Not sure if this is the correct location for this, but I have been writing up my regular game comments. It is my hope that Stardock can use these notes to help balance and polish v1.7 beta prior to it's release.
I do play with 'extra content' type mods, but not with 'fixes' type mods: A screen shot of the mods that I am using can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/syc7wztiuudu0i0/Screenshot%202014-07-11%2009.49.25.png
I make several core changes to the game in order to balance the gameplay and make it more enjoyable:
- Changed Book of Mastery prerequisite from Third Book of the Magi to Ereog's Journal
- Removed the +1 attack from the Swarm ability.
- Reduced Crushing Blow ability from 2x to 1.5x.
- Increased MinValidTotalTileYield from 6.0 to 7.0
- Increased MaxTotalTileYield from 9.0 to 10.0
Loading up Legendary Heroes, v1.7 beta:
Who Are you Menu:
- Some of the particle effects for custom designed sovereigns are still not appearing.
- Could the DLC05 leaders please have different color coordination. An example: https://forums.elementalgame.com/455223/page/1/#3473941
- I've noticed a list of fixes in Primal's deconstrux:
- DLC05 Asha aura fix
- DLC05 Sanjo singularity fix
- DLC05 Sovereign deletion fix
- DLC05 Serrane Warhorse fix
- DLC05 Master Archer fix
- DLC05 Renge No Mount fix
- Have these items been addressed?
- In the custom sovereign design, can it please be possible to select Spiderlegs as a mount option?
- In the custom sovereign design, can it please be possible to select Asha's flame partice effect as an option?
- In the custom sovereign design, can it please be possible to have additional mount types added as options; for example: Snake body, Centaur body, etc
- In the custom sovereign design, can it please be possible to have additional particle effects similar to Asha's flame; for example a cold effect
- In the custom soveriegn design, can we please have more weaknesses added? He are some examples: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gfg97uzuc3mgbhq/Weaknesses.xml
While some of the items can easily be fixed, as modders have already done so, there are many players that simply do not play with mods. As a result, would it not benefit the game to have as much included in the base version as possible so as to make the players experience as good as possible? In addition, have additional items in the custom sovereign design, even though the existing characters do not have the abilities, would only add to replayability of the game.
Now starting a game as Lord Verga of Yithral (Challenging Monsters, Hard AI):
- Recommend Meditation enchantment to have mana cost increase from 0 to 10.
- There is a typo in the Swarm description: 'surrround' should be 'surround'.
- Rivers no longer stop movement. Was this intentional?
- Building Placement rotation is still not functional. Is there intension to have this feature fixed in the near future? I do enjoy making my city look aesthetically pleasing.
- My heroes are spawning adjacent to my sovereign. I thought Brad had coded for the heroes to spawn near the capital city instead?
- When changing a tile to city-type, adjacent hill and mountain tiles still completely flatten out. This leads to confusion as the now flat tile still limits movement. Can this flattening be laxed a bit; only flatten the tile if a building is placed somewhere on that tile (changing the tile to city-type)?
- I will again request that the loot popup menu PLEASE have 3 options available:
- USE - Equips or consumes the item directly.
- EQUIP - Opens the Equip screen of the hero so that an informed decision can be made as to whether you want to equip/consume the item
- OK - Acknowledges the message and continues gameplay.
- I am LOVING the extra conversations!
- Pathing will still make you believe that you can move farther than you actually can. Often my units stop one tile short from where the UI indicator shows that I should be able to stop at.
- I am on turn 58 and Magesta of Pariden still only has 1 city whereas I have 3 and Ceresa of Resolin also has 3. There is a really good location to settle right beside Pariden's capital but they are not settling, which is VERY odd because she has the Expansionist trait. Is this trait working as it should be?
- This Arcane Monolith appears to have the wrong description icon in the bottom left corner as no High Tower has been constructed yet. https://www.dropbox.com/s/0xjrv4f6zbwx0uf/Screenshot%202014-07-11%2012.40.59.png
- The Mage's Staff is only 140 gildar. Compared to the Ice Staff at 140 gildar and the Incineration Staff at 150 gildar, why would you ever buy these? The Mage's Staff is WAY better. Either the Mage's Staff needs to have it's price increased, or the other two staffs need to have there price decreased. Considering the other available items, probably a little of both: Recommend Ice Staff @ 120 gildar, Incineration Staff @ 130 gildar, Mage Staff @ 180 gildar.
- I am playing Yithral. They should not have access to the Mage's Staff in their shop. It's a ranged weapon.
- The Mage's Staff should probably unlock at Arcane Weapons, the same tech that the Hellfire Staff is unlocked at as they are both 12 attack.
- Suggestion: Throwing Knives is really cool and work really well if everyone is equipped with them, but they just don't do enough damage if you only do occasional casting. Could you include into the game Shrieken; throwing stars that do more damage than throwing knives but have the Class restriction of Assassin only? If need be, include it into DLC02 to go with the rest of the assassin package. I think this would be a really cool addition.
- There is a tactical map that has a lot of swamp in it. It's really, really, cool but compared to the other tactical maps, there is a lot going on and that much foliage does take more CPU processing. To keep memory consumption more consistent, as much as I don't want to suggest this, I recommend taking out some of the foliage from this tactical map. Not all mind you...just thin it out a little. Screenshot attached: https://www.dropbox.com/s/any6sb2zhzdskh8/Screenshot%202014-07-11%2013.20.01.png
- I just received some music that I have never heard before that is really, really cool. Has more been added?
More comments to come...
Here are more comments:
- When I hover my mouse over City Defenders, shouldn't I be receiving a popup with details about the unit?
- It's turn 98 and Magesta of Pariden still only has 1 city, despite having the Expansionist trait. I now see that she has two viable city locations to build in, but is simply not settling them.
- In the Assassin class, I've noticed that the traits Shadow Strike I, Shadow Strike II, and Shadow Strike III all have the same ability "Ignores 25% of the victim's Defense". Is this suppose to be a cumulative effect?, ie 25%, 50%, 75%....if so, should that not be reflected in the description instead?
- In the Assassin class, the Bleed I trait does not inform you as to how much bleed damage is going to be done....only that Bleed has been unlocked. I am guessing it's 3 damage per action because of the description in Bleed II, but it really should tell you in Bleed I.
- In the Assassin class, the traits Fast I and Fast II both grant +1 Initiative. Is this suppose to be cumulative?, (ie +1, +2) Could this be better reflected? For example, Fast II description could be: "Gains +2 Initiative instead of +1".
- I just noticed, Fast I in the unit design grants +2 Initiative whereas Fast I in the Assassin trait class only grants +1. Should there be consistency in the trait?
- Perhaps I am mistaken, but when a Burning Wraith is summoned, I thought it was supposed to do splash damage to enemy units adjacent to it. If so, it's not doing this when summoning a Burning Wraith by way of the Dark Candle item.
- The Burning Wraith's Feed the Fire ability is "FeedTheFire" in the ability title (no spaces). It should probably be "Feed the Fire" (with spaces).
- Recommend the Burning Wraith's Feed the Fire ability have it's mana cost reduced from 10 to 0. While this effect is stackable, it's only through tactical combat. It does not tranfer from combat to combat....and the unit is losing an action where it could be attacking every time it is activating this ability. 10 mana is never worth it.
- In the Defender class, the traits Guardian I and Guardian II both have the same description "+2 to the Army's Dodge". Is this suppose to be cumulative?, (ie +2 to Army's Dodge, +4 to Army's Dodge) If so, could this be better reflected: Guardian II should have the description "+4 to the Army's Dodge"
- There is something wrong with the AI expanding algorithms. Here I witness a pioneer convention: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xkum2ddtrw2k3yw/Screenshot%202014-07-12%2011.42.18.png Attached is the debug.err file in the hopes that you can find out why all these pioneers seem to be congregating in one place: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gg0hji2k99a6qpd/debug%20--%20Pioneer%20Convension.err
- UPDATE: I figured out why so many pioneers where congregating there. Just on the other side of the mountain range there was a really good location to settle. Apparently all the AI had the right idea to settle...but none could figure out how to get there.
- Units with Flying cannot fly over Chasm type tiles in both strategic and tactical maps.
More comments to come...
Here are more comments:
- The Bound Brother Quest - From reading the commentary, it would appear that I am suppose to receive a Warg as a mount as reward, but I do not receive one. In addition, the Warg I defeated was VERY easy to beat. Recommend uping the difficulty of this encounter.
- I'll mention again that the hills flattening out prematurely makes for an ugly looking landscape. Also, the flat terrain still has the 1/2 movement penalty. See screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/83snkgg3nsddnzb/Screenshot%202014-07-12%2016.26.29.png
- The Ophidian is immune to the Assassin Stun attack.
- Turn 161, I previewed all the AI and all are giving me a -2 diplomacy because "I am weak". However, I have the most Faction Power. I would have thought my military strength to be reflected more accurately in my Faction Power.
- As a note, even with Wildland frequency set to "Above Average", the three maps I've tried so far have resulted in only one single Wildland appear. I play on world size "medium". In 1.6, I would get 4-5 Wildlands. Why is there a sudden drop to 1 in 1.7?
- Just had the Blood Day event where everyone declares war. Right afterwards, Pariden sues for peace. Shouldn't there be some kind of 10 turn limit or something?
- I took this outpost over from Resolin, and this is all the ZoC I seem to be getting from the outpost. Why is this? See attached: https://www.dropbox.com/s/25a3pwgzaezaqvz/Screenshot%202014-07-13%2016.09.20.png
- When a Wildland is conquered, the entire area turns into settable land. Recommend that these settle locations thin out a bit...and only have ~50% of the locations settable. (Getting 3 cities out of the space is far too powerful) Unless you intend to have the AI clear Wildlands and reap the rewards now....and if you do, there should be messages similar to those of the Wonders announcing that 'such and such' Wildland has been cleansed and 'so and so' has gained XYZ Fame as a result.
More comments to come...
Additional comments have been posted here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/455934/page/2/#39
