Mercs and Resource Extractors...

[Gonzo]

Just a bit of limited feedback....


1. With Mercs (when you find them as an encounter similar to finding a Refugee Settlement), you can't delete the tower to place them where you might find them to be a little more useful. Not sure if this is a balancing issue (as they are pretty easy to "activate" as you only need to set up a trade route with some workers, rather than build the tower with all the resources channelled into it (then again you have to if you want to rehome them). Should the act as a "free" tower commander, or left as is (with the location fixed to where you encounter them?


2. Resource extractors. I feel you should be able to add foundations to them (similar to your towers), Thing is things get really tight (particularly if you've set the extractor radius to "low") when you are trying to add workers within the radius with the usually walls and towers. How do players feel about this one?


3. Outposts. Are these intended to generate workers for use in Trade Routes only? It seems with things like the command towers you add foundations to raise the minus number for workers (does that generate different numbers of Falcons? So a -5 means 5 Falcons, whereas a -2 would generate just the 2?). With the resource extractors you need to generate workers "locally" within the radius and the Outpost workers are used to man the differing specialised towers and/or are used in Trade routes. Not quite sure on how this mechanic works.


4. Surveyors. Not sure how you seem to acquire allies in the sky as you play (I've been joined with a Bannerless airship and a Falcon or two as I've progressed in the game). How are these generated and how can you find more to increase you little air fleet as you play the campaigns?


5. Surface Ships (armed escorts). These seem a little unresponsive in the game. They seem to just move up and down the trade routes without actually stay near the trade ships they are supposed to protect. Should the armed ships follow the Trade ships rather than just moving between two fixed locations only fighting IF they are directly attacked and/or they just run into the fight from the opposite direction of the travelling Trade ship?
EDIT Also is there any way to get those armed ships to go with your Surveyor air "fleet" and join in on your attacks against enemy settlements (or are they there just for guarding your trade routes)?


I would add watching the two videos produced on "how to play the game" really help a LOT. Not sure how this information could be provided during the tutorial. But like others (and the Dev himself) have pointed out finding the Soul/Tech tree and Surveyor inventory desperately needs pointing out during the tutorial (along with how to gain extractors). Perhaps right at the start of the tutorial, you could add a step to check your inventory before you construct your first resource extractor. Similarly have the player check the soul tree before manning their first tower with a commander. Not sure where or how you would introduce the elements of the "tech tree" however :(


Loving the game so far, and clever reuse of the assets from Falconer (yup I've got that one too) leaving the players with an "arcade" combat flight sim and a "grand tactical" game in Bulwark all set in the same game world (kinda helps if you've player Falconer to understand a bit more with the "lore", and what these things are that are flying around you :) ).

[Muppetpuppet]

1. you can and should demolish the towers where you get the commanders, cuz they don't receive workers and are to small to produce units. just use the B or V button when selecting the tower to demolish. you can also unassign the commander and just assign them to a bigger command tower you build .. that is the goal. to put them somewhere good. AND then they start to produce units ;)

2.will digest on this, can understand why

3. yes you must improve your outposts with stone and iron and more foundations and they produce workers (the green lines in the resource flow). all extractors and towers with commanders require workers to work (i.e produce resources or units)

4.I think you need to just unassign the commanders from the towers you found and assign them in your settlement where they have acces to workers and bigger towers, and units will appear.

5.An update is planned to add more naval mechanics

[Zealous]

4. Certain events give you one time units, once gone they cannot be recovered. AFAIK the single Bannerless Skullship comes from the first Bannerless outpost event. Though there is a commander that can spawn them.

[Muppetpuppet]

no you take that bannerless skullship commander, and assign him to your biggest tallest tower, and he will spit out more skullships.

BUT if you already have 3 or 4 you have reached the max skullships alread..

but if you lose those 4 you got for free, then the skullship captain will make more;)

[Gonzo]

On point 1. I've now worked out that you need to unassign the Merc tower commander BEFORE you delete the tower. If you just delete the tower he disappears (presumably because he doesn't appear in the Soul Tree list of characters). Now it's not ideal to have two ways of accomplishing the same thing (getting that tower specialist relocated). Perhaps these misc characters need a "misc" tree in the Soul Tree section OR make the game unable to delete a tower if it's got an active tower commander assigned to it (along with an error message advising the player to unassign any characters that are currently active in that tower before attempting to delete it). I think the second option is probably the best option (but then I'm no coder) :D


On adding units to your air fleet (point 4.), it's not clear that you need to go to the command towers to "restock" any downed Falcons. I'm still not sure how (and why) I've ended up with a Bannerless airship from the first Bannerless refugee settlement I visit (I don't seem to get any additions from any of the other faction refugee settlements). I don't need to even resettle the Bannerless settlement to get the "free" airship. Or is it a general addition to the air fleet for crossing some other achievement that's rewarding me with the ship?

[Muppetpuppet]

hmmm .. If that settlement is yours and they might have that commander, (that spawns airships) and they are friendly enough to work for you (this is possible if you are both pirate aligned), he might just start working for you, if that settlement has workers. I think nottylock might have that..

[Kaery]

I've noticed that some commanders grant you troops the moment you find them. The Skullship, some Weavers, I've had several instances. Find the commander, talk to them, get the troops. I then do delete the tower, but the troops persist. They probably won't reappear if downed until you actually assign the commander to a tower of your own, though. Haven't tested that bit.

Originally posted by Gonzo:

2. Resource extractors. I feel you should be able to add foundations to them (similar to your towers), Thing is things get really tight (particularly if you've set the extractor radius to "low") when you are trying to add workers within the radius with the usually walls and towers. How do players feel about this one?

From the tutorial explanation and from personal experience, it's not about getting more workers living in the circular area. So foundations wouldn't help. It's about the little workshops that are built off the sides of the walkways that are: (a) in the circle and (b) directly connected to the extractor. Which is why sawmills are harder to upgrade the resource output for, as you can't build on the sea-funghi. And yes, things do get pretty tight.