Quin, I may come as a bit condescending... Hell, I am condescending.  Dominions 3 AI is beyond retarded.  I must have played hundred MP games in Dominions 3.  I stopped because my not-yet-wife asked me, but not before I won the first two official tournaments, not before the point when people were ganking me four at the time, and still losing... and not before I came up with quite a few strategies that forced Illwinter to change quite a few rules.  Thanks for reminding me of that game, and making me revisit the threads for my most fondly remembered games.

I played Dom2 and Dom3 for years.  In all that time, I must have played 5 games against the AI, unless you count a few turns to test a new pretender (against another side played by me).  The AI could not deal with super-combatants, could be lured again and again into undefended territories and be wiped out for 1 gem, could be pushed into wars with other AIs, did not know how to use province shields, etc, etc, etc...

In 2008 Dominions 3 had NO single player, for all intents and purposes.  I know of no good player who would bother.  This may have changed, but it would really surprise me.

And the reason for this is that everyone who played it, played it for the multiplayer.  And when someone wanted to drop, it was considered really poor form to switch to AI instead of finding anyone, including a newbie, to take his place.

Funny, that's how I feel about a map pack
No offence, but I am not here for the maps, some players are and if they buy it, and enjoy it, fantastic!
Also just saying those kind of feelings are different from player to player, that said I hope the dlc is at a proper price, have seen some decent dlc waaay overpriced (imo).

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Exactly.

Multiplayer games tend to want to decide a winner based on strategy and tactics.

Solo games are boring without some chaos and random luck thrown in.

MPers hate being knocked out or having a game decided by a luck event. Soloists hate being limited to strategy vs an AI which usually sucks.

Its hard to mix the two equally. Some games might have switches for toning down the random luck of map placement, or random events, but usually not to a complete on/off level so games (and maps) lean toward MP or Solo.

As far as Dominions 3.. yes the devs have said it is meant to lean toward multiplay. And their previous game (altho updated to version 3 and now their newest game) of Conquest of Elysium is meant to lean more toward solo play.

Side question: when talking about Dom3 MP vs Solo, are both vanilla? If you only find mp worthwhile but always play it modded then it seems an unfair comparison unless you try solo play with mods and maps meant to improve that also.

BY THE WAY the reason I dropped by is to announce that both Illwinter games have a new patch released. Presently the Dom3 patch can only be gotten directly from the illwinter.com site

In Russia game been released 10 december 2010 and i don't have credit card. Maybe you invent some easier way? Webmoney, as example, or something else.