Haba
Harbinger of Decline
Yes, but not quite.
http://thurot.com/2013/07/13/dominions-4/
Dom4's site has been updated, here is the new feature list:
http://thurot.com/2013/07/13/dominions-4/
Still, I’m tempted. Not only are all my old favorites still there, but new delights like Ur, The First City and Berytos, The Phoenix Empire beckon, begging me to abandon any notion of actually figuring this thing out, and instead diving in headfirst, drinking deeply of the game’s many options without bothering with tedious things like screenshots or note-taking. I’m in a panic, in the true old sense of the word — in fact, I’d very much like to play as Pangaea, a familiar faction I never really learned, which happens to be governed by actual panii.
[--]
In the recruitment panel, the first real difference is immediately apparent. Not only have all the sprites been redrawn and are now more detailed, but the interface itself is much improved. There are separate queues for commanders and regular units, and the option to repeat each territory’s recruitment instead of having to re-queue your order each turn is welcome. There are even powerful units that require multiple seasons to recruit.
[--]
-- I open up the battle screen to give everyone the preemptive orders that will play out in combat. Turns out even this has been refined. Rather than every unit being a solid square block of soldiers like in the previous game, it’s now possible to order companies to take formations like lines to prevent flanking and skirmish positions to take less damage from arrows and spells. My heavy infantry don’t seem to like being ordered into a line, getting a small penalty to their morale--
[--]
--team games, limited range ritual spells, improved random maps, mountain passes that can only be passed in summer, new weapon damage types like “blunt” or “sharp,” global random events, extra buildings to improve castles, and improved AI.
Dom4's site has been updated, here is the new feature list:
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.
- 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.
Dominions 4 improvements
Here's a short list with the most important changes compared to Dominions 3.
- Teamplay, one pretender and one or more disciples per team.
- Thrones of Ascension. Claim thrones to gain extra powers and to win the game eventually.
- Many sprites have been redrawn and the 3d terrain is also improved.
- Many user interface improvements.
- Formations like line formation or skirmish formation.
- Improved random map generation with wraparound maps, caves, rivers and mountain passes.
- Rivers that can only be passed when frozen, mountain passes that can only be passed by special units and when it's warm.
- Pierce, slash and blunt weapons have slightly different quirks. E.g. don't shoot arrows at skeletons.
- Darkness and dark vision plays a more important role. Notably in deep seas, caves and sometimes during assassinations.
- Range restrictions on magic rituals and items and spells that can be used to boost ritual ranges.
- Improved network support, turns can be resumed from any computer and turns can be marked as only half finished.
- Global random events
- Can build castle improvements like extra towers or extra supply storage
- Province Defence dependent on the local population and some nations have easier or harder to organize it.
- Improvements to AI and to modding.
- Many new monsters, spells, magic items, sites, random events and some nations too.