I thought I would share some suggestions after spending many dozens of hours with the game. As a whole the game is pretty good, but here is a list of things I think would improve it.
- The guard ability shouldn't end when it is the guarded unit's turn if they don't move from the guarded location. It makes the guard ability useless in some cases. The guarded unit should benefit from guard until it the guarding unit takes their turn again - at which point the unit can guard the same or different locations.
- The AI declares war without attacking. They should only declare war if they are actually going to do something about it and they should be prepared first.
- The army strength ratings (weak, strong, deadly, etc) could be made more useful. Some factors do not seem properly weighted and it makes the AI think they can win battles they don;t have a chance to win.
- Some city upgrades seem much more useful than others. I didn't keep track of them all, but I tend to always pick Scroll Scribe.
- The AI could make better use of strategic spells. They have only infrequently used strategic spells against me.
- When zoomed out in a tactical battle the clicks don't always register in the correct location. Also please make the movement radiums shading in the tactical battles a little more visible.
- The Tarth small army bonus is pretty weak once past the beginning of the game. It may make more sense to give them a % bonus to their attack when in an army of 3 or less.
- Please beef up the tactical battles with more factors - do not allow ranged units to attack at full abilities with an enemy melee unit adjacent to them, add obstructions so ranged units can't magically shoot through everything, terrain bonuses (elevation, cover, etc).
- It would be nice of the combat details log displayed all the factors involved in an outcome (accuracy, dodge, attack, defense, etc).
- Would be nice to have a force move button to make your armies execute move orders without ending the turn so unused movement points aren't wasted by ending the turn.
- When opening the research window it should focus on the tab and technology currently being research or just finished.
- After making peace, don't allow that faction to turn around and declare war until a cool down period has passed - even if another faction paid them off to declare war. It is annoying to make peace and then a couple turns later have them declare war again because they were paid off again.
- When the AI offers a treaty it doesn't show the benefit each side would get like when the player offers a treaty (specific economic or research benefit to each side).
- Explain what the diplomatic relation factors are via tooltips and the Hiergamenon. Some are obvious (We have the same allegiance), but others are not (Your faction is beneath us - in what way?).
- There is rarely a downside to building an improvement (sometimes there is an unrest penalty). It would be nice if there was a maintenance cost or some other type of deterrent to just build everything - something to really make the player consider if building the improvement is worth it.
- Add an explanation for how the score is calculated and a hall of fame to track scores.
- Allow sovereigns and heroes to switch between ranged and melee weapons during combat. It seems like a silly limitation to be forced to stick with the same weapon. Make it cost an action for their turn. Heck it would be useful to switch between melee weapons sometimes too.
- Please allow an option to close your borders to the AI players so they can't repeatedly enter your turf without declaring war.
- I think the game would be more interesting if some of the town faction food improvements exported a % of the town's excess food to other cities. For example, exported excess food could increase the growth for the other cities. Maybe allow the player to set the export %. It would encourage the development of food centers and actually have a benefit for producing food once the town reaches level 5.
- The AI still bypasses undefended outposts and doesn't capture them sometimes. The AI still doesn't claim some treasure locations. I think they should capture both.
- Use sliders for settings such as research and production rate options so the user can pick anything along a spectrum instead of only predefined values. It gives the user more control to set the game up how they want. Another option would be to have a field the player could type in a percent value in addition to selecting a predefined value from the list.
- Update the Hiergamenon and implement links (for example clicking on the icons in the improvement upgrade path should jump to that building). It also has incomplete information. For example it doesn't list the requirement for the Cleric improvement.
Edit: - Instead of spears damaging two units, let units with spears attack from 2 tiles away. That way they can stay behind other units and still attack. I think that would make more sense too instead of jamming their spear through two enemy units. That ability wouldn't need a cooldown period.
Edit: - I think the enemy army / pre battle screens could be improved. It is very limiting to only be able to look at one unit at a time. It would be much more useful to view all units together in a grid with your units grouped together and the enemy units grouped together. That way the player could easily scan the relevant stats. It may even be useful to show the related enemy stat lined up with your stat (their dodge lined up with your accuracy, their defense lined up with your attack, etc). Many times I just eyeball the enemy army because it is too much of a hassle to try and approach it intelligently by evaluating each enemy unit. It becomes more difficult due to the fact that units level so you don;t what the stats are just based on the creature.
