What it will take for me to purchase Dom III

[PvK]

My first post on this thread, so for the thread topic, I'll buy Dominions III as long as it was made by Illwinter.

Above all, Dominions PPP and II are some of the games I've enjoyed the most over the decades I've been playing computer games. I've played literally thousands of computer games, and these are some of the very best, for my tastes. Still addictively fun after years of play, which is rare.

However I do agree with much of the desires of BigJMoney, Arralen, et al, that I would have even more fun if the mortal units were more viable and the powerful magics (summons, spells) less so.

I'm really sorry I haven't yet had or made the time to finish my Hard Magic mod. I think it would probably be able to mod Dom II to my own taste in ways that could well-satisfy these desires.

At the risk of having someone else mod something that does the same thing before me, so I never get inspired enough to finish my own, I'll throw out what I'd like to see as a solution.

First, I agree with some earlier posts that it's good that Dom II has very powerful magic that should be very hard for mortals to overcome. Where I see the main problem coming in, is that it's so easy and cheap to deploy these powers. Simply put, much of the magic seems much too cheap and easy to me for what it does.

So, my mod-in-the-works increases the path requirements and cost of all magic that is better than on-par with mortal non-magic costs. One can still cast an army-blasting spell or create a super-powerful combattant, but it costs a ton to do and requires seriously powerful mages to do it. So magic is still very useful, but it takes serious investment. Less-used magic also becomes more viable because its cost isn't increased as much (or at all, for things like Corpse Man Construction).

As Arralen pointed out though, the main obstacle to completing a mod that changes the whole economy, is that there is so much content to mod.

PvK