Frogboy Frogboy

Friday Night build impressions

▼

Friday Night build impressions

from JoeUser Forums

Ok, sorry we didn’t get this out. So I’m play testing this week’s update.

Just a few things I thought I would share with you guys. This is just my personal view:

  1. Performance is much better. I mean in terms of framerate. Part of that is the optimized font handling and other tweaks. But the result is a lot smoother experience.
  2. The elimination of the old sound effects made a big difference. I didn’t really notice how bad the old sound effects were until the new Dolby 5.1 ones got added. If you wear headphones, it’s really noticeable.
  3. You need to build militia now. It’s going to take some time to get used to this. But no, you can’t just go and solo the monster layers anymore willy nilly. Some you can take. Others you can’t.
  4. Animations are much better now. It’s a polish thing but very  noticeable. You see those enemy units doing their thing just as smoothly as you do.
  5. No more moon walking. Finally.
  6. Bug: Saw a monster running in place when my attack dialog was up.
  7. New music is nice. Though, at this stage, it would take a fully new 90 minute sound track to make me appreciate how much better the music’s gotten in the last several months.
  8. I wish the ice spear appeared differently on the main map than it does.
  9. The frame rate…just gonna mention that again. Everything is just so much smoother. Feels weird to get used to.
  10. I don’t think we’ll see many people winning on ridiculous.
65,185 views 37 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 25
Depends on your settings. Basically, I still crank out pioneers first but I need troops to expand out of the early areas.

Granted. Settings mean alot.

I would imagine that most beta testers here are playing at a world/faction difficulty level of at least challenging.

I think that it's really good that troops are required in the early game in order to expand. That's a plus.

May I also assume that expansion is basically neccessary in order to win? Or is one-city challenge still a viable option?

 

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top


With a good setup (maybe 5 grain,4 if i abuse magic) I am fairly certain i could win with one conclave city with a total of 4 essence. I would have a full garrison of defenders and strike force, one hero each with a henchmen or 2 in each stack. Defineatly need crystal. Time consuming, but possible. 

edit: You know, i would be willing to try it with 2 grain if i had the 4 essence. hmm.

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

In .981 you could still win with a solo sovereign. I've done it. So yes, you can definitely win with a single city, although you may lose it at some point.

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Tuidjy, reply 28
In .981 you could still win with a solo sovereign. I've done it. So yes, you can definitely win with a single city, although you may lose it at some point.

But this is 0.984 we're talking about here... XD

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah... and until we get our grubby little hands on it, we can only speculate.  I would be surprised if they nerf heroes to the point where a custom race/sovereign cannot win solo on challenging. (That win was on insane)

Frankly, I think that nerfing heroes too much reduces players enjoyment.

I believe the best thing to do reduce a target's dodge/defense for every swing/hit to simulate a single man being overwhelmed by numbers.  This way, heroes will remain suitably heroic at slaying beasts, but will realistically lose to trained armies, militia, etc...

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Tuidjy, reply 28
In .981 you could still win with a solo sovereign. I've done it. So yes, you can definitely win with a single city, although you may lose it at some point.

I did it in 0.983, wasn't on the hardest difficulty though, you are much better at that ^_^, but was on one of the harder ones

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

It's not about nerfing heroes. It's about improving the AI.

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 33
It's not about nerfing heroes. It's about improving the AI.

Yea that too, I was not meaning to mention heroes ATM as I see stuff subtle changes happening, just said I actually accomplished it in the latest build (I think it was on ridiculous).
The hardest part of using heroes right now is the first 25 turns actually...

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #34 from Stardock Forums Top


 You need to build militia now. It’s going to take some time to get used to this. But no, you can’t just go and solo the monster layers anymore willy nilly.

Are you saying there's no more City Militia?  That seems like a major change, and if so, there would need to be a ridiculous amount of re-balancing. Troops would have to cost much less (at least on the low end) and improvement would have to take less time - since you'll be spending more time making troops - and I already think improvements take too long to build.

Adventuring all willy-nilly is basically all the fun for me.  I can't imagine playing this game and keeping my one Sov and the one "close to home" champ nearby all the time to defend from everything while the Wild-lands just sit there waiting for the end-game.

I guess I'll reserve judgement to see how it work with the new movement rules and bonuses in your territory, but this change sincerely make me feel like the pace of the game is going to be set to far too slow for my enjoyment.  I don't want to take 3000 turns of micromanaging a half dozen to a dozen cities just to be able to go out to the Wild lands and get boot-stomped by a 500HP Boss. 

Reply #35 from Elemental Forums Top


no the militia is still there, he's just saying you need to build something stronger to add to it. Currenlty i like to park a henchmen or two for debuffing with magic and a tanky unit plus a ranged unit, so three units in a town to defend it from roving small armies.

Reply #36 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting dangerlinto, reply 35

quoting post
 You need to build militia now. It’s going to take some time to get used to this. But no, you can’t just go and solo the monster layers anymore willy nilly.


Are you saying there's no more City Militia?  That seems like a major change, and if so, there would need to be a ridiculous amount of re-balancing. Troops would have to cost much less (at least on the low end) and improvement would have to take less time - since you'll be spending more time making troops - and I already think improvements take too long to build.

Adventuring all willy-nilly is basically all the fun for me.  I can't imagine playing this game and keeping my one Sov and the one "close to home" champ nearby all the time to defend from everything while the Wild-lands just sit there waiting for the end-game.

I guess I'll reserve judgement to see how it work with the new movement rules and bonuses in your territory, but this change sincerely make me feel like the pace of the game is going to be set to far too slow for my enjoyment.  I don't want to take 3000 turns of micromanaging a half dozen to a dozen cities just to be able to go out to the Wild lands and get boot-stomped by a 500HP Boss. 

 

I think you read it wrong.  There are going to be more and better city militia  but what Frog is saying is that you will need to train early units (earliest unit being the no armor guy with a club, named "militia"), to go adventure with your sov if you want to destroy monster lairs and grab their goodies. 

Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Glowing_Ember, reply 36

no the militia is still there, he's just saying you need to build something stronger to add to it. Currenlty i like to park a henchmen or two for debuffing with magic and a tanky unit plus a ranged unit, so three units in a town to defend it from roving small armies.

Ah - then that's fine.  I think it's that way now if you let the AI get too far ahead in both land acquisition and troops.  Last game - Tarth was sending out massive troops and would have sqaushed my militia if it weren't a seasonal Pillar or Flame.    I made a big mistake on declaring war on someone who was 100 pts higher rated than I was - but what can I say - he held the games only reasonably accessible life shard.

I also only play on normal.   They attack less there, I think.

 

Quoting Lord, reply 37
I think you read it wrong.  There are going to be more and better city militia  but what Frog is saying is that you will need to train early units (earliest unit being the no armor guy with a club, named "militia"), to go adventure with your sov if you want to destroy monster lairs and grab their goodies. 

Yes I read it as if he meant that you can't go solo out because you'll need units back home to defend.  I'm a cool frood now.