[0.952] GFireflyE's FE Game #6 Notes

from Elemental Forums

Beta 0.952

Well now. Don’t even get a chance to finish my previous game…not that I’m complaining. XD

Game 6: Going to try out Lord Markin 

  • I’ve been really feeling that the default ‘normal’ difficulty setting is too easy. Increasing to ‘challenging’.
  • [Bug] Starting Game. Speech Volume of the ‘book speech’ is still way too quiet.
  • Wow! Great start for my first city 4/3/2 with a second location at 3/3/1. Lucky day!
  • :o And the game just crashed!
  • NO auto-save?!? NOOOOO!! I was 6 turns in! Auto-save should happen on turn 2!

Started again. Grumble. Not nearly as good… 

  • Had to ctrl-N 17 times until I felt I had a reasonable start, but still not what I had before.
  • Game crashes several times when attempting to cntl-N. (never happened in 0.951)
  • Still has a strong lack of essence in starting locations.
  • Markin sure doesn’t start off with a great deal of mana…each to their own I guess
  • Many sound effects in tactical combat are missing; worse than in 0.951
  • Are the Tilda Herbs supposed to be available for you to consume while in tactical combat? If so…. They were not there….
  • Game is crashing more frequently when attempting to load a saved file. (never happened in 0.951)

Decided to stop and take a breather before starting again. Just lost the mood after that first starting location was lost.

Started a new game a few hours later and got this:

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4599/game6kingdom0.jpg

Not sure why there is a difference in starting position when first entering into the game versus hitting ctrl-N, but I’ve never had such utopian starts with the re-mapping. 

  • Cities seems to level almost TOO fast now. Granted, I have Sovereign’s Call cast, but I haven’t even had time to finish building a unit to ‘scout’ around the city to decide what the best level choice would be, and it’s already leveled in JUST 7 turns.
  • Heroes are leveling a little too fast as well. I just did a single combat against a bear cub, and it was enough to level. ??? That ain’t right.
  • Sovereign just fought a single battle against a darkling shaman…and it was enough to level. Leveling is too quick.
  • [Bug] Tactical sound effects seem to be off, both in volume and frequency. It’s inconsistent from one battle to the next.
  • [Bug] My city leveled and I chose ‘town’. It said I was to receive +1 ZoC…but I didn’t.
  • And the game just crashed.

 Reloading most recent save… 

  • Caught back up….
  • After stepping on a lair, the UI shouldn’t be moving on to the next unit until after you get to find out what you’re receiving as loot. It’s confusing to have to keep returning to your unit to equip.
  • Looks like the city and hero details update now right when you get bonuses. Good job!
  • [Balance] Just tried fighting a ‘weak’ party allied with the empire. I am a ‘strong’ party, with a path of the Defender and 3 wolves. I was slaughtered.

Here’s a shot of my kingdom so far.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/661/game6kingdom1.jpg

Well, that’s enough for tonight. Got myself a really good kingdom growing; with surprisingly a large about of essence available. I’ve really been enjoying the games with more essence. Hope the game continues in that direction since so much is dependant on the stuff. 

8,599 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

 

Good Morning. Started playing same game again, next day. Had to declare war on Altar and Yithral so that they wouldn’t beat me to a city location in the ‘north-west’ on the previous image shown. Worth the wars, as I now have two more cities…and something to do. Altar has been a real pain, slipping in from behind and taking over two cities. Had to take them back and was tricky doing so since I never really needed to focus on troop building yet. Yithral has been a force to reckon with, but the bulk of my army was north, so I could handle it. 

  • Didn’t like the fact that Altar could use my roads against me. Makes it impossible to cover his attack since he can travel so far.
  • [Bug] So, I’ve been using ‘growth’ a lot with Markin. I got myself a Warg to ride, and now all of a sudden the growth spell is shrinking me! Don’t know if my stats follow suite, but something fishy is definitely going on.
  • [Bug] Casting growth on a Shields of Gilden unit (of 3) only increases the size of one of the troops.

Made peace with Altar. Surprisingly, it was a mutual agreement. 

  • Sometimes the ‘double battle sword’ cursor is being used when it should be the ‘single-neutral sword’. Like when saving the game…
  • One of my outposts seems to have lost it’s borders.
  • [Bug] Something very fishy with ‘offer tribute’. Kraxis offered to pay me 92 gildars so I accepted. Easy money. However, now my ledger says I’m paying 10% of my income to Kraxis. What gives?
  • [Bug] Noticing that my borders occasionally disappear. Here's a screenshot example: http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/4430/game6kingdombuglostbord.jpg

So, I'm trudging along, top of the food chain; about season 200, and it's getting boring. I know it's coming, but I can't wait till random events are added. Hopefully mid-game monster spawns as well.

Here's what my kingdom is currently looking like:

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/5579/game6kingdom2.jpg

Will take a break for awhile...

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Continuing where I left off. 

  • Wiped out Yithral; systematically and easily.
  • [Bug] Picked up Verga as a champ whereas he was collecting bracers. Useless.
  • Magnar declared War on me as soon as Yithral was wiped out. Guess he was trying to make good of a situation. Thing is, my 3 champs will wipe out anything they throw at me. Champs are too powerful in this current build. (Either that or troops and monsters are not powerful enough….eitherway.)
  • Game froze (not crash…actually froze.) Never happened before.

 Reloaded auto-save and continued: 

  • Umm…Just took over a city and then left to continue my campaign. Turns out that another stack was sitting on the city square…so I had to turn around and attack it again. I control the city, but they are ‘defending’ it. Very fishy.
  • Poison doesn’t always do its poison damage when it’s suppose to, especially when the troop is sitting at 1hp. Poison seems to lose effect.
  • [Bug] Again, when I conquered Queen Procipinee, she seems like those bracers.
  • Find it really cool that all the champ-enchantments that are on enemy heroes when they surrender are still maintained…without maintenance cost!
  • For the record, the enchantment ‘regeneration’ combined with defensive oriented troops and heroes is BROKEN. Awesome, but imbalanced, imo.
  • [Bug] Fighting a combat and Sulowa swung, and I killed her with the Counterattack. However, now she hangs, waiting for her ‘backswing’ that will never come. Definitely a bug. He’s an image:  http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5129/game6kingdombugsulowafr.jpg

Here’s an image of the current state of my Kingdom:

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/6954/game6kingdom3.jpg

Well, taking another break now. Wiping out 3 factions and not even breaking a sweat. Midgame is currently quite boring. Also, too many cities for it to be 'fun' to manage now. I suppose I could raze a few cities that are just getting in the way, but that goes against 'building' an empire philosophy. Lastly, still don't like how the 'weak', 'medium', 'strong', 'deadly', and 'epic' approximations of stack strength of NOT even close to accurate. Often times a weak group smashes my strong group and sometimes my medium group crushes a strong group. Definately needs better approximation.

 

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Reserved? O_O

All these delicious bugs, you should make an elaborate explanation of them, post debugs, screenshots and savegames where possible (If youre lasy, drop the screenshots).

A lot of these are old bugs, like the animation for growth sometimes shrinks the target  (but the target still gets the bonus power, and penalty to dodge).

You should specify what sounds are missing from combat, that would make it much easier to notice and follow what you mean.

And it would help if you divided the post into bug reports, comments about balance, and general ideas :)

Thanks for taking the time anyways, these pointers are for your own help, to see the issues helped out.
I totally agree sovereigns call is a bad call by the devs.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Kongdej, reply 3
Reserved?

All these delicious bugs, you should make an elaborate explanation of them, post debugs, screenshots and savegames where possible (If youre lasy, drop the screenshots).

A lot of these are old bugs, like the animation for growth sometimes shrinks the target  (but the target still gets the bonus power, and penalty to dodge).

You should specify what sounds are missing from combat, that would make it much easier to notice and follow what you mean.

And it would help if you divided the post into bug reports, comments about balance, and general ideas

Thanks for taking the time anyways, these pointers are for your own help, to see the issues helped out.
I totally agree sovereigns call is a bad call by the devs.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Yeah. I'm posting a few 'reserved' slots cause I found out that I can break these forums if my post is too long.

Yeah, I went back after and confirmed that only the growth animation is gibbled. The mods that come with the spell still work properly.

As to the sounds, it varies depending on the battle. Sometimes all sound disappears. Other times just the sounds from the attack swing. Still others, when magic is being cast. Not sure how I can specify that...

I wouldn't say sovereign's call is a 'bad' call....just not in balance in it's current position. Either have it come with a tech farther on the magic tree, or reduce it's effectiveness (though I'm not sure if the later is the best way to deal with it).

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting GFireflyE, reply 5
As to the sounds, it varies depending on the battle. Sometimes all sound disappears. Other times just the sounds from the attack swing. Still others, when magic is being cast. Not sure how I can specify that...

I wouldn't say sovereign's call is a 'bad' call....just not in balance in it's current position. Either have it come with a tech farther on the magic tree, or reduce it's effectiveness (though I'm not sure if the later is the best way to deal with it).

 

You should probably make a bug report on the sounds one, meaby if possible use a program to capture video and sounds so you can show the devs, and let them hear the missing sounds.

for the second part... shaddap and agree! xD Nah I have a problem with the amount too.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top


Just had the game freeze on me during 'end turn'. Never had that happen before. Oft times it would just crash...but never hang.

 EDIT: Filled up my initial 'reserved' slots now. Will be continuing my comments whereever they post here on out...

 

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top


Continuing my game:

  • My empire is huge now, with 8 champions (6 in a single group) and nothing can stop it.
  • Have built 1 defender in several cities. Other than that, NEVER needed troops. At most, I'd summon something to help for a battle.
  • Tireless March is BRROOOKKKEEENN. As much fun as it is to move 9 squares a turn (not including roads), this needs to be rebalanced. (even if it were maxed at +3)
  • Took over the caves wildlands and got the fertile land. ONE turn later, and kraxis builds 2 cities. :o Absolute crap. Didn't even have time to bring my own pioneers into position....so I reloaded. XD.
  • City management is becoming a little too much though...I'll admit. That and there are not enough unique buildings to keep me interested in the specific design of each city. Here's a shot of my kingdom to date:

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9875/game6kingdom4.jpg

  • I could easily crush Kraxis right now, but I'm only half way through the tech tree. Balance issue? I'm deciding to tinker around with the mid-game...season 262...hardly even the mid-game. Definately needs monster spawns. Definately needs quests. Definately needs random events. I know it's coming, so I'll be patient, but as is, I can just focus on buildings and technology. Game is too easy, even on challenging.
  • Took out my first dragon, that was cool. Tough little beast.
  • Going around with my 6-group wiping through all the deadly quests. Moving on to the epic ones shortly.

Well, I'll take another break now...probably finish up the game this weekend.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Here's a few more notes from slugging through the game:

  • Lord Markin equipped with Curgen’s Hammer, and enchanted with Giant Attack has just done 808 damage in a critical strike. Just a little overkill???
  • The ‘Sweep’ ability has a MAJOR delay before excuting its casting.
  • Umm…just completed the second gate quest and received the ‘Curgen’s Hammer’…but I got one already…picked it up when lord Verga surrendered to me. XD Neat.
  • So many city enchantments now and not NEAR enough essence on my cities to cast them. As such, most of them become useless spells. There needs to be more essence available for the cities somehow.
  • Earthquakes ‘halving’ of the population is BRUTALLY powerful.
  • Why is ‘Wall of Fire’ under unit spells???

Probably won't have time to finish this game before beta 5 is released. XD

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting GFireflyE, reply 10

Lord Markin equipped with Curgen’s Hammer, and enchanted with Giant Attack has just done 808 damage in a critical strike. Just a little overkill???


The ‘Sweep’ ability has a MAJOR delay before excuting its casting.


Umm…just completed the second gate quest and received the ‘Curgen’s Hammer’…but I got one already…picked it up when lord Verga surrendered to me. Neat.


So many city enchantments now and not NEAR enough essence on my cities to cast them. As such, most of them become useless spells. There needs to be more essence available for the cities somehow.

1: Need more info before I can take a guess at why he would crit for 808....

2: Which hero? Sometimes a specific hero animation set is bugged, so if you include which hero did the sweep it will be easier for the devs to locate.

3: Obviously Curgen had a lot of hammers :)

4: That is why I was trying to push for more well-balanced city enchants, Essence doesn't need to be more readily available since that would remove choice, it just needs to be balanced out with materials and grains.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej