Hello once again peoples, here are my thoughts and impressions of the Lucy Open Dev

Overhaul, the experience was really fun, despite some bugs and crash (memory leak, sound freeze mainly) I am eager to play the final two eras and the full game!

• MAP
  1. By exploring the map, I thought that it was very big. Making it hard to explore completely
  2. In my case, I may prefer smaller maps, or with more players to increase the empire’s density and fight for territories 
• FAME
  1. Overhaul this mechanic is very nice. My opinion has not changed since the last open dev. It is a very interesting mechanic with enough depth to spice games
  2. I am wondering how it will play in later late game. Will the winner be obvious, or will you have the opportunity to turn the table around and surpass the leading player if you managed correctly your empire?
  3. It will however deliver its true potential with multiplayer in my opinion since it currently is not very challenging with the IAs.
  4. How comes that many factions can achieve the same deed? (what make it possible?)
  5. How are the milestone adjusted in each era? (like the district number) Is it depending on what you currently have when changing era?
• ERAS & CULTURES
  1. General
     1. Why does each culture get the “buyout” power in each and every era?
     2. Won’t it be interesting to add a filter to culture achetypes?
  2. Archetypes
     1. City mode (Builders & Scientist): I am still not a fan of the city mode for those two archetypes, because it is so easy to forget. The notification that all is converted into industry/science is so discrete that you really easily forget that something is going on. While loading an old game/managing lots of cities, it gets very hard to remember
         What is more is that you do not have a window to see which are the cities in this special mode
     2. Scientist: a shame that I could not explore the industrial techs (but I digress) :p
        Overhaul, a very nice passive (only useful in par with the active) and a very “all-in” active (which I am not very fond of for now, because of how it is dangerous for the empire’s balance). It always feels like I have to compromise my cities growth into something that I cannot benefit just yet
         But this archetype is probably the  one I am the most hyped for in the future, because of its potential to completely change the odds by changing the pace of the game (because if I remember correctly, completing the tech tree will end the game)
     3. Merchant: The fact that it is a passive is okay-ish. But you do not have a clear idea of what you gain from it as there are no information displayed
     4. Agrarians: One of the best archetypes in my opinion (although the one I am the least inclined to pick because I prefer industry & money), its effect is clear, direct, and effective
  3. Neolithic
     1. Very interesting way to make the player explore before starting the very first city
     2. The fact that you just respawn at your starting point when you lose your last unit could be improved (random spawn in what you explored, with a fragmented unit?).
         But at least it is not as frustrating as losing the game right away.
     3. I did not notice that the tribe could not grow larger than 4 units, so while I was trying fetch all foods. I only noticed after changing era via another mean
  4. Ancient (I tried the Zhou, Phoenicians, Hittites, and Egyptians)
     1. Zhou & Hitties: not much to say since I was focused on other things. Those culture did not strike me as bad, neither good
     2. Phoenicians: a very useful way to make early harbours, although it does not help to assert sea dominance since you do not have an earlier float (but stronger instead) nor territories in coastal
     3. Egyptians: their EQ are very similar to makers quarter but stronger since they can be put everywhere. It is a very nice boost to your industry, and they work fabulously well with maker quarters (although I wonder if they are viable in late game or if it is better to replace them with maker quarters). 
  5. Classical (I tried the Greeks, Huns, Carthaginians and Askumites)
     1. Greeks: Nothing new from what I tried in the last open dev, except from the fact that since influence seems less and less useful (can be replaced by gold at some point), their amphitheatre are less useful than what they can be.
     2. Huns: too strong, because they can pop very powerful units out of cities/ pillage/outposts… Their units are like super Saiyan archer (act 2 time, stronger and move faster) their only downside is that they do not have range, which is not so much a problem since they are most powerful than most units anyway. They even got their bonuses on water!
     3. Carthaginians: a shame that their EQ is the one who works the least with the EQ of its mother culture (Phoenicians). There are no adjacency bonuses, and this quarter is not better than harbour, just different.
     4. Askumites: Their EQ (great obelisk) is very hard to place in my opinion, because it kind of works the same way as the money quarter, without being obviously better because it does not have adjacency bonus on luxury resources and thus should be put in place where I usually will not make farmer quarters.
         It is also not clear what is meant by (“how many religion you have”) is it the variety of beliefs on the city itself? It is the numbers of tenants?
  6. Medieval (I tried the Teutons, Ghanaians, Mongols)
     1. Teutons: nothing did strike me as bad nor good. Except for the fact that I like their visuals and effect (very fun to play as they are meant, with crusades and the like)
     2. Ghanaians: I very much like their emblematic unit (the meharist), it is very interesting in this era where cavalry if so effective
     3. Mongols have the same flaws as the Huns. I think however that it is interesting that they are so similar to the Huns, because it could be used as a way to counter them.
  7. Early modern (I tried the Joseon, the Dutch and the Poles)
     1. Joseon: are quite fun, but I think their trait (+5 science per coastal) is really broken with cities on atoll, I managed to reach 3416 science per turn on turn 132.
         I really like their architecture as well, it looks really good. ?
     2. Dutch: may be too strong in money generation. In my game, by turn 150 I got a generation of about 20k gold per turn with special quarters around 50 gold per tile
     3. Poles: Why does they have an influence icon for a defence effect?
         It is also unintuitive that you can ransack their emblematic quarter (the Barbican) if they have two next to each other, BUT I think it is way better that way (for balance issues). It is just nor clear
     4. Ming: TheSpiffingBrit IAs should clearly be more inclined to play as them to have more tea (hehe)
• UI
  1. Independent people: I very much prefer the way you reworked the UI for independent peoples. It is so much better and intuitive now
  2. Next-to-end-turn-buttons
     1. I prefer the way the map filters are placed (FIDS & grid), it fits very well with the notification bar
     2. I am very eager to look at the encyclopaedia
     3. Although I hope that it is not online (like the shortcut seems to display). Because in my experience with the total war ones. It is just infuriating the have a loading screen each time you are searching for a minor detail (it just makes it harder to refer to it)
  3. Tech tree: Love the search and filter in the tech tree
  4. City buildings
     1. Love the new categories in the city buildings, it is more understandable that way
     2. The fact that repeatable do not say they are repeatable still can trouble newcomers in my opinion
     3. The UI size is still strange, filters do take nearly as much space as constructions. It feels like having an explorer window with a very intrusive “display tab” (with very large icons which does not help the visibility) (screenshot)
        
     4. In this regard, I must admit that the “list mode” you added was fine addition, but I am afraid that it will not be that useful in practice.
        In a way, it allows to display more items which can help to have a better grasp at what you can build overhaul. However, since the image is this smaller, you must check each picture individually, hence not helping to have a better grasp.
         For example, you cannot process mutual icons in “list mode”, because the pictures are too small for you to understand it with non-central vision (maybe you can using an eye tracking device to try out if it really improve time consumed on UI?)
     5. By the way, scrolling upward when you already are at the top make the UI do… strange things (screenshot)
        
  5. White text on white panel… (In religion mode tutorial)
     
  6. Map
     1. The FIDS with two digits are very odd to look at since they are contained in multiple bubbles. It’s a minor detail, but it looks like a glitch with multiples number on top of each other’s (screenshot)
        
     2. Continents should be in a view or filter in some way (as there are achievements to them)
     3. I really love the fact that some colours are added to the zoomed-out map, like some green for forest, but it seems too scarce for now
     4. Ruins are very hard to see when you want to clear some
     5. Ransack window obstruct outpost preview (and there is not a way to cancel the notification)
     6. There is not a way to force a movement to land if there is fog nearby. I was forced to go all around the isle (screenshot)
        
  7. Achievements
     1. When achieving something great, you have no idea of what it is based on the notification
     2. I think the achievement board should be used more often, by using the notifications as a link for example (“player5 achieved the competitive deed continental rise” with a link on the deed)
  8. TipTool too large (at 100% ui ratio)
     1. I do not want to focus on it, because I tend to think that it generally lacks data. But it stays problematic this way, so…
     2. Encounters
        1. The preview of the settler in the tech tree is cut and does not fit into the screen
        2. Some late game UI on the city panel do not quite fit the screen (mainly food and stability in my case) (screenshot)
           
  9. I really love the new UI panel for fame per player, it helps so much to know what is happening in the game beside in your empire
  10. I love the fact that you can review which culture you were and see what era stars you got and did not (although I would want to see that in other empires)
  11. Sometimes the UI to merge cities from the map just disappear
  12. Notifications
      1. Some notifications are too vague, and that is sometimes a little irritating. Like the “someone opinion of you has changed”. Yeah okay, could you say “who” and from what to what?
      2. When other cultures are changing era, the notification should be way larger (like the one when you can evolve too), because it is an important event. It should also specify in which era they will be since the transcendence exist 
• BUILDING & CITIES
  1. Quarters
     1. Okay, planting forest is neat, but you cannot see what will change (if it is a working tile or not), its description does not indicate it either.
     2. Planting forest does not change the visual of the said tile, and I think it makes it harder to understand which tiles have this many wields and why
     3. Garrison tip tool (when hovering in city districts) do not get updated with city improvements buildings
  2. Outposts
     1. Is the relocation function bugged? It kept telling me that relocation will reward me with +2 food / +2 indus / +2 stability
     2. Outposts lacks notifications to tell they can do something (build mines, harbour etc)
     3. They also lack a queue to build consecutive buildings
     4. And finally, they lack the ability to tell you they finished something
     5. Also, it the population is not as clear as on cities 
  3. Absorbing cities
     1. I never tried merging cities together before, but now that I tried, I am amazed that the price could go this high.
     2. What happen when merging cities? Do they each gain what the other miss in techs? Does it cost more to merge if both cities have the same techs or not?
  4. Upgrading outpost to city
     1. At first, I did not understand what the benefit was for building larger infrastructure for outpost, since it would have taken way too many turns.  (screenshot)
        
  5. Settlers: With the settlers, you do not have any preview for any placement
  6. Hold on… why all the influence-based cost suddenly went to money? Did I miss something? Is that an era effect? A tech effect? I still have no idea when this happened and why
• CIVICS
  1. Okay, in the sentence “Applies status Celebrating on new Cities” (Customary laws of Legitimacy) it could be useful to know what this is about in detail (by hovering, it could even lead to the encyclopaedia)
  2. Some civics just do not show up, like “inherited land” which do not have any effect
  3. On hovering, you cannot see the traits descriptions (“individualism” etc)
  4. With osmosis on civics, you cannot see both effects, just the one you do not have yet
  5. It is not obvious that selecting a civic will branch in next civics discovery
  6. What can happen if you change one earlier civic with osmosis? Can you develop in the newly unlocked branch?
  7. Do you unlock more points by min/maxing the various government axis or is it plain random? It is not clear and makes it strange to have games with very different outcomes without knowing why.
• BATTLES
  1. Battle speed x3 is such a divine blessing! \o/
  2. After checking auto resolve, all battle will auto-resolve, but the button will look like it will not. This got me a few times since I was looking to speed an easy battle but was tricked in a later battle where I thought it was not activated.
  3. You still cannot see what defences you have on a city when you are not sieged (peasants)
  4. Newly created units cannot enter combat on a sieged city. Except when you sortie then retreat and then sortie again (but you lose you peasants).
  5. Pillaging is something I find not so clear. It could take 11 turns as well as 1… I think it really need a kind of strength indicator to understand how hard it is to pillage
  6. I am so sad that the IA get a boost for their units depending on the difficulty (or I did not understand what makes them stronger) … it feels unfair. Ever more in this game where strength points are very important
  7. Upgrading each unit individually is a hassle, you should be able to upgrade entire army
  8. When an ally makes a vassal out of an enemy a was at war with, I could not force peace anymore and just went into a strange state, were I was allied with him but could still attack him
  9. Force surrender did bug in one of my game, where I just could not reclaim cities because I did “not have enough war desire” despite having a total of 200… (It may have to do with the earlier statement in point 8) (screenshot)
     
  10. When starting a battle, all units will use all their movement point, from the one who initiated the attack, to the reinforcements. This is a problem, since when the defender just run away, you cannot pursue it with the reinforcements
  11. Killing a player is possible from what I saw. But it is not clear how does it works clearly. I vaguely understood that you must kill every single outposts/city/units to end the player. But starting with the units or else they will just respawn (like in Neolithic era). Vs IA it is still a bit bugged, because I had an IA freak out and stop doing anything except respawning
• DIPLOMACY
  1. There still is nothing to show what is being traded from you (although you have the notification)
  2. Switching between empire is a hassle in Trade and Treaties tab. For me, I spontaneously have the reflex to right click to change faction (as in endless space 2), but it switches me onto the map instead
  3. You cannot see what status icons means (screenshots)
     
  4. It would be interesting to see what other empires are made of culturally speaking. Like what did they choose as classical culture, what are their assets military speaking?
  5. The trade option still does not indicate what you gain from having a new resource (+2 stability and so on)
  6. I hope there will be an option to cancel current trading route with other factions, since it is very important militarily speaking. (with strategic resources)
  7. At one time I had a land army roaming inside the sea of an enemy, but when the peace was declared, my army was stuck, because there was no way to exit their territories that I knew of. The same thing happened later with a spy that accidentally came across a city centre, which then stuck my spy
  8. You cannot change relation with an empire that is liege of someone?
  9. With crisis, you do not know how it will impend on war desire. For example, refusing defusal do have an impact, but it is not specified on hovering
  10. You cannot make demands (can force the IA to dislike you or to abide)
  11. You cannot exchange money with other goods (like in endless space where systems/techs/etc could be exchanged)
  12. You cannot negotiate peace unless the IA has 0 war desire or when you surrender
  13. You must declare war to pillage a sanctuary inside a zone controlled by an outpost (screenshot)
      
  14. You cannot see what another empire have achieved (cultures, achievements, etc)
  15. When you capture a luxury resource from an enemy by capturing their cities you still gain grievance from cancelled trade routes
• RELIGION
  1. I like the rework of the tenants
  2. The fact that you can change religion quarter is odd. Mostly because it does look like a skin and nothing else (which it could be). But the way it is shown, I was expecting it to have an effect in my game.
  3. I find it odd that you can keep an old religious quarter evolving into a new religion
  4. In religion view, cities with other religions often disappears only to let a void (in the screen below, all the purple cities aren’t shown except for the one selected) (oh, and it look like the society view have the same problem) (screenshot)
      
  5. You cannot see how many holy sites you have compared to the limit you can build
  6. In some games, the civics and religion influence view are just straight horrible and look like a mess of noodles escaped from hell. But I did have a good laugh (screenshot)
     (yes the only yellow line in the 2nd image just went on a trip around the world)
  7. It’s a shame that the IA won’t change its religion type (polytheism or shamanism)
• TECH TREE
  1. You can build arquebusiers without searching for crossbowmen. Why not? But it stays odd since the continuity of the unit