This game is pointless - how to win each level under 3 minutes

[patamon]

THIS IS NOT A PROPER BUILDING STRATEGY GAME.

Hi, I will be putting up an video later on to warn people how bad this games handles the whole point of building strategy game.
But this game is uterly bad and broken in the current state.
I am now on lvl 10 ir so I think and all levels until now can be won within 3 minutes, withouth any actual base building.

Steps:
Build tool workshot
Build wariors point (or how the dam is that called - the small one)
Add maximum axe-mans
Make simple axes for them
Move the militaty point in range for the portal
Open portal - Instant win



In my current level this beated an ice giant and 4 spawns from the portal.
What the Hell devs??

It looks like they never understood how resource chains are suposed to work.

This does not even comes close to Cultures, and I would expect much more for devs on a full realease title for $30.
All the buildings are pointless. This game needs to get back to the drawing board.

To the devs> do you even QA? seriously, this is some mayor bad design.

(I bought it on GoG so I can not make an review on the main site).


Edit:
Adding the videos from late game as promissed:
https://youtu.be/iXOkp0QTPTs
https://youtu.be/oSXtfwRZdnU

I will do soem more for you with hardest dificulity I can create.

Edit2:

Late game strategy:
Add Woodcutter, Quarry and some Fisherman.
Add Tents for more woriors
Win

https://youtu.be/ujfV4S9Sa1s
https://youtu.be/3OLh7JIXaHY

[Jim Raynor]

It looks like you don't get the point of the game. Sure you can rush portals all day long, your tactic is even pretty smart for the early levels, but you miss two points.

First the game is not about rushing the portals. You have to collect fame for your Vikings to make them eligible for Valhalla. You can collect small amounts by keep rushing portals, but you get way more if you clean up the map by opening all small portals, fight the dwarves and animals on the map. And I doubt that this will work very long with your tactics without building up a proper settlement and upgrading your Vikings. I'm now at level 11 and fighting the dwarves with your tactics is absolutly impossible, I just had to get 2 big upgraded armies to defeat them.

The campaign is pretty slow in increasing the difficulty and keeps introducing new buildungs and production chains every level that you can try them out.

This leads to the second point. If you are bored by this, just go for a maxed out custom map with dwarves and everything on it and play this. I'm pretty curious if your tactics will work there but I doubt it and you will be pretty overwhelmed with building up your settlement and production chains if you have no experience at all with it and everything available right away :).

[Jim Raynor]

Well it's hard to compare because the maps are random, but my 9th mountain was pretty tough and I doubt that I would have reached the portal with your tactics. There were many dwarves right at the beginning and lots of wild and strong animals between me and the portal. I made it with a big and upgraded army, but I doubt that it would have been possible with a small non upgraded army, since I lost half of it on the way to the portal.

[Person]

I have to agree with the OP.

To me this game is clunky at best and not very enjoyable, especially when you consider how much it cost for what it is. This game should be $5 - $10.

[Arthy22]

I must say I am pretty disappointed also... this game could be great if you added quests, and things to do with goals and a story, instead of just getting new buildings and sending you on to a new map... it kinda feels empty and repetitive. Settlers were my favorite series and I often reply them to get that feeling of accomplishment from freeing a map or beating the AI.

[KnightJim]

The enemies will get stronger and the maps bigger, and at some point in time your strategy won't work anymore, at least if you play on hard level. Then you will be happy to clear the area around the starting spot with this strategy, for the portals you will need upgraded soldiers (or at least more than 9 standard ones).
If you buy a book, read only the last chapter and then complain that the book is crap, well, it was your decision to read it that way.

[TanK]

I have to agree that this "rushing" tactic is viable to the first maps. Those maps are to introduce the game & its feature to new players aka tutorial. We chose to increase the difficulty curve rather slowly. But as Jim Raynor already said: if you want the real deal play a custom game.
You will not make any progress in your race to valhalla but you get an idea what to expect in later missions.
Custom games on hard with dark dwarves are only mastered by a few. Especially on snow maps.

[patamon]

Originally posted by TanK:

I have to agree that this "rushing" tactic is viable to the first maps. Those maps are to introduce the game & its feature to new players aka tutorial. We chose to increase the difficulty curve rather slowly. But as Jim Raynor already said: if you want the real deal play a custom game.
You will not make any progress in your race to valhalla but you get an idea what to expect in later missions.
Custom games on hard with dark dwarves are only mastered by a few. Especially on snow maps.

I will do a video to show the tactic and how far it gets me.

Also for later level is is literaly enought to make
+ stone mason + wookcuter to make more axes, and maybe 1 or 2 tents to increase dwearf number. 12 dwarfs kill leteraly anything.
There is no reason to kill anythink besides portal so you can manuever around any other enemies.

[patamon]

Originally posted by Jim Raynor:

Well it's hard to compare because the maps are random, but my 9th mountain was pretty tough and I doubt that I would have reached the portal with your tactics. There were many dwarves right at the beginning and lots of wild and strong animals between me and the portal. I made it with a big and upgraded army, but I doubt that it would have been possible with a small non upgraded army, since I lost half of it on the way to the portal.

You can do it in every level which I faced until now.

the point is you do not need to kill anything besides the portal monsters.
Even the hardest levels will require just an woodcuter and quarry to increase axe productyion + maybe a few tent for more dwarfs

[TanK]

I can assure you that you will not successful with this strategy on a custom map with dwarves at least in hard mode.

[Jim Raynor]

Originally posted by patamon:

the point is you do not need to kill anything besides the portal monsters.
Even the hardest levels will require just an woodcuter and quarry to increase axe productyion + maybe a few tent for more dwarfs

Again, the point of this game is not just to rush and destroy the portal to proceed to the next island. It's to collect as much fame as possible for your vikings to bring them to Valhalla and you get this for fighting as many enemies as possible. So I don't see a point in ruhsing portals. You can rush 100 maps (but I still doubt you will make it so far with this tactics) or play 20 maps properly to get your first vikings eligible for Valhalla.

Sure I can watch or find my own way for a speed run for any game and beat it as fast as possible ignoring everything else. But that's no reason to complain that the game is too short or to easy. Several huge RPGs can be done within 1-2 hours (instead of 50-70), if you use glitches even under an hour. The Fallout 3 speed run record is around 15 minutes. Would you blame Fallout 3 as well for beeing beatable in 15 minutes?

They could make a change that you have to open the small portals first before you can open the big portal because they are connected in some way (or for whatever reason) which would make your rushing impossible but I don't like it to take choices and freedom for all players away just because someone has a problem that a rush tactics works on the first maps.

I agree that due to the random map generation the difficulty is pretty random as well. My 13th map was really easy compared to the last 4 and the 9th was still the hardest. So maybe the map generator needs a bit of polishing but what you are doing here is like flaming Fallout 3 for beeing finishable within 15 minutes (using glitches) or 1:30h (not using glitches).

[patamon]

Originally posted by Jim Raynor:

Originally posted by patamon:

the point is you do not need to kill anything besides the portal monsters.
Even the hardest levels will require just an woodcuter and quarry to increase axe productyion + maybe a few tent for more dwarfs

Again, the point of this game is not just to rush and destroy the portal to proceed to the next island. It's to collect as much fame as possible for your vikings to bring them to Valhalla and you get this for fighting as many enemies as possible. So I don't see a point in ruhsing portals. You can rush 100 maps (but I still doubt you will make it so far with this tactics) or play 20 maps properly to get your first vikings eligible for Valhalla.

Sure I can watch or find my own way for a speed run for any game and beat it as fast as possible ignoring everything else. But that's no reason to complain that the game is too short or to easy. Several huge RPGs can be done within 1-2 hours (instead of 50-70), if you use glitches even under an hour. The Fallout 3 speed run record is around 15 minutes. Would you blame Fallout 3 as well for beeing beatable in 15 minutes?

They could make a change that you have to open the small portals first before you can open the big portal because they are connected in some way (or for whatever reason) which would make your rushing impossible but I don't like it to take choices and freedom for all players away just because someone has a problem that a rush tactics works on the first maps.

I agree that due to the random map generation the difficulty is pretty random as well. My 13th map was really easy compared to the last 4 and the 9th was still the hardest. So maybe the map generator needs a bit of polishing but what you are doing here is like flaming Fallout 3 for beeing finishable within 15 minutes (using glitches) or 1:30h (not using glitches).

So I aplyed some other levels, that are much higher.
I only needed to build aditionaly an woodcuter a quarry, fisherman and some tents.

This alow you to build literaly 30 axeman. With simple axes.

You know what can beat 30 simple-axes axeman?
Literaly nothing.

Yes I could sweep all the enemies away with that, withouth ever building anything else (I killed 6 ice giants on one map and sweeped it clear with that).

So the prorblem is not only how fast you can rush a portal, the problem is how pointless is to build up any supply chain an economy.

there is no in game reason to build anything besides the first 4 building as you can win each level with it, and yes you can kill every enemy with that tactic too.

The game has one big issue and that is the lack of proper resource chain and management.
You can play Settlers 2 or the old cultures to understand what I mean.

I can sweep every level clean within first 10 minutes.
Yes I could build up all the buildings but what is the point, were there is no chalange to do so. And the argument that you do so because you can is a Mincraft based falacy. You can spend 60 hours building an hous, but that does not mean that there is 60 hour gameplay in housebuilding in it.

an proper building stratedy game is abouth resource management and supply chains, not about -you can build all this fancy looking nonsence that has no real impact on the game whatsoever.

This game has unfortunately a level of dept of an mobile cowclicer, and aperently it is enought those days.

[patamon]

Originally posted by TanK:

I have to agree that this "rushing" tactic is viable to the first maps. Those maps are to introduce the game & its feature to new players aka tutorial. We chose to increase the difficulty curve rather slowly. But as Jim Raynor already said: if you want the real deal play a custom game.
You will not make any progress in your race to valhalla but you get an idea what to expect in later missions.
Custom games on hard with dark dwarves are only mastered by a few. Especially on snow maps.

Gonna try one once I get to one so far no map, even with dome dwarfs was beatable and clean swiped within 10 minutes with folowing
1xtoolmaker
1xwoodcutter
1xquarry
2xfisherman
8-10x Tent

3-4x Military outpost (27 axemen)


There is no high level strategy here, just spam out enought simplaxe Axeman and you will be winnign every time.

Mapp clear wipe takes like 5-10minutes, dependant on size.

[patamon]

Originally posted by Jim Raynor:

It looks like you don't get the point of the game. Sure you can rush portals all day long, your tactic is even pretty smart for the early levels, but you miss two points.

First the game is not about rushing the portals. You have to collect fame for your Vikings to make them eligible for Valhalla. You can collect small amounts by keep rushing portals, but you get way more if you clean up the map by opening all small portals, fight the dwarves and animals on the map. And I doubt that this will work very long with your tactics without building up a proper settlement and upgrading your Vikings. I'm now at level 11 and fighting the dwarves with your tactics is absolutly impossible, I just had to get 2 big upgraded armies to defeat them.

The campaign is pretty slow in increasing the difficulty and keeps introducing new buildungs and production chains every level that you can try them out.

This leads to the second point. If you are bored by this, just go for a maxed out custom map with dwarves and everything on it and play this. I'm pretty curious if your tactics will work there but I doubt it and you will be pretty overwhelmed with building up your settlement and production chains if you have no experience at all with it and everything available right away :).

As I comented elswjere.
You can cleanswipe maps with the same process, massing simple axe axemen. You can get cca 30-40 up withouth any economy at all and that pretty much kills everithing. So yes, you can collect fame by pointlesly doing notorious task with no gamplay impact, but I was in the asumtion that this is a building stratedy game and not an mobile cowclicer to collect most stars.

[Jim Raynor]

Originally posted by patamon:

As I comented elswjere.
You can cleanswipe maps with the same process, massing simple axe axemen. You can get cca 30-40 up withouth any economy at all and that pretty much kills everithing. So yes, you can collect fame by pointlesly doing notorious task with no gamplay impact, but I was in the asumtion that this is a building stratedy game and not an mobile cowclicer to collect most stars.

Sorry, but I don't get your problem at all. This is like doing a Fallout 3 speedrun in 15 minutes and flame Bethesda that Fallout 3 sucks and is not a big and great RPG just because you can finish it in 15 minutes. Just to post another video where you finished it without glitches in 1:30h with the same arguments after they patched it.

You are refusing to build up and just look for ways to avoid building up. This game is open so you can do everything and are completly free how to solve a level. I just finished a level with your tactics, because the map was so easy and there was no challange at all, so I didn't want to waste time there. My main goal is to finish a map with no one dieing or at least as less Vikings as possible. In this map it was possible with your way and it even saved me some time, so it's nice to know it.
Next level was way harder and I needed 5 upgraded armies to get through with many casulties.

But this happens in open games. I like the freedom the game gives me. You could force building up your settlement if not all buildings are unlocked right from the beginning and just unlock after some other building has been build. Or exchange the weapon type to something else only the weaponsmith can produce. This is a way many building games use to force you to do the same steps over and over again. Here you are free to adjust to the mission in your way of solving it. And I like the freedom you have here to build up and not doing the same steps over and over again because you have to unlock the stuff you realy need.

So this is pretty pointless to discuss this. If you refuse to play Fallout 3 because there are ways to rush through it in no time it's not a bad and short RPG. On the contrary it's a great game because it gives you an open world and the freedom to play the game your way. It's exactly the same here. You can refuse to use the possibilities the game gives you and just rush through or use the possibilities to have fun with it.

Btw I would like to see a video on the biggest map possible on hard with dwarves done with just spamming simple axemen.

[Jim Raynor]

I agree with you that the game isn't as complex as maybe the Anno-series is but I don't think that the game is supposed to be another Anno.

And if you look at the mechanics of Anno it's just a well wrapped 5 layer game of unlocking buildings and building another production chain. You have to build production chain A to unlock settlers X, unlocking production chain B which is required to unlock settlers Y unlocking chain C required to unlock setllers Z to unlock chain D and so on.

So I'd say there are basicly 2 kinds of building games. "Unlock-Fests" like Anno where you do the same stuff over and over again just with another texture or open games like this one where you are free to do whatever you want. And open games can be beaten way faster than "Unlock-Fest"-games because you are not forced to do the same stuff x times. Like an open RPG like Fallout 3 can be finished in no time unlike a closed, level based game which is forcing you to go through everything.

Don't get me wrong, "Unlock-Fest"-games can be pretty fun if well wrapped, like the Anno-series proves. But this game is an open game with other possibilities and if you need to have "Unlock-Fest"-games to have fun maybe this one is wrong for you and you should stay with the other kind of building games.