Matrix Games Forums

Greetings,

I've bought the game - and tried it some.
I realized pretty quickly it is on the tracks of another game - or better a serie - Dominions from Illwinter.

The games have their differences - but currently there are some major issues which ail Sovereignty.

The first is the economical system.
To put it shortly, you need cash to recruit units (and materials). You need cash to unkeep recruits. All of this is "fine" (Not sure on the materials, some seem a bit iffy to me).
Now the issue is that you gain only that much gold. To improve a province to earn more gold (which if you are lucky, increases by 150 gold income) you pay 4500 gold. Which means the investment will return in your pouch in 30 turns.

That is pretty much your economical cap. And the more units you have the less you empower your economy (and design wise is very, very poor to just "click to generically upgrade a province economics").
So how one usually expand its own economical power? By expanding its holdings and possessions.

But in this game the provinces you conquer have 0 economical value as you litterally destroy them in order to annex them (it's not that you plunder, raze, gain gold from doing that or else).
So ontop of having a strong (and unkeep costy) army eating your income; you've to litterally take long, long breaks in the game to gain what? 500-1000 gold per turn if you're lucky, with a big nation, to repair the provinces you've conquered, to have them earn you more cash so you can move on?

The system is just abnormously flawed in its design; and brings the player to litterally conquer few provinces, and then sit in boredom for god know how many turns to repair these provinces.

Ontop of that, meanwhile your army is sitting there to protect your newly conquered provinces maybe someone else attacks you, elsewhere, and damages your precious provinces before you can get there. Even 1-2 turns of your provinces being in enemy control; you have lost tons of Gold because you should upgrade them back.

So for now, instead of an action packed game, I've spent the most of the 50 turns I've played, either waiting for the "End turn" button to have a sun on; or just doing a few clicks to move some units around, and press the "End Turn" button anyhow.
That - with a large nation!
I dread how it could be with a minor nation that starts with 2 provinces or 3!

I could say more - but that for now suffices. It's a flaw big as an elephant.

Yes, I agree... I played a fair bit of the game many months ago, and have just dipped my toes in again to see how development is going with the 2.0 beta.

Basically, this is a great tactical combat game, paired with a dull and flawed strategic game.

Here's what I love:
1) The tactical combat is really really fun, with lots of options and depth.
2) The real flavor of each different faction, with diversity of units, play style, sizes and difficulties, goals, and spells.
3) Great art, nicely immersive and the interface is much improved in the new version.
4) The promise, or hope, of some real resource scarcity.
5) The autocombat - wow, much improved guys! It really works now.

Here's what I don't like:

1) The lack of real resource scarcity. Eg, I really need wine (or whatever) to recruit my special wine-drinking elite guys, but I don't produce any wine, and there are only 3 nations that do, and none of them will trade with me... what to do, attack them? Try to get a friendly nation to buy some wine from one of the producers, and then on-sell it to me? Steal some? Black market at exorbitant prices? Magic? These would all be nice options for dealing creatively with resource scarcity. Currently, the resources remain way too easy to acquire, somebody is always willing to sell what you need for very little cash, so there is no real scarcity, so why bother with resources at all if they aren't scarce?
2) The strategic game is just... flat. Diplomacy and economic development are one-dimensional and boring, and the pacing of the strategic game is very slow. No game should have you hitting "next turn" for ten turns in a row, but that's pretty routine here. Magic research, economic development, even recruitment are all glacial in pace. The strategic game is something you have to get through in order to get to the combats. I can't imagine playing a nation using an economic or diplomatic approach, there just aren't any interesting choices in either of those systems currently.
3) Naval operations and magic still need a lot of love. For some nations, magic is useless, and for many of them it is far too situational or just not powerful enough to be worth the investment.
4) Wars are good, but there's a hint of a "whack a mole" aspect to them sometimes, with armies chasing each other around an increasingly economically devastated landscape.
5) The flawed dynamic described by Cohen above is a very real problem. There must be some dynamic where provinces recover to their "base" level over time, otherwise the game grinds down over time, rather than becoming more epic.
6) Victory conditions need some work. I usually feel like I've won long before the game says I've won. And when I feel like I've won, I lose interest and quit playing... the first 100 turns of the game are far more exciting and interesting then the second 200. And I'm not sure I've ever gotten much further than that, would just feel like grinding.

Still, I'm liking what I see, and as I said the tactical game is a delight. Some real attention to strategic gameplay, meaningful strategic choices, and pacing would be great!

Defiantly need more strategic choices, hitting end turn all the time is boring. The battles are great fun though, hope they get it sorted out.