So far, I'm liking what I see. I feel that the need to think through my technology picks has definitely become more critical and I'm liking the direction you're taking.



I'd still like to see the occasional mutually-exclusive techs that make these decisions even more critical, but we can talk about that later.



The new Roving Clans scene is beautiful! DotBeta made mention of it and I finally saw it. WOW! Amazing artists...



{redacted- see newest post}



New unit abilities are freaking awesome! Keep those coming! That stuff is really great. I'm glad to see those and hope to see more.



Also, the new Winter is harsher and definitely a better fit. Thanks again for listening to us!



Lastly, and I could go on and on, but I'll stop here: the experience requirement for leveling seems to be just about right now. A little longer to level, but it kept a good pace for the two hours I played last night.



Speaking of two hours, I only had one minor error during that whole time. Definitely an improvement!



Keep doing what you're doing, Amplidudes and dudettes. The AI made it through 120 turns for me, so that's a good sign of improvements.



I'm going to dive in a little more with the tech tree to see if I can give any further feedback.

Haha DevildogFF, here I recognize you, only talking about positive points of the new build

I agree on those point, especially on the amazing Roving Clans scene, we want more of them !



But for now, let me be the black part of your white feedback !



I like alot the new build but after around 7 hours playing, I can say there are many things that annoyed me ALOT...



I won with the Necrophage at turn 150 in fast speed, normal difficulty :



First black point... Balance. The older versions were way more balanced. The units in battle are able to inflict from 2 to 42 damages due to the broken Attack/defence system.



Stop me if im wrong but it seems that defense was buffed and its really hard to play with alot of units with poor stats (nearly impossible)

You are alway obligated to rush on the weapon's tech if you dont want to be crushed without causing any damages.



Defence is too ... high in a way. Example : My necrophage militia often fought Orcs. (my nemesis in that game ^^) They had around 33 attack and the orcs had between 11 and 17 defence.

Majority of my units had that kind of damages.

I couldnt inflict more than 7 damages with my militias. Sometimes I had critical strike which inflict 40 damages, ridiculously strong.

Same for the game I started with the Vaulters, my first fight was soooo boring, I fought Bos, we fought during 10 durings, ending on a draw.



We couldnt make more than 3 damages to each other xD I finally killed one of them with a critical strike (37 damages woooho !)

That was terrible. It never happened to me in the other versions...



2nd black point : Missing combat animations !



The orcs with Bow (crossbow seems to work fine) animation bug, most of the time they dont move any hand and sometimes one of them fire an arrow



Most of the animations lack of depth and the necrophage militia look very ridiculous when attacking (only one of them give a little hit of spear ^^)



The animations in general have to be improved a little



3rd Black Point :



Tiny Battlefield : At the end of the game, I had a pretty big army of 23 necrophages units (proliferators and militias). I couldnt even move them, they were blocked everywhere by there mates. The battlefield was ridiculously little compared to my army ^^



The path was broken and my units were random-moving anywhere they could, there was no tactic, just waiting for the 1rst and 2nd line to die....



Thats a major issue to be fixed cause the Epics end-battle with alot of units need to be passionating and not boring...





This is a part of what I observed.

Anyway I had fun during many hours thx to Amplitude and I can tell this game is the most promising I saw from many years...

Interesting that you felt that way about combat, Kingsguard. I had the exact opposite experience; for me, units stats and attack/defense is much more balanced now. The AI does a better job of equipping stuff, and when I go in to battle against an opposing army of roughly the same size the outcome now seems much more realistic--the side with higher tech doesn't necessarily just steamroll the opponents as much. Then again, I was playing as Ardent Mages, not Necrophages, so it could be the Necrophage units' base stats are unbalanced or something. But now until I got to much later in the game I didn't have a massive advantage due to weapons tech, and even when I did--for example, T2 titanium vs base (presumably T1 steel) minor faction units--I wasn't one-shotting opponents like I used to. I still occasionally took way too little damage, like 1-5 points of damage while dealing out 30-50 points, but mostly I still took a reasonable amount with a tech advantage. I think the minor faction units got buffed, which I think they really needed because before their base stats seemed too low and not worth incorporating in any army.



Also, interesting that you like the city level cap, DevilDog. I actually don't understand where it came from or why...but then, I like tall empires much, much better than wide ones.

PawnTakesCheck wrote:


Also, interesting that you like the city level cap, DevilDog. I actually don't understand where it came from or why...but then, I like tall empires much, much better than wide ones.

Interesting that you point this out, Pawn, as I actually have come to dislike it and I'm curious, too, about the reasoning.



ESPECIALLY with the Broken Lords, considering that I think they're geared more towards tall empires and not wide ones.



Devs, can you please give us a little feedback on your reasoning behind this move?

I suspect that the level cap on districts is a misguided and ill-fated attempt to fix the "triangles and sticks beat everything" situation of borough leveling.



As far as combat stats are concerned: They generally feel more balanced, but I have run into a few instances where combat became just tedious as damage wouldn't surpass 5 damage per attack.

Speaking of combat: I love the fact that weapons and materials now give capacities, though I question some of the choices, and am disappointed to see Spears and Swords offering nothing but -slayer.