Sorcerer King Beta: Week 2

+1 for bringing back unrest! My only comment is that the Doomsday counter should now be the only source of unrest. For example, with that cool Dungeon Master AI of yours, if the player makes choices that clearly show that he does not care about his population, then unrest should also grow.

Unrest is a resource so anything can potentially affect it.

Is it possible to consider another name for the mechanic? In my opinion, "Unrest" feels overused across games. Calling it the "Loyalty" mechanic (or penalty) feels more accurate for this game. I like the term "Loyalty" because I feel it defines what is going on here; your people are switching loyalty to the SK. Minor point, but something to at least consider.

The reason behind the unrest makes sense, but because it's tied directly to the dooms day clock, it means that by late game, your production drops to near zero.

Which is fine except that means you really have to find and defeat the SK before the counter reaches 50%, which will make it even more of a rush to the finish game than it is already. With the unrest mechanic, you can no longer spam pioneers, so now the strategy will be to spam combat units ASAP, and then forget about the cities because they will quickly become useless.

I suggest that the unrest mechanic only be partially impacted by the doomsday counter, and partially by traditional means such as a low food supply.

I'm not looking for additional buttons to push, just a  more complex unrest mechanic.

Unrest/Disloyalty, eh? I like this. The higher the doomsday counter, the more imperative it is to have allied troops as your logistics will really drop.

Very good mechanic which will add even more tension to the game. (In a good way.)

Unrest doesn't affect production.

     Really looking forward to the opt in patch. I admit to being skeptical when I first saw this game...even after investigation I was a reluctant purchaser. I'm really glad I pulled the trigger! Even lacking a good portion of the content, the game is paced in a highly addictive manner. I'm also one of those folks who like tons of fiddly micromanagement and mountains of options, thus you can imagine my terror at the amount of "streamlining" present in this game. I'm a convert now. Don't get me wrong, I still love all things micro and fiddly, but my reaction to playing this has proven to me that there is room on my gaming plate for something different. It can be difficult to accept having a bit of a wander into new territory, but I'm glad I did. Lol...plus the A.I. should be a wee bit more challenging since it doesn't have to play by our rules...Actually hoping to take an occasional spanking from the SK, just like in good old A.I. War.

Ok, so unrest effects logistics. And a reduction in logistics is a reduction in production capacity.

That is, the rate of production doesn't change, but the total volume of production decreases with an increase in unrest

So, it still makes it imperative to pump out the units before the counter gets beyond a certain point.

Hmm, I don't think it would be too good if the game was basically over, say halfway through the counter rather than the full way through.

The thing though is that as unrest increases then your abiltiy to expand becomes a problem. Everything comes out of Logistics. Most importantly Setters/Outposts and resource 'capping' like shards/crystal/metal/horses/etc. Essentially as you stretch yourself out thinner, the game then becomes more resource constrained as you dilly dally.

One question though. Does the AI handle the fact that terrain changes? Right now th maps are static and more or less re 'snakes' towards the SK. But if you start breaking that how does the AI react? Will it send troops through the holes you create? In that a short cut for me, is in effect a shortcut for the AI. Which may be good/bad as you can funnel the AI into '300' style valleys of doom.

Funny that!  Who asked for UNREST to be introduced? I didn't see anyone asking for UNREST to be introduced.  You are making this up as you go along aren't you?

Unrest!  I hate with a passion in game's such as this.  It's the only reason I stopped playing the total war series.  Unrest belongs only in games like sim-city, other than that its distracts and breaks game flow, and is as bloody annoying as 'auto spell check' on your mobile phone.

I want to play a game of fantasy, conquest and magic, not baby sit the ******* populous.

If you are adamant to go along the same old, same old route, then please at least make it optional.  I really was hopping that SK was going to bring something new to the game table.

Yeah, that sounds like it came out of nowhere. But I like how it sounds.

There should be ways to lower unrest besides spell, such as quests, prestige (that should come back- prestige gives you benefits but makes SK angry at you), etc...

My first impression of the games direction were.........

There was you, the hero, your dog Barney, and a few brave followers who embark on a quest to unite the few remaining survivors to do battle with the sorcerer king ONE last time.  So was I wrong, are we instead to be treated to yet another city building/management game?

There are lots of ways to discourage the player from spamming city's, do we really need to reuse this old-tired-decrepit mechanic?

That's not how it plays out at all. Not to mention, that would be really unwise since you would be stuck, at best, with crummy units.

So if we had called it Thralldom instead of unrest would that have changed it for you?

It's not primarily about fighting city spam.  It's primarily about connecting the player to the threat of the Sorcerer King within the cities themselves and gives players another interesting choice.

It works out as being very fun in practice.

Correct.  The AI (even in my build) adapts to the new terrain.  A good player will use the terrain to their advantage as much as they can.

Suggestion removed through lack of enthusiasm.  

I doubt in the long run it would have made any difference at all, but it might have made you look silly for naming it so.  

You shouldn't give up on a game just because it has one mechanic you disagree with.

That said, I just hope this is truly integrated into the game, instead of being just a penalty associated with the doomsday counter, or else it will be a boring addition to the game.

Question: should cities be able to pop up quests themselves?

With LH, I have to stop playing, so that I can handle unrest.  Like answering the door, phone, or fixing the shed roof in the snow, it drags me from game-mode and slaps me into work-mode.  How can this be classed as fun?

It's a game, not a political simulator for gauging the feel-good-factor of young voters.

But the sooner you produce a unit, the sooner it can level up, and the sooner you can find treasure to craft items to buff the unit. You don't necessarily need paladins, battle mages or pikemen. Although if you have metal and crystal nearby, you can produce those units in the early game too.

My current stack consiststs of Tanis, the dog, two archers, two soldier and one pikeman, and thus far I've crushed everything in my path, including the two lieutenants. They may be crummy, but they're effective.

Well, you really can't baby sit the cities even if you wanted to because the only way to reduce unrest is to cast the "reduce counter" spell.

So, the cities are on a linear path to uselessness regardless.

I am not a big fan of an "unrest" mechanic either.   It works against the parts of a game that I enjoy.  I also wish that it could be optional - a choice during game set up.   

I recognize that each individual has game mechanics that they like and don't like.  Mine may be the view of a minority of people who play the game.   So if the desire for an "unrest" mechanic meets the interests of the majority of  people who will play this game then, if you can't make it optional, you should include unrest.   Those of us who don't care for unrest will either play the game or not play the game depending on the overall blend of features.

However, since you have been getting feedback asking for an unrest mechanic from somewhere,  I wanted to register my counter view.