Initial thoughts and feedback

[Sokar]

I remeber this game from way back, I might still have the boxed copy somewhere laying around (I just moved, so it's probably in one of the boxes unoped). I like the era and some of the unique gameplay mechanics, but also remember it to be an incredible clunky RTS, even for 2007. So I waited for a sale to check out the "Definitive Edition" and here is what I think. I only played the first mission of the spartan campaign, so I have not seen everything by far, but enough for some initial thoughts.

Its still very clunky. Selecting units can be tricky, as for some reason buildings seem to have a higher priority. It happend to me multiple times trying to select a worker, only to select one of the buildings instead. As the buildings are quiet large, I don't see the necessity to do so. Plus my mouse cursor doesn't seem to be properly caught in the window, I have a second monitor to the right, and when scrolling right, the cursor moves out of the window, but the game keeps scrolling.
The tutorial is a bit of a joke, just panels of text, where the scrollbar overlaps the rightside of the text (playing in 2560x1440 resolution, nothing too exotic). And it gets right in your face upon start of the mission, WHILE the dialog is running in the background. And it seems to be the only thing, covering mechanics that aren't even available in the first mission.

I could not find a way to show the mission objectives again as they seem only to display as a massage and disappear quickly due to other messages (like built buildings and produced units) replacing them. I don't even remember what to do with the guys in the middle of the mission.
The mission itself is a big slugfest. The enemy produces vast amounts of units (on normal difficulty), defends its gold mines relentlessly. Since I only have to types of units available, there is not much strategy, just mass. I don't mind not having many units types in the first mission, but the enemy producing so much seems a bit off. I'm an experience RTS player, so I could manage, but if that is the very first mission, I guess the other are going to be even harder. Not what I would though of as a good difficulty curve.
Plus the enemy has stone walls, while I have no walls at all, could not do any research. Don't know why. And since my slingers tend to not target those on the wall, I didn't seem to have a choice but the tear down the gate, take heavy losses and walk in. Not a great approach.

The equipment system I remember as something that sounded great on paper, but in practices, I didn't use it much. Once I figured out good combinations, I stuck with those and it just to tedious every mission to set my settings again - having them permanetly save would be a great improvement.

So my very first impressions are not great. The game is clunky, especially by 2023 standards. I only barely remember the original game, but if I compare this version to a modern game or remaster like Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition, its nowhere even close in just how fluid it can be played. I can see past the graphics, but the clunky controls is not something I want to deal with in 2023, other games have shown how it can be made much more efficient and comfortable to play without reducing complexity. I recognize its in early access and is updated. But I question the focus: instead of adding new civs, why not work in the fundamentals?

[JotaTheConqueror]

Originally posted by Sokar:

I remeber this game from way back, I might still have the boxed copy somewhere laying around (I just moved, so it's probably in one of the boxes unoped). I like the era and some of the unique gameplay mechanics, but also remember it to be an incredible clunky RTS, even for 2007. So I waited for a sale to check out the "Definitive Edition" and here is what I think. I only played the first mission of the spartan campaign, so I have not seen everything by far, but enough for some initial thoughts.

Its still very clunky. Selecting units can be tricky, as for some reason buildings seem to have a higher priority. It happend to me multiple times trying to select a worker, only to select one of the buildings instead. As the buildings are quiet large, I don't see the necessity to do so. Plus my mouse cursor doesn't seem to be properly caught in the window, I have a second monitor to the right, and when scrolling right, the cursor moves out of the window, but the game keeps scrolling.
The tutorial is a bit of a joke, just panels of text, where the scrollbar overlaps the rightside of the text (playing in 2560x1440 resolution, nothing too exotic). And it gets right in your face upon start of the mission, WHILE the dialog is running in the background. And it seems to be the only thing, covering mechanics that aren't even available in the first mission.

I could not find a way to show the mission objectives again as they seem only to display as a massage and disappear quickly due to other messages (like built buildings and produced units) replacing them. I don't even remember what to do with the guys in the middle of the mission.
The mission itself is a big slugfest. The enemy produces vast amounts of units (on normal difficulty), defends its gold mines relentlessly. Since I only have to types of units available, there is not much strategy, just mass. I don't mind not having many units types in the first mission, but the enemy producing so much seems a bit off. I'm an experience RTS player, so I could manage, but if that is the very first mission, I guess the other are going to be even harder. Not what I would though of as a good difficulty curve.
Plus the enemy has stone walls, while I have no walls at all, could not do any research. Don't know why. And since my slingers tend to not target those on the wall, I didn't seem to have a choice but the tear down the gate, take heavy losses and walk in. Not a great approach.

The equipment system I remember as something that sounded great on paper, but in practices, I didn't use it much. Once I figured out good combinations, I stuck with those and it just to tedious every mission to set my settings again - having them permanetly save would be a great improvement.

So my very first impressions are not great. The game is clunky, especially by 2023 standards. I only barely remember the original game, but if I compare this version to a modern game or remaster like Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition, its nowhere even close in just how fluid it can be played. I can see past the graphics, but the clunky controls is not something I want to deal with in 2023, other games have shown how it can be made much more efficient and comfortable to play without reducing complexity. I recognize its in early access and is updated. But I question the focus: instead of adding new civs, why not work in the fundamentals?

Hi,

First, thank you for taking your time to provide your opinions on the game and suggestions for improvement, I appreciate it and you will definitely help to continue improving the game, which is still in a relatively early version (60% completed), so there is still much left. improvements, balances and fixes to come :)

Regarding some comments, the mission objectives can be seen by clicking on the sword icon located on the minimap, if you could not make improvements it is because the buildings (like the forge, for example) did not have a worker added to be able to work, also in the first mission you can unlock more weapons (short sword, spear and round shield) and the possibility of building walls (wooden) to defend yourself from enemies, I hope I have helped in that section.

Regarding the selection problems and the scrolling problem that you mention, they will be reviewed and fixed in future updates.

Thank you again for your feedback and do not hesitate to share any suggestions if you wish or any other problems if you have them, the community is the most important thing to me