Wish-List for Dominions 4

Jazzepi · #1 April 17th, 2007, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Sombre said:
The problem is that for the Devs making new units and races and spells and whatnot is /fun/. Fixing bugs and improving the GUI is less so.

But I agree, Dominions doesn't really need more content. It mostly needs interface and AI improvements and more modding options (such as ability to mod AI etc).

I did pay $50 for the game.

Jazzepi

thejeff · #2 April 17th, 2007, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Jazzepi said:

I did pay $50 for the game.

Jazzepi

That's great. And you got a good game for it.
If you don't think Dom4 will be worth the price when it comes out, don't buy it.

Obviously, comment and suggest here. The devs do pay attention and some suggestions will be implemented.

But, they do this part time. They have real jobs and work on dominions on the side, mostly for fun. They're not making enough to work on it full-time and given the size of the niche market for games like this, never will.
If they stop having fun working on it, they'll stop working on it.

Sombre · #3 April 17th, 2007, 11:36 AM

Yep. You have to accept the reality of the situation. They're motivated to do what is enjoyable for them, because this isn't their full time job.

danm · #4 April 17th, 2007, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Jazzepi said:I did pay $50 for the game.

You do realize that that $50 is worth approximately 15 minutes of dev time for two developers, don't you? I'm pretty sure the existing product took significantly longer than that to create.

That their "day job" is teaching may help in the "expected wage" department

but I'd be VERY (though happily) suprised if they were not volenteering (without pay) the vast majority of the time they've already invested, including all the copies they've sold.

They don't OWE us anything. The game as delivered is easilly worth the price we paid.

(that said, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a v4 with improved ai and interfase plz? hehe)

HoneyBadger · #5 April 17th, 2007, 05:09 PM

If they do make a Dominions 4, I volunteer to make/improve the manual. I'm not an experienced manual-designer, per se, but I do know a great deal about fantasy and mythology, as well as history, and I've got a long background of working with computers and designing games.

Naturally, I'd maintain the long-held and sacred tradition of enlisting the help and advice of the Dominions community.

Xietor · #6 April 17th, 2007, 05:17 PM

I think all he is saying, is since the game is not "free,"
he can reasonably expect the developers to improve the game where it needs to be improved most, not just where it is fun to do so.

I also have that expectation. Their personal lives, the fact they are great guys, work 2 jobs, is irrelevant to the average purchaser, who does not have a clue about anything except the product. In addition, I think there is likely a point of pride that they have produced one of the best strategy games ever. And Dominions is clearly one of the best ever.

If they ever tire of working on the game, and they may, I am sure a gaming company would buy the rights to the game and attempt to make it better. Though as we have seen from some other games, some attempts to improve another person's game, sometimes fail miserably.

HoneyBadger · #7 April 17th, 2007, 05:24 PM

hey now, let's not lose sight of our greedy, unreasonable desire for a well-nigh infinite amount of content. Better user interfaces/graphics/etc are all well and good, but I want 32 flavors and then some!

Gandalf Parker · #8 April 17th, 2007, 06:27 PM

Granted. We paid for the game. But the devs are grown men with lives and families. I dont mean that as an excuse. Im just pointing out that if $$$ isnt the driving force then its not likely that anyone will change their minds on it at this point in their lives. Ive found that they both react better to please-and-thankyous than dangling dollars.

As for it being picked up by a company, I suspect they would need to take the idea and start over. If its not written for understanding and sharing, and it grows in pieces, then it doesnt tend to pass-off well. The term "spaghetti code" is often used.

HoneyBadger · #9 April 17th, 2007, 06:57 PM

As much as is possible with the limited contact of a game and a forum, I like the Devs as people. They both seem very polite, friendly, creative, and committed to the finer things in life-as well as to their fans. As such, my preference is that they get as much out of this experience as we do.

I try to keep in mind that yes, their are a lot of things I'd like to see for this game, but also, there's only so much that two people can or desire to do in any given period of time, and if they were to expand the number of people working on *their* project, that it may dilute their sense of personal involvement and their creative vision.

*Their* work and *their* vision are what has brought us all together, and yes, I think their's a lot more to this journey to go, but only if Dominions keeps on the right path.

Personally, I'd like to see it picked up by a company-but only the *right* company. One that would improve some elements of the game that need improving, but leave others alone where they should be left alone, and in all cases, give the Devs their due creative freedom-along with a bigger paycheck, and involve the community-us-to the degree that we're used to.

Jazzepi · #10 April 17th, 2007, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Xietor said:
I think all he is saying, is since the game is not "free,"
he can reasonably expect the developers to improve the game where it needs to be improved most, not just where it is fun to do so.

I also have that expectation. Their personal lives, the fact they are great guys, work 2 jobs, is irrelevant to the average purchaser, who does not have a clue about anything except the product. In addition, I think there is likely a point of pride that they have produced one of the best strategy games ever. And Dominions is clearly one of the best ever.

If they ever tire of working on the game, and they may, I am sure a gaming company would buy the rights to the game and attempt to make it better. Though as we have seen from some other games, some attempts to improve another person's game, sometimes fail miserably.

Exactly, I wish the devs would have spent whatever time they did on making the two new races on UI improvements instead (and fixing the awful temple dominion rate spreading bug). Every hour they spend fixing one thing could have been spent fixing something else.

I personally would get infinitely more value out of a better UI then two more races.

That isn't to say that Dom 3 isn't a great product. I think it was worth the money I spent on it, but I still bought it. I expect the game to receive support just like any other software product. Bug fixes, revisions to the code and interface.

I read somewhere that the devs didn't know what to do with the income they were getting off the game. Well I have a suggestion. Hire someone else to help them code the parts they really don't want to. I think it would be easy enough for them to partner with a third party (who could be located anywhere internationally with the miracle of the internet) that could help them with the drudgery of UI improvements, while they focus on maintaining and improving the core of the game.

Jazzepi