Maybe it is just my setup, wouldn't be surprised. What I think is happening is the monster gets "regrown" back to its original size just before it gets removed from the game, and this causes the "stuck" situation for me. Of course, this is just a wild guess...
If the last enemy in a battle is shrunken, the battle will not end when you kill it, it just gets stuck. You can continue from this situation by using auto-resolve, but you will not get any experience from the battle. I guess this is another bug: the kills you did 'manually' are forgotten from the XP calculation when using auto-resolve from tactical battle.
Currently you should cast the spell as a strategic spell immediately before the battle and then dispel it immediately afterwards. This way you wont waste a turn casting, and the cost will be the same as casting in the tactical battle. Actually less if you happen to be Ironeer. Does not make sense to me.
If cast in tactical battle it should cost significantly less than the strategic version.
Same here, both with patched game and reinstalled game.
Interestingly I have the same problem, but only after I reinstalled the game due to another bug. Before the reinstall I had the character portraits in the init screen, but after reinstall they are gone.
I reinstalled the game and now the diplomacy screen works. FWIW the md5sum of the .90 patch I installed is: 3c96512b9fd2719848112328390b75ee (copied by hand, typos possible). I have been updating by patches all the way from beta1.
For me the crash happens 100% reliably, saved game or new game. I think I have never seen the diplomacy screen - it just doesn't work. I tried to reset the settings I have changed, but it didn't help. I am downloading the full game and will try a reinstall next.
I guess I would like the idea of resident guardians + wandering spawns, too. Although all wandering monsters do not need to be from spawns. Some monsters could be carrying their loot with them and minding their own business otherwise. Some could be like now, except if you steal their loot they will relentlessly try to follow & kill you to get their precious items back. For example elementals or demons could be like this. But the main point is: you should not get powerful items ear
My short list: Show units which have moves left in the left-hand UI panel. Make monsters actually guard their loot. You can still steal from them easily by luring them away. It is just not fun this way. Loot is too random. You can get killer items from unguarded loot, and then get something lame from heavily guarded loot. This destroys the feeling of achievement, especially combined with item 2. I hope this is just a balance issue, but still this annoys me..
I can confirm this crash. I, too, installed from patch. I haven't ever managed to start a diplomatic conversation.
How about more maintenance when buildings are further away from the hub? maintenance = distance * base_maintenance or something like that. Snake away if you wish, but it is going to cost you.
I think some of the lairs should have borders. From the borders you know not to enter the area unless you want to get attacked. The borders slowly expand, so you will have to deal with the monsters at some point. If there is border-pressure between your civilization and the monster's borders, they will begin attacking the pressure-maker. The lairs should be guarded by strong monsters and spawn easy monsters (stronger later on). Currently it seems to be just the opposite, for examp
The problem is that if heroes are going to be using the same weapons than regular units, then the attack rating of 5 soldiers will be ridiculous compared to that single hero. So, some way to limit the attack rating of grouped units is needed. Maybe the heroes should just use different weapons. It would be much easier to balance things that way, and it makes sense that heroes have unique weapons. However, this needs a lot of added content, and a lot of checking if the balance is correc
I don't think kiting is at all solved. If you have a hero with 3 movement and some long-range damage spell you can inflict damage by running away and casting spells at the end of your movement. You can do the same with a bow. Some range penalties are in order. In addition, if you had a rush special move which gives you 2x movement but reduces your melee defence and dodge considerably (even to zero) you could effectively rush ranged-attack only enemies. However a line of me
Growth mechanic currently is based on four things: Faction prestige Number of cities +x growth buildings in a city Available food Faction prestige is divided by number of cities. Thus, 5 faction prestige, 2 cities results in +2.5 growth per city. (The prestige is global growth bonus divided equally to all your cities). Each +x growth building gives additional city growth for the city it is located in. So, if you have inn in one of t
I suggested in another thread that some of the current +x growth buildings should instead give +y*excess food growth. So, inn for example could give 0.5% of excess food in growth. If you have 200 extra food you would get +1 growth, if you have only 50 you would get +0.25 growth. There should not be too many buildings which give this type of bonus, as otherwise city spamming will be too effective. Although in the beginning you will not have too much extra food available. In the early g
I agree that the current monster and lair mechanics need more work. I think lairs should be heavily defended, and have a lot of loot. The defenders do not move, so that you can't steal the loot without doing any fighting. The lairs spawn weak troops in the start of the game, later on stronger and stronger units. These spawned troops behave somewhat like the current guardians do. They move around and attack nearby units. I think the most important thing is to get the balanc
Choose one building from the list at level up is interesting. So, add more of those "choose one" type of buildings. It would be interesting if there were buildings which give you immediate benefit versus buildings which give you benefit in the long run. +1 materials vs +0.3 materials per city level type stuff.
Maybe some of the quests could be per player? That would make exploring the areas the AI has already explored a bit more interesting, and I think per-player quests could fit into the lore.
It's a bit hard to vote on this in a way that expresses that yes, I think you are on right track. I voted good last time, because I thought the game was good for a first beta. I voted good again because I really can't vote excellent even if I think there has been some serious improvements. If you want to collect "are we on right track" type of data, maybe you should ask "How does Beta 2 compare to Beta 1?" instead. That way it is easy to view the results, and it is easy to pic
A quick addition to the growth from food idea: maybe some of the current +x growth buildings could instead give +0.00x * extra food available bonus instead?
I think the cities are pretty interesting once you get your technology level up. However in the beginning of the game there is not much choice. This is probably made worse by the fact that there aren't any interesting units to build either. So, maybe have some early wonders to build, or just some more buildings to choose from in the early game. I don't find city spamming a problem at all. I build usually two cities in the beginning, and haven't lost yet. One big city is IM
I agree that it is too easy to gain gold by looting, especially in the early game. This makes luck the determining factor in the game: if you happen to get lucky and find one of those 1000+g items early you are in a good position, if not you will be left behind. Effective exploration and looting is the way to victory currently. Valuable loot must be guarded. The more valuable it is, the heavier it must be guarded. And not by stupid monsters you can lure away from the loot. I think goo
Playing some more it seems space is supposed to be the skip to next idle unit. The problem is, it seems to work about 50% of the time correctly, and is thus useless for its purpose. You have to check the units manually anyways. The auto-focus next unit feature is working, but there is something in the implementation I don't like. Maybe it moves to the next unit too soon? For example if you end your turn in a battle it skips directly after the battle, while you might want to invest