What is difference from Dominions II???
 

Dom3 is actually cheap for UK buyers because of the strong pound at the moment. You will pay around 34.99 pounds for Dom3 at the moment if you order from shrapnel games using a credit card, this includes posting and packaging. Most UK games are 35 quid new, the collectors editions are 40 - 45 quid at the moment for most games. So Dom3 is a bargain for the weeks/months/years of play it will give you.