Compilation of Elemental Suggestions
Elemental Forums
Here is a list of some of the more talked about problems and suggestions. I will try and update this at least once a day.
Right now the problems and suggestions are worded by me. Most are just my own complaints, but I narrowed them down to others I've seen posted about mostly. Some of the ideas were inspired by other threads. I will try to incorporate them into this ASAP
They are broken down into topics. Topics include the problems, proposed solutions, suggestions, and in depth threads.
NOTICE: I say problems and solutions, but they are not necessarily problems and they are just suggested changes, please don't take the wording as arrogant or condescending.
Please comment and add your own suggestions and link to good threads
Updates
8-30-10 11:36 - added Dynasties by Mortenart
Items : Currently items are pretty subpar. There's a very finite amount, and many are obsolete do to the stacking abilities of the rings and necklaces.
Specific problems
1) Not enough items - Right now there are few items, and it's a bummer.
Solution - Add an item designer. Let us pick the damage, defense, and all the other stats it does. Then let us build units with these and let us buy them at shops.
2) Item stacking - The ability to stack rings and amulets really messes up gameplay and statistics further than they already are. You can get +1 HP ring for 50 gildar and stack this as much as you want. Run into a neutral city and you can trade some excess materials for 1000 gildar easy. Now you are up 20 hp easy.
Solutions - Only allow each city to carry one of each magical item or make the city restock every so many turns. Another option is to limit stacking.
3) Items that don't matter - That 50 gildar +1 HP ring really makes the 210 gildar +1 HP amulet obsolete. There are many cases of this.
Solutions - Change the pricing. Limiting stacking will also fix this, making amulets the thing you buy when full of rings.
Movement : Currently the movement in the game is frustrating due to the movement impairments of some tiles.
Specific Problems
1) Can't tell how many turns it will take until you reach your target - You can be clicking 10 tiles away but it can take a whole lot longer do to movement impairments.
Solution - Show a trail. At the end show the number of turns it will take to get there. Maybe even show marks along trail where you will stop.
Other Suggestions
1) Allow queuing of movement actions with shift button.
2) Display movement penalties better.
Town Building and Management : Currently building seems to simple and rapid expansion has no penalties.
Specific Problems
1) No penalties for rapidly building cities - Right now there is no negative to simply pushing out settlers early on and starting many cities.
Solutions - Add a tax to each town or require a champion to be there to lead. Increase cost of pack for settlers.
2) Too simplistic - The 50 tile limit does not become a problem until cities are a higher level, and until then it's simply a matter of what to build first.
Solutions - Allow us to build 3 or 5 of the basic buildings(Merchant, tech research, arcane research, materials place). This will either let us pick an extra to emphasize or let us not build one, adding some depth to choosing what to build. Change the way we can build stuff. Base it off citizens, not city level. If you have more citizens you can build faster.
In Depth Threads
Understanding City Improvements, Resource Nodes and the Usable Tile Limit; Also Influence and Town Halls! by sagittary
Making city leveling less annoying and more interesting by lambaman
Training Units and Combat : The way dice work causes a lot of poor scenarios, and then just a few minor qualms with training and tactical combat.
Specific Problems
1) The dice system - The way attacking and defending work with dice cause a lot of poor scenarios(can't hit the 1 defense wolf with your 50 attack unit)
Solution - Change it. There have been many posts about this. I'm pretty sure you guys are on it.
2) Counter Attack - Right now it seems too strong, especially against units with high attack or high defense. Units with said traits can slap you around a bit or even kill with one counter attack.
Solutions - Limit damage a counter attack can do. Don't let counter attacks kill units. Change the statistic system(this will be a complaint later)
3) Tactical Combat unit placement - Sometimes the initial placement in Tactical Combat is not what you would have liked.
Solution - If we choose to do tactical combat, give us the option to pick where our units start on our part of the Tactical Combat Map
Other Suggestions
1) Training Units - When training units it shows how many turns until you will have unit, which is nice, but I think it should show that and how many it takes to train it by itself if there was nothing in the queue.
2) Troop Upkeep - Lower the cost of troops if they are in your city and territory.
3) Building and Training - Let us build and train faster if we pay more.
In Depth Threads
[SUGGESTION] Combat mechanics overhaul by shadowtongue
[Suggestion][Tactical Combat]Simultaneous Turns by rwemack
The Death squad dilemma - read and agree by Tomasp3n
How to make tactical battles more tactical by Franky999
Unit Design - Abilities by klaxton499
[Gameplay] Simplistic overhaul to tactical RNG rolls by CharonXeno
[suggestion/(demand?)][Gameplay] A rally against 1DN rolls by Robbie.Price
Dynasties - They have a lot of potential to be more integral to the gameplay
Specific Problems
1) Family Dying - Right now if a member of your family dies it really doesn't matter. The AI dislikes you if you murder theirs, but there is not a big deal about your own family dying.
Solutions - Show a screen with a small description similar to the one when you get married. Lower morale in combat for a few turns.
2) Children getting married - children are restricted to marrying into families of other factions.
Solution - Let our children marry champions and maybe even in family.
3) Our dynasty means nothing - If we die, our dynasty doesn't really help us out. We still lose regardless of having kids and/or a wife to carry the throne.
Solution - If we have a wife or children, let us continue in the game despite loss of sovereign.
In Depth Threads
[Suggestion] Improvements to Dynasties by Logiwonk
Statistics and Leveling - With the current combat system and mana only regenerating each turn, the Stat system really could be improved. This topic really ties in with combat and how the dice rolls will work, but I think it's worth noting a lot of people are not pleased with the current stats and what they do and how leveling works. I'll try and look into it more and find some posts, but this writeup isn't as simple as the others.
Champions and Guardians - They could really use a boost to make them useful come later on. A few people have gone into depth about how leveling really holds back champions, I'll try and find those.
Specific Problems
1) Guardians kind of suck - Right now it's very hit or miss if you're guardian will be useful. Question - Do guardians level up like champions and the sovereign, or just automatically?
Solutions - Let there be research to increase their power or just let the tech research that affects Champions affect Guardians. Make the bottom line stronger.
2) Champion bonuses - I really like the bonuses some champions bring, but there are too few and the price is too costly at times(600 gildar for a unit that adds 1 gildar per turn)
Solutions - Add more bonuses(extra damage, maybe a caster but he cannot found his own kingdom for whatever reason, variations and combinations of current ones such as +5 gildar per turn or +1 arcane and tech research). Change the pricing so it's not so random(is it random, or do they just increase as the research is upgraded), or do they just cost more late in the game)
In Depth Threads
Understanding Adventure/Domination Techs by Dereliction
Resources - I think the resource system can be improved to emphasize some management so you're not just done with resources once you build them
Specific Problems
1) Starting resources way too random - I love this and hate this. It's fun to get a megacity, but also fun to have to spread out and look for a better spot. However, once multiplayer comes around, I think people will be more frustrated with this because right now it's pretty easy to deal with the random starts and the AI. When you start playing real people having a poor start would be much more frustrating.
Solution? - Standardize starting zones. I'm not sure I like this totally, but I think a change might be needed come multiplayer time.
Other Suggestions
1) Link Resources - Let us link resources to different cities via caravans and give bonuses for using said resource in linked city. An example would be as followed. You have Safe City and Danger City. Safe city is nice and guarded while Danger city is right next to enemies. You want to make your units at Danger City so you can have them ready to fight right away. Link your resources from Safe City, such as Horses, to Danger City(which was a horseless city). Now if you build a unit using horses in Danger City, they are built faster. Or have a penalty for building a unit in a city that doesn't immediately have those resources. Another example would be link Gold from Poor City to Megacity because Megacity had all the gildar bonuses.
AI - Simple suggestions to improve AI immediately.
Other Suggestions
1) Teams - Let us create teams from beginning(AKA alliances that start immediately) so if we want we can fight a bunch of AI's just against us or whatever the player would like.
Large threads covering multiple topics
[Suggestion] The Ultimate Problem with this Game by grimzag1
Comprehensible Suggestion List (Pls Read Before Posting) by Raven X
Most serious design issues by _Scooter_
A few suggestions. (This is a wall of text, and I am sorry) by Lord_Asmodeous
Looking for more on the following specific topics:
Magic
[Suggestion] A possible solution to 1 of the 3 primary magic shortcomings by tanafres
AI
XP and Leveling
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