Some people have expressed concern about the fact that Dominions 3 "only" seems to add new nations, new spells, new items, etc, and that the changes in user interface, graphics etc are so negligible that it should be marketed and released as an expansion, not as a new game.
I think this is mostly because the game feels that same. We see the new screens, and now what the different things are, we see the new spells, and can tell that e.g. Pillar of Fire probably is some kind of Aoe 1 damage dealing spell, perhaps with a minor effect to the surrounding area á la Thunderstrike.
However, most of us probably hope to get a game that will feel as huge, as unique, as different as DomII (or Dom:PPP) felt when we first tried it out. It can't be that - this is only a sequel, not a totally new game. If sequels are changed too much, they are not what we want. If we want something new, we shouldn't ask for Dominions 3, but for Illwinter to make a new game. The game feels the same, and it
should feel the same. It doesn't have to be totally different - it has to have enough to make us want to play it
again. IMHO it's the small things that make sequels better than the originals.
The fact that blood slaves could be pooled into the laboratory wasn't a big chance in the feature list, but it did allow playing blood nations using only a fraction of the time it would've taken in Dom:PPP, and thus Mictlan. The possibility of pooling was the real reason clam-hoarding only came up in DomII. Automated taxes might not do it, but it seems that gems a commander is carrying are seen from the strategic view. This should make it much easier to manage magical resources - you can tell with a glance if the mages have the gems they need (at least, you can if you know your mages by name). It isn't a choicebox to make mages save gems, but pooling isn't perfect, either. They are small changes, and hopefully, the game is full of them.
We haven't really seen much important stuff from the screenshots. The battles seem to have stayed the same, with minor updates in graphics, and possibly some kind of line formation. However, the main strategic view should be much more important. Has anyone else noticed that we can see available gems at the main screen? They are under the national income/upkeep, which have been separated from the provincial income/upkeep. The units in a province can be seen from the main map view, also.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/illwint...een_agarta.jpg
This is a surprising picture, in many ways. Did you notice that there is one Agartan giant in the province, with some kind of a rake, but 0 supplies are consumed? And Death 3 with a nation of giants? Those armored guys seem to be twice the size of soulless, and they are everywhere. What kind of giants don't have to worry about food?
And that Shamash has lots of Earth gems, a Fire gem, and is preaching. Earth/Fire priest? Quite a lot of nature gems, as well - Earth/Fire priest and enough Nature magic to feed armies of giants?
Of course, this might also go under
Quote:
Rebalanced rates for income, supply, and resources enable larger conventional armies.
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Just how large are these larger conventional armies!
As you can probably tell from that over-analyzing, I have quite high hopes for the game myself. However, I learned my lesson with DomII. It was Dom:PPP, but better. I shouldn't have expected something as epic as Dom:PPP was when I only knew two nations and my greatest accomplishment was killing the enemy AI's Sphinx as Ermor (which could only be what is Ashen Empire nowadays).
The feeling of difference
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