Originally posted by melkathi:

So nice to be back to the Hero recruitment system of other AoW games. That by itself makes this update great.

edit:
the problem is, it is just patched in, while the game was designed around a different system. The AI now, no longer limited by expansion, will recruit up to its hero limit all the time, meaning you end up with a stack of heroes defending the capital instead of the usual unit it spams. Mostly it is simply silly, seeing how the devs stated they wanted to disinsentivive multiple heroes per stack.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3169845966

I thought I read/saw somewhere that they are going to try to limit it to 1 hero per stack?

The recent addition of the seals victory, something which should have been in from the beginning, has added some value for me. When I'm looking for that type of game, it does force me to be a bit more aggressive and the AI seemed to do a good job at focusing on the seals to put pressure on me.

Originally posted by Shadowhal:

There is an open beta for the next big update: https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/1669000/announcements/detail/3648527372286420242

The changes to the magic victory condition sound pretty good. An elegant way to link to exploration part to a victory condition and prevent it from being a too-easy turtle strategy. Depending on how exactly it's implemented (mainly No. of gold wonders needed and whether the algorithm for placing them will hold up).

Changes to research and tomes also seem positive, though more experience will tell.

Not sure about the changes to global spell casting limitations. Surely, there must be a better way of fixing that problem.

Agreed, they could have just implemented something to prevent the same army from being targeted twice by the same spell. This really did ruin multiplayer so I think this is a quick fix for them.

Originally posted by Nasarog:

so....

So.......

SO.........

Almost been a year since we moved and almost 3 months since I started my new job.

Finally, a routine is forming. Assuming nothing crazy happens this Summer (with life and work), I plan to get a bit more involved. At least with the podcast and some other stuff. I'll need to talk to Rob and the current group of podcasters.

Yay!

Has Assassination Classroom been mentioned? I enjoyed that and it tends to lean on the comedy side.

Released in early access today and it looks great. I watched someone play for about an hour and will probably be looking to purchase upon full release.

The reason I ask is because supposedly the encounters in WotR were designed with turn-based in mind whereas in Kingmaker and maybe PoE2 the mode was added in as an afterthought.

Excited to try this out eventually with turn-based combat. Have you had a chance to compare both turn-based and real-time with pause?

Originally posted by DevildogFF:

Originally posted by Nasarog:

With the new ES2 content, it would be a shame if they didn't go back and fix this game... A shame.

There's a community-made patch that's working on fixing all of that. Plus, they did fix the lore stuff on the techs. Finally.

I was able to find the Endless Legend Community Patch thread on their forums but can't find anything for Endless Space 2. Are you able to provide a link?

I haven't had any stability issues with ES2 and even though it's very similar to ES1, at least you can run the game in modern resolutions with somewhat scalable UI elements.

What happened? Not enough fixes?

Originally posted by Aleksei.Volchok:

I've noticed that EL Community Patch added UI scaling and now I want to wait for it to update and allow me to try EL in 4K.

Also @CyMonk, I remember people were disappointing by ES2 as it still has infinite turn calculation bug. Are you talking about that?

How does one go about downloading the Community Patch?

Great monitors, I have 2 PG279Qs at home and one at work. Dallin and I had a long talk about these kind of things and we both agree that HDR has a larger impact on visual quality when compared to increased resolution. 1080p to 1440p kinda noticeable but you may just be in awe of a larger screen size? Nevertheless, save up for a few years when a nice 4K, HDR10+ monitor is attainable (~$500-600) and by that time both camps (nVIDIA / AMD) should have some affordable hardware out to make use of those features as they are not yet sacrifice-free on Windows PCs. In fact, I would argue that 4K and HDR is terrible on PC at the moment. Like others have mentioned above, resolution scaling is not ubiquitous and can be more hassle than it's worth.

The great thing about 4X games and EL2 is that they can be run just fine at 30 FPS so a monitor upgrade is more important than a GPU upgrade for dedicated 4X / turn-based strategy gamers.

You can most certainly avoid doing them but they are a fun challenge to complete. I haven't done a majority of them either but my current playthroughs of EL and ES2 are focused on just completing those quests and avoid being taken out by the AI.

Age of Wonders has always been more combat and conquest focused, no?

It kinda sounds like Warlords Battlecry in the sense that you keep your hero throughout each skirmish. I think WarCraft III did that also?

I assume Empire Mode is different from the main campaign?

Originally posted by Nasarog:

Originally posted by Shanni:

It gives the typical xcom vibes - get it :brotherfist:

This one also has some nice humor.

I'm surprised that you like the humor, I found it very cringeworthy and distracting at times. The core gameplay loop is solid though.

Originally posted by ashbery76:

You are backing a pre alpha product with no release date.Unlike a few Kickstarters you will actually get a game out of it.Being stubborn is on you.

Originally posted by ashbery76:

Originally posted by Nasarog:

I backed the game at a substantial level in exchange for a Steam key which I won't get for another year... After release. I don't care for any other platform.

Then wait for being stubborn.You still get the key.

Stubbornness has nothing to do with it.

Originally posted by :i69:nonsense:

https://i.redd.it/7v3ey6v7oxo21.png

https://www.pcgamer.com/borderlands-3-release-date-leak/

=(

I think it has also gotten a bad rap because of developers seemingly taking advantage of the consumer. Holding back content for a later paid release or putting content behind paywalls. I do not think Paradox is doing such a thing.

If you compare recent releases from Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed titles in particular) which are widely considered to be games as a service then it starts to look more like Stellaris is becoming that.

Free updates are great and are much appreciated but if you are constantly releasing new paid content then in my view it has become a service. It makes business sense and I am not arguing that it is a bad thing but the developers want you playing their games long-term and they want you to keep spending money on it; aka they are providing a service through their game.

Edit - I am looking at it from a very macro point of view. If a game is receiving constant paid updates which include DLC then it is considered a service in my opinion. Some companies handle it better than others and I believe Paradox is near the top when it comes to the right way to do things.

It's definitely not a hate/dislike feeling but more of a disgruntled feeling like Mr. Kill said. For me personally, I want to play a finished game with all DLCs out and have a nice polished experience. I know that it may never happen with this game but that is what I typically do; wait a few years before jumping into a game to get the best experience possible.