Dominions 5 - Warriors of the Faith [Steam, Official Site], the latest in a series of deep strategy games from Illwinter Game Design has officially released.
Fancy taking on the role of a god? Dominions 5 grants you unimaginable powers as you control your loyal kingdom, but there are those who stand in your way to control the world. The game might look a little dated graphically, but the series has always been rather deep in the gameplay department and they're generally reviewed quite positively too.
Direct Link
New features at a glance:
- Real time combat
- Per unit combat logs
- Design your pretender's bless effect
- Priest's banishment and smite spells will depend on what type of god he follows
- History playback when game is over, see how dominion spread and provinces changed owners
- New random maps with bridges and better looking terrains
- New resource system with recruitment points that encourages recruiting in highly populated areas
- Fortifications built by starting at the basic type, then upgrading it later
- New research queue, researching is now one school at a time
- New movement system
- Winter shown on map and affects movement
There's absolutely loads different to the previous game (more so than I've listed above), you can read more about what's new on the official site and purchase it on Steam.
Illwinter has actually supported Linux with their Dominions games for a long time now, they actually develop the games on Linux so it's not surprising to see it always supported. You can see an early screenshot of their work on Linux here.
However, as an owner of Dom3, Dom4 and CoE4 (Conquest of Elysium), I feel kinda ripped off here.
Dom5 is more of a slightly expanded Dom4 with not-too-many changes. And such a price for that seems way out of line.
Especially considering they haven't touched the series' biggest shortcomings - no AI diplomacy making single player almost entirely useless and the UI is still just terrible.
I think they should offer owners of the previous games some deal as other developers have.
If you're new to the series, though, the price should actually be worth it.
I bought the game as it's a great game, but now, I need time to play!
(I've got COE4 too)
Quoting: TheSHEEEP...the series' biggest shortcomings - no AI diplomacy making single player almost entirely uselessOh dear... perhaps I should remove it from my wishlist.
I poke a bit at Dominions 3 since it works and seems to have more nations to play.
Quoting: j_c_pThe SHEEP : you've got a discount of 10% ... and have a look at the "changelog".
I bought the game as it's a great game, but now, I need time to play!
(I've got COE4 too)
This is what bugs me, it reads like a changelog to dom4. Making me think they charge 30.- for an update.
Some things in the changelog sound like they were looking for things to write
QuoteDominion overlay on map to clearly show its boundariesand then below
QuoteUpdated user interface with information more clearly presented than before
but then again they close with:
QuoteThere are many more changes since Dominions 4 that haven't been mentioned here, more information will come later.
Quoting: TheSHEEEPIt is a great game, no doubt.
However, as an owner of Dom3, Dom4 and CoE4 (Conquest of Elysium), I feel kinda ripped off here.
Dom5 is more of a slightly expanded Dom4 with not-too-many changes. And such a price for that seems way out of line.
Especially considering they haven't touched the series' biggest shortcomings - no AI diplomacy making single player almost entirely useless and the UI is still just terrible.
I think they should offer owners of the previous games some deal as other developers have.
If you're new to the series, though, the price should actually be worth it.
This is just crazy talk. Dom4 and Dom5 have HUGE changes.
1. New bless system significantly change game. You don't have just 2 bless effects per parth, you have 7 bless effects per path and you can point-buy those that you want, greatly personalize and specialize your bless.
This together with pretender getting bless effect in their dominion, some strong bless effects working only if your pretender is alive and new (minor) banish change, which now get part of the path effects is HUGE change that significantly change gameplay and adds load of new possible builds.
2. The new combat system, which is now "realtime" instead of "turn-based" in the sense that both sides act at the same time (each unit based on initiative) and not one side and after that second side... this greatly change how turns are played, remove annoying positioning which decided who will get first attack... supposedly boost cavalry (which is good, because it was a bit weaker). This connected with other combat changes (rebalance of weapon length, rebalance of critical hits, rebalance of fatigue) changes how troops fight and push it from meta "hire those who have longest weapon". Also, there is significant buff to archers, where bows benefit from increased strength. So giant archers are now better, because the gold that you pay for the giant chassis will now reflect its greater DMG.
3. New fort and recruitment system also changes dynamics. Suddenly, you don't need to build fort at once, but you first build palisade and then add another level. As you need, cheaper and safer. But a lot of mages that were earlier recruitable without fort take longer to recruit, while fort-only commanders are much easier to recruit.
4. New movement system. Now you can move more than one province at once. Even in enemy territory. Raiding with cavalry or fast units is now much easier. This is significant change in dynamics.
Quoting: razing32Dominions 4 always got stuck for me when the AI did its turn.
I poke a bit at Dominions 3 since it works and seems to have more nations to play.
That's likely a deadlock in the multithreaded AI. One can disable that feature with a command lime switch.
Quoting: soulsourceQuoting: razing32Dominions 4 always got stuck for me when the AI did its turn.
I poke a bit at Dominions 3 since it works and seems to have more nations to play.
That's likely a deadlock in the multithreaded AI. One can disable that feature with a command lime switch.
Would one care to share said command ? :)
Quoting: razing32Quoting: soulsourceQuoting: razing32Dominions 4 always got stuck for me when the AI did its turn.
I poke a bit at Dominions 3 since it works and seems to have more nations to play.
That's likely a deadlock in the multithreaded AI. One can disable that feature with a command lime switch.
Would one care to share said command ? :)
Just read the manual:
http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/startoptions.pdf
--multiai X
Create up to X processes for AI computations
(0=off). This switch only works on Linux and
Mac. It cannot be used in Windows.
For the complaints that it is not that dis-similar from the previous games, I think it is well known that the changes from game to game in the series are more evolutionary than revolutionary. With a more complicated game like this, even what may appear as a minor difference can completely alter gameplay. I have DOM 3 and 4 and will probably get this at some point.
I personally like these games and this developer. Not only are they linux friendly, they continually update the game (including new content) for free long after the game comes out. They were updating DOM 4 right up through a few months ago.
Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: TheSHEEEP...the series' biggest shortcomings - no AI diplomacy making single player almost entirely uselessOh dear... perhaps I should remove it from my wishlist.
I play only single player and I enjoy it immensely. There is no AI diplomacy. Its a bit of a glaring omission, I'll be honest. On the other hand, I get the sense that most AI diplomacy is there to make the game easier. Every 4x I've played the Diplomacy aspect is easily exploitable and mainly serves to benefit solely the player as the AI can't compete.
Hope that helps you decide if you may want it or not.
Side note - At least we see their inspiration for their UI design from the Screenshot Liam linked to (J/K)! Seriously, what is that DE? Mate, LXDE/QT?
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