Episode 234: Seeking New God

[Troy Goodfellow]

Bruce Geryk brings Tom Chick back to the show so they can grill Ilwinter's Johan Karlsson and Kristoffer Osterman about Dominions 4 - the latest version of their "So You Wanna Be A God?" Fantasy Conquest Game. Learn about new empires, new powers and why everything is just a bit different for them.

 

Listen Here

Edited October 3, 2013 by Troy Goodfellow
I'm a moron

[hexgrid]

It seems to have showed up in my feed.

[Troy Goodfellow]

Wasn't a problem with the feed, but with publishing to IT's home page. But all good now! Thanks, Jake!

[otthegreat]

That music! I haven't played Dominions 3 in years, it's a great game but can be draining. I lost my last multiplayer game to a sneak attack by those terrible Irish elf people while I was busy on another front. Their name starts with a T. Anyway, it was a bit annoying so I put the game down, lost the CD in a move shortly thereafter, and never went back. But hearing about Dominions 4 has gotten me excited to jump back in as soon as I get the time. I'm especially looking forward to checking out the team options. 

[spacerumsfeld]

Dominions 3 is now available on Steam (and Dom4 is on Desura) so you never have to worry about losing the CD again.

[Procyon Lotor]

Bought it.

 

I'm excited to try a MP team game.  The learning curve for this game is incredibly steep, and a multiplayer free-for-all is the most unforgiving way to play any game.  Hiding behind the skirts of more skillful team members will give a n00b like myself a chance of seeing the midgame, while maybe learning a thing or two from them in the process.   

[Snooze]

Great podcast. As a long time Dom3 player I really enjoyed hearing the developers talk about the game. I could see Tom pushing for a more in depth study of the game and they were not going for it, which of course is ok.

 

I do feel there could be an in-depth study of the game, it has simple mechanics that combine to become complex in its execution. The nations are imbalanced but in the single player game thats ok because its like in in-built difficulty switch on top of whats already available. For multiplayer I'm sure the fans will create another CBM mod to balance it all out.

 

A big change has been the way magic works due to increased research costs and more fleshed out early magic, especially for summons as now you can better dump magic gems into summoning units for an early game boost. Its subtle but its there.

 

Lastly, I love Dominions 3 and 4 (versions I have played) because no other fantasy strategy game excels at creating unique nations and from that a rich game world. The clay and marble armies of MA Agartha vs the freespawn carrion creatures of MA Asphodel vs the freespawn undead hoards of Ermor vs the human bureaucracy of Tien Chi. And so much more.

 

I've been gaming in one form or another for 30 years, the Dominions series is such an immersive gem achieved not through flashy graphics but great world lore design that seems to come around very rarely.

[Procyon Lotor]

I would not say that Dominions has simple mechanics.  In fact, I think it's one of the most mechanically complicated games I've ever played.  I still don't understand most of what is going on.  But I think that complexity is what allows it to get away with such unbalanced factions.  When you have that much stuff going on, you can't cover every contingency, and a nominally weaker nation can hit you from an angle you never saw coming.    

[Snooze]

  On 10/11/2013 at 3:32 PM, Procyon Lotor said:

I would not say that Dominions has simple mechanics.  In fact, I think it's one of the most mechanically complicated games I've ever played.  I still don't understand most of what is going on.  But I think that complexity is what allows it to get away with such unbalanced factions.  When you have that much stuff going on, you can't cover every contingency, and a nominally weaker nation can hit you from an angle you never saw coming.    

 

I think its mechanics are quite simple in that the maths for determining everything is pretty easy to understand. There are no complex equations as its generally a bunch of open d6 rolls to see who gets the higher score.