Why such a high price?

[Nerfix]

Yeah. AoW2/SM lacks "it". Dominions I is very, very addictive game. Also, for me, AoW 2 had a huge, burning red BETA tag stamped on it. It was so unstable i could barely play it! AoW 2 "web community" was also, IMO, quite narrow minded and flamed anyone who pointed out that the game had flaws in it, or spoke anything about other games than AoW 2 or AoW.

And Mortifer, play the demo first, whinge after playing demo. Then you might have actual issues to whine about. If you don't want to pay the $45, then don't. I, and i believe others are also willing to happily pay that $45 for Dominions II.
Heck, IMHO, Dominions I demo had more content than the full Version of AoW 2.

[ September 22, 2003, 05:39: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

[LordArioch]

I didnt have stability issues with shadow magic...but it very quickly got to the point where it was just a tedious matter of killing more generic units with my generic units *again*. And attacking towns is just annoying since you either spend far too long to get fragile seige engines to break down the walls or do it with troops. I just dont like the way that 2 turns worth of production can die in a single hit as your troops manage to roll 1 damage.

"Oh look...more *insert any unit in game* for my druids to kill...yay" repeat twice per turn every turn. It just didnt feel fun to me.
Now good old MoM had "it". Even if you could take 11 life books and start by summoning the most powerful unit in the game. The most epic spell in age of wonders is.... Earth Mastery *and the like* whoo...i have domain...wow...

Compared to casting time stop or armageddon in MoM
or some global in dominions like Illwinter...it just feels so minor.

[Nerfix]

Yeah... Dominions starts to feel... apocalyptic when you have Illwinter and Wrath of God active...

And AoW 2 didn't realy miss anything but creativity...
Elves, Orcs, Dwares, BLARGH!
Dominions I and II offer so much more than that game can ever offer.

[ September 22, 2003, 05:49: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

[Potatoman]

Shadow Magic may lack an "epic" feel, but it has quite a bit going for it. A decent user interface, a minimum of micromanagement, and easily decipherable game mechanics readily come to mind. I've played the Dominions demo for quite some time now (I didn't buy the full Version because my friends weren't interested in playing hotseat) and I myself still don't know exactly the effect of, for instance, a weapon reach of 3 compared to a similiar weapon of reach 2. Does it give you an attack bonus? A defense penalty? Just the ability to stay beyond the range of Abysian/summoned heat/cold auras? It's frustrating because there are dozens of small game mechanics that are not explained (or even hinted at) in any manual, fansite or in-game help bar. AGRh.

The upshot is that, of course, with so many mechanics the game itself is quite complex and strategically deep. There is more stuff in Dom I (sheer volume of units and spells)than any other tbs that I have ever played; it may not look pretty, or be useful, or you may not even know what it does, but it's still there and you may use it if you want to. That's what makes it an outstanding, though imperfect, game IMO.

[LordArioch]

Actually the manual tells you what weapon reach does...
I've found that between the few fansites and the manual not only what things do is covered but even a fair degree of the hidden mechanics...like the average unit number needed to supress rebels at a given tax rate, or the odds of hitting a unit based on attack and defense difference.

Shadow magic is for people who want pretty, easy games. Dominions is for people who want diversity and the possiblity to come up with strategy after strategy.

[Pocus]

the weapon reach effect is explained in the manual, but I understand your point : many mechanisms are not, lest you would have a compendium of 2500 pages

weapon reach : if your is greater than your foe, then he has a moral check to do in order to attack. If he fails, he cant attack, if he passes, he takes one hit and can attack.

if you have any question, the csipgs newsgroup could have responded to you. Now that his forum is active, most of you questions you can ask will be answered too I guess.

[Mortifer]

AoW is a totally different game lads. Dominions is not more complex than AoW. Dom does have huge amount of units, spells etc, but 'more' is not means 'better'.
The 2 games are on different overall quality...Frankly I love both games, but Dom II. should cost less than AoW for example.