Earth Dragon
Sergeant
Popping back in like I tend to do and there is lots to like (still no camel production!! Lol). Relationships are in a decent spot, skills are the best place they’ve been, though not perfect, and missions are more varied. War has fixed any and all snowballing, but some of the costs are a little too great it seems. There are a few things that still need to be dialed up and down.
- Wars need to last longer between factions
This is strangely odd how fast wars wrap up at this stage, often with nothing changing hands, and with both forces in a healthy spot as far as troop count goes. There really needs to be a minimum time that wars go on for. Whether that’s 2 seasons or 2 years, the state of whose fighting who is just too volatile with swift peace treaties. This could of course also be countered with slightly longer respites from war, with factions often opting to stay away from fighting for a couple seasons versus a couple of weeks. But the map feels LESS alive with whose fighting who shifting rapidly versus who controls what shifting more often.
- There needs to be refined mechanics/AI on sacking cities and weakening towns.
I just watched a timelapse map of the game where after the first generation had past, practically NOTHING changed hands for the next two, even castles. I think there is a simple reason or this: all the castles and towns have maxed out projects.
I still think just staging a siege for a certain amount of time should randomly destroy a town completed project. This could be a simple RNG roll of like 10% per full day the castle was under siege, maxing out at around 70% or so. I admit, maybe this is a thing, but I’m not noticing if it is from I was playing. All the castles and towns just seems to perpetually get stronger.
I know there is sacking mechanics, but does the AI ever actually do it? And can you even sack it and leave it? If the AI, when it declared war, had an objective for the faction, this could really help out.
Let’s say The Khuzait are warring with the Southern Imps. Upon declaration, they set a goal of sacking Poros, but intending to leave it in the Sothern Empires hands. This would give the Khuzait something to focus on (while some armies still just tried to conquer castles on the border) a goal unknown to the Southerners, but something they could try to deduce, and if successful, would leave the town vulnerable for one of the other factions closer to it to more easily take the weakened city.
I really appreciate the inclusion of more destructive conquering means, but really this should be an option that you just do, take your 100k in cash and goods, and then leave the smouldering city to be occupied by the owning faction, but you’ve now put a dent in their logistics.
- Skill progression is still awkward
Why do some still take way too much time and effort and some are still just too easy. We still haven’t toned down “hope I hit something” rainbow shots from horseback giving you absurd amounts? That’s not skill: that’s taking advantage of how sticky projectiles are and how hit boxes aren’t fully realistic. You shouldn’t be rewarded with 5 levels in crossbow and 20 levels in riding for a single hit.
At the same time, there are plenty of missions and activities that could be giving you a bit of XP here or there that it just doesn’t. Why doesn’t playing board games, and especially missions involving them, develop my tactics slightly. Even 3 xp for a win and 1 xp for a lose would be more then nothing.
Why wouldn’t participating in the arena give me a little medicine XP upon the conclusion. You’re still getting bruised and beaten in there.
Training Troops could give 5 xp in leadership per troop sent back.
Doing any mission that can give you criminal rating, whether it did or not, should give you some Roguery XP.
Participating in a Bandit hideout raid should give Scouting XP
Dropping off a herd should give trade XP, Riding XP if horses/camels (come on with the camels already!!), as well as influence from the receiving notable, which would then give you a little more charm XP
We can go on and on. There are lots of activities in the game that could be giving XP for to all sorts of activities and just don’t. While there are some players that think everything should just garner you XP like flock shooting from a horse does, I think the better answer is to turn down the obnoxious stuff, and just factor in more XP from missions, or just any activity that you do in the game really. Again, why wouldn’t playing those game give you some tactics XP, even if nominal? It’s not like 3 xp for winning a board game would be abusive.
Maybe a little of that did get incorporated in, but if it did, I sure didn’t notice
- Wars need to last longer between factions
This is strangely odd how fast wars wrap up at this stage, often with nothing changing hands, and with both forces in a healthy spot as far as troop count goes. There really needs to be a minimum time that wars go on for. Whether that’s 2 seasons or 2 years, the state of whose fighting who is just too volatile with swift peace treaties. This could of course also be countered with slightly longer respites from war, with factions often opting to stay away from fighting for a couple seasons versus a couple of weeks. But the map feels LESS alive with whose fighting who shifting rapidly versus who controls what shifting more often.
- There needs to be refined mechanics/AI on sacking cities and weakening towns.
I just watched a timelapse map of the game where after the first generation had past, practically NOTHING changed hands for the next two, even castles. I think there is a simple reason or this: all the castles and towns have maxed out projects.
I still think just staging a siege for a certain amount of time should randomly destroy a town completed project. This could be a simple RNG roll of like 10% per full day the castle was under siege, maxing out at around 70% or so. I admit, maybe this is a thing, but I’m not noticing if it is from I was playing. All the castles and towns just seems to perpetually get stronger.
I know there is sacking mechanics, but does the AI ever actually do it? And can you even sack it and leave it? If the AI, when it declared war, had an objective for the faction, this could really help out.
Let’s say The Khuzait are warring with the Southern Imps. Upon declaration, they set a goal of sacking Poros, but intending to leave it in the Sothern Empires hands. This would give the Khuzait something to focus on (while some armies still just tried to conquer castles on the border) a goal unknown to the Southerners, but something they could try to deduce, and if successful, would leave the town vulnerable for one of the other factions closer to it to more easily take the weakened city.
I really appreciate the inclusion of more destructive conquering means, but really this should be an option that you just do, take your 100k in cash and goods, and then leave the smouldering city to be occupied by the owning faction, but you’ve now put a dent in their logistics.
- Skill progression is still awkward
Why do some still take way too much time and effort and some are still just too easy. We still haven’t toned down “hope I hit something” rainbow shots from horseback giving you absurd amounts? That’s not skill: that’s taking advantage of how sticky projectiles are and how hit boxes aren’t fully realistic. You shouldn’t be rewarded with 5 levels in crossbow and 20 levels in riding for a single hit.
At the same time, there are plenty of missions and activities that could be giving you a bit of XP here or there that it just doesn’t. Why doesn’t playing board games, and especially missions involving them, develop my tactics slightly. Even 3 xp for a win and 1 xp for a lose would be more then nothing.
Why wouldn’t participating in the arena give me a little medicine XP upon the conclusion. You’re still getting bruised and beaten in there.
Training Troops could give 5 xp in leadership per troop sent back.
Doing any mission that can give you criminal rating, whether it did or not, should give you some Roguery XP.
Participating in a Bandit hideout raid should give Scouting XP
Dropping off a herd should give trade XP, Riding XP if horses/camels (come on with the camels already!!), as well as influence from the receiving notable, which would then give you a little more charm XP
We can go on and on. There are lots of activities in the game that could be giving XP for to all sorts of activities and just don’t. While there are some players that think everything should just garner you XP like flock shooting from a horse does, I think the better answer is to turn down the obnoxious stuff, and just factor in more XP from missions, or just any activity that you do in the game really. Again, why wouldn’t playing those game give you some tactics XP, even if nominal? It’s not like 3 xp for winning a board game would be abusive.
Maybe a little of that did get incorporated in, but if it did, I sure didn’t notice
