Hi, a few thoughts

[Mangudai]

Hi,

Great game!  Developers you should be proud.  Thank you.  The graphics are absolutely great! The units and tech trees are original.  This game demonstrates a lot of creativity.


A few gameplay issues could be improved.  I look forward to more content, like new factions being added.  It would be fun to play with all the stereotype fantasy units (paladins, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc), however the originality of this game is one of the best things going for it, so maybe not.

A few extra hotkeys would be very useful.

n - next unit
ctrl n - next unit of the same type
i - idle worker/initiate

Regarding units, the archmage seems horribly underpowered.  He has so little HP that he dies almost instantly.  I think he should have 1000 HP.  I'm not sure if the attack affects a group of enemies or hits moving targets.  If it doesn't, then it should.  For the money it seems like getting a few extra battlemages is the way to go.

Archer's should have an advancement.  It could transform into a Ranger with higher stats.

Workers should have a base attack.  Nothing special, just a range 1 axe that does about 3/5 as much damage as a swordsman or demon.

Magic faction should have a defensive building of some sort.

The AI is OK with its armies, but really stupid about buildings.  The AI should build castles near new gold piles.  The AI should also tower up near its resource collection points.

Towers should be cheaper and weaker.

I medium AI, slightly less than ultra, would be nice.

Workers can use tech centers or summonor's guilds as resource drop off points.  But, it seems like only the worker who built it will use it.  Other resource collectors will walk to the nearest castle/mage tower regardless.

It should be easier to task multiple worker to build a building.  Currently you must re-order workers to assist after the first one lays the buildings footprint..


Overall through excellent work!

[RainCT]

Great ideas

Magic faction should have a defensive building of some sort.

Magic faction has a tower (I don't remember the name) for air defense and the Golem to kill normal units.

[Mangudai]

Magic faction has a tower (I don't remember the name) for air defense and the Golem to kill normal units.

How do I get those.  I don't see them in 1.2.2

[RainCT]

Magic faction has a tower (I don't remember the name) for air defense and the Golem to kill normal units.

How do I get those.  I don't see them in 1.2.2

They are on 2.0 RC

[Mangudai]

I downloaded 2.0.  The golem is pretty cool.  But, I don't see any magic buildings with an attack.

Also, what does "ritual" do?  Nothing as far as I can tell.

[tucho]

the golem is like a defensive building because he can't move too much. The ritual is a initiate ability for build the tower of souls (anti-air building), the golem and the wicker daemon, necessary for sumon the daemon giant.

[RainCT]

I downloaded 2.0.  The golem is pretty cool.  But, I don't see any magic buildings with an attack.

Also, what does "ritual" do?  Nothing as far as I can tell.

Ritual is to make Golems, the other monster and air-defense towers.

[Mangudai]

Thanks, I figured it out.

Top 5 high powered units

1.  Golem -- freaking awesome!
2.  Battlemages  -- still awesome
3.  Demon -- now very cheap at 50 gold
4.  Horseman
5.  Flying units -- all of them are decent.


5 Low power units

1.  Swordsmen -- too expensive compared to demons
2.  Worker -- defenseless
3.  Daemon giant -- very expenive, weak vs ranged
4.  Summoner -- not worth risking in combat
5.  Drake rider

[peterkgiesbrecht]

Mangudai, i disagree with u about some units.

Swordsman is expensive compared to daemons, BUT they have upgrades! With full upgrades, they eat daemons at dinner, breakfast, lunch...

Drake rider is expensive as hell, but excelent for worker killing. Just enter enemy base, kill some workers and go away without loosing any drakes.

Daemon giants are not so expensive, cause u dont need so much wood with magic. At middle/late game u have tons of wood. Start creating wicked daemons. And then convert then to daemons giant. Daemons giant with archmages kill almost everything.

About summoners, i agree that they suck in combat. But i always use them in an attack. Just stop them in front of enemy base and start pumping daemons. I usually use 3-4 summoners. Its like almost instant reinforcements.

Now, one hotkey that really miss in this game is "attack" (hotkey). Because selecting various groups and needing to set attack with mouse and them set the point to attack-move is too slow.

[Mangudai]

I still don't quite agree about demon giants.  The wicker demon costs 200 wood, late in the game magic can afford to use these as walls. However to transform the wicker demon into a giant costs 300 gold.  They are good against horsemen and armored swordsmen, but they die very quickly.

Drakes might be good for raiding early in the game.  But once dragon call has been researched the flying dragons are much better.  The horseman is considerably better than a drake rider.

[martiño]

I still don't quite agree about demon giants.  The wicker demon costs 200 wood, late in the game magic can afford to use these as walls. However to transform the wicker demon into a giant costs 300 gold.  They are good against horsemen and armored swordsmen, but they die very quickly.

Drakes might be good for raiding early in the game.  But once dragon call has been researched the flying dragons are much better.  The horseman is considerably better than a drake rider.

I want to say that I find this topic really interesting, because balance is one of our priorities for the game.

We are making a lot of balance changes to the game in 2.0 RCs:

- We will upgrade HP for every unit about 40-50%, to make battles last longer.
- With rc4 all ranged units became more powerfull because they miss less against moving units. Slow units will become less powerfull becuase they will get hit more.
- We tweaked some unit prices and attacks.
- We really want to make Magic melee units weak, to encourage a more complex and difficult play style.
- The battlemage is really one of the most effective units in game, we love that, they are supposed to be the core of the Magic armies in the same way as the Barracks units are for Tech.

We will release 2.0.0 soon (maybe this week-end), and we will start a proper balancing of the game in versions 2.0.X, I hope you all join the discussion.

Martino.

[Mangudai]

I want to say that I find this topic really interesting, because balance is one of our priorities for the game.

- We really want to make Magic melee units weak, to encourage a more complex and difficult play style. - The battlemage is really one of the most effective units in game, we love that, they are supposed to be the core of the Magic armies in the same way as the Barracks units are for Tech.

Thanks.  I appreciate your posts.

Did the battlemage just go up in price? 100-125.  

Magic branch has a lot of units that are overpriced compared to their own units.  The dragon costs 300 gold.  A dragon is a lot better than a demon giant.  The wicker demon doesn't make good walls.  The enemy can destroy them in about 2.2 seconds.  Golem is very strong and a good value.  Magic armor is not so good considering the amount of gold it costs.  Demon swarming can be effective but its suicide against a strong tech army.  I think melee is pretty much a bad idea with magic faction.  Therefore golems are the front line troops.  Golems can engage dozens of archers because they have stone skin.  Battlemages can blast any swordsmen who attack the golem.  I also use buildings like energy supplies to trick enemy swordsmen.  On attack, the dragon is the best.  Demons are good for counterattacking, after the enemy loses most swordsmen/horse.  

Tech can actually use all its basic troop types well.  The CPU ultra uses technology, but I always do better using only upgraded troops.  
Workers need help.  I think they should upgrade to swordsmen for 25 wood, or archers for 25g 50w.  The towers are strong, and even stronger with a farm or barracks in front to confuse the AI.  However towers are high up on the tech tree and cost a lot of resources.  Tech has an appetite for wood at all times.  

It would be better if all buildings were cheaper, and more buildings had defensive qualities.  Right now it is a serious undertaking to build another colony.