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Author Topic: Songs of Conquest  (Read 20224 times)

Huw the Poo

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Reply #75 on: May 20, 2022, 04:50:22 PM
Oh FINE I've bought it.  >:(

Impressions to follow some time this weekend....



bob48

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Reply #76 on: May 20, 2022, 04:52:09 PM
Tsk!

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Undercovergeek

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Reply #77 on: May 20, 2022, 04:54:12 PM
 ;D ;D



Huw the Poo

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Reply #78 on: May 20, 2022, 05:08:08 PM
Streaming on the discord for a little bit if anyone's interested.



Undercovergeek

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Reply #79 on: May 20, 2022, 05:41:41 PM
At work but have fun buddy



Huw the Poo

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Reply #80 on: May 21, 2022, 11:17:14 AM
OK just some random thoughts then. The obvious point is that this is very much HOMM. On the strategic map it plays pretty much exactly the same; move troops to your wielders (hero units), then move them around the map, limited by movement points each turn, to pick up sacks of random goods and claim buildings that give a steady income of this and that. There are even lookout towers, XP towers, and sites that confer temporary movement buffs. So far, so HOMM.

The main difference is the magic system. Rather than generating mana or anything like that, your spells depend on various colours of essence which is generated at the start of each troop's turn and only in battle. This is crucial, because it encourages splitting your troops up so that you get more essence in a battle. The obvious negative, though, is that smaller troop sizes means they're more likely to be killed.

I'm not sure I prefer this change yet. It does take some stress out of the strategic layer - it's one less resource to worry about after all - and it makes your troops more important to you. But it also means that shorter battles are won before you even get time to generate the essence needed to cast the cooler spells. I definitely need more time to evaluate it before I come to any conclusions though.

One of the best things about the game is the presentation. You wouldn't think it was in early access. With the exception of the occasional typo the game is very highly polished. No bugs, graphical artifacts or anything. Music is generic but pleasant and sounds are fine. This is a game that looks a lot better in motion than in screenshots, I really cannot emphasise that enough. The UI is snappy as hell too; everything is incredibly responsive, whether you're moving troops in a battle or selecting buildings to upgrade in your city.

Anyway I've only done the first campaign mission then about 30 turns of a skirmish map so I have to withhold judgement for the time being - but early impressions are extremely positive!



Sir Slash

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Reply #81 on: May 21, 2022, 11:23:24 AM
Great to hear Huw.  :applause:

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Gusington

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Reply #82 on: May 21, 2022, 12:13:26 PM
I...I never played HOMM...any of them. This game still looks like the beez neez to me, though.

Always do what you feel is best.


Martok

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Reply #83 on: May 24, 2022, 02:42:56 AM
OK just some random thoughts then. The obvious point is that this is very much HOMM. On the strategic map it plays pretty much exactly the same; move troops to your wielders (hero units), then move them around the map, limited by movement points each turn, to pick up sacks of random goods and claim buildings that give a steady income of this and that. There are even lookout towers, XP towers, and sites that confer temporary movement buffs. So far, so HOMM.

The main difference is the magic system. Rather than generating mana or anything like that, your spells depend on various colours of essence which is generated at the start of each troop's turn and only in battle. This is crucial, because it encourages splitting your troops up so that you get more essence in a battle. The obvious negative, though, is that smaller troop sizes means they're more likely to be killed.

I'm not sure I prefer this change yet. It does take some stress out of the strategic layer - it's one less resource to worry about after all - and it makes your troops more important to you. But it also means that shorter battles are won before you even get time to generate the essence needed to cast the cooler spells. I definitely need more time to evaluate it before I come to any conclusions though.

One of the best things about the game is the presentation. You wouldn't think it was in early access. With the exception of the occasional typo the game is very highly polished. No bugs, graphical artifacts or anything. Music is generic but pleasant and sounds are fine. This is a game that looks a lot better in motion than in screenshots, I really cannot emphasise that enough. The UI is snappy as hell too; everything is incredibly responsive, whether you're moving troops in a battle or selecting buildings to upgrade in your city.

Anyway I've only done the first campaign mission then about 30 turns of a skirmish map so I have to withhold judgement for the time being - but early impressions are extremely positive!

Awesome! 

Appreciate you sharing your initial impressions, Huw.  Looking forward to getting my hands on this more than ever now.  :dreamer: 



"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart

"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike


Huw the Poo

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Reply #84 on: May 24, 2022, 12:09:19 PM
I am continuing to play it actually so when I get a chance I'll post further impressions. Still recommended.  :bigthumb:



Martok

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Reply #85 on: May 25, 2022, 02:10:16 PM
Status update from the devs.  No roadmap yet, though they are working to improve multiplayer, including adding simultaneous turns. 







Also, they've added an up-vote page for new/requested features.  The top three are currently 1) more factions, 2) simultaneous turns in MP, and 3) random map generator. 

https://songsofconquest.featureupvote.com/




Lavapotion also outlined a list (not comprehensive) of planned/upcoming improvements: 

Spoiler: ShowHide
Quote

GAMEPLAY

Maps

    More skirmish maps will be added.

Spells

    DoT spells aren’t getting buffed by spell damage, they should.

    Spell damage stat affects more spells than it should (e.g. Arcane Push  Repel).

    Some spells that shouldn’t be affected by spell damage are affected by it.

Marketplaces

    Neutral marketplace for resources is planned for future updates.

    Neutral marketplace for buying and selling artifacts is planned for future updates.

Abilities and Traits

    Some troops that currently have either the “Wait” or “Defend” ability will later get a different ability. There are currently too many troops that have the wait ability.

Hotseat

    You can play hotseat with the Early Access build, but it’s not optimal to find at the moment. Go to Single Player, choose Skirmish, remove the AI players, add all the Human players you want by clicking Join. Happy hotseating!


AI

    AI currently only has Easy and Normal difficulties, we will add more difficulties in future updates.

    AI is not yet optimized for using portals so expect worse AI-performance and slower AI turns on maps with many portals.


UI and fontsizes

    We are looking at options for scaling the entire UI and options for scaling font sizes across the game.


Localisation

    Parts of the game are not localized and those parts will be displayed in English.

    As EA continues on and more content is added more things will not be localized at first..


Map Editor

    We are planning to do an UI/UX overhaul of the Map Editor. Because of this, it’s mainly unlocalized and does not have any tutorials.


Audio

    Baryan town building's sound effects are built out of recombining SFX layers of Arleon town buildings. Will be fixed in future updates.

    A few minor sound effects are missing.








"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart

"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike


Martok

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Reply #86 on: May 31, 2022, 02:12:44 AM
I absolutely love that Lavapotion is adding this feature:  Don't like the results of an auto-resolve?  You'll then have the option to manually fight it out yourself if you wish!  :D 







Such a brilliant idea in hindsight.  It made me immediately want all my strategy games with tactical battles to automatically include this feature, at least when I'm in singleplayer mode. 


« Last Edit: May 31, 2022, 02:16:59 AM by Martok »

"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart

"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike


Huw the Poo

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Reply #87 on: May 31, 2022, 05:30:19 AM
I took my first beating in this last night! I've been sweeping through my enemy's territory (playing a small skirmish map with an easy AI to learn the game), and I found his city. There was no wielder there and it was defended only by a small garrison, so I took it. However it takes three turns to fully occupy, and during that time one of their wielders brought a nasty army in. We put up a brave fight and whittled down his forces quite a lot but we were overcome in the end.

Nice touch - since we were defending a city, we had a lot more defensive positions than I was used to seeing, and they were better fortified too. Also, this is where one of my Creation spells came in handy; I was able to plug some bottlenecks by summoning impassable terrain. The ranged units were able to plink away at us though, and by this point I only had militia left who suck.

I think militia are really underpowered, but I guess they're probably supposed to be. They use crossbows, which aren't really much better than bows and they take a whole turn to reload. That really sucks in a game where units are really mobile on the battlefield.

Oh and to add insult to injury, the enemy captured all the cool wielder weapons I was carrying. So not only do I need to raise a new army, I need to acquire some good loot again!



Martok

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Reply #88 on: May 31, 2022, 05:53:07 AM
That's awesome, Huw.  :2thumbs: 

I've managed to hold off on getting SoC thus far, but only barely.  I'm pretty sure I'm a goner the moment the devs add a random generator.  This game is honestly looking fantastic in every way. 


"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart

"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike


Yskonyn

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Reply #89 on: June 05, 2022, 12:43:39 PM
Same here. Holding off for now, but barely.