Initial Thoughts

[Gunner98]

Have only played for about 8 hours but this is a great game. Don't like the Steam connection but the game itself is fantastically detailed with a super combat system.

Attached are a few points which are a mix of ideas and observations. Hopefully the Devs will find them helpful.

Well for some strange reason I cannot upload today so here is a cut & paste.

I have now played about 8-10 hours of the game and am probably missing a lot of stuff. Anyway, really enjoying it but since it is still being developed thought that I would jot down some initial thoughts. Apologies if some of these points have already been discussed and discarded, but hopefully some of it might prove useful for evolving the game.
Diplomacy
• Diplomatic relationship status should be available on the trade screen and all screens involving that other country
• Diplomatic status should be available on mouse overs and on the sidebar province cards
• Why and how much a relationship between countries is changing is not intuitive. For instance if a country shows Red on the relationship map – I mouse over it and it has a -14 plus a bunch of other numbers. Some way of queering this number would be useful. Also, that same county went orange the next turn – so I presume the relationship improved (I had a diplomat there) but the rating still showed -14 so it should still be getting worse, at least that’s how it appears to a newbie.
• Agents on missions have the flag of their target country displayed – it would be helpful if that countries name also appeared and what the agent was doing – trading, diplomacy etc
• A mini map on the diplomatic screen would be very helpful and if you click on a country in the map, it would then show up – with its current relationship rating evident on screen.
• Code of war: If someone declares war on you – why do you need to wait the full turn? Shouldn’t you be able to respond?
Buildings
• Need better feedback as to why a building is not being built (wrong tier, terrain etc)
Magic
• Not intuitive on where your research points are coming from, needs to be clearer
Armies
• The size of the Army symbol - does it reflect the number of units, the Combat Power, or the number of men in the army?
• It would be nice to have a second option for a ‘Garrison’ which would have a limited number of slots that you put units in. The garrison could increase by the number of forts or other buildings in a province. Units placed in the garrison would have to be specifically removed and would not inadvertently be dragged across the world by a passing army- annoying. Upkeep cost should be lower for garrison units, and some units should be better at it than others.
• Armies should be ‘sortable’, i.e. when the Army is selected, a player should be able to drag and drop his armies within the card so he can quickly see it the way s/he wants to. Alternatively, a sort function should be added based on type (infantry, cavalry etc), experience, combat power, special abilities etc.
• The selecting and de-selecting and being able to tell who is who did not jump out at me and caused some frustration at first. Once I figured it out it was OK but perhaps there is a slicker way. If an Army cannot move somewhere – tell me why!
• More units and options please.
• I am not sure where I find mercenaries except released prisoners
• A list of abilities and what the bonuses are would be helpful
Battles
• I really like this system.
• Understanding the fire/counter fire aspect was critical but since I didn’t read the manual before jumping in, I just didn’t get it. Very powerful capability. Perhaps a more complete tutorial tip.
• I am still not clear as to why cavalry can sometimes charge and sometimes not. The symbols are clear and very useful but an understanding of why is missing
• Irregulars are the same, why can they do some things on one turn and not the next. Talk to me 
• Capture – it would be great to capture siege weapons, not sure if it can happen now. Also ships, I defeated a nation which had a port full of ships, the remaining armies went rebel but I think my guys would have tried to capture the ships.
• I think that the Hero should be on the battlefield with a small group of retainers. He should give a moral and perhaps a combat bonus to nearby troops. If he is lost – very bad news.
Market
• There needs to be random resources added to the market, there doesn’t seem to be any added now. Prices should change; natural events should create bounties and shortages. War should add to the price and perhaps the time it takes to get the resource.
• A mini map on the market screen with information on what is available and what they are looking for available on a mouse over.
Trading:
• Mini map again
• Method of increasing by 100’s for gold
• Default when adding a resource to the trade should be ‘1’ not the total number you have
Objectives
• New objectives should be added over time, and ‘pop-up’ objectives should happen from time to time which cause a player to rapidly re-plan his action before they expire.
Hero’s
• More special abilities would make these guys more useful
• Hero’s on the battlefield would be great
• More special abilities please
• Having a guy ‘promoted from the ranks’ would be fun. S/he could then lead a smaller army – perhaps 10 units, until that sub-commander wins so many battles or does something special and he gets promoted to Hero. This way you can increase the number of Hero’s in a country but still maintain some control on it, and only nations at war for a long time will get the benefit. (counter acted by the higher resource costs and other negative effects of war)

[lion_of_judah]

game is now unplayable as with this latest version my game map is black

[DerTroof]

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah

game is now unplayable as with this latest version my game map is black

Me too! And the "fix" posted by Lordz on another thread is absolute gobbledygook to me.

Every other game I own from Matrix/Slitherine works fine on my present system (which I bought a few months ago). If they don't fix it soon, I'll be seeking a refund.

[kvob]

I'd like to be able to play this in my laptop but alas integrated graphics chips means no. I hope they fix this.

I'm not a programmer but I thought things like DirectX were supposed to be an interface between programme and hardware (and therefore avoiding the chip problem). Obviously I was wrong.

[ErissN6]

ORIGINAL: kvob
I'd like to be able to play this in my laptop but alas integrated graphics chips means no.
things like DirectX were supposed to be an interface between programme and hardware (and therefore avoiding the chip problem).

Since a year the game has been remade with OpenGL.
Integrated chips and all Intel chips were never reliable for gaming. You have to very carefully chose one: no Intel, and watch for shaders etc.

[kvob]

I just don't get it. I have a ton of stuff made with OpenGL that runs fine on my laptop and this game is the only one that doesn't.