Where's the drama?

from Elemental Forums

I'm not trying to be a hater here, but I've played Legendary Heroes 3 or 4 different games (about 50-60 hours of game play total), and while I love the sandbox mode of the game, I'm finding myself not encountering much suspense once I clear out my initial settlements. I really enjoy the Player vs Environment piece of the game--the first 40 or 60 turns of the game are engaging, tense, and full of dramatic surprises and discoveries. 

But after that, I'm just finding myself clicking the "Turn" button until I decide to attack somebody, then I find myself fighting the same City Siege battles 5 or 6 times in a row.  (successfully every time--once you find a formula that works, why abandon it?)

After that, it seems like a boring tedious cakewalk.  I can't find any real source of tension or suspense, after I make it past my first one or two towns.  I'd love tips on how to make the game more interesting.  I could finish winning the last 3 games I've played, but it feels like I have an uber-commanding lead by the time I conquer my first enemy city.

Is it because I'm only playing it on the Medium difficulty setting and I need to dial it up?  Is it because I'm waiting too long and building up too formidable a lead (e.g., I have units with Chain Mail and 16-Attack Maces, while he has units with Leather Armor and 11-Attack Hammers) before attacking?  (it's almost always the Defense bonuses that make my units impervious to harm from opposing AI players)

Am I just micromanaging too much?  Playing on Small and Medium maps, I just find myself running out of things to do.  But managing even more armies and cities doesn't strike me as more fun...

I enjoy the serious quests, when I can find them.  But the last couple games I've played, I've mowed through the easy quests and been way underpowered for the follow-on quests?

I'm not bashing the game.  I've been following it enthusiastically since War of Magic (played the original Galactic Civilizations game back in the early/mid-90s) was first announced, and when I started play LH, I was very pleased.  In a sandbox mode, all the pieces feel right.  The city building is new and different, but intriguing.  The spells are good, as is the magic progression system.  Character development is interesting, if slow.  The quests are very well done.

I like the game, but only have about 5-10 hours/week to play games of any sort and am hesitant to invest another 30 hours on yet another campaign where I get to the exact same "Ho hum, 10 enemy cities left to capture before I win" feeling.  Am I missing something?

10,747 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Play on a higher difficulty: Ridiculous or Insane. The game will be much harder - obviously-.

If you can beat the game without exploits on Insane, with the Magic Victory enabled, let me know :)

Personally, I also prefer to fight the environment above fighting the AI. I don't suggest bigger maps. Maybe more Wildlands. You can select Altar or a custom faction with 'Wanderlust' for more quests. Once you have seen them all, consider buying the Quest Pack or install some mods.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

The same thing will happen in pretty much any strategy-4x games.

Once you know you have won, that its just a matter of time and tedious clicking, I consider myself victorious and start a new game.

To counter this, as previous poster pointed you need to up difficulty.

 

I am currently playing on Ridiculous and getting owned. But I can beat expert. I'd rather get owned at Ridiculous than play a game at expert I am basically sure to win. No challenge, no fun.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I'd agree that it's very uncommon to win a strategy TBS by surprise.  But some games do a better job of preserving drama in the end game than others.  The Civilization titles by Firaxis always suffered from end game grinding.  So did Stardock's own Galactic Civilizations.

The Heroes of Might & Magic games did a better job of preserving drama through the end game, when you had a titannic collision with your opponents.  Less sandbox-oriented games like Panzer General and the millions of clones it's inspired have you racing a clock to achieve varying levels of victory conditions.  ARPGs like Diablo offered up Boss battles at the end of each "scenario".  There are different ways to preserve a little end game drama, even if the fact that you're going to eventually win becomes a foregone conclusion at some point. 

The old Warlords games didn't make you conquer every city on the map--just a sizable majority--before you were declared victor.  Is there such a Setup option in the FE menus that I'm missing?

In theory, the multiple paths to victory was supposed to provide some drama there.  In practice, I haven't seen it.  But maybe I'm just playing on too low difficulty levels.  I'll start my next game up with a higher AI competence level!

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top


Is it because I'm only playing it on the Medium difficulty setting and I need to dial it up?
End of quote

Yes. Try Hard or Expert.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I have not played FA long enough to know all its quirks but there seems to be a sweet spot in the balance of Map size - number of opponents - Difficulty level. 

Large map + high difficulty + few opponents might give you more of that epic feel. I used to play normal maps with 4 opponents. There is almost no wilderness by the time everyone has a few cities. I then tried a large map. Feels much different.

 

The best games are those that keep you one the line for long.

I remember such an epic GalCiv2 game.  I was sandwiched between the drengin and Dominion of Korx. Both were very strong and korx hated me no end. I was in a constant war with Korx and they had better military than me. I had to shift in overdrive mode and sacrifice my entire production toward massive amounts of warships.

I managed to gain ground on korx but was afraid Drengin would backstab me so I had to pay them tribute and be nice to them and they decided to mop the other nations first.  When I was finally done with Korx I was a battered empire and I now faced a gargantuan Drengin Empire who had just finished conquering pretty much everything else and owned 2/3 of the galaxy ( Me owning the other third)

This ended in a massive 1v1 clash with some overpowered Drengin. I managed to resist the initial onslaught by a clever use of defensive starbase.

That particular game kept me sleepless. This is what I strive in 4x games. But it takes time to find the settings that do it best for you. And its also random, no two games are the same.