Thoughts on 1.1.2

[Majo]

Hello,

like mentioned in the bug thread, today I won my 1st battle, so here is, what came into my mind when playing:

Deployment:
* Seeing the Level of the soldier to deploy would help me not to form a line of Greenhorns ...
* A more comfortable way of switching 2 soldiers (not: undeply both, then select both again and send them to their new positions) whould be nice
* Perhaps a method to save a deployment-plan and then fill it with selected Warriors !? (just an idea)
* will the Depth of a Formation have a effect later in the game (non-Basic attacks)? If not, I would suggest bigger deployment-zones

Movement:
* Waypoints or dragging the way for a unit would be good to Prevent them from entering a zoc of an enemy.
* It would be nice, if you could move formations en bloc (And I am not a Roman Player …)
* it should be possible to make one step back and go out of battle (it is a little bit frustrating if you unit is near defeat and you cannot do anything, you cannot run away because a (stronger) enemy is next to you)

Fight:
* How effective is cornering/flanking a enemy ? In my fights there is often the sitiuation that 1 beat a surrounded enemy for 3-4 rounds to deplete their hp ~ 50% of my strikes miss,  I think this should be more effective (=> bad for the franks, of course)
* sometimes after attacks of my hundafaths on a basque rider, the Damage was --2 => my capain is a healer with an 1m steel syringe??
* what is the exact effect of quick/ normal/ hard attack (besides use of Stamina) ? (if it is written in the in-game-wiki
. AI is stupid, it sends only troops in my direction, sometimes the unarmored bowmen first, it is very easy to encircle (I read, that the game is ment to be played pvp, but I also read a single Player campain is planned (besides pve should be Training for pvp imho)
. Waiting for the not-Basic Actions to come ...
* Enemies should surrender or try to run away faster !
* In my fight agains the basques, they attacked me twice every time (melee only)  (it is a special ability of the tribe ?/ how can I do it like them?)

Plundering (only did it once, so perhaps I did not get something Right):
* Why riders cannot plunder (ok, now I know, why the Huns allied with gepids, skirs and my eastern Cousins)
* Why not plundering while battle is going on (It would make sense: some People distract the defenders, while others move in)
* Which plunder do I get (the gear of the basque lance-rider and the captain looked good, but I only got slings from the Tower of the village)

Aftermath:
(I know that strategic Play is not implemented yet, I only want to get a Idea how it should work)
* How my Warriors heal ? When I started the next battle, my experienced troops only had the HP from the end of the last battle; can I do something in the Managing screen to heal them ? Or just wait ? Or let them be killed and the resurrect ?)
* The time for resurrection is 21 days real-life ? (I think, it should be much faster, else I will run out of troops after a weekend and have to wait ~3 weeks to Play again)
* Which effect have the Appointments (and how can I Judge, who is a good cook?)
* directly after the battle I see a battle history, but in Management, it does not Show anything. (I am sure it will come later)
* What should be done in the Manage Warband/Managing-screen, it is only black and I have no clue yet, what i might be good of ...
* In stash/ inventory, arrows are a black line on a dark Grey Background, they are very difficult to spot (ok the dark Grey gives a good Feeling of dark ages, but it should be lighter to make stuff like arrows better visible.

So Long for now  and thanks for the effort you spend on improving the game !

Majo

[GS_LuciusCastus]

May 24, 2020 22:16:14 GMT Majo said:

Hello,

like mentioned in the bug thread, today I won my 1st battle, so here is, what came into my mind when playing:

Deployment:
* Seeing the Level of the soldier to deploy would help me not to form a line of Greenhorns ...
Will add this, its a good idea.
* A more comfortable way of switching 2 soldiers (not: undeply both, then select both again and send them to their new positions) whould be nice
I'll try to get a way to replace a deployment as you said, but with a prompt.
* Perhaps a method to save a deployment-plan and then fill it with selected Warriors !? (just an idea)
This can be more complicated, since many variables will be later on introduced which will make units of your group unable to be deployed. And maps have variable deployment zone sizes.
* will the Depth of a Formation have a effect later in the game (non-Basic attacks)? If not, I would suggest bigger deployment-zones
Yes, formation plays a role in your combat, but currently we are using large groups to test how combat plays in the mid-game. 

Movement:
* Waypoints or dragging the way for a unit would be good to Prevent them from entering a zoc of an enemy.
Purple squares when moving indicate the enemy's engagement area. It's always the adjacent ones.
* It would be nice, if you could move formations en bloc (And I am not a Roman Player …)
Leader commands to perform a single action for all your group in the same time will be available in the future. It's strategically less powerful than micromanaging your own units, but will cause a morale penalty to the enemy to see the entire group acting in unison, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on who you face against.
* it should be possible to make one step back and go out of battle (it is a little bit frustrating if you unit is near defeat and you cannot do anything, you cannot run away because a (stronger) enemy is next to you)
More abilities in the future will involve knocking the enemy back, swapping places and taunting enemies. This gets you more control over the battle flow to possibly save a unit.


Fight:
* How effective is cornering/flanking a enemy ? In my fights there is often the sitiuation that 1 beat a surrounded enemy for 3-4 rounds to deplete their hp ~ 50% of my strikes miss,  I think this should be more effective (=> bad for the franks, of course)
Base accuracy for attacks is 50%. Your units are of low level, most of times, which means they are not very accurate. Several abilities and attacks will be more accurate in the future. Units wearing light armor tend to be less resistant to barrages of attacks, while armored units are more vulnerable to Piercing attacks.
* sometimes after attacks of my hundafaths on a basque rider, the Damage was --2 => my capain is a healer with an 1m steel syringe??
This is a bug related to the weapon he's using having no damage. However, all weapons that a Hundafaths can equip have their damage inserted. We'll have to try to replicate this. 
* what is the exact effect of quick/ normal/ hard attack (besides use of Stamina) ? (if it is written in the in-game-wiki
Armor has Damage Reduction and Absorption, meaning it first reduces a percentage of the incoming damage, then applies a fixed number as absorption. Armored units tend to be more resistant to multiple quick attacks, because of this. Also, multiple attacks on the same target drain your stamina. A lot. So managing how aggressive you perform against an enemy is as important as your formation, equipment, choice of abilities and even the leader's position to the frontlines. Quick attacks also ignore a portion of the enemy's defenses, like Parrying, Blocking and Dodging, so if you see a unit defending a lot, using quick attacks ensure you connect at least something.
. AI is stupid, it sends only troops in my direction, sometimes the unarmored bowmen first, it is very easy to encircle (I read, that the game is ment to be played pvp, but I also read a single Player campain is planned (besides pve should be Training for pvp imho)
Yes, single player campaigns and a way to level up much slower in PvE are included in our timeline. The AI will be revamped as we introduce a groundwork for abilities in combat, so in the future it will be tougher to deal against.
. Waiting for the not-Basic Actions to come ...
* Enemies should surrender or try to run away faster !
A more intricate morale system is also being worked to make sure that a defeat of a fellow soldier is indeed a very tough attack on the units' psyche.
* In my fight agains the basques, they attacked me twice every time (melee only)  (it is a special ability of the tribe ?/ how can I do it like them?)
You can attack up to 3 times in a single turn, but Strong attacks end your turn with the unit. Comboing multiple attacks in the same turn reduce a lot of your stamina. 


Plundering (only did it once, so perhaps I did not get something Right):
* Why riders cannot plunder (ok, now I know, why the Huns allied with gepids, skirs and my eastern Cousins)
Because we have not yet added a dismount function for riders, and will take a long time before we do it because of budget constraints.
* Why not plundering while battle is going on (It would make sense: some People distract the defenders, while others move in)
We want to make sure the defending player gets a chance at defending the loot of the village. Plus, it doesn't make sense from a strategic point of view to leave some soldiers behind the fight to plunder. We -might- add this functionality against defending villagers, though.
* Which plunder do I get (the gear of the basque lance-rider and the captain looked good, but I only got slings from the Tower of the village)
The loot system is not complete yet, though we did make some progress in this part. It should be more noticeable in how much you get from each map in the future, when we add markets and trading.


Aftermath:
(I know that strategic Play is not implemented yet, I only want to get a Idea how it should work)
* How my Warriors heal ? When I started the next battle, my experienced troops only had the HP from the end of the last battle; can I do something in the Managing screen to heal them ? Or just wait ? Or let them be killed and the resurrect ?)
We have a three-stage solution for this. After the groundwork is done for each stage, we'll move to the next one. First stage (this is what we'll add next): Your units heal over time. You have to wait until they are fully restored, or you can use items to speed it up, which costs money. There are no injuries, but defeated units take much longer to recover. Second stage (should be up late this year): Your units may get injured in more grizzly attacks. You'll need to treat their wounds with your own tools, and having a unit which knows how to deal with injuries makes it easier. More deadly wounds or untreated wounds will require the player to either wait a long time for it to go away, speed it up a little with treatment that costs items, thus money, or take them to the doctor, which will speed recovery drastically, at cost of money. Third stage (no planned date yet): Your units can be killed if it loses too much HP in the last strike of a battle. If you do not treat their wounds, they will die. Treatment will only buy you time, depending on how dire the wound is; units that survive combat may still die from untreated wounds. Having a surgeon and a medic to treat wounds immediately after battle makes it much easier to deal with this, but surgery tools are rare and expensive...
* The time for resurrection is 21 days real-life ? (I think, it should be much faster, else I will run out of troops after a weekend and have to wait ~3 weeks to Play again)
We are still experimenting with recovery. Please be patient, we will make a good middle-ground between waiting and playing. Also, days in-game go way faster than real-life. 
* Which effect have the Appointments (and how can I Judge, who is a good cook?)
Appointments are not implemented yet, its just there to show its a function for the future.
* directly after the battle I see a battle history, but in Management, it does not Show anything. (I am sure it will come later)
It will. You will have a log of all battles.
* What should be done in the Manage Warband/Managing-screen, it is only black and I have no clue yet, what i might be good of ...
For now, it is a good screen for you to take a look at what you have as units, and to check if you have items which can be replaced by better ones after looting. So you can look if a unit has a good trait and/or level and keep an eye to deploy them. For example, an archer with a trait that increases ranged attack accuracy is pretty valuable...
* In stash/ inventory, arrows are a black line on a dark Grey Background, they are very difficult to spot (ok the dark Grey gives a good Feeling of dark ages, but it should be lighter to make stuff like arrows better visible.
The UI is a huge pain in the ass for us.. some items indeed do not look good, so we are working to make some items better with certain effects. Still have not found the best match, but its an old issue that couldn't find a way to be resolved so far.

So Long for now  and thanks for the effort you spend on improving the game !

Majo

My answers are in itallic. Thank you for the read, it was very insightful and goes to show us how we can improve it.