Ok then... I started reading this thread before skipping to replying simply by about page 3 because of the negativity and yes it will be a ridiculously long post as i'd like to at least try to make it 'game designer useful' for a game i am currently playing for free. I voted excellent – it’s a beta and it is a massive step up on Beta 2.
I've enjoyed the 3 games i've played so far and have a few suggestions, First game i played altar, second and third Pariden winning all 3 with conquest victories on challenging. What i've done is focus on the areas you have improved rather than slam you for all the things you didn't say you've improved (i know weird).
1. Monster rebalance.
Yes I can see this. My personal experience was that despite this my Sovereign (in all 3 cases) didn't appear to have too many difficulties. Some things to consider.
- Depending on the difficulty level chosen, monsters could gain experience every turn as they spend their time fighting and marauding and the like thus being more challenging as time goes on.
- I have found monsters don't really use their special attacks but am sure this will be fixed in later Beta's
- I'd go bigger and bolder. Make each creature even more specialised - better strengths and worse weaknesses. Even more initiative and movement to the quick ones, more defence etc to the slow heavy ones. As they level this would make a big difference. Again could be affected by difficulty levle chosen.
2. Weapon rebalance.
This is a massive improvement and a brilliant move in the right direction. I did find I always went down certain pathways which the AI did not necessarily see as vitally important. Some things to consider:
- It might be worth making a bigger differentiation between the types of armour and how effective they are against various attacks.
- Currently if you move first and get into range you hit first and are then counter attacked. Perhaps initiative should be used not just for move, but also to decide who hits first even if you are attacking you can be hit first by the counter attack (a pre counter if you will). Perhaps a random roll added to both initiative as just because you have 12 I doesn't mean you will always hit a 10I first.
- Champions arcane armour basically means you can walk through the park. My queen didn't bother with spells, she just whacked people. I'd suggest dropping the + level bonus and making it set.
- Armour generally i would look at in terms of initiative negative as this doesn't seem enough of a negative to me given the affect defence has on the game.
- Perhaps consider splitting the armour and weapon types out more on the research pathways so that players have to choose which particular weapon to research (ala longbows)
- stop giving out such powerful weapons randomly from creature battles. I got heartseeker in one battle at about level 3. HEARTSEEKER!
3. More Spells.
- Great, I’d like to see even more. I didn’t really need to use spells in any of the games as i was so powerful melee wise, but i experimented a bit
- Perhaps consider gaining spells through research rather than through levelling.
4. Go Big.
- Great concept, I’d like to see you go even bigger than this.
5. Or Go Home.
- Great idea. Assassin class is excellent now. My only thought is that actually, i played an assassin and 2 mage class and all 3 could wear the heaviest champion arcane armour with no issues.
6. More understandable stats.
- very nice but I’d suggest adding in a random factor perhaps a D20 for the David and Goliath syndrome. My sovereign was lucky if he took 1 point of damage most of the time.
7. Faction Differentiation.
- excellent start. I’d like to see even more differentiation if possible but really we can’t judge until you finish.
- I’d also like to see the AI focus on playing to their strengths.
- The more unbalancing the better
8. Some other things, "went home", there are less techs in Beta 3.
- tricky one. I have always completed the entire research tree by mid game.
- I don’t need lots of the research path. All arcane weapons and armour with some civics is enough.
- Possibly start splitting them up more so that you have to research more of them!
9. More diplomacy options.
- nice but we need more
- AI’s need to know what to use.
10. Better memory consumption (my 500 turn game on a large map last night was only using 1.3 Gb), better performance (Brad is working magic with multiple threads), better AI (we are changing the default difficulty to Easy, the AI is getting to good).
- No arguments on performance
- AI is still not making the right calls but its early days. Don’t cast the right spells, don’t research the right things, don’t use their abilities, don’t attack undefended cities etc. Easy should always be easy but everything above that needs focus which i am sure you are doing.
11. Tons of bug fixes, improvements, polish and tweaking. We replaced a lot of the spell icons to make them more clear and distinct, you can see new trees in the picture below. Lots of new traits for your champions to learn.
- Yes nice - would like more traits even crazily good ones.
Couple of things I would like that still fit your framework:
- Make defending cities much easier – bigger bonuses (actually make them hard to take even with limited defenders) of at least 50% (i.e. 2 men can take 3).
- I assume more quests, spells etc will come
- Boost those monsters according to difficulty and give them xp each turn.
- Stretch out existing tech tree (i.e. what’s already there) to make people choose their path rather than do all.
