Some General Observations After Weeks of Play
Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 7:09 pm
Thought you might like some general observations I have of the game after having played the beta now for several weeks. I have found most of these to be true for most of my games.
1) City building period. I like to refer to this period as the "Oklahoma Land Rush." Most factions during the early part of the game are simply out there planting cities wherever and whenever they can. There doesn't seem to be any attempt by the AI factions to develop their own territory, it is simply go out and find a spot to put down a city. This can be territory where no one currently has cities or it can be in the middle of someone else's territory (even if there are only two or three hexes available for the city). Basically, it is "damn to torpedo's and full speed ahead with building cities."
2) During this "Oklahoma Land Rush" period, the Imperium and Divine Ascension factions will build two or three cities, then declare war on everyone. They generally die quickly thereafter.
3) With the new diplomacy system, the factions seem to like giving me credits, but there doesn't seem to be any purpose to it. Does it make indebted to them at a future time? Do we become closer diplomatically leading to an alliance? There doesn't seem to be any logic to why they want to give me credits.
4) Once you kill all the aliens, they simply go away for the rest of the game, except for the aliens in the ocean. Do you intend to include some mechanism where they come back at a later time? Should be a way for the aliens to spawn new hives.
5) After the land rush period and the Imperium and Divine Ascension are gone, the game settles into a period where none of the AI factions are interested in anything except live and let live. Still give me credits, but nothing else happening diplomatically. After this point, unless I declare war, the game simply proceeds with each faction researching and nothing else going on. The other factions occasionally will declare war, but mostly they simply go on existing.
Some suggestions for improvement:
1) Diplomacy: Giving credits is good, but what about trading research? Demanding credits or cities from a faction? A mechanism that can increase or decrease the level of cooperation between factions. Currently there is no way of improving your standing with a faction.
2) Ruins: Ruins are pretty lame at present. Could do more with them. Discover new research, provide specific benefit for controlling the ruin, give a special unit. Perhaps you could create a story about a previous civilization which lived on the planet and it gives a glimpse of the civilization and what happened to it when a ruin is discovered.
3) Each faction could have specialty units created only by that faction. Also, the ability to capture formers and colonizers instead of only destroying them.
4) Develop more factions. Allow the player to determine how many factions will be in the game.
I'm have more when I flesh them out better.
1) City building period. I like to refer to this period as the "Oklahoma Land Rush." Most factions during the early part of the game are simply out there planting cities wherever and whenever they can. There doesn't seem to be any attempt by the AI factions to develop their own territory, it is simply go out and find a spot to put down a city. This can be territory where no one currently has cities or it can be in the middle of someone else's territory (even if there are only two or three hexes available for the city). Basically, it is "damn to torpedo's and full speed ahead with building cities."
2) During this "Oklahoma Land Rush" period, the Imperium and Divine Ascension factions will build two or three cities, then declare war on everyone. They generally die quickly thereafter.
3) With the new diplomacy system, the factions seem to like giving me credits, but there doesn't seem to be any purpose to it. Does it make indebted to them at a future time? Do we become closer diplomatically leading to an alliance? There doesn't seem to be any logic to why they want to give me credits.
4) Once you kill all the aliens, they simply go away for the rest of the game, except for the aliens in the ocean. Do you intend to include some mechanism where they come back at a later time? Should be a way for the aliens to spawn new hives.
5) After the land rush period and the Imperium and Divine Ascension are gone, the game settles into a period where none of the AI factions are interested in anything except live and let live. Still give me credits, but nothing else happening diplomatically. After this point, unless I declare war, the game simply proceeds with each faction researching and nothing else going on. The other factions occasionally will declare war, but mostly they simply go on existing.
Some suggestions for improvement:
1) Diplomacy: Giving credits is good, but what about trading research? Demanding credits or cities from a faction? A mechanism that can increase or decrease the level of cooperation between factions. Currently there is no way of improving your standing with a faction.
2) Ruins: Ruins are pretty lame at present. Could do more with them. Discover new research, provide specific benefit for controlling the ruin, give a special unit. Perhaps you could create a story about a previous civilization which lived on the planet and it gives a glimpse of the civilization and what happened to it when a ruin is discovered.
3) Each faction could have specialty units created only by that faction. Also, the ability to capture formers and colonizers instead of only destroying them.
4) Develop more factions. Allow the player to determine how many factions will be in the game.
I'm have more when I flesh them out better.
