Illwinter, are you keeping it multiplayer?

[Edi]

For me, SP games need to have a good story (Thief series, The Witcher), that makes it feel sort of like I'm reading a book, but with influence over what happens and how. For strategy games, I like co-op games and I'm very much a sandbox style player, so I don't mind single player at all. I play far more SP than MP, though playing against humans is more fun than against the AI, especially in something as deep as Dominions is. The time and organizing things are usually the main stepping stones, especially since I have so many commitments to so many different directions.

[Tifone]

Ahah, great story

Made me remember bout my childhood, a friend of mine playing the second, IIRC, Resident Evil and one of those things with the long tongue breaking a window to enter the character's room and attacking with a scream, my friend just left the pad and we jumped up a couple of meters probably

Totally agree with your last sentence, I think it sums up the whole thing the best way

[Argitoth]

This may sound like Conquest of Elysium, but I’ve never played it.

My Perfect Illwinter Game:

Imagine Dominions III except played from the commander perspective. You play as a C’tis/R’lyeh/Ulm/etc… Mage/Prophet/Commander/etc… whatever you want. It’s not an RPG, you don’t play as one character. You play as a commander in your army and you can switch between controlling a commander. In co-op mode, two or more players control commanders. Commanders are no stronger than hired/summoned/trained units, any unit/commander can become very strong. Your commanders can be complete weaklings while your hired units can be very strong if that’s how you like to play.

But you may still pretend to “be” one commander, for example:

You can acquire a mage commander and be the kind of mage that spends your time collecting death gems and raising a powerful undead army 300 units strong and your strategy is to sit back and enjoy the show. You never have to have more than one commander. Or you can be a strong commander that only has hired 5 other units, but they are just as strong as you so you can take out much larger amries. You can be a mage that focuses all your time on learning devastating battle spells. Or you can be the vanilla commander that just hires the biggest army possible.

Here’s the best part!: You can have a 4-player co-op and never hire any units and just become extremely powerful and play in a very RPG-like way.

Anything a commander could do in Dominions III, you can now do. Search for sites, forge, cast ritual spells, but it would be a realtime game and one game would take days to complete. The graphics would have to be 2d of course, but keeping the particle spell effects, that’s always nice.

DISCLAIMER: There’s many ways to come up with how my game idea would fundamentally work and function, how it could be feasible, etc. I’m not going to get into that, it’s a whole other beast. There’s lots of problems to sort out with this idea, too. But anyway, just take it as is, not trying to promote my idea, just putting it out there for you to read and think about.

Let me see your ideas

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Argitoth

This may sound like Conquest of Elysium, but I’ve never played it.

It does sound as if you should check it out. Its free

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Argitoth

Explain yourself. Why is singleplayer more fun than co-op? The argument that you'd like to play whenever you want is not a valid argument. Explain why it would be more *fun*, not more *convenient.*

Actually I love co-op. But if I had to choose a game which supports ONLY Solo or ONLY MP then I would choose solo. Just because a game supports MP doesnt mean it supports co-op.

The reasons I enjoy solo more is because I just cant get into player-vs-player. Im not a competitive player. People who arent competers should not be delegated to only playing games of solitair. I play Dominions in a more RPGish way.

More scenarios and campaigns and AI nations would help. I did push for larger maps. And I did do a number of co-op scenarios for Dom2 which I keep meaning to update for Dom3. And I did do a mod for a co-op game for Dom3 which I should do more of. I am working on a chaoticized version of AI nations to go with my chaoticized maps (which might shift to SemiRandom the same as my maps did).
So I dont complain too much since I havent gotten off my tail to do my part in fixing it.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

When I looked down again a small facehugger that I hadn't noticed before jumped at me. Instead of dodging (in game) I jumped backwards and tried to cover my face with my left arm (in real life). Of course the chair got a bit in the way and hitting the floor at full speed got me out of it.
Point is painful is not meditative.

You might note that two of my "exceptions" to the idea of relaxed/meditative, were FPS games (Bioshock and Fallout3), because while most FPS games have enjoyable SP campaigns, they are not the peaceful experience that you can get from a TBS that only moves at exactly the pace that you want it to.


I want a Dominions MMO. Maybe just a MUD?

[Gandalf Parker]

Id love to see a DomMMO. Something like City of Heroes. Or even something like Ultima Online which is closer to the graphics Dom3 has.
And a mud would be fine also. I host one and the programmable interfacing is fantastic for keeping it surprising.

[Argitoth]

Can you expand on the Dom MMO idea? How would it be different than other MMOs? What would be cool about it? I don't want to hear, "it will be cool because Dominions is cool." Give me some depth to your answer.

[JimMorrison]

It's simple really, because your characters, while highly defined, would all benefit from the same wealth of options that you experience in the TBS version of Dominions. Want to play a Troglodyte Champion? Maybe a Starspawn? Perhaps a Centaur Heirophant? Quest to gain gems, "research" new spells, and have mighty artifacts forged with a new customizable item system™. Also, an entirely MP/PvP component (I can dream too!), wherein players determine the fates of the mightiest armies in the war for ascension, through the actions of their hero on the battlefield - games of Dominions4 being played out by real players. Become a GoRed Gargoyle, or a Tarrasque. Have modes of play that allow humans to enjoy the months long MP Dominions PBEM game, and/or enjoy the RPG as the heroes of the nations, or to even jump in for some quick action just playing various soldiers and summons in combats.

Mmmmmm. I'd love that game, til death do us part. <3

[Argitoth]

JimMorrison, I'm hardly convinced by your idea. It seems like you are simply saying "MMO but Dominions Themed." What I'd like to see is a "Dominions-like MMO." A Dominions-like MMO would be focused on recruiting computer-played units isntead of focused on the individual. Each person would basically be a commander of a small army, it would have to be totally different from a normal MMO for an MMO to be Dominions-like and that's what I'd want to see in a Dominions MMO.