Beta 3A Observations and Suggestions

from Elemental Forums

Played Beta3A most of the day and have these game play suggestions:

Save game: Can we have the gameworld name and Turn information saved with the Date/Time stamp? Maybe this isn't a big deal but after the amount of crashes suffered today, this information would be helpful IMO.

Load Game missing from Main Menu durng the game. You can save a game, but there is no visible method to reload a save game without exiting the game.

During the game, quests and goodie huts become upgraded and unavailable to be accessed. It might be better to tell us what we need to do in order to access them rather than to say that you cannot access them.

Is there a method to change the unit exit point from a city? In my last game, a goodie hut generated next to my city right on the exit hex, one that I couldn't access and got the unable to access this goodie hut message every time a unit exited the city. That was a PITA, and caused the game to crash a couple of times.

Is there any plan to create a ongoing battle log? I found a number of times that I had missing units which I suspect I lost in a battle, but didn't immediately notice. It would be nice to be able to go back and review a list of battles and be able to review the battle detail and losses suffered.

In the design units dialog, can we get an option to change the unit's face? We can apparently change everything else, but curiously not the face.

I notice that I can neither drop or sell the clothing objects that the Sovereign starts with, is there a way we can get rid of clothing items that we do not want? Also, in the earlier builds the Sovereign was able to start with a weapon. Am I missing something or can we get a option to have our Sovereign start with some type of Club/Staff or other weapon?

If there is a method to transfer gear from one unit to another, it is NOT obvious. I should be able to transfer unwanted items from one unit to another.

Is there a method to UNsummon a previously summoned creature? If so, again it wasn't obvious. BTW, death didn't seem to unsummon my summoned creatures even when my Sovereign was killed and regenerated back in his capital city. I'm assuming this is a bug or do summoned creatures simply get auto-summoned back after a battle?

It would be nice to have RALLY points in the later stages of the game. I'm thinking ahead here but it might be a micro-managing nightmare if we have to do this manually for each unit that is created.

The spell icons, once you reached a certain level became very small and hard to see. I'm using a 1920x1200 display and the icons were hard to distinguish IMO.

Are there no Warrior heros that wander around for hire? I don't think I've ever seen one. Also, considering the amount of gold that you spend on a hero, they seem fairly fragile. Could they at least start with some basic equipment to protect themselves?

When putting a Pioneer unit over a resource that it might be able to harvest but cannot, can we have a Info Icon that explains what the kingdom/empire needs to research in order to harvest the item?

The whole GUI interface seems to require a lot of clicking to get things done. In the Kingdom report, it might be nice to have a City section that we can view all the city information in one place (like GalCiv) and a section that lists the number of each unit that the kingdom has (i.e 13 peasent, 4 guard, 1 mounted knight) and each hero, location, and level (and stats/bonuses).

I also have some fears about playing a Conquest game on a large map. If I have some 20 cities under my control and perhaps 10 or more heroes, are they ALL going to be listed down the left side of the screen? What if I have 30 cities? I have my doubts that this might be a good system in the end.

Just some thoughts that perhaps you might want to think about.

 

 

 

 

1,218 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Load Game missing from Main Menu durng the game. You can save a game, but there is no visible method to reload a save game without exiting the game.
End of quote

This will be in at launch :)

Is there a method to change the unit exit point from a city? In my last game, a goodie hut generated next to my city right on the exit hex, one that I couldn't access and got the unable to access this goodie hut message every time a unit exited the city. That was a PITA, and caused the game to crash a couple of times.
End of quote

Have you tried just selecting a unit and right clicking on a tile next to the city, instead of using the eject button?

If there is a method to transfer gear from one unit to another, it is NOT obvious. I should be able to transfer unwanted items from one unit to another.
End of quote

Click-drag the item from the inventory over the portrait of the unit you wish to receive it.

I also have some fears about playing a Conquest game on a large map. If I have some 20 cities under my control and perhaps 10 or more heroes, are they ALL going to be listed down the left side of the screen? What if I have 30 cities? I have my doubts that this might be a good system in the end.
End of quote

The Empire Tree does need more functionality. The players should be able to have a very fine control over what shows up and what doesn't. I expressed the same concern over large maps. The worst part is it doesn't even show names, so when you have 30 cities on that thing you'd have to hover over each of them to find one you want :P

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

>> Click-drag the item from the inventory over the portrait of the unit you wish to receive it. <<

I tried that. I couldn't get the item to go to the other unit (in this case a spear to a champion). That's what I thought would work, but it didn't work either time I tried it. Bug?

TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting nitey47, reply 2
>> Click-drag the item from the inventory over the portrait of the unit you wish to receive it. <<

I tried that. I couldn't get the item to go to the other unit (in this case a spear to a champion). That's what I thought would work, but it didn't work either time I tried it. Bug?
End of nitey47's quote

It can be a bit tricky, but if you drag an item from one champion to another, it will transfer. In fact, you could transfer it across the continent using the icons down the left. I presume you still can, but you can do it on the lower right menu of units in a stack as well. You have to be pretty precise though.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Gee... OP looks greener than I am... and that's pretty green...

Still, this is a fine illustration of what SD is missing.

A few improvements they dismissed would have improved both amount and level of feedback.

As it is now, players are wasting a lot of time and patience struggling with interface. And that's a game that by design requires time and patience.

Funny thing - I never think twice when I exit game, and after that I start to ponder if i should launch it again...

I guess the message should ask "will you restart elemental? a few more turns wouldn't hurt..."