OK, new to the game, so this could just be a coincidence, take with salt.



But in the game I was playing, I got to turn 190, and started getting warnings about two or three civs all starting their Victory Quest. I discovered the victory progress graphs and it seems like every AI civ completely ignores all other victory paths except Quest victory, which they had in my game all been doing like clockwork and in lockstep, except for the Beetle people who were a bit behind.



Since Quest Victory will occasionally and unexpectedly turn out to be unattainable - in my case I was asked to destroy a city controlled by the most powerful AI faction on the other side of the world - is there a case for nerfing it quite significantly, by padding it out a bit or something?



Again, this is based off my newbie experiences, I didn't have time to do any proper testing.

I'm a newbie too (I played no more than 18 hours for now) but it looks to me like the quest is impossible to end, or at least far more difficult than the others ways to victory. I never even succeeded ending the faction quest, I believe. The main problem here may be that each step of the quest requires to do something completely different, in such a way that your empire has to be good in every domain to complete all steps. For example, one time it is necessary to have a strong military, and then, just afterwards, you have to do something related to economy or diplomacy. Sometimes it took me 20 turns just to reach the goal of one sole simple step while focusing myself on it (for example the one where you have to get some specific city center to level 2 with the Broken Lords), and I'm not even talking about the fact that it's impossible to focus yourself on the quest all the time (for example, during a war or a period of rebellions, you have far more important problems to address).



So, yea, I don't understand how the AI are so good at this, but even them (at least in easy mode) look like they are completely unable to continue their quest once they have reached the first global warning (the five fire pillars dispersed around the world). The quest advancement isn't threatening at all, considering the huge time that is needed to complete it. Therefore, I wouldn't call it overpowered, but rather underpowered. However, it's just a question of words - we agree on the principle. Taking this path to victory simply isn't worth the cost, as it appears to me.



Of course, it is possible that what I'm saying is stupid, but then I would like to get some explanations from someone who knows better than me what he's talking about.

Are you playing as the Broken Lords? From the description that you have to attack a city on the other side of the world, it sounds like you do. Also, did you disable the science victory by an chance? Because that is in my experience what the AI likes to go the most for.



Since I get the impression that both of you tried out the Broken Lords, one thing should be clear to you. In comparison to other faction´s story quest, the Broken Lord´s is rather hard to succesfully finish. It´s steps are rather complicated and take away much needed recourses at the beginning of the game and even later if you don´t know what comes next you can get stuck. E.g one story quest requires you to have a dust bishop on lvl 6. You can reach this quest when you´re still in age III or even II, but then you have to wait in the worst case until age VI to continue with your quest. A good solution here I found is to have a general who gives +3xp per turn to your troops, that way the condition is met rather easily. And so it goes with other chapters too. In time, if you want to complete the story quest, you learn to prepare for the following conditions. However the BL have a much harder time finishing their quest than other factions like the Wild Walkers for example.



On the Space Ship victory itself, if an AI reaches it, I wouldn´t worry too much about it. They rarely get over Chapter III (Out of 5), because it requires them to travel half the world to fullfill that questline, so very unlikely for them to succeed.

I am indeed playing Broken Lords. I did not disable science victory, and I think the other empires are only pursuing science in order to strengthen their empires at the moment, whereas there is a synchronised charge for Quest Victory.



Thanks for informing me (both Oneyr and Themios) about the fact that Victory Quest is very hard for anyone to actually succeed in (and I wish I'd known about the Broken Lords quest exception, but oh well).



It seems like an odd victory condition, though - it would still only take a single AI to reach chapter IV in order to take a shortcut to victory - in my game the Mages already seem to own about half the world. That might only happen rarely, but probability is a dangerous devil to play with in game design. Overall, I'm glad that the Victory Quest is there... just maybe it needs some adjustment.



I'll carry on with the Broken Lords quest, it has a nice storyline, and let you chaps know how the AIs get in their quests, with a screenshot of graphs... for science!



You can carry on with the game after you win or lose, like in Civilization, right?

Yes, just keep in mind that after reaching score victory (at normal speed at around 300 ) turns, the eternal winter sets in.

Then it's just as well I assimilated Orcs! (man, in the future I'm going to have to find it in the options and turn it off)

Not at all. You get notice that they are going after quest, or science, but you still have plenty of time to stop them. if you feel than any particular condition is not fair, turn it off in the options when you make a new game.

Is there a list online of all the faction quest objectives? Some of them are almost impossible unless you plan way ahead of time (Broken Lords especially).

fahbs wrote:
Is there a list online of all the faction quest objectives? Some of them are almost impossible unless you plan way ahead of time (Broken Lords especially).

This thread isn't really about that, but it does include a complete, up-to-date description of the current BL quest.

fahbs wrote:
Is there a list online of all the faction quest objectives? Some of them are almost impossible unless you plan way ahead of time (Broken Lords especially).

You can find all of them in EF_Localization_Assets_Locales.xml, which is located in ...\Steam\Steamapps\Common\EndlessLegend\Public\Localization\English

Vicarious wrote:
You can find all of them in EF_Localization_Assets_Locales.xml, which is located in ...\Steam\Steamapps\Common\EndlessLegend\Public\Localization\English

I'll probably just read the story rather than bothering with finishing the Broken Lords quest

What's over powered are the 'You or so and so is almost close to a such and such victory' messages.



Wish they would tune those up so they are more accurate.

I'm also a newbie in the sense that I just got the game last week during the Steam sale, but I'm also kinda a veteran now considering that I've put in 90+ hours and won quite a few games on impossible and endless by now (although playing as custom broken lords faction). I don't know what game speed you play on, but I only play on fast and normal with 4 or 6 players. On normal with 6 players, I basically can win by supremacy by turn 100, then when I continue the game after my supremacy win, I got economic victory by around turn 120 and by then, I was also very very close to scientific and diplomatic victories too.



On the other hand, quest/wonder seem like a pain the ass. I actually did it on fast with 6 players on normal difficulty as wild walkers. By turn 80, I basically already had expansion and supremacy, but then I just sign peace treaty with everyone and basically spammed industry stockpile and end turn and finally won the wonder victory at turn 130.



For broken lords, I ignore all quests, since they are actually counterproductive to what I'm doing. For ardent mages, cultists, and wild walkers, then first few are actually pretty helpful. For roving clans, only first one was useful. I haven't really tried the quests for necrophage and I've never played as vaulters or drakken yet.