Dominions 6 Release Day Stream - EA Lanka

Dominions 6 is out and I jumped into one of my favourite nations for a quick test drive of the game.
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[@DDRJake]

In short: It's Dominions 5 again with some cool new additions and quality of life, but overall feels too similar to get really excited about. Dominions 4 to Dominions 5 shook up battles in a big way to make the game feel like quite the evolution. Dominions 5 to 6 is just some nice things sprinkled on top. It feels more like a paid mod and free patch to Dominions 5 rather than than a whole new game. Considering the large amount of Dominions 5 I played last year, this isn't enough new amazing stuff to really get my excited to come crawling back to the ascension wars, so I'll be leaving this one in the oven for a while. Give it time to get some fixes and updates, let the mods catch up so I can enjoy Randomizer and AI improvements again and most of all, let my hunger for Dominions build up again. I'll definitely be back to this, and Dominions 6 is the best Dominions game on the market, even the best strategy game on the market for me, but as a new iteration of the series, it doesn't live up to my hopes.

[@tiredmule]

Still so hyped for these videos. Love the long tales of monsters getting blown up 😂

[@ilililililili563]

bummer, i was hoping for some more dominions :/

[@McHobotheBobo]

I'm sure with the cash injection of release we'll be seeing some great updates! It's easy to forget how much was added over the lifespan of Dom5 that made it so great, and lacking the inspector makes it tough to catch up to the new meta. Once that's out in a few weeks and more mods get underway, it's gonna be fantastic! The addition of multiple planes I feel also has not been fully explored in vanilla and should be expanded upon to the level of say Conquest of Elysium.

[@McHobotheBobo]

Something you may have missed on the battlefields (commenting at beginning of video) is that in addition to being larger there are more props on the map. Nature mages can now animate shrubs and trees that appear on the map to get some minor skelespam, and in forest provinces it can be crushingly powerful. Combine that with the terraforming magic that has been added to the game and the changes to Asphodel, Pangaea, etc. There's a lot more to Dom6 than meets the eye and I think it will take the community quite some time to delve into the depths of change and expansion we're looking at

[@yugonostalgia8961]

30:20 Cackled at that, Dominions in antithetical to quality of life and easy information. Honestly, a whole new magic path and changes to nations/AI/dominion/new spells and rituals all together definitely feels worth the new edition, it's a lot of major and minor additions that add up to be really interesting

[@feelingveryattackedrn5750]

I think the new magic path thing is a bit overstated given that several key abilities of other paths were taken to form glamour. I think its a bit disappointing from a content point of view how few national changes there were. Obviously they are concerned with making the game as balanced as it can be, but some of the new nations dont even have a unique national spell repertoire, and those are the ones where theres the lowest expectation of balance. I don't mind paying a full game price for not a new full game because my enjoyment is based on hours spent by me not by hours spent from the devs but on a new game release they should be way less safe about content added so that returning players, of which the majority are, have new toys to play with. Im particularly bothered by how heavily they changed pretender design while still keeping pretender chassis limited for a large number of nations. Some nations have tons of designs which allow them to create builds focused on the new scales limits and bless system, others have very limited diversity and repeats of the same "types" of chassis, eg LA Ryleh having a magic scale boost and then having however many pretenders that boost magic scale (a completely wasted handful of design points) and very little otherwise.

[@McHobotheBobo]

Also Loch Ness being on the map reminds me, my trip to Inverness was lovely! Good food and beautiful scenery, went out to the castle about mid-Loch. One of the most picturesque valleys there is!

[@surburbanblacksmith]

You can click on income at the top of the screen to get a breakdown of all your expenses very useful to see what's costing you

[@DDRJake]

Very nice, cheers!

[@diazinth]

@@DDRJake you can also click on your treasury for more information about what you're paying for this turn that's not upkeep

[@gingerbill128]

its too early for me to judge but it t does appear you are correct. still lots of fun could be had i wasn't bored of dom 5 .

[@clusterfox6143]

Lanka is the first nation I ever played, way back in dominions 4. Not the easiest to start with, but I loved the flavor so much I forced myself to learn to play them.

[@sgtflintlock6904]

While the changes are less visible than turn based to real time, there are at least as many fundamental differences in the way things work in the upgrade from Dominions 5 to 6 as there were from 4 to 5. The vast majority of them just aren't visible at a glance

[@Runetrantor]

While I knew it wouldnt be a sequel like those of larger devs, I got to say I did expect just a bit more out of Dom6 beyond a font change and some sharper icons. Can see why its not like, pulling you in hard or anything, its basically Dom 5 with a patch that would be not that big if this had updates like Vicky 3 or EU4. Feels like something a mod could do in most games, improve UIX and tweak some stuff, add a magic path, etc. As you said, not bad, just not 'wow' either.

[@BlackBallBouncer]

One of the biggest things that pulled me into Dom 5 was the soundtrack. 6's hasn't stood out to me in comparison, which is unfortunate. Could just be me though.

[@DDRJake]

I feel similarly. Dom6 music sounds very high fantasy, like I'm wandering through a lush forest surrounded by elves and fairies. Dominions 5 has music that sounds very awe inspiring and God-like. Sadly, Dominions 5 music is licenced and causes DMCA issues for me. To Dom6's credit, the music is approved for streamers and video makers (albeit on a case by case basis)

[@adamberthold5941]

So, is it living up to the hype?

[@Zoloat]

Was it hyped? It's still good, but that's because Dominions is amazing. But it's basically just a big UI/Balance patch. I think most people knew that was how it was going to be.

[@spockamania]

It genuinely never should be a new game. At best a DLC for less than half the price. And since it's a "new game", it breaks all the preexisting mods and forces people to buy a new game if they want any new mods going forward/to play multiplayer. So... yes?

[@yugonostalgia8961]

@@Zoloat Not really a balance/UI patch at all. Totally changing the way mounted units work and adding a new magic path can't be done in dom5. Plus a ton of changes is worth it - it's not like Illwinter won't add nations, spells, patches throughout the next 5 years of dom6. Some of the coolest nations like Uber and Ind were added a few years into dom5 after all~

[@Leverquin]

so what's new?

[@thegrandwombat8797]

A new magic path (glamour), scales can go up to 5 (but not in pretender creation), 2 new layers are on the map, the first being a cave layer and the second being the Nexus, a highly magical plane near the void, there's 7 new nations, mounts and riders are each separate units now for cavalry, they added fog of war, battle sizes and gold income have been increased though mages and forts also cost more, a large number of new spells and items, assassinations happen in places like taverns or librarys or temples with bystanders who might get involved, and a bunch of smaller changes.

[@thegrandwombat8797]

Oh also diplomacy options for the AI and a built in multiplayer lobby

[@Leverquin]

@@thegrandwombat8797 god damn. i don't understand even dominions 5....

[@thegrandwombat8797]

@@Leverquin None of us understand 6 yet, I doubt we will for a while. It's a fun time to be in the community, a lot of exploration and experimental approaches going on.

[@sotmh]

The AI is also much more capable than in Dom5, fielding more national units, a better amount and mix of summons, fewer indies (and the indies it fields are better) and generally better army composition. It's not as good as a human, naturally, but you don't need to crank the difficulty in single player as much to get a challenge.

[@lordcarve]

I don't see the appeal here Jake

[@DDRJake]

It's a fine game, just not exciting enough to drag me back in. I'm sure I'll be back within a year or so.