A wise idea for IW?

Gandalf Parker · #1 February 24th, 2004, 07:40 PM

Im not sure what kindof "tool" could be done for modding in Dom2. Chances are that it would be a seperate program, and the Devs have already said they dont want to maintain multiple EXE's. If it is a seperate program then we may have luck getting one of the players to do one.

And forget paying for patches to help the game. I want to support the game by buying STOCK!
(Hey Im only half serious so turn the flaming to half-broil)

moodgiesanta · #2 February 24th, 2004, 07:56 PM

Eh, whatever they decide to do, I'll follow in suit. Expansion packs, I'll buy. Dominions 3, I'll buy. No matter.

SurvivalistMerc · #3 February 24th, 2004, 09:07 PM

I think we should be expressing our appreciation to the devs of Dom 2.

They actually come to this board and answer our questions about game mechanics. How many other games have that? I remember AoW:SM and Heaven Games. They came by once in a while to make a comment or two. There was no guarantee that they'd come by and answer even a legitimate question when asked politely. Sometimes they'd be gone from the Boards for weeks. JO and KO are a treasure. And I think that their participation on this board goes a long way toward my being happy with Dom 2 even though I paid full price, which was like $50.00 plus some rather high shipping and handling charge.

The mod tools they've given us are excellent. And these tools will make the game playable far into the future with new mods and new maps even if they decide to move on to greener pastures. Which I don't expect they'll do.

I'm going to take the position that we shouldn't encourage illwinter or shrapnel to charge another $20.00 for an expansion unless it has much better graphics. If they want to do that...then let's see what they produce before we either praise them or decide to become disgruntled. IW/Shrapnel doesn't have a history of producing "must have" updates shortly after releasing a game like TSR or Microsoft. And I have a hard time seeing that as anything but a positive as a consumer.

(This is not intended as a rant. But I don't want to join those who praise the graphics of Dom 2. I think they are serviceable at best. But they don't matter all that much so long as the gameplay is rich...I'll agree with that.)

I'm with Gandalf Parker...it would be great to get in on an initial public offering of IW stock.

alexti · #4 February 25th, 2004, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zurai:

quote:
Originally posted by PDF:

And about the price tag, I happen to have bought KotoR some time after Dom2 : with KotoR (40 EUR)I had maybe 20 hours of play, it cost me 2 EUR/hr. And it's over, I don't plan to play it again anytime soon. Even if I replay the game 1 time cost would be 1 EUR/hr.
With Dom I should have played at least 100 hrs, and spent the same time elaborating strategies, reading docs, toyed with modding, etc ... and I'll surely play it for another 100 hrs !
Best bang for the buck gaming investment, and it also made me meet new friends !

You're comparing apples to rutabagas here. Comparing a very linear RPG to a TBS in the hours-played department is sheer folly. At least pick a LONG linear RPG, eg Baldur's Gate 2.

PDF's comparison is perfectly valid. He isn't comparing the qualities of the games, just the cost of entertainment per hour.

Quote:

Originally posted by Zurai:
A better comparison would be Dom 2 vs Civ 3. Civ was buyable at $40 at release, had much better graphics, infinitely better interface, and depending on your preferences and prejudices the gameplay is just as good.

I don't know why you find Civ 3 interface better, it was micromanagement hell on any map larger than small. To make things worse a lot of micromanagement was kind of obvious.

And gameplay in Civ 3 was quite different, so it's hard to compare which is better, it's more about your tastes. I liked Civ 3, but it didn't stay on my drive as long as Dom 2 and Dom 2 is probably going to stay for a few more years. The main reason is that Dom 2 is in the league of its own in the depth of the gameplay. As I see it there're few factors that made it. 1) Unlinked research (each school is independent from each other), unlike tightly-linked Civ 3 tree. 2) Much more significant difference between nations units and their research paths possibilities. 3) intensive research is not directly linked with territorial expansion. 4) Magic gems added a whole new layer to the model.

So combination of these factors produces many more ways to play and strategies. One can only wonder, how they managed to make AI capable of handling this complexity (well, at least to some extent)

Karacan · #5 February 25th, 2004, 02:33 AM

I'll buy Dominions III.

Argitoth · #6 February 25th, 2004, 02:35 AM

An expansion pack will actually pursuade customers not to buy the game.

Low Price + Expansion = Happy Customers
High Price + Expansion = Mad Customers

Arryn · #7 February 25th, 2004, 02:54 AM

This argument over pricing and customer loyalty is ridiculous. The people who will buy Dom will do so regardless of whether the game costs $30 or it costs $50. (Unless they are high school or college kids without much spare money in the first place.) People look at the demo, and either hate the game, or they love it. There's not much in between, and price is usually not the deciding factor. Good customer support is, and Dom has the best. If they don't already love the demo, getting the game cheap isn't going to sway them. Folks who are unsure about the game aren't likely to shell out even $30. What they'll do is look at reviews, come here and do some homework, and then reconsider whether they'll buy or not.

So the real qustion is whether having IW go through the enormous bother of creating an expansion pack is worth their time, and the patience and goodwill of the customers who already own the game. Note that I don't say the customer's money, because most Dom fans will pay for anything that IW publishes. Period. They might grumble about it, but they'll do it.

That pretty much leaves it at whether it's worth IW's time. Frankly, no. The development effort for an expansion pack would be almost the same as for Dom III, and IW couldn't charge as much money. Plus, to make things even worse, they'd increase their support costs in both money and time. Not a good idea.

Best if they stick to their present business plan, which is put out "small" (2.08 wasn't small, per se) patches as they have the time and willingness to do so, while seeing how well Dom 2 sells, before they jump into any new major programming tasks (like a Dom 3).