So I've had this window open for a while, and every time I try to write down my thoughts I go back and play for a little while longer. But now I find myself with the time and motivation to properly write down a few thoughts.
I bought the game already, same as I bought Tidalis the moment it became available, same as I bought every AIWar expansion as soon as it became available. I don't mean this in a bragging way, but just to buffer my later comments with an aegis of "I really sincerely like Arcen."
So after many hours, I just had my first crash. Not even crash, but when I killed the ghost of a previous character, I was given the notification that a serious error had occurred, etc, and after that it wouldn't even properly let me exit - neither to main menu nor OS. Arcen guys, let me know if there is a dump or log you want. Anyways, in no particular order as I'm currently incapable of doing much other than stream-of-thought about the game:
But anyway, here's my thoughts after taking my Civ to Level 10, and wandering around:
-STRIKE A POSE needs to go. In fact, I know you guys really want to focus less on character art and more on varying enemies and gameplay, a lot of the animation in this game are just...offputting. I recognize what you're doing, the art is actually very clean, very awesome, and super easy to look at - but the jump animation having what, 4 or 5 frames for the spin? Even that? The casting animation being about as solid as jazz hands. It just doesn't _look_ like a serious release and more of a "My first XNA game." I mean this critically in the sense that while you can get away with skimping on art in a gigantic mega-scale RTS game where most players are just staring at mini-icons anyways, this willl not work out to your favor when it comes to an action platformer where you have to concentrate on a single character. Your art is super detailed, super crisp, etc - but the animations need more frames, more varied animations, and more work. Otherwise you _will_ turn away potential customers by looking like a crappy XBox Live Arcade project.
-I don't even understand the resource system. Put things together and make sense. The Settlement/Strat view might say I have 115 Granite when my character is packing around 15 in inventory. Unify these numbers and make them attainable more obviously. Trees are easy: spend Strat Turns having people cut down lumber - maybe offer rock deposits as well?
-More variety in early game. I say this fully cognizant than we're discussing an early-beta project that is still growing. I say this knowing that it'll likely get another path tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after. But after spending quite a few hours yesterday and today with AVWW, I need more bosses and more variety. A huge portion of my time has been spent either 1) Going after Rare Resource Towers only to fight either the blue blob or the big robot repeatedly to the top - or 2) diving deep into caves, only to spam a single spell and burn down darkness-bats. More bosses will drastically increase the replayability of the game as well as the "oh crap I want to see more" factor.
-Fill in more Craftable recipes, obviously
-Along with that, a way to harm opponents that doesn't necessarily pull from MP. Being able to craft some sort of weaponry that doesn't touch MP would be a great way to add variety to the game and actually distinguish various character options. Right now I've mostly had success with: build for Magic Power and nuke stuff before it can hurt me.
-There needs to be more general direction about where to go to get things you want. Cedar Forests are almost redundant since nuking entire screens of trees will provide you with wood, but the same doesn't go for Granite, where you might see Granite stuff on map but you get there and it's not like there are exactly just screens of granite deposits to harvest.
-More spell variation. LOTS of spell variation. I've made my way to Civ Level 10 just by using Forest Rage(sp,name?) on every normal enemy and Energy Pulse(again, name?) on bosses. Ultimately, though, it's all just stuff I shoot and the reason i use these tow is because fireball has less damage than rage, and no real obvious extra effects that make it's slight decrease in power balanced against the sheer extra damage.
That's most of my quick notes. Most of the general balance/design tweaks should be filed under "nice to have" and genuinely, I'd like to see the art touched up. I'll play it regardless, hell you already have my purchase, but ultimately I fear that if you throw the current state of the art & animation onto Steam or any other distribution method you're going to turn away tons of potential customers sheerly through force of "that looks like a sort or crappy beginner project." The art itself is solid, but more frames, more varied animation, and less BUST A MOVE for activating spells.
Ultimately, I love this game, as I did with a number of AIWar expansions I adore the fact that pre-purchasing allows me to goof around with daily builds before the official release, because I've been anxiously awaiting this game for months. I do hope that the Arcen staff doesn't take these comments personally but rather as constructive criticism aimed towards helping them release a product that will aid them in continuing to be able to support this, and their previous games, long into the future.
