More suggestions on areas for improvement

from Elemental Forums

Here my suggestions. I think this game is fun and decent out of the box (barring those stability issues some people are having), but there's still a lot of work to do before it's a great game and a classic of the genre. I'm still pretty optimistic and think it'll get there eventually. I can certainly see all the potential this new engine has to take us there.

What I think need to be priorities:

1) AI  AI  AI.  I like that there are diplomatic and peaceful options, but the AI needs to put SOME pressure on the player, especially those supposedly evil empires? Right now in every game I've played the AI has basically left me alone until I'm ready to conquer them or win through one of the other paths.

2) Tech trees. There need to be a lot more techs, like 5x more would be good. The trees all feel very light and unbalanced. By the time I've gotten 4-5 good cities set up, have built up a decent army and am ready to go on the warpath (i.e. it feels like mid-game) I've already researched most of the technologies I need. Some of this is pacing too, techs should maybe cost a bit more to research to drag things out more, or tone down the bonus those libraries give + their multipliers. But I'd much prefer to just have more techs and more meaningful tech choices. Need to give players more reasons to specialize rather than just jumping from one tree to the next since you run out of techs so quickly.

3) Champions all feel bland and undifferentiated. Special abilities as part of leveling them are the key to solving this I think. My assasin character can level in first strike and poison abilities, my mage gets a mana regen ability, my fighter gets an army morale boost ability or a cleave ability etc etc. Room for some of these abilities to be unlocked by techs to tie the two together better. Also there need to be equipment restrictions and more reasons to equip different heroes different ways. Right now I'm equiping everyone in the most expensive armor and sword and shield as soon as I can afford it (including my channelers, outfitting Procipinee in full plate with a shield and broadsword is pretty ludicrous but I have no better options). 

Basically they need to think about classes of heroes like an rpg rather than generic stat based leveling. Stats should level automatically based on class, equipment should be restricted by class (no mages in plate mail thanks!) and the choice the player should get to make on leveling should be which abilities they get, which is much more interesting. 

4) Cities. This is actually I think the most solid part of the game right now, but there needs to be more reasons to specialize cities rather than just building every building in most cases. Also better differentiation between empire and kingdom cities as well as solving the issues when you conquer a city of the other type and then get to build all the generic buildings twice (i.e you end up with both the empire and kingdom version of the building if you want). Also balance resources better along with all their multiplier buildings, I am rarely struggling for food or gold once my first few cities are settled unless I get a really bad start location and am boxed in.

5) Magic. I think there need to be less spells, there are far too many right now. The issue is that the vast majority don't feel like they are worth casting, especially since it's going to take many turns for spent mana to regen. The only spells I really find worth using are a few direct damage, the occasional summon, and teleport. They need to make each and every spell more interesting and actually worth casting. Needs to be lots more linking in this area to the tech tree, currently it's only 3 techs to unlock all the spells in the game. More interesting choices needed.

6) More differentiation between all the different factions. They all basically play the same currently. They need to have distinct abilities, advantages and weaknesses, units and buildings, as well as their own unique spellbooks.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Agreed, across the board. Many of these issues have been brought up throughout Beta. It really gets down to depth. What makes a great, deep game? Meaningful decisions. Right now, Elemental is horribly light in that area. There is room to expand...but the base game lacks it.

 

1) AI: Agreed. I think Brad will keep working this one since it is his stated passion. I'm not terribly worried about this. Hope it will improve, and I'm confident that it will.

2) Tech: Agreed. I like that we aren't just going Laser 1, Laser 2, or anything like that. I like that, for example, new weapon types require different resources, which makes sense and creates good gameplay. However, the different weapons need abilities, BAD. As we have been asking for for ages, spears should give a first strike (or something), axes should work differently from swords, etc. And there need to be more options, ie: a primitive short sword, then a more advanced one, then a masterwork one, for example. For other techs, there is plenty of room to grow...I think the pacing is fine, but give us more options to work towards.

3) Big yes. Special abilities would be awesome. For example, a mage could specialize in a spellbook, and get a bonus with spells from that book and  penalty in others (or can only use the one spellbok). Also, let NPCs do more. Let them work in buildings, engage in their own quests, generate quests, etc. This will give  them more personality and gameplay impact. Make them have loyalty. Let us award titles.

4) I disagree here, but only because I don't think cities are solid. To me, cities are bland stat blocks with no personality. I think specialization is the key here. If I build up lots of educational buildings, let my city become a world famous intellectual center. If I build a bunch of ports and slum housing and pubs let my city become a dirty crime hub. As cities evolve, they can generate different quests and maybe even swap tiles so that my nasty crime ridden slum looks like a nasty crime ridden slum and acts like one, while my gleaming capital looks the part. Let us upgrade individual buildings with different paths. Let NPCs interact with buildings!

5) Agreed. I think Mana should regenerate much much faster, especially when resting in a city. Maybe have a building for this...I know we already have some, but maybe a building that the NPC has to visit to rest in it. Make each spellbook really different with more spell effects. have fire spells set people on fire and lighting spells stun them, stuff like that....I like some of what we have, such as Air spells moving enemies around. The more we can make those differences stand out the better.

6) Huge need here. I like what they have done with the factions and races, but it doesn't really matter in the game. When I conquer a Fallen city as Men...so what? The population needs to be defined by race. I think this is CRITICAL for a game with multiple races. If everyone is a regular human, no big deal...that isn't the case here. Agreed on unique buildings, units, equipment, etc. This would really help make each faction more iconic.