Hi, I'm Jim. I'm a Dominions Addict.

[sansanjuan]

Jim,
Love your music BTW.

One setting not to be underestimated is graphs on/off. When they are on it's easy to pick out the top dogs and act appropriatly. When they are off... it's easy to pick and ally or enemy who is not what you expected stength-wise. Some chart stuff is misleading, e.g. "army size" where someone with 500 undead vs another with 15 kitted Tarts, but the rest will show significant, actionable, information via magnitude and slope. In my two games I'm playing in one of each and think both are interesting to play in.

Also remember most blesses become muted late game as they become duplicated by high level spells (some req gems) and accessable by many nations (and not limited to buffing sacred units). Scales are forever though.

One thing that makes this game so great is creating a plan unique to your nation's strenghts, plan for world domination and be flexible enough to scrap it, re-evaluate, and create a new master plan "B", and "C", etc. as the changing situation warrants. If you are attacked by Ermor your tactics will likely be very different than if the attacker is Eriu. Unit placement, spell scripting, attack scripting, temporal collation of orders, unit reinforcements, item usage, battlefield prep rituals, etc. You'll often wonder (esp. after losing a close battle) "Damn, if I would have done "X" instead of "Y" victory would be mine.".

Although you've heard..

research (inc. gem searching, getting capable MUs)- HUGE

diplomancy - HUGE

-SSJ

[JimMorrison]

Really appreciate the replies everyone. <3

Indeed, research and indies were what I was most concerned with. Both change the pace of the game so vastly..... And while I've played a bit already, not enough so that I can fluidly shift gears from fast paced to slow paced.

I must admit, I am pretty excited to see what diplomacy is like in MP here. I'm just becoming aware of how common trading and such is, which makes complete sense but I am more used to games where people won't trade with a potential enemy for any reason whatsoever. I guess the lines blur a lot when it's completely understood that "there can be only one".

Anywho, any of you guys can feel free to host a game, and I'd gladly join, struggle, weep, and plot revenge.

[LDiCesare]

You can look for games needing subs, there are some of them right now. New games also start quite often, or you can start one yourself or ask llamaserver if he's interested in hosting yet another game.

[Ylvali]

Welcome aboard Jim. You won´t be disappointed.

Be careful about joining too many games. Focus on one or two. I did this mistake and after a while it became too time consuming. (especially if you are successful)

See you on the battlefield.

[JimMorrison]

Thanks Yivali, fortunately for me, this is a good time to get into this, because I have a lot of free computer time.

As far as subbing for someone, I've seen the posts..... I don't really feel comfortable trashing someone else's empire, when I haven't even learned how not to trash my own yet. I mostly wanted to know what game settings to train myself on for MP, that sort of thing, so I can make the adjustment from SP to MP.

[LDiCesare]

Temp subs may be a pain if you trash them, but you can't do worse than stale turns, and any permanent sub is usually better than letting a player go ai and screw whatever diplomacy existed.

[Tyrant]

Temp subbing is not for a newb, but coming in as a permanent replacement is good way to get a glimpse of the later game without a big investment of time or emotional attachment.

As to settings, the VPs are pretty variable, but, as others have said, the basic game settings are usually standard or close to it.

Worthy Heroes is by far the most common mod. It's simple and easy, all it does is add and improve the national random heroes.