Dominions 2 Demo - Manual petition to Illwinter

[Therlun]

hiho, i'm the Therlun Boron spoke of.

and indeed, the demo did not make a very good impression on me (i even remembered playing it a loooong time ago, with the same result).

while i'm pretty sure not all of what i disliked is linked to missing game-knowledge, several things certainly are.
i dont think the manual alone will help much, though.

personally i dont need to see advanced game content (e.g. high level summons) to buy a game. i want to know what makes it a good game. and the demo completely fails here.

if it glances at PBEM-MP games-> great! but how should i know that before buying, if it is a real pain to arrange/start a MP session? (if it is possible with the demo at all)

if it has a very complex battle system with a distinctive balancing offering endless possibilities for army composition -> fantastic! but how shall i see that if in the most cases i dont even know if an attack/spell did any damage/use at all?

this and a hundred other little issues prevent me from liking dom2, simply because i dont understand/know them, and it is very difficult to find them out "by hand".

many of my problems with the game could probably be solved by playing a few sessions(full game) and the complete game documentation.
the point is, i cant be sure! perhaps the game is the confusing, fiddly mess the demo was (for me).

i dont know for sure how to solve the demo issue.
however i know it is pretty uninviting right now.

[Alneyan]

Therlun said:if it glances at PBEM-MP games-> great! but how should i know that before buying, if it is a real pain to arrange/start a MP session? (if it is possible with the demo at all)

if it has a very complex battle system with a distinctive balancing offering endless possibilities for army composition -> fantastic! but how shall i see that if in the most cases i dont even know if an attack/spell did any damage/use at all?

Hello, and welcome! The first point should be the easier to check: a look at the multiplayer discussions forums will show the current activity in the field of multiplayer games, and it *should* be possible to host a game with the demo (though that would require all players to use the demo to the best of my knowledge).

The second point is another matter: Dominions does provide a lot of information, but most of it is not made available directly. More specifically, you can replay your battles, and see what went correctly (and what didn't), but you will not get direct output saying that "the Fire Darts spell dealt major damage to the enemy army".

This can make for some interesting experimentation, but you should be able to find specific information you need on these boards, if you would rather not go into the lab yourself for some experiments.

Liga how did you manage to teach 14 people how 2 play dom2. Every time I try I fail miserably and end making the person hate the game.

[sushiboat]

As a newbie who played the demo in late December 2004 and bought the game shortly thereafter, the lack of a manual didn't bother me. The in-game information -- mouseovers and right-click -- told me much of what I wanted to know. I will say, however, that spell and item descriptions are often so vague as to be useless. Even now, before I try a new spell or item that requires a substantial investment, I do a search on this forum to see what it really does and whether people feel it is worth the cost. Of course, unless the manual's descriptions are expanded quite a bit -- which seems impractical -- I don't see a way around the problem. As the game reviews say, the game has a steep learning curve. That comes with its complexity and richness.

Therlun's comments just go to show that this game (or anything) isn't for everyone. Some people won't like it no matter how detailed the information is. There are some aspects that I don't like, but I see them as minor flaws in a very enjoyable game. Other won't get past the flaws.