Why such a high price?

Pocus · #1 September 24th, 2003, 10:25 PM

i played AOW SM to the end of the campaign. I appreciated the extended scripting work they put in the campaign. But it was often rince and repeat. Most of the time you would use a good chunk of your mana to cast enchanted weapons on your best units for example.

And talking about play balance, they should perhaps take some courses. special city improvement for Orcs : drain life. Cool, now the most dreaded Orcs Warlords drain life. Special improvement for Elves : hide town. Cool, with the AI playing without fog of war (ie cheating), I really appreciate the **fine** (ahem) game equilibrium.

WraithLord · #2 October 2nd, 2003, 06:35 AM

I was quite disappointed by AOW-SM.
Of the three added races only one has good units/abilities and feels unique(nomads).
The shadow demons are beefed up undead.
The syrons are sadly a ragtag of half thought units.

I once suggested in their Boards to add a doppelganger unit that can shape shift to slain enemy. I was very happy to get a changeling unit.
Alas, it's completely useless. It can only shape-shift to a slain enemy killed in melee.
so if it killed an archer it's stuck there. The AI will use it horribly, changing to low level units. I wish they would have given more thought to creating unique units.

Edi · #3 October 2nd, 2003, 07:55 AM

I don't think �45 is a high price to pay for Dom II.

As for AoW, my thoughts: the original AoW was and still is one kick-*** TBS game. I played that a whole lot, and still love it. It was especially good on some of the excellent maps like Jason Hickman's Reign of Terror (Middle Earth), or Dix's Hunters of Blood I and II, and many others, and especially when you played with leaders off. Playing without leaders eliminated head-hunting strategies and the AI actually started getting aggressive and became a challenge. It was good, and some of those maps really had an epic feel to them.

AoW2 has no possibility of playing with leaders off and is nothing but headhunting (or otherwise just map-crawling) with repeating the same tactics ad nauseam. I didn't like it very much after playing about halfway through, and I'm not sure I'll buy Shadow Magic at all. Quite a few of the original AoW crowd have dropped out of sight for some reason or another, and many have shared my views completely or partially.

DomI on the other hand just rocks, and so will DomII. Can't wait...

Edi

Zerger · #4 October 2nd, 2003, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Edi:
I don't think �45 is a high price to pay for Dom II.

Indeed. Doms 2. will be a very unique TBS game. It's worth of 45 bucks.

[ October 02, 2003, 13:11: Message edited by: Zerger ]

Yojinbo · #5 October 2nd, 2003, 02:55 PM

It's gardening vrs comercial farming in my opinion. I will drive further and pay more at a farmer's market for a fruit grown with care by an orchardist or small farmer.

I have no objection paying Shrapnel a good price, knowing that a higher percentage is going to the devlopers. I would rather pay Shrapnel $39 then pay a Huge retail-focused publisher $29.

The fruit you get from a gardener (small farmer) is just better.

[ October 02, 2003, 14:31: Message edited by: Yojinbo ]

HJ · #6 October 2nd, 2003, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LordArioch:
In dominions, flagellants are decent cheap blessable attackers but are HORRIBLY exposed to missle fire.
Also the dom 2 blessing with air that protects against missile weapons is probably pretty decent on its own too.
However, when the two abilites are combined you have more effectiveness than just the sum of the two seperately.

Would you care to enlighten the DomI newbie about how can you target your units in a manner that you are sure that your flagellants will be the ones getting the missile protection, and not your heavy cavalry? My mages always tend to cast spells on the targets I don't want them to, and this lack of control can be a bit frustrating (not to mention friendly magic fire incidents). I would enjoy the game much more if I wouldn't spend half of the time yelling "NO, NO, don't target them, target the other guy"....

Psitticine · #7 October 3rd, 2003, 04:20 AM

There's no way to directly control magic targeting, but (from what I've been told and have read about Dom I) the AI does seem much smarter about where to put the protection spells in Dom II as well as which ones to use.

No AI is perfect, but I've noticed it takes into account both vulnerability and value (i.e. those vulnerable but sacred flagellants would get a higher priority for missile protection than vulnerable but cheap militia).

I'm not sure about this, but it does seem that mages and priests also slightly favor troops in squads under their direct control. That Last might just be a misleading fluke, however.

[ October 03, 2003, 03:21: Message edited by: Psitticine ]