Post by Gmr Leon on Feb 3, 2016 23:57:32 GMT
Since I have no idea if we're going for multiple separate threads or not, but it looks like we are, I decided to toss together mine.
For other users' here's Undeadoverpromise's thread & Crumpy Six's thread.
Those mentioned, here begin my thoughts.
Starting the game...
Holy crap why are there two more windows, what monstrosity have you wrought 22cans?! Oh whatever.
..."Hello network permissions, please?" what. uh, okay. Back to game.
Okay, that's a niftier start menu than ever before (helps to literally be the first one ever, I suppose?).
Let's check the real menu though...It's about the same. Save slots though!
Switching back and forth between full screen is still a little finicky. (And the game still chugs a little with many units on-screen. Tried to catch this better, as it dipped into 16 FPS territory.)
Entering the first battle....
omg it's making me learn basic RTS
Entering the second battle...
okay thank goodness that's over. this is...still not too challenging. it's alright.
Several battles later...
oh wait, there was another tutorial map? wait that's how I form armies?! drag banners on top of each other? lol shift+click pro strats taught me ahead of time. wait wasn't I supposed to get cards?
Reviewing the cards...
are all the cards I can get consumable?! (btw your god dude likes to talk to himself for whatever reason)
One more fight...
Hey I got another persistent card! I think!
Reviewing the battles...
Y'know, the enemy's yet to really sculpt for themselves excessively...Why else would they let me do this?
So, yeah. There's all that, but the little globe and the overarching battle map are pretty spiffy, I gotta admit.
The combat, at least so far, isn't significantly distinct from the old prototypes. You'll still want the high ground to deal the best damage, but now for some reason the forests don't provide any stealth or cover, unless that's been stuffed away into an unlockable card or something. There may be a slight difference in that you actually want to right click the banner to attack, which I believe the game tells you right away, but my more basic RTS instincts neglected to remember until a few battles later.
Belief is autocollected and no matter what, followers will automatically build structures, which doesn't feel nearly as unwieldy as one might expect. Sculpting is still somewhat tedious, and for whatever reason multilayer sculpting remains disabled from the start, same with digging down or raising hills, which adds to that tedium a fair amount.
Half belief from abodes is by far the worst random rule the game can throw into effect, as it brings back some flashbacks to the old Godus, especially since sculpting still costs belief. Ordinarily you don't notice it that much unless you excessively sculpt in this version of the game, but halved belief makes normal sculpting feel excessive again, which sucks incredibly.
The RNG stickers have been replaced with much milder RNGish card rewards, which feel significantly better than the old stickers as they confer more direct uses, sort of. The problem so far with them seems to be what I mention above, it felt like in my experience you had a much higher chance of grabbing a consumable bonus card (which it doesn't tell you is consumable, so far as I recall) than a persistent utility/buff card.
Still, it offers some basic reason to go after the rest of the maps on an island/continent instead of diving straight against the main enemy once you've enough keys, especially considering that you may find that they have some buff cards that may make their troops better. Although, in my experience, the AI didn't seem to know how to use them effectively, making them more or less like the previous armies I'd faced, which was slightly disappointing, but frankly unsurprising.
Overall Impression:
While it honestly doesn't take much to improve on what was there before, Godus Wars represents a far better foundation than Godus has ever had before. A few users may look back to version 1.4 fondly, which is kind of hilarious as it looked so blatantly alpha in its absence of focus and polish, but this probably represents the new version 1.4, or what it should have been as they shoved it on to Steam. The gameplay loop is far, far tighter here than ever before.
Fight, get keys/cards, fight again, gather enough keys until you can get to new conquest areas, enough cards so you feel confident facing the continent boss, and then move on to the next until you're supreme god. At least, that's the sense I've gotten so far, whether or not all the other continents are actually functional or not*, I dunno, but if they are, it'll be the first time 22cans has ever had not only a somewhat tight gameplay loop but also one woven into a proper, if rudimentary, campaign.
Which is really the sadly remarkable part about Godus Wars. It's the closest this whole project has ever come to finding how it wants itself to play, and has a roughly outlined progression system and campaign of sorts. Is it overly barebones for a project this long in development? Absolutely. Does it at least feel a little fun for a change, though? Yes, and with some refinement, this could become a proper RTS of sorts, maybe, if it's willing to bear a little more complexity.
*Shortly after writing this, I saw where apparently only the first continent is available and the second is supposed to be a premium addon of some kind. That sounds very much like paid for DLC, which is incredibly nuts if actually the case. If it happens that Godus Wars seeks to be a piecemeal conquer the world experience with each continent requiring payment, I cannot see this being a successful venture in the least until the gameplay is thoroughly improved.
For other users' here's Undeadoverpromise's thread & Crumpy Six's thread.
Those mentioned, here begin my thoughts.
Starting the game...
Holy crap why are there two more windows, what monstrosity have you wrought 22cans?! Oh whatever.
..."Hello network permissions, please?" what. uh, okay. Back to game.
Okay, that's a niftier start menu than ever before (helps to literally be the first one ever, I suppose?).
Let's check the real menu though...It's about the same. Save slots though!
Switching back and forth between full screen is still a little finicky. (And the game still chugs a little with many units on-screen. Tried to catch this better, as it dipped into 16 FPS territory.)
Entering the first battle....
omg it's making me learn basic RTS
Entering the second battle...
okay thank goodness that's over. this is...still not too challenging. it's alright.
Several battles later...
oh wait, there was another tutorial map? wait that's how I form armies?! drag banners on top of each other? lol shift+click pro strats taught me ahead of time. wait wasn't I supposed to get cards?
Reviewing the cards...
are all the cards I can get consumable?! (btw your god dude likes to talk to himself for whatever reason)
One more fight...
Hey I got another persistent card! I think!
Reviewing the battles...
Y'know, the enemy's yet to really sculpt for themselves excessively...Why else would they let me do this?
So, yeah. There's all that, but the little globe and the overarching battle map are pretty spiffy, I gotta admit.
The combat, at least so far, isn't significantly distinct from the old prototypes. You'll still want the high ground to deal the best damage, but now for some reason the forests don't provide any stealth or cover, unless that's been stuffed away into an unlockable card or something. There may be a slight difference in that you actually want to right click the banner to attack, which I believe the game tells you right away, but my more basic RTS instincts neglected to remember until a few battles later.
Belief is autocollected and no matter what, followers will automatically build structures, which doesn't feel nearly as unwieldy as one might expect. Sculpting is still somewhat tedious, and for whatever reason multilayer sculpting remains disabled from the start, same with digging down or raising hills, which adds to that tedium a fair amount.
Half belief from abodes is by far the worst random rule the game can throw into effect, as it brings back some flashbacks to the old Godus, especially since sculpting still costs belief. Ordinarily you don't notice it that much unless you excessively sculpt in this version of the game, but halved belief makes normal sculpting feel excessive again, which sucks incredibly.
The RNG stickers have been replaced with much milder RNGish card rewards, which feel significantly better than the old stickers as they confer more direct uses, sort of. The problem so far with them seems to be what I mention above, it felt like in my experience you had a much higher chance of grabbing a consumable bonus card (which it doesn't tell you is consumable, so far as I recall) than a persistent utility/buff card.
Still, it offers some basic reason to go after the rest of the maps on an island/continent instead of diving straight against the main enemy once you've enough keys, especially considering that you may find that they have some buff cards that may make their troops better. Although, in my experience, the AI didn't seem to know how to use them effectively, making them more or less like the previous armies I'd faced, which was slightly disappointing, but frankly unsurprising.
Overall Impression:
While it honestly doesn't take much to improve on what was there before, Godus Wars represents a far better foundation than Godus has ever had before. A few users may look back to version 1.4 fondly, which is kind of hilarious as it looked so blatantly alpha in its absence of focus and polish, but this probably represents the new version 1.4, or what it should have been as they shoved it on to Steam. The gameplay loop is far, far tighter here than ever before.
Fight, get keys/cards, fight again, gather enough keys until you can get to new conquest areas, enough cards so you feel confident facing the continent boss, and then move on to the next until you're supreme god. At least, that's the sense I've gotten so far, whether or not all the other continents are actually functional or not*, I dunno, but if they are, it'll be the first time 22cans has ever had not only a somewhat tight gameplay loop but also one woven into a proper, if rudimentary, campaign.
Which is really the sadly remarkable part about Godus Wars. It's the closest this whole project has ever come to finding how it wants itself to play, and has a roughly outlined progression system and campaign of sorts. Is it overly barebones for a project this long in development? Absolutely. Does it at least feel a little fun for a change, though? Yes, and with some refinement, this could become a proper RTS of sorts, maybe, if it's willing to bear a little more complexity.
*Shortly after writing this, I saw where apparently only the first continent is available and the second is supposed to be a premium addon of some kind. That sounds very much like paid for DLC, which is incredibly nuts if actually the case. If it happens that Godus Wars seeks to be a piecemeal conquer the world experience with each continent requiring payment, I cannot see this being a successful venture in the least until the gameplay is thoroughly improved.
