Dom-III discussion at GalCiv

[JaydedOne]

Brad said:

I think Domininions 2 is the best fantasy strategy game that has ever been made. It has depth, it has expandability. And while some may not like the graphics, the entire game is easily moddable and third parties have made some incredibly cool stuff for it.

I have no doubt that Dominions 3 will be the same sort of thing. It's a great game.

I also am very certain that there is a significant subset of GalCiv II players who are likely to enjoy Dominions just as I think there's a lot of Dominions players who are likely to enjoy GalCiv.

But more to the point -- we're all on the same side here. Shrapnel and co. are our kind of people. We should do what we can to support them. The world is a better place with games like Dominions.

If fantasy strategy or hard core strategy games like Dominions aren't your cup of tea, that's fine. But I think it's a great game and the people who make it and the community around it is wonderful IMO.

A class act indeed. Not many devs would glow like this about another dev's product, especially when Stardock has long been rumored to be interested in eventually following up on Master of Magic.

But he's right about the fact that these are exactly the games that the community needs to support. I bought both GalCiv 2 and Dom2 because of the fact that they were obviously works built with heart by smaller developers and released against odds in a market that's becoming more and more consolidated and accordingly less willing to challenge thinking gamers. Both games have a number of wrinkles that are easy to point out; but you'd expect that given the fact that they don't have a paid full-time QA team, to say nothing of the inability to pump tons of money into development of graphics, AI, etc. Frankly, I'm thrilled that they're as fantastic as they are and when I ask for improvements, it's with a deep respect for everything accomplished thus far.

[DominionsFan]

Yeah it was a very nice thing from Brad to post news like this about Doms 3.
Oh btw it seems that Brad is visiting these forums. ->

"..But I think it's a great game and the people who make it and the community around it is wonderful IMO..".

[BigJMoney]

Very, very well put, Archon. I've noticed in many games with strong AI that players confuse good AI for poor AI when it's actually the AI doing something intelligent without the player realizing it. I remember this happening some in Black & White. I've heard numerous tales of designers crafting AI systems that seem to be misbehaving, but then find out later that the AI is actually getting something done in a way the developer never thought of. I'm sure even the largely disappointing Radiant AI of Oblivion achieves this sometimes.

=$= Big J Money =$=

[alexti]

I've seen it in Dom2 few times too. Something surprising happens and your army faces totally unexpected opposition. Your scripts make no sense anymore, but AI switches the plan and score the victory using tactics you have not even thought about. Unforgettable feeling! Unfortunately it doesn't happen often

[Agrajag]

BigJMoney said:
I'm sure even the largely disappointing Radiant AI of Oblivion achieves this sometimes.

I'm sure that woman standing in the middle of the road and staring into a brick wall is up to some serious, tricky, intelligble trouble.

[BigJMoney]

Hells, yeah. While you sit there laughing at her, her partner in crime just picked your pocket.


...maybe.

=$=

[Frostmourne27]

What I know about the Oblivion AI development was that 'supposedly' they had to nerf it, otherwise all the A.I. controlled creatures were too unpredictable. i.e. if you left the goblin cave for late game, the goblins would have all move out, or attacked a town and been slaughtered by the rediculously overpowered guards that beat anything the touch
Too bad, since it could have been a great game, though it has a few other problems (compass too powerful, fedex quests, fast travel reduced imersion etc) It's still an okay game though, just not dominions quality. And the graphics are sweet.

[Fremen]

Well, I was reading the discussion over at the GalCiv2 forums, and it made me concerned that Dom III wouldn't be a good fit for me seeing as how I'm most likely to be playing it SP due to time constraints. I was going to pose this question here to get a feeling for what people thought about DOM III as a purely SP game.

However having read this thread here, I think I've answered my own question.

I'm currently playing GalCiv2 and I enjoy the game quite a lot. Have I found ways to thwart the AI there in an exploitive way? I think I have once or twice. But that hasn’t prevented me from enjoying the game; it’s human nature to figure these things out. It hasn’t broken the game for me.

So if the AI in DOM III isn’t perfect, I’m not worried. I think I’ll get my money’s worth, and from the comments here from people who have far more DOM experience than I do, I believe I’ll have a lot of fun along the way. I’ve only played the DOMII demo, and I love the flavor and balance so far. I have not found it overly complicated in any way, but I’m ravenous to get into some of its depths which is absent in so many other games.

Brad and the developers over at Stardock go out of their way to keep their game fresh and to keep their customers happy. However on that forum I find an unfortunately high percentage of people who seem incredibly unhappy no matter what support they get and seem unappreciative and demanding. I’m not in anyway labeling everyone that way, but there are times when I can’t help but wonder how moral isn’t impacted some days. So I take the DOM criticisms there with a grain of salt, and give kudos to the Stardock team.