Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

Just way too complicated for me - this game has gathered dust in my library for years because every time I've tried to play it I've just landed up scratching my head trying to understand what is going on - even a tutorial video on YouTube took like an hour just to get past some of the starting options, before even really getting into any game play. Not helped by the fact that there doesn't seem to be a proper inbuilt tutorial (well there is in theory, but it directs me towards reading the manual and there is no on-screen help or tips that I can see). I like inbuilt tutorials because surely the people who developed the game should be best placed to tell us about all the mechanics and what is important, and if they don't see making the game comprehensible as being important then I'm kinda wondering why. Within the game I just feel like there is too much stuff - do you want your pretender to be a dragon or a tree, what types of unit (of the many many types on offer) do you want to build, keeping in mind that they all have quite complicated stats and features, and it's not clear to me at all where I get things like research from etc - like I just don't understand at all the decisions I'm supposed to be making and I assume the only way to properly understand is to spend many many hours on Youtube tutorials and playing the game through repeatedly. I think that one thing which I feel makes it harder as a beginner is that many of these decisions feel quite drastic - i.e. having a large potential impact - it's not like choosing a civ which will be slightly better at tech, or slightly better with military, some of these feel like very fundamental and major choices and I don't really understand them or their potential impact later in the game at all. I appreciate some people will read this and think I'm just lazy for not putting in more time to understand it properly but the simple reality is that I don't have the time or energy to understand something this complicated where the developers haven't really (in my view) made a bit more effort to ease me into it, with a proper tutorial and maybe a more user-friendly interface / hints, and some efforts to help me understand what the realistic impact of different decisions might be. I've played plenty of strategy games with various levels of complexity but for me this is complicated past the point where I feel like I will enjoy overall spending the time required to understand it. I have lot of other games in my library which I've played more (many of them cheaper than this one) because they are fairly easy to get into and have a good tutorial to get started, and I have a job where I'm expected to explain what I've done to customers rather than just sending them something overcomplicated and expecting them to work for hours to figure it out. So I just don't really see a good argument as to why this game couldn't be a bit more user friendly. p.s. I am not whingeing about the graphics here, I would still pick up Civ 2 and play it very happily if I had a copy right now I just think this game is too complicated for me to get into and the interface / lack of a proper tutorial doesn't help.

I enjoy Conquest of Elysium III, and have played plenty of other strategy games (Civilization, all of the Paradox ones), but just haven't been able to get into Dominions 4 (or 3) the same way. Why? Primarily that the main gameplay loop - recruit units, move units, watch battle - feels more like a grind than fun. But also that there is insufficient feedback on what's going on given the level of complexity in the game. Sometimes, you can tell why you lost. Your army drowned in a sea of arrows, for examples. But just as often, you'll lose to a slew of spells, which as a new player you have little idea what they are, and little idea how to counter them. You can train your own mages, of course, but how should you upgrade them? I pick upgrades more or less at random, sometimes trying to copy the AI's decisions if I can find the spell they cast in the large list of spell options, and it doesn't require way too many upgrades, which it usually does. Which speaks to another problem - the new player has no guidance in how to spend their magical gems. Most games recognize that it takes time to learn complex systems, and have difficulty settings, but Dominions 4 does not. Combat is tedious. You have a lot of units, which sounds cool, but you are moving your combat units individually, one province at a time, and if you lose a battle, they scatter to all the surrounding provinces you control, from which you have to move them, but if no or too few commanders joined the troops retreating to that province, you can't move those troops until you get a commander there. Other than the "auto-recruit each turn" option in a province, there is no automation. This has been done much better, and earlier. Civilization III has "rally points" to tell newly-recruited troops from a city (or a whole continent) to rally to a specific location. Hearts of Iron IV has a lot of units and complexity, but also has tools for automating the minutiae of moving troops around a front, alleviating the tedium that really slows down Dominions 4. Dominions needs [i]something[/i] along these lines. And then there are the battles. I hear Dominions 5 made it so all the arrows/distance-based-spells are cast at once, which would help in speeding things up. And the battles can be cool, with dragons and elephants and arrow-firing apes, oh my! Watching them is pretty much required to gain insight into why you won/lost though, and takes up a lot of time. I'll count this as "improvements made in the sequel", but likely won't be buying the sequel given how little changed from 3 to 4 and the other unresolved problems. And the "create your own pretender god" is more of a trap than a feature for new players. Having some pre-set "these are good option" choices would go a long way, as would any sort of tutorial on, "okay, you created a god with these attributes, here are some likely-to-be-effective strategies". The other part that's largely missing relative to other strategy games is the non-warfare/economic side of things. There is a little bit of depth (only explained in the manual) to using castles to improve the economy, but essentially, magic is your economy and your technology in Dominions IV. And that system is much more opaque than traditional economy/technology in other strategy games. Need more gold in Civilization or Endless Legend? Build a market. Need more magic in Dominions? Conquer a province with magic (hard) or send a mage to each province individually to scout for more. But you'll almost certainly forget about that on half the turns (no way to automate it), and since you'll be magic-level-limited on your mages early, you'll have to redo the process again later if you want to maximize magic - an endlessly tedious process, but one that is to some extent necessary to do well. One final system that simply needs better user interface is diplomacy. I lost my first several games because I thought everyone was at war with everyone in a free for all, and opportunistically attacked a couple of neighbors, and was soon overwhelmed. It turns out that isn't the case; the AI generally tries to only be at war with one neighbor at a time. So the key to not shooting yourself in the foot is to either wait for one of them to attack you, or if none does, pick just one to fight at a time. Easily solvable with a bit of user interface (and perhaps a confirmation warning if you attack someone you aren't at war with, as Civilization has had for quite literally decades). Unfortunately, it seems that each game in the series simply adds more depth to the magic, with little in the way of user interface improvements. If Dominions 7 focused solely on quality of life improvements and user interface - not graphics, just feedback to the user about what's going on, and perhaps some tutorials about the systems - maybe I'd buy it. But as it is, there are plenty of other games that I find much more enjoyable and less frustrating.

+ Very deep and lots of content. + Fantastic lore. - Very steep learning curve. - GUI is atrocious, and lack of QoL make it a tedious micromanagement hell. - Game Design is very outdated, with mechanics from the 90s that make no sense today. - AI is horrible, in both AI controlled opponents and our own mages. Dom 5 enhances a few things, but still the same problems. Better invest your time elsewhere.

[b]Rating[/b] - Divine Strategy (8.5/10) Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension is like a grand game of 4D chess with the gods. It's a turn-based strategy game that plunges you into a world where deities vie for dominion. [b]Gameplay[/b] - Heavenly Tactics (9/10): The depth and complexity of Dominions 4 is astounding. You play as a Pretender God with a pantheon of powers at your disposal. From commanding armies to casting cataclysmic spells, the game offers a rich array of strategic possibilities. [b]Graphics[/b] - Old School Charm (7.5/10): The graphics, reminiscent of early 90s games, are simple yet effective. While they might not cater to lovers of modern eye candy, they carry a certain nostalgic allure. [b]Sound[/b] - Ambient Harmony (7.5/10): The soundtrack sets the mood for your divine conquests, underlining the game's atmosphere without being intrusive. [b]Replayability[/b] - Pantheon of Possibilities (9/10): With a plethora of nations, units, magic spells, and gods, Dominions 4 offers immense replay value. Each game feels like a new myth being written. [b]Accessibility[/b] - Divine Challenge (7/10): The game's complexity can be daunting for newcomers, like a mortal trying to understand the ways of the gods. But once you get the hang of it, it's an epic journey. [b]Verdict[/b] - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension is a deep, engaging strategy game for those who relish a challenge. If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to play 4D chess with divine beings, this is your chance!

Дорогая, удивительно недрюжелюбная к новичкам, устаревшая талмуда пошаговых механик с настолок в жанре global stratagy. Ощущается крайне примитивным портом на пк механик с настолок. - Сохраниться где хочется - нельзя, только при выходе из игры. Права на ошибку - нет. - Графика - одно название. Блин, ну в стратегиях это не главное, но даже для 2013г. это тихий ужас. - UI интерфейс - мало что некрасив, непонятен, часть описания - не показывается вообще, угадывай. - Обучалок нет. Казалось бы,большой ли косяк? А вот, в сочетании с отсутствием сейвов - очень даже. - Цена. Коментарии излишни. Вообщем-то идея была хорошая, но исполнение... Мда. Никому не рекомендую. Купите лучше настолку. Или любую игру от Paradox.

If you have autism you will love this game series.

What my time on steam doesn't show is the hours spent reading through the game manual, guides, and online forums.

one of the best games in terms of theory and command

UI "update(?)": So they add the ability to write notes, but remove the ability to view your CD keys? Dominions 4 comes with a key by default and the first time you download the game files one can check by running the game from the executable, not from Steam, that it prompts you for a key. After launching using Steam once, the key is saved to a file, in the same location of the executable. The fact however that this option is removed [b]WITHOUT[/b] informing the people (the reason you [b]exist[/b] in the first place) in the change notes (Proof: [url=https://i.postimg.cc/qq2h7gMk/june-ui-steam-garbage.png]HERE[/url]) is inexcusable. Dominions 3 also has a key, saved in the same location. Going downhill since 2003 and going strong. Keep it up! Update (15.07.23): Manage > CD Keys is available for the following: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2010.

Go play Dominions 6 if you can afford it.