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Member
(09-26-2011, 06:26 PM)
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#51
Originally Posted by Rekubot:
Basically, these guys have a really really good track record of continuously supporting their games and community. Edit: Herp derp how do dates work
Last edited by lorebringer; 09-26-2011 at 06:31 PM.
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Member
(09-27-2011, 12:07 AM)
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#53
Finally got a chance to sit down and sink a few hours into this. It's pretty good, still a bit rough around the edges but there's a huge amount of potential here I think. The art style is weird, but it definitely grows on you. I quite like it at this point and the trees/wind/sky effects in particular are actually really awesome. There's quite a bit of atmosphere when you enter an area with a windstorm, although I'm not completely sure yet what triggers that.
Basically the way the game works is that each tile on the world map is an explorable 2d region. Those regions seems to have from 3-5 subsections each, which you get to by moving to the end of the map to the left or right and each subsection has a random amount of buildings/caves etc. to explore. The way they handle interior exploration is a bit odd again, but I actually think it's a really good system. You have a series of rooms (nodes), and each of those leads on to a set of other rooms via doors or vents. It seems the only real point of exploring random buildings you find is to pick up miscellaneous loot like potions and crafting ingredients. And there are special buildings scattered around with boss gauntlet type environments and cool stuff to find. Since the boss rooms are randomised, you can get some interesting emergent effects based on enemy positioning etc. e.g. one room I ended up in had a separated lower area behind destructible terrain spawning enemies with a ranged aoe attack. This meant the floor was effectively a hazard zone with all these dudes spamming fireballs everywhere but only in that room. Your level is given as your civs level and each region you can go to also has a level. For the first 3 levels, boss monsters and areas of interest are marked on your world map, but for higher level areas, you need to explore them in the strategic view. With the strategic view you spend resources which you collect exploring to have your citizens perform actions on the world map, like scouting or recruiting other npc's. It advances in a turn based system and occasionally wandering bands of monsters will move towards your settlement. You can intercept them then on the 2d map and the game warns of bad scary things happening if you let them get to your settlement, although I haven't tried it yet. As you level your civ up you unlock more actions on the strategic map but I've only gotten to level 4 so not sure where that caps out. There's also apparently a settlement management mode which you unlock at level 6 I think, so not sure what that's like yet. Really enjoying the game anyway, despite the occasional bugs and jankiness, nothing too gamebreaking though, which is nice. TLDR Good: Scenario is interesting. Interior exploration has some cool mechanics. Spell crafting seems fun although I'm not sure how much depth there is to it yet. Strategic map seems like a good way to interact with the game world. Emergent gameplay elements in boss encounters. Music rocks. Bad: Combat is a bit wonky, couple of weird collision teleports and it feels kind of insubstantial if that makes sense. Can be awkward to quickly switch between spells etc. in a nice way although the game can be paused and stuff rearranged which helps with that a bit. Monster respawning can be a bit irritating, especially indoors. Edit: Also, when playing this game, do not go into every single building/room you can. These maps are huge and mostly empty. The ones you want are unique buildings/boss areas etc. That are marked on the map.
Last edited by lorebringer; 09-27-2011 at 12:16 AM.
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(04-26-2012, 01:32 AM)
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#56
I love AI War and Arcen's general development philosophy. I'm downloading the game now and I'll post some impression tomorrow.
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Member
(04-27-2012, 03:00 AM)
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#58
Oh man, I just intended to play this for a few minutes before I went to sleep, and I lost three hours - this game is addictive as hell. The art style takes a while to get used to, and there is a lot of depth to the game that is explained in a rather unwieldy manner, but the core gameplay of exploring the procedurally generated world, gathering resources, combating enemies, discovering abilities, unlocking character improving enchantments, upgrading your stats and, ultimately, improving the fortunes of your settlement, is certainly solid. I don't know how long the experience will take to wear thin, but for the moment I'm really, really enjoying it.
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Member
(04-27-2012, 03:06 AM)
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#59
Originally Posted by Bootaaay:
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The Man. The Myth.
The Legend. (04-27-2012, 03:11 AM)
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#60
I'm really enjoying it too. It's a very "Arcen" game-lots of player goal-setting and freedom to accomplish both player-set short term goals and the game's more general long term goals in a relatively freefrom manner.
One thing to keep in mind while playing is to have an objective and achieve that objective. If you are just wandering around the game can get to feel grindy.
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Member
(04-27-2012, 03:45 PM)
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#65
They said it was an epiphany on the level of making AI War humans-vs-AI. At very least it's more natural to dodge attacks in such a style than top down. Also I like how some previews complained about enemy variety and the next day they push out a patch that adds more enemies in response.
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Universal Access can be found under System Preferences
(05-02-2012, 12:33 AM)
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#66
This game is great (soundtrack is great too - I was feeling some Faxanadu, Battle of Olympus and Guardian Legend), I've already put over 20 hours into it. It can seem very repetitive with lots of useless space at first until you know what you're doing. The tips are all within the game (the in game encyclopedia is awesome) but I'll sum a few things up.
Mainly, don't search EVERYTHING; the bulk of the environment is procedurally generated, so you're going to waste a lot of time until you learn what you're after and what's in these biomes. On the bright side, the time I wasted learning never felt boring. Make use of the plethora of warp gates to fast travel to places you've already been. Double tap a direction to run at the speed of light. Things don't have to move slow here! Unlockables are big in this game. Enemy variety seems lacking until you realize killing X of one enemy unlocks another type, and that may unlock another etc. Components for advanced spells and other materials are unlocked. Mission types are unlocked. The more enchants you find, the more powerful subsequent enchants you find become. Leveling up your continent changes things, unlocks things. Defeating a continent unlocks things, changes things and opens up a new, larger & more difficult continent. Some biomes among other things aren't available until you've defeated one or more continents. Of course you never really beat it, which is the great thing. Once you defeat a continent you can still explore it, keep building your settlement and spells, finding enchants etc. But all spell & building materials are exclusive to a continent. When you sail to your new continent (effectively new game+ without having to leave your old one behind) you have to build up your settlement, population and spell arsenal all over again, but you get to keep your enchants, character attributes, some inventory like wooden platforms/crates, skill stones etc. So you may as well travel on to where there are new biomes, greater difficulty and greater rewards. Difficulty, that's another thing. Very scalable but very punishing even in the middle. You will die but the only thing you lose is personal stat upgrades, which are easy to replace on a new settler in your colony. You can change difficulty in your settlement at any time to make sure you're being challenged, that you are forced to upgrade your spells and remember enemy element types to survive the current/next tier. You can also stroll along but I can attest it will bore you quickly. Going by AI Wars I expect updates and expansions to be rolling out, and this game has a lot of potential. My main complaint as of now is that enemies do not drop anything (and bosses only drop skill stones). There is no dropped "loot" so to speak and no longer a reason to kill enemies once they stop unlocking things. Some rare drops and/or enemies would help a lot. Achievements are in, there are a lot of them, and they're good.
Last edited by xelios; 05-02-2012 at 12:46 AM.
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