PVal
Regular
I played SOD a long, long time ago, even before version 4. Now I tried the V 5.0. Great job so far!
I gathered some of my observations, maybe it could give ideas to further improvements?
1. Badboy has no description. How could I know whether a badboy rating of 13 is acceptable or horrible? It would be nice to have a short text where the badboy rating is displayed, for example "other factions consider you a minor nuisance" to "all factions are planning to unite to destroy you".
2. I have churches, monasteries and chapels everywhere for over a month, I get often messages how they spread my faith, yet my faith is hated in all my villages and my advisor says we have 0 believers. (what does it mean? 0 people of the faith, or just 0 faith troops?) I can't find any report about religion, for example percentage of believers in my villages and towns.
3. I have trainers in my castles, I turned recruiting off, but soldiers in my castle don't gain XP. In previous versions they did. Maybe they still do, but slower? I'll have to observe it for some more time.
4. Taxes seem to be random. In one month I did not conquer anything new, but I built all buildings, the prosperity improved from very poor to very good, the population increased at least 50%, yet I get less than half the taxes I got a month ago. I checked the reports, I don't have any edicts which lower the tax rate.
5. Bandits seem to be unbalanced. It is great to have large bandit parties, as they provide a lot of XP and income, but after some time they destroy immersion. Having a fairly good sized kingdom with prosperous towns and villages generates less income per week than what I can get from one single average bandit battle (immediate loot + selling loot + ransoming prisoners). This takes away all the other nice features, like economy, quests, etc, and makes SOD a "second job", where the most lucrative thing by far is to battle bandits all the time, doing nothing else. What about keeping the large bandit parties, but drastically reducing their respawn rates?
6. What's the point in Marinian noble troops? They have exactly the same stats and upkeep costs as regulars. Yes, they can be upgraded to faith troops, but they just have higher upkeep and questionably better stats. (a crossbowman with, for example, 300 skill is not that much more effective than one with 250 skill)
I gathered some of my observations, maybe it could give ideas to further improvements?
1. Badboy has no description. How could I know whether a badboy rating of 13 is acceptable or horrible? It would be nice to have a short text where the badboy rating is displayed, for example "other factions consider you a minor nuisance" to "all factions are planning to unite to destroy you".
2. I have churches, monasteries and chapels everywhere for over a month, I get often messages how they spread my faith, yet my faith is hated in all my villages and my advisor says we have 0 believers. (what does it mean? 0 people of the faith, or just 0 faith troops?) I can't find any report about religion, for example percentage of believers in my villages and towns.
3. I have trainers in my castles, I turned recruiting off, but soldiers in my castle don't gain XP. In previous versions they did. Maybe they still do, but slower? I'll have to observe it for some more time.
4. Taxes seem to be random. In one month I did not conquer anything new, but I built all buildings, the prosperity improved from very poor to very good, the population increased at least 50%, yet I get less than half the taxes I got a month ago. I checked the reports, I don't have any edicts which lower the tax rate.
5. Bandits seem to be unbalanced. It is great to have large bandit parties, as they provide a lot of XP and income, but after some time they destroy immersion. Having a fairly good sized kingdom with prosperous towns and villages generates less income per week than what I can get from one single average bandit battle (immediate loot + selling loot + ransoming prisoners). This takes away all the other nice features, like economy, quests, etc, and makes SOD a "second job", where the most lucrative thing by far is to battle bandits all the time, doing nothing else. What about keeping the large bandit parties, but drastically reducing their respawn rates?
6. What's the point in Marinian noble troops? They have exactly the same stats and upkeep costs as regulars. Yes, they can be upgraded to faith troops, but they just have higher upkeep and questionably better stats. (a crossbowman with, for example, 300 skill is not that much more effective than one with 250 skill)