My wishes, what the devs should focus into

[Beorne]

First sorry for my not perfect English.
Dom3 has been out from less than a week and I see tens of requests/enhancements threads, most focussing on big enhancements, new options, ai improvement and so on. I think the best thing devs should work into is bug correction and enhancing the background/flavor of the game. Is very important that units are like the descriptions, and descriptions be creative and rich.
The rant I found most interesting has been that of rev. Zombie about Pangea and Marignon and Man losing their fascination because of inconsistencies.
For me Dom2 is much better than the rest of strategic games not for technicalities or sp or mp playability, but from the very professional and creative work Kristoffer O has put in the background. I think this is the field where the devs should play, correcting inconsistencies and enhancing atmosphere. I don't bear a lot there isn't a shortcut key to make something or ai is't so expert. I mind about seeing a carrion walking quietly around in an almost industrialized nation.
Aside that, making AI improvement is a very difficult, time consuming and bug forging activity, while making creative work on consistency and background is much more rewarding.
My two cents.

[PrinzMegaherz]

I think it was a rather good decission to combine carrion woods with normal pangaea, as carrion woods was one of the weaker themes out there and in some aspects just a cheap copy of ashen empire.
The new late era pangaea gives you a choice: You can play as you would have played with the old theme, using the carrion woods spell to erradicate the population, or you can use the normal troops. Having a choice is not a bad thing, if you would like to play late era as carrion woods, then by all means, do so.

[Cainehill]

You mean - you have the choice of wasting a global spell slot to try and play as Carrion Woods, with the inevitableness of it being dispelled or over-ridden when someone else casts a global. Not to mention that it then becomes, as Beorne said, a mishmash with carrion critters wandering around alongside the regular armies.

Essentially it seems that some favorite (CW, LotT, possibly others) and most interesting themes have been removed from the game.

[Nerfix]

Indeed, the kitbashing of the nations seems not only very unaesthetic but also...dare I say...a cop-out.

[AAshbery76]

A.I is much more important.A bet the majority who bought DOM3 will only play singleplayer.

[Kristoffer O]

Cainehill said:
You mean - you have the choice of wasting a global spell slot to try and play as Carrion Woods, with the inevitableness of it being dispelled or over-ridden when someone else casts a global. Not to mention that it then becomes, as Beorne said, a mishmash with carrion critters wandering around alongside the regular armies.

Essentially it seems that some favorite (CW, LotT, possibly others) and most interesting themes have been removed from the game.



I'm a bit divided on the global CW. I like it a lot, but I'm not too fond of the possibility of dispelling it. I would have preferred if it was a permanent change. I don't remember how the spell works and I don't have an manual yet, so I cant really tell, but IIRC the population starts to die in the CW now as well, wich is as before, so I'm not sure about the mishmash. Also I don't think the combination of vengeful satyrs and vengeful dead satyrs is a mismash.

Regarding LotT I'm a bit perplexed that people seem to like it. I never liked the theme. It felt as a rather bad rendering of what it should have been. Also it had ugly graphics http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I was rather glad to get rid of them as they did not fit in the history (being an alternative storyline). Tuatha will appear in a new and nicer shape as an early nation at a later date.

[Meglobob]

AAshbery76 said:
A.I is much more important.A bet the majority who bought DOM3 will only play singleplayer.



I think this is very true. Good AI is a MUST, even if it cheats to compete with a person.

80% - 90% of games players only play SP. Dominions might have a higher % of MP, as its got a reputation as a MP game, but even so, doubt MP makes up more than 20% - 30% of dominions 3 players.

Just look at how many multiplayer (PBEM) games have been started via the Dom3 multiplayer thread on this website, 0, yes zero.

[BigJMoney]

What's the deal with the Sauromatia/Pythia relationship? The Sauromatians now get the Hydras; their description says they get them "from the swamps of Pythia", but Pythium isn't even around yet. I'm a little confused by that. Does it mean the swamplands that will one day be Pythia?

By the way, I love the overviews of all the nations in the manual, they are excellent.

=$=

[Cainehill]

Meglobob said:
Just look at how many multiplayer (PBEM) games have been started via the Dom3 multiplayer thread on this website, 0, yes zero.



Well, most people have had the game less than a week (some of us are still waiting for our copy to arrive), and Dominions isn't the shallow sort of game you're likely to leap immediately into a long-term MP game with.

[Tortanick]

Kristoffer, the missmatch is between civilised satyrs and vengfull satyres.

Personally I'd split them into two nations, new era has absolutely none of the old nature connection left. So no black halfmen, no carrion spells, no blood magic.

And a second nation that splintered off in disgust when civilisation got too strong. They shun all technology and fight with blind rage and magic. They get Carrion spells, black half men, and much stronger magic in general. No centaurs though they all went to civiliseation.

[atul]

Nerfix said:
Indeed, the kitbashing of the nations seems not only very unaesthetic but also...dare I say...a cop-out.


Dunno. If there were no Dom2 themes to remember, would people think that there's something wrong? With Pans, you lose a theme but you get to re-enact the fall of Ermor in-game with another nation. How cool is that?

With LA Ulm, well, I like the combination of fanatic one-eyed priests and the secret order. Some other ones need more imagination, I guess (ok, what's the deal with the Man's Curse or am I just missing stuff? etc). But ultimately these are just personal opinions, of course.

IMHO, YMMV, et cetera.

[DominionsFan]

Meglobob said:

AAshbery76 said:
A.I is much more important.A bet the majority who bought DOM3 will only play singleplayer.



I think this is very true. Good AI is a MUST, even if it cheats to compete with a person.

80% - 90% of games players only play SP. Dominions might have a higher % of MP, as its got a reputation as a MP game, but even so, doubt MP makes up more than 20% - 30% of dominions 3 players.

Just look at how many multiplayer (PBEM) games have been started via the Dom3 multiplayer thread on this website, 0, yes zero.




Lads, how do you know that 80-90 percent of the people are playing SP games only? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
Also keep in mind, that the AI is much better compared to the Doms 2. AI. Also as I know Kris and Johan they will try to improve it in the upcoming patches.
So sit back and relax, SP fans won't be forgiven for sure. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

..as for PBEM games...tbh I don't like PBEM. TCP/IP is the real deal. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
There is a Dominions IRC channel, where you can set up games, if you don't have real life mates or local lads to play with for example.

[Beorne]

Meglobob said:

AAshbery76 said:
A.I is much more important.A bet the majority who bought DOM3 will only play singleplayer.



I think this is very true. Good AI is a MUST, even if it cheats to compete with a person.

80% - 90% of games players only play SP. Dominions might have a higher % of MP, as its got a reputation as a MP game, but even so, doubt MP makes up more than 20% - 30% of dominions 3 players.

Just look at how many multiplayer (PBEM) games have been started via the Dom3 multiplayer thread on this website, 0, yes zero.



Ok, I remember an old thread discussing about this. Simply put, it is not possible to create a good ai in a so complex game without cheating heavily (but this is not ai). Chess is much simple, and a good ai has taken years and teras of computing power. If the environment is complex (yes, thousand of units and hundreds of spells is complex) a good AI is a dream. No simple rules can cope with, and complex rules require big programming time and generrate lot of bugs. I think that if you put the effort to improve the ai in the background, description, literary work, it makes much better. Obviously if the ai has some severely wrong behaviour, it is a bug (not an enhancment) and it has to be corrected.
I liked the Tuhata, the carrions and ethereal Ermors, all of these sems ... changed. But it is not only this. I've found Agartha that has a beatiful background, but some unit miss the details of the descriptions.
I think working on these little bugs and expanding the DomIII universe is more rewarding for the devs, more easy and more "in line" with the spirit (and with the main characteristics) of the game.

[AAshbery76]

Stopping suicide attacks from Pretenders or the attacking logic full stop has nothing to do with the massive complexity of the game,that is no excuse.

[Beorne]

AAshbery76 said:
Stopping suicide attacks from Pretenders or the attacking logic full stop has nothing to do with the massive complexity of the game,that is no excuse.



Ok, I agree with that, these are bugs that should be corrected.