Tell me about the mods please...
 

Considering getting Dominions 3. What do mods offer? Are they simply graphical mods or gameplay mods or AI mods or additional units, etc. mods???

What are some suggestions and why?

Thanks,

Javaslinger

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

Dom3 mods offer- new unit and nation graphics, new gameplay, new units, new spells (or fewer), new magic sites. Pretty much you can mod most functional things in the game. If you count map modding you can also create interesting scenarios and twists on the normal gameplay. What you can't mod are the user interface, the ai, bless effects, pretender design points or the occasional miscellaneous thing like forts.

I don't know what you're looking for in terms of suggestions, so I can't help you out there. If you've played the demo and you enjoyed it you'll probably enjoy dom3. If you played the demo and you didn't enjoy it you probably won't. If you played the demo and enjoyed it but maybe it wasn't exactly what you were looking for... give it a chance, there's a lot more variety and options in the full game, plus you can do all sorts of interesting things with map and nation modding if somehow none of the base nations are to your liking.

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

The answer is YES. They are all of that.

There are graphical theme mods that change the colors and screens and backgrounds.

There are AI mods which seek to improve the AI, or at least toss some surprises in.

There are Unit mods which add entire new nations based on new themes historcial or based on someones favorite books and games.

And there are mods which try to offer an improvement on gameplay by tweaking items they feel need balancing.

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

We need more graphical theme mods, by the way :)

Oh and don't forget, we have some amazing map-makers out there, designing custom maps, and even whole scenarios to go with them. Not quite my sort of thing, but amazing efforts, and really valuable to have access to.

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

Don't forget Dominions 3000, a mega-mod which seeks to transform Dom3 into a sci-fi game....

The continuing (and free) patches from the developers add new content. Most other games would bundle that content into an expansion pack and charge $30 or more. Add the plethora of mods & maps, and Dom3 is the gift that keeps on giving. :)

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

And soon to come, the extra-vanilla mod which turns the game into a game of Chess. (all nations equal with no special abilities)

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

While there are some improvements on graphics (different UI images, different background images), gameplay/AI (making most independents unit unavailable for recruitment, so that AI armies can only recruit better independents), most mods add a nation.

Some add an alternate version of an existing nation (New Faith for Ulm or different era for Machaka), some add existing nations from different games (Skaven, Night Elves), some add new nations from myths the vanilla game doesn't cover (my Kalevala mod, still under construction, and lots of other stuff) and some are made up by the author (Alugra, city of superheroes; Amos' various mods, e.g. Travelers).

Conceptual Balance strives for making spells and magic items and pretender choices and perhaps even some nations/units that are weak in vanilla more in line with more powerful choices. The changes are mostly small, but there are so many of them that it can be hard to learn to play in it.

I'm composing a mod that adds a bunch of magic sites, but it's the first of its kind. We only got ability to add scale effects and recruitable units/commanders (outside of capital-only sites) in the last patch, but those lazy betatersters didn't test that the commands actually work so the mod can't reach its final form before we get another patch.

And as was mentioned, there's maps. Besides looking different, many mapmakers add little something into them. Something like few fully equipped Cyclops with their construct bogyguards guarding a victory point province. :D :evil

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

I'm really looking forward to your site mod, Endoperez. And I may (someday) get to test your Kalevala mod. I'm very wary of downloading anything onto the laptop, because it's the only non-work computer we have that runs, and it's very, VERY shakey, but Kalevala will still be the first new mod Nation I'll be testing out :)

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

It's also worth noting that making your own mods is quite easy and the mod making tools are powerful if you're willing to think creatively.

The major stumbling block for people is graphics, but you can always use and modify graphics already in the game.

Re: Tell me about the mods please...
 

And the more graphics you do, modifying or making them, the easier and better they get.