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Dominions 3: The Awakening. Killing our way to godhood turn by turn!

TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
edited March 2008 in Games and Technology
Dominions 3: The Awakening
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Ages ago, in a time steeped in legends, the Pantokrator battled others to ascend to godhood. Ever since, he has jealously guarded that power. He has struck down any brave and foolish enough to seek the mantle of godhood. Those pretenders who were not slain were scattered, in hiding and in slumber, waiting for a day of opportunity. Their wait is over.

The Pantokrator has fallen, and pretenders once more battle for the right to ascend.

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dominions3.jpg

A turn-based strategy, Dominions 3 is the third game in the Dominions series by Illwinter Game Design in which people pretend to be people pretending to be gods. It is one of the most complex games I've ever encountered.

There are over fifty nations spread throughout the three eras in which a game can be set. You can research and utilize more than 600 spells spread throughout the eight paths of magic. More than 300 distinct magical items to be found and made. There are over 1500 units to command and destroy.

Okay, now that I'm done copying features verbatim from the game's site, this is a game of incredible depth. All of those features combine to create a mind-boggling number of possibilities.

You can find the demo here and the main site is easily accessed through the power of clicking.

If we have enough PA'rs that own Dominions 3, it'd be cool to get a game going. Elsewise, I guess it would be approximately as cool to try to convince people to buy it, I guess.

This is a very lackluster post because there is simply too much that can be said. sry. More things will be added to this anemic post as they are suggested by folks.

TheOtherHorseman on
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Posts

  • Iceman2343Iceman2343 The sun went down with practiced bravado. Bel Air, MarylandRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I would be interested in joining said game if one gets started. I just got the game the other day and I haven't played that much so I don't know how I would fair in an actual game. Would you be hosting the game as PBEM? I ask because I usually work during the day and I am on the computer at different times so I would be able to play if you run it that way.

    Iceman2343 on
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  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    PBeM is indeed what I had in mind. We'll have to see how many people we can scrounge up. It's an incredibly fun game but I've never actually gotten around to playing it with other people.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • Trevor GoodchildTrevor Goodchild Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    This is such a great, complex, diverse game. All of the sides feel so different, are well fleshed out and unique to play. I have a disc of this laying around somewhere.. I'll post again if I can find it! D:

    Trevor Goodchild on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    And then there were three!

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • Iceman2343Iceman2343 The sun went down with practiced bravado. Bel Air, MarylandRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Yep, I am still reading the manual and doing messing around in single player to come to grips with how complex this game is. Do any of you have any links to resources that might have info that could help a dominions 3 noob?

    Iceman2343 on
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  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    This is a sticky in the official Dom3 forum that has links to assorted strategies for various nations in various ages. Even nations that you never intend to play are worth a look because people will describe the importance of various traits, and how and why you should use specific units and spells for specific reasons.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • Iceman2343Iceman2343 The sun went down with practiced bravado. Bel Air, MarylandRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Ah thanks

    Iceman2343 on
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  • tgbobtgbob Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Oh yes, I'm up for some sweet sweet Dominions 3 loving.

    Oh, and for anyone wondering, the game plays more like Total War than HoMM/Age of Wonders, except you only build 3 "buildings" and there are almost zero in-game diplomacy options. So it plays like a game of Diplomacy when you're playing with other people. With dragons, Norse gods, naked crazy chicks, lava people, skeletons, crazy six armed Hindu gods, and those apes from Planet of the Apes.

    Oh, and don't forget the Cthulhu guys. Can't forget about those crazy Cthulhu guys.

    tgbob on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    tgbob wrote: »
    Oh yes, I'm up for some sweet sweet Dominions 3 loving.

    Oh, and for anyone wondering, the game plays more like Total War than HoMM/Age of Wonders, except you only build 3 "buildings" and there are almost zero in-game diplomacy options. So it plays like a game of Diplomacy when you're playing with other people. With dragons, Norse gods, naked crazy chicks, lava people, skeletons, crazy six armed Hindu gods, and those apes from Planet of the Apes.

    Oh, and don't forget the Cthulhu guys. Can't forget about those crazy Cthulhu guys.

    Being R'yleh is interesting. Your lands become swamped with insane cultists. In single player games, I devote a little bundle of money every so often to get a pack of commanders to round them up and march them off to bloody, doomed battle against my enemies.

    also, I have like 6 prophets already in my latest game because my Deep One cultists have very high opinions of themselves

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • ChorazinChorazin Lancaster, PARegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Ah dammit, you guys had to mention you can play as R'yleh. Then I went to the website and they have a Mac version.

    Fuck. If the demo's good I'll have to buy this and I suck at these games. :(

    Chorazin on
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  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Chorazin wrote: »
    Ah dammit, you guys had to mention you can play as R'yleh. Then I went to the website and they have a Mac version.

    Fuck. If the demo's good I'll have to buy this and I suck at these games. :(

    Their capital beneath the waves has a void gate which can be entered in order to call forth sacred abominations from beyond the stars. Sometimes, the erstwhile summoner gets lost in time and space.

    Don't worry, though! They occasionally come back.

    For example, earlier one of my summoners returned to the world. He was insane, which meant that he would occasionally do whatever he felt like and to hell with you, and he was feebleminded, meaning that he was magically neutered.

    Also, he returned to the world in a heavily defended enemy province all by himself.

    So, regardless, I no longer had to worry about his shortcomings as a loyal mage.

    edit: Oh, and it is worth noting that the demo will only give you a tiny hint of the incredible amount of options and depth available in a real big-boy game. So judge it based on the style of play and the tantalizing hints of what may yet be.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I am returned from a trip. Hopefully, we can scrounge together enough people to turn this into a proper Game On situation.

    it'd be totally cool to kill your mans and have my mans killed in turn

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    This game is reaaaallly complicated. It seems like a lot of the factions are only cosmetically different. Is there any kind of team play since you're trying to become the one god? I don't like FFA really.

    vhzod on
  • tgbobtgbob Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Ayep, this game is numbers happy. There isn't set in-game team play, but you can make verbal agreements between players like a game of Diplomacy.

    All the factions are different from one another, I mean, sure you got infantry and stuff, but their armor, weapon, and their species all matters oh so much. Not to mention what their Pretender can be, or what spells their mages can cast, or what their national spells are.

    Examples from the demo:

    Arcoscephale, bronze age greeks with myrmidons, chariots, dudes riding on pegasusesesss(bleh) and dudes with wax icarus-esque wings. They get a priest that can heal, which is pretty fucken rare, and some mages with air, earth, astral, nature, or randomly rolled magical paths. They get Greek mythology Pretenders, titans, cyclops, etc.

    Agartha, undergroud giant naked expensive troglodytes that kinda suck. But they get Umbrals which are uber ethereal stealthy life draining undead mans they can summon. Oh and most of their troops can fight underwater without outside help. They can get water, earth, death, or fire magics with their mages. They get some Greek gods, with Agartha only Risen Orcale and an Ageloss Olm which is a worm.. furry, thing.

    Marverni, Celtic Gaul inspired nation. All their units are split up into different tribes with the "nobles" getting chain mail armor while not nobles fight without. Marverni mages get earth, astral, and nature paths while their Pretender choices are from Greek mythos with a hint of Celtic. Oh and most of their mages are also priests.

    Kailasa, monkeys n' apes. Albino chimp yogis for magical needs, walking Apes for infantry, and shitty tiny monkeys for cannon fodder. Their mages get astral, earth, water and nature paths. The Kailasa get Hindu styled Pretenders, you know, giant six armed naked chicks drooling blood on their tits.

    Oh and let's not forget their nation spells.

    Agartha get the already mentioned Umbrals along with a spells that summons lava men and earth elementals.

    Arcoscephale can summon a Monster boar which attacks the province it is summoned in, and Sirrushs, wingless dragons.

    Marverni get summon (Great) Boars, contact Boar of Carnutes, the king of boars which spawns more boars on whatever land he is in, and the Monster Boar.

    And then there are the monkeys, who can summon nymphs, tigers, Yakshas, Yakshini, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Siddhas, Devatas, Devalas, and Rudras, the last of which is a mini Shiva.

    tgbob on
  • MegazverMegazver Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I wish that someone would FRAPS the first ten turns or so, explaining everything in simple language and excruciating detail. What the buttons do, why you press them, the basic strategy of it all. I really tried to get into this game, but it's too newbie-unfriendly. :(

    Megazver on
    Chief Tyrol. Academician Megazver of the Jol-Nar Universities
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I'm not sure how normal people learn how to play Dominions. I just fucked up over and over again. Eventually, I did so less than I once did.

    I still suck a fair amount, though.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I played some Mictilan. Thats different. Blood magic is weird. Also they can't spread dominion without sacrificing virgins all over the place. The game developers must really hate virgins. The demo has a tutorial in the doc folder go look at that if you want to learn the basic basics.

    vhzod on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Blood magic is weird stuff. You have to devote a lot of potential researchers to rounding up blood sacrifices. The high level blood magic is a huge bitch to your enemies, though.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • Last SonLast Son Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    What is the combat in this game like? Is it Civ-like in that the "battles" happen totally behind the scenes,total war like where you have a separate "tactical" view where you control the battle in real time, or bestest would be a separate tactical view where you have turn based combat... I'm such a whore for turn based games.

    I swore I wouldn't buy any more games until I cleared out some of my backlog, but if the game features turn based combat I might have to get it anyway.

    Last Son on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Last Son wrote: »
    What is the combat in this game like? Is it Civ-like in that the "battles" happen totally behind the scenes,total war like where you have a separate "tactical" view where you control the battle in real time, or bestest would be a separate tactical view where you have turn based combat... I'm such a whore for turn based games.

    I swore I wouldn't buy any more games until I cleared out some of my backlog, but if the game features turn based combat I might have to get it anyway.


    On the bright side, combat is turn based. On the downside, you don't control it. This is a strategic and not a tactical game. Combat is done behind the scenes, allowing you to watch replays. However, you have control before battles. You can set orders and set formations. This is theoretically optional but it is recommended you tell your squads and leaders to do clever things. Mages seem to glory in casting the most stupid crap unless you tell them specifically to protect themselves and lay waste to your enemies.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    You can only get a mage to cast five spells... how can you get them to shoot offensive spells at the enemy past that? They seem to be casting protection on the archers all the time and leaving the melee troops alone. I've got the full version want to play some test games? Even the battles are done in turns you just have limited control over what happens. Usually you can just script what you would do anyway except for mages.

    vhzod on
  • AldarezAldarez Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    nothing beats our games, absolutely nothing.

    Well shit, guess I'll have to play it then.

    Aldarez on
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  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    vhzod wrote: »
    I've got the full version want to play some test games?

    Sure. We'll need to pick an Age to play in, and also nations for ourselves. Since you're getting started, you can pick the former and have first picks for the latter. Once you've gotten that out of the way, create the pretender you want and save it. Send me the file for it (located in dominions3/savedgames/newlords or somesuch). I just made an e-mail address for it (dom3pbem at gmail dot com).

    When you have an age and a nation decided on, let me know and I'll pick out a nation and give you a heads up so we know vaguely what we're up against. I'll also give a step by step process on how to participate in a Dominions 3 PBeM game, lovingly transcribed from the manual, unless you have the manual, in which case pfff.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Aldarez wrote: »
    nothing beats our games, absolutely nothing.

    Well shit, guess I'll have to play it then.

    It sounds less ridiculous when it is put in front of an eagle flying majestically before a rippling American flag.



    Right?

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    So the only way to play online is by email? bleh. And they expect people to pay 54 dollars for this crap they need to get real.

    vhzod on
  • tgbobtgbob Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Uh, you can do network games. But the server needs to be running so people can log in and play their turns.

    tgbob on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    So can people host their own games? Is there some centralized server? Do you need a dedicated server?

    vhzod on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    You don't need a dedicated server, but it helps unless you have a set time when people have agreed to send in their turns so you know to have the server running. If I'm hosting a game, my router would very certainly mess with that, so PBEM is the only way to go if I am to be the host.

    Now, there is a relatively publically available server called llamaserver, but it wasn't my plan to use that for a quick test game as you'd need to ask the person running it to set the game up for you. Although, thereafter it can be directly managed by the person running the game.

    If someone else wants to set up a server and run a game., I'd certainly be fine with that.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Does it support LAN play maybe we could use hamachi?

    vhzod on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    vhzod wrote: »
    Does it support LAN play maybe we could use hamachi?

    Why, it does at that. I'll have to knock the dust off of Hamachi and update it. It has been a while.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Anyway, re which age to play in. Based on my reading of the rather incomplete wiki the earlier ages focus more on smashing than magic with increasing weirdness in the later ages like ermor and ryleth so lets start out with the early ages.

    edit: I want to try one of the guys I haven't played as yet, I've done Mictlian, Ermor, Ryleth, Marverni, Pangea, and Kailasa

    vhzod on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Apparently, the hamachi mediation server truly despises me.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Maybe there's some way to get on, but I don't know what it is. But you better find out because its your fault I want to play this haha

    vhzod on
  • Iceman2343Iceman2343 The sun went down with practiced bravado. Bel Air, MarylandRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Is the test game going to still be real time, or is it going to be PBEM? I was about to create a pretender and send to the aformentioned email.

    Iceman2343 on
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  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I don't like emails so I'm trying to get a LAN game going using hamachi (which makes like a virtual LAN we connect to using the power of the internetwork)

    vhzod on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Hamachi doesn't like me. I'm getting some kind of weird error that is only cured by changing my Hamachi IP, which Hamachi refuses to do. It is actively thwarting me, in fact.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Can't you like uninstall and reinstall it or something and then use a new nickname? How does it come up with your IP?
    I'm making a network called PADOM3 password wangs

    vhzod on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    vhzod wrote: »
    Can't you like uninstall and reinstall it or something and then use a new nickname? How does it come up with your IP?
    I'm making a network called PADOM3 password wangs



    I reinstalled like twice. It just remembers my hamachi ip. I have no idea where it stores the thing, but I'll be damned if it is going to let go of it without a fight.

    TheOtherHorseman on
  • vhzodvhzod Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Its probably generating the IP from your computers IP. How is your hamachi IP causing a problem? Have you examined the connection configuration button in the status tab of the preferences?

    vhzod on
  • TheOtherHorsemanTheOtherHorseman Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Well, the way this seems to go is that I'm getting a rare error cured by changing the Hamachi IP. It is refusing to change, so I'm going to rip through my registry like the foolish hand of an angry god. Let's see how it goes.

    Edit: Haha, I tricked it and I win.

    Edit2: okay, this better work

    TheOtherHorseman on
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