First Impressions from someone who disliked WoM

from Elemental Forums


I think that making a good first impression is one of the most important things a game can do.  If a game fails to make a good first impression, then many players may never even give it a chance.  This is basically how WoM was for me, so I wanted to let you know about my first impression with FE.

Overall:  Much better!  While I found WoM initially confusing, FE felt much more welcoming.  Getting started was pretty easy, and the UI seemed much more intuitive. 

Likes:

1.  I especially liked how the game displayed a cool picture with text when I built my first city to emphasize its significance.  Stuff like this is great because it draws the player in.

2.  The descriptive text on all of the individual objects (caves, treasure, whatever) is presented nicely and is a very nice feature.  Makes the world more immersive and gives it a "pen and paper" feel.

Dislikes/Suggestions:

1.  I kept trying to scroll the map by either moving the mouse to the edge of the screen or using the arrows, but it seems like neither of these work.  I think that one or both of these options should be added...it will make the UI feel much more immersive.  As it is now, it feels kind of clunky to move around the map.

2.  I would make the "auto-end" turn option be off by default.  I kept moving my champion and didn't even realize I was taking turns lol :).  It was just bit confusing.

3.  I would prefer if there was a "load game" button directly on the ESC menu.  Having to go to the main menu to load is just an extra step.

4.  I didn't see a quicksave/quickload option.  Definitely need this.

5.  I would like it if the ESC key would close the ESC menu as well as opening it.  I hated having to manually click on a button to close it.

6.  The city and empire building felt too simplistic.  After just a bit of play, I figured out that I could just build everything in every city and be done with it.  There didn't seem any incentive to specialize cities or halt growth for a while.  I also didn't see any real reason not to just settle a bunch of cities off the bat.  I would like some more tradeoffs here...city and empire building decisions should feel very strategic, but right now I didn't get that.

Final Thoughts:

I really think this game could be awesome, but it's not there yet.  Pleeeeease don't push it out too early...as we all know a game gets judged at release, and as a big 4X fan, I want this to be an awesome game.

9,111 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes, I very much hope that the game is in beta until all major issues are addressed, the game is fun and relatively balanced and there are very few minor issues to speak of.  I *think* that is what Stardock is planning, and I think they will be a lot more focussed on crucial issues after the example of WoM.

I agree - great first impression for FE, now let's continue and make it great!

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I think the game is already 10 x better then WoM was, It's only in Beta I'm sure it will get all worked out by the end of Development. mostly I'm noticing crashes, not often usually like every hour or 3 :P haha

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

They've already said that this will be "it will be ready when it's ready" game.

 

Agreed on the building everything in every city, and hearing that they want to lower the number of buildings, not sure that's a good idea- may need to do the opposite.  Maybe build times need to be reduced in the later game.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Alstein, reply 3
They've already said that this will be "it will be ready when it's ready" game.

 

Agreed on the building everything in every city, and hearing that they want to lower the number of buildings, not sure that's a good idea- may need to do the opposite.  Maybe build times need to be reduced in the later game.
End of Alstein's quote

Yeah, or they could even slow the rate of border expansion (or increase the tiles buildings takes) so that you just don't have enough room to build everything.  Something needs to limit you from just doing "everything" in every city though.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I also didn't see any real reason not to just settle a bunch of cities off the bat. I would like some more tradeoffs here.
End of quote

The number of people joining your empire each turn is set by faction prestige (Growth rate).  Growth rate is evenly divided by the number of cities you have.  More cities = slower city level up.  This is a powerful disincentive to city spam.

Regardless, I agree we need more reasons and mechanics to specialize cities.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Well I think where the game mentions "Growth" they mean local to that city.  Faction prestige is a bonus to growth and is divided by the number of cities.  So if you have 4 prestige, and you have 1 city, it will get an extra 4 growth (subject to enough food), if you have 2 cities each city will get 2 growth added to it, if you have 4 cities each city will get a bonus 1 growth subject to enough food.

So prestige is a growth bonus to each city that is bigger when there are fewer cities.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top



4.  I didn't see a quicksave/quickload option.  Definitely need this.

End of quote

 

Control-S will quicksave your game. I am not sure what the quickload key is or if there is a quickload option. Maybe Control-L?

 

 

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Dave_Genesi, reply 7




quoting post


4.  I didn't see a quicksave/quickload option.  Definitely need this.




 

Control-S will quicksave your game. I am not sure what the quickload key is or if there is a quickload option. Maybe Control-L?

 

 
End of Dave_Genesi's quote

 

Thanks good to know!  I would also recommend it being F5 for quicksave and F9 for quickload since that seems to be the convention.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Alstein, reply 3
Agreed on the building everything in every city, and hearing that they want to lower the number of buildings, not sure that's a good idea- may need to do the opposite.  Maybe build times need to be reduced in the later game.
End of Alstein's quote

I really, really like the suggestion that's been mentioned elsewhere of having branching upgrade paths.  Then you can decide what's important for a particular city.  If you want the city to produce units, you'll want to upgrade your basic buildings in ways that give bonuses to units.  If it's near a shard, you can upgrade the study to an arcane laboratory, which, say, gives half the research bonus of a regular lab, but doubles the town's mana production.  Or you want a high population income generating town, etc.

There should be list of common buildings, which you'll build in every town (and also, I happen to like sprawling cities) but I think upgrade paths would give people meaningful choices they'd enjoy making.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Creslin321, reply 8

Quoting Dave_Genesi, reply 7



quoting post


4.  I didn't see a quicksave/quickload option.  Definitely need this.




 

Control-S will quicksave your game. I am not sure what the quickload key is or if there is a quickload option. Maybe Control-L?

 

 


 

Thanks good to know!  I would also recommend it being F5 for quicksave and F9 for quickload since that seems to be the convention.
End of Creslin321's quote

 

I'd be happy with either of these also: Civ IV was Shift-F5 and Shift-F8, Civ V is F11 and F12.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Felidae1, reply 9



Quoting Alstein,
reply 3
Agreed on the building everything in every city, and hearing that they want to lower the number of buildings, not sure that's a good idea- may need to do the opposite.  Maybe build times need to be reduced in the later game.


I really, really like the suggestion that's been mentioned elsewhere of having branching upgrade paths.  Then you can decide what's important for a particular city.  If you want the city to produce units, you'll want to upgrade your basic buildings in ways that give bonuses to units.  If it's near a shard, you can upgrade the study to an arcane laboratory, which, say, gives half the research bonus of a regular lab, but doubles the town's mana production.  Or you want a high population income generating town, etc.

There should be list of common buildings, which you'll build in every town (and also, I happen to like sprawling cities) but I think upgrade paths would give people meaningful choices they'd enjoy making.
End of Felidae1's quote

That would be awesome :).  You know what's funny, before I even read this, I was thinking that it would be cool if you could pick a "path" for a city like you pick a path for a champion.  Like you say, you could have something like "Academy city" that was really good at research or "Martial city" that had bonuses to unit production.  It would really help differentiate the cities from one another.