Our dreams are many, and when but one of us achieves theirs, we all benefit! Well rested on the ranger's private isle, we gain heightened reflexes in battle! The barbarian's armies grant us troops to bolster our reserves! The rogue's crew seek out new treasure for us all to partake in! Our fighter's castle gives us a place to hang our hats and sharpen our blades! Out mage's vast library grants us an infinite spring of knowledge worth a staggering... 10xp.
Thief REALLY needs a buff. All the other classes seem balanced, but thief is overly reliant on the highly unstable stealth system (Seriously, you think starting out with more than 30% chance to get detected on the stealthy character is a good idea?). Thieves really need to start with at least 3 base stealth to function. I have played thief around 10 times now, and simply can not pass level 3 of any act on hard or beyond. They completely lack the ability to fight a "fair" fight with even mooks, but even a sneak attack fails to kill them 80% of the time unless you are lucky enough to find a good weapon early on. Big stick helps, but I shouldn't absolutely need a perk just to make them viable.
For those of you confused by this game, it is better to think of it as a empire themed Cookie Clicker than a true empire game. You build up your kingdom for the sole purpose of further building up your kingdom, complete missions for the sake of getting more missions (with better rewards) to complete, and hire allies so they can be sold for a profit allowing you to buy better allies, which in turn allow you even greater plunders during Epic Battles (only the Value stat really matters).
As interesting as this game is shaping up to be, I found the tutorial to be seriously lacking. If it were not for a random clan invitation and some very helpful and experienced players, I would have quit in the first 10 minutes. For those just starting out, be aware that attack is really the only useful stat. Also be aware that when an ally is bought from you, you actually profit from it. Finally, be aware that soldiers and spies are NOT like energy. The number of troops you have is the number you use in battle. That means attacking with your full force will net you much better results than with a mere handful.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the game so far. The tutorial does throw you into the game pretty quickly and perhaps that's something we'll need to re-evaluate. We don't want to hold people's hands too much, but if they're starting the game without knowing what to do then there's definitely something we can improve.
When using a mixed warpgate set up, it would be nice if the pirates in your sector matched the level of the sector you are in, rather than the sector the gate leads to. It leads to having half a dozen capital ships in early zones and dinky recon units in higher leveled areas.
I think this game is an interesting experiment. Unfortunately, I see no other players logging on to play. The real issue seems to be that it is TOO fast pace, leading to even longer delves to taking only 30 minutes. As fun as I found the game my first couple of runs, I find continued play to be a little disheartening, knowing that the deepest depths would only be accessible by buying (rather over priced) soul gems to progress further solo as joining a party seems extremely unlikely.
Overall, I would say this game is great success. It achieves what it aims to achieve and is quite fun as a semi-idle game once you get properly equipped but also offers fairly decent action for those that desire it. If I were to change anything it would the way ships scale. Honestly, the only stat that matters on ships is how many slots they have for active equipment. The other stats are too small in comparison to what is available from passives to matter. If you were to change this, I would suggest adding passive slots to certain ships that can only be filled with specific gear types and that operate and only a percent efficiency. For example, the Interceptor and Infiltrators are essentially the same ship, with little to separate them when fully equipped. However, if each was given space for a second engine, the lower tier ship could have that second engine run at only 25% efficiency, where the higher tier ship could have its 2nd engine run at 50%.
Yeesh, found a really overpowered attack. Give Mari a level 5 'Start MAG' and have her use her first charge attack. 8k+ damage a shot. One hits bosses. Might want to do something about that.
Honestly, this game is full of poor design choices and evidence that its maker really didn't know what they were doing. Click and drag is a VERY poor substitute for a Hold-Go-Retreat mechanic, since you can only move one character at a time. At best, you might be able to save a couple of higher leveled characters from a large force, but then you wind up with a bunch of level one characters and a couple level 3s or 4s fighting against a group a force of 3s or 4s couldn't handle.
The bosses seem the be in reverse order of difficulty. Playing the boss challenge of the first episode, and it is much harder than the final boss, partially because it is so small, partially because it moves back and forth so slowly. Somewhat ironically, slow movement in a game like this actually makes things harder, because you only have so much hang time.
I just can not get into this. It gets very boring and repetitive very quickly. 80% of the time, I am just sitting waiting for bars to fill while playing a completely mindless minigame. I have gotten to about level 5, I think, and nothing is changing. No story appears to be unfolding. No twists have occurred during missions. No nothing. Have I just wasted the last 2 hours of my life, or is there something that is supposed to happen that just hasn't? Because NOTHING is happening beyond me doing repetitive, mindless missions again and again.
sorry u didnt get into it. the game is big, and not one u win in 2 hours. you have to think smart and learn how to rock out multiple missions per hack, in 2 hours, u could have been lvl 15. anyway, sorry for wasting ur time.
I would really like to see a town mayor function added. Each week, a towns mayor will be the player with the highest contribution from the previous week. The mayor could set certain rules, such as what everyone's contribution grade needed to be by the end of that week, lest they get kicked out of town.
Furthermore, they could forcefully close shops that have been inactive for more than 3 days straight and send mail to all town members so as to give certain instructions or advice.
I really think this would add a lot to the team work aspect of the game.
A tip to lower level players: Some of the first chapters special missions reward you with status curing items. I highly suggest grinding those till you have 9 of each and trying to keep it that way till you are making enough money that you can keep a healthy stock on your own. By chapter 3 bosses, it is more or less expected of you to use iron skins to buff you defense. If you feel you are taking too much damage, and that iron skins are too expensive, than you are fighting a bit ahead of yourself; go back and grind a little more.
The screen is too small and the hitboxes too large. A lack of radar makes it luck based and the fact that the only speed boosts are temporary means everything except fuel, helmets, suits, and the first few banana upgrades are of tertiary importance. Nice art, but poorly balanced gameplay. 3/5
So, it has been 6 months since I last played, been a fair hand full of updates since then, and magic is still pitifully underpowered. 260 int and my rank 4 lighting bolts average about as much damage as a poison tick from mirage bolt rank 9. I am beginning to think the magic attack stat simply doesn't function at all.
Finally, that addition of a timer in a bullet hell should NEVER be done for any reason than for bonus points. Demanding we fulfill the levels requirements in a set amount of time defies the principles of careful movement and placement that such games should always emphasize, lest they go from being hard to simply frustrating.
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You're also working on becoming stronger as you find, forge, and upgrade new equipment and battle other players in wars :)