Biggest game flaw for me

[lucaluca]

There are many little or no so little things I'd change, starting with removing the bounty system because it causes a constant diplomatic spam.

But one of the biggest issues for me is how the game incentivizes rainbow affinities versus mono affinity, thus leading to a decrease in diversity.

Mainly because the early empire skills are often too good to ignore, the late skills are often underwhelming for the cost, and after you complete a skill tree there is no use of extra affinity points. Why not make the rites repeatable at least?

Was this a design decision or an oversight? It limits replayability and diversity.

 

[mighij]

The empire tree skills is one of the few aspects of the game that hasn't changed since launch; and I do agree some more diversity could be added. Its also the perfect place to boost certain aspects of the game which could use some love.

Some options I would love to see

• 1 in each skill tree related to crafting
• Culture specific Empire Skill tree's
• Mutually exclusive skill's, more repeatable skills, skills that get better by how much affinity you have.

Crafting:

Unless you start with Reclaimer trait crafting is more like a late game extra. Giving every player at-least some Binding essence for razing and clearing actions would help a lot to make it more relevant early on. Adding a skill related to crafting could add some extra variety.

Just some examples:
Chaos: chance to add a random effect when crafting
Materium: -50% Cost
Arcane: Gain astral echoes equal to the tier of the item
Shadow: All binding essence is converted into souls, you use souls to craft.
Nature: You need 1 less magical essence requirement
Order: Your lowest lvl hero gains XP equal to X times the tier of the item.

Mutually exclusive skills, repeatable skills, enhanced skills:

Example: Forbidden knowledge gives your Shadow Affinity X 100 instead of a flat 750 rewarding mono affinity.

Culture specific skills

This would really open up choices between different cultures and affinities and make each run more different.

Examples:

Barbarian

Shadow
(Low cost): Primal strike adds status vulnerability to the enemy
(Medium cost): Enemies killed in melee have a chance to spawn a skeleton
(High cost): Undead gain steadfast

Chaos
(Low cost): Tier 1 units dying reduce more by 50 less
(Medium cost): Primal strike gains a damage boost equal to your highest affinity (or a %)
(High cost): Your tier 1 units have a chance to transform in a berserker after performing a melee attack.

etc

 

[SunSpartan]

Theres a couple mods out there that make rites repeatable. I think they're a nice addition and help encourage mono builds, but could probably use just a little bit more incentive.

 

[Codyksp]

There are many little or no so little things I'd change, starting with removing the bounty system because it causes a constant diplomatic spam.

But one of the biggest issues for me is how the game incentivizes rainbow affinities versus mono affinity, thus leading to a decrease in diversity.

Mainly because the early empire skills are often too good to ignore, the late skills are often underwhelming for the cost, and after you complete a skill three there is no use of extra affinity points. Why not make the rites repeatable at least?

Was this a design decision or an oversight? It limits replayability and diversity.

All of the first perks in every single empire tree need to be nerfed.

• Fruitful Integration: Lower the founding bonus to -1, it invalidates Haste Berries.
  • Optionally, increase the population gain to +2.
• Call of Chaos: Swap this perk with Impressment at the very least.
  • Optionally, swap it again with Battlefield Looting afterwards.
• Surge Spellcasting: Lower it to at least 15% per stack, preferably 10%.
• Military Engineering: Gut it. Remove the free Work Camp and 1 turn Outposts.
  • Make the structures 2 turns faster and 50% cheaper to build in return.
• Pacification: Reduce the relation gain from 300 to 200 per stack.
  • Optionally, add another 100 relations to the Champion bonus.
• Knowledge Extraction: Swap it with Shadow Binding.
  • Optionally, make it knowledge per unit kill like Battlefield Looting.

A lot of the later perks need buffs, but that list is too long for me write out here.
Repeatable rites should be introduced, but they can be incredibly broken if not carefully balanced.

Edited to reflect milder nerfs that I recently made myself.

 

[TirAsleen]

I have the feeling replayability is not the focus of AoW4 at all. Looks like the devs got plenty of feedback in 1 year, when it comes to affinities, cultures, empire trees and so on.

 

[Greymane]

I'd really like to see some synergizing in the empire tree. Maybe have some mixed affinity skills between the trees, where if you've got enough affinity to take, for random example, a tier 2 Nature and a tier 2 order skill, you could take an tier 2 order/nature skill instead, locking out the original two but granting you something powerful and unique instead.

Or heck, even do some kinda mono-focus option as well. Give skills some kinda smaller secondary effect that can scale, so if you REALLY want to do a Shadow-only run, you can still get some benefit out of the tree once you've reached the pinnacle.

 

[Mammoet]

I have the feeling replayability is not the focus of AoW4 at all.

What are you on? What do you think all this customization is for?

 

[Wyrd Deofol]

Eventually you are better off to have affinity in every one. Otherwise you will just waste those surplus affinity points.

Combining affinity to a tech-tree might look good on paper but might not be the wisest idea in practice.

Every game i play i always have affinities in (almost) every tree.

"I play like a demon from hell who sets the world ablaze, but i need some nature affinity for them foods too grow. "


Yes, the affinity tree needs to grow together with the game.

 

[seperamos]

It should be possible to win by focusing on one affinity branch, either leading to faster affinity tome research, better thematic stats and units, or better/faster imperial governance.

With dual affinities, you gain access to better items, better strength coverage via dual stat affects such as blight with freezing but reduced physical attack, also more weakness, slower and less defined tome research, and non specialized imperium roles leading to slower expansion.

These pros and cons get more exaggerated until the full rainbow build is made, costing either research or imperium to maintain rainbow attack or defense powers and racial integrity, powerful but limited unit selection aside from culture units and their transformations/enchantments, slowest citybuilding.

They could also be one bad triggered event or scenario away from becoming malformed lost wizard or lost astral spawn to mitigate their rainbow combat powers. Lost astral spawn units get reduced stats and bonuses or other debuffs until an optional quest is achieved to regain previous rainbow control. Tedious, but doable and fair double edged sword for their combat power.

 

[akinata]

The empire tree skills is one of the few aspects of the game that hasn't changed since launch;

wrong, the empire skill tree did got a revamp at some point, mixing up the available skills and changing some.

 

[Wyrd Deofol]

wrong, the empire skill tree did got a revamp at some point, mixing up the available skills and changing some.

That is true. Also the costs increased.

 

[Ferrus Animus]

IMO one issue with the way options are mostly focused on the faction you create and not easily changable, means that much of your strategy is is predetermined at turn 1 and there is very little incentive and ways to change it.