Dominions 2: King of Turn-Based MP Games

[quantum_mechani]

Ironhawk said:


It is really distressing, tho, to have this realization - that there are for all intents and purposes no other MP turn-based games - confirmed by other veteran players :/

What do you expect? Those that bow to the One True Game will accept no other.

[Ironhawk]

Hahhaha, just so!!

So, hey - about SE4: what are people's opinions on it? When I played the demo so many moons ago I thought there was just way, WAY too much MicroManagement, even for a PBEM-style game? Was I doing something wrong?

[Alneyan]

SE4 doesn't have much micromanagement. Really! Well, yes it does, though you can elect to play a slightly less optimal game and save yourself a lot of micromanagement.

Heavy use of retrofits or fighters are the kind of things that can result in micromanagement hell, but even then, most turns do take a while to play: one hour per turn was my average in the middle game, and two hours in harder situations, and some players have claimed to spend several hours per turn, without paying much attention to some details.

My other main complaint with the game is balance: there is really no widespread balancing mod, and the standard game is not exactly balanced; or rather, there are simply options that cannot be bypassed, and only one working Empire setup with a couple of variations. Don't even think of seeing something half as varied and half as balanced (relatively speaking) as Dominions 2; I'm afraid it won't be the case.

I believe the game does shine with certain mods, and in multiplayer if you like diplomacy and the like. I am personally quite fond of Proportions, where micromanagement goes down to manageable levels, and where all the good stuff is all of a sudden just a bit harder to reach. That would be the difference between playing Easy research and Magic 3 and Very Hard research and Drain 3: in the latter case, research choices actually matter. Proportions is fun, really.

Now PvK, feel free to send me that check for the free ad, will ya?

[Oversway]

SEIV can have a lot of micromanagement, but they have a lot of time saving shortcuts - saving build queues, waypoints, etc. Overall the micromanagement was never a game killer for me. Do you remember what specifically you had problems with?

I agree with Alneyan, the base game is somewhat constrained (like life-draining weapons, wrathful skies, can be in dom2).

The SEIV AI can be dumb, but because the ai can be modded to an extent (illwinter: hint hint ) you can find many mods that improve the sp aspect as well.

I havn't played seiv awhile but I really liked the devnull mod. I don't think people use that anymore, though.

[Gandalf Parker]

The thing I liked most about SEIV was how the MODding totally made it. The original game feels like a demo now. Small galaxy, 8 races, few random graphics, no random space monsters or pirates or nomads or... well anyway, the players made mods that changed ALL of that. Now the galaxys are huge, full of surprises, hundreds of races covering just about any space movie, tv show or novel you can thing of.

Gandalf Parker

[PashaDawg]

Hmmmmm... maybe I need to reload SEIV onto my computer. I never tried the mods. Are they as easy to install as on Dominions 2?

[Gandalf Parker]

no they are abit of a headache but I consider it well worth the effort now that I can kick off a game with no errors. I like SEIV for alot of the same reasons that I like Dom2. LOTS of different ways to play and win. Barbarian horde, defensive, stealth, diplomat, trader, rush to research a particular set of technologies. None of which are absolute winners. Especially when you try it in multiplayer.

[Hubris]

Stars! was an excellent game. After a couple hours (literally) of searching, I managed to find a download of it both in English and German. Now I have to get a serial number... again... I should really keep these things somewhere.