Was going to buy the game and then!

AAshbery76 · #1 July 31st, 2005, 12:44 PM

I found out it had no A.I diplomacy.What a let down, the game looked great.I really hope the next version has serious AI.The developers should know most folk only play single player games.

quantum_mechani · #2 July 31st, 2005, 12:53 PM

The thing is, thematicly, there should not really be a lot of diplomacy going on anyway. Yes, it would be nice if you could get weak AIs to submit to joining your pantheon, but it really does not hugely detract from the game. And also, why not multi-player?

Evil Dave · #3 July 31st, 2005, 01:22 PM

Even if you figure it's a war with only one victor, there's tons of reasons for allowing diplomacy -- the big one is not everybody wants to fight everybody else all at once.

One player may have a strategy that depends on high-level spells, so he wants to grow quietly until he gets them. Another may believe he's weak against one other race, and wants to concentrate on wiping them out first. Or player A is clobbering B, and then is attacked by C, and would like peace with A (or A and B want to co-operate to fight C).

I'd like the addition of pantheons or alliances, too, but I'm willing to wait for that if it would take a lot of work on the AI.

Endoperez · #4 July 31st, 2005, 01:39 PM

The developers made this game to be a multiplayer game first, and single-player game only after that. It shows, mainly in the shortcomings of the AI. I don't know if this is going to change even for the sequel, because Illwinter team has only one programmer.

Zooko · #5 July 31st, 2005, 01:48 PM

Fine with me if A Ashbery doesn't buy the game. I don't want Illwinter/Shrapnel to spend their time and money trying to improve single-player mode when they could spend it instead trying to improve multi-player.

Ballbarian · #6 July 31st, 2005, 02:28 PM

Don't sell single player short. I just don't have time for more than a little multiplayer. Even then it's only PBEM with a friend of mine. My time to sit down to a game varies and is too inconsistent to make regular turns. That said, it's still a solid game. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Scriptable ai would be a great addition to the game. Don't give up on Dominions Ashbery. Even with the ai's shortcomings, it is still an enjoyable game.

PDF · #7 August 1st, 2005, 05:04 AM

Lack of AI diplo can look like a big gap at first, but I can't remember of any game that has better than a ridiculous diplo AI (maybe except GalCiv, and even). In the end it does not detract much from the game, you should reconsider this as a minor point in fact ...

Oversway · #8 August 1st, 2005, 09:18 AM

I completely agree with PDF, I can't think of a game good diplomacy AI.

Ballbarian · #9 August 1st, 2005, 09:48 AM

It wasn't perfect, but Civilization - Call To Power had pretty good diplomacy, and you could edit the ai. No, it wasn't as good as human diplomacy, but still made for a entertaining game. A later version (Call to Power II) added some more interesting features, but broke the diplomacy in my opinion.

magnate · #10 August 1st, 2005, 10:00 AM

To say that AI is only important for SP is to miss a lot of gaming potential. The most interesting games I have played were a mix of players and AI nations.

I totally agree that a simple diplomacy interface is necessary. It's my number one wish for Dom3. It doesn't have to be complex - I agree that games which try for "realistic" diplomacy models usually come unstuck (eg. MoO series) - but a simple interface for buying peace would be a start. Almost any race will leave you alone if you give them enough gold and/or gems (or blood slaves, items, provinces, etc.). That would make playing the harder SP games much much more satisfying. Instead of having to beat all the AI nations at once from early on(which is really not realistic, until you have become a significant global threat), you can buy them off for a while.

Add to that other functionality like persuading an AI nation to declare war on another nation, entering into research-sharing treaties etc. etc. and you have some great enhancement to the game for fairly minor effort (once you have coded the basic interface for transactions).

Ultimately it would be good to allow allied armies to fight together and move through each other's provinces, but I'd understand if that was a little beyond what Illwinter saw fit to program. Being able to sue for peace with the AI is a must though.

CC