Concerns about lack of Tutorial and Price of Game

[Mortifer]

Originally posted by Tim Brooks:
gameplay is what games should be about, and Dominions II has more game and replay value than any major publishers product that I know of.

How true Tim. I agree with this totally.

Also 50 bucks is a very good price for the most complex strategy game ever.

[Alneyan]

Originally posted by Tim Brooks:
Hi All:
The manual for Dominions II is our largest to date, weighing in at 146 pages. It is however, not in color as someone else posted. Wish we could have done it in color, but for a manual this size, the price of printing in color would have been over $30.00 per unit. Still, the manual is huge and includes a reference of all magic items and spells.

$30.00 for a single manual in color? I have been quite surprised by this figure. I do trust you, but such a price seems... well, *very* expensive. Manuals that expensive are indeed a problem. I don't mind a black and white manual myself, as long as it is complete.

I agree hearthly with the points you raised in your post. (Especially when it comes to the emphasis upon gameplay rather than shiny new graphics)

[ October 31, 2003, 13:04: Message edited by: Alneyan ]

[NTJedi]

I've said it before, I'd rather play something interesting and involving than just "ooh" and "ahh" at shiny objects. Too many of the big time publishers push things out the door in a hurry and only worry about the eye/ear candy (MoO3 anyone?). I'll support Shrapnel and their product line any day so long as they continue to focus on quality of content over "shiny objects".

THIS is SO TRUE !! So many big companies have their developers wasting time on the most elite graphic designs... thus game content and additional features suffer. Warcraft_III did this by shrinking the map size into 90X90 ! Heroes_IV removed monsters and poor quality AI ! The biggest disappointment is how none of these big companies are able to develop intelligent AI opponents. The big companies solution is always 'Give the AI opponents more resources' ... the end.

I bought the game because the game content quality seems very good. Personally graphics only need to be as good as the original Diablo... and that game was only 10MB in size.

[Mortifer]

Heroes IV. strategical AI was very bad, even worse than our current Doms II. strat AI. The Heroes IV. devs knew about it, there were lot of discussion about it...but they did nothing about it.....

[licker]

Heh, I actually have some experience with making color documents, I'm somewhat surprised that the cost would only have been $30 for a 150 pages, though I don't know the volume...

Your points are well taken Tim, I've been trying to point out the same thing in various threads, the consumer simply doens't know the costs, nor (in most cases) what a reasonable margin is. I do hope that the demo is rereleased when the game ships to be a bit more user friendly though, or at least some new files with more explicit instructions on how to start are made available for download with the demo.

[gregebowman]

Normally, I'll pay no more than $40 for a game. Just depends on the game. With that said, I sent in my check today for the game, because the description sounds like it will be a killer game (I just wish I had played Dom I, or at least seen it in action. I'm buying this game on faith, but Shrapnel Games hasn't disappointed me in any of the purchases I've made so far). I don't really care about the graphics as much as gameplay. Space Empires 4 Gold is a very good example of gameplay over graphics. But I also play Galactic Civilzations. So I'm anxiously waiting to play th is game.

[Rogue]

Couldn't resist adding one more point, and that would be (okay so two more )--support and community. Shrapnel is very responsive, unlike some of the juggernauts that seem to auto-delete your E-mails upon receipt. And Shrapnel is awesome about supporting product that's been out for a while!

Also, visit any of the Shrapnel Games forums and you will see that people in the community are *very* helpful and nice. When you stop to consider that the community involvement is totally voluntary, it speaks very highly of both the company and it's customers.

Add that to this game, which is just phenomenal in and of itself, and you have a product that I'd gladly pay $50 + for. Heck, it's something you can play over and over as different races--not to mention I'm sure that there will be stuff added over time.

Anyway, just popping in to throw out more of my opinions.