Dominions 4??

Dominions 3 will be on Steam at some point but there are currently no plans for a Dominions 4.  If I remember correctly the developer doesn't have the time or interest to do a new version of Dominions any time in the forseeable future.

Yea, it is very sad. For me Dominions 3 is the best strategy game ever made, but UI is awful, and lots of micromanaging could be automatized. 

 

 

I loved playing dom3. Unlike most modern games (little content, lots of emergent gameplay) it is a pleasure just to jump into the vast worlds envisioned by the devs. Personally I think you have to be a little bit of a fantasy book lover to fully appreciate what they did in terms of content. Which is not to say that the game doesn't have good gameplay - it manages the very difficult task of having thousands of units and still somehow makes them balanced in a (very) complex way. The game was released in 2006 and people were still finding new, stronger strategies in 2012. The game managed to attract the kind of mind that would take an utterly useless faction or god and turn it into something workable - which is really what the game is about. Finding those really strong combinations out of millions of possibilities.

And it is really great that we have a game like Dom3 that shows that a vast wealth of content CAN WORK in a game. So when people like this come along we can honestly say that one solution isn't better than the next.

I would love a Dom4 with a better UI and less micromanagement. I don't think I've ever actually finished a SP game... once I get to that "point of no return, I know I've won but it would take me another 3 hours to actually win the map" stage there's no reason to continue forward. Devs have said that it's not going to happen (anytime soon, anyways). It's a shame, because I think a new version that's more "accessible" without changing the core gameplay could become one of the greatest games of all time. Dom3 is already so close... *sigh*

I would buy Dom 4 in a heartbeat. Dom 3 is fantastic!

Dom3 with better UI and less micromanagement?

The Dom3 devs are now concentrated on their new game "Conquest of Elysium 3" which is Dom3 which plays faster, better UI, and much less micromanagement. It is for sale at the moment on Steam for 75% off (that is for the cost of $2.50 US). Like they did with Dom3 they are doing regular release of free patches and upgrades. And they are very responsive to fan posts on the forum.

 

But apparently Dom3 capped off. They still do free patches but mostly just bug fixes and adding display options. And most of those seem to be things they do for CoE3 then backport to the next Dom3 patch. Apparently most of the desired changes to Dom3 at this point would require a massive rewrite from scratch which they are not at all interested in.

Elysium isn't on sale anymore, unfortunately (I want one).

 

as to the Dominions - I think it is a sound idea for Stardock to approach them and ask if they want to let them do that?

 

The engines Stardock has, the competence of not making a flashy to the eyes, but not to the soul (like big studios do) game, the people capable of that.....

 

It would be a work of wonder.

 

Who knows, maybe they would be willing to part with it easily. Or be colaborators with someone who can push to conclusion.

 

Anyway, the name dominions has as well as the lore in fantasy gamers communities, even after 6 years - would be a great commercial....

I would buy it, for whatever the cost. as well as any DLCs coming out.

 

PS on a sidenote, how do you think about paying in advance for example 20$ for all DLCs or 30 for DLCs and expansions one game is going to have....I like the concept...This presently feels like gouging...

another idea.

If Illwinter game designers would be willing to give their rights to Stardock - would stardock take it to make a wonder?

(This is possible, since money isn't a problem - plenty of interested investors around).

Just get it made Same game, better UI, better graphics. How hard can it be. Get it on kickstarter, give it to Stardock, just get it done!

CoE is not Dom3, it is an entirely different game. I played couple times and that's it. The biggest fun factor for me was preparing an armies for a battle, and that's missing from CoE.

By the way, i think in our modern times where almost all good ideas about game-play are explored, i find it fascinating that having a simulator of a battle similar to Dom3 is quite unique. After all we have good number of football managers around. I think soon or later someone will get idea, would add more tactical options, less micro (setting spells etc. is a real pain) and will have great success. Not to mention that it is only way in which you can have thralling battles in played-by-email multiplayer.

Dominions 3 is an excellent and deep game and I have fantastic experiences playing it with human players. 

 

However COE 3 is an absolute disaster which I sadly bought on release, so I will be more cautious with future Illwinter games. 

Dom3 is more multiplayer. CoE3 is more solo. One of the biggest problems I see with peoples opinions of CoE3 is that they come from Dom3ers. The MP in CoE3 sucks and the randoms in the game can kill you. But I love the CoE3 for the smarter more individual AIs, the team play (particularly teaming with AIs), the ability to create downloadable scenarios that include things like adding your own quests, lairs, worldwide events, missions, rewards Either way, both games are more game than anyone really wants to play. I dont think I have ever seen anyone actually play it with maximum map sizes, or maximum number of players, definitely not max on both, or even playing until the end-of-game screen.

I never tried to play COE3 in MP, it sucks for me royally as a single player game.

 

Interestingly enough, it suffers from the same problems as FE, namely problems of scale. It tries to be a kingdom/empire simulator without giving you the means to do so. You have to wait years to hire pitiful five ragtags with pointy sticks, yet the game constantly spams ridiculous monster stacks like rabbits, snakes, deers and whatnot that are capable of capturing villages, even castles. What rubbish. Combat is silly and obsolete, because the defender always strikes first, so with larger armies, attacker suffers insane losses without means to do anything about it. Men at arms have the same armor as naked madmen, namely 0. Magic is random and casters use nonsense spells in combat all the time. 

The game fails to abstract menial tasks, so most of the time you spend hours trudging through empty landscape with a band of underfed invalids, only to find out "OMG, dragon, not this way, run AWAYYYY".

You can't manage your kingdom in a meaningful way, you can't build defenses, you can't scout, you can't conduct diplomacy. You are constantly waiting for something. There are minimum amount of meaningful choices. Important events are very much dependent on random encounters. 

The AI is dumb as rock, it follows no strategic plan, and it cannot play without INSANE cheating bonuses even on moderate levels.

The game could be a hit, though. In 1985.

Hehehe, totally agree.

For me CoE is more of a sandbox than a game in full meaning of a term. You get couple of toys and have fun till, well, you have no more fun, which comes pretty quickly. If you enjoy this type of a game, where almost winning is not significant (since you cannot build winning strategy, due to randomness), but just to have experience of free-lance exploring and encountering and employing the weirdest of creatures (till world explode or something like that), then it is a rich game.

I would be inclined to forgive some of the above if only you could tell your villages and castle guards to lock the doors and do NOT let any frogs or deers in, but no:

"Hey, Cliffy, what a cute little rabbit, come here, fella, you must be hungry... NOOOO... help... he is gnawing at my shoe... run... RUN... run for the hills, the castle is lost..."

If villagers could not fend off a few deers or an occasional frog, I think humanity would be extinct by today. I know, bumblebees can fly over castle walls. Oh my.

And yes, I must mention the ugly graphics. No, I don't care about 3D, but having sprites so small they look like tiny flies in a vast sea of unused darkness of a FULLHD screen is a criminal offense. It hurts the game feedback. Compare the gfx to Wesnoth, actually, unlike COE3, a FREE game.

And the interface, recruiting, it sucks. 

Now to say something positive about it, it shares much of the lore and bestiary with Dominions 3 which was very cool. If you can remember the awesome flavor texts from Dominions 3, that is, because they did not make it to this sad torso of a game. 

I am obsessed with this game. I based a lot of my personal project's mechanics kinda on it, mainly the spirit of having just a shit ton of factions and units and mechanics and what not, which sadly is much harder in 3d when you aren't a modeler.

When I saw the title of this thread and realized it wasn't actually going to happen I literally cried though. Whoever made this thread is the spawn of satan.

 

I agree about the GUI, its pretty atrocious and annoying to use. When I was doing 500 province magic site finding with all types for gem farming it was a massive pain, even with the semi automated aspects.

It would have been great to have some sort of customizable GUI so I could set it to find nearest mage, use find spell on nearest searched province, but just do them all at once instead of manually. Also be crazy cool to have specifiable recruitment that I never have to click for.

I could actually simulate Dom3 gameplay by a little map loading magic in my own project, but not enough polish for anyone but me to play seriously. It would be super hacky.

 

I am hooked on Dom3 right now. Finally took the chance and bought it. Dom4 would be sooo sweet. They should NOT take away any functionality/micromanagement, BUT give us better tools to micromanage with. Better UI would help a lot. Like in Warlock: Master of the Arcane where I get buttons telling me what new research I have done, what units needs orders, messages from AI and so on. 

am not stuck on domin3 till they get it on steam, then yes.

 

as to 4, lets get someone from Stardock to tell us their thinking (derek?Brad?).

What is the code language for Dominions 3 (Dom 3)?  A rewrite could be fun.

Never played Dom3, but I want Dom4!

Ask, and ye shall receive!!

http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/index.html

Dominions 4 is still under development and is expected to be completed in late August. It will soon be possible to preorder Dominions 4 on Desura. 

Dominions 4 improvements

Here's a short list with the most important changes compared to Dominions 3.

• Teamplay, one pretender and one or more disciples per team.
• Thrones of Ascension. Claim thrones to gain extra powers and to win the game eventually.
• Many sprites have been redrawn and the 3d terrain is also improved.
• Many user interface improvements.
• Formations like line formation or skirmish formation.
• Improved random map generation with wraparound maps, caves, rivers and mountain passes.
• Rivers that can only be passed when frozen, mountain passes that can only be passed by special units and when it's warm.
• Pierce, slash and blunt weapons have slightly different quirks. E.g. don't shoot arrows at skeletons.
• Darkness and dark vision plays a more important role. Notably in deep seas, caves and sometimes during assassinations.
• Range restrictions on magic rituals and items and spells that can be used to boost ritual ranges.
• Improved network support, turns can be resumed from any computer and turns can be marked as only half finished.
• Global random events
• Can build castle improvements like extra towers or extra supply storage
• Province Defence dependent on the local population and some nations have easier or harder to organize it.
• Improvements to AI and to modding.
• Many new monsters, spells, magic items, sites, random events and some nations too.

It's hard to tell from just the screenshots, but it doesn't look like there has been too many improvements. I do like that fact that they finally put the magic level of each commander on the main screen... will save me the trouble of constantly naming all of my guys "2E2F1S" and such.

Just some small things like being able to copy-paste orders would help. The UI is just atrocious and the only reason I don't play dom3 anymore.

Dominions 4!!!!  I just got a hard-on.  I see they also have a new patch for Dominions 3.  Great news!

 

Now I'm just waiting for someone to acquire the Master of Magic license from Atari now that they are going through bankruptcy.

 

 

Edit:  Looks like it's already available for pre-orders.  $30, half of what Dominions 3 was going for.