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vCheats.com - dominions 3
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List Price: $49.99
Our Price: $49.99
Your Save: $ ( % )
Average Customer Rating:  
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Shrapnel Games
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Binding: CD-ROM
Brand: Shrapnel Games
EAN: 0808003451108
ESRB Age Rating: Teen
Feature: Players can design and save gods for later play
Format: CD-ROM
Label: Shrapnel Games
Manufacturer: Shrapnel Games
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: Shrapnel Games
Release Date: 2006-11-17
Studio: Shrapnel Games
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Features
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Players can design and save gods for later play
Map filters now allow players to easily locate scouts
Over 1500 units to wage war with -- deep combat model encompasses everything from battlefield morale to the use of magic
Nation specific spells and summons - More than 600 spells and 300 magic items, all with evocative descriptions
Make and remake nations as you see fit, with more powerful modding capabilities
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: basic info
Comment: As of version 3.21 (Nov 5, 2008)
Windows, Mac, and Linux versions come on the same CD. The Linux version is VERY webserver friendly. Its TBS and supports solo, hotseat, direct tcp/ip, and PbEM multiplayer play. The graphics and sound is ok but not great. However this makes it very laptop friendly and shares the computer well with other games (its easy to shell out to check mail and such then jump back in)
The maps can be as large as 1,500 provinces. There is a random map generator built in, and 2 downloadable player-created generators.
There are 72 unique nations. And a total of 95 nation slots allowing for play with player modded nations.
There are 2088 different units in the game. Over 1000 pieces of equipment that can be given to them with various abilities, 709 magic sites to be searched for which can grant gold, magic gems, the ability to recruit or summon other units, and some which have bad effects.
There is 9 areas of magic. Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Astral, Death, Nature, Blood, and Holy. Spells are in the categories of Conjuration, Alteration,Evocation, Construction (creating magic equipment to give your commanders), Enchantment, Thaumaturgy, Blood Magic. And Holy altho Holy doesnt need to be researched. Some spells are cast in magic labs you build in a province, some are battlefield, and some are global. There are 755 major spells.
Each nation can be played by a human and will support online playing against other people, and hotseat playing for two people on one computer. They can also be set to play as AIs with settings of easy, normal, difficult, mighty, and impossible. The AI has not been proven to do any cheating but mostly just gets more creation points to spend setting itself up at the beginning. (Impossible is of course NOT impossible but it is far beyond the little toy AIs in other games which serve only as tutorials). Since each nation is so unique you will find that those AI settings mean different things in play. Some nations mighty AI will be another nations easy AI but the difference is how well you play against that type of nation so that comparison would be different than another persons going up against the same nations.
Even after years there is no "killer strategy" found like in other games. People are still coming up with new tactics and discussing them on the forum. It takes a LONG time to play it all solo and settle into your favorite nation and the build choices of that nation. At that point you can shift to multiplayer online games which come in many styles. Or start checking out the mods created for adding new nations, improving the AI, or just throwing surprises into the game. This game has extensive replayability.
WARNING: as much as I love this game, it is NOT for everyone. Altho the demo is way out of date with the many patches and upgrades, it still does give a good impression of what the game play is like. I HIGHLY recommend downloading the demo before deciding to buy the game.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Primitive But Awesome
Comment: Dominions 3 is the latest gem in the Shrapnel Games fantasy strategy franchise. It's a terrific example of gameplay overcoming graphics.
The premise is simple. You create a fresh-faced new god as your character that leads an army of warriors and monsters to spread your "dominion" throughout th land while your enemies do the same. Each turn, you build temples and castles, move and raise armies, and fight it out over territory against your rival gods. Researching spells, fortifying your territories, upgrading and outfitting your commanders, and spying on rivals are also activites to occupy your time.
The nuances are what makes this game so good. Your god template has a number of variable attributes that can change how you play the game drastically. The range of spells available to you, the preference of territory, the armies willing to swear fealty, and even the mobility and appearance of your avatar has an effect on what you do. Maps can be randomly generated or customized by importing any 2D graphic and drawing territory lines on top of it. (Fight in Middle-Earth! Battle it out it Faerun! Divvy up the lands of Narnia!) Artifacts can be found that help to kit out your generals and confer battle-winning attributes to them.
Since the game is based on taking turns, multiplayer is a great way to play the game. Play by email and user servers are supported avenues for multiplayer. Going against other humans is a blast as the added variable of diplomacy makes the game that much more addicting.
The only fly in the ointment is a big one. Huge, in fact. The graphics look absolutley atrocious. In an age of 22" LCD monitors, the static low resolution sprite based graphics of Dominions 3 are a real letdown. (This coming from someone used to playing 2D wargames all the time.) Ugly doesn't even cover how bad this game can look while in play. Unfortunatley, this is going to be a big problem for a lot of people.
If you can get past the graphics, Dominions 3 offers some of the finest strategy gaming around.
Customer Rating:
Summary: too much to talk about!
Comment: If you love deep strategy more than flashy graphics and sounds then at LEAST try the demo.
Years after its release, its still going strong. The developers have
regularly released patches which are more like upgrades than they are patch. Whole new nations, spells, equipment keep getting added. And thats not counting what the players do as more and more modding commands get added with each patch.
But what made me think of coming here and posting was this comment I made in the Dom3 forum...
[quote]
Thanks for pointing the "winners list" out. That makes me feel better. Anytime a discussion pops up here where various experts proclaim some nations worth or worthlessness I get concerned. But luckily, it tends to actually average out that no matter how strong the opinions are that fly around, the saving grace is that they dont seem to agree with each other. :)
I am still amazed at how rare that is. Ive been gaming for decades. I can remember many many games where 1 month to 1 year was just about the whole life of the game because some ultimate strategy was developed and posted. Or great games that I found out about too late because by the time I got there the expert players had their tactics so down perfect that you couldnt last long enough in a game to learn the game.
Call me a fanboi if you want but any game that can keep me trying new
things and finding new useful tactics years after its release is well
worth it.
[/quote]
I thought that maybe other people here might remember having such an
experience in games. :)
Some things not pointed out by others:
Its Windows AND Mac and Linux all on the one disc. Its excellent as an internet host server for multiplaying. And its very laptop friendly (not full desktop machine needed to run it). You can load it on your windows desktop or mac laptop AND on your linux server to use one as player and one as server without needing another serial. Legally! And this is very web friendly if you run a server and want to host games.
The command switches is PAGES long if you are into such things. For fancy desktop icons that set the game parameters or automating things with scripts. For an old server person like me thats a game unto itself.
The support forum at the publishers site is FANTASTIC. And there is an IRC (direct chat) room.
In final, Ive paid this much for many games that lasted a month on my machine. This is one of the 5 games that refuse to die even after years of playing it. If you are into deep strategy and coming up with weird tactics or you love religio-historical-mythology-fantasy then at LEAST get the demo
Customer Rating:
Summary: Too good!
Comment: I've played many many PC games over the years. This game is crushingly good especially in the multi-player (MP) arena.
1.Surf the forum at Shrapnel games
[...]
2. Feed the cat.
3. Buy the game.
4. Play the game single player (SP) for a week.
5. Join the forum (above).
6. Join an MP game (but just one!)
Cheers!
Customer Rating:
Summary: the deepest, most replayable strategy game on our planet
Comment: Dominions 3 is an an amazingly deep game, there is nothing like it at all on the shelves of your local software store. If you at all enjoy strategy games, you are doing yourself a disservice by not owning this game. Personally, I place it alongside such legendary titles as: the Total War titles, the Civilization series, and Alpha Centauri. It's that good.
In an era of sleek overproduced software titles, software companies have largely failed to deliver a title which rewards patience and a thirst for depth in a fantasy game setting. This is an exception. It's certainly a throwback, and possesses what I feel is a great retro and authentic game feel. With playable nations based on real-world myth and legend, this game can teach as well as an entertain. With around 20 nations per age, and 3 ages, there are somewhere on the order of 60 different nations to play. A staggering number, considering that the differences actually *do* make a very big difference in game play, I'm not talking about most games having 'different' units which simply dittle the graphics but basically fulfil the same role. You get actual replayability here, moreso than any game I've ever played before.
Fair warning: the sound and graphics of this game are clunky when considered against modern standards, and the AI is a bit predictable (of course) but it more than makes up for it in almost every single other aspect of game design and game play. This is a game that after you play it, you want to quit your job and become a game designer.
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