Hi. I just played my first couple hours of the game. It's absolutely amazing. As a Civilization fanatic, I can't help but compare anything along these lines to Civ. This game shows enormous potential to be BETTER than Civ. Here are my very humbly offered suggestions -



1) Magic. Maybe it's the faction I was playing or maybe it's that I didn't play long enough, but I wanted to throw at least a little magic around. Only seems fitting with all these elementals and demons and stuff flying around.



2) Politics. Again, maybe I just didn't play long enough but the experience seemed to be lacking in personality - and so I'm thinking some politics would add that - being pestered by messengers, advisers, that sort of thing. My one encounter with an AI faction led me to think they have differing units and tactics, but zero personality. The units just deployed straight off without any nasty comments from the leader, any attempt to bargain or anything resembling either psychological menace or . . . whatever the opposite of menace would be. Under that heading I would probably suggest some wandering roguish types who don't have battle in mind but want something else - to trade, to spread their religion . . . some wandering NPC's so to speak that aren't necessarily wandering monsters. If the game has just the right mix of non-battle personality focus A) my wife will play it, and B) it adds depth to the game for the brawlers anyhow. THAT makes me go ahead and say TRADE and ESPIONAGE - the players could be able to produce non-combat units that do various things - infiltrate, assassinate, steal things, etc. In fact, along the lines of politics - maybe you guys should check out a little online game called "Nation States". It's not graphically intensive at all, but it's hugely popular. Just as in Endless Legend, or Civ, people set up their own empires. This includes all kinds of choices about government, what rights the citizens have, tax rates, foreign policy, etc. Even with no graphics at all these guys keep people enchanted merely with picking their national flags, national flowers, and passing laws as issues arise. Endless Legend would be off the chain with all it's fantasy weirdness - that sort of political stuff would make all the weird stuff seem more real. I mean, look at Game of Thrones - it's gritty, they've have figure out how to feed the serfs and stuff.



3) Please create MORE demographic reports than Civ ever dreamed of having. Civ has tons of those, but nonetheless one of the most popular user mods is one that adds even more. People love to see their demographics charted in twenty different ways.



4) And THAT leads me to ask for something even Civ doesn't have - a really awesome historical recap-replay of game highlights at the end. I mean really drag it out. Even as relatively feeble as Civ's little replay feature at the end is, I can't resist watching it -seeing my empire spread across the globe. We watch it and I say, "There's where I took China" and "there's where everyone else ganged up on me after I took China." Well, wouldn't it be incredible if the GAME said that? "1454, Began the Second Dutch-Chinese War" or "The Great General So-and-So fell at Antwerp, but his army was victorious"? And how about if it showed who had the most wonders built? Who was the great trader in the game? Even if they didn't win, that's a game highlight. I would think some pretty simple algorithms could sort the data - find what things an instance of the game was rich in (wars, diplomacy, achievements) and then present them in a sort of PowerPoint presentation - and of course another algorithm could mix that up a bit each time. I mean, it's a big idea, but I'm not asking for wind in furry cloaks here, right? Just some data management. It would be fantastic to feel I'm hearing a History of the War of the Ring at the end of the game, basically.



5) I want MORE manual tactical control of my units. They're MY units! Manual still feels a lot like auto-resolve. It's beautiful the way it executes, but I think I'd like the option to move my units around as stupidly as I like to do.



6) Oh yeah, and more severe weather. Just whatever you can add in that regard. Severe magically augmented weather that does weird things and makes life tough. The winter is cool, but it just felt flat. It comes and it's neat for a second and then it's over and it didn't much matter. Maybe the mages or priests or whatever could have something to do with determining how long until the next weather change, what it will be, protecting against it, etc.



So I guess what I'm saying is - depth. Depth of personality, statistical and historical depth, tactical depth, and weather, erm . . . depth. More of everything, that's all!



The game looks beautiful. In fact, I know we just met but, I LOVE YOU AMPLITUDE!

Hello quantum0d0,



welcome to our humble Amplitude community.





I'd like to assure you that more trade and diplomatic options have been promised for later builds of the game. However, having played their previous game, I'm afraid that at least Diplomacy may fall short in presentation. It took them a long time to add personalized response message by the different factions, and they're displayed in such a tiny box I think most people just overlook them. I fully agree that they really do need to make the other factions leaders feel like they have personalities. Personalized quotes on units, tech, and building descriptions would help that a lot as well.



I would also like to see some magical abilities included in the game, with Dust serving as mana to fuel them, but I can understand if that doesn't mesh well with Amplitude's creative vision.



I fully agree on receiving more demographic feedback. Being able to access graphs about my expansion; population growth; and scientific, industrial, and military progress in game would be great, and they already track that information anyway. Outside of multiplayer games, I can access that information any time by saving and quitting anyway, so they might as well make those graphs accessible in game, perhaps restricted to faction you already encountered (or are spying on).

The historical replay also sounds great. As far as notable battles and events are concerned, however, I believe they could even tie some in-game benefits to it. The site of a great battle (8+ units on both sides, or perhaps a victory against overwhelming odds) becomes an anomaly that provides happiness and Influence. At a random turn in the game, all players are issued a quest to become master traders, and whoever makes the most dust by trading within 20 turns receives a small permanent bonus, similar to how the first to circle the map in Civ 5 would receive a small speed boost to naval units.

Oh, yeah, now you're talking! That is a GREAT idea about the site of a great battle then gaining additional bonuses. Makes sense and it's then specific to the game that is being played. Same with accomplishing non-combat achievements then feeding back some bonuses.



As for magic - fine, we can call it science, but let's face it, there are driders and elementals . . . So I'm just talking about Arthur C. Clarke's technology that SEEMS like magic. You know, like the hero ablities in "Age of Wonders" - basically? We can call it science if we like, I'm fine with that.



I totally blew off the new "Age of Wonders" to get in on the ground floor of this one - and I did that because this one seems to have more depth. I hope with the early release going on it's an opportunity for them to just add tons of that. I hope it's NOT a factor that makes them complacent with what they've got now and that's it.



I think the hard part is for me to be patient. What I love is that they're so open to feedback. The game looks absolutely incredible.



Thanks for YOUR feedback!