1) Graphics: Good
2) Magic pool to share for research, available mana etc : Good
3) Cities: too easy to reach end of all buildings ; first city idle extremely soon. Level 9 (max ?) arrives too fast. Use of food on city growth unclear.
4) No research for buildings/units: Bad. This would mitigate problems (3) and (8)
5) Spells: mostly useless. Casting a spell takes a unit turn ; it should not. Most spells are worth neither he mana they cost, nor their poor effect. Only useful spells seem to be city spells. Even that is unclear (problem 8 comes to mind... even boosted troops from a 43 essence city look worthless.)
6) Enchantments should have some maintenance. Not necessarily large, but some nevertheless.
7) Spell research closed too fast. By 1/3 of the game I know all spells. Anyway, no spell looks like it can help me turn the side of any fight significantly. Why bother ?
8) Normal troops mostly useless: every time I use them, they get killed very easily. By contrast, heroes are efficient: that's good.
9) Gameplay too static: so the sorcerer king positions garrisons near my cities ? OK. They're too strong so I can't attack them. But because they're so strong the game cannot use them to attack me: that would wipe me. As a result, I know I can safely ignore them. Duh... Garrisons might be weaker but attack anything that comes close enough (3 hex ?) So that advancing in the map would be a stronger challenge.
10) Books should also have a strong impact on the power of the spells cast. Maybe make each book worth a shard for the spells it controls ? Possibly, more books might be researched/found. More books might also make powerfull spells available. Really powerful, not like most of the puny spells we now have.
11) Roads should not come automatically. They should be built.
12) Sorcerer King speaking with the player looks childish. We both know he's the bad guy wanting to control everything. The only possible logic for the current scenario looks like this: the Sorcerer King is too stretched and just has not enough troops to send ; he prefers to keep what he has protecting him while he casts his Grand Spell. Every time he launches troops he should lose time/power, so that's why he doesn't want to bother about something that doen'st look like a threat.
13) Stopped playing by something like perhaps 1/2 the game. Bored as hell having just now to move my main heroes (avatar maxed, cities idle, research finished)
Books are supposed to determine which spells you can research, not their power, but maybe more books could give access to more powerful versions of lower level spells, which IMO would address your point 10 without changing the current game design and also address your point 7.
Good points, especially 9 and 12.
I would think the SK would be crushing a nascent rebellion as soon as his first stack of troops was attacked. Or at least one commanded by one of his junior leaders.
The administrator(s) he sends should be also be trying to hurt you in some way... spell research fizzles, a unit of regular troops randomly deserts, etc.
If you want some of that stringing him along feel, maybe the SK could give the player quests to complete or demand tribute (crafting materials).
Very interesting idea! So the player has to choose between doing a quest with no reward at all (except the XP the units can get in the possible fights) or risking open confrontation with the Sorcerer King.
Yes, so you are more of a reluctant vassal at the start. You knelt and kissed his ring to save your people from certain death.
You should be desperate to appease/distract him with odd jobs, or interesting bits of loot you find at the beginning, only showing open defiance later, as soon as you found a second city for instance.
Any of those "weak" quests where there are SK troops in a village now present a challenge to the player. Do I risk a full scale war now, or bide my time... and watch the slaughter of those I swore an oath to protect... and make me watch the aftermath from atop a hill
The text in the quests is quite funny... a few grim ones can't hurt.
Hi moi-meme
Good write up, I agree with some, not so much with others. No offense intended .. really
> How much have you played? have you done different sovereigns and hero combinations? Some of your comments lead me to think not very much yet. There can be a lot of variations so keep on playing. What difficulty are you on? B5 still has balancing issues, B4 was HARD, and they over compensated in B5 (MHO)
1&2: Completely agree. Graphics have really come a long way and they are just getting better and better. Some don't like the magic pool but i am with you & think it is good.
Agree with first part of 3, I want more buildings, maybe some specialized ones that you only can get one of. What is unclear about "Use of food on city growth unclear" Food grows your city, the more the faster it grows, City screen tell you how much you have, key buildings and resources (wheat) get you more. By examining the screen you can see how close you are to leveling up and how many turns it will take (but thing can change)
Could not disagree more on this one. Some very powerful offensive and defensive spells exist in the game (you may have not discovered them yet). One could debate if casting should take a turn or not but i think it would be too overpowering so i am ok wit it taking a turn. City enhanced troop spells are still buggy so give it more time. Big danger of them being over powered.
I would be ok with 6 either way, probably not a bad idea, especially late in the game as i usually am swilling in mana.
>7) First part is a known bug, you should basically never run out of spell to learn depending on your book set up. And as i said: very powerful offensive and defensive spells exist in the game. Well worth learning and often can really turn the tide.
>8) The only units i find really useless id the trained solider and the heros starting units. Most others have their strong points if you learn how to take advantage of them. Several are way over powered e.f knights and riders. SD knows much balancing is still needed. But those heroes are great!
Some of this is due to changes in B5, but i wonder how much you have played and if you played any in B4. The higher your SK threat level the more & stronger garrisons will spawn near your cities (usually your capital). Rest assured with a properly built army of sufficient level you can attack and beat these garrisons. And they will send out armies of their own to attack you and if your city is not properly defended they will indeed wipe you out and cannot be safely ignored. Again B5 seems to have unbalanced things in the players favor but it is a beta and things swing back and forth.
Books only determine what spells you can learn, they define how many of which school you can learn.. chaos books = chaos spells, more chaos book = more potential chaos spells. The sum or your starting books create a "pool" of spell at the beginning of the game, this pool is what you get to select from during the game and be warned, some times a given spell may only appear to be learned ONCE, so choose wisely. ( i do not care for this ). And there are VERY powerful spells, while many are quite lame.
Disagree, but i could see it either way
It really is a good game but it is beta and much can change release to release, give it time. SD is good at listening to our feedback, may or may not act on it (after all it's their game) but they really do try and take comments into account. Keep on playing and keep posting your likes and dislikes. Adjust difficulty level to suit your style, and try different sovereigns, they can play very differently. The early sovereigns need more updating and polish that the later ones at this point.
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