Hi there,
First of all -> I very much enjoy the game! Pre-purchased it upon announcement since I was a huge AoW 3 fan and even though I'm spectical of Fantasy -> Sci-fi spin-off's ( Anno / Civilization were not that great), the idea of combining AoW playstyle with futuristic setting is very enjoyable.
After playing through most of the campaign + a few MP games I've got a few small suggestions that would make the game more enjoyable including "bugs", which most I think are un-intended features which I feel should be fixed:
Suggestions:
1) "Tiny" map setting -> Small map is too large for smaller skirmishes of 3-4 players.
2) Colonizer scaling costs -> In my opinion, the game similarly to AoW 3 suffers variability in game-play due to the strong viability of a fast expansion playstyle - even though the cosmite colonizer cost stops you at the beginning, it quickly stops being an obstacle to spam colonizers and with the maps being so large it' seems the only way to go early on especially with the strong militia (see also point 4).
Allowing more decisions - to go "wide or tall" with the emprie would add some flavour.
3) Research speed seems to ramp-up too quickly -> The research gained with 2x research exploitations + 2x coast exploitations makes research grow exponentially and within close to 65 turns (less than half of the "regular 150 turn limit" it is possible to research almost all available technologies and at least all of the most viable ones.
I do realize, that this applies to moderate setting and that it can be adjusted by up to +100%, but it does not change the relative size of the gaps between particular tiers, which I consider should be larger for lower tier-techs to remain viable for longer.
4) Militia respawn is too quick / does not cost anything -> This makes attacking very painful since the attacker does not set-up any militia when controlling and absorbing a colony / sector, while the defender can set-up the whole 1k power militia at no expense in just 1 turn after re-taking the colony/sector.
This makes it very difficult to combat a player who goes for the domination victory as you cannot move fast forward into his empire, but need to divide your army and defend -> otherwise all is lost when 1 single scout unit retakes a city for 1 turn.
5) It's annoying that it's needed to keep a few units flying around borders to connect new exploitations to colonies when they hit 4-8-12-16 population. The alternative is to make forward bases (which cost precious influence).
Perhaps a feature to "tag a sector for future exploitation" would be useful - with a military unit around? It would not have the benefits of a forward base and just allow to connect the explotation without a unit around -> enemy units/marauders when walking in/through the sector could "un-tag" it so it needs military presence again so that it is not abused.
6) This was mentioned around the forums already but I strongly feel this needs to be emphasized - The reputation system favours good deeds only. The costs of being "bad" are very severe, while I feel that there should be pros and cons to each decision to give additional flavour. These could be different, i.e. being "good" makes it easier to negotiate with NPC factions (or maybe some factions like "good" and other factions like "evil), while being "evil" gives bonuses to own explotations (cheaper colonizers, stronger military, stronger covert-ops, (...).
Please consider!
Furthermore, the reputation perks/costs fade away very quickly (10-turns) - it makes very maintaining an "good" or "evil" position very difficult and in result - a potentially interesting feature very un-explored.
"Bugs":
1) The UI information on sector level does not update on mouseover of the sector -> It's only visible within the sector details (see screenshot).
2) Roads are deleted upon terraforming a sector into a forest (Amazon Operation) - This largely discourages terrafotming existing sectors within the empire due to issues with moving around the empire - Roads connecting own sectors should remain upon terraforming! This can be also seen on the attached screenshot -> Sector left to Unnadynn is not connected via road.
3) Auto-cycle production of Energy / Research -> Currently it needs to be re-queed every turn even though it has an infinity symbol on it, which suggests it's manufacturing till manually stopped.
That's all for now!
First of all -> I very much enjoy the game! Pre-purchased it upon announcement since I was a huge AoW 3 fan and even though I'm spectical of Fantasy -> Sci-fi spin-off's ( Anno / Civilization were not that great), the idea of combining AoW playstyle with futuristic setting is very enjoyable.
After playing through most of the campaign + a few MP games I've got a few small suggestions that would make the game more enjoyable including "bugs", which most I think are un-intended features which I feel should be fixed:
Suggestions:
1) "Tiny" map setting -> Small map is too large for smaller skirmishes of 3-4 players.
2) Colonizer scaling costs -> In my opinion, the game similarly to AoW 3 suffers variability in game-play due to the strong viability of a fast expansion playstyle - even though the cosmite colonizer cost stops you at the beginning, it quickly stops being an obstacle to spam colonizers and with the maps being so large it' seems the only way to go early on especially with the strong militia (see also point 4).
Allowing more decisions - to go "wide or tall" with the emprie would add some flavour.
3) Research speed seems to ramp-up too quickly -> The research gained with 2x research exploitations + 2x coast exploitations makes research grow exponentially and within close to 65 turns (less than half of the "regular 150 turn limit" it is possible to research almost all available technologies and at least all of the most viable ones.
I do realize, that this applies to moderate setting and that it can be adjusted by up to +100%, but it does not change the relative size of the gaps between particular tiers, which I consider should be larger for lower tier-techs to remain viable for longer.
4) Militia respawn is too quick / does not cost anything -> This makes attacking very painful since the attacker does not set-up any militia when controlling and absorbing a colony / sector, while the defender can set-up the whole 1k power militia at no expense in just 1 turn after re-taking the colony/sector.
This makes it very difficult to combat a player who goes for the domination victory as you cannot move fast forward into his empire, but need to divide your army and defend -> otherwise all is lost when 1 single scout unit retakes a city for 1 turn.
5) It's annoying that it's needed to keep a few units flying around borders to connect new exploitations to colonies when they hit 4-8-12-16 population. The alternative is to make forward bases (which cost precious influence).
Perhaps a feature to "tag a sector for future exploitation" would be useful - with a military unit around? It would not have the benefits of a forward base and just allow to connect the explotation without a unit around -> enemy units/marauders when walking in/through the sector could "un-tag" it so it needs military presence again so that it is not abused.
6) This was mentioned around the forums already but I strongly feel this needs to be emphasized - The reputation system favours good deeds only. The costs of being "bad" are very severe, while I feel that there should be pros and cons to each decision to give additional flavour. These could be different, i.e. being "good" makes it easier to negotiate with NPC factions (or maybe some factions like "good" and other factions like "evil), while being "evil" gives bonuses to own explotations (cheaper colonizers, stronger military, stronger covert-ops, (...).
Please consider!
Furthermore, the reputation perks/costs fade away very quickly (10-turns) - it makes very maintaining an "good" or "evil" position very difficult and in result - a potentially interesting feature very un-explored.
"Bugs":
1) The UI information on sector level does not update on mouseover of the sector -> It's only visible within the sector details (see screenshot).
2) Roads are deleted upon terraforming a sector into a forest (Amazon Operation) - This largely discourages terrafotming existing sectors within the empire due to issues with moving around the empire - Roads connecting own sectors should remain upon terraforming! This can be also seen on the attached screenshot -> Sector left to Unnadynn is not connected via road.
3) Auto-cycle production of Energy / Research -> Currently it needs to be re-queed every turn even though it has an infinity symbol on it, which suggests it's manufacturing till manually stopped.
That's all for now!
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