A few questions from a KB player....

[Alvin the Elf]

I was going to wait until the game was released to get it, but from the posts it seems it is a pretty good game, and better than WotN. I've played all the games in this series since The Legend. I had a few questions (just for curiosity, not that my getting this game depends on these). I'm not gonna start playing until official release.

(1) Do you only play with 'dark' creatures? I mean, can I never recruit men, elves, dwarves etc? I've always played with those classes in the previous games. So, it would be an interesting change if they're unavailable.

(2) Does the story depend on which race I choose?

(3) Are there Vikings or Lizardmen?

(4) Any word on the balance? Are Paladins still best at Leadership like WotN or is it Warriors who get most Leadership like in Armored Princess?

(5) Do medals go to level 3 like Armored Princess and WotN or level 5 like Ice and Fire?

(6) Are there flying horses?

(7) Are the adventure map spells still there?

Thanks in advance!

[Margaery Tyrell]

1) They became avaliable as `traitor` units after you clear their island. You get humans first, then dwarves and finally elves. And as usual humans are still too over powered comparing to other races. On top of that their is an artifact which reduces leadership %20 for them and gives +2 morale. Also there is your title which also gives +2 morale to them. So they are really really unbalanced compared to all other races. With this artifac and title, there is not any other unit you would use.

2) Story is the same but some conversations in quests depend on the hero u choose

3) There are Vikings but no Lizardmen. Vikings are too late in game. So this brings another problem, there are lots of vikings and lizardmen items in game due to randomization but they are useless. This should be address too by developers.

4) Paladin class which is Demoneess has the most leadership. Those 3 heroes have 4 unique skills which are cool.

5) Only 3 level

6) Yes u can fly after some point

7) Yes but you cant see their duration left on world map

Its a really good game if u are a KB fan but the replayability is a bit low in my opinion due to shops selling the same items each playthrough.

[amud]

I hope they add more randomization in the final game.

[Nom]

Just a sidenote on Tan Tun's comment on the unique skills - I agree that they are all very good, except for the demoness' "an eye for an eye" which is a waste of runes imo. The old paladin shield (that reduced the damaged inflicted to your troops by 50%) was much better.

[Alvin the Elf]

Nice. Thanks, guys. It seems this game is much closer to Armored Princess than WotN, which is a good thing in my opinion.

August 14 can't come soon enough.

[Hugo]

I agree with amud, that the level of randomization fells a bit low. I too hope that this will be adressed. Else, it affects re-play value. The game also suffers from an early game tedium that was present in WotN also but not in Crossworlds or The Legend.

[Nom]

I agree on randomization too, but I also think there should be a limit to the number of items / spells that are generated each game. There are less selling places (which is good). But in several of my playthroughs I got like 3 vampire gloves or kamikaze (which sucks imo) offered in 4 different places or the same set of creatures offered over and over. Never once I completed one of the new sets. So, it should be random AND varied. Again, this might be because this is the beta version.

[Alvin the Elf]

I personally think semi-randomization is the best in games, that is some fixed loot for the purpose of completing armor sets and such, and rest random loot. Having gear sets in games which randomize items is kind of pointless.

[Nom]

That's kind of what I meant. I've been getting the same item / spell over and over. There's a limited number of places / quests that give you those. If you simply randomize it, you might end up in a game with 20 phantom scrolls and no, say, sacrifice ones. I think the devs thought about this - by taking the mage to shelter you ALWAYS get hypnosis, turn back and armageddon. But I'm not sure that's the best way to do it. It might be better to make it random but limit the times a certain item / scroll might be in the game. For instance, let's suppose completing all quests and getting all chests, scrolls and packs you have a max number of 200 scrolls and 200 items and there is a total of 100 spells and 100 items in the game, if you limit the times a certain scroll or item can appear in the game to 2 or 3. There's a very good chance you're getting most of the scrolls/ items available. I don't know if that's the way it already is but the fact is I've played several times and never completed a new set. I'm not sure I've even completed a set at all.

[Alvin the Elf]

I've played Armored Princess / Crossworlds at least 5-6 times from start to end. I've had complete sets maybe twice.

[Nom]

Which only goes to show, right? That rate is better than I've had with Dark Side, anyways.

[dw0rd]

<<<<< MAJOR SPOILER AND CHEAT >>>>>

Alvin, do you know about the Saved Game Scanner (KBScanner) posted on the 1C - Katauri website? It's kind of a cheat but not really since KBs are not multiplayer. It's been around a long time and many people use it to reject a spawned game if they don't like it. It's not a mod and doesn't change anything, It just decompiles and reports on what is available. It's not 100% perfect but has saved many players from pulling their hair out.

A user modified it to work with WotN because WotN saves games differently. I tried that one on DS and it works but doesn't decode all the items. Because of the frequent updates in the pre-release, it's even more unreliable. Well, maybe not unreliable. it just needs to be run often and that takes time. I, myself, like playing whatever a new game generates and adapting my style to what I'm given. There is usually a point somewhere about 3/4 of the way through every game though when I just have to check if I can ever find something.

Like I said, it's not perfect and it's not very glamorous, but it can turn frustration into tranquility.

Of course, you can always use the Console command to plug in an object if you know it's translated name. Remember, literals in the code were originally in Russian. The Console was described in the earlier games and on various websites. Unfortunately, I've noticed some of those websites are vanishing. I haven't even tested the Console since AP so I don't know if it works in the later KBs.

Many of you already know all this but everyone should have the opportunity to hear about it. It has helped me enjoy the KBs more plus helped me exercise my spreadsheet, database, and VBA skills by using the output as test data. I guess the next step is learning LUA.

[Alvin the Elf]

Yes, I know about the scanner. I used it one time in Crossworlds to see if my game had Demonologists as I liked to use them. :P

[V³.Madêlinê]

.lua isn't hard to learn if you are familiar with programming :)

[Nom]

I didn't really know about the scanner but it doesn't sound very appealing to me. It would spoil the surprise factor in the game - like Dw0rd said it's nice to adapt. But if the randomization makes you get like 6 good spells and 6 good artifacts only, once you adapt to it the battles will be repetitive. Variety could makes your game plan midgame or use different setups agaisnt different enemies. Repetition is sort of inherent to TBS games (if you don't like them at all, it's not your type of game) but the more you can minimize it the more enjoyble the game will be.

[Nom]

Still on total randomization:
When I posted the previous one, I was playing the orc and I had completed Inselburg. In Tristem the I got one free stack of catapults and one of damn orcs. The renegade units offered included no dark paladins and only a few mages. The only really useful spells I had til that point were phantom and dark shroud (for the medal) aside the ones you always get from the magical department. The good artifacts were all doubled 3 vampire gloves and 2 necromancer hats (I canonly wear one of each) the other artifacts were average to meh. OK, let's try again. I started a new orc game on normal. Right now, I'm headed to Inselburg. Look what I've got:
In Tristem the free stacks were shaman and orc vets. 150 catapults were available on the smuggler.
Aside from the excellent spells the magical dept and the demologist give you I have creation/ phantom / teleport / sacrifice / dark shroud / avenger / sheep AND the dark versions of healing and ward healing (already). The artifacts: vampire gloves, necromancer helm and necromancer amulet, student belt and the vampire boot (20 mana). So my army is orc vets / shamans / demonologists/ cataps and necros. Before Inselburg - where I'll certainly get at least one good renegade unit. A bit unbalanced, right?