Another feedback thread

[Plaid]

So I finally finished the campaign on challenging level and can share my feedback. I played with mixed force and not with stacked superheavies (1 Titan of each type and 3 baneblade family tanks - rest medium tanks, infantry and artillery) and game was not that hard. Actually managed to win most of scenarios without restarting/reloading (with casualties though).

Game is enjoyable because it is 40k wargame afterall. Dialogues and background arts between missions are great.
Graphics are OK for this genre. I see many people here and on steam demand detailed animations, but I don't see how it will improve the game. Better spend this work hours to improve balance and tactical deepth, if you ask me.

Gameplay was great in act 1, but in acts 2-3 it degrades with multiple superheavies deployed by both sides normal units have to hide for half of scenario (or die fast and for nothing), while big units and artillery exchange fire.

Here I will try to list odd/strange things about a game:

1)Game is trying to be battallion level and epic at the same time.
It leads to normal and superheavy units to be fielded on the same field and it ruins balance (probably even impossible to fix balance in this scenario). Thats why me and some other people on forums find act 1 superiour to other parts of the campaign - no superheavies. When battlefield is covered by multiple titans and gargants all these infantry squads (both IG and space marines) and medium tanks have nothing to do but hide and try to survive.
If player really commands battalion of Steel Legion heavies should be very scarce according to universe lore. Player should be lucky to have single banblade unit in his core, default affordable heavies should be Macharius (does anyone use them at all now?). And same true for Orks - less heavy tanks and gargants, more infantry and medium armor.

If the game is on epic scale with multiple titans and supertanks deployed infantry and light/medium vehicles units should be much largers, representing entire companies or even battalions.

2)Useless units.
Its just sad to see flaws of 1994 game Panzer General to be repeated so thoroughly 20 years later. If noone will buy unit X why is it here? Better to have game with only 10 units, when all 10 have their uses, than to have game with 100 units, out of which only 10 are useful. It just feels depressing to know that a lot of time and effort was spent to create that detailed units. Together with limited core slots factor and superheavies dominating the field most of them would never see action unless player buys them without justification (I want X because I do and I don't care that it is much worse than Y for the same price).

3)Weapon and unit balance.
I will not mention countless "weapon A is better than weapon B, while logic and tabletop suggest otherwise" here - there are plenty of threads about it anyway.
But I will note few most obvious points.
3-a
Superheavies almost never attacked by AI, even thought AI units can hurt and destroy them. (Yes, there is separate thread about it, so you are probablt aware). In last campaign scenario AI stompas started to attack my baneblade suddenly and killed it in single round. Combat simulator and multiplayer also shows, that its very possible to down baneblades and titans with ork weaponry if they attack. Sadly AI does not.
3-b
Following 3-a superheavies are effectively cheaper than "cheap" medium tanks. If I but Titan I can forget about it. If I buy "cheap" Leman Russ or Destroyer I will pay half of its price for repairs in every mission, catching up with Titan price in 2-3 scenarios. Another side effect is that medium and light units can't stack experience while superheavies and artillery are always 10 stars.
3-c
Entire unit class - ranged infantry is virtually useless. Yes, melee infantry is strong (especially elite space marines) and can wipe out entire units of orks in cover much faster than even Titan. But ranged infantry are meh.
Salamander recon (cheap spotter vehicle with single autocannon for self-defence) can destroy infantry much better than any dedicated anti-infantry ranged weapon (guardsmen/guard fire support/non-melee space marines/special anti-infantry units like banewolf or heavies with mega-bolters).
3-d
Air and anti-air units also are mistery for me - why they are here. They are weak and behave like light ground vehicles, while being expensive as best modifications of Leman Russ battletank.
In act 1 IG gunships have some use because they are relatively heavily armed compared to what you can buy, but later they have little or no use with their paper armour and seemingly-not-working evasion trait.
Same true for AA. Why buy dedicated IG AA (Hydra), if general purpose units like salamander (or even basilisk artillery) shot down orks much better. Also ork fliers are seen 3 or 4 times during whole campaign.

4) Universe lore
I know thats probably minor issue, but still game violates 40000 universe lore in few ways.
If player commands Imperial Guard unit, there should be no Titans or Space Marines in core force period. They can be provided as auxilary units (and in large numbers for important tasks), but not in core. Imperium bureaucy is one of the main points of the setting. Guards, planet defence force, titans, space marines, navy all commanded by different people who have hard time working together for same purpose.
You want terminators and predator support for your mission? Too bad, here is scout company for you - thats how things are working in 40k universe.

Second - even more minor - we constantly receive mission orders from variety of people including even space marine chapter masters and inquisitor, but we have never seen our dirrect superior commander - leader of Steel Legion regiment to which our battallion belongs.

And third lore point (purely flavour one). Yarrick's mount of choice is his named Baneblade tank, not chimera like we see in the last mission of campaign.


Even though I write mostly about negative moments in this post, I enjoyed the game and recommend it to anyone interested in 40k universe. Also I see devs are working to get it fixed to some degree and its nice.
Thanks for this game!

[zakblood]

another good and welcome feedback thread, ty for sharing, any views to improve the game are always welcome here, even though i have been told more than once i just down new users throats a bit

patch 2 will be released any time now so hopefully some of it will be fixed and if not then patch 3 or 4 may do it