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[Dominions 3: The Awakening] Medieval Fantasy Grand Strategy. Stegadons ITT.
This game sounds amazing. Is there a typical timetable for something appearing on steam? I ask only because I've never heard of desura, and I tend to not trust things.
This game sounds amazing. Is there a typical timetable for something appearing on steam? I ask only because I've never heard of desura, and I tend to not trust things.
This game sounds amazing. Is there a typical timetable for something appearing on steam? I ask only because I've never heard of desura, and I tend to not trust things.
Desura's trust-worthy, BTW - I've got a couple things there, I just never start up the client because Steam exists (and everything I've bought on Desura has, eventually, given me Steam keys).
So, what is the new LA Ermor like now, given that the undead empire is now MA Ermor?
New LA Ermor is actually LA Lemuria. It's similar to LA/MA Ermor in that it summons undead freespawn and can't recruit units, but the units are all ghostly versions of previous Ermor units instead of the zombies/skeletons of Undead Empire. I haven't played them, so I don't know the details.
Anyone know if the balance issues have been kinda-sorta addressed for Ermor so it's not just 'lolz permaban'?
They have not. The devs have said they aren't very interested in balancing the game on a nation-by-nation basis, for the most part. And I personally don't think it's needed. There's always CBM and/or house rules for that.
Balancing is something that they definitely shouldn't do beyond obviously gamebreaking stuff. It runs the risk of dampening all the awesome variability and different gameplay feel of different nations.
That is a pretty bizarre way to look at balancing, in my opinion. Balancing is done to promote variability by making more options viable, the example above of having to ban a faction is a perfect example of imbalance reducing variability.
That is a pretty bizarre way to look at balancing, in my opinion. Balancing is done to promote variability by making more options viable, the example above of having to ban a faction is a perfect example of imbalance reducing variability.
It depends what kind of play you're trying to promote. If the game was a 1v1 strategy slug fest then yeah, having an imbalanced faction would be bad.
However the way it sounds to me they just want to keep the flavour of 'holy shit these guys are terrifying' and allow that known fact to naturally nerf said faction by the virtue that anyone playing them is liable to get ganged up on.
That is a pretty bizarre way to look at balancing, in my opinion. Balancing is done to promote variability by making more options viable, the example above of having to ban a faction is a perfect example of imbalance reducing variability.
What you have to keep in mind though is that Dominions isn't balanced around 1v1 (to the extent that it is balanced). It's balanced around free-for-all multiplayer with temporary alliances at best (the disciples mode changes this somewhat, but given how new Dom4 is, I'm not really taking that into account). In games where Ashen Empire is present, they're never just another player. They're the 800-pound-gorilla that everyone in the game is thinking about and planning around from turn one. No one will ally with them (okay, to be precise, almost no one will ally with them for any length of time - usually), and everyone is talking among each other about how to deal with them, forming alliances around them, etc. Meanwhile, Ashen Empire is just trying to survive the early game, playing the other players off each other until they can snowball. I think it lends an interesting dynamic to the game. Because of the FFA style and highly diplomatic nature of Dominions, picking the strongest nation is not always the strongest choice because it paints a big target on your back.
Honestly, trying to balance the nations as they are just runs the risk of diluting what makes them so interesting to begin with, without really having much of a benefit that isn't already taken into account by human players and house rules.
Now that Dom4 has been out on Steam for a while maybe we have enough players to get a game going.
If 7-13 of you are up for a play by email PA Dom4 newbie game I'll run one. 28 hours/turn to start with. Don't worry if you don't know how to use the PBEM server - I'll post a guide if the game gets going. I'm open to suggestions regarding the map/era/etc.
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Dominions 3 is available now on Steam.
Dominions 4 might be a few months out, given the pace at which Valve's vetting process moves.
Desura's trust-worthy, BTW - I've got a couple things there, I just never start up the client because Steam exists (and everything I've bought on Desura has, eventually, given me Steam keys).
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
New LA Ermor is actually LA Lemuria. It's similar to LA/MA Ermor in that it summons undead freespawn and can't recruit units, but the units are all ghostly versions of previous Ermor units instead of the zombies/skeletons of Undead Empire. I haven't played them, so I don't know the details.
They have not. The devs have said they aren't very interested in balancing the game on a nation-by-nation basis, for the most part. And I personally don't think it's needed. There's always CBM and/or house rules for that.
It depends what kind of play you're trying to promote. If the game was a 1v1 strategy slug fest then yeah, having an imbalanced faction would be bad.
However the way it sounds to me they just want to keep the flavour of 'holy shit these guys are terrifying' and allow that known fact to naturally nerf said faction by the virtue that anyone playing them is liable to get ganged up on.
What you have to keep in mind though is that Dominions isn't balanced around 1v1 (to the extent that it is balanced). It's balanced around free-for-all multiplayer with temporary alliances at best (the disciples mode changes this somewhat, but given how new Dom4 is, I'm not really taking that into account). In games where Ashen Empire is present, they're never just another player. They're the 800-pound-gorilla that everyone in the game is thinking about and planning around from turn one. No one will ally with them (okay, to be precise, almost no one will ally with them for any length of time - usually), and everyone is talking among each other about how to deal with them, forming alliances around them, etc. Meanwhile, Ashen Empire is just trying to survive the early game, playing the other players off each other until they can snowball. I think it lends an interesting dynamic to the game. Because of the FFA style and highly diplomatic nature of Dominions, picking the strongest nation is not always the strongest choice because it paints a big target on your back.
If 7-13 of you are up for a play by email PA Dom4 newbie game I'll run one. 28 hours/turn to start with. Don't worry if you don't know how to use the PBEM server - I'll post a guide if the game gets going. I'm open to suggestions regarding the map/era/etc.