Single Player?

[Meglobob]

ttomm46 said:
Hi

I would be playing primarily single player..Is the AI good enough for me to get the game for the single player..?

Yes is the simple answer. The majority of people stuggle against the AI for the first month or two. So you get some good games.

Once you get used to the huge magic system, both spells and magic items and start exploiting the AI's weaknesses then you will be able to defeat the AI with confidence.

Even after that you have 60+ different nations to explore, so theres still alot of gaming left. After this join just 1 or 2 MP games, its easy and does not take up too much time. You then get a whole new game again.

The developers release regular patches giving new nations, spells and there are lots of mods to try.

Overall great value for money.

[MaxWilson]

I've been playing SP for a couple of months, and while the AI isn't as good as I am it's plenty good enough to be fun. (Especially since, given that I usually play vs. 7-10 other nations, I'd like to win more than 10-15% of the time.) The main use for the AI is to give me a competent and unpredictable opponent (vs. playing against myself, where the problem is that I always know what "my" strategy is) while I'm trying out new nations/new opponents. The AI does have its weaknesses--it doesn't know how to Blitzkrieg over a Maginot Line and it doesn't always optimize spending perfectly--but I've found that the AI is close enough to good that by turning up the difficulty level, which gives the AI production bonuses, it can still compete well enough that if I fall behind in the early game I bog down and would presumably get crushed if I didn't go for a super-strategy that the AI can't handle (like supercombatants with unique items). I admit that I rarely finish a game, though, just play until I appear to be winning or losing, if that long--there are so many nations to try that I usually have 4-5 games running concurrently and once a game is "over" it loses priority and eventually gets replaced.

(If you play with a no-independent map or mod the AI is a lot stronger, too.)

-Max

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive played Dominions primarily as a solo player since Dom1. The AI in Dom3 is good enough until you play enough games to start predicting its actions. Playing as all of the nations and trying all of the possible strategies should keep you busy for awhile.

When you get there you can try the various maps, mods, scenarios which can give you a new AI experience. By the way, turning the indepts higher on a game can make the AI easier and turning the resources down can make the AI harder.