Never Second in Rome Feedback

[jrnefan]

Message to the Developer
- First I want to begin with how much I loved the first game (A Legionary’s Life). In fact I loved it so much I was considering hiring a game dev to begin working on a sequel for it
where you play as a soldier in Caesar’s legion and go from Gaul to the Roman civil war.
That is how much I enjoyed the game. It was one of these times reflecting upon this that I
decided to look up the developer and see if he had been working on anything else since
the last game. It was at that moment I read the words “Never Second in Rome” and
immediately recalled Caesar’s quote “I would rather be first in a village than second in
Rome.” The widest of grins came upon my face seeing a proud Centurion overlooking his
century as they marches onwards. I hope that this successor is as successful as possible so that you can bring the game to its full glory.

A Passage from the "The Roman antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus” depicting combat
- Below I will paste a passage and a link that details fighting between “Barbarians” and
Romans. I put this here for two reason: (1) it is enthralling to read if you enjoy Roman
military history, (2) I hope some form of it can be incorporated into the game (especially
the manner by which the Romans would attack).
- “Now the barbarians’ manner of fighting, being in large measure that of wild beasts and
frenzied, was an erratic procedure, quite lacking in military science. Thus, at one moment
they would raise their swords aloft and smite after the manner of wild boars,’ throwing
the whole weight of their bodies into the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with
mattocks, and again they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they
intended to cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries, protective armour and all;
then they would turn the edges of their swords away from the foe. (18) On the other hand, the Romans’ defence and counter-manceuvring against the barbarians was steadfast ? and afforded great safety. For while their foes were still raising their swords aloft, they would duck under their arms, holding up their shields, and then, stooping and crouching low, they would render vain and useless the blows of the others, which were aimed too high, while for their own part, holding their swords straight out, they would strike their opponents in the groin, pierce their sides, and drive their blows through their breasts into their vitals. And if they saw any of them keeping these parts of their bodies protected, they would cut the tendons of their knees or ankles and topple them to the ground roaring and biting their shields and uttering cries resembling the howling of wild beasts. (19) Not only did their strength desert many of the barbarians as their limbs failed them through weariness, but their weapons also were either blunted or broken or no longer serviceable. For besides the blood that flowed from their wounds, the sweat pouring out over their whole bodies would not let them either grasp their swords or hold their shields firmly, since their fingers slipped on the handles and no longer kept a firm hold. The Romans, however, being accustomed to many toils by reason of their unabating and continuous warfare, continued to meet every peril in noble fashion.”
https://archive.org/stream/romanantiquities07dionuoft/romanantiquities07dionuoft_djvu.t
xt

UI/UX Battle Feedback
- The main area that I have feedback for is the battle system, specifically its UI & UX. The battles are quite confusing and it is not always clear what is going on. It would be
extremely helpful for the player to know/understand what theory of battle the game is
trying to depict. For example, if the game was using the outdated shoving match theory,
where historians thought ancient battles were one big shoving match, then you should
inform the players of it. They would easily conclude that their objective is to overpower
the other side using brute force alone. The previous game’s combat system was clear in
that it was duel based, and the objective was to eliminate the opponent; which is also
straight forward and thus the player can again derive logical conclusions on how they
must act since they understand what the system is trying to replicate. In its current form
the battle, the goal of it, how to achieve that goal, and how the player can fail in
achieving that goal is not very clear. Taking the previous game as an example, it is clear
that the goal is to eliminate the opponent by getting their health to zero, and all of the
tools I have access to help me in lowering the enemy’s health whilst preserving mine;
however, with the current battle system I have no idea if I am winning, losing, about to
break the enemy, or about to be broken myself. I have no idea what it would look like if I
am trying to survive and keep my century alive and I have no idea what it would look like
if my goal was to completely smash the enemy to pieces. Again in the prior game, if I am
trying to survive I can either try to quickly take out the enemy or I put everything on
defense and try to knock them off balance to buy me time. If I am going on the offense I
set my stance to offensive and attack at every opportunity I get. In the battle system, I
have no idea what tools to use to achieve those ends, nor what specifically are those ends.
If I go too heavy on the offense then I seem to exhaust my century out and now we’re
vulnerable. If I go heavy on the defense the enemy can constantly assault us with
unrelenting attacks. It feels like having momentum set to neutral is the best strategy since
I am not unintentionally messing things by experimenting. It would be really nice if there
was a tutorial/feature where you practiced against another legion in the many mock battles the Romans used to do. In this tutorial you could experiment and see how the tools you have work. Flavius Josephus illustrates this perfectly when he wrote: “their drills are
bloodless battles, their battles bloody drills.” Additionally, there should be more feedback
in the battle with more descriptions to help paint a better picture of what is going on
along with immersing the player. Example being, describing how one of your soldiers
pierced any enemy in single combat, and how the enemy reacted. Little details like that
can go a long way to add immersion, and help give the player an idea on the current
condition of the enemy; along with moments of opportunity that they can seize upon to
put the enemy on the back footing and possibly even change the course of the battle.

Miscellaneous
- I know that this will not connect to the prior game in any way, but possibly as an option it would be really neat to have your player descended from your previous one and possibly
keep one important piece of equipment from him or something else as a relic held in high
regard by the family. Possibly even your former character’s death mask since the Romans
were extremely big on remembering, revering, and honor one’s ancestors.
-I really enjoy the art-style of the both ALL and NSIR. I would love to see it incorporated more into the Century battles and other aspects of the game play. This offers more immersion and feedback to help paint a better picture for the player.