[.99] Initial impressions of .99 a long-term FE beta tester
Elemental Forums
After playing FE for a long time, I thought I'd post a stream of my impressions. I'm running Win 7 64-Bit w/ a 9600 GT video card.
Before starting the game
*[praise] I fully uninstalled the old version and installed a new full one. I like the new installer graphics. Nice touch.
*[praise] I like the extra glowy blue on the Fallen Enchantress font. Looks very nice!
*[praise] When highlighting abilities for the sovereign I pick, the tooltips seem better somehow. Not sure all of what was tweaked here, but it's better than before.
The beginning of the game
*[praise] Starting the game as Lord Markin, the opening book's font and graphic placement are much improved!
*[bug] Viewing the tech tree still has some visual artifacts as you move between different technologies. You see it right below the title between the icons. It's like the icons and the title are fighting for which one is first.
*[question] I started my first game with a place with 5 grain, 3 materials, and 2 essence. I hadn't seen this prior to now. Have the starting areas been improved for resources?
*[praise] Rivers just look awesome. Kudos to the devs that worked on those!
*[bug] Highlighting Settle really needs to show the Zone of Control that will be used by the new city.
*[bug] Switching between the cloth map and 3D is slower now. It's rather jarring. 3D view is flawless to zoom in and out (and very responsive now!)
*[suggestion] My starting location had access to two resources- a fruit grove and air shard. When I tried to see what they would do, their descriptions were very...non-specific. I wanted to know exactly how much grain would be increased by the grove, or the amount of mana from the construction of a shard if built. They both should say something like- +1 Grain or +1 Mana / turn. This goes for all resources. I see now that you can view the benefit after you build the resource and add it to the queue. Maybe instead in the description you could link to the improvement each resource would have so you could see the benefit?
*[bug] I saw the hero Rostrya. His icon picture just showed a huge shield instead of his face.
*[praise] Love the balance of things so far. Very nice.
*[bug] The sound effects for clicking on each of the various research areas are nice, but the Warfare one is too loud and Magic is too soft
*[major bug] I had my first crash in a LONG time. I opened up the Heirgmemnon and was clicking the different options. Apparently I clicked too quickly and FE froze up and eventually crashed.
*[praise] So far, balancing seems to be getting much, much better. Units are easier to build and make a much bigger difference.
*[suggestion] Unit maintenance costs seem to be a bit high, which prevents me fielding a decent army early on. Maybe a bit less cost and/or less Unrest (which prevents me from increasing taxes).
