[Alpha Feedback] Stream of Consciousness Impressions

[Mick]

I'm keeping a window open to post this as I play the game for the first time, so it's going to be pretty much my thoughts chronologically as I play. Sorry if things sound overly picky, I'm really just trying to throw out raw feedback here with little filter. So here goes...

Game started... read tutorial, sounds simple enough. You list some things that are going to be way expensive or whatever in the intro but I have no idea what that really means. I like that you give a suggestion to build a barracks.

I scroll around the map a bit. Pretty. I like the look, very clean.

Hover over some terrain tiles, and I don't like the time it takes the popup to appear. Typically in games where I get an option to set a tooltip delay, I move it to zero, or as close to zero as possible. Don't seem to have that option here. (note to self, add this to Mantis if it's not there already).

Hovering over the town tells me to check the tooltip on the sidebar for information on crime. I don't understand what this is telling me to do. I check various tooltips on the sidebar and try to grok as much as I can.

Some tooltips tell me that goods producers must be "local to this barracks" and I wonder what that means. Adjacent?

I try to be a dick and see if I can build each barracks next to the enemy base. Ahhh have to be so and so close. That makes sense. Would be nice if a range is shown.

I actually try to place the barracks onto grassland before figuring out they get placed into SPACE. Cool!

Start to think "holy crap I've barely read any of the tooltips and I haven't even palced the first building yet." (Not a criticism from me, I LOVE tooltips! Information baby!)

I place the barracks and then realize I forgot what the tutorial told me to do after that. I see that units apparently love bacon and see if I can do something about that.

I switch to windowed mode cause shelling back and forth to type is annoying me, and I find out that edge scrolling sucks in windows mode so I turn that off and am glad that I can.

I throw down pigs and a butcher. Find out that some buildings are "inner" buildings and some are "outer". I look around at the tooltips to see if they say which are which. They don't, but it seems straight forward. I end my turn cause I only get three actions.

See on end turn button that wasted actions earn me score. Neat.

I look at the keyboard controls on a whim and try scrolling with ASDW. It's way to slow.

I see that Greeks like bacon too so I give them the same buildings.

I don't want to UNDO, but I look around to see if it's an option. That blue curvy thing that says I don't have gods kinda has an icon that looks like it, but it's not.

Tutorial tells me tooltips are my friend. It is wrong; tooltips are my savior.

I learn that chapmen are needed to move stuff to towns, so I guess resources don't just magically teleport around. Cool. I wikipedia chapmen to find out if they are a real thing, they are!

"Don't stress"? I think you missed an opportunity there. "DON'T PANIC"!

I build a chapman because it told me to. That is no chapMAN. I tell Chrome spell check that chapman is a real word. I read so on Wikipedia.

Berserkers apparently need axes, so I build a smithy and an iron mine.

I decide to submit this post so computer gremlins don't eat it.

Continued...

[Mick]

Ekdromos (Ekdromoses? Ekdromosi?) need pikes. I'm glad the units aren't mirrored. They get a iron mine and a smithy too. And a chapman. Next turn!

Crime? Bandits? I can't think about that now, I can't even build one military dude yet! I read it anyway cause there's no going back.

Crime sounds like it's basically there to prevent you from not building military units. I wonder if you lose the game if the whole town is taken over.

Annnnnd, the TLDR sums up what I pretty much just said. I feel glad I'm on the right page.

I build a woodcutter and a carpenter for my zerkers. I look around for the brewery...

Can't find it, oh wait... "So the unlockable buildings are not yet unlockable.  That means that units who need ale, water flasks, or venison are currently not accessible to you." I feel dumb. I see that huscarls require a smelter so I build one of those instead.

I see that Ekdromos don't drink on the job so I throw down three of their required buildings. Suck it Norse!

Music seems very loud compared to the other sounds, even though I turned it down to like 25%.

Tutorial tells me not to panic stress again. I look at the bottom to see if there is a TLDR, but I guess I actually have to read it this time (I kid, I kid..)

Tooltips, didn't you already tell me about those?

It tells me to have at least one military building supported in every town. I briefly wonder to myself if a year or so from now people playing on uber-stupid-hard will be completely ignoring that advice and winning by doing something weird.

It tells me not to let people die and I wonder where those 10 populations come from. 10 from every town center? Does it grow? Help me tooltips, you're my only hope!

Dog needs to go outside, so I save my game and my post.

Continued...

[Mick]

Every non-drinking barracks unit on Norse can be built, so I look for something else to do.

I see something about embassies giving enlightenment. It sounds like something good to do. Can you have every town at full enlightenment? It seems against that whole "create war" thing, but I'm a bit fuzzy on the overall goal thing.

I decide to build an embassy anyway to see what happens. OMG I can't build a diplomat... oh, I can build units on top of buildings. Crisis averted. I have one turn left so I put a tower behind my town, although that seems silly cause it seems like something I'd want in front of the town, but that's where the empty space is. I hope the health boost is worth it.

Greeks get the same, but instead of a tower they build a ranch. The Norse note this as a small act of aggression. I wonder if the developers used to watch Stargate: Atlantis, because I'm reminded of the episode "The Game".

Another tutorial, I thought I was done! Alright then, lay your learning down on me.

I give the Norse a "School 1". Do two "School 1"'s do anything? It doesn't seem like the game prevents me from doing that. I not to myself that schools seem to be the only building that have a 1 and a 2. I hope the devs come up with a better way to distinguish them. I also give them a trade post and a trader, although it sounds like I'll need a second one. Will they trade between two posts in the same town?

Greeks get the same. God damn Greeks can't think for themselves.

Round 1.. It's time to get serious! Wait, is the Norse trader Asian?

I make it a goal to start building a new town for each faction, cause they gotta trade with themselves or something. I need stone. Quarry - mason - chapman (probably good idea to have more than one of these).

Greeks do the same.

Oh nice! You get to view all the moves individually! Love it!

Hmmm, 1x seems to go kinda fast. Also I guess I can't go backwards.

Ok, I need to get more serious about resources and chapman I think.

Continued...

[Mick]

I decide to throw down resource buildings and chapmen like they are going out of style.

I find that turning off auto-follow and turning on jump to units helps a lot because it won't jump immediately the playback ends and make it so I can't see what numbers are happening. I think they are better defaults.

Huscarl killed the diplomat, what a dick! (how do diplomats survive then?)

My chapmen don't seem to want to pick up wood, I look around to see if I can 'encourage' them to do so somehow.

I don't see a way so I just decide to build a ton of chapmen instead.

Woah, terrain tiles appear on their own? Interesting.

Ok I wish there was an auto-follow option that didn't jump to the next unit until I hit play... This needs to happen.

Apparently wood is very heavy. More chapmen, more!!!!

I have a summoned wood pile I put directly on my town that the greek chapmen still haven't picked up for some reason. That seems a bit weird.

Crime is building up a bit for the Norse. Why isn't the barracks building military? Do the chapmen block it?

Norse gets a new town with a trade post and a quarry. Let's see what trade does.

Greeks still can't get their logs on the town center. Some message about them already at destination pops up a lot. Probably a bug.

I feel like I'm throwing down buildings left and right here, and I love it.

I find that turning off auto-follow and holding down spacebar when I click play on each move is a nice work around, but I still wish there was an option for what I want.

I notice some chapmen overlap. They can be on the same tile but I can't choose to place a new one on the same tile? Overlap is a bug maybe? It does make it difficult to know how many you have on a tile.

Continued...

[Mick]

Norse town 2 (would be bad ass if towns got names and visible name plates over their heads, kinda like Civ), starts archer production. I try to figure out what archer units I can actually produce. Notice that town 1 barracks is still not pumping out any units.

Run a few more turns.

There should be a mini map. It'd be nice to click on a general area and jump there.

Only turn 10 so far, holy crap (I play slow I guess).

I'm still not getting any military on either side. How often should they be spawning? I'm swimming in the required resources.

I decide to take a break tonight.

I hope this has been helpful.