My lovely, intelligent, computer-game-playing wife Lace has generously translated the first page of the article Tyrian posted. The second page is illegible. Her French is a little rusty, but she's gotten the main points.
[The first question and answer boil down to "Why another Dom?" "It's fun and the fan support has inspired us."]
Cyber: Can you tell us quickly what are the main changes and innovations of Dom3?
KO: Dom3 will be called "The Awakening".
Cyber: Awakening?
KO: When you make your pretender, it will be asleep, imprisoned by the previous Almighty. With the departure of this predecessor, the demigods and spirits of the world awaken to take its place. When you define your pretender, you chose if you god is also awakened or if it's still asleep [at the beginning of the game?].
The game allows new pretenders, new kinds of objects, and around 1,500 units (Editor: vs. 1,000 in Dom2). The new magics are specific to certain nations. There will be a generator for random maps which gives pretty maps with chains of mountains and special sites. Some nations will now have their cities underground. The mods will be easier to make, and more elements of the game will be modifible: the nations, the recruitment lists, the effects of dominion, etc.
The graphics will be better with prettier battlefields. The AI will be able to build forts. Supercombatants have been weakened, or rather, drain life has been. The economy is more generous, to allow maintainance of larger armies. We have also tried to reduce micromanagement and make the interface more accessible.
Cyber: We'd like you to tell us about the new nations, and the concept of "eras" that replace the themes of Dom2. What are these new concepts, and how do these eras work?
The nations and themes have been remade and organized in three eras. The first era is the most mythological, with weaker technology and richer magic. The themes of the old nations have been organized in these eras. For example, Jotunheim has been transformed into three nations: Niefelhiem, Jotunheim, and Utgaard. Not a big change there. But other nations don't exist in all eras: Marignon doesn't emerge until the intermedia era. Another nation called Maverni could be considered its predcessor. The Maverni are a nation of scheming tribes of druids and vergobrets (editor: Gallic chiefs!). This nation is inspired by the Celts, as described in Caesar's _Commentaries on the Gallic War_. First era Ermor is not at all what it has developed into [in later eras]: it's a nation before its fall, with pontifs, flammen, and augurers. (editor: Roman priests and diviners). There are also nations inspired by the history, myths, and folklore [illegible] Japanese or Hindus. We presently envision twenty nations for each era.
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Merci beaucoup a Tyrian pour la texte originale, et les apologies pour le Francais pauvre de Lace.
(Many thanks to Tyrian for the original text, and apologies for Lace's poor French.)
Also thanks to Tim Brooks for the tantalizing tidbit! That really helps keep my interest up for Dom3.