AWESOME game - but needs more replay value

from SorcererKing Forums

I downloaded the game from steam a while ago and finally got a chance to play.  My first game was awesome and epic!  I had a fun cold-war period with the Sorcerer King, a harrowing hot war with him, then a nail-biting final battle where I took the SOB down with my last surviving hero.  I really enjoyed it - hats off to the dev team.  I also found it to be quite beautiful - the art and music is a huge step up from FE.  Good show, dev team!

I've returned to the game a few more times, trying different sovereigns each time.  While still fun, I found each play through to be "samey" - a cold war, then a hot war, then a showdown.  Because the game ties you down to such a specific scenario (i.e. SK starts out strong and you start out weak), there's really only one effective strategy: expand as much as possible while staying at peace with the big guy until you're strong enough to challenge him directly.  

As such, while the first play-through was one of my favorite strategy experiences in a long time, I find that this game does not have nearly as much variety and replay value as many of Stardock's other games (particularly the amazing GC2, which was full of vastly different viable paths to victory).

 

Some ideas to enhance the replay value:

-Different types of SK's with different troops.  How about a demon lord SK with demonic troops?  Or a dragon SK with dragonkin forces?  A fallen angel SK with an army of fellow fallen angels?  A Cthulu-esque nightmare with twisted and warped troops?  Give them different personalities and strengths and weaknesses.   

-Different lieutenants for SK's.  I always seem to have to kill the same 2 jerks!     

-Ways to subvert the SK outside of open warfare - i.e. espionage units that can stir rebellion in his troops, assassinate key units, plant a magic bomb on a shard so when the SK units destroy it, they go boom (would love to hear the SK whine about that one!), etc

-Allow me to select a different starting race with significantly different units than the default.  

 

 

 

30,841 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Yea, the replay issue is well known.

Sales didn't meet their expectations, so I don't think they're going to do much more with SK other than bug fixes and such.

Reply #2 from SorcererKing Forums Top

It's a pretty fun game the first time i played it (and lost quickly) and the second time (when i did it more carefully)

The AI really needs to be better. It's not that good, either strategically, or in battles.

The lack of any real defences for cities is a bit weak too - medieval and fantasy city defences generally involve walls, not the garrison coming outside to fight - and trebuchets were not weapons used against troops like modern artillery, they were siege engines used to knock down city or castle walls.

It seemed hard at first, but once you get knights with a commander ruler you have pretty much won. Commander is quite enjoyable to play though. All his abilities are useful. Tried Guardian and  her special troop type is almost useless (snipers have such low initiative you almost never get to target any enemy with their special shots - and if you do it's usually too late), and most of her special abilities are dull too (i don't want artillery to batter enemy armies before they get to my city, i want good armies, and some walls to defend from against an assault)

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Reply #3 from SorcererKing Forums Top

The difficulty settings just increasing enemy units' hit points and making the judgement day counter move faster is pretty disappointing too - i was hoping for better AI and the sorcerer king being more aggressive in attacking instead.

Reply #4 from SorcererKing Forums Top

An why do the Sorcerer king and other factions at war with you never use Sovereign spell casts in battles? Why do they never try to claim shards or resources for themselves? Or build new cities? (Most cities i've seen any other faction with was two)

Reply #5 from SorcererKing Forums Top

And the only time my capital has ever been attacked has been by the Vargulf of whatever it's called (wingless dragon ro giant scaled wolf), once a game.

Reply #6 from SorcererKing Forums Top

Have seen the sorcerer king use Sovereign spell casting in battle now  - and when his lieutenants are there, so much of it that it's pretty devastating.

Reply #7 from SorcererKing Forums Top

Main issue with replay is all the other rulers are crap compared to the Commander.

 

Though playing it again on a huge random map is fairly good.