The Grand Nova Aetas Survey
1) What feature ingame do you like mostly and why?
Not feature, but I really like the feel of it.
There's something about seeing crossbowmen fighting alongside arqebusiers.
2) Which of places below haven't you seen yet? And how do you like these places?
- All town street scenes of of Swadia, Vaegirs and Sarranids
- Temple of Minerva
- Great Aqueduct
- Drachenburg
- Beacons
- Uxkhal
- All 3 jungles
- All 4 New World special places
- Tower of Istmur
- Both ruins and restored ruins of Calrad Capital
- All 6 house interiors of both plain / desert cultures
- All 7 thronerooms
- Both 2 caves
- All 5 temple places (church, shrine, synagogue)
- All 3 resource gathering places
- All 3 townhall scenes
- Grand Basilica of the Pope
I've never been one to admire scenery in games, but they're really well done, considering you did on the M&B engine.
3) How do you like the New World and its features? (bugs excluded)
I really don't like the archipelago style of it, in my opinion it would be better if it were a larger forested landmass surrounded by islands.
4) What do you think of overall balance between factions in Calradia? Who is the most powerful in
your game? And who is relatively quick defeated?
The Noregr are ridiculously overpowered, winning against them without taking very heavy casualties is near impossible.
Their troops dish out too much damage with their one handed axes in a short period of time compared to other factions, not to mention how well armored they are, putting the knights of the Agonic order and Swadia to shame and the amount of throwing weapons available to their troops is too high.
After them the most powerful is the Agonic order, but they're very well balanced and fun to fight against.
The other factions offer no challenge at all, especially the Swadians, Vaegirs and Sarranids.
The Khergits and Rhodoks can be a nuisance with their ranged troops and cavalry archers.
5) Did the Turguhn Horde terrify you? And did they take atleast 7 towns/castles? Were they beaten quickly after appearing?
I don't think the Turguhn Horde is implemented properly yet, at least not in my game, where they only have Kartand left.
6) Tell us your opinion about the new animations. Do you like them?
7) How do you experience the grand texture overhaul? New textures and realistic colours?
I don't play M&B for the graphics and the HDR in the game is disgusting.
Tell us about your experience with village management? What was hard and easy? Is it balanced?
I found it fun, however there should be an option to hire someone to take care of assigning jobs to villagers and building improvements, when you rule your own faction and have a town and several villages the mechanic becomes frustrating.
9) And town management?
I quite like it, the only thing I would suggest is that every week around ten or so mid-tier troops get added to the garrison, think of it as the contribution of the traders and nobility to the protection of their city.
10) And kingdom management?
If you could implement more varied diplomatic options it would be great.
11) Did you encounter problems with customising your own personal kingdom troops?
No, I gave my heavy infantry halberds and pole axes, however, I was expecting them to use a mixture of either the halberds or sword/shield.
12) Did you read the introduction on the game and religion aspects in the beginning and
the stories about Drachenburg and Uxkhal? How do you like them?
I did read them and found them quite interesting and refreshing for a M&B game.
13) How do you find the building system? Using timber, tools, stone and marble?
Decent, again, some automation would be appreciated, for example hiring someone to gather the materials.
14) How can we improve religion ingame? How can be make it a big deal for the player?
I've always been interested in history and the medieval/renaissance period among my favorite to study, so I guess I could add some input here.
Aside from suffering relations with lords there is no real effect of religion in the world, as it did in 16th century Europe.
I literally forgot what I was about to write, so i'll just make a list.
Add the ability to incite rebellion in cities where the religion is different from the national religion.
Lords being exiled for having different beliefs.
Troops suffering a morale hit or having a boost depending on if their nation shares religion with the player.
Make a holy city state for christianity and have the seat of the religion there, now, it is ruled by a pope (obviously) and has no lords but a very large army of Geroian guards garrisoned inside and maybe some mercenary patrols.
The catch is, that the papal state cannot declare war on anyone and cannot capture additional territory outside their only city, and even if the city is captured, the Pope remains, but, whoever captures it receives a large boost to influence over him.
So how would this work?
The pope has the power to excommunicate lords or entire nations, an excommunicated lord has a very high chance of being exiled, an excommunicated nation receives a hit to trade and relations with all other christian states, the pope may even declare a crusade against a city, when it is captured, peace is enforced, unless the faction is either aligned with the antipope or not christian.
He can also enforce peace between two warring christian factions, or proclaim a city to be of religious importance, receiving a boost in trade, taxes and growth for a short period.
It would also mean that becoming the antipope would have some purpose, every lord that is excommunicated immediately joins your faction and excommunicated factions become friendly/allied with you, eventually leading to a holy war.
You can see where I'm going with this, although I can immagine most of this being impossible to add, its a nice thought.
15) Tell us your ingame story. Which faction did you join? Your difficulties? And how did you earn money?
I started out by recruiting swadians and immediately joining as a mercenary, after around 300 days of raiding villages I had enough to construct my castle and start a faction, we now have 2 cities, 5 castles, 6 lords.
After utterly crushing the Swadians, Vaegirs, Rhodoks, Agonscum and taking their land, the Noregr declared war and have already took 2 castles, I do not know what the future holds, because the only capable lord is my marshal, Grand duke Mirchaud.
16) What's your general opinion about money ingame? Is it well balanced? Are there any exploits? Is it hard to get Florins?
Raiding villages is the best way, kings purse the second.
17) What about the social class/noble titles system? How quick did you grow from the Lower Class to Middle
and how quick from Middle to Higher? And how quick from Higher Class to Nobility?
Have you ever reached the highest title: Archduke? Or at which title are you generally stuck?
In my opinion, nobility takes far too long to reach, so I made myself a noble.
1 Do you know what these small flags are above each banner?
I never really paid any attention to them, to be honest.
19) How did these culture titles like Jarl, Tumetu-iin Noyan or Barone play a role in your imagination?
Pretty well, I took the Habsburg example and elevated myself to Archduke and have been expanding my duchy ever since.
20) Have you ever tried using Influence Points? Does it work correctly? And how often do you use them?
I never needed to, that might change with the current war with the Noregr.
21) Tell us your story about renting/buying/selling/renting out residents? Your first resident and more.
I have a shack in Curaw, I bought it in the start and after 600 days it might have paid itself off.
22) Have you resurrected the Calradic Empire and become Emperor yet? If so, have you every trained Legionnaires, Centurions, Velites and Equites?
I'd rather avoid the whole thing, they are far to Roman for me to take seriously.
If you altered them to how they looked in 400 AD with the chainmails and such, i'd consider it.
23) How's your farming experience?
There is no point in farming grain when you can raid a village and get what you need.
24) Tell us your story of starting as apprentice and joining the Guild in a town.
I apprenticed as a blacksmith in Curaw, went to work 25 times and make a masterpiece in the first attempt. (or second?)
The tools produced serve me well.
