What is difference from Dominions II???

[Captain_Kremmen]

Dear all,

I bought dominons II a while ago and thought it was a good game, not the best ever but deffinitely a good game.

I downloaded the dominions 3 demo and honestly can not find a single thing different.

Same graphics, same battles, same build options

I think the full game has added a few extra races but dominions II had lots of races. What has been significantly added to the gameplay?

I am not trying to upset any hardened fans, as a casual fan I just want to know why I should upgrade to Dominions 3?

Ta

Captain Kremmen

[Endoperez]

Captain_Kremmen said:
Dear all,

I bought dominons II a while ago and thought it was a good game, not the best ever but deffinitely a good game.

I downloaded the dominions 3 demo and honestly can not find a single thing different.

Same graphics, same battles, same build options

I think the full game has added a few extra races but dominions II had lots of races. What has been significantly added to the gameplay?

I am not trying to upset any hardened fans, as a casual fan I just want to know why I should upgrade to Dominions 3?

Ta

Captain Kremmen

Well, besides the new races (including the likes of Kailasa, which rely heavily on the improved national spells), the new mechanics (like the fact that Kailasa's White Ones reincarnate into new bodies, and awakening of course), the updated inner workings of old spells (Decay causing rapid aging instead of killing, Horror Mark and Horrors updated, all protection spells making you vulnerable to something), the updated mechanics (Water path increasing defence instead of allowing Water mage to go underwater, dominion values 9 and 10 giving Awe)...

well, Dominions 3 has more similar stuff, some totally new stuff, some balance updtes, and lots of updates to modding, and the changes to economy, and changes that help against micromanagement. If you're interested in trying out some mods, or perhaps making a mod yourself, Dominions 3 looks very promising.
Also, the game's also worth it just for multiplayer. Most old players here have updated to Dom3, and the game's very different in multiplayer. The balance changes are more visible in these games. "Okay" strategies aren't good enough unless you get lucky. In DomII, armies weren't really used, and summons rocked from very early on. In Dom3, national units have uses for much longer. Legions of Steel and Strength of Giants are suddenly good spells, and get used.

If you are content with the single-player of Dominions II, these don't matter. In that case, the only reason to buy Dominions 3 would be if you wanted even more stuff, with a shinier, more stream-lined interface (taxes handled automatically, easier to handle armies attacking the same target from different provinces)... and the manual. The games comes with a huge paper manual that explains almost all the rules from repel to battles to heat aura to poison damage to stun to fatigue effects to blesses (some new ones, like the aging mechanic, were seemingly missed), all the nations get a short overview and an example strategy, and then there's a short but VERY useful chapter about strategies in general. The manual also lists all the spells (except national global), all items, etc. It has its own chart for path-boosting items! Also, unlike the DomII manual, this list is efficient and fast to use, and shows more actual numbers. It lists all the summon spells and the stats for the units they give, or at least give one as an example (in the case of e.g. Cross Breeding or Bind Demon Lord).

See the missing spells for an example of what the manual would be like in this regard:
http://download.shrapnelgames.com/do...l_Enchants.pdf

[B0rsuk]

I guess someone has to compile a list of important changes, because somehow developer, publisher and marketing team failed to do so. Result: very, very few Dominions3 reviews, less than Dominions2 reviews.

- All nations split into eras: early, middle, late. No longer you have seemingly weak* nations placed against devastating war engines, such as Tien Chi: Barbarian Kings against Arcoscephale in Dominions2.
Eras also serve a bit like difficulty setting.
Early era has lots of magic (6 from capitol), few archers, no crossbows, no knights and few units with lances, and heavy infantry has 10 protection. There are some very powerful mages to recruit in early era, or even divine beings.
Mid era is quite similar to Dominions2 and most of your old friends are there.
Late era is quite decadent, having nations like TC:Barbarian Kings, Black Forest/Iron Faith Ulm, C'tis: Desert Tombs, a bit corrupted Marignon, R'lyehreamlands etc. Late era has fewer magic, lots of heavy armor, and crossbows are possibly as common as bows in early age.
- There are no special themes, each nation is independent. As a result, you're no longer forced to take any scales to play any nation (except common sense - preferred heat etc). You can experiment more.
- Some new nations: Japanese-ish Jomon/Shinuyama/SomethingElse, Sauromatia, Kailasa/Bandar Log/Patala, Marverni (Celts-Gauls), Agartha(subterrean/troglodytes/etc), Helheim, Lanka (last patch),
Some nations/themes gone and are now national global spells:
Carrion Woods, Soul Gate...
- There's 2x more supplies, 2x more gold income, and research is 2x harder by default. National units see much more play. Buildings are 2x more expensive, too.
- There are very varied and defined random magic picks now, for example machakan mages have FEDN in addition to their static paths. This means nations have certain magical identity they never had before.
- all independent mages became weaker, to promote use of national ones.
- no one seems to be complaining about SC's anymore. They complain about bless strategies, which are more powerful than ever.
- At the start of game, pretender may be awake, dormant, or imprisoned for extra design points. They wake after some time. Scales and blesses aren't bothered by sleeping pretenders.
- old age mechanic: some more powerful mages (and few regular units) start old, resulting in penalties to stats, and occasionally causing aflictions, eventually disease and death. Many ways to remove aflictions won't remove ones caused by old age.
Growth scale reduces chance of getting old age afliction, as opposed to Death. Nature magic greatly increases mage's lifespan. Death magic reduces chance of getting old age aflictions. Fire magic users live slightly shorter (5 years/level ?)
- much, much more national spells. In extreme cases, like new nation Lanka, around 15 spells exclusively available to one nation.
- interface improvements. Scouts now visible on map. Same for commanders with gems or aflictions.
- suprisingly good random map editor. And maps generated by it are visually much prettier than I expected.
- Ghost Riders now level9 and requires around DDDDDD.
- You can no longer choose your fort type. Fort type now depends on province's terrain. This makes many provinces strategically important, and makes watchtower spam impossible. And people actually use other forts now.

[Ironhawk]

I agree, its pretty much the same. There are some new units, new spells, but thats about it. A couple of small new features.

[Folket]

I think dominions 3 is worth it just from the manual.

[DominionsFan]

Ironhawk said:
I agree, its pretty much the same. There are some new units, new spells, but thats about it. A couple of small new features.

Well regardless that the "engine" is the same, Doms 3 is a must have for all Doms fans, am I right?
there are many new awesome stuff in the game, so I wouldn't say that it's the same btw.

[NTJedi]

The biggest change I noticed is national units actually get used now. From Dominions_2 I recall most of my armies being summoned creatures... like 95%. Now with Dominions_3 early and mid game are most units which are purchased with gold.
So you have actual national troops marching for each nation instead of stacks and stacks of summons.

[PDF]

And the AI actually builds castles !

[Jack_Trowell]

... and you haven't known fear until you have the dom3 AI starting to attack you with 1500+ units armies

And when you win against such an army, you truly feel epic

Of course you can also lose, as even a force of double-blessed elite units can die from fatigue against such numbers.

SC are less dominant in dom3 and, it's a good think : you can still have an unit that can win against large armies (by dom2 standard), but it will be more a way of raiding your opponents that winning the war.

As the AI construct castles now, and as a lone SC cannot hope to harm the walls, armies are now really used even in the late game.

^_^

[Cainehill]

New and improved game inbalances and bugs. More double-blessed sacred troops, a detested age system, shields more effective against arrows than air shield or maxed air blessing, the AI not reducing castle defense properly when sieging, less variety because special dominions were removed, etc.