Hello,
perhaps some of you remember me (I hope halfway fondly) from the dom2 community, I was quite active there up until about 20 months ago, when my Oglala mod caused me a burnout and real life hampered my ability to engage myself with such vigor in dominions anyway. I had also spent quite a lot of time compounding wishlist wishes for dom3 (mostly those dealing with the topic "interface") as well as carrying out intensive and, as was told by a few board members, fairly comprehensive polls for dom3.
In any case, I have been checking up on dom3 progress now and then, and posted here (
my little post ) once about my confusion regarding the pre-order release news. As you can imagine, I am probably the only dominions2 "fan" who did not preorder dom3. I really needed to wait for the demo. (Many of you may think me strange, or callous, just for that.) So perhaps I belong to one of Illwinter's main target groups for the release of the dom3 demo (unlike the rest of the fans, who preordered or who will be buying the game anyhow), which the following addresses.
I'd like to note first that what confused me about the pre-release notes was the main gist of what appeared to be valued as the marketing "hook". Dom3, I was even sure of it then, was going to be a fine game -- but was it really *new* in comparison to dom2? The pre-order news disapointed me in that regard, because none of the features for which I was most actively wishing and those which seemed to get most priority in the wishlists and in the polls were mentioned. I was told (quite legitimately) that this did not mean that those features would not be in the game. Fine. But it did mean that they were not felt noteworthy enough to mention in the pre-order release news. Hence I did not preorder. (But please note that I also did not indulge in pre-judging the contents of what is now dom3 and have remained silent.)
Now the demo is here -- and frankly, I am confused yet again. The demo is not, of course, primarily for that fan base which already pre-ordered. So please read what follows from the perspective of someone who has followed the news but who has not played the full game or the beta.
If the demo is for anybody, it is for those who just heard about dom3 (perhaps from Shrapnel's site, perhaps from the GC2 boards or elsewhere) or for people like me, sitting on the fence and wondering to which side we shall be swayed: to buy or not to buy.
Let me cut right into media res:
In the demo, I found many things I liked. (Here is a small list: I liked the updated random system, the little damage-indicators in battles, some of the new interface options such as resizing commander buttons, and the dormant/imprisoned options in pretender creation). But I didnt see many of the things people had hinted at.
The pre-order release news hinted at many things -- things I did not want, as I mentioned above, but perhaps nice-sounding things nonetheless -- which the demo simply does not demonstrate, BUT which it COULD (and should). I feel greatly let down by the *combination* of the 40-turn limit, the research-level limit, and the early-age-only limit. This is why:
When asking (in my above-mentioned thread) what it actually is which makes dom3 new, improved, and different from dom2, I heard, mainly, this:
- more spells, units, nations
- the 3-ages system
- better AI
- improved interface
- tutorial and manual
I was never really greatly interested in the "more [of the same]", since I found dom2 had spells I never saw used and units that were never purchased -- I was much more interested in other things (which were listed and commented upon in the Wishlist thread, no need to repeat things here). Since I was not expecting improved graphics or sound, I am also not in the least bit disappointed that these have remained pretty much as they were.
Still, I was keen on seeing what dom3 turned out to have, that is: a balanced "ages" system and better AI, and of course a better interface.
However...
- Since a manual only comes with the full game, I will only be able to judge that when I see it. (And surely many things will be explained.)
- I will also have to reserve judgement on the AI until I have done better testing, but my initial experience shows it to be improved in the sense that I have now seen it build a castle once. That is great. Otherwise, the AI seems very similar to that of dom2, both tactically (still odd choices of spells cast, still see missile troops charge blatently to their death, etc.) and in particular strategically: It is still infuriating to see a powerful AI with much resources at its command squander them in fruitless attacks against the wrong provinces with the wrong "combination" of troops (continually sending many valuable commanders such as prophets or even a pretender with few troops against my best-defended provinces, while it has tons and tons of troops elsewhere it could have used in those battles to protect those commanders, etc.).
- Most of the spells I was unable to see, since the demo has a 40-turn cap and research limit. (I find this self-defeating for a demo, that is my main point I wish to make in closing, see below.)
- The ages system remains, for those using the demo, shrouded in mystery, since only the Early Ages were visible. (I find this, again, self-defeating for a demo, see below.)
- The interface: While many of the options I was able to find via the "?" key seemed quite useful (such as hiding the right menu, resizing the commander buttons -- nice touch!), the new interface seems more cluttered. The income box is almost illegible to my poor eyes. Apparently, hitting the "tab" bar now gives me the names of the provinces (why do I want that?) instead of hiding researchers, which is a shame. What I miss most is the "i" key, which used to give me province information. While I do get a pop-up window with some province info now without that key, I get no information on that province terrain. While I wasnt expecting all or even most of what I felt were humble interface improvement suggestions to be included in dom3, it seems like none of the ones to which I was looking forward were included at all. Particularly: being able to enter the troop allocation screen (t) when viewing the commander in the main map (that was my biggest gripe) or being able to change, in the game setup screen, the costs for certain spell types (most notably: ritual summons) or different combinations of VPs. The worst new change in SP is for me the automatic resolution of a turn when "e" is hit. In dom2, one had to hit "host", which didnt seem like too much to ask; now, if one accidentally hits "e", the entire turn is hosted -- argh! This is a great drawback for SP. The + and - keys dont seem to work for me in the demo, but perhaps that is just a minor glitch.
(There are some other minor disturbances the game yielded for me, such as
- When playing with more than 1 human (I set up a game with all 5 playable nations as humans to compare), it takes at least 5 seconds for me between hitting "e" and accessing the "play a nation" screen -- what is going on there?
- Pretender building: while having fixed castle types does seem to make sense, I did miss the option in pretender building. What I really missed most, however, was the miscellaneous options (such as restless worshippers). Were they deemed unfit?
- the pale ones are all amphibian; the nation overview listed in nation choice indicates that they are "poor amphibians", which makes sense. As it is, they seem to be at least as aquatic as atlantis, and that seems very out of place. Either that, or there is no differentiating between poor amphibian and amphibian.
- I really miss Machaka -- but perhaps they will make an appearance as a later form of one of those races I can see in the demo...?
But this all belongs to a post about dom3 and not the demo, excuse me, I shall remain silent here.)
This is my main point: If Shrapnel were really worried about people abusing the demo instead of purchasing the full game, they should have restricted its use to 3 or so nations FOR ALL AGES, but removed the research level cap and increased the turn cap to at least 60. Otherwise, the very features it should "demonstrate" remain undemonstrated. The age system as well as many of the miscellaneous features remain hidden. That is self-defeating for a demo.
And thus, unfortunately, I will have to await, slumbering or perhaps imprisoned, the call to awaken – perhaps until the demo is updated, perhaps until the game’s price is reduced, or perhaps I can see some of these features via a miraculous “scrying” spell of 4-th level research or under.
I would like to continue to support Dominions and Illwinter and Shrapnel (some of whose other games I like too). I do not want this thread to be mistaken for a thread primarily about constructive criticism of Dominions3 – although I admit that I have included some of that in here. It is about the demo. The demo is simply not demonstrating the main features it should be demonstrating, and it could do so by changing the research cap, turn cap and (if necessary by restricting nation choice from 5 to, say, 3 or even 2) age cap.
Thank you for listening.
Re: My problems with the demo
Linear Mode
