How do you guys/gals do it?

Gargoyle711 · #1 October 17th, 2006, 02:39 PM

I played DomII a little, and I'm playing Dom3 now. I've been lurking on this forum for a long time now, but this is my first post.

I love Dom3 and I'm sure with the patches it will be better then ever. One question to all you SP'ers. I've seen so many say that there in their 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc, game. On large maps with lots of AI players. And they finished most or all the previous games. How do you guys do that

I'm in my 3rd game (as EA Ulm)[ edit: MA Ulm ], sure. But thats only because I experimented and quit my first two early. I'm now in a game were I've eliminated one pretender (of significant size) and am battling the strongest AI empire (Ermor). I'm in the 5th year. I've been playing about 3 hours a day for 3 days now.

I may win, or may not. But one thing is for sure, it will take me at least a week or two, if not more to finish.

olaf73 · #2 October 17th, 2006, 02:46 PM

I'd like to know this too. Late games using largish maps (I like Aran) take me FOREVER to get through. I get to about what I consider to be the halfway point in a game and each turn has 10+ battles, 5ish random events and all kinds of other events to take care of.

I really wish there was a way to queue movement orders, commanders and some kind of rally point feature.

Nerfix · #3 October 17th, 2006, 02:57 PM

Willpower and bouts of inspiration. Often I play untill year three and then give up, but that migt be because I am still checking out all the stuff.

Twan · #4 October 17th, 2006, 03:03 PM

I think most people stop big SP games once they are first by far in the charts. I think in 3 years of dom 2 I may have fully finished 3 big games, all others I've stopped around turn 100 seeing I was by large first in everything.

In Dom 3 it's the same, once you have 2/3 of the map and 3 times the research capacity of the first AI, why continue ? (all agressive AI are probably dead, and the others are not going to do anything against a stronger nation). At this point if you want a fast and official victory I imagine you may have it by building temples on all your provinces then clicking end turn until ascension.

Teraswaerto · #5 October 17th, 2006, 03:04 PM

I never finished a big SP game in Dom2, and I imagine it'll much the same with Dom3. The end game against AIs always felt pointless since they don't really know how to play there. Not that it's necessarily easy, since you'll probably be fighting on multiple fronts, but wiping out army after army of chaff gets boring.

Turns take way too long to finish properly too. In MP games long turns are fine since you'll do one a day or something, but in SP not so much.

Ballbarian · #6 October 17th, 2006, 03:04 PM

Don't feel bad. I received my copy on Oct 4th and I am currently mid way through my 3rd game. Keep in mind that I am normally restricted to evenings and weekends due to that inconvenient work thing.

The 1rst game was a medium map with only 6 ai nations.

The 2nd game was using the cumulative victory points (again on a medium map) so was fairly short.

My current game is a large map with all EA nations and I suspect it will take several more nights & another weekend to finish it.

Gandalf Parker · #7 October 17th, 2006, 03:08 PM

I think that few people have seen the "end game" screen in Dominions. I tend to play until Ive "won" but I know who won long before that end-game screen.

dirtywick · #8 October 17th, 2006, 03:21 PM

In general I don't play more than 10 nations, usually more like 6 or 8. I've played huge maps before and generally, after you take out your immediate enemies, you'll see the rest of the AI nations fighting amongst themselves and your power greatly outmatches theirs. It's an exercise in patience to go an steamroll them all and I think the time is better spent starting a new game with a new nation on a smaller map.

Endoperez · #9 October 17th, 2006, 03:40 PM

Sometimes I use victory points in SP games. They give me limit. It's sometimes good, sometimes bad, as the game might end while I still want to try something.

Ironhawk · #10 October 17th, 2006, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Gargoyle711 said:
And they finished most or all the previous games. How do you guys do that

Some people are just gluttons for punishment!

Heheheh, but seriously, you coud do as Endo suggests and set victory conditions. If you get the conditions right, you will officially win around the same time as it would be obvious (to human player) that the AIs could no longer meaningfully fight you.