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[Dominions 3: The Awakening] Medieval Fantasy Grand Strategy. Stegadons ITT.

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Posts

  • WingedWeaselWingedWeasel Registered User regular
    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.

  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    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.

    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. :/

    With Love and Courage
  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    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).

  • Vi MonksVi Monks Registered User regular
    You also don't need the Desura client. You can download the game straight from Desura's website. The client's just there if you want it.

  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    So, what is the new LA Ermor like now, given that the undead empire is now MA Ermor?

    With Love and Courage
  • Vi MonksVi Monks Registered User regular
    The Ender wrote: »
    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.

  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    Anyone know if the balance issues have been kinda-sorta addressed for Ermor so it's not just 'lolz permaban'?

    With Love and Courage
  • Vi MonksVi Monks Registered User regular
    The Ender wrote: »
    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.

  • Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    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.

  • VicVic Registered User regular
    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.

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Vic wrote: »
    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.

  • Vi MonksVi Monks Registered User regular
    Vic wrote: »
    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.

  • Rhan9Rhan9 Registered User regular
    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.

  • Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    edited February 2014
    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.

    Grey Paladin on
    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
  • OrestusOrestus Registered User regular
    I'd be up for it, no preferences on map era whatever

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