Dear lilyophelia,



Would it be possible to see the skills changes and creation you did, without being in the game ? It would be easier to give an opinion and more detailed analyse.

Looks like you've put a lot of work into this! Hopefully I'll get the chance to try it out soon, it looks awesome.

lilyophelia wrote:


I think we need more people making mods and chasing their visions of a perfect game. And your feedback is super appreciated, but I just don't want to get your hopes up that I'll be able to make the perfect mod for you (because we'll end up having different tastes at some point.)



<3

I'm giving you feedback because no else is. That and I like the harder minor factions; of course I want it to be perfect for me but I'm happy seeing changes made regardless. My only real worry is how easy the game is now. I understand you may not be happy with requests I have and that they differ in what you want. That's fine, I think every modder (and game developer) out there has to deal with that. In the end you make your own decisions, I and others simply request changes based on games played with the mod.



As to how you play late-end game, it's pretty much the same for me. The difference being that the beginning and middle game is also really easy. Against AI I basically just make 3-4 cities and begin hoarding dust. Weapons of the Enemy is my own thing I can't play with out and I don't expect the game to balance itself out around it. I just noticed with the buffed stockpiles that it's quite noticeable now.



You're putting a lot of time in and it shows. We're going to try a multiplayer game with the mod on Monday night and I'll let you know how it goes. Ironically with the changes you made it could be very fun online. I'm excited to watch my buddy's first reaction to the monster swarm. Well hopefully his first game with it anyway; he doesn't play Endless Legend as much as I do. But he may login this weekend to try it beforehand. If Call of Duty doesn't get to him first.



Also with the new heroes I have to say great job! I do mix and match, though I haven't while I've been testing out the factions. I really like what you've done with them. I just wish Amplitude would let us switch out Infantry heroes for Support or Ranged and vice versa.



I still think you're doing a great job! I'll continue giving feedback, if it's helpful to you. If not that's okay too. I'll still play the mod as I do love it and watch the updates in the background.

Absolutely. I love the feedback! I love when people tell me what they feel (and even disappointment is helpful).



I just don't want to get into a situation where a lot of different people have super high expectations of me. Feel free to share as many ideas as you want (and specific changes/ideas are the best, because that's easier to include) and I will always listen to them. <3



@Quinevis I hope you do too. It's a different experience, and I have a lot of fun playing it. Definitely still a work in progress and not anywhere near done.



@Jojo It's not really meant to be balanced around multiplayer, or even faction versus faction. You'd really have to load it up and play it because the whole sandbox is altered. But it's easy to do and you can check out the four factions that are mostly finished. <3



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I'll add it into the description at some point, but the game is really balanced around an Endless mode, Normal sized game with 5 players, with land mass set to 80%, a single continent, and hard minor factions. That's mostly what I play with atm, and it's working super well for me.

I'm looking at adding my first quests this morning to ramp up minor faction difficulty. One idea I have is that, towards the end of the game, minor faction units can be released from their regions and then it's kind of a sort of apocalypse with these very challenging unit laying siege to your empire. I may give it a go to see how it feels.

It was a little intimidating, but I think I'll be able to get the quest thing working, and I can ramp up the challenge in that way. I'm thinking bigger roaming armies from the start that are a bit weaker, and maybe a hidden quest for the final era that releases all the very powerful minor faction units still alive in the final era and allows them to siege and destroy cities. It would be one way to make fortification important and interesting if you knew that eventually there is this cray, fun end game apocalypse that's going to happen.

I got the first quest working, so I'll go ahead and set them up for each era and see what I can do.

I have the entire quest series working, and I'm so excited. Previously I had to depend on a hefty xp/turn and large numbers of unit to present a challenge. Now I can just make the units a lot more deadly.

v1.37: Added a new Treewalk capacity for Wild Walker units that allows them to move at no penalty in forests (currently affects all terrain); this applies to both Strategic movement and battle movement; Upgraded Outposts now give +50 dust/science; Upgraded military outposts now give a flat +10 xp/turn on units inside and the garrison (making this an ideal place to store/train armies and generals); Allied Kingdoms now give +250 Science/Dust (or +400 Dust for Forgotten) and +50 influence/turn; wanted to make it more rewarding to grow and then retire new cities; Level 3 and Level 4 of the Science and Economy Empire plan now give +4 Science and +4 Industry (was +2) respectively; Outposts and Allied Kingdoms now properly maintain 100 Approval (previously expansion disapproval still brought them below 100 and this affected your empire approval rating); heavy adjustment of how minor faction units upgrade throughout the game; there is now a quest that triggers stat increases each time your empire reaches a new tech era; this should result in a smoother, more challenging curve and reduce the number of units required to present a challenge (still needs testing and some adjustments; please share your feedback)



Introducing A New Quest, (TOA) The Aurigan Wilds:



Auriga awakens again. Her children return to the warming surface and an infinite variety of shapes and forms begins to flourish.



A hundred points of light; a hundred fires dotting the surface of Auriga. A hundred different tribes. Each with their own story; each point of view separate and distinct from your own.



But this is your story: the story of how your great civilization rose up in the warming Aurigan Wilds.



Note: The Minor Factions will grow stronger with each era.

That first quest was a lot of work to figure out and build, but on the bright side, I'm extremely familiar with how quests work now.



If anyone has any interesting ideas for quests, feel free to share!

I just lost my first city ever to roaming armies. Really intense. I was not prepared.

Please, would you kindly set external download link to this exiting mode? Thanks!

I'll see what I can do briil

Oh my gosh, the next build is soooo much fun and so amazing. Lots of changes to the tempo of the game.



The big change, however, is that after a certain turn (~240 turns) the minor factions are no longer leashed to their regions, so they do come roaming into your kingdom. They're also set to never siege; instead, they always attack your cities with full fortifications. As heavily buffed as they are towards the end, these become really exciting and intense battles where the roaming armies hit very hard and can easily outnumber you.



The feel of the game now is almost like a tower defense game. You have 200ish turns to build up the best empire you can, and then as Auriga slowly begins shake and rumble and tear itself apart, the minor factions go mad and it's a game to see how long you can hold on. It's very intense and very fun.



So, so happy with it!

Working on a revamp of all the weapons/armor atm.



Eventually, when I'm mostly done with this mod and I've made all the changes to the base game that I want to make, I will create a number of extension mods, so that you can play the default game, for example, without some of my changes (like harder Minor factions). This will be an eventual thing, however, whenever I'm mostly done with a feature.

It'll be a few more days til the next build goes up, but when it does, there will be tons of amazing new changes. The game I played tonight was sooo much fun. Will add in a quest that orients new players and explains the story/premise behind the mod.

I just finished a game with two other AI that ended at turn 110 (normal speed) without me ever finding/engaging with the other factions. They were wiped out by minor factions. I myself didn't stray far and just built up maximum garrisons and worked on my economy (expanding only once as Mezari). I was nearly to Age 4 in advancements, which was actually making me nervous. I pushed hard to Age 3 so I could build up my army.



Right now the minor factions are just ridiculous on hard difficulty. I'm going to try a new game with normal MF, and I'm hoping to try a multiplayer game today with a friend with hard MF to see if we can work together to survive until the 5th Age. I don't think I can alone.



I also noticed as Mezari that the heroes selection in the marketplace was heavily stacked towards Wild Walkers/Ardent Mages and the stealth people that I never play. I waited for new exclusive heroes to be unlocked but the three new ones were all WW heroes. I'm not sure if that was just really bad luck or not. I was hoping for a Cultist/Drakken hero.



The changes you've made now work a lot better with the crazy hard minor factions. It's a very different way to play the game that's for sure.

Thanks for the feedback, Taeves. There's a lot of new changes coming.



Major Empires are definitely not your main obstacle now. They mostly exist to provide texture in the world.



There will be a new quest in the next update that really defines what's going on. The idea is that there is a sort of Dust Plague that's now active on the surface of Auriga, and each Winter is just bringing the madness out more and more. There will be prompts to give a little bit of warning so you can prepare. Right now, the timing is set to have things start to fall apart around turn 200, and by turn 300 things should get pretty intense.



You can think of the Dust Plague as a sort of zombie apocalypse! <3



The reason there are so many Wild Walker, Ardent Mage and Forgotten heroes atm is because their extra heroes are done, and most other factions don't have their heroes yet. It skews the balance of things quite a bit.



This recent update has a lot of changes to gear and stats, and I'll be doing another sweep through all the existing heroes and units to slightly adjust their stats.



The mod itself is very much a work in progress, so play with the understanding I have lots and lots of changes still in store that are working themselves out.



Thanks again for the feedback, Taeves. Hope you have some fun with the next build when it goes live. So, so much fun!

v1.38



Military outposts now give heroes and troops +10 xp/turn; all other outposts now give heroes and troops +3 xp/turn;

Glassteel and titanium costs for all outposts has been reduced to 20 units (was 50 units)

Scientific Outposts now provide a flat +10% on Empire Research per outpost

Economic Outposts now provide a flat +10% on Empire Money per outpost



Reduced the production costs of the base for all units for all game speeds; this results in much cheaper "naked" units and slightly cheaper "fully geared" units

Reduced the number of roaming armies and increased their sizes;



Removed swords/shields from Bos (they had all 4 slayer types and free counter; ended up being too strong)

Added spears to Cultist Fanatics (to give the faction more versatility)



Levels 3/4 of the Science and Economy Empire Plan now give +6 science/industry per district (up from +4)



Swapped the effects of Inspirational Leader (common skil tree; flat percentage boost to FIDSI) and Impassioned Preacher (Cultist tree; efficiency per pop)

Ardent Mage Opulence hero kill now has one rank and gives +2 Luxury Resources (was 3 ranks of +1 Lxuury Resource each)

Ardent Mage Theatre of Pain hero skill now gives +3/+3/+3 on terrain with science (was +2/+2/+2)

Ardent Mage By Any Means Neccessary hero skill now gives +4 science per district/+4 science per district/+15% Science on City (was +15%/+15%/+15% Science on City)

Forgotten faction talents relating to infiltration have been reduced to one rank each

Supply Lines is a new Common skill that replaces Fast Healer and Thrifty (combining their effects into 2 levels in a single skill)

Single Combat takes the place of Fast Healer, which makes room for a new hero skill, Heroic Mettle (+200/+200 maximum health on hero)

Added a new skill, Protect the Flanks (+1 Reinforcement Positions) to the Ranged Tree;



Capacities have been adjusted

Health capacities and health boosts have been adjusted generally downward (it is a major design philosophy of this mod that player units feel fragile; excessive health leads to immortal units)

Units are being reworked

Support units have much higher health values

Ranged units have had their intiative lowered



All weapon and armor techs now give -15% discount (up to -90% total) on strategic item costs (was -10% each for a total of -60%)

Reduced the cost of strategic items by 60% (to a minimum cost of 1 unit)



Stats on all weapons and armor have been reworked

All weapons and armor now have identical base stats (1H + Shield has slightly more health/defense and 2H has slightly more damage/attack)

All strategic armor/weapons now have the same base stats (which are roughly equal to dust weapons of the appropriate level)



Weapon Stat/Capacities

Sword; Cav Slayer; +25 Init; +25% Init

Axe: Infan/Ranged; +25 Dmg; +25% Damage

Hammer: Infan; +50 Def; +50% Attack

Bow: PBS; +50 Attk; +50% Attack



Sword: Cav Slayer; +25 Init; +25% Init

Axe: Infan; +25 Dmg; +25% Damage

Hammer: Infan; +50 Def; +50% Attack

Bow: Flying; +50 Attk; +50% Attack



Spear; Flying/Cav; +15 Init and +25 Attk; +25% Init

Claw: Ranged; +15 Dmg and +25 Defense; +25% Damage



Staff: Slow; Init Bonus; +50 Init; +25% Init

Wand: Unsteady; +25 Init; +25 Dmg; +25% Init

Scepter: Exhaustion; +25 Init; +25 Dmg; +25% Init



Titanium: +Damage

Glassteel: +Initiative

Palladian: +Defense

Adamantian: +Attack

Mithrite: +Damage and +Defense

Hyperium: +Initiative and +Attack

Continued golf clap for all your efforts.