I love Endless Legend; it fixes a lot of the pet peeves I had with Civ. EL is like a good version of Civ, as far as I'm concerned.

But I'm still pretty new at it, and have a few questions:



[LIST=1]

Hero traits. Some upgrade the terrain, and my question is: Do the hero need to occupy a city for those to work? Or does it vary?

Some quest items are grayed out, even though I have the materials for them. Why?

Are ruins instanced for each player, or do the AI simply not explore them?

Does the hard AI cheat with resources? Not that I mind cheating, technically I cheat by having a human brain...

How does trading work?

If two empires build a legendary building on the same turn, who gets it? (AI keep snatching it, no matter what I do... buyout etc. and its super frustrating. I can even quickload a several turns back and try to buy it: Doesn't matter - AI still gets it.)

[/LIST]

Gr3y wrote:
I love Endless Legend; it fixes a lot of the pet peeves I had with Civ. EL is like a good version of Civ, as far as I'm concerned.

But I'm still pretty new at it, and have a few questions:



[LIST=1]

Hero traits. Some upgrade the terrain, and my question is: Do the hero need to occupy a city for those to work? Or does it vary?

Some quest items are grayed out, even though I have the materials for them. Why?

Are ruins instanced for each player, or do the AI simply not explore them?

Does the hard AI cheat with resources? Not that I mind cheating, technically I cheat by having a human brain...

How does trading work?

If two empires build a legendary building on the same turn, who gets it? (AI keep snatching it, no matter what I do... buyout etc. and its super frustrating. I can even quickload a several turns back and try to buy it: Doesn't matter - AI still gets it.)

[/LIST]

1. Yes.

2. Not sure what you mean - maybe the hero you are trying to equip does not use that kind of weapon?

3. For each, but you will notice some ruins are a different color - this indicates someone else has been there and I suspect it may change the potential of the rewards.

4. Yes.

5. Trading requires peace between both parties (exception being certain hero skills), roads connecting both cities (can be of any faction) or cargo docks for water routes, and having seen the cities of the target for a trade route at some point (explored terrain) so often a map exchange is a good idea. Under those circumstances, it just happens. Lacking for foreign targets for trade, you can do internal trading, but results are less valuable, as trade routes get bonuses for distance.

6. I think there is a turn order in which build ques are processed. Not sure how order is set, but I think that is how it resolves. Not 100%.

Gr3y wrote:
I love Endless Legend; it fixes a lot of the pet peeves I had with Civ. EL is like a good version of Civ, as far as I'm concerned.

But I'm still pretty new at it, and have a few questions:



[LIST=1]

Hero traits. Some upgrade the terrain, and my question is: Do the hero need to occupy a city for those to work? Or does it vary?

Some quest items are grayed out, even though I have the materials for them. Why?

Are ruins instanced for each player, or do the AI simply not explore them?

Does the hard AI cheat with resources? Not that I mind cheating, technically I cheat by having a human brain...

How does trading work?

If two empires build a legendary building on the same turn, who gets it? (AI keep snatching it, no matter what I do... buyout etc. and its super frustrating. I can even quickload a several turns back and try to buy it: Doesn't matter - AI still gets it.)

[/LIST]

I'll only clarify or correct some where Copperwire's information isn't complete:



2. As Copperwire suspects, greyed out items are those that your hero actually can not use, for example bows on Broken Lords heroes. I don't know why they are displayed at all, since the fact that they are greyed out means that the game is aware they can not be used.

3. Copperwire is only party right here. Yes, exploration of ruins is tracked separately for each player. And nothing another player does changes anything about your search results. You can improve them with hero skills and techs, and reset your exploration with a certain technology, but even if an enemy empire searches all ruins twice, you still get the same chances. (I am not even quite sure what he means about a different color to the ruins.)

4. Yes, on higher difficulties the AI cheats with resources a lot, and it "double-dips" as well. (e.g. getting a higher base FIDSI output per population, and then receiving a percentage FIDSI boost on cities).

5. It is important to note that sea trade routes can not cross more than one sea region. So more often than not, you can not actually establish trade between different continents.

6. There is indeed an order in which players are processed. I am not entirely certain, but I do believe it is the order in which players are listed in the lobby. And the human player/host is always play 0, so the first to be processed. However, the AI is usually very aggressive about trying to snatch those buildings, in my experience, and thanks to its production bonuses stands a good chance of doing so.

Thanks for the replies guys! Appreciate it!

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales wrote:
I'll only clarify or correct some where Copperwire's information isn't complete:

6. There is indeed an order in which players are processed. I am not entirely certain, but I do believe it is the order in which players are listed in the lobby. And the human player/host is always play 0, so the first to be processed. However, the AI is usually very aggressive about trying to snatch those buildings, in my experience, and thanks to its production bonuses stands a good chance of doing so.

That doesn't appear to be the case in my current game. I was the first to start building it, and the turn it should have been done, someone else got it. "Heck, I'll just load 3 turns back" I thought to myself, and did just that. Bought out the building, but the AI, apparently being aware of this, also bought it out, and still got it. So there was no way I could have gotten it, legit or not, it seems.

Strange. That has never happened to me. I usually lose it by many turns.

My understanding of how ties work is the empire with the most left-over production gets the building.

Hmmm, now I am curious: I don't think I've ever tried to construct wonders, as I think the AI will out-build me anyways. But what happens to the resources you spend if you lose the race? Do you get them all back? A percentage back? Or nada?

If you lose the race, invested industry is refunded as dust. The exact amount of dust is related to the buyout cost-- it's not 1 for 1, but better than that, actually. If, for instance, you are 50% complete, you will be refunded 50% of the buyout cost of the building.

natev wrote:
If you lose the race, invested industry is refunded as dust. The exact amount of dust is related to the buyout cost-- it's not 1 for 1, but better than that, actually. If, for instance, you are 50% complete, you will be refunded 50% of the buyout cost of the building.

Ah, okay; so worth the risk then. Thanks!