Dominions 4:Thrones of Ascension

Couchpotato

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Well this story might interest a few people here. Indie developer illwinter has announced that Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension is in development.
You are a God! You are master and ruler of a loyal nation. You have unimaginable powers at your disposal. You have claimed this world as yours. But there are others who stand in your way. You must defeat and destroy these pretenders. Only then can you ascend to godhood and become the new Pantokrator.

In Dominions you take control of a powerful being that rules a nation and aspires to godhood. The type of Pretender Gods can vary from magically powerful arch mages to huge titans or large monuments. The pretender gods have different strengths dependent on what kind of god you choose and what nation you play.

When you start the game you decide what kind of god you are and how your Dominion affects your lands and followers. It is an expression of your divine might and the faith of your followers. If your dominion dies, so do you. Your dominion also inspires your sacred warriors and gives them powers derived from your dominion.

In order to win and become the one true god you have to defeat your enemies one of three different ways: conquer their lands, extinguish their dominion or claim the Thrones of Ascension.

In Dominions 4 you can also play team games where one of the players take the role of supreme god, and the other members of the team are his servants and loyal subjects. The lesser gods rule their nations, but you all share the dominion of the supreme god.

Dominions is set in a fantasy world that draws inspiration from historical nations, cultures and myths. You will not encounter the elves of conventional fantasy in this game. Instead you might lead a nation of vanir from old norse myth. Aztecs, romans, israelites, greeks, shona and kievian rus are just a few of the inspirational sources of the game.

The first Dominions game was released in 2002 and was well received by strategy gamers. Since then Dominions has been much refined and Dominions series is still actively played making it one of the longest running 4x turn based strategy games.

Dominions 4 is also a highly moddable game. You can create your own monsters, spells and entire nations. Since Dominions 3 there has been a vivid modding community and Dominions 4 will enhance this capability even further.

Feature List


  • Many monsters (2000+) and many many special abilities.
  • About 75 different nations to choose from, varying from Marignon with paladins, witch hunters and inquisitors to under water nations like the Lovecraft inspired R'lyeh.
  • Three Eras to play in, Early era is most magic and the late era is more technologically advanced with good steel weapons and armors.
  • Design your pretender god and how his dominion influences provinces and his sacred units.
  • Multiplayer with simultaneous turns (up to 28 players).
  • Teamplay with one Pretender player and a bunch of Disciple players per team.
  • Network or Play by E-Mail for multiplayer.
  • AI opponents for single- or multiplayer game.
  • Random maps with cave, mountain passes and rivers (rivers can only be passed when frozen).
  • An extensive magic system with over 800 spells.
  • Blood magic, power your rituals with human sacrifices.
  • Global ritual that affect the entire world.
  • More than 300 magic items.
  • Unique magic artifacts that all players compete for, once forged no one else can make it.
  • Mercenaries are bought on a global market.
  • Scouts, Assassins, Spies, Seducers, Corruptors, Werewolves, Illusionists and more can be sneaking in your provinces.
  • Claim the thrones of Ascension to gain special powers and eventually win the game.
  • Permanent battle afflictions.
  • Easy to Mod (2d graphics)
  • Playable on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.
If you have already played a previous Dominions game you are probably more interested in this list of important changes.
 
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I bought Dominions 3 for 75$ or so - and it had a great manual. Come to think of it, it might just be the last game I got - that was shipped as a physical copy AND had a great manual.

Trouble is that I could never get into it - because it's aesthetically displeasing. I don't need fancy visuals in my strategy games - but I can't tolerate something that's downright ugly, which I found Dominions 3 to be. Especially the strategic map.

Trust me, I can make maps that are several times prettier than those maps - and I'm no great artist. When that's the case - I find it inexcusable that they couldn't hire some amateur artist and pay him a limited sum to make their game acceptable to look at.

Also, it just didn't have enough moving parts - and the feedback wasn't tangible enough. Everything is so static and spreadsheety.

Combat is ok, though. I actually think the way you give overarching orders and watch them play out in simultaneous turns - is the perfect way to design a turn-based game. It's ideal for multiplayer.

The game design seemed quite deep and engaging. I was very impressed by the amount of units - and the amount of spells available.

I've often tried getting past the visuals - but I just can't. Turns out I'm too superficial for my own good :(
 
The last one I played was Dominions 2. I still have the big blue box and manual myself.

As for the graphics I always wondered what the game would look like with a newer engine. Dominions 1-3 basically look and play the same.

So your not the only superficial one either.;)
 
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I paid $7.50 for Dominions 3. ;)

Oddly enough, the low-res visuals don't bother me at all. I can't get into the game for other reasons though. To be honest, I'm too lazy to learn how to play it, and it seems to have quite a learning curve in the beginning.



The last one I played was Dominions 2. I still have the big blue box and manual myself.

Did you import that? I'm just curious because I didn't think any of the Dominion games were ever sold in retail over here.
 
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I am supposed to be getting a preview build to write about ... will definitely chime back in after that happens.
 
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Did you import that? I'm just curious because I didn't think any of the Dominion games were ever sold in retail over here.

I got it off GoGamer when they were still in business. I was lucky enough to get it free for spending a certain amount of money. I miss that site.
 
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I am supposed to be getting a preview build to write about … will definitely chime back in after that happens.

Sounds good.... Judging from the screenshots - it looks pretty identical in terms of visuals.

I wonder if there are any good mods for that aspect....
 
I tried one of the Dominions before and was Impressed by its complexity,but iirc, lack of campaigns and visuals drove me away.
 
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I tried one of the Dominions before and was Impressed by its complexity,but iirc, lack of campaigns and visuals drove me away.

Many civ don't have any campaign or scenario. In fact most 4X has no real campaign and when they have one it's often not well done. There's few exception but I don't know many.
 
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Sounds good…. Judging from the screenshots - it looks pretty identical in terms of visuals…

That's ambiguous, the first screenshot let think the graphics will evolve to an approach like Conquest of Elysium. It's really a different approach and with graphics more accurate and detailed. But most other screenshot seems coming from dom3.
 
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