Valiant_Turtle

Well, I'd somewhat like to see another 1B build, but I guess we must march on. I am really looking forward to some magic and adventure, but those are still some ways off.

I expect to see many more uses for Essence as the beta progresses. If nothing else I believe it's been stated that the sov's remaining essence is the limit to how much mana the sov can use in spells, so if you want to cast uber-spells later in the game you'll have to be careful with how you use it. Also, as valhur noted, it doesn't cost any essence to create a city on reclaimed land (land within your area of influence), so it's quite possible to start with a single city and expand

I would love to do this but with all these annoying holidays coming up I'll try to be a mature adult and exclude myself, not that you have a lack of volunteers. I don't suppose there's any chance of a round 2, or of sharing the rules and letting multiple games run when they are ready?

From what we've seen so far "buildings" aren't quite as huge an issue in this game, but population is. Late game cities should definitely populate faster. The general idea of making them not require an eternity to be useful or defensible is definitely worthwhile. Even the old "City Wall" spell from MoM would be helpful.

I've always viewed tech trading in games as a bit of a crutch that games use to force players to make use of diplomacy because diplomacy was otherwise useless. In the real world diplomacy is not generally viewed as a method to acquire technology. (Of course in the real world most technology is developed in the private sector anyway). I'd prefer to make diplomacy useful even if tech trading were completely forbidden.

The core problem here really is the HP abstraction generally. It is by far the least realistic damage model around, but it has worked for a long time as a way to make things fun. You can always take the approach that the recent editions of D&D have done and say that HP isn't just the ability to take damage but also represents "heroic luck" coming into play.

Do I detect a fellow OOTS reader? I beleive Scoutdog is worried about assuming that we are dealing with a planet that orbits a star and so forth instead of a flat world on top of elephants and turtles or some other sort of world entirely. Essentially don't assume that meteorites are even possible in this world. One thing that I've decided is that I don't particularly want regular resource deposits to be quite that important. This is a magic world and I would prefer

This sounds like a pretty workable system. I think I like it. I agree that doubling the cost of every tech is probably a bit too steep. I'd think something around 30% to 70% more per rank would work, possibly being set as an option on game start to play fast or slow. I like the free tech approach. It really depends on the number of techs available though. If there are several techs out there and we can expect to routinely have 3-5 gray techs than a

Wow! This is a fascinating idea. If done well it could really help re-define the genre. I definitely think it could be done exceptionally well. More importantly it gives more options. You could focus on making your professsional soldiers total death machines, or on having a large and reasonably well trained and equipped militia available. You could also have some heroes who function primarily as Generals to command and aid the militia. I'm not sure

There are a whole lot of decisions that interact here and complicate the matter. How powerful will top resources be? If they are extremely powerful then a few alternate means of acquiring them is warranted. This can be slightly offset if they are powerful-but-predictable and somewhat counterable. How common will the resources be? You could have un-rummageable resources even if the deposits are somewhat common, or at least not rare. A reso

It's really hilarious that I mentioned Ascendancy in another thread before I saw this one. That was an interesting game.

I think the mechanics behind tech are Okay at the moment, but the GUI is an absolute mess. For one thing it's not really clear what the different images mean. Who do the various troop techs have that guantlet image for instance, why are they items you can research and not results of research? Those in particular seem like they just don't belong. Just have the training qualities discovered via a military/barracks path and be done with it. Deciding how techs

[quote who="drrob" reply="31" id="2425852"]I'm not really getting the Rummage Value system. Could someone elaborate?[/quote] Here's how it works as I understand it. Suppose you need wood but you don't have a lumbermill and maybe you're even on an island with no forests. You can still get lumber, it's just not very effiecient. You see, just because you don't have official "Forest" doesn't mean there aren't some trees growing here and there, they just aren't

It's far more responsive as well, the Kingdom button actually does something when you click on it, instead of waiting a few seconds. It's noticable in other areas as well.

And we have download! WooHoo! Lets get testing!

I was hoping we'd get another 1B, I didn't feel like we really got to test the economy enough yet. I shall have to compulsively check impulse all night now! In other news I'm ecstatic since I think I contributed somewhat to the rummage value idea. WooHoo!

[quote who="Theswarms" reply="61" id="2423541"]Why not have the cities build roads like any other building? You order the road at the city and either plan it out then or place it when the road section is completed. The catch is, of course, that while the road is being built that city can't build standard buildings.[/quote] That is an intriguing idea. I can see some problems with it depending on where you want roads, but the core idea is a good one. It certainly beats engin

I can see where you are coming from, this is probably the least fun beta so far. I think they are tweaking several settings (like tech research time and movement speed) to see what impact they have. However, if the final is anything like this, they might want to consider one free Scout with your Sov (he's your first follower or something) just so you have something to do. Also, keep in mind they have talked about having a larger variety of terrain types than just plains, for

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="23" id="2422305"] There are creatures in this game that will simply be unbeatable by any number of mundane peasantry armies.[/quote] I have no problem with this and actually really like it (so long as those critters are rare). However, I still think that those peasant armies should have a role against those critters even if it's just harrassing and annoying them or making them slog through them all. A couple of hundred grasshoppers (even if

I agree with tesb, it takes a whole lot of people to work a mine. It doesn't take quite as many to work a farm, but it's still a sizable number. Those people need a place to live, eat and spend their money. It's quite realistic to require a city be present to make use of a resource, although it admittedly depends somewhat on the resource.

I think I like the ability to draw roads on the map as well, and I agree there should be some maintenance associated with them. Not much certainly, but some. Having these be improved as caravans travel them is a very interesting idea. I think I kinda like it. I don't like the idea that a town sends out a settler to a designated location. If I'm spending essence somewhere to build a city to claim a resource I want to get it now, especially if it's somewhat far a

I hadn't thought about it before this thread but river-based transport or caravans would actually be an excellent addition. Few games really give rivers the importance they should have. I personally want gigantic sea turtle transports, but I kinda doubt I'll be getting them.

I'm going to second Dwarf Fortress here. If you follow some of the newbie tutorials that are available you'll actually get the hang of it pretty quick. It just takes a while to remember the intricacies of the interface, which is pretty bad. If you try it in I highly recommend getting a square tileset rather than sticking with the default rectangular graphics. The Mike Mayday tileset is probably the most commonly used one. The best thing the tutorials do i

I think I would be pretty happy with the currently solution Frogboy is proposing. It strikes a pretty good balance. I think it would be nice if there is a way to stockpile resources in certain cities as well, but I can definitely live without it. Given the space limitations on how many buildings we can build I don't think a Warehouse/Silo would be built very often at all. There will probably be much more important buildings. As a compromise I think an opt

I got a reasonably stable game in today (it seems more stable on my laptop than my desktop for some odd reason) and I couldn't get a city to level up for the life of me. I had cities with farm +4 mansions, 8 mansions, farm on wheat +4 mansions, lumber mill +4 mansions and none of them would ever level up. Has anyone gotten a city to level up? I've also got an issue I've mentioned in another thread where all units (including Sov and all enemies) have a move of 1. This