What makes a skillful Dom 3 player?

[Lingchih]

Diplomacy: It's what makes the world go round.

I am not a skillful Dom 3 player. I have no head for numbers. I have never won an MP game. But in almost all of my MP games, I have stayed around til the endgame... because of diplomacy. I have kept Mega powers from attacking me, through diplomacy.

You might say I am cowardly, but I am not. I have attacked game leaders when the time was right, even though outclassed. But I have had fun in most all my MP games. And the key to that was diplomacy.

[Renojustin]

Edi is so right that it's not even funny. Just from a casual glance at the database, I learned things about my situation ingame that led to large differences in gameplay.

Encyclopedic knowledge is key.

You can have poor diplomacy and win from a corner of the map, or even with luck and gumption as your potential opponents slaughter each other for being too visible.

You can think everything has a use and get proved wrong time and time again as people who utilize key units and tactics slaughter your motley crew.

Knowledge of magic, how it's used, when, what you can do with different paths at different levels of research is essential to Dom3 mastery.

Min/maxing your empire according to its strengths and weaknesses is extremely helpful and ties in to all-around game knowledge. Learn everything you can, the game is deep.

With a general knowledge of tactics, and a vast knowledge of game minutae, you are a very dangerous nation indeed... even if you never so much as glance at your game forum thread, never send a message to a neighbor, and never trade a gem.

[moderation]

Hmm, the encyclopedic knowledge is probably the part that probably stymies new players the most (at least it stymies me ). Separating what choices in pretenders, spells, items are the best versus choices that are mediocre or "just for fun" is a pretty hard job in the beginning. Whatever part of he game you are in, it seems like there is a main line of most effective choices that most experienced players, and then maybe a set of choices that do the same thing, but are less efficient to varying degrees. The challenge for new players is really separating the best choices from the chaff. Until then, it's really easy to make suboptimal choices and not realize it under it's too late.

[Sombre]

I don't think you can have 'poor diplomacy' and beat anyone who has 'good diplomacy' unless you're playing a duel. Diplomacy is by far the most important factor in MP. The number of times a clear winner has continued to win throughout the midgame, extended it into the lategame and, surprise surprise, won in the end simply due to them persuading people not to attack them is pretty staggering. Meanwhile people with 'poor diplomacy' scrap amongst themselves until they get flattened by someone who hasn't been in a vicious bloody stalemate for the past turns.

[Edi]

Renojustin said:
Edi is so right that it's not even funny. Just from a casual glance at the database, I learned things about my situation ingame that led to large differences in gameplay.

Encyclopedic knowledge is key.

It's not the be-all, end-all, but it certainly helps. I'm a complete MP newbie, really, but in this department I have an advantage over most people simply because I put the DB together. Meaning I had to dig deep enough into the game and doublecheck that I got everything right that I know substantial portions of it from memory. Not perfectly, but close enough that it doesn't make a difference.

I've gotten best results through diplomacy in all the three MP games I've played.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

BTW, is it possible to create a fixed team in a MP game where you define teams at the start and then see his area? I don't think I want a game decided by the fact that you suddenly have to face a 2 : 1 or worse opposition. It's just unfair!

[Edi]

Not possible at the moment.

[Fal]

Luck is also very important in MP games.

and above all, loads of time...

[DonCorazon]

Diplomacy is the most directly correlated to how long you can survive in an MP game. It fades in importance as the number of players decrease. In the end, even the smoothest diplomat will still need to face at least one enemy to win, and that is when you need the deep knowledge of the game.

I survived many MP games and did well on all the graphs based on diplomacy but in the end would get slaughtered (see Endgame Slaughter Moves thread) because of lack of knowledge of these endgame tactics (or in that case, it turned out to be a bug exploit).

Now I understand many endgame strategies but still am learning specific tactics - spell combos that are effective, units to deal with specific situations, etc.

So I think there is a learning curve you need to move up and the important skills shift throughout the game, but diplomacy is the most important until the very end when your ability to handle endgame clashes will determine whether you can win or not. Of course, you will never get to that point without some diplomatic success.

[void]

i believe that the most essential key to "skillful" is either having many heads -- like a hydra -- or cold-blooded like a bog beast.