The_Vlandian_Rollo
Recruit
So the EA has been out for over a week now, so wanted to share some things I had on my mind.
At first i really loved the game; the improved graphics, the new combat system, the deeper trade mechanics. And until recently I was ok with a lot of the games shortcomings 1) because of EA 2) because the gameplay mechanics and features had lots of potential.
Now I am not so sure and I feel a bit bummed out; because the weight of the issues dragging the game down starts to overweight the amount of good stuff. Here is my argument : A lot of these issue are based on bad game design and will be hard to fix or never be fixed at all.
I think a lot of the issues everyone here has been dealing with boils down to lack of polish. They don't really affect gameplay, but they break the immersion.
For instance, the dialog trees. Yes it they are broken and incomplete, but you can still interact with characters and ask for questsand stuff.
Same with the tournaments. Yes they only rely on equipment, but you can still enter and win.
Same with the looter hideouts. They are a cool concept, it is just that for some reason you're given a party of 9 to defeat 40 ennemies.
I mean these are not huge problems. But i feel that most if not all aspects of the game are like that. Unfinished, unpolished.
Was there literally no testing at all before the EA ?
All the quests are bad or borken. The spy quest? you get two guys looking the same. The Family Feud quest? the guy dies before you can dismount your horse. The train the villagers quest? There is no passive training skill.
Warfare is as stupid as in WB. it is amazing actually that for all the effort TW have made on that front, with the cool battles and the intricate sieges we are still relying on the same "magnet" system as before : where the enemy engages at full speed the nearest target. The AI never defends because it does not know how. This is absolutetely my biggest gripe.
Sieges are broken, because pathfinding does not work. The AI is very reluctant to go through the hole in the door, for which we sacrificed a battering ram and so many men.
Skills don't matter. In tournaments it is the equipment that wins, in battles the outcome is decided by the numbers anyway. And for the rest Diplomacy, Stategy, Smithing, the activities themselves are irrelevant.
Did i forget anything ? Trade ? Trade is ok. I mean it is trade, how can you **** up trade. Oh wait! it is lame : the Battanians have everything on the cheap while it is more expensive in other regions, and you don't have access to the best gear/equipment; And price and quality have no relation whatsoever.
I really dislike using the term broken, because it isn't. The game is not broken. It is working as intended. And that is what I am unhappy with.
All in all I am happy that this game exists, and also for the daily patches. And I have hope modders will be able to mitigate the poor design choices TW made. For steamrolling for instance : add a weight to culture, make everyone extremely racist, having other culture troops very bad for morale, instead of making a weak fix where lords don't defect. Rebalance the factions, so you can also experience different playstyle than OP horsearcher/couched knight.
Make use of the clever influence system. How nice would it be if participating in the army or a siege gave you a big chunk of influence, say at least 50 so you can actually have a say in who gets the spoils. Now being part of an army is the worst decision you can make, because the AI can only make these binary attack/flee decisions.
But i don't really have faith in TW anymore. Because at the end of the day they did all these bafflingly bad decisions and said : yeah that's good to go.
/rant
At first i really loved the game; the improved graphics, the new combat system, the deeper trade mechanics. And until recently I was ok with a lot of the games shortcomings 1) because of EA 2) because the gameplay mechanics and features had lots of potential.
Now I am not so sure and I feel a bit bummed out; because the weight of the issues dragging the game down starts to overweight the amount of good stuff. Here is my argument : A lot of these issue are based on bad game design and will be hard to fix or never be fixed at all.
I think a lot of the issues everyone here has been dealing with boils down to lack of polish. They don't really affect gameplay, but they break the immersion.
For instance, the dialog trees. Yes it they are broken and incomplete, but you can still interact with characters and ask for quests
Same with the tournaments. Yes they only rely on equipment, but you can still enter and win.
Same with the looter hideouts. They are a cool concept, it is just that for some reason you're given a party of 9 to defeat 40 ennemies.
I mean these are not huge problems. But i feel that most if not all aspects of the game are like that. Unfinished, unpolished.
Was there literally no testing at all before the EA ?
All the quests are bad or borken. The spy quest? you get two guys looking the same. The Family Feud quest? the guy dies before you can dismount your horse. The train the villagers quest? There is no passive training skill.
Warfare is as stupid as in WB. it is amazing actually that for all the effort TW have made on that front, with the cool battles and the intricate sieges we are still relying on the same "magnet" system as before : where the enemy engages at full speed the nearest target. The AI never defends because it does not know how. This is absolutetely my biggest gripe.
Sieges are broken, because pathfinding does not work. The AI is very reluctant to go through the hole in the door, for which we sacrificed a battering ram and so many men.
Skills don't matter. In tournaments it is the equipment that wins, in battles the outcome is decided by the numbers anyway. And for the rest Diplomacy, Stategy, Smithing, the activities themselves are irrelevant.
Did i forget anything ? Trade ? Trade is ok. I mean it is trade, how can you **** up trade. Oh wait! it is lame : the Battanians have everything on the cheap while it is more expensive in other regions, and you don't have access to the best gear/equipment; And price and quality have no relation whatsoever.
I really dislike using the term broken, because it isn't. The game is not broken. It is working as intended. And that is what I am unhappy with.
All in all I am happy that this game exists, and also for the daily patches. And I have hope modders will be able to mitigate the poor design choices TW made. For steamrolling for instance : add a weight to culture, make everyone extremely racist, having other culture troops very bad for morale, instead of making a weak fix where lords don't defect. Rebalance the factions, so you can also experience different playstyle than OP horsearcher/couched knight.
Make use of the clever influence system. How nice would it be if participating in the army or a siege gave you a big chunk of influence, say at least 50 so you can actually have a say in who gets the spoils. Now being part of an army is the worst decision you can make, because the AI can only make these binary attack/flee decisions.
But i don't really have faith in TW anymore. Because at the end of the day they did all these bafflingly bad decisions and said : yeah that's good to go.
/rant
