Stark wrote:The maps look like screenshots from Dominion 3's combat, which is wierd.
The reason it looks that way is because CoE3 maps are based on square tiles instead of freeform static images like Dominions maps. In that respect it is much like turning a Dominions battlefield into a map the game is played on.
The map graphics are mostly new, though, with some stuff reused from the Dom3 random map generator graphics (the mountains, but I think that's the only one)
Stark wrote:The UI is significantly cleaner and clearer just from looking at screnshots, but they're using the same icons and unit art as they were in their previous games, hence all the tiles with a tiny little grey man in it. It looks far more accessible than those games, though.
They use same style graphics, which makes for a similar look, but most unit graphics have been redone and look much better. The screenshots are resized, so you can't see the detail. If you want an example of just how much better the quality is (readily apparent in the larger unit sprites), the gryphon in my sig is a screencapture from CoE3 reduced to half size of the actual (100x100 instead of 200x200).
The UI itself is much more streamlined and simplified than it was in Dominions 3. Almost everything is accessible directly from the main screen by keyboard shortcuts. Another thing that helps is that the default background for the game is black, which turns to a slightly matte gray-black inside the UI boxes when opacity settings are turned to full.
The dark red background in Dominions (or dark blue, if one used one of the UI replacements) made things much more muddled there. The upshot in CoE3 is that some of the graphics which were late additions to Dom3 have been reused and look much better. So much so in fact that when I complimented Kristoffer on them, he was mystified until he realized the difference the background and resolution effects made.
Stark wrote:Edi, the unit displays etc have a lot less stats/powers/numbers etc. Is the game still as complex mechanically as D2/3, or is it streamlined in some way?
Nowhere near as complex.
In Dominions all units had somewhere around 12 primary stats (HP, size, attack, defense, precision, strength, morale, protection, magic resistance, encumbrance, mapmove, action points) which were all modified further by the weapons and armor (both structurally separate entities) that the units had. Secondary stats like age also affected stats and magic mechanics affected them, which all contributed to a pretty damn arcane puzzle that was hard to keep track of.
In CoE3 you have HP, Armor, Strength, Magic Resistance and Morale and then the unit has one or more weapons (spells are functionally identical to weapons in terms of mechanics, they just require spellcasting ability to use). Damage is open-ended damage vs open-ended armor and then special resistances and other such are applied. The function of morale is basically Fear Resistance, all fear damage is rolled against morale instead of HP.
Movement is governed by Action Points (normal units have 3, slow units have 2 and fast units have 4), with different terrain costing different amount of AP and special abilities related to movement affecting the total cost (e.g. plains cost 1 AP, forests 2, mountains 3) and if slow units move into terrain that costs more AP than they have, the remainder is deducted from next turn's allowance.
Recruiting stuff happens at citadels (citadel being the equivalent of fort in Dominons) and you can recruit anything from the basic list of your class and from special offers (wizards, other commanders etc). You can only recruit once per citadel per turn if it's from the basic list, but commanders don't count toward that, you can recruit them even if you already recruited something else. All units cost either gold or gold + iron and if you have enough, you can buy them. No fiddling around with resources like in Dominions.
Winning conditions in the game are being the last player (or team) standing and you get eliminated if you lose all commanders or all citadels. There is an option where an entire team must lose all commanders or all citadels of everyone in the team for them to be eliminated.
Resource trading works so that you can use gold to buy special resources (as many as the number of trade points you have) or sell special resources for gold, but only one type of trade per turn. You can't trade with your allies, but you can help your allies conquer resources they need that you don't. In team play, you can take squares from your ally by moving into them if he doesn't have troops there, which makes cooperation fairly easy.
The AI is also more challenging. Unlike in Dominions, which had a single AI that always used the same playbook, each class in CoE3 has a separately programmed AI that takes into account the attributes and special abilities of that class. If you increase the difficulty level (meaning how much of an income bonus the AI gets to gold and special resources), you will be in for a challenge even in SP.
That's more or less the most important stuff.
