Observations and Suggestions.

[Dark]

Got to play Coop last night with a friend and we had a pretty good time playing the game, but we defiantly ran into some things that we did not like and felt needed to be fixed or balanced out better.

The waves need to be a bit longer in-between to give you a little more time to recover. The resources are part of the problem with the game. They don’t seem to be coming in quick enough to rebuild what’s been damaged or lost. And then also try to build troops or defenses to defend against the next incoming harder wave. It’s a big balancing act on getting hovels built to get money, or building hunting huts or farms huts and farms in general get wood and food going.

This is where we felt the balance is lacking, after trying to get all of these building’s going, you don’t seem to get enough out of them. We played on normal and easy to see the difference, and while easy was better, it still seemed to be lacking. Part of the problem is not enough trees to harvest and build around. We were also confused as to why there are no fishing huts to build around the water areas.

Also, we didn’t care for the fact that the artifacts are scattered all over the place and you need to go in search of them leaving your base defenseless in the process. We felt those should be closer to the base. If not a researchable ability that you get or even when you are leveling up, you gain some kind of special ability to help you fight. Btw, we never once found one artifact in the several games we played.

Some research like stone walls, it’s not very clear on how you gain access to the higher end stone walls. It was turn 16 and we never figured that out. Again, we are new to the game and still trying to get it all figured out. Those stone walls would have been a big help in surviving the later attacks. I know this is something we need to try and figure out because we are new to the game, but still it should be a bit clearer on how you gain these upgrades.

In no way do I or my friend dislike the game, it was fun and we both feel that with some balancing and patching it will get better. Part of the problem is that we both kept falling back on comparing this game to Billions. Not a fair comparison because both do similar things, but both are very different too. But the comparisons couldn’t be helped.

I’m hoping the devs will add some options to the game so we can possibly adjust the timer in between attacks. This would have bene better if the waves were not coming in as quickly as they were. A rotate camera option would also be great to have. There were times when I really wanted to see the battle at a different angle but was unable to. And using the overhead option is not a viable option for combat. Only good for wall placements and such.

Feel free to add to this so the devs and see our feedback.

[Dark]

This is my friends Observations comments.

1- Make it so you can hastily exit towers to move from one side of the base to the other. Clicking each guy is a waste of time. This is really important in the early waves, but by the later waves, you just better have more units out and not be moving them. This just irks me. I was running them from tower to tower cuz there wasn’t enough resources to build more.

2- You need to be able to upgrade houses instead of just build more. At least from tents to wood then stone houses, not sure if there is more after stone yet. Iron houses may not make sense in this universe.

3- The food resources need to bring in more. I had a farm as much as +12 but hunter gathering was +8 at its most. And those were just in perfect scenarios. There needs to be fishing as well for those bodies of water, otherwise, why have water In a desert map. If you can make farms do more, I didn’t see it in the tree, but I didn’t study it much either, I was just trying to get enough to stay alive. I’d literally rather turn off resource sharing and just have coop where we fight over resources instead of share. That actually make the problem go away. It’s like the designed the game from a solo point of view and tested that way, then said, here’s coop. cut the resources in half and don’t player test.

4- The ballista’s need to do splash damage. They may upgrade to trebuchets later, not sure, but that big ass arrow one shoting a guy doesn’t make it worth the 400 gold and resource cap. Franky, we may be making them to early, they are better for one shoting a horse but u can make 3 javelins instead. They should also have the ability to be told what to shoot. For example in TAB, I know I know, u can tell any unit, shoot the nearest, or shoot the higher level unit. So the ballista will shoot the big f’en spider or the boss of the wave, instead of any peon.


5- We may need to move out further from the start and then not have to expand. The maps aren’t that big.

6- I took out a boss with my hero and like 4 jav’s. with both of us and 4 jav’s each, we could clean the map by wave 7 or 8 as far as the bosses on the map. I think there was like 5 each time.


7- How to deal with the poison on the ground. There is a sorcery tree that has a building that takes the dead’s essence and makes it a resource for combat and research. I researched it, but never built it. Had other priorities. Probably should have done that instead of the Calvary cuz I think it will help with the dead on the ground.

Maybe a good suggestion for them would be if you go kill a boss, it adds time to the wave clock. That would add time to you letting the gold build up.

There seems to be so much more in the game but u can’t get to it atm.

[Lucid]

Good observations. My experience has been very similar.... mainly the timing/resource/upkeep just seems too harsh. The only way I could see the current resource/upkeep remain, is if they introduce new feats that help increase food/gold production, or reduce upkeep costs etc.

[Dark]

Yea, the game in its current state is ♥♥♥♥, sorry to say it but my god the waves after waves without much of a break in between is ridiculous. I have no idea how the devs think this game is in any way balanced. I’m a diehard RTS gamer. I live for this stuff. But I’m at the point where I wish I could refund this game. It’s that much of a mess right now. And that’s what so disappointing.

They need to fix the timing of the waves and give us more time in-between waves to gather our resources and build up what’s been lost and destroyed. This 5 min in between waves is way too hard, even on the easiest mode you don’t get a break. The lack of resources just kills me, it’s so fricking difficult. And the repair costs are so stupid. Units cost way too much too, the unit cost should not be 120 gold, and higher.

Units should cost around 25 gold each. Why is it so expensive to repair buildings? They learned nothing from TAB. those guys at least know how to build waves and make them at least beatable unlike what’s going on in this game.

I’m so frustrated right now. Believe me, it’s not a good feeling when the game makes you feel like it’s hopeless to even go back and try playing more when you know that it’s this difficult even on the easiest setting. I could go on and on, but man, it’s really peeved right now about this because I really wanted this game to be so good.

[Gendif]

So i've played a bunch and i've a few notes for you:

Isn't there an option to adjust wave time or size? I'm pretty sure there is.

The maps are RNG so sometimes you just get screwed on resources but i've never had any major issues. I did get royally reamed on iron placement one game, but that's RNG.

Artifacts are on the boss monsters, kill them to get them.

The pace and style is very different from TAB and going from that to this may actually throw you off. This seems to demmand a lot more micro managing of everything. Always be building, always be creeping, always be using the market to not waste income.

Second person:

1- I control group my units, double tap the key to snap to them, click the tower and then hit '/' which is the default key to ungarrison all, i'm considering a rebind, then you just order the control group. I'd prefer an ungarrison all button above the tower but i've not had any real issues here.

2- You can upgrade. This is an annoying one. The button is under the repair key on the minimap. It really needs to be easier to find and more obvious.

3- There's a better farm later in the tech tree. Balance issues are always going to be pretty subjective. I've never felt it was unfair but i've also had games where I struggled so... sure? I guess.

4- Splash would make things too easy by far. Just being a little cheaper would be nice but then covering the angles would be too easy. Bonus damage versus monsters would be cool.

5-6: I've had a similar experience playing with friends.

7- Camp Follower tent makes bodies nearby despawn faster with the corpse picker research and is also a decent way to offset the army cost.

Closing thoughts: I've found this game demmands much more consant focus than other simialr games and that's both good and bad. The sheer micro it demmands can be overwhelming at times and rewarding at others. The map RNG on Iron/Stone/Starmetal can feel very swingy and the difference between a solid early forest or farmland can make or break a game. Much like in TAB sometimes you look at the starting map and it's just never going to happen.
The game feels like an early access game with connection issues and a clunky interface. Hopefully they'll fix this, either way i'm having fun.

[Dark]

Yea, we found out all of this after a few more games tonight. Which just makes it even more painful the way the game is. Needs a lot of work to fix up the game. and no, never found any wave adjustment timers or such. Thats a big one that needs added.