Just trying to determine if the game is worth my time.
How long will it take to learn every last detail about the rules? How long before I'm fully aware of the costs and benefits for my choices?
Is it as simplified and well-documented as Civ4 or 5? In these games I'm making fully-informed decisions within an hour, and there is absolutely nothing that is a mystery. I'm not saying I can't play games more complex than that... but in terms of accessibility and transparency of mechanics, those games are really good.
Are choices difficult? How much do they matter?
I beat Civ games on hardest difficulty the day they come out. Does this game have opponents that don't suck?
Gal Civ II was a step in the right direction, but it still needed to cheat. Is this game symmetrical where that becomes a huge deal?
There's no multiplayer, so this is kind of important for me.
How much of the game is strategy (never gets old - there are always advantages and disadvantages. each game has a different 'best strategy')?
How much of it is tactics (you just need to learn/discover how to do something - then it becomes routine execution)?
Thanks in advance
Had a long day at work but to quickly answer a few of your questions:
Choices do matter - and there are quite a few along the way. At the city/civilisation/army level, at the RPG-level and in tactical battles.
Importantly, the different factions require different playstyles to use optimally. I think there is quite a bit of replayability in that - as it requires different strategies for you to win. The level of customisation available also adds replayability.
The AI here is good (better than most games), but could still improve e.g. in spell use. The difficulty "Challenging" means the AI doesn't cheat, but plays its best game. I doubt you can beat this game on your first day. The mechanics are not shallow and you will need to do a fair bit exploring the mechanics and content before you know all the monsters, quests and how to counter the enemies' units (which you call tactics I think).
To enjoy this game you have to enjoy exploration (one of the 4 Xs after all) and be open to the idea of a strategy game with strong RPG elements that you must also master to win.
I'm also a veteran of Civ 4 (didn't bother with 5) and Gal Civ 2
I would put the learning curve more toward the Gal Civ 2 than Civ 4.
I've been playing for about a month on the beta's and so far every game I've played has been very different. It took me about 3 ~ 4 games to get the basic's down... I'm still trying to figure out all the cost benefit of choices... there are just way too many possible paths. I havn't even touched the Empire or high majic factions yet, (mostly focusing on Kingdom and more often than not quest based victories)
Choices aren't too hard but there's definatly more that one path to victory.
AI' opponents are seriously a pain in the butt in early and mid game... If I make to end game (yes the AI has beaten me a number of times) it tends to not be much of a challenge but the variety quests more than keep the end game somewhat entertaining.
Starting position and map randomization plays a Huge factor in your strategy and that changes each game. if you have not much iron resources in your territory don't expect to build speciallized superstacks to conquer all commers. similarly if you dont' have crystal or horese then other types of units are going to be tricky.
Mana is also highly variable and can change your strategy dramaticly.
Each faction also has a high degree of customization needed. building mass archers with Tarth is a good strategy, and is rather stupid if your Resolin.
the moddability is also quite high which should make it fun as users create the usual suite of fan fantasy based mods (I suspect someone already has a Fire & Ice mod buidling, and I can see middle earth, mistborn and wheel of time right behind those)
^Thanks again Stardock, for what hasn't even been built yet.
I'm hoping for Forgottenabout Realms, Dragonlance or Dark Sun myself .
But agreed. Toast to the mods to come!
Speaking of mods, Warhammer would be nice too. Resoln - undead, Gilden- dwarfs, Tarth - wood elves, Pariden - High elves probably, Magnar - Dark Elves, Yithril - Orks. Ofc considering there are Warhammer fans amongst modders.
So this game seems to have lots of stuff in it...
How good is the documentation in the game to figure out what all the stuff does?
Here is the manual that you can checkout...
https://stardock.cachefly.net/FE_manual.pdf
There is a heirgemanon (an encyclopedia of sorts) explaining everything with a little extra story. Everything is pretty well spelled out in the rather short but effective tutorial. Every bonus is explained specifically explaining why you have what you have happening (no real guessing). Mind you there is a learning curve, so it is difficult to master, but it is easy to pick up.
At challenging you will get a challenge, but given your claimed skill in 4x games (I'm not doubting your ability here), Hard or Expert (AI cheats a little) may be more your speed. You may design units to fit your style and the AI will use these units effectively. So if you make really good designed units, the AI will get better Also, Frogboy is making some new tweaks now as we speak and making the AI more challenging.
There are several ways to win and others claim that the game is "easy" to win with these other methods, but conquest is definitely something that you will give you a challenge at least. It gives me one each time. There is still work to be done, but so far this is a very satisfying game for me.
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