[.91] Observations From Completing Scenario

Impressions

So I just finished playing through the scenario and I have to say I liked it. It felt like I was playing a better version of a sandbox game. The big problem I guess was with the AI. Once I built a 5-6 mounted units in full chain mail with swords and shields I walked through all their armies until the end of the game. Only Juggernauts were a real threat and I could still deal with those. I was however impressed with the AI use of strategic spells. They got me with a lot of smart Withers and the occasional Tidal Wave and Pillar of Flame. Although tidal wave and Pillar of fire did next to no damage. Champions felt very weak still. I stalled out at around level 7 and then even after defeating every AI faction with  my Sov he still only got to level 11, and even with a half decent weapon and Lethal 3 did less damage then a normal unit. Enemy champions were also no threat at all.

 The Scenario is still also a little slow off the start. Once you beat the Invasion Force it just takes so long to get to the Eastern continent. Also it took me forever to find that Forge and end the game. I was expecting something flashier. Also I never did find out how to get Gilden to help out and I explored a lot, if someone knows feel free to tell me.


Bugs

-There is a big hole in the ground in Gilden's base where the water is glitching out.

-Aegis Robes still override armor and make unit designs cost crystal.

-The Flooded Graveyard says my faction can't use it.

-After entering the forge the new abilities you get have no tooltip.


AI

-The AI seemed to have a very low priority for unrest and production buildings. These are the buildings I build first, even rushing them if I can. Getting these out first allows you to build the other stuff faster and be efficient. In fact I aim for the construction tech because the mason allows you to speed up your building queue by a lot. Without them you can get stuck and fall behind. Please increase the priority on unrest and production buildings by a lot, and on the construction techs as well.

-The AI likes towns to much. Especially at the start, the Yithril Invasion Force had both it's cities as towns. For a good military you need a early fort, and for research you need an early conclave. 2 Towns will really stall you. A early town can be used to spam pioneers but you would never get 2.

-Magnar builds almost nothing but Slave Archers. These are horrible and utterly useless. The only good slaves use full leather armor and spears or swords, the other weapons are too slow. You can have an archer design with fast as well but all the other useless designs need to be cut. They should not exist. Magnar also needs to build less slaves period. They literally never built Quendar units. Which made them super easy to steamroll with elite units.

-AI sovereigns kept getting stuck by themselves in front of monster lairs. They just sat there, thus late game some were very low level. Even without the obvious bug I can't think of a reason for them to wander alone. I always have a army with my champions. Monsters in LH are too strong to solo.

-The AI didn't mix troops well. They had a lot of all Juggernaut or all archer armies. Without a meat shield those archer armies died very quickly.

-The AI built a lot of units out of non-fortress cities late game. This is a very bad idea. If it has a good fortress it should be building troops with it, otherwise they not only get weak units but slow down their development.

-AI used a lot of units without any armor early to mid game. Not sure if this is bad troop design or just bad priorities but the AI should be prioritizing leather armor for it's troops.

3,121 views 4 replies
Reply #1 Top

I just stopped to play the scenario. I was searching the forge on the east with my sovereign and 4-5 horse spear unit, and bored to the death to kill enemy armies, and raze cyties. i did not find the forge but, i  had 10000+ gold, everything researched, every hero in full armor, no challange at all, so i quit. I quited when searched the dragon body at the center of the map, where i needed to raise the land, and i find there 60 iron.

Common...

I think with this balance, there is absolutly no need for this big map. I builded only 3 cities and i was steamrolling already. The Ai was a meh with stupid units and armies. No match for my 4 spear units and after that 6 horsed spear units.

- cutting the horses to +0.2 was clever but i only need 5-6 units with spear and after that steamroll, and they never die. (only 1 died in autoplay)

- AI useing strategy spells is a nice touch but they do no harm and only taking my time with freeze

I think this is "THE product" what will be released, and i think i will not touch it anymore, only if the modders can make it actually work like a game.

- Right now the heroes are broken ( Legendary Broken Heroes :) cant modd that as i read)

- AI is not present (hardcoded cant modd)

- Balance is off (maybe this is where the modders can do something)

Patch the Fallen enchantress with this engine so i can play a bit more, and be happy with my 20 bucks... 

Reply #2 Top

The Scenario is still also a little slow off the start. Once you beat the Invasion Force it just takes so long to get to the Eastern continent.
End of quote

i kind of disagree with that. maybe i just got lucky or something, but in my game there was a road on that land bridge that connects the 2 continents, so getting there didn't really take that long for me (YMMV)

tech wise, there's really no reason to stall your invasion. i also stalled a bit in my game and explored the western lands, but that's not really mandatory - i could just have started the invasion after crushing the western yithril (around turn ~80 or 100 or something).

it's not like you need chain armor or a fully mounted stack to invade them. i didn't even have enough horses for a single fully mounted stack by the time i finished off the last empire, so maybe you're just overestimating the importance of mounts/chain armor? 

 

also - don't forget that the scenario is set to a pretty low difficulty (all the AI factions are between "Novice" and "Normal" level - that's no challenge for someone who has played through the sandbox game even once), so the power of the AI factions could probably be fixed by an "Options" menu at the start that allows you to bump up the AI difficulty if you're not new to the game.

 

 

 

Reply #3 Top

Yup, scenario is way too easy for experienced players - but i think their intention was to prepare it for newcomers.

For others a slide with the difficulty settings would be great.

Reply #4 Top

Quoting bpalczewski, reply 3
Yup, scenario is way too easy for experienced players - but i think their intention was to prepare it for newcomers.
End of bpalczewski's quote

Yes but stupid and weird AI choices diminish the game and reduce the fun as they drain away the strategy. Fixing a lot of the odd AI stuff would make the game only a little harder but add a lot of depth and fun to the game because you would be forced to adapt and strategize more.