I see Dominions and similar games as hobby gaming.

[DominionsFan]

Teraswaerto said:
I guess the difference would be in that instead of saying "my hobby is computer games" you'd say "my hobby is Dominions 3".

Some games can be like that, you don't really play "computer games", you just play World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, Dominions, etc. (there's no time or need for anything else ).

Yep, you are right actually. I guess everyone is focusing on 1 game. I used to play WoW only for a couple of months for example, but it was just boring after that period, also I had no time to play it anymore, since you can't do anything in WoW if you cannot play when raids are on.

Amos said:

I liked parts of MOO3, like tactical combat. But the game was unfinished. You dont release unfinished product like that and then close the shop.

That's funny, as what finally stopped me from playing it anymore was that all attempts of fan-released patches fro the tactical combat failed. The strategical game is awesome imo, it's just very different from what's common and the manual crap. But if you've read a the guides from the devs and learned how to work with the management AI not against it it works really well. It reduces micromanagement so much the only thing i usually have to do is designate planets to be colonized, set up some building guidelines/select planet designations, and update ship designs. The only real problem in the strategic game is that the AI won't scrap obsolete mines/farms.
The tactical game on the other hand was tragicly bugged, most notably everything evolving around visibility (sensors, ECM and ECCM). The result is that the only two viable lategame setups for ships are one-shot missile launchers that immediately withdraw, or carriers with a lot of point defense. And those bugs were hard-coded and not fixed in the final patch. Ever since that i hate Atarigrames with a passion.

IMHO all PC games are hobby games. If you want the product bad enough you will pay what ever price is asked. Its called inflation.

Well, in my view a lot of newer games are more like movies than games. There was a time when you could expect to get 50+ hours of gameplay out of every game released. Nowadays you get stuff like Half-Life 2.

[Amos]

That's funny, as what finally stopped me from playing it anymore was that all attempts of fan-released patches fro the tactical combat failed. The strategical game is awesome imo, it's just very different from what's common and the manual crap. But if you've read a the guides from the devs and learned how to work with the management AI not against it it works really well. It reduces micromanagement so much the only thing i usually have to do is designate planets to be colonized, set up some building guidelines/select planet designations, and update ship designs. The only real problem in the strategic game is that the AI won't scrap obsolete mines/farms.
The tactical game on the other hand was tragicly bugged, most notably everything evolving around visibility (sensors, ECM and ECCM). The result is that the only two viable lategame setups for ships are one-shot missile launchers that immediately withdraw, or carriers with a lot of point defense. And those bugs were hard-coded and not fixed in the final patch. Ever since that i hate Atarigrames with a passion.

I completely agree. I liked the idea of tactical game not the implementation. The idea was very original and IMHO should be used in more space strategy games.