Comparing it to Civ 4..

[ttomm46]

Hi
i know it's a weird question but i need something to lose myself in on a daily basis..Lost my fiance and would like something to really immerse in.
as far as Civ 4 the late game is gets slow due to ling AI turns..Want to play mostly single player..Is it good compared to Civ?
also i posted awhile ago and i can see my previous post so i apologize if this is a double post.
Tom

[Ironhawk]

Sorry to hear about your loss

Dominions 3 is definitely a great game. Up there with Civ, in my opinion. However, I feel that Civ4 has a far stronger single player game. While Dominions3 SP will challenge you, as a new player, for a good amount of time I don't think that it can compete with Civ4 in that arena.

That said, Dom3 totally blows away Civ when you turn to MultiPlayer. The range of strategies and tactics is just mind boggling, even after playing for some time. Ample room to lose yourself in!

[Cor2]

if you like customizablitiy this is the game for you. i have played every civ up until civ4,why not civ 4? Because i have dominions.

If you like modding this is the game for you. If you like player made mods, same.

buy it.

And join MP, there are two diffrent ways to join mp games on servers or play by email, both are free.

[sector24]

This game is far more complex than Civ 4. Civ 4 is awesome because over the decades they game has become incredibly streamlined and the game has a general big budget polish. But it's also pretty straightforward, Civ 4 never got "boring" for me but the games frequently played out the same way, and they really bogged down once you got to the late game.

Dominions 3 on the other hand will take you hours and hours just to get a handle on the game's intricacies. Then after you think you've got a handle on it, if you play as a different nation it's like starting all over. And there's so many nations, even the vets haven't necessarily played them all. This is a good thing though, this game will keep you occupied for years if you want it to. The incredible complexity of Dominions 3 makes it the perfect game to get lost in.

Civ 4 wins on graphics and streamlined interface, but part of playing Dominions 3 single player is learning how to manage your nation with the minimum amount of micromanagement. Once you get it figured out the game moves at a good pace. I play full games with me vs. all the AI nations and turn generation is usually under 5 minutes on an old crappy laptop. For a reasonably powered desktop I think turns can generate in a minute or two. This is also subject to how you set up the games. If there are 1500 provinces of course the turns will take a little longer.

You can also read a review of it here:
http://www.odstudios.com/article.php?anum=311

[Velusion]

IMHO Civ4 is a better single player game (though dom3 is still plenty fun single player).

Dom3 is a MUCH better MP game though (the best 4x turn based MP game I've ever played actually).

[ttomm46]

thanks all..you've been helpful.

[Sombre]

Every time someone asks if dom3 is worth buying, I always feel the need to give them this answer:

If you are willing to use player made mods, Dom3 has more content (in terms of units, spells, nations, graphics etc) than you could ever hope to get tired of.

If you are willing to mod, Dom3 is one of the most mod friendly games ever and the amount you can do is surprising.

If Dom3 had no modding, I wouldn't be half as into it as I am. As it stands, I will keep playing it for years to come. I wish it had better SP, but the MP is so strong that it almost makes up for it.

[Lingchih]

Well, to put it simply, I'm a Civ Fanatic. And I love Civ 4. That said, after Dom 3 came out, I haven't played Civ 4 at all. (I must confess to taking a break to play Galactic Civilizations 2 every once in while though).

[Caduceus]

ttomm46 said:
as far as Civ 4 the late game is gets slow due to ling (sic) AI turns..

The AI processing gets longer in Dom3 as well. I don't play most games to extinction of other races, but they tend to get longer and longer.

I think that the SP mode to Dom3 is challenging (to a newbie to me) and MP will regularly clean your clock.

[LDiCesare]

Late game in Dom 3 can be at least as boring as in Civ 4. Make sure you set victory conditions to f.e. victory points else you'll have a boring end game chasing the last atlantian out of its last sea province.
Dom3 is very moddable. Of course, contrary to Civ 4, you can't mod everything since you don't have the source code, so people who tell you that dom3 is great because of its mods are not comparing it to civ4, as civ4 is 100% more moddable.
Civ4 can be extremely enjoyable. The Fall from Heaven II mod, where everything is remade, magic added in the game, where the world changes based on your actions (armaggeddon counter) changes the gameplay more than any dominions mod can ever hope to.
This said, I like dom3 more because there's always so much to discover in this game.