Since city defenses have been increased considerably with the latest patch, naval units and catapults should have much higher defense and attack ratings in order to make them useful. A buffed unit costing 200 gold should not be one-shotted by a mage tower. This is an easy fix.
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yes from 12 to 24 hp will make them not get one shoted, rangers/hunters are useless even mages have more HP then them.
Please, please add an 'Are you sure?' confirmation message when you are about to delete a saved game. A checkbox with 'confirm before deleting' would be ideal. Having the Delete button right next to the Load button is just asking for trouble. More than once have I accidentally deleted a saved game because I mistook it for the Cancel button, because that's where the Cancel button is in every Windows-based UI ever. I haven't lost any important saves yet, but it's an accident waiting to happen.
I agree. Out of luck, I had an Autosave on the same turn, but I nearly lost a near endgame save, which would have been a royal pain having to replay 260 or so turns.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy needs a lot of work.
I'd suggest making relations actually mean something, If I have positive relations with a mage, they should not be demanding gold or Mana from me, they should be asking for it, if I say no then I should lose relation points, not a declaration of War.
Demanding Gold or mana should only be done if the relations are in negative, we should also have the option to just say no without declaring war, if the Mage in question is unhappy with my response then certain factors should be concidered before the Mage declares war on me, things such as the difference in military power, the difference in magical power, if the Mage is already engaged in a war, if I am already engaged in a war, then adjust this by the negative relation score, where -1 would just be annoyed, -20 would be enraged, the lower the score the more chance of war.
Diplomacy needs a lot of work.
I'd suggest making relations actually mean something, If I have positive relations with a mage, they should not be demanding gold or Mana from me, they should be asking for it, if I say no then I should lose relation points, not a declaration of War.
Demanding Gold or mana should only be done if the relations are in negative, we should also have the option to just say no without declaring war, if the Mage in question is unhappy with my response then certain factors should be concidered before the Mage declares war on me, things such as the difference in military power, the difference in magical power, if the Mage is already engaged in a war, if I am already engaged in a war, then adjust this by the negative relation score, where -1 would just be annoyed, -20 would be enraged, the lower the score the more chance of war.
Guys, seriously, this is the greatest game i have played for a very long time! I would very much like to see versions of this game coming to Android and iOS (Android first please =)).
Maybe you could also think about how to make the Wizard, the player is representing more present in the game. Instead of just letting the wizard cast spells you could as well let him gain experience over several matches. A little bit like in Age of Wonders (if i remember right). Gaining experience would allow the wizard to:
- improve casting speed
- improve unit properties
- improve spells
and so on...
Maybe you could also think about how to make the Wizard, the player is representing more present in the game. Instead of just letting the wizard cast spells you could as well let him gain experience over several matches. A little bit like in Age of Wonders (if i remember right). Gaining experience would allow the wizard to:
- improve casting speed
- improve unit properties
- improve spells
and so on...
I think this feature was actually promised in the game somewhere. Maybe it was even in the hints on the loading screen. As you're probably aware, the possibilities of improving your wizard are pretty much nonexistent. I'd really like to see experience-based improvement of your mage as well, because all of your units get better over time, so why not you? A good approach would be to allow specializations in different types of magic, like bonuses to Life, Elemental or Death magic, or something that increases the power of all of the blessings that you cast.
One change I'd like: right click on buildings in the city building list should bring up an info box about the building with all pertinent information about the building.
Yes, I really would like buildings to have the same witty and informative info screens as units have.
In my opinion the races should be locked, meaning that if you use undead you shouldn't be able to also use monsters and so on. Maybe you could be able to have their cities, but without producing their units, or maybe you could use the lowest units from the monsters: Goblins Rats and maybe the low class Rogues from the human cities, but having everything available makes all games feel the same and choosing a starting race becomes quite pointless (even with penalties as it is now).
You are not alone on that idea, which is an option that I also support.
Please add the ability to choose a hidden randomized land mass type at the start.
Reason:
When I play a TBS and I am thrown on a generated map I do not what to know at the start if I am on an island, continent, peninsula etc...
Having such knowledge at the beginning of the game changes my game-play. For example: if I know I am on an island I go for ships.
When I select random, it should be hidden, forcing me to evaluate my situation by scouting.
Note: This was posted on the regular forums but I reposted it here on the meta thread where it should be.
Reason:
When I play a TBS and I am thrown on a generated map I do not what to know at the start if I am on an island, continent, peninsula etc...
Having such knowledge at the beginning of the game changes my game-play. For example: if I know I am on an island I go for ships.
When I select random, it should be hidden, forcing me to evaluate my situation by scouting.
Note: This was posted on the regular forums but I reposted it here on the meta thread where it should be.
Last edited:
There's been a lot of nice ideas in the thread since I posted, but as I said then, I came back for more:
QUESTS: Some quests should be only at the beggining of the game, some at the middle, and some, at the end. Let's see how:
1-15 turns: Build cities, build ports (only if not playing on Huge Massland type and never if you already have one), build farms, build craftmens district.
Attack monster type (always tier 1 or 2 of monsters).
Conquest NEUTRAL city (level 1 or 2). I must say this is a MUST. No warlocks cities should be picked for the conquest, EVER.
16-50 turns: Build temple to (only gods your original race is akin to).
Conquest NEUTRAL city (level 4 or more). I must say this is a MUST. No warlocks cities should be picked for the conquest, EVER.
Kill monter type (up to tier 4, but never divine).
51-end turns: Kill Divine monsters quests.
Kill monster type (any with several and usefull upgrades, not spells).
Build city on another world (with a huge reward, and also huge penalty, at least 30 turns to complete so going into another world is at least somewhat usefull). This quest can only appear once for world in game, and should not be completed if you already have a city inside that world.
Divine quests: Here I make a special point of interest: Let's say I play undead (mostly do), and I'm a huge fan of Krypta (or Dauros, doesn't matter). Then some Priestess of Krypta appear right inside my border, and Agrela says "Destroy them to win my favor". Now, I have 2 choices: Destroy them to get a bit good with Agrela (which I don't care, since I can't even get her temples unless I get a human city controling holy ground), get gold, mana and NO penalty to my relation with Krypta, with the inherent plus of saving lots of my units and cities. OR say NO to Agrela (as I should, since I'm the Fearsome Lich King, Master of the Undead), incur in her wrath (yeah, right, -5 brings a lot of wrath...), get no reward (even as + relation) from Krypta, and STILL have to kill the Priestess or see my cities destroyed because she still sees me as an enemy... Sorry, but the whole idea is CRAP. The only quest for killing divine creatures I should get are from the god I'm good terms with, and NEVER against a god I'm in good terms with. AND If I choose to say NO to a god, the one that commands the creature I decided NOT to kill, should do at least 2 things: Reward my commitment with + relation, and TAKE AWAY the attacking creature IMMEDIATLY. If she also decides to grant me some extra spell or give me control of the creature for a number of turns, by all means, I'm game.
Following with the topic at hand (quests), there is something else that always sounds wrong to me: If I get the quest to (say) kill some monster, but the game makes them appear on enemy territory, and the other warlock kills the creature, I get the reward... How come, if THEY got the job done, and perhaps I didn't even clear the FOW on that area yet? Those kind of quests should appear always inside my border, and if for some reason (too small country yet) they don't, and anyone else kills them, the quest should be marked as FAILED. I noticed a couple of times when attacking another warlock, some special creatures appeared inside their border and I didn't get the "quest", so I assume NPC also get quests. For the same reason, If I was the one that kills the monster, I should get the reward.
XP: I'm not sure how XP works inside, units seem to win XP everytime they attack or get attacked, but that's it. Priests/shamans (even if they are way stronger), should get XP when they heal (like in Majesty 1), and their damage should be tone down so they do their role (also, making them able to use the spell more often). This was posted some time ago (in the first 7 pages of the thread), and I agree with the guy, now that I've played long enough and saw a lot of different stuff.
UI: This should be done ASAP. I already have the Serpent's DLC and still, the UI is broken. Next patch should address this matter (or at least, start addressing it).
DIPLOMACY: really, it's like the UI matter. Also, you should get a notice of "A Warlock want's to speak to you" instead of the warlock automatically saying what he wants. When they don't want to talk to you, you get that message, but you can't shut the door on their face. It's annoying to get "Peace" pleas every turn when I'm getting their Capital in the red zone. Dude, if I'm knocking on your castle's door is because I want your ugly head on a pike, not a couple of gold coins or a bit of mana (which they usually don't even have anymore by the time the capital is falling around them), so don't bother asking for peace. The AI is pretty much stupid in that matter, by the way. If I agree to make peace with them after taking 2 or 3 cities, and a couple of turns later they ask for gold/mana (which they obviously don't get) and declare war, it's because they have a death wish (which by then, I usually grant). When asking for resources, the AI should only do so for as much as 10-20% of what you have, never for more than that, and NEVER when you are under 50 (once, I got the Rat King asking for 0 (yeah, it's not a typo, it says "zero") Mana 6 turns in a row, which I always granted, since I had as much as that, and no means for a 3 fronts war...).
RESOURCES: Still, gold is the only resource worth having specially at the end of the game. You need gold to build units, to upgrade your units to better units, to pay for stuff you get from the cities improvements, and is the main source when maintenance is at hand. All the tier 3 and up buildings requiere gold (except the ones that grant gold...), and some of tier 2 do so. Only tier 1 buildings are "free". So, for a resource so important, to have a 4 points perk to get +10 gold (should cost 3 points, since +10 is meager in comparisson to the other one and you have several sources you can get that much from), and also a 4 points perk for +20% gold production (now THAT one is really usefull, it automatically negates the "different race" penalty and works always for all the cities, the more cities you have the more gold you'll produce... this one should cost 6 points). Mana and food are less usefull, specially at mid-late game. The perks that grant plus to them are too high for what you need them for (come on, since you can only use 1-2 spells every turn, sometimes not even that for stronger spells, mana is pretty much useless up to mid game, and then you have so much mana from quests and buildings, you don't care about it anymore).
TOWERS: Day after I post my first idea here (right about this matter), they launch the patch that made towers more powerfull, so I felt like you people really read all our posts, even if I know you've been working on the patch long before I posted. But still, the towers are weak. One of my level 6 (or so) Veteran Skelletons with upgrades (from no special resources, meaning only city normal upgrades), and no remarking spells, takes down a Magic Tower in 2 turns... COME ON!!!! Only a Troll of the same level should be able to do THAT feat. Towers are still useless, and since Magic towers fire 3 tiles away, and Forts only 2 (with physical damage, which is so easy to avoid), even the NPC don't build them. Elemental Towers (they aren't "magical") should only fire 2 tiles away, and Forts 3 tiles away. Also, the "magic" term should be taken away (Undead build Darkness Towers, and Humans/Monsters build Elemental Towers), OR (here come's the idea), they do damage depending on the resistances of the target creature: They change the type of damage to the one the target creature is more vulnerable to. Now, THAT'S Magic. Also, towers (as I said before) are too weak. They should get a boost to resistance, and HP depending on city level (like the city does). Again, if anything (but a Troll) of at least level 5 can take down a tower in 2 turns, the tower is useless. Another thing I noticed is when a tower is being build, enemy units can "move" over them and if their movement points ended there, they usually stay put so the tower never finishes and they can attack from there with no penalty. Once the tower is built the enemy unit should be relocated automatically to the next NOT tower filled spot (I had a city under siege once, and since an enemy Shaman was on top of my tower tile, he had about 40 damage on the defense, and I couldn't attack him, even with a Noble Werewolves unit, a Dwarves unit from the conquer that particular city quest, and my Mighty Blademaster Lord. My resently conquered city fell to him and an army of angry rats after 10 turns or so, on an Impossible Islands map, since there was no way to harm him, nor to repair my city and the units inside, and the tower never finished building).
CITY IMPROVEMENT: Many said this already, even I did once, but still, we have no news about anything like this: Improvements to buildings should be built OVER existing buildings. Since you only get the bonus from the last upgrade, the previous ones only occupy space. True, every building acts as a road so having the buildings makes your units walk faster inside your borders, but there is an easy way to fix that: YOUR units always move inside your border as if you had roads (or as under the Wind Walk Spell/Pathfinder Perk, at least). The principal idea under this is that when a city get's captured, sometimes, you see greyed buildings because the pre-building has been destroyed, but you still can build units from that building (which you SHOULDN'T), and buildings in the rooster that are posterior to the greyed one (like it's abailable, even when it's not). If you do this, the need for intra-frontier portals in cities to move your units inside your border would be meaningless (unless you have cities on different continents or your kingdom is SO huge). Water tile improvements also are a MUST, since playing on Island maps is pretty much useless now (if your capital has 3/4 of space on water, you can't play there).
GAME MODES: In Majesty one, you could play the campaign, or you could play on a random map. The way you could tweak the options in the random map (with size of the map, enemies that would appear, objective of the map, initial gold, initial buildings, building you could build, etc), were sincerely awesome. Here, the only random thing is what enemies you'll face (which should be possible to decide beforehand, like in the civ series), and location of starting city (which if is mostly in water, becomes useless pretty fast, until we get buildings to upgrade water tiles). I'd really like to be able to change the number of perk points to beggin with. 10 is ok for a normal game, but If I want to play casual, I should be able to get 20, and for an impossible only 4 (NPC always have 10, so you are the one that's better or worst in comparisson).
Ok, that's pretty much it, if I come up with any more ideas, I'll post them here.
Thanks for the effort, and sorry for any mistakes, since english isn't my birth tongue.
QUESTS: Some quests should be only at the beggining of the game, some at the middle, and some, at the end. Let's see how:
1-15 turns: Build cities, build ports (only if not playing on Huge Massland type and never if you already have one), build farms, build craftmens district.
Attack monster type (always tier 1 or 2 of monsters).
Conquest NEUTRAL city (level 1 or 2). I must say this is a MUST. No warlocks cities should be picked for the conquest, EVER.
16-50 turns: Build temple to (only gods your original race is akin to).
Conquest NEUTRAL city (level 4 or more). I must say this is a MUST. No warlocks cities should be picked for the conquest, EVER.
Kill monter type (up to tier 4, but never divine).
51-end turns: Kill Divine monsters quests.
Kill monster type (any with several and usefull upgrades, not spells).
Build city on another world (with a huge reward, and also huge penalty, at least 30 turns to complete so going into another world is at least somewhat usefull). This quest can only appear once for world in game, and should not be completed if you already have a city inside that world.
Divine quests: Here I make a special point of interest: Let's say I play undead (mostly do), and I'm a huge fan of Krypta (or Dauros, doesn't matter). Then some Priestess of Krypta appear right inside my border, and Agrela says "Destroy them to win my favor". Now, I have 2 choices: Destroy them to get a bit good with Agrela (which I don't care, since I can't even get her temples unless I get a human city controling holy ground), get gold, mana and NO penalty to my relation with Krypta, with the inherent plus of saving lots of my units and cities. OR say NO to Agrela (as I should, since I'm the Fearsome Lich King, Master of the Undead), incur in her wrath (yeah, right, -5 brings a lot of wrath...), get no reward (even as + relation) from Krypta, and STILL have to kill the Priestess or see my cities destroyed because she still sees me as an enemy... Sorry, but the whole idea is CRAP. The only quest for killing divine creatures I should get are from the god I'm good terms with, and NEVER against a god I'm in good terms with. AND If I choose to say NO to a god, the one that commands the creature I decided NOT to kill, should do at least 2 things: Reward my commitment with + relation, and TAKE AWAY the attacking creature IMMEDIATLY. If she also decides to grant me some extra spell or give me control of the creature for a number of turns, by all means, I'm game.
Following with the topic at hand (quests), there is something else that always sounds wrong to me: If I get the quest to (say) kill some monster, but the game makes them appear on enemy territory, and the other warlock kills the creature, I get the reward... How come, if THEY got the job done, and perhaps I didn't even clear the FOW on that area yet? Those kind of quests should appear always inside my border, and if for some reason (too small country yet) they don't, and anyone else kills them, the quest should be marked as FAILED. I noticed a couple of times when attacking another warlock, some special creatures appeared inside their border and I didn't get the "quest", so I assume NPC also get quests. For the same reason, If I was the one that kills the monster, I should get the reward.
XP: I'm not sure how XP works inside, units seem to win XP everytime they attack or get attacked, but that's it. Priests/shamans (even if they are way stronger), should get XP when they heal (like in Majesty 1), and their damage should be tone down so they do their role (also, making them able to use the spell more often). This was posted some time ago (in the first 7 pages of the thread), and I agree with the guy, now that I've played long enough and saw a lot of different stuff.
UI: This should be done ASAP. I already have the Serpent's DLC and still, the UI is broken. Next patch should address this matter (or at least, start addressing it).
DIPLOMACY: really, it's like the UI matter. Also, you should get a notice of "A Warlock want's to speak to you" instead of the warlock automatically saying what he wants. When they don't want to talk to you, you get that message, but you can't shut the door on their face. It's annoying to get "Peace" pleas every turn when I'm getting their Capital in the red zone. Dude, if I'm knocking on your castle's door is because I want your ugly head on a pike, not a couple of gold coins or a bit of mana (which they usually don't even have anymore by the time the capital is falling around them), so don't bother asking for peace. The AI is pretty much stupid in that matter, by the way. If I agree to make peace with them after taking 2 or 3 cities, and a couple of turns later they ask for gold/mana (which they obviously don't get) and declare war, it's because they have a death wish (which by then, I usually grant). When asking for resources, the AI should only do so for as much as 10-20% of what you have, never for more than that, and NEVER when you are under 50 (once, I got the Rat King asking for 0 (yeah, it's not a typo, it says "zero") Mana 6 turns in a row, which I always granted, since I had as much as that, and no means for a 3 fronts war...).
RESOURCES: Still, gold is the only resource worth having specially at the end of the game. You need gold to build units, to upgrade your units to better units, to pay for stuff you get from the cities improvements, and is the main source when maintenance is at hand. All the tier 3 and up buildings requiere gold (except the ones that grant gold...), and some of tier 2 do so. Only tier 1 buildings are "free". So, for a resource so important, to have a 4 points perk to get +10 gold (should cost 3 points, since +10 is meager in comparisson to the other one and you have several sources you can get that much from), and also a 4 points perk for +20% gold production (now THAT one is really usefull, it automatically negates the "different race" penalty and works always for all the cities, the more cities you have the more gold you'll produce... this one should cost 6 points). Mana and food are less usefull, specially at mid-late game. The perks that grant plus to them are too high for what you need them for (come on, since you can only use 1-2 spells every turn, sometimes not even that for stronger spells, mana is pretty much useless up to mid game, and then you have so much mana from quests and buildings, you don't care about it anymore).
TOWERS: Day after I post my first idea here (right about this matter), they launch the patch that made towers more powerfull, so I felt like you people really read all our posts, even if I know you've been working on the patch long before I posted.
But still, the towers are weak. One of my level 6 (or so) Veteran Skelletons with upgrades (from no special resources, meaning only city normal upgrades), and no remarking spells, takes down a Magic Tower in 2 turns... COME ON!!!! Only a Troll of the same level should be able to do THAT feat. Towers are still useless, and since Magic towers fire 3 tiles away, and Forts only 2 (with physical damage, which is so easy to avoid), even the NPC don't build them. Elemental Towers (they aren't "magical") should only fire 2 tiles away, and Forts 3 tiles away. Also, the "magic" term should be taken away (Undead build Darkness Towers, and Humans/Monsters build Elemental Towers), OR (here come's the idea), they do damage depending on the resistances of the target creature: They change the type of damage to the one the target creature is more vulnerable to. Now, THAT'S Magic. Also, towers (as I said before) are too weak. They should get a boost to resistance, and HP depending on city level (like the city does). Again, if anything (but a Troll) of at least level 5 can take down a tower in 2 turns, the tower is useless. Another thing I noticed is when a tower is being build, enemy units can "move" over them and if their movement points ended there, they usually stay put so the tower never finishes and they can attack from there with no penalty. Once the tower is built the enemy unit should be relocated automatically to the next NOT tower filled spot (I had a city under siege once, and since an enemy Shaman was on top of my tower tile, he had about 40 damage on the defense, and I couldn't attack him, even with a Noble Werewolves unit, a Dwarves unit from the conquer that particular city quest, and my Mighty Blademaster Lord. My resently conquered city fell to him and an army of angry rats after 10 turns or so, on an Impossible Islands map, since there was no way to harm him, nor to repair my city and the units inside, and the tower never finished building).CITY IMPROVEMENT: Many said this already, even I did once, but still, we have no news about anything like this: Improvements to buildings should be built OVER existing buildings. Since you only get the bonus from the last upgrade, the previous ones only occupy space. True, every building acts as a road so having the buildings makes your units walk faster inside your borders, but there is an easy way to fix that: YOUR units always move inside your border as if you had roads (or as under the Wind Walk Spell/Pathfinder Perk, at least). The principal idea under this is that when a city get's captured, sometimes, you see greyed buildings because the pre-building has been destroyed, but you still can build units from that building (which you SHOULDN'T), and buildings in the rooster that are posterior to the greyed one (like it's abailable, even when it's not). If you do this, the need for intra-frontier portals in cities to move your units inside your border would be meaningless (unless you have cities on different continents or your kingdom is SO huge). Water tile improvements also are a MUST, since playing on Island maps is pretty much useless now (if your capital has 3/4 of space on water, you can't play there).
GAME MODES: In Majesty one, you could play the campaign, or you could play on a random map. The way you could tweak the options in the random map (with size of the map, enemies that would appear, objective of the map, initial gold, initial buildings, building you could build, etc), were sincerely awesome. Here, the only random thing is what enemies you'll face (which should be possible to decide beforehand, like in the civ series), and location of starting city (which if is mostly in water, becomes useless pretty fast, until we get buildings to upgrade water tiles). I'd really like to be able to change the number of perk points to beggin with. 10 is ok for a normal game, but If I want to play casual, I should be able to get 20, and for an impossible only 4 (NPC always have 10, so you are the one that's better or worst in comparisson).
Ok, that's pretty much it, if I come up with any more ideas, I'll post them here.
Thanks for the effort, and sorry for any mistakes, since english isn't my birth tongue.
Also, I find it annoying to get quests from a God you do not favor. I can understand if you are completely neutral and a God wants to "nudge" you towards them, but I think the Gods should not offer quests until you build a temple first. That way, either you get quests as a neutral "follower", or as a devoted follower. I can maybe see if the opposite God offered stuff to pull you away from one or the other, but as it stands, to get quests from a God you cannot build a temple to can get way out of hand. At one point, I was getting a "Kill the Infidels" every couple of turns! Sure you can simply ignore them and take a relation hit, but then you still have to kill the Temple Unit running around.
Some Interface issues need resolution. First need to have units move on a double click not a single click. Can't tell you how many times I had a unit active, but wanted to do something else on the map (like click a city's shoot button, or click a units defend button, or click a settlers build button, etc etc etc..) and instead the active unit starts walking off to where I clicked on the map, very very frustrating. Second is the escape key. The intuitive use of the key is to "escape" from whatever sub-menu you have active, and if you have no sub-menus active to return to the main screen. Currently escape will only let you "escape" from the city sub-menu, apply it to all menus.
About Diplomacy: What Are Treaties and How to Get Them Respected.
I can just use a non aggression treaty to enter someone's territory and surround his capital, then attack him.
Actually that would be the exploit... But we are not even there yet! In fact You can always do that: even with no treaty, even if we barely know each other the AI never complains about me enter their territory ...only occasionally the AI attacks when realizes we are being too cocky with the units we push into their territory.
We Should have warnings and then a declaration of war. Maybe not for just one unit which could have entered by mistake or auto-following an enemy after an attack... let's say if 3 units are in the enemy land he should get angry.
Let's start from the beginning:
This is the only game of this kind that introduced borders (together with Elemental, while Age of Wonders has something similar but it's not quite a territory) the AI players though don't seem to be concerned at all about their land!!! Very very very wrong. I don't want enemy armies enter my land, why should they allow me to do that?
These are the the diplomatic condition we can have right now:
War - Peace - Non Aggression Treaty - Alliance
I have played several games now but I still can't quite make the difference between the three peaceful treaties.
They should be:
Peaceful: we are not at war, no condition.
Non Aggression Treaty: Don't enter my territory and we are fine.
Alliance: You can enter my territory and we have to declare war (and actually fight) the same enemies.
OR
Peaceful: Don't enter my territory and we are fine.
Non Aggression Treaty: We can enter each other territory for x number of turns
Alliance: You can enter my territory and we have to declare war (and actually fight) the same enemies.
NOTE:
In this game there are gods, that offers a great way to have treaties respected:
Breaking a treaty could just be considered an insult to the god the other player is closest to (if we want to be sophisticated and cool) or it could be a generic insult to gods in general. The insulted gods (or god) would then give HELL to the player that broke the treaty, maybe starting with simple demands like build a temple to ask for forgiveness... If the player is VERY close to a specific god IMO that god should be even more upset and really attack the traitor. There could be divine units attacking the traitor's territory, there could be area spells cast over his capital and armies...
That would give an extra reason for player to worship gods! For protection against traitors, if you are very close to a god nobody should dare mess with you diplomatically! (NO OTHER GAME OFFERS THAT) ...But that means that the AI should learn how to build temples as well...
As it is now I have no idea what the diplomacy system is.
Opinions...?
I can just use a non aggression treaty to enter someone's territory and surround his capital, then attack him.
Actually that would be the exploit... But we are not even there yet! In fact You can always do that: even with no treaty, even if we barely know each other the AI never complains about me enter their territory ...only occasionally the AI attacks when realizes we are being too cocky with the units we push into their territory.
We Should have warnings and then a declaration of war. Maybe not for just one unit which could have entered by mistake or auto-following an enemy after an attack... let's say if 3 units are in the enemy land he should get angry.
Let's start from the beginning:
This is the only game of this kind that introduced borders (together with Elemental, while Age of Wonders has something similar but it's not quite a territory) the AI players though don't seem to be concerned at all about their land!!! Very very very wrong. I don't want enemy armies enter my land, why should they allow me to do that?
These are the the diplomatic condition we can have right now:
War - Peace - Non Aggression Treaty - Alliance
I have played several games now but I still can't quite make the difference between the three peaceful treaties.
They should be:
Peaceful: we are not at war, no condition.
Non Aggression Treaty: Don't enter my territory and we are fine.
Alliance: You can enter my territory and we have to declare war (and actually fight) the same enemies.
OR
Peaceful: Don't enter my territory and we are fine.
Non Aggression Treaty: We can enter each other territory for x number of turns
Alliance: You can enter my territory and we have to declare war (and actually fight) the same enemies.
NOTE:
In this game there are gods, that offers a great way to have treaties respected:
Breaking a treaty could just be considered an insult to the god the other player is closest to (if we want to be sophisticated and cool) or it could be a generic insult to gods in general. The insulted gods (or god) would then give HELL to the player that broke the treaty, maybe starting with simple demands like build a temple to ask for forgiveness... If the player is VERY close to a specific god IMO that god should be even more upset and really attack the traitor. There could be divine units attacking the traitor's territory, there could be area spells cast over his capital and armies...
That would give an extra reason for player to worship gods! For protection against traitors, if you are very close to a god nobody should dare mess with you diplomatically! (NO OTHER GAME OFFERS THAT) ...But that means that the AI should learn how to build temples as well...
As it is now I have no idea what the diplomacy system is.
Opinions...?
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Firstly I’d just like to state that I’m hugely enjoying playing the game
Hopefully the forums can push the game into the realms of a classic.
I think that giving the user abilities to configure the game dynamics, adds more to the type of game the user enjoys playing.
Some people want the quick game, others like to dominate
I read the forums a few weeks back and have joined specifically on the back of this game, apologies if I cover over old ground.
Things which have probably already come up:
Selling buildings – either when you take a city, or as you region expands and you don’t want them
I’ve found hotkeys useful, but these could do with being expanded and more visible.
Defeating a Wizards capital is too easy a way to take out an enemy wizard.
More Spells (or map size factored into research rate), especially if you’ve gone through the effort secure and build a temple.
For me the wizards starting on the same map gives you little incentive to go through the portals. The issue is that by the time you go through some portals, it’s easier to take out the wizards.
The game could do with opening up the size of these portal maps and allow other wizards to start in the maps.
Personally I would like to see at least 2 portals going to each region, thereby giving people the ability to fight over another “realm” and the add another frontline.
Rather than different worlds, could these be different regions of Ardania i.e. the pirate islands, the northern ice wastes, swamp of the dead, lava pools etc.
Therefore asking the player to adapt to the requirements of the region and potentially fighting a wizard for has some slight advantages for that regions ice, fire, death magic etc.
Each region could also have a high temple, which is guarded by an avatar of the gods, defeating the avatar gives you an orb or some relic, collecting all these allows you to cast the great spell.
I like the idea of expanding the wizards abilities – I not sure if this could be done by defeating enemy wizards, or add in something like the lost crown jewels of Ardania, each giving abilities.
Research a spell which gives the user ability to locate items or artifacts of power.
I find it frustrating that as I expand I gain regions of iron, which i can only build a foundry on, there needs to be an alternate like the silver mine.
Also the fact that as you build more cities there is no incentive to build more than one smithy – unless you add in the idea that multiple building types allows you to build another structure, say a grand smithy which could give you an ability or allow you to make a special item (breastplate) Which can be passed to a champion unit.
Could each wizard have their own Champion which grows throughout the game (Imp to Demon Lord, Warrior to Blademaster, Initiate to High Priestess)
Unfortunately I don’t know how much these ideas “copy” other games concepts (Civ, MoM, Elemental).
Alternatively perhaps there needs to be a means of capping the number of cities, reduce to one of each race, or one major city of each race type, and allow up to x smaller cities.
I think any options need to be configurable, the balance of a game is difficult – some people like to dominate, others enjoy the challenge and giving too much player power will allow them to steam roller the game making it unenjoyable.
Hopefully the forums can push the game into the realms of a classic.
I think that giving the user abilities to configure the game dynamics, adds more to the type of game the user enjoys playing.
Some people want the quick game, others like to dominate
I read the forums a few weeks back and have joined specifically on the back of this game, apologies if I cover over old ground.
Things which have probably already come up:
Selling buildings – either when you take a city, or as you region expands and you don’t want them
I’ve found hotkeys useful, but these could do with being expanded and more visible.
Defeating a Wizards capital is too easy a way to take out an enemy wizard.
More Spells (or map size factored into research rate), especially if you’ve gone through the effort secure and build a temple.
For me the wizards starting on the same map gives you little incentive to go through the portals. The issue is that by the time you go through some portals, it’s easier to take out the wizards.
The game could do with opening up the size of these portal maps and allow other wizards to start in the maps.
Personally I would like to see at least 2 portals going to each region, thereby giving people the ability to fight over another “realm” and the add another frontline.
Rather than different worlds, could these be different regions of Ardania i.e. the pirate islands, the northern ice wastes, swamp of the dead, lava pools etc.
Therefore asking the player to adapt to the requirements of the region and potentially fighting a wizard for has some slight advantages for that regions ice, fire, death magic etc.
Each region could also have a high temple, which is guarded by an avatar of the gods, defeating the avatar gives you an orb or some relic, collecting all these allows you to cast the great spell.
I like the idea of expanding the wizards abilities – I not sure if this could be done by defeating enemy wizards, or add in something like the lost crown jewels of Ardania, each giving abilities.
Research a spell which gives the user ability to locate items or artifacts of power.
I find it frustrating that as I expand I gain regions of iron, which i can only build a foundry on, there needs to be an alternate like the silver mine.
Also the fact that as you build more cities there is no incentive to build more than one smithy – unless you add in the idea that multiple building types allows you to build another structure, say a grand smithy which could give you an ability or allow you to make a special item (breastplate) Which can be passed to a champion unit.
Could each wizard have their own Champion which grows throughout the game (Imp to Demon Lord, Warrior to Blademaster, Initiate to High Priestess)
Unfortunately I don’t know how much these ideas “copy” other games concepts (Civ, MoM, Elemental).
Alternatively perhaps there needs to be a means of capping the number of cities, reduce to one of each race, or one major city of each race type, and allow up to x smaller cities.
I think any options need to be configurable, the balance of a game is difficult – some people like to dominate, others enjoy the challenge and giving too much player power will allow them to steam roller the game making it unenjoyable.
It could be me, but so far, I've only see wide continents (like Eurasia) and no tall continents (like the Americas or Africa) could we see a bit more variation here?
Personlization is essential, I remember that in the very old forum of Age of Wonders Lennard Sas, the lead designer once said that if he had to single out the most important thing he had learned by making that game was that everything should be made optional and possible to personalize.
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By "tall" you mean that North is up? HEHEHE it really depends which way you turn it when you look at it no? No, really, I think that they did that because in a cilindrical map you would have to travel more before coming to the starting point. Also since on Earth we have poles where little life is possible not being able to go to th top of the world or to its bottom probably makes more sense to us than if we had a cilindrical map where you could not cross sideways.
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