Soo... When is the next patch?

[Atreidi]

Kristoffer O said:
> 1. What are some examples fun stuff for the devs?

Gnomes tasting like candy, or possibly gnome candy.
Children of Bodom britney cover.
Ftaghn! And everything that comes with it.
Also zombies! The more the better. Brains might taste like candy as well. Gnome Candy.

> 2. Is this the end of Dominions? No expansion or Big-Update?

There never was an expansion or big update previously. Just small patches and new games.

> 3. Does that mean that there will be no more "serius" work on Dominion 3?

The work on dominions 3 was mostly unserious, so no big change here.

... [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img]

Now my new question is.....

(Question to the devs) (But you can stil answer if you think you know the answer)

What have you learned from this game? And how will you implement all the positive feedback received from this game into something better or something in a greater scale?

Will this game evolve into something that appeals more to the "average gamer" or will it get even deeper in the sense of having an even richer strategical game play?

What worries me is that such a good game, such great, deep and interesting Lore and strategy system be forgotten or left un-polished. As I've said before in my second post in this forum this game could be the UTIMATE game if polished correctly.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Diablo? Never was a big fan of it. It strikes at my biggest weakness- indecisiveness. There obviously was a big audience for it- but two games I preferred in the genre were Nox and Sacred, Heretic (aka Kult), Divine Divinity (there were other games I preferred even more, such as Arx Fatalis, Ultima VI, etc, but they weren't exactly the same genre).

First off, Sacred vs. Diablo
Stat growth was partially fixed, with one free point to spend each level, the rest of the gains preassigned. Diablo, you'd have 5 points to assign each time, and there was no going back. With Sacred, I could customize for a high agility or strength or charisma character but I did not have to worry about picking the wrong stats and ending up with a completely unviable character. As well, unlike D2, I could save. While there were random drops, the maps were not random - I liked that.

Nox had an interesting spell system (really) that wasn't dependent on irreversibly, uncertain skill picks. As well, it was rather linear (but I liked that) maps were not random, enemies were not, and there were lots of little secrets. They made the world into a character all of its own, one I was curious about. Diablo players would say that decrease the fun of replays (though there was mp deathmatch mode), but I say it made a single player game worth playing on its own merits - practically every Diablo review overemphasizes the multiplayer component. It is good for its audience, but with blizzard I just feel a bit lonely in the SP world. It was interesting enough that I actually played each characters campaign twice, and would still be playing it if I hadn't lost the serial.

As a side note (I'm looking at you Nox, Diablo) there's nothing romantic about smashing barrels. Save the world, kill monsters, fulfill quests, and smash barrels. What is up with that?

[Humakty]

I want alpha centauri 2 !!
A side question : does anyone succeeded in making AC 1 run under XP ?

[K]

Humakty said:
I want alpha centauri 2 !!
A side question : does anyone succeeded in making AC 1 run under XP ?

There is a file on the Firaxis website that makes it work.

Check the first download.

[Saarud]

Well I agree that totally random items is abit less immersing. It would be nice if mages/crafters could craft their own creations as well as those already in the game. The items could be designed kinda like spaceships are designed in SE4 where the crafter makes the decision what stats/abilities to add to that item. The more skilled the crafter is the more points to use and the more gems/money that are used even more points to use for crafting the weapon. Or something like that.

[Arralen]

K said:

There is a file on the Firaxis website that makes it work.
Check the first download.

I have run it successfully without that patch - that patch makes it impossible to play MP against anyone not using it.
'Twas something about "ForceOldVoxelAlgho" or something in some ini file, and tinkering with desktop settings IIRC.
PM me if you can't get it to work and I'll try to look it up.

[Meglobob]

Random items in Diablo/Diablo 2 were great. There was always the surprise factor when you got something better than you already had and the Yip factor when you got a outstanding magic item.

What really made it great was any magic item you did not want you just sold, so you got a reward for every magic item.

It would be nice if in Dominions you had a alternative to throwing a magic item you don't want away. The ability to sell it for gold or get 1/2 the gems back, rounded down.

Just for the record, I have thrown a ring of wizardry away on purpose...

[Humakty]

Arralen said:

I have run it successfully without that patch - that patch makes it impossible to play MP against anyone not using it.
'Twas something about "ForceOldVoxelAlgho" or something in some ini file, and tinkering with desktop settings IIRC.
PM me if you can't get it to work and I'll try to look it up.

Thanh you both, I'll give it a try tonight, and PM you if I fail once more.

[Kristoffer O]

> ... [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img]



> Now my new question is.....

> (Question to the devs) (But you can stil answer if you think you know the answer)

> What have you learned from this game?

No idea. That it is fun to work on a game people like, that you stop work when people complain, that JK is less bothered by agitated forumwriters than me, that JK gets too little appreciation, that we are more creative whern we work closer and not like dominions now is done (development has come to a phase where i mostly add stuff according to old concepst and JK fixes old boring issues, nbot veery creative for him), that people doesn't know what is most fun for them, that people doesn't know what is fun for others, that people are incredibly clever at finding powerful strategies, that you can achieve a lot just by doing what you like, that game developments is either creatively hindered by a structured development plan (no fun to do chores in the beginning to make a base for the game as it should appear two years from now) or hindered by unhinged initial creativity and absence of initial structures (dom3 still suffers from some of the developments in dom-ppp), that my ambition has increased by each version for good or bad (why is MA pytium not more bysantine in feel), that my increasing ambition hinders creativity, that we ...

Alot I guess. A lot more I guess. Even more I assume.

> And how will you implement all the positive feedback received from this game into something better or something in a greater scale?

Not at all But all impressions, opinions, great and not so great ideas have probably been internalized by some hidden and hopefully mighty (at least lvl17) part of my mind.

We do not, however start out aiming for a greater scale. Start small and let the organics of creativity work - grow, grOW, GROW ... ping: game finished! Blubb, blubb, flush! Game doesn't stop growing.

> Will this game evolve into something that appeals more to the "average gamer" or will it get even deeper in the sense of having an even richer strategical game play?

If Microsoft buys the rights to the game and makes a quick paced and graphically pleasant RTS I would be most pleased It would be fun to see what they would come up with and how much they would cut away or brutalize

> What worries me is that such a good game, such great, deep and interesting Lore and strategy system be forgotten or left un-polished. As I've said before in my second post in this forum this game could be the UTIMATE game if polished correctly.

Polish is just polish. I have no imminent need to get the game polished. I have recieved plenty of nice feedback and is content with that. I'm not particulary interested in getting rich, nor in getting famous. I'm quite happy with being the creator of a game and a world that a couple of thoudsand likes and some hundred perhaps rates as the best game ever. Of course it would be nice if more people felt the same, but I think I prefer to have a couple of hundred students that thinks I'm a good teacher that has helped them.

I don't think dom3 will be forgotten. I will not forget it

[Kristoffer O]

> What's great about Dominions_3 is the quantity of the game content

True, but I also consider it a quality that there are no Fireball I, Fireball II, Fireball III, Blast Fireball I, Blast Fireball II, etc.

I get very annoyed when I find items like 'Swift Blade of the Badger', 'Swift Axe of the Badger', 'Cruel Spear of the Badger'. I do not count these as different items, but one. And one that is more boring as there are several similar ones. If there was one 'Swift Blade', one 'Axe of the Badger' and one 'Cruel Spear' I would like each of them more than the generic ones. I instinctively considers the generic items as generic and thus never fun and always of possibly lesser power or usefulness than items with unique (even if common) names and abilities.