Criticism After The First Few Hours

[lochinvar1]

Overall, this is a good beginning. Most of the elements in place are fair to excellent, and I have read that some minor complaints, such as gui problems, will be addressed.

The biggest challenge for Sovereignty...is that it is too basic for prolonged play, especially in comparison to Dominions, Crusader Kings, etc. Players lack strategic choices we've come to expect from this genre. I tried to get a couple of my friends to check this out--they watched some recent Let's Play vids and concluded that the game seems shallow at the moment. I can't disagree. You recruit troops, plant agents, hit the province upgrade button, and move your stacks around, turn after turn.

We need more diplomatic options; a named national leader would inject personality; heroes are nonentities and need a naming feature and probably a more engaging upgrade tree; I'd also recommend a retinue system a la Total War. We also need far more to do at the province level--build forts and other structures; build roads, etc. Hitting upgrade once or twice a turn is not satisfying. Far more events should occur and it'd be nice if we had choices in how to react to these events. I haven't seen artifacts--if those aren't in, they should be.

Diplomacy is decent, albeit thin. Assassinations, marriages, ransom, execution, and exile would all make for more dynamic options than the very basic suite in place.

ETA Please consider modding tools. Sovereignty's longevity will increase dramatically with good mods.

The base game is so damned promising I can only cross my fingers the devs are serious about listening to community feedback over the next year.

Pro:
Gorgeous Map and Unit Cards
Interesting roster of nations
Intrigiuing Lore
Good battlesystem

Con:
Not enough to do strategically (diplomacy is thin and province building is almost nonexistent)
Not enough events (need many more events and perhaps be permitted to make choices)
No leader figure
Heroes have no personality and dull upgrades

[Sheytanaslan]

Fully agree and many of these suggestions were voiced by the beta testers.

Originally posted by lochinvar1:

Overall, this is a good beginning. Most of the elements in place are fair to excellent, and I have read that some minor complaints, such as gui problems, will be addressed.

The biggest challenge for Sovereignty...is that it is too basic for prolonged play, especially in comparison to Dominions, Crusader Kings, etc. Players lack strategic choices we've come to expect from this genre. I tried to get a couple of my friends to check this out--they watched some recent Let's Play vids and concluded that the game seems shallow at the moment. I can't disagree. You recruit troops, plant agents, hit the province upgrade button, and move your stacks around, turn after turn.

We need more diplomatic options; a named national leader would inject personality; heroes are nonentities and need a naming feature and probably a more engaging upgrade tree; I'd also recommend a retinue system a la Total War. We also need far more to do at the province level--build forts and other structures; build roads, etc. Hitting upgrade once or twice a turn is not satisfying. Far more events should occur and it'd be nice if we had choices in how to react to these events. I haven't seen artifacts--if those aren't in, they should be.

Diplomacy is decent, albeit thin. Assassinations, marriages, ransom, execution, and exile would all make for more dynamic options than the very basic suite in place.

The base game is so damned promising I can only cross my fingers the devs are serious about listening to community feedback over the next year.

Pro:
Gorgeous Map and Unit Cards
Interesting roster of nations
Intrigiuing Lore
Good battlesystem

Con:
Not enough to do strategically (diplomacy is thin and province building is almost nonexistent)
Not enough events (need many more events and perhaps be permitted to make choices)
No leader figure
Heroes have no personality and dull upgrades

[OOTN]

I agree with all of this so much. Devs PLEASE listen!

[Panfuricus]

Yeah I'm in agreement with most of this.

[Mort]

I'm about turn 300 in my campaign, and I agree with this. Artifacts are an interesting idea and can be as simple as an extra ability card attached to heroes who capture certain landmarks or win impressive battles (as measured by elites killed, or if a hero is present, etc). Additionally, I would specifically like more ways to develop my unique and elite units. The medal system is ok for regular troops, but its randomness and army limit means that it's hard to get medals for the troops that I want. Letting elite and unique units get guaranteed medals (and more of them) would be huge in making those units feel, well, unique and elite.

[lochinvar1]

BubbleFortress--yes to the idea regarding development of elites.

[CoyoteCat]

I agree with all of your points, though I'd be a little more charitable and say the game is at a good midpoint rather than beginning.

[philo103]

Originally posted by lochinvar1:

The biggest challenge for Sovereignty...is that it is too basic for prolonged play, especially in comparison to Dominions, Crusader Kings, etc. Players lack strategic choices we've come to expect from this genre. [...]

Con :

Not enough to do strategically (diplomacy is thin and province building is almost nonexistent)
Not enough events (need many more events and perhaps be permitted to make choices)

Agree. But this is EA : we must suppose that the Developers will eventually add more strategic layers and complexity. I do not regret my investment in this EA game.

[lochinvar1]

I presume there will be tweaks. If depth is added, I will consider it 25 bucks well-spent. If not, I'll be disappointed. A lot of good ideas are beiing put forth. I take the devs at their word in the sales pitch video that they are serious about listening to the community.

[Sheytanaslan]

Agreed. My hope as well.

Originally posted by lochinvar1:

I presume there will be tweaks. If depth is added, I will consider it 25 bucks well-spent. If not, I'll be disappointed. A lot of good ideas are beiing put forth. I take the devs at their word in the sales pitch video that they are serious about listening to the community.

[jnpoint]

Originally posted by lochinvar1:

I presume there will be tweaks. If depth is added, I will consider it 25 bucks well-spent. If not, I'll be disappointed. A lot of good ideas are beiing put forth. I take the devs at their word in the sales pitch video that they are serious about listening to the community.

+1

[trmnt]

Agreed with the OP. The base game is good already, but it really needs more gameplay elements both strategically and tactically.

[Aurore]

Will add my voice here too. The basics are good and I see the potential for a great game, but we need more things to do, more things to build, more depth to the game, and more rounded heroes we can get to like, and indeed maybe items. Perhaps even some non magickal research too, nothing too fancy but something that will give us another thing to consider investing in.

[Veneke]

Kinda hopping on the bandwagon at this point but yeah, it's a fine game for a few hours but it lacks the depth for play beyond that point. On one hand the nation-specific campaign goals kinda get around this problem, but there's no doubt that a game lasting more than a half dozen hours is going to turn to tedium very quickly.

[Sheytanaslan]

The idea of Artifacts/items was voiced in the Beta. In fact we pretty much covered all the points people are asking for in respect to more content to the game. Some new and novel ideas have been fielded here that we didnt discuss, but heres to hoping the devs acelerate the addition of new content now that the game is live...even though its termed EA.
Heres to hoping...my two bits.

Originally posted by Aurore (N☆G):

Will add my voice here too. The basics are good and I see the potential for a great game, but we need more things to do, more things to build, more depth to the game, and more rounded heroes we can get to like, and indeed maybe items. Perhaps even some non magickal research too, nothing too fancy but something that will give us another thing to consider investing in.

[OOTN]

Bumping this threads important feedback.

I wish I had things to suggest that didn't just make this game more like Dominions, but I feel like a lot of the features we had in that game would benifit this one as well.