Crusade: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
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I'm just a lurker here, but do have some considered feedback to share. This will seem quite negative and critical so I have to be clear that this is not a review - it's an open feedback post intended to be constructive criticism. I have 535 hours clocked on Galactic Civ III and so I obviously really enjoy this game. The many reviews available capture The Good aspects of Crusade quite well, and my steam votes for this are all "Recommended" as if you like 4x games, there is a lot of fun to be had with Gal Civ III. However, there are many things that fall short of the game's real potential and hence why I am taking the time to share my thoughts. With that disclaimer in mind, here goes:
- It seems like no-one at Stardock is loading up a few quick test games before releasing every Expansion/DLC/Patch. Obvious mistakes slip through each time that seem just a bit too sloppy e.g. when launched Crusade massively shrunk all of the galaxy sizes giving the distinct impression that Stardock intentionally did so. I see posts like Brad calling the response to that disheartening, but what I don't see is anyone taking responsibility or being accountable for a pretty unforgivable mistake (in a business sense) in that all the greatness of Crusade was marred by a shoddy first impression immediately apparent upon starting your first game. Since all the fans picked it up immediately upon launch of their first game it is hard to imagine how no-one at Stardock did. I can give 10 more examples of this, but the point is made. Just a few for taste:
- e.g.1: The new version of the trait from the recent patch "Colonizers" doesn't work - it doesn't return admin upon colonising a planet. How can you make a programming change without one person loading up a game and testing it to see if it works? You do this every patch and do yourselves and your fans a disservice by rushing.
- e.g.2: Everyone who started making or editing a Civ immediately saw Warrior listed twice. It just looks sloppy and again does yourselves a disservice. Is the cost of rushing without testing really worth giving this kind of impression?
- e.g.3: You changed what some of the special tiles do without changing the icons. So now you have a blue research icon special tile which actually provides a construction bonus; a purple tourism icon special tile which actually provides a research bonus; and a blue influence icon special tile which actually provides a research bonus.
- e.g.4: Some of the mercenary vessels are now useless and even make no sense to new players such as Starbase constructor with 5 free modules. Either fix it, or remove it from the options list, but don't just leave it there!
- Pirates were a threat, and are now totally meaningless on every difficulty level. They sometimes appear during or late game, and they sometimes don't, but either way they NEVER attack anything so they are better not in at all that like this.
- Minor Civs added something interesting albeit limited, but now they add nothing to the game since they can't be negotiated with at all. This speaks to two things - one, sloppyness as per pirates and the like above, but also overall - minor civs demonstrate the lack of energy given to creative thinking by Stardock in general (Civ6 demonstrated a way for minor civs to at least impact gameplay in interesting ways, even if they too fell short of their potential). That is an organisational theme that is the single biggest limitation on the full potential of all Stardock games that keeps them from ever being able to reach Civilisation/Master of Magic/etc. level reputation and excellence. Here are some examples:
- Events are a great concept - they add fun to the game. But there aren't enough so they repeat sadly with some events appearing 2, 3, 4, and even 5+ times per single game even when they are set to occasional. Even if, as a stopgap, you had someone just rewrite the text but keep the same effect that would be at least something. Though better to have someone creative first list say 500 variable bonuses, and then write the creative text for them. That is something I could do (have done) in just two days of work. I use interns and volunteers for this kind of thing in my work (not a computer/software related field).
- Likewise - the ideology options are also outstanding as a creative concept and game-play device, but your kudos is quickly dampened as the repeats begins to cycle through because you haven't invested energy in completing the feature with enough possibilities.
- Likewise - your mercenaries which are also an outstanding creative concept have their potential value so heavily reduced by being almost completely repeated from game to game, when again, a few days creative work and this need not be the case.
- Likewise - you add citizens - awesome, but then you don't bother to put in enough names to keep them from repeating within the same game! That's just lazy, my first match I got the same woman three times in my first 4 citizens.
- Additional note - custom citizens is bugged. I followed your instructions and they show up fine in the civ builder, but never appear in game. Just another disappointment.
- Everything visible from turn 1: This really limits the eXploration factor of the game (see dungeons in Master of Magic; Iron, Bronze, Oil, Uranium, Relics and Artifacts etc. in Civ). The space and sci-fi setting combine to offer more creative opportunities for Stardock here than either of those games. Watch a couple episodes of Star Trek or something, space shouldn't be so predictable and pedestrian.
- What all of these points amount to is a combination of role-play and immersiveness that help build a narrative for the player and make them want to keep playing. They keep a game exciting and less predictable at the same time.
- Trading - okay, you really messed up Crusade on this front. Trading seriously sucks now. I have 20 types of resources, some in the hundreds and I can't be bothered trying to trade any of it anymore. Why? Because it is a boring clickety fest that rarely pays enough dividend. I can add 30 anti-matter, then I have to click their credits to see what they will pay, many will only pay 10, because it is something else they want more, even though they have no anti-matter. So it is in some ways easier to just spend 40 seconds adding a bunch of each of the 20 resources - but then I get to the end of that boring 40 seconds work and some will still offer 10 credits for the lot. Some will offer 2300 for example, while many will offer like 140 credits for total of 500 resources. When you have 20+ potential trading partners, this takes tedium to a brand new level of brutality. I feel sure that can not have been your actual goal, but indeed, that is how your new trading diplomacy in Crusade plays out, and it is a game killer. I stopped trading resources altogether - it's too painfully boring.
- Invasions: They are not actually fun, because your new system is not transparent enough to feel like anything I'm doing tactically makes a meaningful difference. Bugs aside, it's not a mini-game as perhaps you hoped, but really all that matters is the number of legions you bring. It's actually less than transparent, genuinely becoming stupid, because wherever you place your legions, most battles will suddenly be declared victorious or a loss before the little blobs of square soldiers even complete their course of running in to each other.
- Turn slow down to unplayable: This one is really disappointing because all the talk of using all cores etc. has gotten up my hopes when the game slows down worse than before. Just now it is more random. I have a killer machine, but some games turn 60 it goes from a few seconds to 30 seconds to 1 minute+ per turn, and some games turn 90, some games turn 150. It's not really predictable what has happened to throw it out so far, but it happens every game. Previously I could play on immense every time, 50 civilisations, no problems. Now I am reduced to playing on Gigantic with 20 civs just because I can't handle my games ending by turn 150 from boredom of 1 minute turns, but even 20 civs on gigantic is still proving a risk some games with the slowdown hitting hard.
- Difficulty - while the AI seems better in general with Crusade, and the game more challenging overall, it is suffering too much from Civ6's warmongering annoyance but even worse because on Genius+ difficulty I can be guaranteed that 80% of the civilisations will all suddenly declare war on me well before turn 100, usually somewhere in the 50-80 zone. What I find annoying about this point in particular is that I will then be sitting on like 4/24 Production, 1/24 Research, 5/24 Military and after some time, will be offering 500+ resources in trade for peace but none of them will consider it. So I just annihilate them instead. Which feels good at some level at first, but then just feels immersion breaking and stupid.
- Tall vs wide - why are there no tall alien civs? - they all just seem to spam colony ships as much as they can. Maybe they don't know that government workers earn no xp and don't gain levels so you have to put them on planets to gain levels (was this game decision some type of statement about public servants!?)
- The Brad factor - I think you need a couple "No" men on your team. You've got an autistic kind of confidence which I get, but I have to say I feel bad for the original Galactic Civ III team when I read so many borderline snarky comments about their work on Gal Civ III, particularly on the AI. I get the franchise is your baby and all, you need some humility and empathy (remembering War of Elemental Magic should help with both I would think). If I were one of them I would feel so deflated if I read how you condescended my hard work. It's not that you are wrong, just that it's better if you hold yourself to a higher standard than that.
- This does have some game impacts - like your hull reinforcement 20 hp fix. So at 20hp that was a useful item I used. You exploited it (your choice, every 4x game has non-RP exploits) but made an unconsidered "fix" reducing it to 5hp. No-one said to you that that would make it useless for 95% of Crusade players? At 10hp I might have still used it for some particular designs, certainly with some civs but never others, but it's a whimsical kind of change that suggests to me that Stardock lacks a Process element when it comes to changes by it's CEO. I think you need a tougher X.O./2nd who can help hold you to account. Every company has this risk and I see signs of it in Stardock.
- Couple little whines. I don't like how the space battles now pause mid fight with nothing happening for a while, especially in starbase assaults, but in others as well. It would be good to fix that. Also find it frustrating how from day one of Gal Civ III, fast exploring vessels often leave a trail of dashes of fog in their wake instead of clearing it as they should.
- Lastly: Map selection. I think you should give serious consideration to making this more transparent. I can't imagine that there aren't any players out there at all who haven't had to restart games a whole bunch of times to try and get their preferred balance of habitable planets to stars to extremes etc. There is nothing fun about having to do that. It's the kind of thing where you need to do user testing and ask some targeted questions so you can modify your launch settings to reflect what players are actually trying to do, as opposed to what you think they should do.
I'll finish by reiterating my intro that I really like Gal Civ III and Crusade and have spent over 500 hours playing for that reason. It is the unrealised potential of this great game that inspires me to take the time to write this feedback in the hopes that some elements of it may be helpful, and in the long run then improve my own experience of the game too.
Thanks.
AU
But I agree, not much to be seen from them in Crusade.
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