Egg
Recruit
This is the first game in a very long time that nearly everyone I know has bought, and it's down to the excellent combat engine and horse implementation. So good work on that. Also, I heard a rumour this is made in Torque! One million bonus points if that's true because I'd never have imagined in a million years it could do anything like this.
Anyway, I'll pick out any thoughts that I haven't come across while browsing this folder.
Scaling
At the moment the game seems to play its entire hand at the beginning. In some respects this is a positive thing, because demo users are seeing all the content laid out tantalisingly close, but just out of reach. That soon fades when you buy the game. I think a bit of restraint could be shown with the distribution of items, so that there were still things left to discover. Obviously the game is still in the early stages of development, but there's more than enough content already available to spread out the availability in ways beyond randomising every shop. The most straightforward of these is limiting the range of supplies in the start town, holding higher level items back until players progress, and giving the two factions specific armours and weapons. This isn't going to make much of an impact on the players who've already played M&B inside out, but at the moment the longevity reminds me of Pirates, the Sid Meier game; burning brightly for a short while until you get a grip on the game mechanics, when it starts to feel more like an exercise in shifting stats than a bold adventure (although M&B makes up for this with the extremely satisfying combat).
Tactics
I'm not 100% sure how tactics changes battles, apart from reading that extra points allow more of your troops onto the field. I think it'd make more sense if tactics changed the starting points of the two sides, with an extremely poor tactics rating starting with your troops scattered unevenly with the enemy organised and in very close proximity, and the opposite for a positive rating. This would make getting to the edge of the map to retreat from battle much more exciting and dangerous. Alternatively, if the landscape selection can be controlled in some way, you could change the starting positions to suit, such as spawning on high ground with good tactics and in a river with poor.
(As a secret secondary bonus, changing the spawning habits of the enemy will give the impression of more developed AI, because you'll no longer start every battle knowing that, terrain aside, the enemy will be taking the shortest and most obvious route to you, en masse.)
Numbers
The troop scaling is a little, shall we say, transparent at the moment. Everyone notices pretty early on that as you level, the troop numbers swell across the board, until they start to reach ludicrous amounts. Unfortunately this doesn't really add to the game, because apart from the initial wow of a billion Dark Hunters chasing you, the battlefield is too limited to make use of them and the increased numbers only show this up. Rather than scaling in volume, I suggest that higher level units should be held back and introduced after a certain length of time has passed, regardless of the player's actions. Since the game is pretty freeform it could be introduced as a (randomised) invading force from the sea that slowly starts to take over the land, and their appearance could be foreshadowed in town banter and such. It'll add some much needed tension to the game, around the exact point it starts to feel like there's nothing left in the game to challenge you. I recommend that you give these soldiers an advantage that simply can't be matched by throwing money around, a challenge that players have to overcome by other means. Like perhaps engineering a truce between the two factions, to ward off the new threat.
Arena
The arena is super fun, and lots of new players spend hours playing it before realising it isn't the game, so it can be expanded in a few ways. At the moment, once you've become used to the fighting, the betting is a surefire way to make money. Very slowly. This encourages powergaming-style grinding, which devalues the Arena and makes it seem more like a bonus time-waster than a real tournament. So I'd suggest holding a proper high-stakes tournament once a day, or maybe even once a week, for which you register in advance (and pay a reasonable cash sum) and turn up at a certain time of day to participate in. Something you really have to commit yourself to to take part. I wouldn't recommend doing this until horses are persistent and there's some way of taking weapons from downed soldiers, or the high risk involved could make such limitations frustrating.
Super Hardcore Bullet Chewing Hero Mode
Since the game is moderately open-ended, it deserves a Nethack style permanent death mode for the REAL MANLY VETERANS, where failing in battle has a chance of ending your life, and game, permanently. For this to happen, the combat will need to be even tighter than it is now, and retreats handled in a much more clear-cut manner. Basically it has to be the player's fault when they die, usually due to over-confidence in a fight. It'd also be a little depressing if 'death' is handled as it is now, as I'm sure people would like a better send-off for their heroes than the screen pausing for a second and then displaying a YOU RAN OUT OF HEALTH AND DIED popup. If you catch a fatal arrow to the head, you should see the results, in all their murderous glory.
While we're on this subject, the game really needs a better get-out clause than "You hold your breath and everything is fine" too, because that gets a bit silly after the hundredth lucky escape. Unfortunately I can't think of a better one at the moment. Oops.
Preview stuff
One of my biggest irritations (most recently with World of Warcraft) is games that offer you wearable items via sprites that can't really represent the 3D models on offer. It's no fun saving up for something that you think will look great and then buying it to find out the model is nothing like you expected it to be. So for a future feature I think some kind of 3D preview in the shop would be nice, perhaps a rotatable boxout with either the model itself, or a preview of your character wearing the item.
Minor stuff
The character face creation REALLY needs a slider for the lips. Everyone I've discussed this with first thought "Hm something doesn't look right I'll try this slider" and then kept going, and then ran out of sliders. I'm pretty sure it's the fixed perma-pout that makes all the characters look so consistently... strange. A more unique facial style will get away from the 'Poser' look that makes many people flinch.
I'd like the benefits for wearing less armour to be more pronounced. Not equal, but at least a reasonable alternative to heavy armour. At the moment you can have your plate armour cake and eat it thanks to horses negating the speed penalty.
I'd also like rocket boosters for horses.
And laser crossbows.
And make all those people facing the same way in the first tavern turn around. They're creeping me the hell out.
Anyway, I'll pick out any thoughts that I haven't come across while browsing this folder.
Scaling
At the moment the game seems to play its entire hand at the beginning. In some respects this is a positive thing, because demo users are seeing all the content laid out tantalisingly close, but just out of reach. That soon fades when you buy the game. I think a bit of restraint could be shown with the distribution of items, so that there were still things left to discover. Obviously the game is still in the early stages of development, but there's more than enough content already available to spread out the availability in ways beyond randomising every shop. The most straightforward of these is limiting the range of supplies in the start town, holding higher level items back until players progress, and giving the two factions specific armours and weapons. This isn't going to make much of an impact on the players who've already played M&B inside out, but at the moment the longevity reminds me of Pirates, the Sid Meier game; burning brightly for a short while until you get a grip on the game mechanics, when it starts to feel more like an exercise in shifting stats than a bold adventure (although M&B makes up for this with the extremely satisfying combat).
Tactics
I'm not 100% sure how tactics changes battles, apart from reading that extra points allow more of your troops onto the field. I think it'd make more sense if tactics changed the starting points of the two sides, with an extremely poor tactics rating starting with your troops scattered unevenly with the enemy organised and in very close proximity, and the opposite for a positive rating. This would make getting to the edge of the map to retreat from battle much more exciting and dangerous. Alternatively, if the landscape selection can be controlled in some way, you could change the starting positions to suit, such as spawning on high ground with good tactics and in a river with poor.
(As a secret secondary bonus, changing the spawning habits of the enemy will give the impression of more developed AI, because you'll no longer start every battle knowing that, terrain aside, the enemy will be taking the shortest and most obvious route to you, en masse.)
Numbers
The troop scaling is a little, shall we say, transparent at the moment. Everyone notices pretty early on that as you level, the troop numbers swell across the board, until they start to reach ludicrous amounts. Unfortunately this doesn't really add to the game, because apart from the initial wow of a billion Dark Hunters chasing you, the battlefield is too limited to make use of them and the increased numbers only show this up. Rather than scaling in volume, I suggest that higher level units should be held back and introduced after a certain length of time has passed, regardless of the player's actions. Since the game is pretty freeform it could be introduced as a (randomised) invading force from the sea that slowly starts to take over the land, and their appearance could be foreshadowed in town banter and such. It'll add some much needed tension to the game, around the exact point it starts to feel like there's nothing left in the game to challenge you. I recommend that you give these soldiers an advantage that simply can't be matched by throwing money around, a challenge that players have to overcome by other means. Like perhaps engineering a truce between the two factions, to ward off the new threat.
Arena
The arena is super fun, and lots of new players spend hours playing it before realising it isn't the game, so it can be expanded in a few ways. At the moment, once you've become used to the fighting, the betting is a surefire way to make money. Very slowly. This encourages powergaming-style grinding, which devalues the Arena and makes it seem more like a bonus time-waster than a real tournament. So I'd suggest holding a proper high-stakes tournament once a day, or maybe even once a week, for which you register in advance (and pay a reasonable cash sum) and turn up at a certain time of day to participate in. Something you really have to commit yourself to to take part. I wouldn't recommend doing this until horses are persistent and there's some way of taking weapons from downed soldiers, or the high risk involved could make such limitations frustrating.
Super Hardcore Bullet Chewing Hero Mode
Since the game is moderately open-ended, it deserves a Nethack style permanent death mode for the REAL MANLY VETERANS, where failing in battle has a chance of ending your life, and game, permanently. For this to happen, the combat will need to be even tighter than it is now, and retreats handled in a much more clear-cut manner. Basically it has to be the player's fault when they die, usually due to over-confidence in a fight. It'd also be a little depressing if 'death' is handled as it is now, as I'm sure people would like a better send-off for their heroes than the screen pausing for a second and then displaying a YOU RAN OUT OF HEALTH AND DIED popup. If you catch a fatal arrow to the head, you should see the results, in all their murderous glory.
While we're on this subject, the game really needs a better get-out clause than "You hold your breath and everything is fine" too, because that gets a bit silly after the hundredth lucky escape. Unfortunately I can't think of a better one at the moment. Oops.
Preview stuff
One of my biggest irritations (most recently with World of Warcraft) is games that offer you wearable items via sprites that can't really represent the 3D models on offer. It's no fun saving up for something that you think will look great and then buying it to find out the model is nothing like you expected it to be. So for a future feature I think some kind of 3D preview in the shop would be nice, perhaps a rotatable boxout with either the model itself, or a preview of your character wearing the item.
Minor stuff
The character face creation REALLY needs a slider for the lips. Everyone I've discussed this with first thought "Hm something doesn't look right I'll try this slider" and then kept going, and then ran out of sliders. I'm pretty sure it's the fixed perma-pout that makes all the characters look so consistently... strange. A more unique facial style will get away from the 'Poser' look that makes many people flinch.
I'd like the benefits for wearing less armour to be more pronounced. Not equal, but at least a reasonable alternative to heavy armour. At the moment you can have your plate armour cake and eat it thanks to horses negating the speed penalty.
I'd also like rocket boosters for horses.
And laser crossbows.
And make all those people facing the same way in the first tavern turn around. They're creeping me the hell out.
