Stepan
Recruit
Hello all.
First thanks to the devs for all their work : it’s early access, it’s rough and buggy but what I was looking for is here and it’s great. The sky is the limit for the future of this game.
Nonetheless after a meagre 50 hours in a few days, something felt wrong in the pace of the game which I wished to discuss with the community.
The clan level unlocks what you can do, which is an interesting idea but divides the game into “stages” which combined with peace/war mechanism gives a strange feeling : You either snowball, get bored or face impossible odds.
Stages of the game :
Early game :
Almost no money, always struggling to pay your troops seriously limiting your growth. Companions’ number is limited so you focus on your core ones surgeon/scout/quartermaster.
Probably the most interesting part of the game at the moment because the map is full of potential challenges.
Mid game :
You become a vassal and money starts to snowball so hard that what was the early game challenge become trivial. You enlist new companions but put them straight at the head of parties or caravan for those influence free armies or even more money without having the feeling to grow them.
If there is peace, you are kinda down your luck because you will probably starve of influence for lack of battle and the lawspeakers policy. No more sources of renown. Damn what a grind it was.
Late game :
You complete the main quest, create your kingdom and all hell breaks loose since the conspiracy new doom meter prompts you to be at war with several factions with their 700 stacks. And you have no influence.
You make peace using your infinite money and die of boredom waiting for your influence to snowball.
Late game ( a bit after ) :
You unlock the +5 influence policy. Then unlock the “Royal Guard” policy and all the policies in your favour because there is no one to contest you.
You now are the proud owner of a elite 220 party itself merged inside an influence free army creating a doomstack slaughtering every enemy army. You swim in influence.
New clans join you but you stacked the odds so much in your favour with policies that you dominate the political landscape.
Personal progression :
As a side note, the snowballing aspect also impacts personal progression. Once you swim in money, you buy the best gear and, since your level is linked to the skillpoints you unlock, having the best gear links too much money snowballing and leveling up.
One of the first thing I did was to buy the best bow I could find : my bow and horse levels skyrocketed after.
Some perks also leads to snowballing. “Ambush specialist” or “Show your scars” or “Staur Defender” are just pure win : they don’t unlock new gameplay, they trivialize some previously challenging ( or impossible) part of the gameplay. The charm skill tree also have this default : you grind something ( save scum in case of charm challenges) until reaching a threshold making it too easy.
War/Peace :
Beyond early game, the only battles worth your time are the war ones. In time of peace, there is nothing to do. Trading system is great with the new economy system but come on, two hours doing only it to farm skillpoints because peace time is not the way to go.
Most of the quest don’t scale with your level, both difficulty and reward wise.
Maybe because I mostly player Prophecy of Pendor but I think there is something lacking. There should be mid-size/endgame challenges like the Noldors/Jatu/Snake Cult/etc/etc offered : a way to battle without prompting the wrath of an entire kingdom, something to do as vassal when your ruler doesn’t want to go to war.
At first I was thrilled to see minor factions in the map like the wolfskins but they all somehow ended up as mercenaries removing them as a possible peace time challenge.
The game stages are locked behind renown and influence thresholds making the lack of enemy diversity twice as annoying : farming renown becomes a real grind and peace time a nightmare.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts
TLDR : game progression is divided into stages unlocked by resource threshold. At the moment it doesn’t feel natural and the game present lack of alternative challenges to earn them turn them into a grind until you snowball.
Keep up the good work and best wishes devs !
First thanks to the devs for all their work : it’s early access, it’s rough and buggy but what I was looking for is here and it’s great. The sky is the limit for the future of this game.
Nonetheless after a meagre 50 hours in a few days, something felt wrong in the pace of the game which I wished to discuss with the community.
The clan level unlocks what you can do, which is an interesting idea but divides the game into “stages” which combined with peace/war mechanism gives a strange feeling : You either snowball, get bored or face impossible odds.
Stages of the game :
Early game :
Almost no money, always struggling to pay your troops seriously limiting your growth. Companions’ number is limited so you focus on your core ones surgeon/scout/quartermaster.
Probably the most interesting part of the game at the moment because the map is full of potential challenges.
Mid game :
You become a vassal and money starts to snowball so hard that what was the early game challenge become trivial. You enlist new companions but put them straight at the head of parties or caravan for those influence free armies or even more money without having the feeling to grow them.
If there is peace, you are kinda down your luck because you will probably starve of influence for lack of battle and the lawspeakers policy. No more sources of renown. Damn what a grind it was.
Late game :
You complete the main quest, create your kingdom and all hell breaks loose since the conspiracy new doom meter prompts you to be at war with several factions with their 700 stacks. And you have no influence.
You make peace using your infinite money and die of boredom waiting for your influence to snowball.
Late game ( a bit after ) :
You unlock the +5 influence policy. Then unlock the “Royal Guard” policy and all the policies in your favour because there is no one to contest you.
You now are the proud owner of a elite 220 party itself merged inside an influence free army creating a doomstack slaughtering every enemy army. You swim in influence.
New clans join you but you stacked the odds so much in your favour with policies that you dominate the political landscape.
Personal progression :
As a side note, the snowballing aspect also impacts personal progression. Once you swim in money, you buy the best gear and, since your level is linked to the skillpoints you unlock, having the best gear links too much money snowballing and leveling up.
One of the first thing I did was to buy the best bow I could find : my bow and horse levels skyrocketed after.
Some perks also leads to snowballing. “Ambush specialist” or “Show your scars” or “Staur Defender” are just pure win : they don’t unlock new gameplay, they trivialize some previously challenging ( or impossible) part of the gameplay. The charm skill tree also have this default : you grind something ( save scum in case of charm challenges) until reaching a threshold making it too easy.
War/Peace :
Beyond early game, the only battles worth your time are the war ones. In time of peace, there is nothing to do. Trading system is great with the new economy system but come on, two hours doing only it to farm skillpoints because peace time is not the way to go.
Most of the quest don’t scale with your level, both difficulty and reward wise.
Maybe because I mostly player Prophecy of Pendor but I think there is something lacking. There should be mid-size/endgame challenges like the Noldors/Jatu/Snake Cult/etc/etc offered : a way to battle without prompting the wrath of an entire kingdom, something to do as vassal when your ruler doesn’t want to go to war.
At first I was thrilled to see minor factions in the map like the wolfskins but they all somehow ended up as mercenaries removing them as a possible peace time challenge.
The game stages are locked behind renown and influence thresholds making the lack of enemy diversity twice as annoying : farming renown becomes a real grind and peace time a nightmare.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts
TLDR : game progression is divided into stages unlocked by resource threshold. At the moment it doesn’t feel natural and the game present lack of alternative challenges to earn them turn them into a grind until you snowball.
Keep up the good work and best wishes devs !
