According to the following thread:

http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-3-the-awakening/forum/thread/dominions-4-announced

the UI will be moddable at some point if not at release.

Early previews of Dominions 4 :

http://thurot.com/2013/07/13/dominions-4/

http://www.matchstickeyes.com/2013/07/15/whats-new-in-dominions-4-thrones-of-ascension/

Oh, and it's available for preorder on desura : http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions

"Available to play Aug 31, 2013."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB78utM7y3g

Alpha gameplay...

Definitely looks more like Dominions 3.1 or something like that. Not saying I won't buy it, because DomIII is a classic TBS (which I already own of course), and an upgrade to it might be worth playing occasionally. 

How can designers think such an an ugly UI in (nearly) 2014 is good enough?

I'm not saying they need to be Davinci but there should be some kind of a floor for things like this.   I just ask for things to be smooth, not blocky and pixelated and animated.

I guess cartoon quality - not even Pixar quality.   I don't know there's no rating system.

I'd be willing to bet that it sells well enough to make the team of two people behind it quite happy.  So I'd say the designers were correct in thinking that the UI is good enough.

Isn't Dwarf Fortress free?

I'm passing on Dom4 anyway, not just because the UI is annoying, but because I still don't think the micromanagement will be improved enough to suit me.

Release date has been pushed back to Sept 28th.

If you've pre-ordered it, you can have access to the beta which came out today.

It's officially being released tomorrow on Desura. Keys from Desura should allow you to get the game on Steam, if/when it is released on Steam.

I am playing the beta and its great. Lots of small improvements. I would have loved this game to have a turn on kickstarter and pushing all the money into graphics, but this is still one of the best games out there. The strategic options are endless. I have played Dom4 for a month now, and I am still playing and getting into my first nation (Jotunheim).

From what I can tell, it appears they plan to rectify the issue of the manual almost instantly going out of date (as it did with Dominions 3) but keeping it strictly a downloadable document. Normally I'd greet something like this with cynicism--sure you don't want to give us a printed manual, because you want to save us from ourselves--but in this case, it makes sense. D3 went through a seemingly endless series of changes over the years, and the developers' are getting lots of feedback on it right now. Provided they keep on top of this, it could really help.

Finally won my first big game against a Mighty AI! I played the Scorpion King leading Abysia against the final other contender Helheim's Father of Winters (what could be more fitting?). The last battle for the last throne was ridiculous. I had around 30 scorpion men thug commanders with dual fire brands, dragon helmets, regen rings and amulets of antimagic, backed up by 10 or so mages spamming Falling Fires. The AI was sending close to 1500 men every turn trying to break my siege. But after I moved up my SCs (kings of elemental earth, gargoyles) there wasn't much they could do.

Is anyone else getting world-wide darkness like every 3 turns? Either from a throne or something else...

Congrats Heavenfall. I have lots to learn about this game...

I have skipped Dom4 too, after being sorely disappointed by COE3. From what I have seen, Dom4 is just Dom3 with a few touches here and there, all the fundamental flaws included. Controlling huge empires is a pain, I remember spending several hours per turn just entering all the moves.

I had tons of fun with Dom3, I just think Dom4 does not bring enough to justify a whole new title. Instead, it's milking the same, aging cow. 

I wanna try it but my it's a bit down on my game wishlist. Although I might move it up. 

EU4, XCOM:EW, Starbound, XRebirth, Company of Heroes 2, and Saints Row IV are still on my Steam wishlist

I have both titles and I think you're right.

Two things that save a lot of time in Dom4 is that you can repeat recruitments that you set up, and new researchers that you recruit automatically go into research mode.

The one feature that might make it worth it in Dom4 is the thrones of ascension. It's a cool idea that can really throw you curveballs with how you set up your stuff. Their bonuses are quite good, but the strong ones can also come with downsides. For example the Throne of Abundance gives you 1 of each gem and 200 gold every turn, but your dominion scales get +2 sloth. Great if you're already playing with slot, not so great if you depend on the resources. Plus the fact that you can win without dominion creep or capturing every province can greatly speed up the end-game.

Another feature I'm really warming up to is the team setups, so you can play with friends or AI as "disciples" in unbreakable alliances.

Yeah, I'm sure it's a lot of fun if you still enjoyed Dom3.

I appreciate what Illwinter does, I just don't care to support it anymore because its not really pushing anything forward enough to justify spending more money on it.

Maybe by the time Dom5 comes around.

its more of a facelift mostly adding a new way to win, i was sadden when they split Ermor between its two stages spliting them into MA and LA.

Still a massive pain to control everything, the longer it goes on the worse it gets ended up tossing sheer numbers to get the last 2 thrones needed. though it was fun useing spells, it mainly needs something to make the insane micromangment you have to do for almost everything easier.

Well this is an old thread but the game has been out a good while now. I've got to say, I've had a ton of fun with it. Micromanagement is mostly gone aside from things that actually make a difference in terms of strategic choice – common things like rituals can be set to repeat, and tax rates and gemgen items are gone. It's got several new nations compared to Dom3, and more continuously, so it gets more and more worth the price every update. And it's on sale reasonably often too, if you use Steam.

Really though, it depends on what you like. If you want a slow-paced multiplayer fantasy strategy game, Dominions is the king and shows no sign of ever being usurped. You have to be willing to spend up to an hour a day for three months or so, but I've had a great time with it.

If you only ever play single player, then it's true that the game's comparatively underwhelming (and the little bits of micro add up when you're taking more than one turn a day) but that's not what the game is for, and in multiplayer it's, in my opinion, the single best game out there. And I'm not some tourney-chasing multiplayer kid, I only ever played single player stuff before I got into Dominions.

great game, especially in MP. I wish Stardock hamake graphics deserving...