Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log

[Angry_Hominid]

Originally Posted by shatner

Conquest of Elysium is actually pretty underwhelming.

Couldnt agree more. I was into it for about 5 hours or so when I was stoked and sure that their was a layer of complexity bubbling underneath the surface, when that turned out to be false I stopped playing.

Roguelikes are deep with options, COE3 is not deep at all and really the only choices to be made are very simple risk vs reward decisions and usually only early in the game. After that it becomes a summon, recruit, expand grind with no tactical, and only little strategic decision making required.

I was umming and arring between this game and dom3, however bought this because the reviewers stated that it was a better single player game. Having bought Dom3 and played it exclusively single player (trying to get some MP going tho) I can heartily disagree with that, Dom 3 is just a MUCH better game all round.

[earcaraxe]

i totally agree. as i see the main reason behind my disappointment of coe3 are the statements that coe3 was optimized for single player play. after exploring some of the nations and playing a couple games it became such a bore, that dom3 SP got looking much more interesting and enjoyable in contrast. according to my taste of complexity and strategy games these two games are not even close. I would like to stress that dom3 is my favorite game by far.

[Edi]

CoE3 can be played multiplayer, but requires direct connection instead of PBEM.

The main problem in my eyes seems to be that, despite multiple, highly emphasized warnings to NOT treat CoE3 as Dom4 and to NOT expect it to be Dom4, quite a few Dom3 veterans went and did precisely that. No wonder the game is a letdown in that kind of situation.

Personally I love both games, since they answer different types of strategy gaming needs for me.

[elmokki]

I hestitated buying CoE3 for long since I expected it to be crap. Then I figured that since some people at least seem to really like it I'll buy it.

What I expected was a lightweight, somewhat Age of Wonders or Heroes of Might and Magic style game. That implies having turns quick and still having enough character development and tactics and whatnot for it to feel meaningful.

CoE3 IS somwhat like AoW or HoMM series and the varying characters are a cool idea. That's where it ends. There's absolutely no depth in any part of the game to make playing it feel like fun. Even just small things like a bit of control to what your troops do to combat (I personally liked the Dominions 3 scripts and combat, but that may be too cumbersome even with the vastly lower numbers of units and commanders) and more character development so it feels more like a strategy role playing game would go a long way already.

When you add into the lack of depth a huge very often game crippling or game winning luck element you've made a game which is very comparable to monopoly, it's really even worse. You don't have very meaningful choices and you luck is the primary thing affecting your success. If you can compare a game to Monopoly like that, the game is probably bad.

It's not a dissapointment since I assumed it to be streamlined Dominions 3, it's a dissapointment because it's just plain bad.

[WraithLord]

I have mixed feelings on the matter.
On the one hand I do agree w/ the criticism here.
OtoH I'm having fun playing. I esp. liked playing Druid & Necromancer. It may very well have to do w/ the small amount of time I actually have to play. So it leaves me always wanting more.

I do wonder if ever we will see a dominions IV. If IW are burnt out on this it may never happen

[Edi]

I'm sorry to hear that, elmokki. To each his own, I guess, and this one apparently wasn't for you.

One of the things that, in hindsight, should perhaps have been brought out more during the beta test phase is that CoE3 is better compared to Warlords 2 and Warlords 3: Darklords Rising than to the HoMM series or Age of Wonders, never mind Dominions.

However, memory being finite and the Warlords series being as old as it is (meaning from the early to mid 1990s), it was not the first comparison to come to mind.

[NTJedi]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

I do wonder if ever we will see a dominions IV. If IW are burnt out on this it may never happen

Depends on their personality. Some personalities might cause this experience to move them more quickly and more determined for releasing a better DOM_4. Some personalities might cause this experience to move them more toward trying to save/rescue this current game to the point of even spending the next 5 years patching/updating and even as far as working on a sequel thus CoE_4.

Illwinter seems to have given the impression of working on non_dominions stuff for awhile... so maybe by 2020 we'll have a Dom_4.

[Zywack]

Originally Posted by Edi

One of the things that, in hindsight, should perhaps have been brought out more during the beta test phase is that CoE3 is better compared to Warlords 2 and Warlords 3: Darklords Rising than to the HoMM series or Age of Wonders, never mind Dominions.

However, memory being finite and the Warlords series being as old as it is (meaning from the early to mid 1990s), it was not the first comparison to come to mind.

That's a good point... I didn't like the Warlords serie much, but it certainly does bear a good deal of resemblance to CoE3.

Based on the screenshots, I was thinking more alongside a simpler Dominions mixed with some Masters of Magic / Age of Wonders due to the map grid and "squad" gameplay. Warlords is certainly a more apt comparison to CoE3, what with extremely simple gameplay elements and the massive luck elements (Warlords had an extremely binary approach to unit battles if I remember well).

[Gandalf Parker]

Maybe a Masters of Magic if it was updated to run on new OS's and then planned on updating. Mostly CoE3 is CoE2 updated to starting point. I wouldnt judge CoE3 totally on what it is now. Especially anyone who has been here thru the growth of Dom3. The Dom3 demo is still available for a free download. Grab it and play it since that is still the original release of Dom3. CoE3 feels like that to me and I can already see a long list of changes made directly from player requests.

Now Im just hoping no one poisons the flow. Truthfully, Im not missing much of the Dom3 crowd.

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Now Im just hoping no one poisons the flow. Truthfully, Im not missing much of the Dom3 crowd.

What exactly was "poisoned" in Dominions 3 development in your opinion?