Post by Gmr Leon on Oct 11, 2014 0:12:37 GMT
Without different balance, every old complaint remains the same, with a few new twists.
New balance concerns(?)
Verdant and rugged lands just encourage you to size one all mines/farms to maximize the quantity for unlocks, not wait till you get to the next patch of ground to put a few more down.
Much of the terrain past the lower levels is expensive to sculpt, much like it was in Homeworld, and without being able to use belief gathered from Homeworld, it makes it a tedious and frustrating effort, even with the provision of around 25k belief to work with.
With the intent of flooding these lower levels, it will also become frustrating as you will then be encouraged to fill in all the lower valleys, as depending on the implementation, these will likely flood just as well.
Timeline card sticker costs are still ridiculous, even with the unlock of Frontier Age Resources. By space age you're just going to have to make stickers one big splotch of the social/tech/settlement/voyage/faith resource icons tagged on the edges.
Reintroduced powers/power side-grades
Dig down wasn't changed...So why do we have to wait till Weyworld to get it? There's no good reason I can figure out.
Holy deserts is great, as a start, but its belief output is pretty pitiful, even if it may add up quickly with the sculpting of deserts. The problem with this modifier to our sculpting abilities is that, as has become standard practice in the design, we're heavily discouraged from remaining on sand by the better belief output of larger structures and now, flooding.
New voyages
Okay, this is probably the best part of the new update. Removing the map/puzzle timer constraint and instead associating rewards with the speed at which you solve the maps is great, and while the current UI is pretty ugly looking to me, it gets the job done in terms of relatively quickly conveying information.
The downside to these new voyages is that, unless I'm mistaken, you didn't lose followers after succeeding them in the past. Whereas with the new voyages, you're losing followers either way, from what I've observed. Unless we're actually settling these islands, personally, I don't think this should happen. Still, small improvements are being made on the voyages, now they just need more variety and the 'worlds need to be more compelling in themselves.
Aesthetics
Not much to say here, besides everything still looking pretty nice, as far as I'm concerned. Weyworld's a tad bland being a desert, but the creepy countryside is a fun little switch of the color palette back at Homeworld, even if it only lasts a week.
The Frontier Architecture looks a lot sharper than the old abodes, I think, but I'm mildly disappointed that the followers continue to look the same. I'm pretty sure there's not supposed to be a drastic change hitting Frontier Age in terms of fashion, maybe not now anyway, but it was mildly disappointing to say the least.
Speaking of mild disappointments, the fact that frontier architecture isn't available in Homeworld is unfortunate, and makes me wonder even more what the point in retaining the old worlds even is, besides Homeworld becoming a sacrificial grounds.
New powers
Speaking of things not applying retroactively, unless I'm mistaken as I've not unlocked it yet, Comet is unavailable in your powers list when returning to Homeworld. Not that you'd really need it there, but it further maintains the isolated nature of each of these worlds and lessens the feeling of persistence, instead making it feel like your typical level-based design.
Again, may not be a problem for some, but it kind of puts me off. It should be noted, though, that reintroduced abilities like dig down and the holy desert side-grade do carry over back into Homeworld. So it's just a strange mishmash of what does and doesn't do this.
Not much else comes to mind at the moment, but I may update this if I bother to continue drilling through Weyworld. For now, though, if you were considering it, I'd say don't bother. None of the problems we've highlighted have really been addressed in any significant ways, and as is typical, new problems are introduced.
New balance concerns(?)
Verdant and rugged lands just encourage you to size one all mines/farms to maximize the quantity for unlocks, not wait till you get to the next patch of ground to put a few more down.
Much of the terrain past the lower levels is expensive to sculpt, much like it was in Homeworld, and without being able to use belief gathered from Homeworld, it makes it a tedious and frustrating effort, even with the provision of around 25k belief to work with.
With the intent of flooding these lower levels, it will also become frustrating as you will then be encouraged to fill in all the lower valleys, as depending on the implementation, these will likely flood just as well.
Timeline card sticker costs are still ridiculous, even with the unlock of Frontier Age Resources. By space age you're just going to have to make stickers one big splotch of the social/tech/settlement/voyage/faith resource icons tagged on the edges.
Reintroduced powers/power side-grades
Dig down wasn't changed...So why do we have to wait till Weyworld to get it? There's no good reason I can figure out.
Holy deserts is great, as a start, but its belief output is pretty pitiful, even if it may add up quickly with the sculpting of deserts. The problem with this modifier to our sculpting abilities is that, as has become standard practice in the design, we're heavily discouraged from remaining on sand by the better belief output of larger structures and now, flooding.
New voyages
Okay, this is probably the best part of the new update. Removing the map/puzzle timer constraint and instead associating rewards with the speed at which you solve the maps is great, and while the current UI is pretty ugly looking to me, it gets the job done in terms of relatively quickly conveying information.
The downside to these new voyages is that, unless I'm mistaken, you didn't lose followers after succeeding them in the past. Whereas with the new voyages, you're losing followers either way, from what I've observed. Unless we're actually settling these islands, personally, I don't think this should happen. Still, small improvements are being made on the voyages, now they just need more variety and the 'worlds need to be more compelling in themselves.
Aesthetics
Not much to say here, besides everything still looking pretty nice, as far as I'm concerned. Weyworld's a tad bland being a desert, but the creepy countryside is a fun little switch of the color palette back at Homeworld, even if it only lasts a week.
The Frontier Architecture looks a lot sharper than the old abodes, I think, but I'm mildly disappointed that the followers continue to look the same. I'm pretty sure there's not supposed to be a drastic change hitting Frontier Age in terms of fashion, maybe not now anyway, but it was mildly disappointing to say the least.
Speaking of mild disappointments, the fact that frontier architecture isn't available in Homeworld is unfortunate, and makes me wonder even more what the point in retaining the old worlds even is, besides Homeworld becoming a sacrificial grounds.
New powers
Speaking of things not applying retroactively, unless I'm mistaken as I've not unlocked it yet, Comet is unavailable in your powers list when returning to Homeworld. Not that you'd really need it there, but it further maintains the isolated nature of each of these worlds and lessens the feeling of persistence, instead making it feel like your typical level-based design.
Again, may not be a problem for some, but it kind of puts me off. It should be noted, though, that reintroduced abilities like dig down and the holy desert side-grade do carry over back into Homeworld. So it's just a strange mishmash of what does and doesn't do this.
Not much else comes to mind at the moment, but I may update this if I bother to continue drilling through Weyworld. For now, though, if you were considering it, I'd say don't bother. None of the problems we've highlighted have really been addressed in any significant ways, and as is typical, new problems are introduced.
