Why such a high price?

[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.

[Pocus]

more in the case of dominions lead to more complexity. I suppose you'll revise your opinion after having played one pbem of doms, before doing so, I dont think you should draw a so adamant conclusion about the game.

No offense meant, dont feel attacked on anything

[Mortifer]

Speaking about this....DOM 2. will have PBEM multiplayer only? I dont like PBEM..