Woops... I forgot I made this thread and didn't read it again until now. 

Thanks for all the input about Dominions 3.  I'm not really into multiplayer games, either, so it sounds like Dominions 3 isn't a game I would play for the several months until Elemental comes out.  I guess I'll just have to muddle through with GalCiv 2 (I only bought it recently) and Sins.  I also have Civ 4 with the Fall from Heaven fantasy mod, which is probably the most active and advanced mod for the game right now.

Elemental definitely looks like the kind of fantasy strategy game I want to play when it comes out, and I'll probably get in on the beta when that is available, too, to try to help make sure it is the kind of game I want to play.

Haha. You started quite the storm.

Dominions 3 has a fantastic single player mode. Truth be told, 99% of the time I've played Dominions 3 (and I've been playing it regularly for a year now) it's been single player.

Honestly, do yourself a favor and get it. You can get a demo at Gamespot, or buy the full version at the Dom3 website.

Have been playing Dominions 3 for a while now, so here are my "2 cents", or whatever...

Alot of people have been bashing the graphics in this game, saying that the suck and bla, bla, bla. I actually think that the pixel-artwork is really good for the most part. Detailed(even more with the new patches) and colorful. The poor 3D battlefields fill out their role and the hand drawn maps that were made by the developers are beautiful in my own, honest, gamer-opinion.

The sound is, how should I express it....pretty bland. The "medieval/evil" style music is pretty okay and kinda neat at first but becomes very annoying after a while. And the sound effects......well, they suck......pretty hard. But it's not a big deal. You can jut turn off your speakers I guess. Kinda like I do on the rare ocassions I play this game.

Rare ocassions, yes. Here are my greatest gripes with the game called "Dominions 3: The awakening".

First of all. It just feels like a chore, I'm gonna get "flamed" now but in my own opinion the game is.............. a chore. Recruit units, research spells, send off scouts and so on. When you have several provinces under your mighty, steel clad Ecco-boot it becomes downright stupid. And you have to micromanage everything: Provinces, mages, battles etc. etc. 

Researching is one of the most confusing aspect for me in this game. Most of the really grand kill-em-all spells aren't available until far, far, far, far up(or should I say down mayhap?) on the research tree. The spells that are available in the begining just suck and I do not understand why the developers have put them there in the first place. Even the fans on this game usually advice you not to use them. Cut them out I tell ya! 

My next gripe is the combat system. It's all about luck. Even if you have a mega equipped, power ranger wannabee hero at your disposal he can still be cut down by a simple peasant. Most people find this "I got lucky and you didn't system(IGLAYD)" charming. I just think it is terrible and annoying. In the end I just stop giving out orders to my troops and just send them out in a big mosh-pit onto the enemy. The battles are all about luck anyway. Who cares about orders?

Planning, planning, planning! This game is all about it. If you haven't planned how you wan't your empire to look something like 100 turns into the game, you are royally screwed. And it doesn't help that there are tons of spells and random coincidences to be taken into calculation. It quickly becomes a chore just sitting there and plan your next 40 turns or so, trust me!

And finally, my last gripe. The AI. The damn thing cheats even on Easy difficulty. It just recruits tons of seemingly useess troops and sends them your way. And the AI's hardly duke it out between themselves either. They just make a secret pact and doubleteam you on the kitchen table. I know that this game should be playes in multiplayer, but going through a PBEM(play by e-mail) turn seems like a chore and I don't have time for more chores than I already have. And I'm really just a single player type of person. Not because I don't have any friends. Now I do, mind you. It's just that...I don't wan't to play MP. And if the game doesn't give me the choice of a good single player mode....to hell with it!

That was all for tonight people. You can bash or have sex with my comment(or both) as much as you wan't, I won't be answering anything anyway. Just remember, these were all MY PERSONAL opinions. You don't like them? Fine. I just hope that Elemental turns out to be a better game that the brave but crappy attempt by the two swedish guys called Dominions 3. 

YOU ROCK STARDOCK! GALCIV 2 SUCKED BUT I HOPE  YOU SUCEED THIS TIME! CHEERS FROM THE WONDERLAND!

There's steel-clad ecco boots? Where?! Need!

Actually I think a lot of the hand drawn maps in Dominions 3 were 3rd party maps for Dominions 2 that the developers adopted into the game. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I remember downloading some of them separately.

A few of the maps in Dom3 are indeed 3rd party maps originally made for Dom2, as far as I know.

I think 1 or 2 was patched in, aswell, after fan contribution. That's partly why there's not a unified style across the official maps that come with the game.

On the related subject, check out the map that will never be.

Dom 3 is a great strategy game.  It's not very polished, and at times the interface feels very clunky, but it's an epic, deep game.  I think (and hope) that Elemental will be just as deep, but far more accessible and polished.  That said, if you like fantasy strategy games, especially old-school fant/strat like MoM and Fantasy General, you'll really get a kick out of Dominions 3.  Buy 'em both. 

Dominions 3 is definitely the king of deep strategy games. A really amazing game. There's no other game where you can play a monster kraken leading an underwater nation. Or summon a monster, make a commander out of it, then equip it with items dependent on how many heads, arms, legs, eyes, etc. it has, and finally make a wizard out of it who can compensate certain weaknesses like weak armor with spells. Now you've got a badass monster mage which is able to lead armies and/or conquer territories on his own.

Problems with old mages that might die of old age soon? No problem, curse them with a Necro spell, then sacrifice them and you got yourself a bunch of ressurected immortal liches. And in how many games is it possible to infiltrate your own 'peacefull' civ with a bloodthirsty vampire order?

Dominions 3 is more than just a strategy game. It's also some kind of fantasy life simulation. It goes far beyond the plain 'research new building => build building in all cities => research next building => build next building in all cities...' routine.

However, you certainly don't play Dominions 3 because of the graphics. They are 'pragmatic' in a starcraft way, nothing more (Though I got used to it very fast). Further, it's a real strategy heavy weight where the 300 pages manual is almost essential. Not really a game for people who want to understand and finish a game in 2 - 3 days.

That's a ... nice way to put it  :)

Concerning the graphics, they are not that bad. I wanted to draw a picture of a fight with units I desinged myself. Making the units in Dom3 and modding the game a little to make the battle screenshots was easy and gave a good result. If I had tried this in a 3d-units game, even with the skills, it'd have taken me days instead of an hour. The moddability of this game is huge, not because it allows you to do everything like Civ IV but because it lets you do a lot of things easily like Civ2.