Dominions 3 MP game [Running]

[Huw the Poo]

I might if I have time, yeah.

[Yskonyn]

Yes, I forgot to update the first post, will do so immediately. Thanks for pointing it out.

I won't have time for doing an AAR. It will be difficult enough to just keep notes (where I can find them back!) about what I am up to. :D

Only Niefelheim to submit a Pretender God and we have liftoff!
I'll hold off autostarting. I will manually kick the game off once everyone has sent in their pretender and everyone has reported in to be ready (mods working, map downloaded).

[undercovergeek]

I'm home tonight for the frosty pretender to be sent

Huw - ill double up on the aar if you want - should be a hoot

[Huw the Poo]

Nice one Geek, me old china.  I've never written an AAR in my life so don't expect greatness.  However yours are excellent so I shall expect greatness from you! :D

[undercovergeek]

Lol - pressures on!

[bob48]

This is fun to read, and i don't even have a clue what the game is all about. have fun chaps.

[Huw the Poo]

have fun chaps.

If Geek ever sends in his pretender! ;)

[bob48]

I blame the cheese.

[JasonPratt]

This is fun to read, and i don't even have a clue what the game is all about. have fun chaps.

Hopefully Huw and Under'geek will provide some AARs.

Basically it's a less detailed and yet far more detailed version of Master of Magic (for example low-res minimal graphics but about 290 pages of instruction), with a unique combat resolution system (give initial setup orders to the troops and then watch the AI play out the battle), and highly imaginative factions (instead of typical elves, dwarves, undead, hobbits, low men, high men, orcs, etc.).

Yskonyn (who is also hosting/administrating the game) will be playing with the Eagle Kings, a faction known as Caelum, comprised of three tribes of winged humanoids and their supporters. They work well in icy cold, and use a lot of Air magic. Also a lot of FREAKING MAMMOTHS!!

(We don't yet know who each player's chief mage is going to be, but it could be anything from a dragon to a vampire queen to a fountain of bubbling water to a naked sexual giant. And in the game!  8) (This game lends itself to lots of "and in the game" jokes. ;) ))

Huw is playing the New Faith Ermor faction, based on the late Roman Empire, if the late Roman Empire had had a fire-based priest-mage theocracy which is now being replaced with worship of a guy who returned from the dead in a shroud, leading over the next few ages to a highly undead faction.

(The game has three ages available to play in, with factions being different from age to age. There are ways to easily mod the game so that faction types from all ages can play, but the Ermor faction for this age won't be going into full undead ruin. Also, the designers intentionally set up the factions as dark crapsack world reflections of realworld legend, history, myth and religion, so there are no inherently "good" sides, everyone is corrupted and trends toward decay and power abuse. Thus the in-game joke; in this game "Christianity" means people worship a guy who came back from the dead and so of course they become an undead ruined civilization two ages later. Each age has no less than two or three Lovecraftian horror factions, too.)

Undercovergeek is playing the Niefelheim Sons of Winter faction, which by the standards of this game is pretty close to its source material: a cold-based (thus air-based) faction of frost giants and hags and jarls, descended from (one of) the former undisputed rulers of the world. He will most likely crush all opposition, figuratively and literally. I'd bet on him, if money was at stake.

Ubercat is playing the Mictlan Reign of Blood faction, also pretty close to its source material, the legends and practices of the Aztecs. We can expect a lot of blood magic usage from him. (Blood magic works a little differently in Dom3 than other schools of magic: people have to be rounded up from the population and killed to get their blood.)

Lastly, I'm playing Golden Age Arcoscephale, a mixture of Bronze Age Greek pagan, philosophical and historical/military sources. I won't have hoplites (those come from a later age), but I'll have access to myrmydons and chariots and winged horses and some things of that sort. No real archers to speak of (but maybe I can find some elsewhere), but I have engineers who can help in castle sieges, and philosophers and mystics and sceptics who can think about things really hard. I also have an expensive and high-maintenance harem of seductive magical women, whom I can trapeze around the world as super-combatants. (And in the game!  ;D )

I'll be slaughtered in less than three years, guaranteed. ;)  :P

Between faction variety and "pretender" variety (those are the player character mages, each vying to take the place of the vanished supreme God, all of whom are more-or-less right bastards in various ways and degrees), and the number of spells and items available, the strategic options of this game are absolutely crazy.

[Huw the Poo]

I'll be slaughtered in less than three years, guaranteed. ;)  :P

Heh.  I'm willing to bet I'll somehow manage to kill myself before that happens. ;)

Thanks for the fantastic summary by the way!

[JasonPratt]

Considering how your faction turns out historically, that's literally what happens!  ;D AND THEN THEY GRIND TO ASH ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE THEM!!

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about countering that steamroller with Late Arcos.  :P


Btw, everyone remember that we're supposed to confirm to Ys that we've gotten and installed the proper mods and maps. (I've confirmed mine already.)

[JasonPratt]

While the old Shrapnel Dom3 forums are still available, the game is now officially supported by Desura; a decent overview of the game can be found at its review page here: http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-3-the-awakening/reviews

[undercovergeek]

have fun chaps.

If Geek ever sends in his pretender! ;)

done - its in, bow down all ye before Mighty Mum R'Ah

[JasonPratt]

...to which Uber replies...

{waiting for it}


(A mystical sci-fi mummy leading the early Norse frost-giant faction, is a perfect example of this game,  btw. :) )

[JasonPratt]

The Llamaserver says score graphs are still turned on for this game, Ys; but your initial description still reads off. (Also nothing about the special site freq being set to 45%...?)

The question of score graphs being on or off is of major strategic value, as it provides indirect but accurate information about one's opponents. Is he able to afford to rebuild from that blow I just struck; does he have strong reserves, or can I safely press the attack into his territory? How is his research going?--should I worry about him throwing a juggernaut at me yet? One place I can look for answers is the latest score graph.

I'm good either way -- I just noticed that it read as "on" in one place and "off" in the other, so I wanted to make sure you had set it where you really wanted it. (But I expect most mplayers want it "off", as it isn't really an in-game information route.)