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Thanks for the new game. Here is my initial feedback:

1. The balance of the game has changed dramatically. By integrating 'Build' and 'Train,' the initial pace of the game is slooooooooowwwwww. Maybe it just takes some familiarity, but for my tastes there were too many 'End Turn' clicks before something happened. If you want the armies to build slowly, you could just increase their build time.

2. When heroes die, they get sent to a city with a penalty. I like that a lot more than a straight death. I had one guy die so many times I changed his name to 'Retired.'

3. I miss the whole marriage/interbreeding aspect of the game. This was a compelling reason to communicate with the other kingdoms in a positive way.

4. Thank you for attending to how the game crashes. No more frozen machines or BSOD. It dies quite nicely, I think. Just whites out and the OS asks if I want to kill it. That is damned civilized of you. I appreciate it.

5. So far, I can't really pin down why the game  crashes. It seems pretty random to me.

6. I like the new 'Training' branch on the 'Warfare' tree. Not so sure I like the 'Magic' progression. Let me play with it more.

7. It's nice to see so many of the visual elements from the previous game in use. The new artwork is pretty splendid as well.

8. Initiative in battle is driving me crazy, but it is growing on me. Not being able to force the order of my troops definitely makes the battles tougher. 

 

Keep up the good work.

6,861 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Arrrggghhhhh!!!

No sooner did I post the previous than the dreaded BSOD showed up.

So scratch item 4. I'm tempted to run the game in a virtual machine but I'm concerned there is more than enough load on my machine with this game to begin with.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting hellers1155, reply 1
8. Initiative in battle is driving me crazy, but it is growing on me. Not being able to force the order of my troops definitely makes the battles tougher.

I'm with you on that one. Flipped me out at first. Kept getting my butt kicked. I am getting used to it. Haven't really played enough to have much of an opinion. I won't get too frustrated. I remember Elemental changed dramatically in the first few months, so I don't plan on getting too attached to anything or becoming too critical at this point. Just having fun for now.

I have not experienced too many crashes, but are you experiencing any lag in play? I am getting it every now and then. I save/exit/ reload and then it's fine but that really was an issue for me with Elemental.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Initiative really adds to the strategic (and tactical) development of the game, I'm loving it.  As characters level up you have to make some tough choices regarding how to strengthen their abilities.  By carefully selecting traits, equipment and spells cast during battles you can end up with some heroes that are whirling dervishes of destruction (or a plodding, heavily armored tank that can withstand a lot of damage).  Great stuff!

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Yeah. I've played a few more games now and it is falling into place a bit better.

Call me crazy, but I've only had one crash since I shut off the sound. This is not science. I have not beta tested it. I got the idea by the way the crash happens. When the screen freezes, there is an accompanying low hum on the speakers. So I turned off the sound. Played better for me.

My graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

This might be one more thing to test or it might be a red herring. It is the nature of the beast. We play with it, we break it. We try to beat it. Kind of a meta game.