What the hell is up with Dominions 3???

DominionsFan · #1 March 18th, 2006, 09:23 PM

Thx for the translation Evil Dave!

shovah · #2 March 18th, 2006, 09:32 PM

i LOVE you lace

but seriously thanks a bunch for translating that

OG_Gleep · #3 March 19th, 2006, 02:41 AM

Wow. 20 nations for each era? That is crazy. 500 additional units....thats potentially a lot of new nations.

It seems though that now themes are going to be seperated into full fledged nations, which is cool. I wonder how that is going to work for MP? Are games going to be decided based on era? The sense I got however was that era would define which way a nation leaned on the magic scale. Does anyone have any more detail on this area?

As for buzz. Buzz is created in a couple ways. By the press, and by word of mouth. Word of mouth however is fed by a number of sources, but the biggest is probably printed and online media. There are some pretty big dominions fans at CGW and I am pretty sure I remember reading positive comments in PCG as well. There are a couple different preview phases that are in each magazine.

On a related note, when did the Ads first start appearing in magazines? Ad campaigns can start up to a year before release however (longer if the game gets delayed). But it is a good sign that the release is getting closer.

PS. I thought it was funny, the French Magazine linked in this thread has a forum. On that forum is a Dom III thread, much like this one from what I gathered. In that thread, they link to this thread. Its a small world after all. =)

Nerfix · #4 March 19th, 2006, 06:23 AM

Thanks for the translation. Intresting stuff.

Alneyan · #5 March 19th, 2006, 10:01 AM

The thing I was wondering about is, why had Shrapnel not officially announced its involvement in Dominions III? While a full blown section may not be feasible at the moment, a mention in a press release (or the Release Schedule) would have been enough to make sure that Dominions III *is* going to be a Shrapnel game (alternatively, a post on the forums like Tim's below, or a mention at Illwinter's site). Or did I miss an official announcement from Shrapnel prior to this thread?

I know I care quite a lot about the publishing part, even more than about the developers for sequels. It was Shrapnel's publishing Dominions II that made me hear about the game again (even though I already knew the game), and a change in publishers could have made me drop Dominions altogether. And of course, the publishing area should never be taken for granted: Stars Supernova comes to mind here.

With Shrapnel's involvement in the game officially known, I will sleep tight now; additional information can always come from Illwinter or third party websites. Then again, perhaps I'm in the minority who actually cares about who the publisher is, and who will drop a game solely because it is published by, say, [Insert your most disliked publisher here] (Ubisoft, EA, you name them).

Tim Brooks · #6 March 19th, 2006, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Or did I miss an official announcement from Shrapnel prior to this thread?

We announced our involvement over a year ago.

A few notes:

Computer Games Magazine, in their February 2006 issue, listed Dominions 3 (half page write-up) as one of the Most Anticipated Games of 2006.

Word of mouth. A number of you in this thread mentioned word of mouth as an important marketing tool. It is THE MOST IMPORTANT marketing tool. Every game we have had that has had a huge following, has gotten there not by advertising, reviews, interviews, etc, but by fans word of mouth. It is the most effective form of promotion. So talk up Dominions 3 and Dominions II!

You must remember we are still selling Dominions II and although there has been a slow down in recent months, it is still usually one of our top 3 or 4 sellers. Selling Dominions II is the best way of promoting Dominions 3. No?

Much more coming v-e-r-y soon. Awakening soon...

DominionsFan · #7 March 19th, 2006, 10:58 AM

I am very excited about Doms 3. I was playing Doms 2 with a few of my friends, like 20-30 hours all week, however I wasnt playing on the net with you guys. We gonna change for Doms 3. Me and my friends will all buy Doms 3, needless to say, and will play on the net as well. The only thing why we was not playing Doms 2 on the "net", thats because PBEM is kinda slow, if you dont know the rest of the players very well. Is there a possiblity for Doms 3, to add additional MP part? Like a game lobby, and the ability to host games from there? I know that doms 3 will be a slow paced game, like Doms 2, its like chess. However the same is true about Civilization 3-4, 1 turn can take 3-6 mins even, or more if the game is big. There you can save the MP game, and all players just load it back, and continue playing.
So all in all a game lobby -> hosting/reloading games directly would be a better option then a PBEM system. I am pretty sure that it would work flawlessly. Tim or anyone can post some opinion about this, also may I ask, that in the vanilla game we only gonna have PBEM MP system like in Doms 2?

Alneyan · #8 March 19th, 2006, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Tim Brooks said:

Quote:

Or did I miss an official announcement from Shrapnel prior to this thread?

We announced our involvement over a year ago.

Browsing through the Archive of Arcane Lore (okay, so it was Google), there was indeed a press release to this effect back in October 2004. Well, I guess I was sleeping back then.

I stand corrected and withdraw my point. What Shrapnel should do is, really, imprint souls so that information isn't overlooked (or, worst of all, forgotten!).

NTJedi · #9 March 20th, 2006, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Tim Brooks said:
Word of mouth. A number of you in this thread mentioned word of mouth as an important marketing tool. It is THE MOST IMPORTANT marketing tool. Every game we have had that has had a huge following, has gotten there not by advertising, reviews, interviews, etc, but by fans word of mouth. It is the most effective form of promotion. So talk up Dominions 3 and Dominions II!

I agree, but besides the recent foreign interview us fans have received very very little information. As a result when friends and relatives gather then someone tosses the question: "Hey any new games coming out?"....... the gamers haven't heard or seen anything new about DOMINIONS_3 and thus no word of mouth.

Quote:

Tim Brooks said:
You must remember we are still selling Dominions II and although there has been a slow down in recent months, it is still usually one of our top 3 or 4 sellers. Selling Dominions II is the best way of promoting Dominions 3. No?

Well it shouldn't be your only way of promoting... within the last 10 months there has been very little promotion for Dominions_3. Since Dominions is one of your top selling games it should definitely have an advertising strategy which grows upon getting closer to the release date.

If you want WORD OF MOUTH to work... give those future customers "continously new info" to use for spreading the word. The ohhh lets do advertising only the last 3 months is definitely not the best method.

PDF · #10 March 19th, 2006, 01:41 PM

10 mins a turn in the first 5 turns of Dom2 means they don't know what they should do. You just have to fill a recruiting queue, change a couple tax sliders, modify one or 2 armies, possibly a couple scripts, and move your 1-2 armies.
Less than 2 minutes for me since after my first 20 games