Misery's annual unpleasant feedback thread

[ptarth]

• Misery's Problems
• Early game is boring.
• There is no early game pressure from anything.
• There is no point to exploring because there isn't sufficient gains to do so.

Suggestions
1. Add pressure from environment, see: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,17586.0.html
2. Add increase Other AI Race involvement, see Chris working an AI soon.
3. Add exploration and expansion aspect detailed below.


Exploration and Expansion Enhancement
By making the terrain matter, we can get the player to expand outwards and then be attacked by the AI Races and AI Monsters.

New Buildings
Fish Boat - Produce X units of food when placed on water. Grants 17% fishing adjacency bonus to adjacent fishing boats. Grants 17% Crown bonus to adjacent Fishing Harvest Center.
Fishing Harvest Center - Produce Y Crowns. Grants adjacent fishing boats 25% food production.

Mining Rig - Produce X Crowns. When placed on rugged terrain +25% income. When placed on mountain terrain +50% income. Grants 17% Income increase to adjacent Mining Center. Grants 17% income increase to adjacent mining rigs.
Mining Center - Produces Y Crowns. Grants 25% Crown bonus to adjacent Factories.

Lumber Camp - Produces Y Crowns. Can only be placed on Forest or Jungle. If terrain is changed to nonForest/Jungle, income drops to 0 or build self-destructs. Grants 17% income increase to adjacent Lumber Mill. Grants 17% income increase to adjacent Lumber Camps.
Lumber Mill - Produces Z Crowns. Grants 17% increase to adjacent Lumber Camps. Grant 17% income increase to adjacent Factories.

Additional Changes
Drop income from banks an other sources.

Results
Terrain now matters. Factories suddenly become very good economic producers. Factories crown income is boosted by resource produces which in turn are boosted by the raw resource buildings. As a freebie we also now have some reason for having ocean holdings. (We'd like to have some house boats and restaurant boats, but that is a larger project.)

Because terrain matters, we now have motivation to scout and spread out. Because we spread out we get attacked.

[nas1m]

Exploration and Expansion Enhancement
By making the terrain matter, we can get the player to expand outwards and then be attacked by the AI Races and AI Monsters.

New Buildings
Fish Boat - Produce X units of food when placed on water. Grants 17% fishing adjacency bonus to adjacent fishing boats. Grants 17% Crown bonus to adjacent Fishing Harvest Center.
Fishing Harvest Center - Produce Y Crowns. Grants adjacent fishing boats 25% food production.

Mining Rig - Produce X Crowns. When placed on rugged terrain +25% income. When placed on mountain terrain +50% income. Grants 17% Income increase to adjacent Mining Center. Grants 17% income increase to adjacent mining rigs.
Mining Center - Produces Y Crowns. Grants 25% Crown bonus to adjacent Factories.

Lumber Camp - Produces Y Crowns. Can only be placed on Forest or Jungle. If terrain is changed to nonForest/Jungle, income drops to 0 or build self-destructs. Grants 17% income increase to adjacent Lumber Mill. Grants 17% income increase to adjacent Lumber Camps.
Lumber Mill - Produces Z Crowns. Grants 17% increase to adjacent Lumber Camps. Grant 17% income increase to adjacent Factories.

Additional Changes
Drop income from banks an other sources.

Results
Terrain now matters. Factories suddenly become very good economic producers. Factories crown income is boosted by resource produces which in turn are boosted by the raw resource buildings. As a freebie we also now have some reason for having ocean holdings. (We'd like to have some house boats and restaurant boats, but that is a larger project.)

Because terrain matters, we now have motivation to scout and spread out. Because we spread out we get attacked.

So in a nutshell: Use the actual terrain for (raw) resources to facilitate expansion/exploration? Not a bad idea - at all.

As an extension raw resource gathering could be made in a way that "exhausts" e.g. forest tiles after a while, maybe even leading to declining rewards over time in the meantime.

Once the tile is exhausted the lumber camp could automatically be destroyed/disassembled and the respective made in grass/wasteland - possibly until it regrows (would add a changing element to the appearance of the world).
This again could be interesting - I think there are already systems in place to do something similar with regard to ice/jungle due to climatic changes.

OT: Might do the game some good to lower the thresholds for actually changing the landscape based on the current climate - might be interesting/engaging to see the world change more rapidly around the player (and potentially force player actions to adapt)...

[crazyroosterman]

I love these ideas although personally I would prefer for this game to not get to pressuring/stressful I personally like games like this and civ 5 because I can play them while listening to things in the background not that I'm saying these ideas would do that.

[Misery]

I love these ideas although personally I would prefer for this game to not get to pressuring/stressful I personally like games like this and civ 5 because I can play them while listening to things in the background not that I'm saying these ideas would do that.

Yeah, I'm not wanting it to become totally loopy here or something (unless difficulty settings are able to be put that way, and knowing Arcen, they will be).  I'm looking for it to be engaging in the usual way that a 4x or strategy game should be, rather than being stressful and such.  Right from the very beginning.

The last thing I want for the game is, well, there was a quote someone said once relating to World of Warcraft years ago:  "The REAL fun starts at level 60!".   To which I say.... well... I'd rather the real fun start RIGHT NOW....   and I guess that's the sort of feeling the game was giving me along that other stuff.  Like, hey, there's some pretty cool stuff in here.... but you need to go X number of turns to get there.  I really hate it when games do that.  Fortunately Arcen's titles typically do not have this problem once they're finished.  Or at least, I've never thought they had such an issue.