[FEEDBACK] Some impressions after my first game

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from Elemental Forums

Hey guys,

I just finished my first game and I must say I am pretty impressed. As a Civ player who loved the fall from the heavens mod, which got me here in the first place, I had lots of fun! Of course I have a few suggestions and noticed some bugs, but fear not for I will not dare talk about gameplay/balance changes; I just want to mention some issues that I noticed.

 

Bugs:

The game seems to run pretty well given its beta state, however I noticed a few things (apart from random, irreproducible CTDs; praise autosave :) ):

- Multiscreen mouse-capture: After alt+tabbing out of the game (or using the windows key) and going back to the game, the mouse will not stay on the main monitor where the game is running anymore; so in my case a cannot edge-scroll to the right anymore after alt+tabbing since my other screen is there.

- Screen saver: When the screen saver goes off while the game runs, or I lock the computer manually by win+L, the game crashes when I reactivate the PC. The background music is still playing, but the game does not respond anymore.

- Build queue: If enough things are queued so that you have to scroll to the right to get to the end of the queue, it is not possible to grab something and scroll back to the beginning of the queue (at least I did not manage to do it). I could only change the order in one "scrolling segment" at once.

- Build queue II: When changing build orders / adding stuff to build, the queue sometimes gets messed up. Deselecting and reselecting the city fixes this though.

- Combat animations: Some combat animations take ages to complete, for example when I used sweep (the ability that attacks all opponents around you) right after moving, the animation played, but the damage is dealt and the battle continues only around 7 seconds later. This could be avoided by waiting 2-3 seconds after moving. A similar issue occured with a sceptre, where my champion fired a shot and it took around 7 seconds to hit its target, without any projectile animation. Furthermore, archers' shots sometimes disappear just to reappear from a random direction close to the target, hitting it an instant later.

- Splash damage: I am not sure if this is a bug or a feature, but is splash damage from weapons supposed to hit allied units as well?

Suggestions:

- The TAB key should also cycle through idle cities. That being said, there should be an option to "actively" set a city to idle, so that it is ignored by the (new) TAB key and by the end turn button (it should turn green even if this city is idle), for example if you want to make use of a tax office or the conclave bonus.

- Hotkeys! As a rather quick player (I like to finish a game in one sitting if possible), I like everything hotkeyed and those hotkeys customizable. From the top of my head I can think of these things: There should be a hotkey to build an improvement on a wild resource; The hotkey for build outpost is not working (it says "B", but this attempts to build a settlement, even if it is not available); There should be hotkeys  for armies (don't know if this is already implemented), so that an army can be assigned a number by ctrl+1 and recalled by pressing 1, like in most RTS games.

- Show the essence available in a city on the world screen (useful for casting strategic spells).

- Keep yield (grain, material, essence) icons visible in fog of war. I don't know if this is a bug (read another thread about it), but it would be great for planning purposes to see the yield icons all the time.

- The abilities Scholars and Uneducated should be mutually exclusive; The way it is now you just get a free tech without any drawbacks if you select both.

 

I think that's about it. I am really looking forward to the full version of this game, and I am glad that I have prepurchased it!

 

PS: I will add my system specs when I get home :)

12,648 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks for taking you precious time coming here and typing this, to help the sorting it will help if bugs are put under FE Support forum.

Submitting bugs help: https://forums.elementalgame.com/415301

Your suggestions are really good though,
although nr 3 (Essence on world screen) is already showing when not looking at the cloth map, but in a very hidden way. It will create 3 small nodges in the city's big sign, the same place the spell icons will show up. ;)

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Ah I was looking for an official statement on how to report bugs, didn't find it though. Thanks for pointing me there! :)

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Show the essence available in a city on the world screen (useful for casting strategic spells).

Look at the name floating above the city. There are notches above it.  If the notch is filled that's a point of essence being used.  If the notch is empty, it's available to support a spell.

For example, in this screenshot, the city is going from two essence to three.  Only one is already used.

 

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Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

- Combat animations: Some combat animations take ages to complete, for example when I used sweep (the ability that attacks all opponents around you) right after moving, the animation played, but the damage is dealt and the battle continues only around 7 seconds later. This could be avoided by waiting 2-3 seconds after moving. A similar issue occured with a sceptre, where my champion fired a shot and it took around 7 seconds to hit its target, without any projectile animation. Furthermore, archers' shots sometimes disappear just to reappear from a random direction close to the target, hitting it an instant later.

 

With animation issues like this the more specific you can be able the situation the better. For instance, when your champion is having a long hang after shooting with a staff and no particle plays: what staff exactly? what unit? is the unit mounted? what kind of mount? what is it shooting? This issue specifically happens when there is a broken annotation in an animation and since animations are situational based on all these factors it's important to know all this stuff :)

Same deal with sweep, what unit/weapon they are using is probably causing the issue to show up. Even if it's somehow related to timing of running, it's probably an issue in the unit's run animation or something then. If you have any of this info we would appreciate it. 

 

- Keep yield (grain, material, essence) icons visible in fog of war. I don't know if this is a bug (read another thread about it), but it would be great for planning purposes to see the yield icons all the time.

This is coming in the next patch, I made sure of it ;)

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Kestral2040, I had a problem that is very similar to what danielbaur describes.

Unit: Araine (comes from a quest to collect spider silk for a cloak of shadows)

Staff: The staff she comes with, I do not have it anymore

Mount: The spider she comes on

I would order her to fire, I would hear the casting sound, and then, 3 seconds later, the explosion on the target would play.  No missile would travel at all.

 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top


 - Build queue: If enough things are queued so that you have to scroll to the right to get to the end of the queue, it is not possible to grab something and scroll back to the beginning of the queue (at least I did not manage to do it). I could only change the order in one "scrolling segment" at once.

 

You can move queued items from one scroll to the next.  It is rather difficult and if you have more than one scroll a little time consuming.  If you move an item to the first spot on a the 2nd or later scrolls.  You can then go to the previous scroll and move the last item in the queue to the right. You will see the first item from the later scroll, then just drop your current item.  Its a little difficult, might be more helpful if you could "open" the build queue to move things around.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting KingHobbit, reply 7

You can move queued items from one scroll to the next.  It is rather difficult and if you have more than one scroll a little time consuming.  If you move an item to the first spot on a the 2nd or later scrolls.  You can then go to the previous scroll and move the last item in the queue to the right. You will see the first item from the later scroll, then just drop your current item.  Its a little difficult, might be more helpful if you could "open" the build queue to move things around.

 

The current system is definitely difficult enough to warrant improvement.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Kestral2040, reply 5

This is coming in the next patch, I made sure of it

Good job :thumbsup:

Quoting cardinaldirection, reply 8
The current system is definitely difficult enough to warrant improvement.

Pretty much :(

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting cardinaldirection, reply 8


The current system is definitely difficult enough to warrant improvement.
  Oh, I completely agree.  It actually takes very careful mouse movements to get it to work.  I would like to be able to just open the queue and move them around full screen, or at list bigger screen. 

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks for the replies guys :) I didn't notice the indents over the city names, but then again that's not very obvious. Perhaps that's something that could be changed, or at least mentioned in the tutorial.

 

The staff that did not work was the exact same setup that Tuidjy described, Araine with the staff and mount she has equipped after her quest. I can't remember which setup caused the sweep to malfunction. Sorry for being so unspecific, but I do not have access to my game at the moment :)

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Also just finished a first game and had a great time... to to reinforce a couple bugs here I also noticed...  I'll put other bugs issues in my own post.

 


 
- Build queue: If enough things are queued so that you have to scroll to the right to get to the end of the queue, it is not possible to grab something and scroll back to the beginning of the queue (at least I did not manage to do it). I could only change the order in one "scrolling segment" at once. 



-  Furthermore, archers' shots sometimes disappear just to reappear from a random direction close to the target, hitting it an instant later.

  

 

both these were on my list as well.

 

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Added another thing: The abilities Scholars and Uneducated should be mutually exclusive; The way it is you just get a free tech without any drawbacks if you select both.