Are we paying more for less?

[Mltdwn]

PDF said:
Mltdw,
Do you live in Tien Chi or such ? Dom3 delivery to Europe cost me less than 10 bucks, total should be < 65$ isn't it ??

No in the US it is $15 for priority delivery (i.e. so you don't have to wait 1-2 weeks to get the game).

[Annette]

Mltdwn said:

No in the US it is $15 for priority delivery (i.e. so you don't have to wait 1-2 weeks to get the game).

In the US you do have the option to pay for USPS Express Mail. That service carries a money back guarantee to *most* locations. Be sure to check www.usps.com for guarantees to your specific zip code. And please remember the guarantee is for the time the shipment is in transit. Choosing express shipping does not impact when we ship the game.

Clearly, we recommend the FREE shipping option we offer. This service is USPS Priority Mail. While it does not carry a money-back guarantee, the vast majority are delivered in two days. A package we sent from North Carolina to California on Friday had been delivered on Monday. In fact, we have received word that packages we sent Friday to destinations in France and the UK were delivered yesterday. Those were sent USPS Global Priority Mail, not express.

These quotes from another thread in the forum from customers who chose our free shipping option:

NTJedi said:

My Dominions_3 game was sent Monday and arrived Wednesday(yesterday). I also live in Arizona just to give others an idea of when they can expect their package to arrive.

This one was posted yesterday, Wednesday)

Taqwus said:
My order -- shipped Monday morning -- has arrived in the Bear Republic via USPS. Spiffy.

Hear the passion in my voice? Take advantage of the FREE shipping option in the US. In the past we've used all types of shippers. USPS by far has the most reliable service. Unless something extremely unusual happens, your order will reach you in two or three days from the time we ship (and remember the post office delivers on Saturday). And this service does not cost anything above the purchase price of the game. We don't send ANY of our shipments via the slower services offered by USPS.

(Perhaps I've been spending too much time in the fulfillment center this week...)

[DominionsFan]

Actually I've only played 1 game in the demo against the AI [the rest was MP], but the AI did very good. I've never seen such a huge AI army in a strategical position in Doms 2. Like I've said earlier, it moved ~700 troops to my border province, and it was the only land province in that area. I was fighting on south, so it was a ehm... a big surprise. That army easily took 2 of my provinces in the north.
The game just ended after that.

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont find that the AI automatically declares war. I have played many games on really large maps with 78 AI's. I do not get war challenged on me by all of them early in the game so I dont think thats a true statement.

However.. I do find that the AI challenges based on your dominion touching his, his scouts seeing you (and some scouts fly), or seeing you by spells.

[DominionsFan]

Gandalf Parker said:
I dont find that the AI automatically declares war. I have played many games on really large maps with 78 AI's. I do not get war challenged on me by all of them early in the game so I dont think thats a true statement.

However.. I do find that the AI challenges based on your dominion touching his, his scouts seeing you (and some scouts fly), or seeing you by spells.

Gandalf, since you are mainly playing SP games, let me ask you. Have you seen such huge AI armies in your games so far, what I've seen in my game today? Basically it worked like this:

First I've seen like 120 enemy troops. 1 turn later their number was 420 if I remember correctly. 1 more turn, and the number was 700. Then all of the 700 troops began to invade me from north, and my 2 main armies were on the south. The game ended 2 turns after the AI took 2 of my provinces at north. Maybe I was just lucky that I've seen such an action from the AI, but seriously, it was like a human player. First he gathered tons of troops in 3 turns, while my armies were far away, then it began to steamroll me from there. I only had 2 minor armies up there, since I was attacked from 2 directions at south, I had to focus my power there.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive seen armies in the thousands.

But definetly the new gold-rich Dom3 game is going to take some getting used to. And some of the AI settings definetly require that you put some thinking to breaking up his large armies as they are building up.

[DominionsFan]

Gandalf Parker said:
Ive seen armies in the thousands.

But definetly the new gold-rich Dom3 game is going to take some getting used to. And some of the AI settings definetly require that you put some thinking to breaking up his large armies as they are building up.

wow nice, when I get my copy, my first game will be against a couple of impossible AIs.

[Cainehill]

Gandalf Parker said:
I dont find that the AI automatically declares war. I have played many games on really large maps with 78 AI's. I do not get war challenged on me by all of them early in the game so I dont think thats a true statement.

However.. I do find that the AI challenges based on your dominion touching his, his scouts seeing you (and some scouts fly), or seeing you by spells.

Eh - given that Aby declared war on turn 4, and I eventually found there were 8 provinces between our capitols, I'm quite certain that none of those were the case. Abysia isn't known for scrying spells, has no flying scouts other than a solitary hero, and our dominions had no time to even think about touching. Meanwhile, there was only 2 provinces between Ermor's start and I, but he never declared war.

The only remotely plausible explanation is that Abysia started with the Warlike / Offensive AI personality - but it's still crazy (and not in a good way) for AIs to declare war on nations they haven't even had _any_ contact with. As it was, Aby and Kailasa were near neighbors who I watched trade provinces back and forth, yet Aby declares war on me. Stupid.

[JaydedOne]

I'm not sure I get the stupid. In MP, you can declare war on anyone on the map and are aware of all players in the game, even if you don't know their location. If you hate Ermor or whomever enough, go right ahead. So, what's so wrong with the AI deciding to declare war?

[Gandalf Parker]

Where was your scout at the time? Was your scout and his scout together?

Im sure there is some sort of contact but I could see where it might be a "computer stupidity" of not being able to tell that the two scouts dont count as contact.