Feedback from 3 week play

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13.02.12 20:14
MaxiSir

Feedback from 3 week play

Hi, I want to share my personal opinion/experience on this game. You may not agree with it, but it is my opinion.

Firstly I know, it's beta. That's why I write this feedback in a hope, some things will get improved.

The first impression is good. The graphics is nice. Tutorial is OK.

Later on, I've noticed several logical bugs - or artificial limitations, that are almost against common sense - e.g. in the first sector, you know about two marble deposits, but the game allows you to have only one at a time. (I will come to the mining issue later).

Another issue is different sets building material - fir wood + stone, hard wood + marble, exotic wood + granite. For each set you need several processing building and after you move after certain lvl, you have only limited use for it (well you need it for well, farm fields and mostly mines - that are relatively very expensive). In the beginning a player focuses on building material production (you cant do much else) and end up tearing down most of the buildings in a few lvls just to repeat the loop later on.

Updating building + building licenses limit
I understand the limitation for building limit counts, however there is a problem, that you run soon out of licences and want to start updating. However even for the very basic building (like firwood cutter) you need tier 2 material to update (120 hard wood + 100 marble). The problem is general, when you are able to build tier 2 processing buildings (e.g. for marble), to update you need gold (that is extremely expensive to produce btw - you get some amount for Q, but that is nearly not enough to pay for updates).

Production cycles
I like the idea that a building placement affects the duration of production cycle. However this could be more explained in the tutorial. (e.g. for sawmill you do not to be near any cutter, just the warehouse).

Gold production
Later, you need thousands gold coins for upgrades, you can earn some with trading, but by far not enough. Gold mines are extremely expensive (like 1400 of each hard wood, marble and tools) and from the ore you will be able to produce only like 30-300 coins (depends on how well you time you buffs, I did not use triple buffs only double) PLUS it takes at least 24 minutes for a single production cycle of coin. (to upgrade gold smelter to lvl 2, you need 800 gold coins)

Mines, mines, mines depleted
From lvl like 20, the most common thing you do is mine renewal. Each morning, most of your marble deposits are depleted (it takes less then a day to deplete them, even shorter, if you have more marble mines on higher lvl - I had my marble masons on lvl 2 and I dared not to upgrade them further). Searching for mines/deposits takes long time and you cannot schedule it, so this is really painful.

Fun only to lvl 16
The tutorial ends on lvl 16, after that you get 100 gold for each new lvl and on lvl 26 you can start doing adventures. The production speed of military is OK - it is limited by you resource production (e.g. swords and beer) plus by free workers.
It is still a bit slow, but you can't wish to complete the island in 3 days. Still, the way from lvl 16 to 26 was long and I only endured it because I wanted to see the adventures.
On lvl 26, you get I free and you can buy another one from store. These beginners adventures are easy, but a welcomed change. I was disappointed to know, that these were probably the last adventures I had.
You send you explorer to find an adventure (initially it takes a day to finish). However (and sorry I am not shure about this) he always returned to me with only 3 map fragments. You can exchange map fragments for an adventure, but only from lvl 36 and above! So no adventure for a loong time. That was the final reason I am ending to play this game (at least for now).
In the current state you end up logging 15-30x a day just to discover mines/marble deposits, rebuild farms, if you are lucky and have so bandits left on the island you can hope for one battle a day (more likely every other day). Maybe the explorer finds a adventure map sometimes, but I wasn't lucky enough for that.

The game is in beta. It needs a lot of balancing, but there are some logical bugs, that could be foreseen even before the beta. The game lacks some goal and for now even a "chain" to hold a user in mid game. There is a lot of work ahead.
13.02.12 20:32
Fenrisw0lf

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxiSir

Later on, I've noticed several logical bugs - or artificial limitations, that are almost against common sense - e.g. in the first sector, you know about two marble deposits, but the game allows you to have only one at a time. (I will come to the mining issue later).

That's no bug.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxiSir

Updating building + building licenses limit
I understand the limitation for building limit counts, however there is a problem, that you run soon out of licences and want to start updating. However even for the very basic building (like firwood cutter) you need tier 2 material to update (120 hard wood + 100 marble). The problem is general, when you are able to build tier 2 processing buildings (e.g. for marble), to update you need gold (that is extremely expensive to produce btw - you get some amount for Q, but that is nearly not enough to pay for updates).

Yes you need to trade or wait until you can produce gold for yourself (level 23)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxiSir

Gold production
Later, you need thousands gold coins for upgrades, you can earn some with trading, but by far not enough. Gold mines are extremely expensive (like 1400 of each hard wood, marble and tools) and from the ore you will be able to produce only like 30-300 coins (depends on how well you time you buffs, I did not use triple buffs only double) PLUS it takes at least 24 minutes for a single production cycle of coin. (to upgrade gold smelter to lvl 2, you need 800 gold coins)

Yes it is a browsergame and you need some time to level up :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxiSir

Mines, mines, mines depleted
From lvl like 20, the most common thing you do is mine renewal. Each morning, most of your marble deposits are depleted (it takes less then a day to deplete them, even shorter, if you have more marble mines on higher lvl - I had my marble masons on lvl 2 and I dared not to upgrade them further). Searching for mines/deposits takes long time and you cannot schedule it, so this is really painful.

You can build more geos from the shop :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxiSir

Fun only to lvl 16
The tutorial ends on lvl 16, after that you get 100 gold for each new lvl and on lvl 26 you can start doing adventures. The production speed of military is OK - it is limited by you resource production (e.g. swords and beer) plus by free workers.
It is still a bit slow, but you can't wish to complete the island in 3 days. Still, the way from lvl 16 to 26 was long and I only endured it because I wanted to see the adventures.
On lvl 26, you get I free and you can buy another one from store. These beginners adventures are easy, but a welcomed change. I was disappointed to know, that these were probably the last adventures I had.
You send you explorer to find an adventure (initially it takes a day to finish). However (and sorry I am not shure about this) he always returned to me with only 3 map fragments. You can exchange map fragments for an adventure, but only from lvl 36 and above! So no adventure for a loong time. That was the final reason I am ending to play this game (at least for now).

Hire more Explorers in the Tavern or buy some in the shop. You have 25% chance to find a adventure with your explorer.
Another opportunity would be to interact with players and trade adventures or get some leeches there
15.02.12 22:28
MrKingperson

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenrisw0lf

That's no bug.

He meant a bug in the logic of not being able to use the two simultaneously, for it further slows the game down which is unnecessary for such a slow paced game anyway ^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenrisw0lf

You can build more geos from the shop :)

But even with the maximum of three geos it takes a long time, unless gems are used to buy additional ones :(
Coal (and gold) take 4 hours each, and in addition to those are the 1hr iron and half dozen marbles. All but marbles can be timed, but the max. 10 marble quarries(if I counted right) take 30min per geo, and they take 1½ to 2hrs minimum to find if they're all empty.

So, log in and find a possible 1 or even 2 coal /gold mines, 5 or so marble deposits and some iron mines (maybe a few stones and coppers) all ran out..
Will take a while. And to think of all the lost resources, during the absence and the time it takes to find- and possibly rebuild upon- those resources.. it's a saddening thought >:
16.02.12 11:41
Lymond

These aren't bugs or flaws, they are game design decisions. There are a lot of online games that are designed to get you playing minutes or hours a day for years without reaching the end-point (everything built, everything researched.) Settlers slows its pace faster than many, but shares that design style. To my mind it shows its Germanic origins quite well - I've tried out others like the Patrician series of games which were about building up a mercantile empire in the days of the Hanse. Again it was this slow, methodical repetition of basic tasks that - eventually! - leads to having a major trading empire. It suits a patient, methodical player but frustrates anyone who prefers the more US-style RTS base rushing approach.

It has to have roadblocks of some kind to encourage us to use gems. If it didn't the game would lose a lot of money (server costs, developer costs, support costs all add up) and would shut. If you enjoy playing the game long enough to have issues recharging 10 marble mines a day then it's not unreasonable to invite you to pay towards its ongoing costs by buying a jolly geologist or two. Of course it's your right to refuse to pay any money whatsoever. Your settlement doesn't collapse if you cannot collect marble or runs out of wheat for a while, you lose none of your existing progress. However you're going to have to accept that it will cost more in time to keep an established village running if you pay nothing.
16.02.12 12:21
Jins

Judging from the title...I think you are pretty impatient
Look at your content....
Man, you are SO impatient...

This kind of game is all about slowly building, timing, and logging in constantly
Your complaint doesn't make sense. You just play a game that's not meant for you.
21.02.12 12:26
Cully

I've been in since November now and only yesterday took out Mary. I've also still got 12 building licences left and I havent' purchased any new ones from the store. The game is about strategy and planning, and not as a lot of people seem to think, a quick way to bash each other's brains out.

Yes you need higher levels to upgrade your buildings, but if you're not in a great rush like i wasn't, then that's not problem at all. I've still got lots of buildings on level 1 and 2 and I'm very happy with my progress (Level 32 now).

3 weeks in to the game is no basis to judge it. As you get higher you get more resources, things get easier, etc, but mainly it's planning how to use your resources is what forms the basis for part of the game. So a lot of it doesn't make sense to you - tell me one game which does?
21.02.12 13:53
Tierarzt

Typical "I want it now" generation that is spoiling the games for other people. If it take more than 5 minutes to level up, it's boring!!

It's only the old school and those with old school mentality that truely appreciate games like this.
21.02.12 20:48
Mystic

Don't be too harsh, he do have got some points.

First of all that refinding your marble/stones things is getting anoying. Especially as they are always on the same place. I do however understand that we need to slow the game down a bit, but still.. Only good for one day and refinding them every day? They could make it like this that you have a small chance of getting a largerr deposit. Doesn't need to be much larger, but 10-20% larger would be nice. You would still have to refind them often enough and there is still enough reasons to get that jolly geologist, as it just saves a lot of time.

I don't agree with the fact that some resources are just obselete. I still use fir wood, for coal making, making planks, and turning those planks into wheat fields/wells etc. The gold issue is big, especially as producing them is very slow. Also you are going to need them for finding the adventures, which is a royal pain.

I already wrote about the problems with the adventures in another thread. I do consider that problem the major turnoff.

Another problem is the fact that guilds are rather useless, I was part of one, and I realized that there is no real point in it. Maybe someone else wants my place without spending the 400 gold, which is ABSURD high. Also interaction with other players, which in my book is the most important feature of this kind of games is rather low. Well, this is my experience anyway.

Another problem is the interface, except for manually counting there is no way to find out what you have. There is no overall picture. Also swapping buffs is also very much an problem. Why can't I tag the factories I want to be buffed so that I don't need to tell them got to sector 7, near the border of sector 8 and do that stable. Just tag the factory you want to be buffed which is clearly marked in your friends screen and he can buff it. Another problem is that buffs runs out shorter then expected ESPECIALLY if you are offline. Sometimes I write down when i start an big buff (especially the 6hours one) and when I logged on 5h50 or so later they where GONE. If I keep on logged on they will be exactly as I expected but something goes wrong. Also I would be very happy to see for myself when an buff runs out, just like the time of the explorer and the geologists!!