Thoughts 4/23/2017

[Ssenkrad_II]

Haven't touched the game for months so I decided to jump back into it and see how things have been going. First off I am amazed at how much progress has been made, both to the core game itself but also to the campaign. That said I frankly can't tell if I enjoyed the game more or less, here is why (I'll be editing more in as I have time to write them):

1P. Defending is now impossible: this new added frustration makes playing the game (in sandbox and campaign) so frustrating that I can't tell if I am more upset at the game as a whole or enjoying myself. Walls and defenses that you could build months ago have been stripped from the game, now you have to build single walls one at a time over huge spaces only to watch as enemies will destroy ALL OF THEM in a matter of SECONDS. Sticking archers on your gates and in your towers is utterly worthless as four archers won't be able to kill a single enemy before it manages to destroy the tower they are in (and you will have to manually click your crossbowman in the tower and click them to attack enemies within range BEFORE they will actually attack); and if the enemy is ranged it will be attacking your towers from range (goblin archer) and will actually OUT RANGE your crossbowman IN A TOWER! Gates have two options, "open and closed" and will not "auto close" when an enemy gets close, once again more micromanaging and you'll still end up dying without heroes running to the rescue. Last problem is "enemies spawning" everywhere while "spawning at your hero level" when villagers join your town at lv 1.

1S. The solution? First you need to make bows in towers have a MUCH LARGER range than ANYTHING RANGED on the ground. Secondly make gates "autoclose" when enemies are nearby. Third defenses need to be MUCH STRONGER. I am totally okay with an upgrade system (where you build a wooden wall, upgrade level 2 adds spikes that damage melee attackers and level 3 turns it to stone) which applies to both towers and walls but something needs to be done here. Fourth, enemies "random spawning" needs to be removed forever, and what needs to be added is "random spawning points" (like the spider den, but random). What's the difference? Instead of spawning 4 random wolves in the same location on a timer you spawn a "wolf den" (like the spider den) anywhere outside of the influence of your city which spawns wolves- destroying the den destroys the spawn point and wolves will stop spawning until a new wolf den spawns somewhere else. Fifth, enemy spawning at a growing lv based on your heroes needs to be removed forever in place of a system where enemies need to level up when they kill things just like you do- spiders from spider dens should be killing/dying wolves from a nearby wolves den. Spawning enemies at hero level creates death spirals a town can never crawl back out of and make for terribly unfun gameplay.

2P. You used to be able to get "seeds" from killing spiders (which you have always in this game had WAY too many spiders to fight) and then "plant" said seeds to keep your trees up solid around your wood cutters. They now have a "auto plant" but getting seeds is spotty at best and woods around your woodcutters dwindles until there is nothing left and next thing I know my woodcutter is being attacked MILES outside of my city and the influence of the woodcutters building trying to find the nearest wood on the map.

2S. You need to have each tree chopped drop at least a single seed, if not more, or create some other way to be able to keep the forrest around your woodcutters place stable. This currently is the only thing I found that is problematic with "city econ balance", which is actually fantastic considering the state of the game.

3P. When I first played the game AGES ago I stated that the "YOUR VILLAGE IS UNDER ATTACK!" was VERY problematic because it says that even when it is your army (wasn't heros back then) is being attacked miles away from your city, or your villagers right outside of town being attacked by bears.

3S. You really need to add a "Our soldiers are under attack!" and "Our villagers are under attack!" ASAP because this is a very annoying feature for those familiar with RTS

4P. "Sandbox Mode" plays the same exact maps over again which kills replay value and defeats the purpose of "sandbox".

4S. I thought that we had or were getting a "random world creater" that was done/supposed to be done already? Did something go wrong with this? I seem to remember it being "done" in a dev blog a time back... This obviously needs to implemented and not forgotten if "sandbox mode" is to carry any weight.

5P. Fires are an interesting touch but the pathfinding/AI needs to be fixed. If you have multiple wells and multiple free villagers the putting out of fires is chaotic at best.

5S. Villagers should use the well closest to the fire, not the well closest to the villager that was auto assigned + multiple villagers should be assigned to carry water to the area (if you have multiple wells) vs just a single villager for when/if the fire spreads + just incase another villager ends up getting there first (taking AI pathfinding out of the equation).

[Rance]

I'm in the same boat as you. I haven't touched this game in months (even though I thought it had lots of potential) but after reading this, I think it's going to be more months before I try it again. Thanks for the latest run down!