Legends: leave your impressions here, pls!

[Texashawk]

Early impressions, to be sure but....

This is it. This with the expansions is what MOO3 should have been. And after having gone through the fiasco of SOTS2, I could cry in relief. But this is the Holy Grail, I think, of 4X right now. Bravo, Matrix. Bravo. (And thanks, Eliot.

[Nedrear]

I really love the silver mist idea, though I haven't found it yet... BUT I would like to chose the space creatures which appear ingame or I will sadly keep it deactivated or on "few". Some of those just feel wrong in a RP sense. I can live with a space jellyfish drifting and looking for food in hibernation or the silvermist but the space slug is too much. That is beyond explanation.
 
The game itself is pretty nice, though my leader got too good too quick and I have yet to see negative events. My human senator quickly arrose from a good bean counter with a knack for colonys to a well respected galactic senator more influential in politics as my ambassador all the while boosting economy.
I did not ask for the child of Warren Buffet and Kennedy... that is too good.
 
The borders are nice. I have to think about losing my fuel station to an expanding Gizurean colony all the while keeping them at bay as a mutual "enemy" of me and the Kadians while luring the Ketarov in a three way Defense Pact.

[WoodMan]

Ned, the leaders vary, in my only long game in Legends so far I went through 4 leaders in about 25 years (as a Republic).  The third guy totally sucked [:D]  Towards the end of their term they are usually quite good.

He was just starting to get decent when his term ended, but he had so many negatives he wasn't a touch on the others.  Careful raising your taxes after a leader change, in a Republic at least when a new leader is elected you get a boost in happiness which goes away, also if one leader is good and he is replaced by a less talented fellow (almost certainly will be at the start of his career) you may have to lower your taxes to adjust.  I had 16+ Happy on all my taxed colonies and a new guy came in, I forgot to change the taxes and next time I looked they were all +1, +2 etc, phew, narrowly avoided some rebellions I guess [:D]

Encountered SilverMist a few times, usually its an explorationship and I flee, careful the SilverMist is fast!!! Makes sure you get your ship out of there pronto!

Also, for your info, a fleet of 2 Capitals and 4 Cruisers, each capital having 1 Ion Cannon onboard, was enough for me to take down a single SilverMist in a matter of seconds. It was so fast though it left one of the Cruiser crippled.

[Shuul]

It looks like i will buy it for sure... when i got some money... [:(]

Erik, will other competition creatures be implemented on some stage?

Im still hoping to get a free copy

[Yskonyn]

ORIGINAL: Nikolaj

ORIGINAL: Yskonyn
I was hoping the 'robotic feel' (for me) of the game would be fixed with this expansion and I do think there is more personality now and the game provides me with the feedback I like to get to keep an overview. This reduces the effect of getting the impression that the game runs its own course rather than me playing it.

Could you (or someone) elaborate on the improved feedback? I'd be very interested in hearing more about that.

Also, what are the fleet management and automation improvements that the store page mentions? Can I actually feel comfortable with automating my fleets now?

Well here is what I tried to explain on another forum:
 
The big question for me was wether Legends could remove the 'robotic feel' of the game. 
With 'robotic feel' I mean that DW had a tendency (for me) to give the impression that it would run its course regardsless of me doing stuff or not. I realise this has got everything to do with the automation features of the game. I have no problem with automation, especially since a lot of the automation features of the game prevents you from having to do tedious things and more importantly it prevents you from falling in the big micromanaging pit of doom! 
But the big problem for me was that the game didn't present me with enough feedback to be able to keep myself in the picture of what was actually happening in my empire.
This resulted in a faily 'auto piloted' feel of the game.
Don't get me wrong; I fully realise that this is probably a direct result of how I play the game instead of the game being an autopilot experience itself. But its about how the game interfaces with me as a player. Anyway, I digress. I hope I can voice a feeling other players have had as well. 
 
Legends adds one important feature; movement vectors and influence spheres!
I have discovered that these two features alone have pretty much alleviated my struggle with the game to remain in the picture and devise solid plans. This directly results in diminishing the feeling of the game being on auto pilot and me just being an observer.
 
Furthermore, the characters make the races less generic and 'robotic' as well and present interesting tactical situations as well as nice discoveries with their hidden traits.
 
Unit graphics are a little less blurry, but not a huge improvement in my opinion. Sounds are still rudimentary, except for the explosions (they sound nice!). Especially don't like most weapon sounds. They mostly still sound like effects from the of NES or SEGA consoles.
 
But that's me nitpicking. The biggest gripe (or invisible wall, so to speak) I had with the game seems to be alleviated! Good news!
(Now back to my Rodents)

I hope that makes sense, but the bottomline is that the map is now able to provide me with the dfeedback I am comfortable playing with, by means of the new overlays.
 

[Raap]

Haven't played more than a few minutes yet, but really liking what I see thus far. Seems like improvements all over.

Most pleasant change so far for me is probably the increased physical map dimension. At least now in the start the map really feels large. Just hope it stays that way as I improve hyperdrive technology.

[Bingeling]

My experiences so far, after one night.

Disappearing troops is nasty, be aware of automatic troop recruitment possibly removing troops from you transports.

Leaders are quite fun, but no manual recruitment of intelligence agents? I got an agent that negatively influences other characters on the same location, and guess where they want to live? Capital. Where is the most income from? Capital. So keep that agent in action...

I love the ship vector overlays. I can see the massive trade to the Securans, lots, and lots of vectors into their capital. And also the worrying lack of lines into the system where you try to build a small space port.

I started on Hard, and compared to ROTS this is indeed hard. The AI is not in two other wars when they attack, and they attack with a plan. 20+ships and as many troops incoming quite quickly after declaration, and against your best colonies in the area. And this is pretty early game, mind you. Not that it will be impossible when you catch on, but combined with a troop recruiter that disbands your troops on transports it is hard to go positive if you don't want their bug infested colonies. I have also had a fleet properly chased first time since like... ages.

Hours flew fast. I was surprised I was hungry, but realized I must have been sitting there for 6 hours or so. Being hungry made sense after all.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
Disappearing troops is nasty, be aware of automatic troop recruitment possibly removing troops from you transports.

Just FYI, I play with troop automation on and have not had this issue, but we will investigate and fix. If you have a save that could help as it may require specific conditions.

Leaders are quite fun, but no manual recruitment of intelligence agents? I got an agent that negatively influences other characters on the same location, and guess where they want to live? Capital. Where is the most income from? Capital. So keep that agent in action...

Intelligence Agents work like other characters now. You can also Dismiss them if you are not happy with their traits and skills. If you are playing a species that has benefits in Intelligence, you should be able to replace them with a new Agent fairly quickly.

Hours flew fast. I was surprised I was hungry, but realized I must have been sitting there for 6 hours or so. Being hungry made sense after all.

Glad you had fun right off the bat.

We'll be here to support, fix, tweak and fine-tune as the feedback comes in. [8D]

Regards,

- Erik

[Chet Guiles]

So far, so good. I like the ability to mod races in a single sheet instead of that impossibly complex "spreadsheet" thingy.

I would still like to see us be able to "Save" individual ships rather than whole shipsets in the ship building and mod screen.

I would still like to see us be able to CHOOSE which bits of technology we use in our ships when there are several "equivalent ones" rather than having the AI choose for us and making us do each ship one at a time. Nice would be to select tech as "OK" or "Obsolete" and then a mass "Upgrade" would only use those techs we want to use.

I like the larger 15 x 15 format.

Haven't yet decided whether I like the leaders thing -- have to see how they affect play over a series of games.

Still my favorite 4x space game EVER.

[ASHBERY76]

This game just gets better and better with each expansion.The game runs smooth,no crash in 5 hours play and is feature complete.All the new gameplay systems improve the game as I expected, so does the new UI elements like vectors.The ship graphics look very sharp zoomed in max.This expansion adds racial immersion into the living galaxy.

1400 star, 15x15 sector size is sweet.

I just wish I had time to play it thoroughly but that will have to wait until the weekend.

[Bingeling]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
Disappearing troops is nasty, be aware of automatic troop recruitment possibly removing troops from you transports.

Just FYI, I play with troop automation on and have not had this issue, but we will investigate and fix. If you have a save that could help as it may require specific conditions.

I will have a look from an old autosave tomorrow, and see if I can catch it happening while going idle fast forward. If I can stay away from progressing the game...

One little thing I have noticed is the last line of leader skillups not being included in the popup window. The one that says the new level.

[Wolfe1759]

I've owned DW since it was released and added on RoTS when it was released.

I had only played DW & RoTS very infrequently as I found it easier to get into and enjoy Armada 2526.

Pre-ordered SOTS2 [:@] - threw toys out of the pram and had a nerd-rage fueled hissy fit [:)]

Had the itch to play a different 4X (though I still do rather like Armada)

Had another go at RoTS (over the last week or so) and really started to enjoy the game.

Impatiently waited for Legends but felt strong in my resolve (given my recent SOTS2 experience) not to make it a day 1 purchase and see what the initial reactions from the forum were.

Failed in my resolve - purchased as soon as I got home from work.

After 2-3 hours play I'm very glad I did.

Like the added immersion of the character system.

Really like the ship vectors - makes it a lot easier for (as I am still) a newbie like myself to understand what is going on.

Overall what has made me start to like DW/RoTS/Legends is to accept that I'm not controlling everything (I've so far left all the automation at its default settings) and therefore take a more relaxed attitude to what is happening minute by minute in the galaxy and in a way treat it more like a city builder rather than a RTS.

Again thumbs up on the Legends expansion - even though I've only just scratched the surface of the game as a whole.

[Raap]

Yeah, played some more now and really liking the additions with spheres and whatnot. Just had my 'Genius' scientist(+20% empire-wide research) replace my former leader. Which sucks, since this guy's a pretty bad leader but was an excellent scientist. Definitely adds flavor though.

I've had limited interaction with the AI as of yet, but they(discovered 4 AI empires) appear to have some trouble expanding in my sparse colony locations/15x15/1000stars/varied clusters/expensive research game setup. Looks like they're getting kinda stuck in the clusters they start in, probably because of fuel limitations. Still early, but I've explored and colonized 2-3 other clusters myself.

[Nikolaj]

@Yskonyn: Thanks for elaborating. I'll definitely have to get this.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Raap
Yeah, played some more now and really liking the additions with spheres and whatnot. Just had my 'Genius' scientist(+20% empire-wide research) replace my former leader. Which sucks, since this guy's a pretty bad leader but was an excellent scientist. Definitely adds flavor though.

You must have had Technocracy government type - they often replace leaders with a Scientist. Each government type has difference to how they replace leaders. Military Dictatorships often choose from your admirals or generals, for example.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Raap
sparse colony locations/15x15/1000stars/varied clusters/expensive research game setup. Looks like they're getting kinda stuck in the clusters they start in, probably because of fuel limitations. Still early, but I've explored and colonized 2-3 other clusters myself.

Setting the colony prevalence low does make the early game a lot more dependent on luck as far as finding the nearby colony worlds and having a decent starting location. This tends to hurt the AI a bit more than the human player. You may want to set them to Hard difficulty and have them start off as "Young" rather than "Starting" to try to compensate a bit, or just increase the colony prevalence a notch.

Regards,

- Erik

[feelotraveller]

It sounds like Legends is living up to its promise. [&o]

I haven't purchased yet but think I will have to later today. I have a couple of questions.

If I download the game now onto my laptop will I be able to install the game onto my new desktop in a couple of weeks or a months time?

And secondly how does the difficulty slider make the game more or less difficult?

[WoodMan]

As long as you keep your download in a safe place you can install it again of course, if you lose it you can re-download it too.  If you join the matrix members area (not sure if this is a requisite of buying a game or not) you can access download link and your serial numbers from there whenever you like too, its very handy indeed! [8D]

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: feelotraveller
If I download the game now onto my laptop will I be able to install the game onto my new desktop in a couple of weeks or a months time?

Yes, I believe that's possible, though Erik would have to answer that one to be sure.

And secondly how does the difficulty slider make the game more or less difficult?

Difficulty controls how much money your colonies make. At harder settings all AI empires earn more colony income. At easier settings the player's colony income increases.

So you have either more or less money available for ships/research/etc relative to other empires.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: feelotraveller
If I download the game now onto my laptop will I be able to install the game onto my new desktop in a couple of weeks or a months time?

Yes, absolutely.

And secondly how does the difficulty slider make the game more or less difficult?

Primarily, it helps the economies of the AI empires, which makes up for some of the other advantages human players have.

Regards,

- Erik