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Elemental Beta 2-B Change log

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Elemental Beta 2-B Change log

from JoeUser Forums

For a lot of users, Beta 2-B is going to feel like several steps backwards in terms of playability and fun. We apologize in advance for that.

I myself have found the pre-beta 2b builds to be really painful and unfun so you have been warned.

The beta should be up tonight for those users already in the beta group.

Here are some of the things we’re looking for from the beta group:

  1. Suggestions and ideas on how you would like to manage spells. We’re working on this internally but we’ve love to hear your ideas.
  2. Suggestions and ideas on how you would like magical spells that stay in effect (do you want to require a mana cost or just have it be free? I’d rather see it be free otherwise players will have to run around dispelling things and that’s just tedious).
  3. Requests for types of quests you would like to see.
  4. Any other feedback you’d like to provide is welcome, particularly on things that make Magic and Adventuring a viable alternative to “mundane” strategies.

 

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----------------- Beta 2B Change Log  -------------

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****************

* Gameplay Tweaks *

+ Changed all improvements to start with a sensor range of 1, to be updated on completion to whatever value the improvement type uses

+ New map for beta 2B
+ Beta 2A map renamed Dragon
+ New spells added
+ New resource: Wild Garden
+ More balance to units

+ Added a player ability A_SpellPointCapBonus that gives a bonus to the max spell point cap of a faction

+ Added Administrative bonus to the city cost (primarily for the Civilized bonus)
+ Implemented the "StartingCity" tech for civilized (will cast the ground spell and create a city)

+ Added the "StartingCity" tech for Civilized

+ Changed RestoreGarden to place a wild garden instead of a fertile land resource hoard

+ Automatically unlocking resource hoard types is now data-driven, instead of listing resource types in CWorld::CreatePlayer to get them to be available off the bat 
+ New Realm descriptions for Empires/Kingdoms from the Hiergamenon
+ Fixed references to Telescope in Wild Goose Chase quest
+ Changed IceSpellbook to WaterSpellbook for consistency

- in NewCity(), commented out the code that was giving cities a starting population of 10.  The city hub changes its tile design based  on certain population thresholds, and by setting it to 10 right from the get-go, some of them were getting skipped
+ Created new Magic Resources
+ Hooked up Temples to Technologies 
+ Uncommented Basic Garden, renamed Display name to Basic Garden
+ Can now put defending unit game modifiers in tile design xmls, and if that tile design is used for a world prop, when a unit is on top of that world prop they will get the stat bonuses specified in the modifier

+ NPC's ability stats more properly balanced.

+ Lots of new goodie huts and question destinations
+ Lots of new quests
+ Several new monster units
+ New Spell: Summon Imp
+ New Spell: Summon Familiar
+ New Spell: Summon Wilding
+ New Spell: Summon Minor Elemental (earth, air, fire, water)
+ New Spell: Summon flowers (cosmetic spell)
+ New Spell: Summon mushrooms (cosmetic)
+ New Spell: Summon meadow (cosmetic)
+ New Spell: Beautify Land (cosmetic)
+ New Spell Book: Book of Restoration
+ New Spell Book: Book of Summoning
+ New Tech: Spell Control
+ New Tech: Technologies can give player access to spell books
+ Several new magical items players can get during higher level quests

+ Beta map is now sprinkled with bits of revived land
+ Normal size on units is now slightly smaller
+ Wolf is nerfed
+ New Spell: Brilliance. +1 to all research buildings and is part of the base spellbook
+ New Spell: Productive. +1 to all material producing buildings and is part of the base spellbook

+ Added UnlockAchievement(pPlayer->GetPlayerID(), ELEMENTAL_ACHIEVEMENT_ID_CAPTURED_A_CITY);
+ Added UnlockAchievement(ulKillerPlayerID, ELEMENTAL_ACHIEVEMENT_ID_MONSTER_KILLER);
+ Added UnlockAchievement(ulKillerPlayerID, ELEMENTAL_ACHIEVEMENT_ID_DEFEATED_ARMY);

+ Changed Iron(WeaponName) internal names to just (WeaponName) for consistency

+ Hooked up new Icons to Ancient Ruin Quest Tiles
+ Created Experienced Unit Quality Type
+ Fixed some NPC Backstory/Quote spelling errors

+ Spawn System Changed. There are now spawn levels for:
- The world's monster spawn level.
- The world's goodie hut spawn level.
- The world's NPC spawn level.
- The world's quest spawn level.
- The player's individual goodie hut level
- The player's individual NPC recruiting ability
- The player's individual quest level
+ When a player researches a technology that increases goodie hut or quest spawn level, it now checks to see if their level is equal to the world's. If it isn't, then it doesn't increment the world's spawn level.
+ Several new quests added
+ Adventure technologies updated to support the new spawn rating system.

+  Fixed the hedge wall, fort wall and fortress wall to provide +2, +4 and +8 defense respectively.

+ Created Stronger versions of existing potions
+ Renamed InternalNames for Book Of Experience for consistency
+ Created Archivist unit unlocked through Archiving technology

+ Moved all the improvement tiles that were in the core tiles directory into the improvements sub-directory
+ Moved all the quest tiles that were in core tiles to the quests sub-directory
+ Updated the beta map to have a lot more resources and goodie huts. WIP.
+ New resources added:
- Old Growth Forest. Build a lumber mill on this and you can get lots of materials. WIP.
- Pumpkin Patch. Build a farm on this to get food out of it. WIP.
- Enriched Land. Build a farm on this to get 500% more food.
+ AI updated to be more effective at building cities.
+ Familiar now uses bandit animation
+ Core Tiles loading now takes place in the XMLData load thread to speed up initial loading.

+ Added environment type short name to the terrain and environment draggable info card in the main game wnd

**********

* Bug Fixes *

+ Fixed bug where if game was saved while unit was playing an attack animation, it would play attack animation when game was loaded even though attack wasn't happening

+ Added call to UpdateFOW in StartConstruction
+ Added code to update sensor range to be same as improvement type's sensor range upon completion, with a min of 1

+ Fixed bug where Improvement was not updating FOW after being placed
+ Added check in DestroyImprovement which prevents the walls from being re-calculated unless the destruction leaves a tile completely empty
+ Added code in DestroyImprovemetn to mark the ZOC as dirty

+ Fixed GetBuildTownHallEssenceCost to actually get the essence cost from the spells instead of just setting it to 1

+ Fixed bug where IsActionAvailableToUnit would never let the negotiate action be available, because it would skip the logic for it

+ If no death flyback animations, units will play a regular death animation

+ In ApplyGameModifier_Map, fixed a crash if a CreateResourceHoard was given a non-existent resource type for a resource hoard, from a missing null pointer check

+ Fixed bug from the forums where experience books would not give experience points, but would instead adjust the experience stat of the unit that used them
+ Checked in elite catapult that Paul gave me before with the basic catapult, but that I didn't add at the same time

+  Found the inconsistency between how loaded improvements were built and how loaded "under construction" improvements were built.  The under construction ones would upgrade correctly but the built ones would not. Changed the code in City.cpp::LoadImprovementAndCreate() to fix the problem. Also updated the savegame version to 135 in Elemental.cpp.

+ BuildAllowedSubtileList() function wasn't taking into account the fact that resource hoards can now be created with spells and thus wasn't allowing improvements to be built on them.  Fixed.

+ Made IsTileEmpty more efficient

+  If an improvement requires a resource hoard, we no longer test for correct terrain after finding the hoard since the terrain is irrelevant.  
+  If an improvement requires that another improvement already be built we do not list it in the improvement list since we've no way to express to the user why it's greyed out.  (Example, the granary, which you can only build after building a farm, wheat farm, apiary or orchard.)

+ Fixed FindPath bug where the server wouldn't send the path if it was already calculated

+ Fixed bug where path tiles were not being saved in CEventData_UnitBuildTownHall

+ Fixed bug where resources would remain hidden if you uncovered them while in cloth map

+ Fixed bug where the riders on mounted units would always use their idle animation in a unit cutscene, no matter what the unit's animation was set/changed to

+  Made the city radius system check the actual XML to determine the build radius and made it more flexible. 

+ Improved the EndTurn function so that it does not iterate through the player list multiple times
- Combined similar code for calculating the population changes
+  Restored improvements showing up greyed out if the city is not of the appropriate level yet.
+  Fixed a case where a pointer to an improvement might be null before it is used, causig a crash.

+ Added     CImprovement* GetImprovementUnderConstructionByID( ULONG ulID );
+ Fixes to DestroyImprovement
    + Added call to apCopiedImprovements.reserve to optimize allocation time
    + Changed calls to apCopiedImprovements.insert to insert at end instead of beginning, which will use less copying
    + Changed loop that was adding other improvements not in same list as pImprovementToDestroy to use a call to std::find_if to find the improvement, and then used iterator arithmetic to do inserts, thus eliminating the need to do another find
    + Eliminated extra loop to search for improvement that we've already found

+  Found the inconsistency between how loaded improvements were built and how
   loaded "under construction" improvements were built.  The under construction
   ones would upgrade correctly but the built ones would not.

+ Missing Horse quest will now give a mounted unit that can be equipped (i.e. horse riding).

*****

* UI *

+ Flags in city and city wall gfx now display the correct team color
+ Fixed bug where if you equip/unequip items on champions in an army, the army's gfx wouldn't update
+ Improved the path and position of the "arrow" effect when using archers or other ranged units

+ Edge scroll speed now goes from 0 - 400, with 5 notches.  Max value + num notches are stored in prefs so that users can knock themselves out

+ Fixed color of flags (they were using the smart colors)
+ Added "No Scaling" unit scale option

+ Added call in SetOwner to update stats that go on the subwnd and tooltips (otherwise you have to end the turn to take effect
+ Added some new text for the spellbook
+ Added an entry on the page for the spell type

+ Added code to SetOwner to update EmpireTree
+ Added code in UpdateStats to update FOW if current sensor range has changed
+ Fixed bug where city wasn't updating empire tree if it wasn't the capital

+ Updated ImpulseReactor and overlay binaries, including new achievements screen
+ Checked in changes to catapult, adding annotations so elite catapults and both fallen catapults can launch projectiles when attacking
+ Added cooldown time and range to the spell info card

+ Made the "Mana:" text disappear when Mana is 0
+ Changed the "Cost" icon to the Spellbook (as is used elsewhere). Changed "Spellbook" icon to the wisdom icon to avoid confusion
+ Updated intro lore book text
+  A few changes to the build list - improvements will no longer show up if the city is not of the appropriate level.  They also won't show up in the list if the improvement requires a previous improvement that isn't built yet.

+ World prop bonuses will show up in the terrain info box, below any terrain bonuses

+ Added ability to set faction config metal color with <UnitMetalColor> tag, and added a metal color entry to the customize faction wnd
+ In the create sovereign wnd, the color swatch lets you set the metal color instead of the clothing colors
+ Removed metal color overrides from base sovereign and soldier unit types so that new units made during the game will be affected by the metal color of the faction

+ Updated Research Wnd

- Updated the OnBreakthroughSelected function to handle the new page format
- Updated the MSG_CUSTOM_LISTBOX_ENTRY_HIGHLIGHTED Callback to deal with now having 2 listbox's with highlighting
- Removed functions FillTechUnlockIconList and FillTechLeadsToIconList for FillTechPossibleList responsible for everything+ Gave new unit types in the create sovereign screen a default metal color of light grey, instead of black

+ Fixed bug where when you cast the create garden spell, the garden would not show up until FOW update
+ Overlay Fixes
- When in windowed mode having an overlay dialog open no longer stops you using the titlebar buttons or moving the window using the titlebar.
- The achievements option is back in the main menu (now that we have achievements)
- The achievements which have yet to be achieved now have grey text to better match the greyed out icons
- The mouse wheel is working again in the achievements window. 

+  Changed citybuilding so that you can no longer destroy an improvement that would
   make your city non-contiguous.  This shoud fix all of our city weirdness,
   including broken walls.
   +  Improvement.h/.cpp - removed the internal check for contiguity since this needed
      to be done at the city level.
   +  Added a new function CheckImprovementContiguityList() that takes a list of improvement
      pointers and checks to see if the defined city is contiguous.
   +  Changed DestroyImprovement() to build a improvement list without the improvement to
      be destroyed and to check if the city would still be contiguous.  If not, a message
      box pops up telling the user that they cannot destroy the improvement.
   +  Elemental.str - added strings for the new messagebox popup.

* MISC *

+ Added a spawn rating to CGoodieHutType, which defaults to -1. Currently, there is no spawn rating data set for any of the
  goodie huts.

+ Can now place random goodie huts in the map editor. As with NPCs, creatures and quests, you can specify if these random goodie
  huts are spawned at the start of the game, or when the goodie hut spawn rating level hits the appropriate value. A Spawn
  rating between 1 and 10 must be selected. When the map is loaded into a new game, it randomly selected which huts are placed
  at those locations. Only a goodie hut with a corresponding spawn rating will be placed; if one cannot be found, nothing will
  appear at that tile.

  The random selection is weighted using the rarity value  in the goodie hut type; a value between 0 and 100, it determines how
  likely it is that any given goodie hut will be chosen. A higher value makes a goodie hut more likely to be selected, while a
  rarity of 0 means it will never been selected.

  Goodie huts with the “spawn on level reached” option set get placed on the map when the goodie hut spawn rating reaches that
  level. As with the NPC, creature and quest spawn rating, this value is incremented with an “update spawn rating” game modifier
  is applied. These modifiers are identical to the NPC, creature and quest update spawn rating modifiers, only with the StrVal
  set to GOODIEHUT. Currently, there are no update spawn rating modifiers for goodie huts in any of the XML data.

- Cities start with population of 2 instead of 10.

+ Added game modifier for placing a world prop at a given tile (and here's an example):
    <GameModifier InternalName="Fortify">
              <ModType>Map</ModType>
              <Attribute>CreateWorldProp</Attribute>
              <StrVal>P_Fortify_01</StrVal>
        </GameModifier>

+ Automatically unlocking resource hoard types is now data-driven, instead of listing resource types in CWorld::CreatePlayer to get them to be available off the bat
    + Setting <NeedsToBeUnlocked> to 0 in the resource type xml will make it show up at the start of the game without needing a tech or anything to see it
    + To keep the same behavior as before, resource types default to TRUE for NeedsToBeUnlocked, so put <NeedsToBeUnlocked>0</NeedsToBeUnlocked> in any new resource hoard that you don't want the player to need a tech to see.

+ Can now permanently block off tiles from movement in the map editor using the “Blocked Tile” tool. Tiles blocked off appear
  with a red ‘X’ graphic. Once blocked off, no units will be able to enter that tile for the duration of the game.

+ Added the ability to specify a wander radius for NPCs and creatures in the map editor. When set to the default value, NPCs and
  creatures behave normally, but when overridden with a wander radius, that NPC/creature will patrol around their tile of origin
  within that radius. If set to 0, the NPC/creature will not move from their spawn tile.

+ If you turn down a quest after being offered one from a quest location, it removes it from the map.

 

NEXT WEEK

Next week begins the Beta 3 series!

With that all the technology trees get enabled, the Imperial factions get enabled, the minor factions get enabled, tactical battles will get enabled (beta 3A), and tons of other stuff get enabled.

160,533 views 91 replies +1 Loading…
Reply #76 from Elemental Forums Top

Maintenance costs must die.  They're pointless punishment.

Reply #77 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Tridus, reply 71
"Having no way to display it" isn't a reason to not display it. It's a reason to fix the UI defeciency known as "having no way to display it." People are left to guess right now just what is required and why they can't build something. I find it confusing, and I've had the game since beta 1. How is some newbie coming in at release going to feel?...
End of Tridus's quote
Exactly.

A related example of current deficiencies -- I was just playing 2B and when going to one of my cities to check out what I could build, the buildings had disappeared from the map (old bug still not fixed in 2B -- not the problem I'm talking about).  I started thinking about how to tell what we've built in a city, especially when we have many cities.

Assuming the 'disappearing' buildings is fixed for release, there's only 1 reliable way now to see what we've built -- go to the city and use the 'shovel' to tear down the building to get the 'do you want to destroy the X' popup (or whatever it says).

Eventually I'll learn what icon is what building so I'll be able to eyeball it (and yes some are obvious but some are not), but for now I have to guess or use the shovel.  New players will have this problem.  Three possible solutions:

-make it so each is so unique it's obvious (I'm skeptical this is possible for all cases)

-a tooltip to say what the building is, and maybe other information (Tridus covered this well).

-put this info on the city information scroll.  This should be in addition to a tooltip so we can get the information both when looking at the city and when looking at the city information page.  Have a 'next city' button to easily scroll through the cities.

These are the sorts of things that are meant by 'polish' and a lot of things need this polishing.  These are the things that separate out a AAA game from an AA or A game.  I want Elemental to be an AAAA game.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #78 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Nick-Danger, reply 77


These are the sorts of things that are meant by 'polish' and a lot of things need this polishing.  These are the things that separate out a AAA game from an AA or A game.  I want Elemental to be an AAAA game.
End of Nick-Danger's quote

 

You're wrong AAA just means they spent many tens of millions producing it

Reply #79 from Elemental Forums Top

Here’s my initial thoughts after a few games of 2B. Sorry for the wall o’ text.

Spell management:

The Magical Studies screen is kind of a mess right now. I’d suggest breaking it down by spellbook. When you enter, you are shown your library of tomes and underneath them, information such as how many spells are currently available and already known from that particular book. When you click on one, you get to buy spells more or less the same as before, although there are some minor annoyances that could be resolved. This screen, as I understand it, is primarily for research. So the spells available for research should come first, not the already known ones. The cost to research the spell should be that value most highlighted, not the cost of casting, which currently is. I would like the option having a spell research queue that automatically buys a list of spells once there are enough spell points available.

I think you already know that the spells tab is terrible (so is the items tab, for that matter). I would recommend ditching it in favour of a button that brings up a spellcasting popup where you can sort and filter your known spells, mark favourites and then cast.

Spell upkeep:

There definitely ought to be some kind of limitation on persistent spells. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you cast all your persistent spells on every possible target when you have mana to spare? I’d normally be fine with a mana-per-turn cost, except in this case your mana pool is very small and constantly at threat of shrinking due to essence expenditures.

One thing I thought of is per-type spell limitations, kind of similar to the slots system detailed above, but simpler. One unit can only have one persistent buff on it at a time. One city can only have one enchantment active (unless the limit is expanded by certain buildings or technologies). You choose whether you want production or research boosted. One channeler can only maintain one global enchantment, etc.

General thoughts:

I never choose anything but essence on level-up. It’s very easy to burn through all your essence. If you revive land for one city and then create a wild garden, you’re limited to the cheapest spells. Die one or two times on top of that and you’re crippled. It’ll take you ten levels of nothing but upgrading essence to climb back out of that pit. Even before the magic system, I’ve been thinking that you ought to be getting more points on level-up and Beta 2B definitely strengthens that belief.

If I had to sum up the Beta 2B experience in five words, they would be: “I’m constantly out of money.” Without the civilization tree, there is no really good way of making money. You only get one market per city and you can’t build many cities to add up those markets, because cities are expensive and you have no money. Low-level quests don’t pay very well and it’s usually not in gold. The item rewards can’t generally be sold and those that can usually aren’t worth that much. I can’t hire champions and adventurers because they’re very expensive at the beginning and only get more so as time passes. Plus the UI is a lying jerk that pretends they’re a lot less costly than they really are.

Another issue I have involves quests with fights in them. It seems impossible to gauge whether you stand a chance at completing quests. How can I know how strong a bunch of sneering Darklings or a pregnant Ebbenwolf is? The Strange Noises quest is a particularly nasty example, as the text even seems to suggest that the wolf is easy prey due to the pain, but instead she’s insanely powerful and you have no way of knowing that until she’s single-handedly wiped out a small army. What’s worse, once you stumble into that cave, the only choices you have are to fight or burn 5 essence. You can’t just back out very, very slowly.

On familiars: If you’re going to make me pay essence for a summon, it damn well better be amazing, or re-summonable without spending the essence again. It should absolutely not ask for wages and desert if I run out of money.

On compasses: It seems kind of silly that you need to “eat” the compass to make use of it. It seems like the sort of item that you should be able to trade between heroes as needed.

Reply #80 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 25

When new stuff is enabled though, will you be un-enabling other stuff? Or will we get a chance to try the features together?


Beta 3 will be completely enabled other than the Modding Workshop and campaign (and tactical battles won't be enabled until beta 3-A).
End of Frogboy's quote

That's good stuff, thanks for the quick reply chief :)

Note: sorry it took me a day to see it, was quite busy yesterday.

Reply #81 from Elemental Forums Top

After getting some quality time with 2B, here's some thoughts.

 

- Mana regen is slow. Really slow. I wasn't totally clear from the level up screen which stat improved it, but I was using Procepionee who should have had some of it, and it was really slow. Maybe buildings can improve that later, but I didn't have a lot of luck building up large cities (lack of Civ tree hurts there, but that's a temporary problem).

- One stat point per level isn't "fun" to me. "Fun" is pretty subjective, but I actually liked the previous system of having lots of points to spend.  Buying 1 essence per level just doesn't have much kick considering it's only a stat. Suggestion here would be to give out more points (and if ncessary tweak the formulas down a bit so that doesn't cause the power curve to spike upwards too much).

- Being able to cast attack spells on adjacent tiles was cool. I really liked Firebolt for that. But I had a couple of improvements/issues there:

1) It wasn't clear if I could cast it more then once a turn, since additional casts didn't give an error but also didn't trigger an animation.

2) The animation was cool, but the damage effect was underwhelming. To see what it did, I had to mouse over the target again and look if their HP went down. Suggestion here would be damage numbers appearing over the target's head, like WoW and most console RPGs. Some people consider it cluttering up the screen, but there's some visceral entertainment in lobbing a fireball and seeing big red numbers popping up.

 

- The spell research mechanic as you mentioned could use some cleaning up. It might work better if some more randomness was injected into it (and yes, I know the irony in me of all people proposing more randomness, so don't bother mentioning that :P). You could do something similar to the core research system: pick one of your available books to work in and each time you earn a spell, give the player 2-3 options from that spell book.

Reply #82 from Elemental Forums Top

I have to say my dissenting opinion. This was the most boring beta since Beta 1 A.  I hadn't realized how much fun I get from building cities. In this beta, if you don't have a Scholar Champion to begin with, you're on the slow track quick.

Personally, I'd never go for a adventurer build without an early scholar. It's much better to build a city and concentrate on Civilization in this case. Doing adventuring without a scholar puts you in the hole for research quick, and by the time you build a study the research gap is too great. The easy fix is to give your sovereign the Brilliant trait. But should a reckless adventuring sovereign really need to be Brilliant?

 

Reply #83 from Elemental Forums Top

I have to say my dissenting opinion. This was the most boring beta since Beta 1 A.  I hadn't realized how much fun I get from building cities. In this beta, if you don't have a Scholar Champion to begin with, you're on the slow track quick.

Personally, I'd never go for a adventurer build without an early scholar. It's much better to build a city and concentrate on Civilization in this case. Doing adventuring without a scholar puts you in the hole for research quick, and by the time you build a study the research gap is too great. The easy fix is to give your sovereign the Brilliant trait. But should a reckless adventuring sovereign really need to be Brilliant?

 

Reply #84 from Elemental Forums Top

I have to say, the idea of not having to worry about enchantment upkeep or enchantment slots, is a welcome idea.  it seems in my experience every game has some sort of system that is limiting in that fashion, for no reason than they want to put a limit.  By not having the upkeep and no internal limit, it's actually something out of the ordinary! 

Now, an outside force limiting you would mana would be interesting, I can't recall any game off hand that I've played, with in this genre, which takes that approach.  Such as, Player 1 casts a spell on Player 2 that drains x amount of mana per enchantment per turn.  It would still cause some amount of enchantment management but is a negative effect cause by an opponent rather than the system it's self.

I also like the idea of a very well laid out scheme for managing active spells, regardless if there is a cost associated with maintained spells, it's nice for managing your forces.

Reply #85 from Elemental Forums Top

Adventurer tree needs a major over haul. Besides being lacking in terms of production ability it is very thin and there is very little to DO. Now where to begin?

1) Heroes SUCK. - They cost way to much and not worth their wieght in combat. Most cheap heroes are not much better then a couple peasents which run you 10 gildar yet they cost 100-200 or so. While you can buy some higher end Heroes later that cost 1000-5000 gildar or more. And even they they only have combat ratings equal to about a dozen or more peasents. Even whith some of my massive build ups in Beta 2-2A where I was getting over 100 gildar a turn by turn 100 I wouldn't buy one of those heroes cause I could field whole armies of decently equiped troops. They die just as easily as any other unit and not worth it especially since you loss any extra equipment they might of had unlike in MoM which was one thing I really liked.

2) Rewards - Umm what rewards? I mean seriously in 2A it was nice you got a lot of gildar from goodie hunts and quest. Now it seems to have been nerfed right down to about 10-30% of what they were. This combined with the complete lack of being able to build a proper city is why a lot of people are complaining they have no money. Finding a couple goodie huts back in 2-2A with 100 gold in them really help fund the early struggling economy. I know my city boom setup really depended on it and it was a major reason to explore. Now finding only 10 gildar in hunts I'm starting to think why bother exploring it's a waste of time and pointless especially when the SOV can easily get jumped by some wondering monster and you loss the precious essence.

3) Unique Adventure Buildings - I like the idea of the unique adventure buildings but they don't do any right now. Since those units are not yet in the game it is kinda hard to test the adventurer route opitions to there fullest. I mean what are assisans and dungeon masters suppose to do anyway? Also I think there could stand to be more adventure buildings. Like say a Guild Hall (every time you complete a quest get X gildar), Champion's Statue (+Prestige as non-Civics need way to grow city), Salvage Crew (every time you explore ruins gain some minerals/crystal/etc), and so on. Basically things that either help you adventure or increase your reward for doing so.

4) More Adventure Tech - Let's face it the adventure tech tree is really light. It would be nice to see some techs that increased your rewards for goodie huts, quest, and dungeon raids. Basically their needs to be a lot more synergy in the Adventure tech tree. Right now it feels like a bunch of disconnected items. There are the techs to recruit more powerful heroes, techs to get unique buildings, techs to explore sites, and tech to unlock questing which is about it from what I could tell. None of those mesh well and feel kinda like someone going, "Here research these so you can do adventuring stuff you should be able to do naturally." They don't really improve your ability to adventure at all.

5) More Store Options - Going the adventuring route it's kinda assumed you'll have more heroes and do more questing. So why not have techs that unlock some unique magically items in the store. After all military route seems to unlock the basic equipment for use. Also the potential for store discounts as well to better equip your heroes with.

6) More Quest - When you first research questing I was amazed at how many locations suddenly appeared around me, it was probably over a dozen. The problem though is I finished them all in very short order and was then once again very bored. I found my SOV and other heroes wondering around half way across the map looking for stuff to do. If someone is going the adventure route their should always be at least 1 inn near them so they can get a quest. Granted a lot of new quest are there from what I've seen but if you can't do them it doesn't matter.

 

In closing it seems like adventuring is missing like 80-90% of it's content right now. I have only run Adventuring a few times but it's just so mind numbly boring I find myself hitting turn button repeatedly. Next I plan to go pure Magic tree and see how it fairs in comparison.

Reply #86 from Elemental Forums Top

at work so haven't had time to sort through the comments, my apologies if my thoughts have already been shared by someone else.

I like the idea of powerful overland spells have a maintenance cost of some sort.  Also it would be neat to have a skill, or ability, or something that determines how many global spells you can maintain.  But, wasn't this the point of essence?   

Reply #87 from Elemental Forums Top

I kind of like the idea that if you defeat some one will essence then you gain a fraction of their essence, adding it to your own.  Not sure it fits with the cannon but I like that concept, reminds me of highlander, I can see that fitting into the game without much of a change. 

Reply #88 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting xecran, reply 87
I kind of like the idea that if you defeat some one will essence then you gain a fraction of their essence, adding it to your own.  Not sure it fits with the cannon but I like that concept, reminds me of highlander, I can see that fitting into the game without much of a change. 
End of xecran's quote

Heh. I've been considering posting about that too.

Since Essence can be "given", it seems to make some sense if it could potentially be "taken" too. If the Essence transfer is limited to when the Sovereign is part of the winning party, it'd also give some incentive to be present when an enemy Sovereign is defeated, rather than just sending minions after them.


I'm also not sure if it's consistent with the lore though.

Reply #89 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm not sure if any one else has made this suggestion or not, but it seems like it might be a good idea to patch this version of beta with fixes and tweaks and extend beta 2-3B.  I'm not able to try out most of the spells due to balance issues and glitches.  I'm sure others are having the same problem.

Reply #90 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting xecran, reply 89
I'm not sure if any one else has made this suggestion or not, but it seems like it might be a good idea to patch this version of beta with fixes and tweaks and extend beta 2-3B.  I'm not able to try out most of the spells due to balance issues and glitches.  I'm sure others are having the same problem.
End of xecran's quote

I've only played 2-B like 3-4 times, I'm afraid my PC will melt if I play it too much, it's really buggy for me since 2-B came out draining 100% of my CPU just when I start the game up.

Reply #91 from Elemental Forums Top

I thought about this a bit at work since my last post.   I am now firmly of the belief that the initial essence cost of spells is a sufficient mechanism for restricting the number of enchantments.  Plus it gives you the option of sacrificing other areas of growth (like making fertile land, your sovereigns mana pool,  or imbuing a hero) if you want to throw more of them around.  I don't think an extra mechanism to artificially restrict the overland spell casting is necessary.