Criticism for a Better Fallen Enchantress

from Elemental Forums

I finally gave 0.86 a try and am at this point cautiously optimistic that the game will be a great success. There are however a number of issues I'd like to bring to the attention of the developers; I'm sure many of these issues are already well known, but in the off-chance that they aren't I'm writing them here in hopes of making FE as good as possible!

  • Units on the tactical map, and the strategic map too, need a sense of weight. Right now, they are instantaneously moving from point to point. Simply by providing acceleration, both to beginning and end of trip, a much needed sense of mass and feeling will be added to the various armies of the world.
  • Improvements built upon shards, bees, etc, are too easily rebuilt when destroyed by enemies. Yes, destroying an improvement does deny the owner access for a small number of turns, but to the person destroying the improvement, it is rather disappointing seeing construction pop right back up the second the tile becomes unoccupied again. So I'm suggesting a cool-down of sorts is needed in between the destruction of improvements and before they can be rebuilt. There are a number of ways this could be done: rubble could remain on the tile after destruction, requiring a cost and let's say, 4 times the construction time, for removal before the appropriate improvement can be rebuilt. Or a simple countdown could be issued that begins counting down immediately without cost. Either way, this will make destroying improvements not only more satisfying, but also more strategically rewarding and, make them worth defending more vigorously.
  • Tactical sound effects are extremely limited at the moment and I can only assume you're fully aware of this. Melee attacks are sometimes quite missing or incredibly quiet as are the sounds for deaths, spells, etc. These absences aren't hard to discover and distract greatly from the tactical experience.
  • Corrupted textures. These are understandably very, very annoying and only detract from the overall experience. The place I'm seeing this most often is with the unit health bars on the tactical map. But the strategic map is very affected by this issue as well.
  • Magic related perks need some testing / help. For example, I selected the "master water" perk and in the description it said I would be provided access to a spell called "mantle of the ocean". I checked on both the tactical and strategic map but could not find the spell anywhere.
  • And finally, the UI and presentation needs a very healthy dose of polish. Tooltips flicker in some windows; the cursor does not graphically change when necessary a large number of times; models flash when doing construction; there are issues with zooming and 3D elements (an issues with matrices I'd assume); a great deal of stuttering going on in between transitions of screens, tactical / strategic map, etc.

Well I hope you guys get a chance to read this post and that you find it helpful. I look forward to beta 3 :)

49,911 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Can you expand on your first point? Is this an animation issue primarily?

I like the concept of a destroyed outpost requiring an increased cost to rebuild.

Glad to hear another vote that the UI needs a lot more polish. In addition to helping a person actually play the game well, it one item you see the most often and determines the sense of "this game is cool/well developed". Not there yet, though continues to get better.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Hi Progress just to let you know, mantle of oceans is in your spellbook - there's a button for it in the bottom right corner. The spellbook also has a button to turn the pages which is hidden in the top corner of the spellbook window. The UI seemed unintuitive to me at first but I'm used to it now - it took me ages to figure out how to scroll the tactical screen, to disenchant things and to change strategic cameras - there's probably functions I'm not even aware of after about 7 games between the two betas but I'm guessing there will be a hotkey list etc with the manual when the game is completed

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

like the concept of a destroyed outpost requiring an increased cost to rebuild.

I don't, because it's currently impossible to defend your territory against this.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lord, reply 1
Can you expand on your first point? Is this an animation issue primarily?

It could be called an animation issue, in the sense that units are put into motion (ie, animated) by the game in order to move them between their current point and their destination. But no, I'm not talking about actual animations that artists are responsible for. This issue is, when a unit is moved, they are immediately given a movement velocity and moved along towards the next tile in their path unlike in the real world where objects must accelerate due to physics.

Quoting DGB246, reply 2
mantle of oceans is in your spellbook - there's a button for it in the bottom right corner. The spellbook also has a button to turn the pages which is hidden in the top corner of the spellbook window.

I searched the entire spell bar on the tactical map, 1 by 1 and it wasn't there. This could very likely be a bug. I also know how to use the spell book, and the spell wasn't on any of my pages.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Mantles are only in strategic map spellbook. 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting TheProgress, reply 4

But no, I'm not talking about actual animations that artists are responsible for. This issue is, when a unit is moved, they are immediately given a movement velocity and moved along towards the next tile in their path unlike in the real world where objects must accelerate due to physics.

I'm going to have to play the game and take a look at this myself to get a clear understanding of what you are saying.  I have a feeling though that, although probably 100% correct, it's a trivial issue.  But it might be something that once pointed out, and I recognize the issue you are describing, that it will start bothering me too.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

How about requiring the broken resource to be visited by a champion before rebuilding. This will mean you probably need to kill the wondering monster or deal with the group. It is also a reason to have a champion in every city / outpost.

 

many of monster dens in the game currently require a visit before building on them (Forest drakes).

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

The way resource building currently works:

The nearest city's production level decides the time it will take to complete the resource construction. So a large city can recover quickly from attacks, but small villages take a big hit. This is a good way to do it. I personally leave a weak unit like a scout on or near enemy resources to attack them every turn. Since it takes 3-20 turns to get a resource back, this is a fair way to handle it.

My biggest issue is that the AI is not quite as smart about guerrilla warfare. They send whole stacks after a resource, when they should be leaving scouts there to do the job. 

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top


How about just pulling a CIV and have worker units to build roads and construct the all of the various improvements?

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting jamie, reply 9

How about just pulling a CIV and have worker units to build roads and construct the all of the various improvements?

 

Please, no! That is just tedious micromanagement that should not have its place there. It already bores me to death in civ, I'd rather not have the same to do there. 

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting DarkGaldred, reply 10

Quoting jamie slaughter, reply 9
How about just pulling a CIV and have worker units to build roads and construct the all of the various improvements?

Please, no! That is just tedious micromanagement that should not have its place there. It already bores me to death in civ, I'd rather not have the same to do there. 

I agree. This also true for players that want to partake in guerrilla warfare: because enemies can so quickly rebuild improvements, attacking players essentially have to constantly run around stomping out construction which isn't fun in the slightest, only tiring.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

I should get loot from pillaging. That is something we could take from Civ.