ntino

The game is too easy (challenging)

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The game is too easy (challenging)

from Elemental Forums

unlike most players, I think this game is too easy, or at least it seems to be easy to abuse the system, while the only way for the AI to overcome player abuse is by insane bonuses that might make the game frustrating on further difficulties.

I have not played any Beta.

I started my first game challenging/challenging because I read in a couple of games this was a difficult difficulty and the rest are even harder. No custom race -  Tarth was used, I think medium sized map and 4 opponents? I didn't know how to play at all so at first I didn't understand what was going on other than using heroes - I watched some u-tube video that explained resources in cities - I was set after that.

I realized that this race is considered overpowered by most - after reading some posts but at the same time its not as good as making a custom race which is what most power players will do.

The problem with the game stems from the fact that while making cities and developing them as well as building pioneers - the only use I found for them so far is ROADS - which are way overpowered! especially with Tarth. You can sneak in a pioneer somewhere and have an instant elevator into enemy territory!  I didn't realize how to build roads at first but having them pop automatically is just silly.

On to the problem - I was able to steamroll the AI easily without making a single unit, just from recruiting heroes, quests and taming a couple of beasts. There is just no balance between units you can recruit - already leveled up and units you can build and have to research many techs to build - I am on turn 88 and The AI while having built up its cities with everything available had very poor units that were no match for mine.

I never researched anything in the military tree and never recruited high level heroes - I only have 4 one out of which is a merchant sitting in my capitol. 

I dont think it makes sense to continue with this game - I only met 2 AIs one has a score of 22, other HAD a score of 60 - now 20 after losing their stuff to me.

I must say I did play with saves and reloads but did not abuse the system - simply because I did not know how strong units are etc.

Before I get flamed - I understand that I did not perhaps play on the right settings, but at the same time I really did not understand much about the game so I don't think I did well at all given the 88 turns  (first pioneer I built was just wondering around while I was desperately trying to understand why I cannot settle anything - among the 100s useless popups, couldnt they have one pop up when you build your first pioneer saying something like "you must look for new lands to settle, most cannot be settled, etc" 

On to the things that are just wrong:

*this game is totally not intuitive for a new player, could just be me though.

*Map is big but "empty" simply because all these lairs are "just another lair". Individual tiles dont matter  - if you have a game that allows stacking, you should make every tile in the game count! - I really dont see why make everything be 1-2-3-4-5 on one tile - that gives you either very poor or every overpowered cities - this could seem relatively minor but at the same time the game experience suffers from that - you just dont get that feeling "MY CITY IS BADDASS" because you know the AI always gets a 5-4-2 location(at least it did for its cities in my game) - you could take cities out, replace them with forts that can be enchanted and can purchase units for gold and do away with the city mess the way it is now, leave pioneers for outposts and improvements!

*if this is you vs environment type game then why the hell no one attacks your cities for the first 70 turns- AI understandably cant get to you, and once you clear out the NPCs(and you really want to do that since you need the xp, items,gold)

*Also, whats up with all the useless artifacts and why you never get gold as victory spoils? its totally useless having all those 100032 items non of which feels special - wolf/bear pelts to sell?! come on, why make it more complicated.

*Combat feels unbalanced simply because they are trying to balance it within a huge system of units having anywhere from 2 to 200HP. Why not make things a little more simple akin to civ or MOM? - you can have a lot of fun with unit design even if a unit is never more than 30hp - just make it more varied with abilities and perks not stupid meaningless numbers. 

I dont think combat is totally bad but rather than being focused, its all over the place - feels like 2-3 different people worked on this separately and then just meshed up their ideas.

*I almost did not use any magic even though I have magic casters - the balance of mana cost to easy of getting manage to spells to benefit in combat is just not right. You want to have spells in the system and you want people that play a mage use them every battle- just make the caster weaker in other ways - you simply cannot use spells that cost 15 mana every battle when your income of mana is 1-5 a turn.

*City buildings are very "stat-oriented" rather than flavor oriented - you just have 5 buildings all doing the same thing for one of the stats with different names to them !?

*I really like the fact that you have techs that unlock abilities - thats very good in a game like this BUT I feel some are not well balanced in the grand scheme of things.

*it is completely and utterly stupid that should you want to play a military faction or a magic oriented one you still need to research a lot of the civic techs right away simply to be able to research the other stuff - this is not CIV. There should be different research points for the different tech trees based on how you play - shard/mana based research for the spell stuff, civic based research for civics, military/civic for military.. That way you could play as a magic caster or warrior ignoring some of the other stuff.

*if this game is supposed to be mostly player vs environment (this is what the game design/balance leans to it seems) then the game should take note from other great games such as HOMM and others with many monsters of different strength guarding various sites close and far - this is very different than the current situation of easy monsters close to player, bad ass monsters far away. It makes for no incentive to come back and even restock in your cities.

*if some of these are because I was playing Tarth - their bonus should be taken out of the game.

*FYI I did not lose a single unit in the game(I think, if I did I don't remember that) - there is no incentive in getting into fights that would make you lose units - this is bad. and of course the AI should present enough of a challenge and rewards to make you lose units - but as of right now you just gain useless cities that are unhappy and cannot produce anything that you couldn't before

To sum this up - it feels like this game suffers from bad design choices where there was no coherent vision of what the game was supposed to be. I think a lot can be changed with balancing though to make it a much better game.

I will try to start another game with a different race - I have no intention of finishing this game because while there are other quests(with dragons) and other AIs I dont feel that it will be very interesting to play on. - If that doesn't go well I will just consider this unplayable till mods/further balancing patches come out.

 

Please feel free to suggest more fun settings to play on, or suggest why my analysis might be wrong.

 

 

84,141 views 76 replies
Reply #51 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting xarilius, reply 26
While I agree that most of you probably know the game better than I do as you have much more games under your belt, this whole attitude of "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is silly.  You do realize that the majority of the people buying a game like this may never get past the 5-10 game mark, let alone 20? The value of a criticism from someone that's played 2 games is as valuable as someone that has played 20 games for a game developer, at least for one that is interested in growing their fan base.  You can get a good enough grasp of the game after a few games to what can be improved in the game. 

I've been in the beta since the beginning and I agree that the whole "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is stupid and is a Fanboyish argument.  No one is going to buy or sample a game 20 times before they decide if it is fun to play. IT's Human nature.  They will play a couple of games and decide if the game is worth it or not. 

When you try out a new TV Series that looks and sounds intersting but when you watch the premire it is not that good do you give it 20 more episodes before you decide if it is worth watching?  Most people don't.  Now personally I give a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Military series one season to catch me. Other types of shows I only give one or two shows before I write it off but I'm in the minority on this.

Same concept applies to games.

FE for me on Challanging and above is fun to play but does not capture that lets go another turn before I stop feeling that the old MOM/AOW:SM did for me.  The Vanilla FE is ok but it ain't all that,  so as many have already done I will be trying out some mods.

Reply #52 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Kalin, reply 27
Please don't judge the game on your ability to roll an AI... you're suppose to be able to (they want a certain viability to rushing if you like that kind of play style). Different AIs play differently, some focus more on building, and is vulnerable to rushes, some pumps troops and roll others... so beating one or two really doesn't mean much... especially on challenging. A smart player using some (rather obvious) tricks will easily destroy the AI on that difficulty. Just a single tame will win me the game on that difficulty. You could call that "unbalancing" if you like, but the ability to do that makes it interesting. It's when you have to resort to those tricks to survive that it becomes fun. That's what the higher difficulty is for...

However, just to warn you... the AI is and will always be bad with their heroes, regardless of difficulty. They just don't understand the system enough to properly train, equip and synergize those with the proper traits. This is an unfortunate side effect of the complicated system that I pointed out way back in one of the early beta (and I hope to see improvements on in an expansion). Higher difficulty will see them better equipped, but they won't ever be "smart" in this department due to certain limitations in the system. If this is what you're looking for, then I'm afraid you won't find it.

Higher difficulty WILL have the AI pumping very well equipped troops to provide you with a challenge... but their design is generally subpar until you yourself play those faction and design better units for them. You don't HAVE to, but it does help them quite a bit. Once you do, they become quite dangerous... however their army make up is often still lacking... and thankfully so, because they would be pretty hard to beat otherwise. They also don't value their troops survival enough, and thus won't have veteran units like you do. This is one of the weaknesses that I don't see any good solution for, and that's why you need to give them some bonuses (play on higher difficulty) to make up for this.

Also keep in mind that sometimes you start out in good spots and sometimes you won't. I usually find it more fun when I don't...

What? What is the point in playing a game if the AI is to easy? Of coarse you can and should  judge a SINGLE PLAYER GAME (HELLO!!!!!!!!!) on how you easily roll the AI on the hard settings.

And to wait until you play the other faction and design better units for them in order for that faction to be more of a challange later is kinda of riduculous.

And I too perfer a game where I start out in a bad spot over starting in a good spot because the AI needs all the help it can get. Hell sometimes I wonder around a bit before settiling my first city just to give the AI a chance.

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #53 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting ntino, reply 25
I will go play another game and see what else I can conclude. I will play on expert this time. different race, default settings.

good

 
Quoting xarilius, reply 26
While I agree that most of you probably know the game better than I do as you have much more games under your belt, this whole attitude of "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is silly.  You do realize that the majority of the people buying a game like this may never get past the 5-10 game mark, let alone 20? The value of a criticism from someone that's played 2 games is as valuable as someone that has played 20 games for a game developer, at least for one that is interested in growing their fan base.  You can get a good enough grasp of the game after a few games to what can be improved in the game. 
 
That's not really true. This is a pretty complex 4x strategy game with lots of variables and many different options for the sandbox mode, it is not supposed to be a linear gaming experience that leads you through a theme park. It's part of the charm of those kinds of games to play and learn and to find the best options for yourself. This is simply not possible after one or two playthroughs.
 
You certainly don't get a good enough grasp of the game after one playthrough to claim that one difficulty setting is too easy on the whole, which is the point of the op. How else would you explain that there is another thread here that claims "game too difficult on easy"?
Reply #54 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Bellack, reply 52
What? What is the point in playing a game if the AI is to easy? Of coarse you can and should  judge a SINGLE PLAYER GAME (HELLO!!!!!!!!!) on how you easily roll the AI on the hard settings.

And to wait until you play the other faction and design better units for them in order for that faction to be more of a challange later is kinda of riduculous.

And I too perfer a game where I start out in a bad spot over starting in a good spot because the AI needs all the help it can get. Hell sometimes I wonder around a bit before settiling my first city just to give the AI a chance.

 

The point is that you can adjust the settings accordingly. The point is not to overhaul that difficulty level on the spot since one player thinks the game is too easy on hard settings, because for all the players claiming that it is too easy you will find others claiming it is too hard. Which is why I stressed the point that some gamers have an irrational, solipsistic expectation of difficulty settings to naturally fit their playstyle. Why not simply try a harder difficulty, change the settings?

We are talking about a sandbox game here, not a theme park game. And since you mentioned MoM and AoW: Are you trying to suggest that they can't be abused and that certain playstyles and difficulty settings are not much too easy/hard for certain players?

Reply #55 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting rvgr, reply 8

Also, most games can be exploited in one way or another: for example, Jagged Alliance 2 (a great game) can be beaten in about 10 minutes using completely legitimate means. If you play it that way every time, then yeah, it's no fun. The question is, WHY play it that way?
 

I don't own that game (elemental) yet neither Jagged Alliance 2.  But I just wanted to reply to that in general, the reason would be : efficiency

I almost always strive for efficiency in the games I play. If I can find a better car in a racing game to suit my style of play & gain 30s over opponents instead of 10, why should I deprive myself of that car?? because it's too easy to win ? well in that case I'll make a personnal challenge to finish with 35seconds over opponents instead of 30 ...

don't get me wrong, there's games where there's more than one way to be efficient, for example in some cooperative games you can rush to the end or kill everything along the way.

Anyway just my take on it.

Reply #56 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Bellack, reply 52

What? What is the point in playing a game if the AI is to easy? Of coarse you can and should  judge a SINGLE PLAYER GAME (HELLO!!!!!!!!!) on how you easily roll the AI on the hard settings.

And to wait until you play the other faction and design better units for them in order for that faction to be more of a challange later is kinda of riduculous.

And I too perfer a game where I start out in a bad spot over starting in a good spot because the AI needs all the help it can get. Hell sometimes I wonder around a bit before settiling my first city just to give the AI a chance.

Um... did you actually read my post that you quoted or did you just went "TL;DR", quoted it to ask some off based questions? Because I never said I wanted an easy AI. Hell, that couldn't be anymore wrong.

My post was about how to make the AI NOT so easy, the TL; DR version of which is as follows: TURN UP THE DIFFICULTY SETTINGS. Was that short enough for you? IF you find it easy, play on a harder setting. This isn't rocket science. If you look around the forums, you'll see plenty of people claiming the complete opposite, in which the solution is also the opposite... to play on an easier setting.

The "Challenging" settings, as I mentioned in my post, which you quoted, is anything but difficult. The AI is TRYING to play the game fairly (although most veteran will tell you, it really isn't), but it has some fairly significant flaws/handicaps, and should never be able to compete against a decent player that knows what he's doing. So judging the game based on your ability to rush kill a Challenging AI is a bit silly. Rushing is a viable strategy, and no it doesn't require intimate knowledge of the game to pull off. If you have a problem with this (rushing viability), then I can understand and may even agree to some extent. I generally don't rush anymore unless they start it first (which they do a little too often - and die for it).

As for better AI unit designs, as I mentioned, you don't have to do this, but it certainly DOES HELP THEM A LOT. If you want a real challenge from the AI, doing this will make them much more challenging (how much depends on YOUR ability to design units). This is one way of making them better. Brad and Stardock promotes this as a "the AI learns and becomes better as you do" thing... you can think of it however you want. Ridiculous or whatever. I don't have a problem with it *shrugs*.

Reply #57 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting rvgr, reply 50



Quoting Bellack,
reply 49

Also the trait that gives Cerese (I think) the ability to hire Hero's for free is way over the top. That ability should give a large hiring cost reduction (50%) instead of hiring Heros for free.


You're probably talking about Relias. The truth is that Karavox, not Relias is a champ-stacking machine: starting with 800 Gildar and the ability to recruit both Kingdom and Empire champs, he can load up on them faster than anyone else.

Yea that is the one. I can never remember thier names but to know thier pictures :)

Reply #58 from Elemental Forums Top

I've been in the beta since the beginning and I agree that the whole "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is stupid and is a Fanboyish argument.  No one is going to buy or sample a game 20 times before they decide if it is fun to play. IT's Human nature.  They will play a couple of games and decide if the game is worth it or not.

If this would be true and the HUMAN NATURE of all people paradox development would never sell any copys of their games. :rofl:   Victoria 2 took me about 20-25 starts until it was really fun to play. Sure this was not because i steamrolled the AI, but your statement is too generalized.

Reply #59 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Bellack, reply 51

Quoting xarilius, reply 26While I agree that most of you probably know the game better than I do as you have much more games under your belt, this whole attitude of "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is silly.  You do realize that the majority of the people buying a game like this may never get past the 5-10 game mark, let alone 20? The value of a criticism from someone that's played 2 games is as valuable as someone that has played 20 games for a game developer, at least for one that is interested in growing their fan base.  You can get a good enough grasp of the game after a few games to what can be improved in the game. 


I've been in the beta since the beginning and I agree that the whole "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is stupid and is a Fanboyish argument.  No one is going to buy or sample a game 20 times before they decide if it is fun to play. IT's Human nature.  They will play a couple of games and decide if the game is worth it or not. 

When you try out a new TV Series that looks and sounds intersting but when you watch the premire it is not that good do you give it 20 more episodes before you decide if it is worth watching?  Most people don't.  Now personally I give a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Military series one season to catch me. Other types of shows I only give one or two shows before I write it off but I'm in the minority on this.

Same concept applies to games.

FE for me on Challanging and above is fun to play but does not capture that lets go another turn before I stop feeling that the old MOM/AOW:SM did for me.  The Vanilla FE is ok but it ain't all that,  so as many have already done I will be trying out some mods.

 

Television shows and video games are not the same concept. Television shows you will know what it is all about after a few episodes (writing, cinematography, actors, et al) where as video games are not as simple especially games as complex as strategy games. If I play through once I miss things that could be minor or it could be major. In all likelyhood you could play through the entire game and miss 90% of the magic system or you could miss 90% of the city specializations or hero flavors. Up until 2 games ago I had never used a beastlord. 

Reply #60 from Elemental Forums Top

@OP: You're right, there's still balancing that needs to be done, but there's also PLENTY of fun to be had out of the game as-is.  Just tweak your session settings.  I did it all the time with Majesty 1; playing Goblin Rush sessions was always a blast!

Hope your new session is enjoyable.  I finally managed a win with Resoln (doesn't happen often).  Took just under 400 turns.

Reply #61 from Elemental Forums Top

Too easy?

I'm obviously doing something really wrong then.

I just got done getting smoked as Resoln starting right up next to Magnar who ended up having 100 faction power and everyone else barely got above 30, and this was on the default settings on a large map with 6 factions.

Somehow Magnar had 4000 gold. I was at 50.

Once his forces got to me (of course, I was the only faction that he hated) it was a bloodbath.

Now I'm hearing that you don't need magic. war tech, and just a few heroes to wipe everyone out?

 

 

Reply #62 from Elemental Forums Top

@Seyal

Did you get the death demons and split them. Give Ceresa a couple of those demons at full strength (can be done EARLY in the game) and you will get your revenge. After some fights each demon group has 244 hitpoints or thereabouts.

Reply #63 from Elemental Forums Top


I must say I did play with saves and reloads but did not abuse the system - simply because I did not know how strong units are etc.

Annnnnnnd we have ANOTHER CHEATER coming to the forums saying how EASY the AI is after using SAVES/RELOADS because he didn't know how strong units are, etc. etc. lol Sorry pal you can't cheat one iota and then claim the AI is easy. You couldn't do that in a multiplayer game and then say players are EASY now could you? If players would STOP CHEATING perhaps they wouldn't find the AI so EASY! LOL

Now don't get me wrong YOU can CHEAT all you like, you bought the game it's yours to cheat it and yourself all you want. Just DON'T COME TO THE FORUMS claiming how great you are and the AI is crap when you are a save/reloader regardless of why you saved and then reloaded. Once you've reloaded a game in the middle of a game because you didn't like the outcome or you didn't know this unit was stronger than that unit and etc. etc. you have CHEATED plain and simple. ;)

Reply #64 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Emperor_Nero, reply 60



Quoting Bellack,
reply 51

Quoting xarilius, reply 26While I agree that most of you probably know the game better than I do as you have much more games under your belt, this whole attitude of "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is silly.  You do realize that the majority of the people buying a game like this may never get past the 5-10 game mark, let alone 20? The value of a criticism from someone that's played 2 games is as valuable as someone that has played 20 games for a game developer, at least for one that is interested in growing their fan base.  You can get a good enough grasp of the game after a few games to what can be improved in the game. 


I've been in the beta since the beginning and I agree that the whole "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is stupid and is a Fanboyish argument.  No one is going to buy or sample a game 20 times before they decide if it is fun to play. IT's Human nature.  They will play a couple of games and decide if the game is worth it or not. 

When you try out a new TV Series that looks and sounds intersting but when you watch the premire it is not that good do you give it 20 more episodes before you decide if it is worth watching?  Most people don't.  Now personally I give a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Military series one season to catch me. Other types of shows I only give one or two shows before I write it off but I'm in the minority on this.

Same concept applies to games.

FE for me on Challanging and above is fun to play but does not capture that lets go another turn before I stop feeling that the old MOM/AOW:SM did for me.  The Vanilla FE is ok but it ain't all that,  so as many have already done I will be trying out some mods.


 

Television shows and video games are not the same concept. Television shows you will know what it is all about after a few episodes (writing, cinematography, actors, et al) where as video games are not as simple especially games as complex as strategy games. If I play through once I miss things that could be minor or it could be major. In all likelyhood you could play through the entire game and miss 90% of the magic system or you could miss 90% of the city specializations or hero flavors. Up until 2 games ago I had never used a beastlord. 

Actully they are very similar in this reguard. Keep in mind that the majority of poeple these days have short attention spans and if they are not engaged in a game or show quickly they will loose intrest.  I'm not saying every human on the planet will but a majority will.  And keep in mind that most people won't have the patents to dig for that content that they missed the first two time they played the game.

Reply #65 from Elemental Forums Top

Thats not a problem with the game Bellack, thats a problem with people picking the wrong game to play. If you have a short attention span and don't expect to have to spend more than 1-2 games learning how to play FE, then you never should have bought it. Many people, myself included, are happy that there are still developers out there willing to create complex games that actually require more than 2 games to really get a grasp of how things work, this is not a game for people who aren't willing to put in 10-20 hours just to learn the basics. This is a game that you should EXPECT to have a steep learning curve and take a very long time to master. Nobody said you can't have fun the whole time though. Just that you should probably take the time to actually understand how the game works before you attempt to suggest ways to fix it.

Reply #66 from Elemental Forums Top


ntino there is a mod designed specifically for good players of the game. Check out Master Affliction https://forums.elementalgame.com/430587

This is designed to balance many many features of the game and not designed for a newbie player. Try it out (fyi it was when the game was released).

Reply #67 from Stardock Forums Top

Actually, challenging is too easy, but that's on the AI side of things (for reference, map size was medium and AIs were 4-5 and no save/reload).

I played a few times on 'challenging' to learn the game (what's a manual for when you buy it on steam???) and I never felt threatened by the AI players.

 

Things I did see though (and have also seen on hard):

- AI doesn't clear it's own local monsters.  At least, not often enough and not all of them.  Too many times I've wandered over and taken a few cities with a single 'power army' and watch the city fall a few turns later (as I moved to another city) to a 'strong' monster army that had been wandering around in the fog near there.  As well, it's hard to keep mines/etc running with packs of wildings/darklings wandering around pillaging them.  The AI should be targetting the monsters a bit more.

- AI spams bad units, rather than building a few 'good' ones.  Ie, I had an AI spam mass scout armies at me once.  Lots and lots of scouts/armies (I think it was Queen P).  But I only needed a couple sword/board units with an archer or two to clear them all out.

- monster hut power levels do seem to be random enough (for the local starts).  I've had games that started with mixed/all weak/mostly 'strong'/etc near me. 

- I've never lost a city to a Dragon attack (more a comment on prior comments than anything).  They just seem to wander around killing anything that moves near them, but never a city (even on Hard).

- It's very easy to make exactly 1 army on Challenging and kill all of the AIs, one at a time (leveling it up and using the guardian perks/army XP/dodge/etc perks for champions).  That might be 'ok' given that 'challenging' is mid pack of the difficulties so it could easily be renamed to 'learn the basics here' and it'd be fine.

- I never got 'piled on' by the AIs, except in one Hard level game.  But that's because I was weak at the time (no army since no one was near me).  Once I built an army and added some cities, the AIs asked to stop the war and went to 'normal' relations with me (my faction type liked me, the other side wasn't thrilled by my existence - but wasn't stupid enough to attack me anymore).

- I have seen AIs quickly kill off other AIs early in the game, or at the very least AIs that I haven't met 'being conquered' before I could meet them (maybe monsters?).  Plausibly this is a problem with spacing out the starts on a random map.  I have seen wide open spaces in one zone of the map and 2-3 AIs all packed into another area.

- I do find that there's too many buildings that do the same thing and that city specialization isn't a 'big' thing, other than the basic splits.  Yes there are buildings that can only be built by a city type, which provides some differentiation between the types, but I found I only needed 1 Fortress on these difficulty levels.

Speaking of which, the limitation on where to place a city (game design choice that's not 'bad' but not great) somewhat negates the point of a 'fortress'.  Usually by the time my fortress is ready to 'defend' the area via the extra defence buildings (even if it's in a choke point) it's irrelevant as I have armies produced from there taking over cities further away.  Basically, once your 'power defence fortress' is not on the front line, an entire line of buildings is useless.  Given that other cities don't get these buildings, and are the front line more often, it's likely that some sort of balance change should happen with them. Ie, allow other cities to build a few of the cheaper defence boosting buildings, but then have Fortresses boost them via upper level buildings (and possible have them only work on 'directly' road connected cities so that the fortress projects local defence power).

 

Reply #68 from Elemental Forums Top

There are alot of great points in this thread. I don't personally have them in my game, but I hope the devs are paying attention and act on them for 1.1. I had all these thoughts a few months ago.

Reply #69 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting joasoze, reply 63
@Seyal

Did you get the death demons and split them. Give Ceresa a couple of those demons at full strength (can be done EARLY in the game) and you will get your revenge. After some fights each demon group has 244 hitpoints or thereabouts.

 

Can't say that I did - don't even know where they are/what tech they are. I just had my faithful Shadow Warg (who kicked a lot of tail until we met our demise as a whole) and some of the units I was trying to develop. I was kicking some butt raiding Magnar's outpost and some village-type tile he was building on that showed as a mine on the map. His champions were bleh as was Magnar himself (go, go Shadow Bolt + Slow + Blindness) it was the spam of crappy units, as someone put it a few posts up, that killed me.

But we will ride again.

Reply #70 from Elemental Forums Top

Sorry to flame but I  CANNOT BELIEVE how childish some of the posters are replying to threads without even bothering to read. If you think my points are not valid just say so, dont flame people for posting their opinions based on whatever number of games. There are many people who can play a game 100 times and never be able to beat it on normal. Skill is different, and not important and was never the point of my post. Only an idiot would say they are good at a game they have only played 2 hours/

BTW, i am 1/3-1/2 through expert, and i am finding the same problems at the core of the game. Frankly getting rid of the Stealth perk doesn't do much - I can see how it would be a very good on Insane or Ridiculous but really even on expert there is not a big difference. The AI gets A LOT of help with production but still plays poorly. I actually WOULD NOT pick stealth on Challenging. I am severely lacking the Master Scouts perk that I think would be overpowered on this difficulty level - maybe not so much further on. Master scouts should be 2 points. And really they should make the point system 1-2-3 points and balance it out, that would make things a lot more interesting.

I am playing what I think is a pretty poor custom race. plus I got really screwed with champions and still only have my starting one at turn 40 or so. Kraxis or whatever the name of that AI is dead though, my score was always higher. Unfortunately I went off to research the hero techs early not realizing how expensive the high level heroes are to recruit.

It did make for a more interesting game but the AI stands a chance not because its any good but because it outproduces you by about 400%(guess) Has unlimited money/mana whatever else but still only has 1 city with lower pop than I have in my main city while I have 4 cities. Not that pop matters for the AI. They had 2 groups of 5 units of fully upgraded spears in leather amour (thats BIG defense for this early in the game) by turn 40 AND a couple of archer units. AND settlers that I killed. AND scouts. I didnt even build a single unit.

BTW, auto resolving needs work also, I did most of my battles on that.

Saved only when was playing vs new enemy that I didnt know what their power is - thats a couple of times. 

 

Reply #71 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Seyal, reply 70
Can't say that I did - don't even know where they are/what tech they are.

You get demons by building an Altar on a Shard. Improving the Altar to a Shrine, and later to a Temple, will grant you more powerful versions of them. The Cyndrum Demons are granted by the Death Shard.

Reply #72 from Elemental Forums Top

Don't be fooled by Stealth. The trait has no game modifier. It does nothing. It's a scandal no one is willing to talk about.  :X

Reply #73 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 73
Don't be fooled by Stealth. The trait has no game modifier. It does nothing. It's a scandal no one is willing to talk about. 

I'm looking at Stealth right now, and it has a game modifier. Are you perhaps confusing it with the Stealthy trait? 

Reply #74 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 72

Quoting Seyal, reply 70Can't say that I did - don't even know where they are/what tech they are.

You get demons by building an Altar on a Shard. Improving the Altar to a Shrine, and later to a Temple, will grant you more powerful versions of them. The Cyndrum Demons are granted by the Death Shard.

 

That explains a lot. I had one Shard and it was a Fire one so I got some flaming creature that walked funny lol :)

Of course, Ceresa doesn't get start with fire spells, and even if she did, the Quendar are anti-fire so...yeah.

 

Reply #75 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Bellack, reply 51
Quoting xarilius, reply 26While I agree that most of you probably know the game better than I do as you have much more games under your belt, this whole attitude of "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is silly.  You do realize that the majority of the people buying a game like this may never get past the 5-10 game mark, let alone 20? The value of a criticism from someone that's played 2 games is as valuable as someone that has played 20 games for a game developer, at least for one that is interested in growing their fan base.  You can get a good enough grasp of the game after a few games to what can be improved in the game. 


I've been in the beta since the beginning and I agree that the whole "go play 20 games then come and comment on what needs work" is stupid and is a Fanboyish argument.  No one is going to buy or sample a game 20 times before they decide if it is fun to play. IT's Human nature.  They will play a couple of games and decide if the game is worth it or not. 

When you try out a new TV Series that looks and sounds intersting but when you watch the premire it is not that good do you give it 20 more episodes before you decide if it is worth watching?  Most people don't.  Now personally I give a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Military series one season to catch me. Other types of shows I only give one or two shows before I write it off but I'm in the minority on this.

Same concept applies to games.

FE for me on Challanging and above is fun to play but does not capture that lets go another turn before I stop feeling that the old MOM/AOW:SM did for me.  The Vanilla FE is ok but it ain't all that,  so as many have already done I will be trying out some mods.

 

For more complex games, playing until you understand the mechanics and the rules is not a Fanboyish argument, it's just a FACT - can you remember the first time you played chess, or risk, or stratego? I personally found all 3 games completely boring and/or confusing until I understood their complexity a bit more. So please stop confusing this game with Diablo - it needs to be learned in order to be enjoyed!

Also, on your TV series argument: first of all, games (especially strategy and RPG games) are meant to have a steeper learning curve than TV series, so the analogy does not hold. Secondly, if you are really that impatient with TV series, you missed all the really great ones (Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, West Wing, Deadwood, The Newsroom, Dexter) which started slow and REALLY picked up after the frist episodes...