Any news on DOM-III

[NTJedi]

I didn't like the battles and battle maps in the Disciples series. Heroes_III was the best of the Heroes series so far.
Dominions_III will most likely be greater than Civilization_IV... hopefully they are planning some marketing strategy.

I recommend dropping of CD-Demos at the big software chains like Software Etc. , E.B. , and Best Buys.

[PrinzMegaherz]

If you like the fantasy strategy with a bit more depth than homm or disciples, I recommend you Ogre Battle for the Snes. You can find both the emulator and the game on the net, and believe me - it will keep you busy until dom 3 has been released. Granted, the graphics are not up to date any more - but I consider Dominion players to prefer gaming depth over cutting edge technology anyway.

[Zen]

NTJedi said:

I didn't like the battles and battle maps in the Disciples series. Heroes_III was the best of the Heroes series so far.
Dominions_III will most likely be greater than Civilization_IV... hopefully they are planning some marketing strategy.

While I appreciate your devotion to Dominions I think that last statement is ludicrious. Civilization IV has much more money behind it and will undoubtedly be a better overall game than Dom3. The mechanics and gameplay of Dominions 3 might be more attractive on certain levels and I know will be another fantastic game, I don't think it's fair to judge Dominions 3 against a juggernaut like Civilization. Especially after seeing the screenshots and concepts.

The same goes for HOMM V. While you can tell nothing from the screenshots and you don't know if they failed to recapture the magic of HOMM 3. Ubisoft has poured money into the development and has a very good QA team (not multiplayer servers however).

I am certain however that Dom3, just like Dom2 will age very well and provide something that none of the current TBS or TBS-hybrid will. And knowing IW's track record, will be supported much better.

[Boron]

Zen said:

While I appreciate your devotion to Dominions I think that last statement is ludicrious. Civilization IV has much more money behind it and will undoubtedly be a better overall game than Dom3. The mechanics and gameplay of Dominions 3 might be more attractive on certain levels and I know will be another fantastic game, I don't think it's fair to judge Dominions 3 against a juggernaut like Civilization. Especially after seeing the screenshots and concepts.

Almost anybody i know was extremely disappointed by Civilization 3.
And though Civ 4 has a bigger budget i don't think it can beat dominions 3.
I have not read anything about Civ 4 but i know Civ 1-3.
Civ 4 compared to Dom 3 will be like sudden strike compared to combat mission. It will just lack depth.
Warfare in Civ 1-3 was extremely simple and i doubt that it will change a lot in Civ 4.

[RibbonBlue]

Um? Zen are you connected with illwinter? Cause your last post sounded like you where?
Sorry, for asking but im new here.
And in my opinion:
Dominions2>all games
If dominions3>dominions2
Then Dominions 3 > all.
I have jsut never played a game with so much strategy and tactics and content.

[NTJedi]

Zen said:
Civilization IV has much more money behind it and will undoubtedly be a better overall game than Dom3. The mechanics and gameplay of Dominions 3 might be more attractive on certain levels and I know will be another fantastic game, I don't think it's fair to judge Dominions 3 against a juggernaut like Civilization. Especially after seeing the screenshots and concepts.

In my opinion... Civilization_III is not as good as Dominions_2 on several levels. First combat and combat strategy is much more unique and detailed. Second there's more of a real feeling to controlling hundreds or thousands of units in dominions... unlike CIV. Third more unit types exist in Dominions. Fourth No real commanders in Civilization just units. The list goes on... but to sum it up currently the only advantages that civilization_III has over Dominions_2 is diplomacy and a better editor. I will probably buy both CIV_IV and DOM_3... but if I could only choose one it would be DOM_3.

Zen said:
The same goes for HOMM V. While you can tell nothing from the screenshots and you don't know if they failed to recapture the magic of HOMM 3. Ubisoft has poured money into the development and has a very good QA team (not multiplayer servers however).

Hopefully HOMM_5 will be great... that's more of a wait and see. HOMM_4 was a wreck of design.

Zen said:
I am certain however that Dom3, just like Dom2 will age very well and provide something that none of the current TBS or TBS-hybrid will. And knowing IW's track record, will be supported much better.

Hopefully the DOMINIONS_3 editor will be more user friendly... then we'll see more maps. I recall AgeofWonders:SM and Heroes_3 as having the best editors for TBS.

[Gandalf Parker]

I wish I could remember what games had editors that can create maps with the right size and style of map icons that people want. We could work on a "how to convert to Dom2" page for it

[FrankTrollman]

Civ III was indeed a dissappointment. It was more complicated and pretty, but not actually better than Civ II.

Indeed, the best that series ever got was Alpha Centauri (which was made by a different company, but the same people, so it's part of the series). Brian Reynolds is doing Rise of Nations, which is real time, and Civ IV promises to still not actually have the original staff that made Civ II so astoundingly awesome.

Alpha Centauri II is not on the table, and the people doing Civ IV seem to still not actually get it, so there's no help from that quarter. HoMM in all its incarnations has always been a great game, but has also never ever been good in multiplayer and there's just no reason to play it that way.

Seriously, other than Dominions III, what turn-based strategy would you actually play with and against your friends? My Crystal Sphere doesn't see all that far into the future, but I'm just not seeing anything else even being offered that is going to be a decent TBS multiplayer game. This is a genre that has been completely lost to the Playstation Generation.

The closest competition Dominions III is going to have from anywhere is the next installment of Advance Wars for the Nintendo DS.

-Frank

[Reverend Zombie]

Zen said:

While I appreciate your devotion to Dominions I think that last statement is ludicrious. Civilization IV has much more money behind it and will undoubtedly be a better overall game than Dom3.

More money probably has a reasonably strong correlation with better production values, but surely what is the "better" overall game is going to be in the eye of the beholder.

[Zen]

FrankTrollman said:
Indeed, the best that series ever got was Alpha Centauri (which was made by a different company, but the same people, so it's part of the series). Brian Reynolds is doing Rise of Nations, which is real time, and Civ IV promises to still not actually have the original staff that made Civ II so astoundingly awesome.

Which incidentally the new RoN looks awesome. But I have higher hopes for Civ4 simply due to the fact that they have made advancements and recognized their mistakes and in Civ4 rectifies most of them AFAIK. I still don't think it's an accurate comparison to put Dominions in the same caliber of game as one that has a budget in the millions. I love Dominions and will love Dominions 3, but like with any other game there are things which need improvement and lessens the game experience. (Such examples might be UI, micromanagment, etc.) This may vary from person to person what people feel should always be included in every game, whether it be graphics, UI, etc.

Seriously, other than Dominions III, what turn-based strategy would you actually play with and against your friends? My Crystal Sphere doesn't see all that far into the future, but I'm just not seeing anything else even being offered that is going to be a decent TBS multiplayer game. This is a genre that has been completely lost to the Playstation Generation.

Laser Squad Nemesis, Age of Wonders:SM (potentially Spartan Total War) comes immediately to mind. While I agree the genre is now mostly a niche genre, European developers continue to churn out unhyped nuggets of gaming goodness.

This doesn't mean that Dominions 3 won't be a fantastic game, but putting it up against the kind of competition and resources of a huge (non-indy) brand is setting yourself up for disappointment.

Dominions might be superior in every aspect due to cost/effort ratio (being able to do everything it does well with only X investment of time/programming) but it doesn't erase the fact that unless Sweden changes their tax laws or Dominions 3 sells millions of units that you can't compare it to Civ4 realistically.