Jon Shafer's At the Gates

Jon Shafer's At the Gates

clayffo 7 May, 2019 @ 4:47pm
bugs and comments V1.0.1.3
So i've finally ,after about 6 games, been able to overcome the crushing food issues and make it past turn 50. I'm at turn 209 currently and will amend this post with more issues as i play through. I"m playing the group game

bugs:

- there is an intermitent bug where training clans will stop training for no apparent reason

- capturing other players is somewhat odd now. if you cap a camp, you gain temporary control over the territory. If you dig in on the camp you maintain control , however, you cannot pillage them. if you leave the camp, you can pillage, but you lose control area. This means you cap them, build on their land, then release for pillaging. This needs to be worked out some more

- the diggers and architech skills on the clan management screen are not formatted correctly on the screen

- AI can declare war on you and then some turns later request an alliance. There are no in between conversations or negotiations required

- pillaged assets still retain their control area. no way to capture or clear them

- the explorer does not appear to have a significant movement boost. i was expecting a lot more movement considering the movement increase for the surveyor.

- roman gifts of 40 gold do not appear to register

- the disable substitution for food button does not appear to work properly. I ran out of pigs and sheep for the butcher and it started using the horses. also, the parchment maker also started using horses at the same time.

- architect does not double trading posts as advertised. it seems to work on the other items

- briner still does not appear to work. i had no appreciable gain in food, even though i was making +747 before the briner and about the same now (some loss due to adding clans)

- adventurous and easily cold should not be paired together


gameplay issues:

- The first 100 turns is all about food. adding a 50% mulitplier to food (.2 to .3) created a scenario where success is as much RNG as it is good play. Fishing is really the only play now if you want to survive. increasing wood structures to 50 wood makes farming out and hunting is not consistent enough.

- the second 100 turns is all about pillaging the s*hit out of as many AIs as you can. with all the food commitment, there just aren't people to do what you want. you need to buy from the caravan.

- talking caravan, what's up with the cloth being so expensive??? 16g each?

- fine cloth 50g each? wow cmon man that's absurd

- cooper should be moved to a 2nd tier skill and be reduced to a wood requirement. it's a great skill, but by the time you're making boards, you've moved on to fishing as your primary food system.

- the game was just too slow before. now with this food nerf, well it's going to take a while. i'm on turn 209 and i'm not even considering attacking the romans. i have a couple spearmen and I just recently got my food really under control.

- I have found that it is not to my benefit to grow the village. I did not increase my clans past 12 for the first 100 turns for the simple reason that i could not afford the food cost. at turn 209 i am still at only 20 clans. I expect over the next 30 turns to greatly expand as the food issues is resolved permanently (+747 food / turn).

- a previous strategy of mine was to use the watchmen to gain and lose territory as needed to build. now that their cost has been increased, it's not such a good strategy. it's best to cap and hold AI assets (not abandon them) until you have built what you want.

- i would really like to see some more automation. here are a few examples:
1. auto pillage
2. auto camp (if not selected) for clans in the snow with no supplies
3. besiege stops if the units will start taking damage due to supply shortages

- the caravan feels very unsatisfying now. it feels like there should be another upgrade with more and better stuff. also on the highest level there is a real shortage of animals and food available for sale. it didn't use to be this way

- i find the nerf to boosting characters to be very unsatisfying. For example, i want to train a patron with a new recruit. i can enoble her, but it's 11 turns to train. I never actually got around to training a bard, as i described above, because the early game penalizes you so severely with food.

- there's a tier upgrading missing for cloth. there's a master block cutter, but not a master tailor?

- clans traveling on a galley have to hit "encamp" every turn. they should encamp by default unless the player chooses otherwise
*** apparently if you encamp on a boat, it doesn't take so the clan takes damage every turn

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1735769387



Last edited by clayffo; 8 May, 2019 @ 4:01pm
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clayffo 8 May, 2019 @ 1:09pm 
so i'm up to 420 turns. 65k gold, 500k food. the romans turned out to be in the southwest side of the group game map, which is quite a boat trip from me. i could play it through another 200 or so turns, but it's all about clicking at this point . all the AIs are down and i have unlimited resources.

a few closing remarks on this build:
- the start of the game is VERY HARD but it unfortunately folds like a cheap suit after 150
or so turns . There needs to be a phase 2, kingdom, and phase 3 attack rome with equal challenges to the survival phase.
- food and resources are still broken just differently than before. a more comprehensive review needs to be done on this
- there needs to be a reason to declare a kingdom. i still see it as a disadvantage
- the game is even longer and more arduous than before. the attempts to shorten the game have been counter-productive such as limiting clan growth/recruitment, eliminating boosting, adjusting food, and limiting access to high end resources, such as heavy armor, fine cloth, and even regular cloth.

Last edited by clayffo; 8 May, 2019 @ 10:43pm
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