TimBur wrote:
I don't think we need another era that's "mostly like the others." The first four eras already feel a little repetitive. In this, I agree with DevildogFF - rather than more of the same, the end result would be better if we instead did away with the 5th era, and had a more interesting variety of techs in the first 4 eras (techs that grant new abilities, and qualitatively change gameplay).



However, I do like the idea of an uber-era, with techs related to either victory conditions or super-powerful abilities (e.g. terraforming). That sounds like fun.

To my mind the game is developing really well. The AI needs vast improvements (computer players get defeated by minor factions for instance...), but I'd love to see Era V end with players controlling 25-35 pop cities and many 8 unit armies of lvl 8+ units running around. At the moment one upgraded army is enough to wipe any computer player off the map.



5th Era tech can give players a way to better specialise their cities but also allows you to use your research more constructively instead of back filling old techs you skipped for a reason. Then Era VI will be like in Endless Space, allowing you complete your chosen victory type. This will only be relevant though once it isn't so ridiculously easy to just walk in and take the oponents capital so other win criteria need to be explored.



I think the best way to better balance the game at the moment is bonus combat benefits in territory as a default setting for AI, scaling upwards with game difficulty level.

So..... here are a few things.....

1. Broken Lords: Population for Broken Lords in having several high level cities is near impossible (and I'm one of the few players that has massive cities, as in higher than 9 spaces of city).. it is great if you want a bunch of lower level cities, or one major one.. but the dust for the population of one city goes up when you grow the population in a completely different city, which I think is extreamly cumbersome for the faction in the long run.

2. Vaulters, they are great.. best resources, major science increases, great at massive cities and defensively and not too bad of units, only downside is that eventually you run out of things to put science into.. and you're getting thousands of science per turn.. perhaps there should be a way to convert excess science in cities ((for a very very small percentage of dust or something.. just something, doesn't have to be too worthwhile)) This doesn't even mention the holy resources.. which just make the vaulters flat out overpowered in resources (which you know.. is great for my style of peaceful economic play.. but nonetheless.. I think more should be added to other races to compensate)

3. Necrophage Food for Death should increase at some point in the ages, as it stands while the units are getting stronger and stronger, the food you get from killing them remains the same (perhaps it should increase with each era), I haven't tried the boomer ability yet but it seemed like it isn't all that great.. perhaps when it exploded it would heal nearby necrophage or something as well as disease enemies. (although with the improvements made so melee is quite powerful, I suppose one could argue that they still are a great faction).

4. Ardent Mages, while their runes are fairly good, and useful when you have the dust to spare.. they also only work best at a small scale.. once you build a city to grand scales.. the runes offer very little (while being almost over powered in the very beginning), so I would argue for a percentage increase to the city involved (like 5% per hex of the city, or less).

5.Wild Walkers.. now this is a troublesome faction to figure out since their stun ability is rather nice.. and their units are relatively good or atleast okay. On the downside their economic issues lie in that they have the best starting ability of anyone really, increased industry from forests.. however.. besides a few nifty abilities like 50% defense in forests (if that is still around) and divination into nearby lands.. their abilities do seem to lack in the long term when compared to the massive cities of the necrophages, the grand tech of the vaulters (and holy resources), or the % of the Roving Clans.. generally they are balanced but maybe some more benefits from the forest might be nice.. like treant guards per hex in the forest.. or something. But notably they are okay.

6. Roving Clans.. a major downside to them is that you can't customize mercenaries or upgrade them.. so they are great when you want raw force against your opponents, but in the end game where specialized items come into place.. the clans will lack (although their own units may work out okay for that), also their % from what people buy I think should decrease with the amount of players that are in a game.. because otherwise their effectiveness will vary (like 20% in 2 player, 15% in 3 player, 12% in 4 player, 10% in 5 player, 9% in 6 player, 8% in 7 player, 7% in 8 player.. or something to that effect) to keep things balanced. (( A major issue also is that the AI does not buy.. it doesn't even research it unless they are the Roving Clans.. so that should be worked on for the Roving Clans to even be an option when with AI players.)

7. More Obscure things to find through exploration maybe.. eventually most land becomes just land with occasional ruins.. so a special ruin every now and then.. moreso than others.. might be sort of cool... just a thought.

8. The Speeds NEED to be equalized for the rate of dust verse industry construction as I explained in the sites discussion documents.. 'fast' gives too much benefit for purely industry building compared to the other speeds.

9. Eternal Winter takes away any need for the 50% food in summer.. I think eternal winter should be optional within the features (though it's fine to have winter come on during random intervals).

10. More severe effects of winter for cities, like instead of just -1 food/dust per tile, maybe -50% food and Dust as well (so broken lords are on equal footing).. since it is harder to harvest in winter afterall....

11. As for combat.. maybe more mobility in what units can do.. like if they're a spear user they could 'brace' for a charging (moves) calvary to do extra damage in the initial attack, stuff like that.

There is an exploit whereby I can purchase small quantities of a resource I own a lot of, to inflate its price. Then I dump that resource in the market, getting the full price on each unit sold and raking in the Dust!



In this kind of situation, few buyers would realistically buy the entire amount being offered for sale at peak price (unless demand for it was highly inelastic). Even if a single buyer considered purchasing the entire quantity at one time, they would negotiate a bulk discount.



To improve game balancing, it may be suitable to consider including a bulk discount that scales to the quantity being traded. Alternatively, there could be limits placed to preclude dumping (scaled to the scarcity of the resource in question). Such mechanics should apply for all trades, not only sales.

Are these going to be updated to reflect the changes in 0.5.18?

IDK about everyone else, but I 100% of the time try to get the Haunts and the Kazanji minor factions if I can. Way more than the others.

They're just better units, IMO, and have better pacification bonuses.



Not saying they should get nerfed, but maybe (If people agree with me here) other factions could get some buffs?

The passive of Sisters of Mercy seems way underwhelming in particular.



Only played a few games so my opinion doesn't mean a whole lot lol

Concerning Hurnas Orcs VS Jotus Wolves minor factions:



I think their minor faction bonuses should be switched with each other.

The Orcs must get the 5% vision distance bonus while the Jotus get the 5% attack. Here's my reasoning:



The orcs are currently the most powerful minor faction imo. Besides being longest range minor fighters, they are also the only minor faction capable of killing some of my units in auto-combat right now, even when I have more than 70% higher advantage. They also have "block" and "point blank power" which makes them more powerful than most melee units at melee range, even the units of MAJOR factions! Oo



Besides unit balancing, it makes more sense that Jotus get the faction attack bonus cuz they have shorter range anyway and lore-wise they have weaker eyesight but they are tougher brawlers. They are supposed to be unique medium range fighters. It makes no sense to me to give a faction with "weak eyesight" a faction bonus of "vision range" cuz vision range does NOT affect ATTACK range. and it makes no logical sense lore-wise



So overall, if you switch their faction bonuses with each other, it will be a good balance for BOTH of them.

Hello amplituder fellow forumites!! To begin with a big thank you to the developers for making such a great game - keep 'em coming!



I've already logged all of 150 hours playing this game and can now consistently beat it in Endless difficulty - though not without re-loading :-) That said and without further ado let's go to my main observation:



Expansion disapproval is a pain. Currently the Vaulters are over-powered because of this. The solution could be either to nerf the Vaulters or reduce ED for all functions. ED is too high and makes the +25% approval bonus a one way ticket - which it shouldn't be! You want us to be free to choose any of the options but due to the high current ED values we are constrained to choosing that one - and sometimes even that is not enough to sooth our revolting populace.



Please don't read this as nerd-rage: it is anything but. I am very glad to have the option to discuss this and am sure you must be aware of the issue already but these are just my 2 centime.

BL Bishops imbalanced



Often I saw BL Bishops do a few damage say by 5 but heal each adjacent units by 15-25....it somehow wrong?!.. From where they got another tonns of soul energies??? :^) Yea, it's great for BL =D but not for they enemyes 8-E

Nodor wrote:




Initiative appears to be a terrible stat, I place my army near the back, the AI charges, can't reach me/attack round 1, and then I smash them into pieces on my turn because they moved into range.

This is I major issue right now, really needs to be looked at. If the AI is not the aggressor in the battle then they should play defensively forcing the agressor to initiate any advance accross the battle field.

Rincewind wrote:
Hello amplituder fellow forumites!! To begin with a big thank you to the developers for making such a great game - keep 'em coming!



Expansion disapproval is a pain. Currently the Vaulters are over-powered because of this. The solution could be either to nerf the Vaulters or reduce ED for all functions. ED is too high and makes the +25% approval bonus a one way ticket - which it shouldn't be! You want us to be free to choose any of the options but due to the high current ED values we are constrained to choosing that one - and sometimes even that is not enough to sooth our revolting populace.

Expansion disapproval has an easy counter. I have pop 30-40 cities on fervent happiness with heaps of happiness to spare over the 100% mark. Two main increases are:

Luxury Resources: Wine is massively OP at the moment but the others all contribute. If you can't produce them buy them on the market. The side quest that doubles your output for some of the early era resources is a really important one to boost these throughout the game.

Lvl 2 districts: Don't underestimate this, they contribute positively to your happiness so when you tack on a new district your happiness will actually go up. Might only get you one instead of three new tiles, but allows you to expand again next time. Incendently I've got a tier two surrounded by 6 tier 2 dirtricts but can't make a tier 3. Is tier 3+ city expansions coming?

Thanks for adding the quick poll hopefully you'll get more feedback



It would be nice to see a spreadsheet where we can add thoughts on races as a whole (including their special techs and affinities), rather than just their units.

the units are too damn strong now. I literally fall a sleep when trying to fight when playing at night. Because the units take so small amount of dmg trying to play the game as militaristic faction is not an option. Also the units strong healt makes tactics fly right out of the window because tactics make so small diference now. Could you just pls make units weaker. Also one more thing about the war and figting, because starting war requires so much influence the ai never starts a war.

The haunts are beasts.

Era 1 advanced armor & alloy : There is 3 problems about this.

1 - you don't have the ressources to build the stuff.

2 - at the time you think about to do the research, you go on tiers 2. And tiers 2 stuff is as good (even better) than advanced armor & alloy.

3 - you really need to go on anothers Era 2 research



In Era 2, same problem ! You get tiers 3, and Tiers 3 is better for weapons and armors.

I search era 2 alloy, just because I need heros accessories (+2 dmg to all army, and +2 golds/citizen).



So there is a problem with these useless research.

And there is many others useless research (see the feedback worksheet).



One problem, maybe, it's the cost of research increase only because the number of research you do.

I think, if you are Era 2, maybe, science cost of an Era 1 could be less, and don't increase so much total cost of yours next researchs.

In my experience, Drakkenlings with decent hero buffs are unstoppable. They are tanks. As Drakken I never bother to research Wyverns and only produce a few Ancients relative to Drakkenlings. The Ardent Mages' Eneqa wings can prove tricky, but they're the only unit that has ever posed a challenge to me when I'm playing Drakken and using a Drakkenling-heavy army. The AI aren't intelligent enough to use sound tactics, and having a ton of health and decent defense makes battles far too easy.



Cultists' Preachers are terrible, especially given the Cultists' need to be moving around the map so much. It would make more sense to me for their starting unit to be cavalry (or to have more move points) to support that need to move around and contact villages.



Ardent Mages' Telsem Warlocks also seem to be underpowered starting units.

Small change to buff the Necrophages. The Will of the Hive. In the early game, it's (kind of) noticeable, giving around +10% attack to level 1 unupgraded units. But as soon as around late Era 2 or Era 3, the Will of the Hive is drowned out by higher level units and better weapons. I won't be waging war to more than 1 faction just because I'd get a additional +4 attack when my units already have 200 attack. The Will of the Hive should be changed from a flat bonus to attack, to a percentage bonus to attack, maybe around +10% per declared war. Otherwise, the faction trait wouldn't affect my decision making at all.

karmos wrote:
In my experience, Drakkenlings with decent hero buffs are unstoppable. They are tanks. As Drakken I never bother to research Wyverns and only produce a few Ancients relative to Drakkenlings. The Ardent Mages' Eneqa wings can prove tricky, but they're the only unit that has ever posed a challenge to me when I'm playing Drakken and using a Drakkenling-heavy army. The AI aren't intelligent enough to use sound tactics, and having a ton of health and decent defense makes battles far too easy.

This one's always bugged me. I have no clue why Drakkenlings are the best tanks in the game. Played a game last night where my opponents Drakkenlings had ~ 600 Health and ~400 Defense. After 6 rounds, I'd be lucky if I killed one or two.



The combat changes made right before release added a lot of health to all units and slowed combat down. Late game combat (between well equipped armies, not Ai stomps) is super tedious as the 6 rounds of cambat is not enough to resolve and the armies are large.

Propbuddha wrote:
This one's always bugged me. I have no clue why Drakkenlings are the best tanks in the game. Played a game last night where my opponents Drakkenlings had ~ 600 Health and ~400 Defense. After 6 rounds, I'd be lucky if I killed one or two.

And they're not even an army that relies on tanking. Their other units are a bunch of flyers. (Ancients may be a bit fragile, inappropriately so in my opinion, but with a high initiative ranged flyer, there's usually someplace relatively safe to park it.)

Meedoc wrote:
or any feedback on the spreadsheet (how I could improve them)

I have a couple of suggestions regarding the Unit spreadsheet, the first being, rather obviously, updating it - it's missing two major factions and 4 minor ones.

I took the data from your GoogleDoc spreadsheet and copied it into a big flat Excel table because, and that's my second suggestion, I thought it could be interesting to add some columns that could serve as filters. Take a look at the file I created. The added columns are:

* Faction Type: Major / Minor

* Unit Type: Infantry / Cavalry / Ranged / Support / Flying

* When they are available: at the start / researchable in Era 1 / researchable in Era 2

* Attribute Total: a "score" made by summing all the numerical values related to a unit (i.e. Attack, Defense, Critical, Initiative, Health, Speed, Range)

* a simple Y/N flag for quick filtering of units with and without Capacities



This allows for some pretty nifty sorting and comparing. For instance, it only takes a couple of clicks to see that among the Major factions, three have Infantry as their starting units. Furthermore, the Necrophage Forager has an Attribute Total of 72, significantly less than its AM and BL counterparts (92 and 90 respectively). However the Forager has 2 Capacities, versus only 1 for the other units - still, are the Forager's Capacities really worth 20 Attribute points?



Of course, this is just a crude analysis, you will want to weight each attribute in order to reflect their relative importance to the gameplay. Nevertheless, I think this kind of document can at least be useful to stir people towards asking the right questions.

Propbuddha wrote:
This one's always bugged me. I have no clue why Drakkenlings are the best tanks in the game. Played a game last night where my opponents Drakkenlings had ~ 600 Health and ~400 Defense. After 6 rounds, I'd be lucky if I killed one or two.

Exactly. In my experience, the Drakken are perfect for the warpath. I thought that as a faction concerned with diplomacy, the Drakken would be more nuanced.