Newbie's first impressions

[Tals]

I don't think anyone says its unsurpassed just that it is detailed. In fact I don;t think i'd even say anyone is raving - this is probably one of the most self critical publishers forums you'll find

But yeah it is for MP - i'd take the opposite view - why the heck do I want to play against a lump of meta with pre programmed responses, far more fun to play against a human - the interaction from the human perspective is as little or as much as you want - it is not by any stretch an fps style chat - far from it in fact

My own view is this game sucks in SP and i've seen no comments that would suggest otherwise. But you'd have to try the MP out to really understand it's attraction. I understand it's not of interest but it is where the game sings.

Tals

[quantum_mechani]

Tals said:
I don't think anyone says its unsurpassed just that it is detailed. In fact I don;t think i'd even say anyone is raving - this is probably one of the most self critical publishers forums you'll find

Sorry to burst your bubble... but I do think it is unsurpassed. And I'm most certainly raving.

[teal]

You may want to try Battle for Wesnoth. It is a single player computer game, with a strong theme, it is strategy based so it has some analysis, but is nowhere near the amount of analysis required for Dominions 2 (I would put it down at the level of hearts or cribbage). And it is free! It is a nice little war game with units representing individual soldiers, who get better as they fight through the campaign (if you can avoid getting them killed that is).

Teal

[PCarroll]

teal said:
You may want to try Battle for Wesnoth. It is a single player computer game, with a strong theme, it is strategy based so it has some analysis, but is nowhere near the amount of analysis required for Dominions 2 (I would put it down at the level of hearts or cribbage). And it is free! It is a nice little war game with units representing individual soldiers, who get better as they fight through the campaign (if you can avoid getting them killed that is).

Teal

Thanks. I've done that too. Somebody else recently recommended it to me.

It is a very good game--especially for the price! Kind of reminds me of the old SSI game Fantasy General (which used to be one of my favorites, though it never got as popular as Panzer General or others in the series).

I haven't played Wesnoth in a couple weeks, though, and I don't know when I'll get back to it. One pet peeve I have about games like this is recruitment. In such a fast-moving game, I find it annoying to have to take care of that "housekeeping" chore every turn. I'd rather just give some kind of general instruction to an AI "recruitment officer" (e.g., "Give me lots of archers.") and then have recruitment happen automatically during the game.

Funny you should say it's "at the level of hearts or cribbage." Cribbage is probably my favorite traditional card game: to me, it has just the right amount of luck vs skill--it holds my interest without straining my brain. Hearts seems like a tougher game to me--but it's probably easier than the likes of Spades or Bridge (neither of which I like, because I don't like bidding games--which is why I'm not at all interested in Shrapnel's game "Gladiator").

[Wyatt Hebert]

Wow, someone who actually mentions both MoM and Fantasy General... Loved both of those games. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time as I would like to talk about things, but it's just an interesting insight to me. The whole problem I think is that people see computers as the fix to minutiae of a game... which they easily can be... no dice-rolling, no keeping track of counters, just making the decisions. However, the main problem is that with that ease people aren't paying attention to two other major issues: attention span and mental hold. I've noticed in myself that when either of those limits are exceeded, my fun factor starts going downhill.

I also truly enjoy cribbage, and it is an excellent game. Short enough not to drag on, and limited enough in each installment to not have to count all the cards in a deck. This is probably the reason Dom2 is truly better as a multi-player game... and that is because of the episodic nature inherent to the style of gameplay. I only have to hold so much in my head each time I sit to play, and it doesn't exceed my attention span. I believe I have larger than normal attention span and mental hold (by which I mean the ability to hold the current situation clearly in mind). I have managed to _fully_ complete a World War scenario, but it is excessively taxing, and I almost always dominion-kill the last 4 enemies, just due to temple overload.

I don't have a solution to suggest, just the observation, if it helps anyone.

Wyatt