Suggestions to improve gameplay
Echelon
Member
There is something that feels wrong with the "invasion" mode. The waves are too close to each other. I am at wave 30 and when it is 30-40 seconds left before wave start I press call to arms and they get their gear, place them at their positions, clear the wave and then move them back to their work tasks. But the time with micromanagement to get all up and running again takes a lot of the little time left until next wave is coming.
Right now the preparing for waves and get bricktrons back to work. Take all the time you could use for building and resource management part of the game.
Some solutions to this would be:
Longer time between waves, ( perhaps some randomness to it? That would add some strategic thinking and sometimes give the player a break and actually have time to build something )
Call to arms could have some function where you place battle stations. So when they have picked their gear, they run to any of the stations that match the type of gear they have. Each of these battle stations/positions could be considered as slots and only accept one bricktron at each slot.
When the battle is over and the player wants to get back to work, where call to arms button was found, you now also can press something opposite of "call to arms" to tell everyone to put back their gear and continue with the tasks they had before hell broke loose.
Call to arms could have sub menu where the player can choose what type of gear to use when call to arms. Perhaps I only want to put my bows to use?
Also, sword soldiers are way too aggressive, I have to put them far back into the base, preventing them from running into unwanted battles or opening doors needed to stay closed. This function perhaps already exists, please tell me if that's the case. But some kind of "hold ground" "return attack only" "attack freely" toggle option would help with their current suicidal behavior.
Even some kind of protects zone function where you set a radial zone of where the sword fighters are allowed to roam freely when fighting.
Being able to put them into for example line formations where they hold their ground and fill gaps if someone dies to protect the center of that line I set up.
All these suggestions are just my thoughts of improving the tedious micromanagement that doesn't add anything but negative gameplay experience by my opinion.
Edit/1/
Might be wrong on this, but it seems like the wave are decided right before they spawn? I usually save the game before I call to arms and deploy the army at their positions. But let's say the defenses fail and I want to load the game and see if I can tweak the defense to actually survive the wave. Suddenly the attacking force is different in setup from the one I just met at same wave level? Would be better if the setup of next wave was decided right after last spawned wave.
Edit/2/
Time until next wave should not start counting down until current wave is dealt with, as mentioned above, the amount of time between the waves are already short as it is. To prevent this from actually become an obvious problem where mobs get stuck somewhere on the map and the countdown never start, there could be some threshold time value where all the mobs that are somewhere in the none visible parts of the map ( fog ) either respawn at spawn point or get removed.
Defined weapon racks where you set what type of gear is allowed, this in combination with the call to arms features I mentioned above would improve gameplay a lot. It would allow the player to put racks with specific gear at strategic locations. For example bow gear on the castle walls, sword gear close to the entrance.
Is there any player versus AI multiplayer mode? Where the AI also build and manage resources?
Right now the preparing for waves and get bricktrons back to work. Take all the time you could use for building and resource management part of the game.
Some solutions to this would be:
Longer time between waves, ( perhaps some randomness to it? That would add some strategic thinking and sometimes give the player a break and actually have time to build something )
Call to arms could have some function where you place battle stations. So when they have picked their gear, they run to any of the stations that match the type of gear they have. Each of these battle stations/positions could be considered as slots and only accept one bricktron at each slot.
When the battle is over and the player wants to get back to work, where call to arms button was found, you now also can press something opposite of "call to arms" to tell everyone to put back their gear and continue with the tasks they had before hell broke loose.
Call to arms could have sub menu where the player can choose what type of gear to use when call to arms. Perhaps I only want to put my bows to use?
Also, sword soldiers are way too aggressive, I have to put them far back into the base, preventing them from running into unwanted battles or opening doors needed to stay closed. This function perhaps already exists, please tell me if that's the case. But some kind of "hold ground" "return attack only" "attack freely" toggle option would help with their current suicidal behavior.
Even some kind of protects zone function where you set a radial zone of where the sword fighters are allowed to roam freely when fighting.
Being able to put them into for example line formations where they hold their ground and fill gaps if someone dies to protect the center of that line I set up.
All these suggestions are just my thoughts of improving the tedious micromanagement that doesn't add anything but negative gameplay experience by my opinion.
Edit/1/
Might be wrong on this, but it seems like the wave are decided right before they spawn? I usually save the game before I call to arms and deploy the army at their positions. But let's say the defenses fail and I want to load the game and see if I can tweak the defense to actually survive the wave. Suddenly the attacking force is different in setup from the one I just met at same wave level? Would be better if the setup of next wave was decided right after last spawned wave.
Edit/2/
Time until next wave should not start counting down until current wave is dealt with, as mentioned above, the amount of time between the waves are already short as it is. To prevent this from actually become an obvious problem where mobs get stuck somewhere on the map and the countdown never start, there could be some threshold time value where all the mobs that are somewhere in the none visible parts of the map ( fog ) either respawn at spawn point or get removed.
Defined weapon racks where you set what type of gear is allowed, this in combination with the call to arms features I mentioned above would improve gameplay a lot. It would allow the player to put racks with specific gear at strategic locations. For example bow gear on the castle walls, sword gear close to the entrance.
Is there any player versus AI multiplayer mode? Where the AI also build and manage resources?
Comments
2. Is not currently possible, but is highly requested.
3. Is not currently possible, but arguably one of the most requested features and they are currently trying to implement it.
5. Soldiers can be told to hold position (and knights will put up their shield to reduce ranged attack damage), by selecting them and pressing H or by hovering over them and bringing up the Radial Context Menu (hold right-click), and selecting the Hold Position option at the bottom. You can still move them, but they will not move.
6. A protection zone does sound nice.
Also is there any roadmap you have access to or how to do get the info on what the devs are working on apart from the official news?
Yeah the whole community has been complaining about this for quite some time now. The microing transition between military and civilian is ANYTHING but smooth right now.
"Call to arms could have some function where you place battle stations. So when they have picked their gear, they run to any of the stations that match the type of gear they have. Each of these battle stations/positions could be considered as slots and only accept one bricktron at each slot. "
So far I've seen like 3 suggestions like that, one of them being my own, I'm glad other members are voicing their opinions now.
"But some kind of "hold ground" "return attack only" "attack freely" toggle option would help with their current suicidal behavior."
It exists, it's the little shield symbol that shows up when you access their radial menu, you can also toggle an attack move function onto them.
"Even some kind of protects zone function where you set a radial zone of where the sword fighters are allowed to roam freely when fighting."
This USED to exist before the .08 update, but it was taken out for some reason. To be honest though, it was pretty useless, since the soldiers would patrol the radial zone, but they would only attack enemies who would step RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. Really wish this feature would have been improved upon by making the soldiers slightly more agressive, and letting us design ACTUAL patrol routes a la WW3 Black Gold, Empire Earth 1&2 and countless other RTS games.
"Being able to put them into for example line formations where they hold their ground and fill gaps if someone dies to protect the center of that line I set up."
Yeah, persistent unit formations that are seen in the Total War series and the Cossacks series would be so useful both in offensive and defensive movements.
"Time until next wave should not start counting down until current wave is dealt with, as mentioned above, the amount of time between the waves are already short as it is. To prevent this from actually become an obvious problem where mobs get stuck somewhere on the map and the countdown never start, there could be some threshold time value where all the mobs that are somewhere in the none visible parts of the map ( fog ) either respawn at spawn point or get removed."
Agreed
"Defined weapon racks where you set what type of gear is allowed,"
100% agreed
"Is there any player versus AI multiplayer mode? Where the AI also build and manage resources? "
The only thing closes to that is conquest vs Curroptrons, but I don't know if that's a multiplayer mode. And really the only resource management they do is wisp, and troop numbers.To be fair though designing an AI that JUST KNOWS how to build structures while making it challenging to fight is anything but an easy task. Hopefully if this game ever gets a "sequel" or rather an expansion pack that could be worked on...
Edit: About Dr Who Care's comment, maybe he's just implying that the community has been bugging about these features so much that a safe assumption is that they're probably working on them? Or maybe he as a wiki editor has a better look at game development than we do? Or maybe he's just quoting one of many Shatojon's blurbs when he streams and plays with players of this community during the weekly Sauropod studios streams?
I've been very active for about 2 months now, so I've been listening to them talk quite a bit. During Streams they will respond to viewers questions or comments, or in Discord, or on the forums. Finding the actual location of these things is likely not possible.
As I am not a developer, when I say that they are working on implementing it, or that they are probably looking into it, it means that I remember them talking about it and acknowledging it. Perhaps they even said they are looking into it. This however, does not mean they will implement it soon. I have no access to their current task list or roadmap.
In the case of the "Reverse Call to Arms" feature, I distinctly remember Francios talking about it during a stream saying that it was not possible with their current system. They have been looking into it.
Also, there is a Multiplayer PvE mode, called Conquest, but with a Coop preset. The AI does not build however.
"Reverse Call to Arms" Should not be very hard to hook into any existing systems. I guess it is all about to get what task they currently are assigned to when "Call to Arms" is activated. Save that task and when pressing "Reverse Call to Arms" ( Really should find another function name for this feature ) Go back to that saved task. As they are using Unity, each task is their own GameObject I suppose. Just add another GameObject variable "previousTask" and revert back to that when they are told.