[0.980] Beta 5 -- Play Notes/Comments/Bugs/Tweaks/Etc

from Elemental Forums

[0.98] Beta 5 

Good Morning

I’m going to continue my "comments series" as I play my games. Don’t know if Stardock is listening/reading, but some people are, so I’ll keep posting. This will be my seventh game to post. I'm going to run with Cersea again and see where it leads... 

Game Seven, Part 1:

  • [Applause] :o WOW. Nice intro cut scene! Sound was a little too much base, but that might have been just my sound setup.
  • [Suggestion] Looking at the “Who are you” when selecting your sovereign, it would be nice if there were two circles below the current sovereign choices: One for ‘create your own sovereign” and other for “randomly select sovereign”.
  • [Tweak] Audio when reading off the ‘book’ at the start is still quiet. I would say that it’s volume has been increased since 0.952, but it is still not enough as I barely can make out the woman’s voice.
  • [MAJOR BUG] Ctrl-N can crash the game VERY easily.
  • [Balancing Concern] Started a bunch of new games to take a look at starting location and what is given from game to game. Overall, I am unimpressed as essence is RARELY given and most sites only gave a few settle options with nothing around for miles (game terms of course).
  • [Balance] Looking to recruit Miredesi. 106 gildar is too much for her services, but I really have no choice unless I want to just walk around with a single hero.
  • [Tweak] When I open up the ‘build’ menu, the topmost improvement is STILL highlighted for the auto-build function. Maybe you don’t realize, but this is SOOO annoying, as it makes for accidental builds all the time. Please remove the highlight, making the player have to click the improvement he wishes to build, even if it’s the topmost one.
  • [Applause] The ‘end turn’ button lights up very nicely once all units have moved.
  • [Tweak] There is still the occasional lightning strike sound that is WAY too loud.
  • [Balance] At first glace at the tech trees; it appears that everything is going to take longer to research…not shorter. This is backwards as too many initial techs need to be developed before you start your troop production.
  • [Tweak] I haven’t even been able to build my first building yet (a merchant) and I already need to switch production to that of a pioneer. This needs to be fixed.
  • [Comment] The ‘cliff’ animations still look really goofy. There should be shores and beaches that the waves crash into…not more water.
  • [BUG] Not sure what happened. All of a sudden I lost half my UI and things starting to move VERY slowly. I could still do most things, so I saved and reloaded and problem is now gone.

Well, it was short, but I'm going to take a break. City queue is taking way too long to build things. Even outter city improvements are taking painfully long to build. Will continue later this evening...

 Adding comments, Game Seven, Part 2:

  • [Applause] City took an acceptable amount of time to level up. Like the information given to help decide which direction you want to go.
  • [Tweak] Sad thing is that I have JUST finished building 1 pioneer when my city leveled up. That's the ONLY thing I completed in the queue. Everything is taking WAY too long to build.
  • [Applause] Monsters are stronger and attack passer-by more easily. This is excellant EXCEPT for the fact that you are now stuck hitting end-turn for 50 turns till you can build a troop or two to help your heros. VERY boring.
  • [Disappointment] Ahhh! This is getting too boring. I'm just moving my heros around. Only have 1 city and NO where to build a second. Boring hitting end-turn all the time with nothing to do. Starting a new game to find and area that's more appealing.
  • [Disappointment] Starting umteen games. Everything coming up has little or no essence, and has no other building locations. I don't want to play 'one-city'! I want to build an empire!

Sigh...taking another break. Will start game Eight on the weekend. I'll give it another try, but I can see myself skipping this beta and playing 0.952 until they FIX the build queue times. Scratching my eyeballs out might be more fun. X|

 

2,830 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

[Tweak] When I open up the ‘build’ menu, the topmost improvement is STILL highlighted for the auto-build function. Maybe you don’t realize, but this is SOOO annoying, as it makes for accidental builds all the time. Please remove the highlight, making the player have to click the improvement he wishes to build, even if it’s the topmost one.
End of quote

 

Another solution is to limit the click area for the placement of buildings to the actual locations on which it may be constructed, instead of the entire screen.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


It could help to know on what resource tile you built your city.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting marionesi, reply 2

It could help to know on what resource tile you built your city.
End of marionesi's quote

 

You can see the resource values on the City Details screen, but I did find myself wanting to see those values when I was on the City upgrade popup.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I have seen the CTRL-N issue as well - game crash 4 out of every 5 times.

*I have also downloaded the newest update 980 update setup b and the issue still occurs.

 

I also agree with the lack of essence at my starting location which leads me to hit CTRL-N a lot.  

 

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Belwolvie, reply 3

Quoting marionesi, reply 2
It could help to know on what resource tile you built your city.

 

You can see the resource values on the City Details screen, but I did find myself wanting to see those values when I was on the City upgrade popup.
End of Belwolvie's quote

You can see Grain, Production(materials), Unrest and a couple of other factors now when you get the city level-up pop-up. I don't see essence though - why was that left out?

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top


Added "Game Seven, Part 2" to the OP.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

There is ONE thing, just ONE little thing that has me wanting to throw this game in the bin and forget it forever.  MAUL.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

[Applause] Beautiful new graphics, sounds and fonts.

[Balance] Retreating from the enemy in tactical combat is USELESS, because the unit can not escape and it makes the AI less powerful.

[Balance] The starting locations are currently too random. There should be never a starting location without 1 essence.

[Balance] The potency traits are useless, because the Sovereign levels very fast.

[Balance] The spells are not balanced at the moment, because they scale too much.

[AI] The AI is not very good at leveling up units (medium map, hard difficulty, standard settings: my Sovereign was level 16 and the AI Sovereigns were level 8 - 10).

[AI] The AI does not always pick up loot on the ground.

[AI] Monsters do not always attack the AI (Gilden, Magnar, Kraxis), but always attack my Sovereign (Pariden).