Slitherine

Alright, these can't accurately be called "first" impressions, but I've taken a break for a while so here's what I noticed:

• Early research feels nice and fast, though it slows down quite quickly past the first set available.
• The map I rolled had zero mountains I could find. This made maintaining a production base very challenging.
• I was moving a unit then going to click and drag the map to check around when I encountered an AI for the first time. This caused me to click the dialogue window for diplomacy just as it popped up, and I accidentally signed a non-aggression pact with it (This was better than declaring war by accident, which I've done previously, but still not enjoyable.)
• Bugs got decently aggressive after the aggression warning popped up, though they were inclined to throw their lives away uselessly (A bug assaulted a full health trooper that was next to its hive and got itself stomped since it lost its hive bonus, and there weren't enough bugs left in the hive to finish the trooper off after that)
• Stealing hive kill credit from AIs remains very easy to do. Maybe hive kill credit could track who killed the most recent X bugs that were defending the hive, and then share some with other people nearby (If they have any units adjacent to it when it dies). It feels a bit too binary as it is -- you either get a full, massive credit reward or nothing at all.
• The AIs were both very willing to sign non-aggression pacts with me. This leads to some concerns that I could just get peace with everyone too easily and then the game becomes boring.
• The two AIs that I had non-aggression pacts with (One of whom I had a full alliance with) went to war, and neither asked me for help against the other one. I might have chosen to remain neutral, but it felt like one should have asked for support (And dinged my status with it slightly if I refused).
• Finding time to expand early remains problematic, and racing for a tank in order to just take AI cities still feels like the most effective way. Especially since the AI doesn't seem to notice me building up forces right outside its border.
• Researching armor upgrades early felt bad because it added so much additional production time to units at a time in the game when what I most needed was map presence. The armor didn't add enough survivability to make the added production time worthwhile at that stage of the game. This is partly due to how claiming hives and cities both require a unit to attack and kill the defender(s), then another unit available to move in and take it.

Just my thoughts from that. It also may have been the war between them, or the large hive right next to one of them, but the AIs didn't seem to have very many units available either.

Random thoughts!

When adding/removing AIs to a game it would be nice if there were an X next to them for "Remove" instead of a drop down, because I don't expect the drop down selection to actually remove the drop down. A + at the bottom to easily add an AI of whatever the last difficulty selected was would also be convenient, but not as important (For me) as the X to delete.

When you defeat an enemy, an option for what to do with their leader (Execute, exile, imprison, integrate) could modify how other factions feel about you and provide a nice sense of closure after a long struggle against them.

New tech or just basic functionality:
Allow "Barricades" to be built on roads within a city's sphere of influence, by spending one round with a former on the road. The barricade would make the road usable only by you and your allies. An enemy unit moving onto the barricade would automatically destroy it at the end of the turn (Prevents leapfrogging at full speed by using two units).

So your troopers could move at double speed along your barricaded roads, but an invading tank would have to move one tile at a time as it cleared barricades -- while its allies could move in at full road speed behind it, since it had already cleared the way.

Maybe too complicated? This would help make your territory just a bit harder for an enemy to crack, while still allowing counterplay (Clearing the barricades lets their reinforcements move at full speed)

A city should only change hands at the end of a turn. While a city is under enemy control you shouldn't get a road bonus into it. When attacked in a city that hasn't changed yet you should get no unusual penalty, but also receive none of the city's normal defensive benefits.

This would allow someone a slim chance to re-take a city if they managed to move units back into striking range just as you captured it, but weren't quite fast enough to move their units in before you moved yours in. (Or you didn't get your reinforcements moved in before the AI attacked then moved into the city on that turn, this would give you that small window to kill their unit and keep control over the city, since it would only turn if they had a surviving unit in it at turn end.)

I just feel like capturing cities should be a bigger deal than it currently is and forcing you to not only end a unit's turn in it, but to end your entire turn holding it, would help with that.

Thanx a lot for the feedback, about making your territory harder to enter we were playing around with the idea of creating minefields, and of course you can build forts along the roads your troops can occupy when your being invaded, and i would really LOVE to hear some ideas about how to solve the "accidentally clicking on stuff that pops up" problem (it bugs me a lot as well), we have been talking about that and we havnt been able to come up with any really good solutions, were just three guys brainstorming and sometimes you guys have much better ideas that we come up with of so thats why im asking.

Soheil wrote:Thanx a lot for the feedback, about making your territory harder to enter we were playing around with the idea of creating minefields, and of course you can build forts along the roads your troops can occupy when your being invaded, and i would really LOVE to hear some ideas about how to solve the "accidentally clicking on stuff that pops up" problem (it bugs me a lot as well), we have been talking about that and we havnt been able to come up with any really good solutions, were just three guys brainstorming and sometimes you guys have much better ideas that we come up with of so thats why im asking.

Ooh minefields would be good. I'm a bit wary of forts because if I get driven out of one (Without time to raze it) it becomes that much harder to stop an invader pushing in.

For the accidental clicking, a couple things seem like they might work (Though neither feels perfect, so maybe they can provide inspiration):
1) Have the diplomacy window transition in somehow (Fade/etc.) so it's not a surprise popup, and not be clickable until it finishes. Unfortunately, nothing else in the game does this so it would be out of place that way.
2) Have a "You have received a diplomatic message" window pop up. This one could say "You have received diplomatic messages" if there's more than one, and simply be a gating alert that will take any accidental clicks so that you don't make a misclick on the diplomacy window itself. The drawback is that it adds an extra click, but it feels better to me than the fade-in because diplomatic messages are somewhat rare (Depending on the AI's mood) and having a window pop up is something that the game already does.