comparison shopping

[mercurycs]

Hello all,
I was just wondering what everyone's thoughts were on this game compared to other similar games on the market. The price for this one is a little steep in my opinion. I will probably end up buying it if enough people say its good though. How does it compare to other similar games??? such as medieval:total war, or age of wonders:shadow magic. how is the AI?
I can't find any reviews that really say anything useful.
Is there modding capabilities or a chance i could add some enhanced graphics to this ( the graphics are quite poor in my opinion, but I can overlook that if the gameplay is solid)
Also, how in depth is the city management? I love dealing with small adjustments and all that micro-management. I hope it has alot of management.
I cannot find a manual to download and the demo is very difficult to figure out without one.

please respond, thank you

[Truper]

Can't tell you how Dom2 compares to MTW or AoWSM, as I haven't played them. Did play the original AoW, though, and while a direct comparison is hard, for breadth of choices and subtlety of strategies and tactics, Dom knocks AoW socks off.

Modding capabilities will be added in the 1st patch, which should be out soon.

There is no city management to speak of. There is considerable management of units, magic gems, and the like. If you like to build 10,000 structures a la SMAC, Dom is not for you. If you want your choice of 17 very different nations, a magic system that includes literally hundreds of different spells, a slew of units with unique capabilities, and are genuinely someone who prefers strategic possibilities to eye-candy, buying Dom2 will be the best 50 bucks you ever spent on games.

[sfsuphysics]

Originally posted by mercurycs:
How does it compare to other similar games??? such as medieval:total war, or age of wonders:shadow magic. how is the AI?

Well never played MTW, but did play shadowmagic (granted a while back), now shadowmagic is much more pretty, it has a more polished look to it, and looks like it was made in this decade. It is a basic strategy game along the lines of RISK, where you move your "pieces" into a square, and they fight using whatever rules you set up, or as the AI sees fit, casts magic, summons monsters, retreats, whatever so there is very little interface with the combat aspect of the game. The game is pure strategy, build up troops here, cast spells to summon, hire heros and forge magic items and let 'er rip. Compared to AoW:SM where you can actually control indivudal units etc, you dont have a armies in SM, you have stacks, in Dom2 you have armies (in the sense that you can easily have 200 people fighting on either side, obviously this would suck if you had to move each piece).

I can't find any reviews that really say anything useful.

well its not surprising, Shrapnel usually deals with low key games, not exactly cutting edge on anything, just a company has an idea for a game, they pitch it at the publisher (shrapnel) it gets bought and they run with it and make it work. That being said they do often have a lot more in the way of 'support' for games I've noticed, I mean you take a game like Space Empires 4, and there have been patches up the ying yang that have come very late when other companies (Infrogrammes [aka 'atari'] comes to mind with Master of Orion 3) give up on making it a GOOD game, because the profit isn't there anymore.

Is there modding capabilities or a chance i could
add some enhanced graphics to this ( the graphics are quite poor in my opinion, but I can overlook that if the gameplay is solid)

I'm unsure about the mod capability, since that won't be implimented until the patch is released, but from what I gather the patch is done, just silly people are waiting until all the platforms are done at the same time *grumble* As to graphics, I honestly wouldn't look to upgrading them yourself, that takes A LOT more skill(and time) than most would probably realize, and would you really want to spend that much time making a game graphically better? If you can upgrade, I suspect inserting sprites (or whatever they use) would not be terribly difficult, since they are flat 2d models. Gameplay isn't so much solid, as is addicting, you really need to like a game like Master of Magic or that genre to want to play this game IMHO. Even though the two games dont play anything alike.. As I mentioned, RISK with sorcery and stuff.

Also, how in depth is the city management? I love dealing with small adjustments and all that micro-management. I hope it has alot of management.

city management is non-existant I'm sorry to say, you have territories, and you can build a temple (increase your dominion), a lab (the ability to cast spells/forge), and a fortress of some kind (city, castle, wizards tower) that provides the Last line of defense if someone attacks you and lets your troops stay inside the castle. You can do things like adjust taxes, but if you're looking to the sort of management like Shadow Magic or MoM, where you want to build a Blacksmith shop or something, you're going to be out of luck.

I cannot find a manual to download and the demo is very difficult to figure out without one.

please respond, thank you

Like I said this game isn't for anyone. And without pissing off too many people here (and hoping there's no rules about posting negative stuff), this is a game that really belongs in a bargin bin, where if you pick it up for $10-$20 you'll can have some fun playing it.

I'd stick with the demo a bit to see if you can figure it out, that demo is the full Version, just crippled after I think 60 turns.

[mercurycs]

ok, I'll stick with the demo for a bit and give it a serious go. I do wish it were more along the lins of Master of Magic, as that is my favorite game of all time, but I know that there will never be MoM2
You have given me some great information and I certainly appreciate your help.

[Sammual]

Originally posted by mercurycs:
ok, I'll stick with the demo for a bit and give it a serious go. I do wish it were more along the lins of Master of Magic, as that is my favorite game of all time, but I know that there will never be MoM2
You have given me some great information and I certainly appreciate your help.

This game knocked MoM down to #2 on my all time PC game list.

Sammual

[Darryl]

You like Master of Magic huh? Well as a recovering MoM addict I must say you HAVE to learn Dominions. Don't believe me? Well I asked about Dominions about a month ago. Gandalf among others gave a pretty good direct comparison to MoM in the thread here:

MoM Addict seeking New Dominions

By the way, it isn't very difficult to learn the demo with the included instructions. It's freakin impossible to learn the demo with that little flimsy pdf thingy! Check this out:

Dominions II Walkthru

Follow that walkthru. It is EXCELLENT.

I don't know how you are about games, but I hardly buy any. Bought Dominions after about 2 weeks with the demo. Last game I bought was in 2000 (HOMM III). I've been pining for MoM2 for years. No more. I'm on the same road as Sammual: MoM may soon be relegated to "2" on my personal all time list. Dominions is not MoM2, but the basic aspects that addicted me to MoM (tons of options, varying gameplay without scenarios, replayability, epic proportions) are present in Dominions.

And feel free to ask questions here. "RTFM" doesn't seem to be a phrase used much here

Darryl

[olaf73]

Its a fun game. If you can get past the initial learning curve, its worth the money. Although I agree with you, for a low budget game the price they are asking is questionable.

The walkthru link posted earlier in the thread is a must, IMO.

olaf

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by mercurycs:
I cannot find a manual to download and the demo is very difficult to figure out without one.

Look here too:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000172

Anyway, I also suggest you play with the demo a lot. Once you figure out how to play, Dominions will grab you and you will not be able to escape. It will haunt your dreams, and if you delete it from your hard drive (like to pass finals), you will download it again and play some more. And eventually you will realize you have to buy the full game.

[Gandalf Parker]

A lot of things are said about this game. Difference of opinions on alot of it. But if I were to look for a common agreement it would be this....

If you like strategy, and can get past the learning curve of this game, it will survive on your computer longer than any other game you can buy for that price.

Eventually you might toss it. But I feel safe in gauranteeing that it will take a much longer than average time to get there. Even the ones that toss it tend to feel they got their money worth compared to most on the shelf games.

[PvK]

I much prefer Dominions I or II to AOW2, Total War, and MOM. Lots more interesting stuff going on, and much better done, in the areas I mainly care about, which are the tons of creative and original stuff which is well balanced and created carefully and with humor. Each game plays differently, and I'm constantly learning and seeing new things.

AOW2 has more detailed graphics, and tactical control during battles, but there are far fewer unit types, and I hate the combat system, so those don't really end up being advantages as far as I'm concerned.

In Total War the strategic game is just a framework to give context to the tactical battles. The tactical battles in that series are quite interesting, and offer several things not found in Dominions, but that's because it's really a very different kind of game.

Master of Magic is fascinating in its own way, but I always found it very buggy in the many Versions I played, and the AI was disappointing to me. Without multi-player, that meant handicapping oneself in various ways, which was still lots of fun. However Dominions has its own style, which I very much prefer, and has tons more stuff in it.

PvK