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Pick 5 THINGS for FE 1.3

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Pick 5 THINGS for FE 1.3

from Elemental Forums

With v1.2 just about ready to go out, it's time to think about v1.3.

Before people start making feature requests, I would like to emphasize what I'd like v1.3 to be about: Playability glitches.

A playability glitch is hard to really classify. It's not a crash. It's some feature that doesn't work as you'd expect or as you would assume was intended. And if you play a game for hundreds of hours, they become maddening.

So what I would like to use this post for is to ask the regulars here to post five (and only five so that people have to put some thought into what really bugs them) things you'd like to see us "fix" about Fallen Enchantress.

I'll post my 5 later in the thread but I don't want to bias things with my own pet peeves.

!!! Update !!!

We read through this thread carefully and tried to implement as many of these things as possible.  Here are a few of the things that got special attention for 1.3 which should be going into internal beta soon:

  • Pathfinding.  You should notice that when you have a unit in a city and tell him to go somewhere else that it'll get there.  Same for a lot of other pathfinding that seems wonky. I don't know if it's perfect but it should be better.
  • AI winning. This may turn out to be more controversial (or more to the point, we may have to nerf this as it may be a case of "be careful for what you wish for).  The AI is a lot better now at pursuing *victory* conditions.  The AI, overall, is substantially better and more interesting.
  • Pacing. This is a general issue that I saw people bring up in various forms. 
  • Greater city differentiation. Conclaves vs. Towns vs. Fortresses have had their benefits / penalties magnified.
  • More interesting map generation in terms of resources.
  • Tile selection. This is one that we'll have to see how well the fix works. It's a hit or miss thing (seems to be camera related). Some users have reported that selecting a tile doesn't always select the tile they think they're clicking on.
  • Diplomacy. A lot of people talked about this.  Now, there's only so much we can do in an update but basically the AI's behavior should be a lot less schizophrenic. 

That's not the only change in 1.3. There's the usual assortment of bug fixes and balance changes. But those the above are the things that got the most engineering hours.

587,191 views 221 replies
Reply #202 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 8


On #6 good one.

 

Shift should work in addition to ctrl.  Hold shift, click first unit, click last unit, get everything in-between.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #203 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Trojasmic, reply 183
Just ran across another playability glitch that really bugs me...

1.  The AI does not abide by the 5 turn wait before razing rule.  FIX IT!

No I disagree this is WAI. ;) No fix required. AI needs some advantages player doesn't get. All in favor say "I", all opposed??? therefore the "I"s have it next issue on the docket. ;)

Reply #204 from Elemental Forums Top

The only thing I see missing in all of these lists:

Numbers: on the city boxes on the left and the research bar in the corner - give me how many turns until its done, a little yellow bar is just too vague

Reply #205 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting willie, reply 203

Quoting Trojasmic, reply 183Just ran across another playability glitch that really bugs me...

1.  The AI does not abide by the 5 turn wait before razing rule.  FIX IT!


No I disagree this is WAI. No fix required. AI needs some advantages player doesn't get. All in favor say "I", all opposed??? therefore the "I"s have it next issue on the docket.

Frogboy thinks otherwise.

 

 

 

Reply #206 from Elemental Forums Top


Game stability trumps all other concerns.

1.  Fix 1.2 Crashes on End Turn (after 60 turns on the "Clash" map from the Pack, these crashes are constant:  game unplayable).

2.  Fix 1.2 Crashes on Save Game (same deal; after 60 turns or so the game crashes when you try to save; save unsuccessful and game hence unplayable).  Additional features mean nothing when the game simply won't play at all. 

Crashes not apparent in 1.02, from which I updated.  Is there any way of going back to 1.02? 

Reply #207 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lord, reply 65

Quoting Frogboy, reply 64I've never seen that issue (mouse pointer line up)

Could you describe how you have your video resolution for the game set up? Do you play in a window, do you have the taskbar at the bottom of the screen? 

I'm wondering if there is some setup that would cause that.  What happens if you turn on the hardware mouse cursor?

 

I have seen this happen a few times. It typically happens in tactical combat on the outer most tiles of the map when the terrain is hilly.

 

Ditto.  For me it most often happens in the bottom of the map near the enemy's walls when attacking an enemy city.

Reply #208 from Elemental Forums Top

Just one more to add.

1.  I can't change the color of the various banners available to custom factions and I can't "pick color" to perfectly match the colors in those banners.  Please implement one or the other.  I have difficulty matching my colors to the banners.

Reply #209 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Diarch, reply 207

Game stability trumps all other concerns.

1.  Fix 1.2 Crashes on End Turn (after 60 turns on the "Clash" map from the Pack, these crashes are constant:  game unplayable).

2.  Fix 1.2 Crashes on Save Game (same deal; after 60 turns or so the game crashes when you try to save; save unsuccessful and game hence unplayable).  Additional features mean nothing when the game simply won't play at all. 

Crashes not apparent in 1.02, from which I updated.  Is there any way of going back to 1.02? 

Both fixed from what I can tell. Seems to be system specific (it's a threading thing) so I tightened the control of when and how saving happens.

Reply #210 from Elemental Forums Top

Updated original topic with results.

Reply #211 from Elemental Forums Top

Does 1.3 still look like about two weeks from now?

Reply #212 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting xaltotun, reply 212
Does 1.3 still look like about two weeks from now?

I'm hoping less. At the very elast, I'd like to get a beta out soon.

Reply #213 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 210
Both fixed from what I can tell. Seems to be system specific (it's a threading thing) so I tightened the control of when and how saving happens.

Thanks for the response here, Frogboy.  Amazing customer service.  This is a great company.

BUT, fixed as in.... how, exactly?  Fixed for 1.3?  So I'll wait for a couple of weeks before returning to FE?  Or should I re-download the 1.2 patch and reapply it?  I was playing yesterday, before both games I was working on ground to a halt with continuous End Turn and Save Game crashes.  Sorry, complete technical imbecile here:  I don't understand your "fixed".  Is there something I should do to make it so?

Reply #214 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Diarch, reply 214
Or should I re-download the 1.2 patch and reapply it?

Re-downloading the 1.2 patch will accomplish little in regards to his fix, wait till the next patch.
Or run with a frog-specific build, dunno if he fixed it there. (He will probably tell you if he included it in the custom frog-patch, usually just wait till the next official patch)

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #215 from Elemental Forums Top

Sooooo, I just remembered 1 thing that I have gotten faaaaar too used to in FE...
The mystery of the "Missing Forest", this is a pain in the... to explain why this happens when I am showing the game, goes right along the invisible rivers.

Thing is, if you find a monster camp or goodie hut located right on top of a forest tile, and then go to grab it (gief loot! :D), this one tile will start showing a clear "plains" instead of a forest tile, but still cost movement like a forest tile.
This does NOT persist through saving and reloading the game, so there is a crummy fix to these invisible forests, but really...

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #216 from Elemental Forums Top


Tile selection. This is one that we'll have to see how well the fix works. It's a hit or miss thing (seems to be camera related). Some users have reported that selecting a tile doesn't always select the tile they think they're clicking on.

While improving the accuracy would be great, what I think would help most is if the tiles were highlighted on mouseover.  Not a subtle highlight, either, like it does in some areas.  Should be a bright, green, glowing square.  This would remove any question about what tile you were selecting. You'll still see some problems with people working the mouse too quickly, as when you click, the mouse will often move slightly before registering the click, but there's nothing you can do about that from a software perspective.

Reply #217 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Darxim, reply 217
You'll still see some problems with people working the mouse too quickly

Click all the buttons!! :D

Heh, I can't stop moving my mouse quickly after I was playing serious amounts of Starcraft and LoL on a "looking for a challenge" level... So sorry ^_^

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #218 from Elemental Forums Top

Edit: Made a new post since this looks more and more like a bug.

Reply #219 from Elemental Forums Top


  • AI winning. This may turn out to be more controversial (or more to the point, we may have to nerf this as it may be a case of "be careful for what you wish for).  The AI is a lot better now at pursuing *victory* conditions.  The AI, overall, is substantially better and more interesting.

Nooooooooo, this ^ is what WE want. ;) No need to NERF this as this is what is EXPECTED...the AI SHOULD ALWAYS GO FOR THE WIN....that's what other humaans would do. Keep that in mind. Don't dumb down the ai for players sake. Make it BRUTAAL! Make it sooooooo tough they will come to the forums CRYING about it.....then you'll know you've made a great AI. ;)

Reply #221 from Elemental Forums Top

Just wondering if you managed to fix The Imperium in 1.3?  As I'd mentioned, it's not uncommon for the AI or player to build a city too close to the red border making the quest condition impossible without Razing said city.  Unfun.