Opinions on version 2 (constructive criticism welcome)

[TheFirstONeill]

Place you opinions on Version 2 here,
Future patches, add-ons, etc will be decided on the posts placed in this thread
(constructive criticism welcome)

[Caki]

Lets sticky this one shall we

[toluas]

After playing one evening and trying two factions, the Uruks and the Lao Che, I can say that V2 offers everything that I hoped for and more.

Smooth gameplay, wonderfully crafted units, well thought out background story, interesting factions. The whole mod seems very stable, never had I even a single moment where I thought I might get a CTD. (And that is not to be taken for granted!) I’m even starting to love the naval lag…

But what makes this mod so special is the influence we, the people, can take on the development. Everybody can get involved, very nice!

The second thing which makes this mod stand out is the setting. While there are terrific mods out there advancing the setting of the European Middle Ages on a very realistic basis, Thera offers something new. And that is a very interesting new perspective.

If the team wants to continue and the community supports you guys, we can make Thera even better. So please, support TheFirstONeill and Caki, all you people out there!

I would love to see some of the more northerly factions being overhauled, so there’s not such a large amount of my favourite factions down south.

A huge thank you goes out to Jason and Caki!

[Pink Beard]

Ok... Constructive Critism...

I was planning on doing some lousy joke like "V2 sucks" or something but i decided against it

I really think this mod is wonderfull!

There was just some thing I would want to point out;

With the new units you guys made (they are so awesome!), they kinda made the older vanilla units (who only changed name) absolete.

I mean, why use feudal knights (equilavent) when you have those awesome Samurai, Romans, Uruks, Pirates etc. factions?

I think it would be a good idea to, be it on a slow and steady pace, make a grand overhaul of ALL factions. Ofcourse this would be a tremendous amount of work, and we wouldn't expect something either (nor quickly).

But to me It's just that feeling that 50% of the mod is the very cool "made by the modders"-part, and the other 50% is the "boring" vanilla units.
They are not "boring" in terms of not-fun to play, but they do rather look misplaced and "amateuristic" compared to the wonderfull units you guys made (Caki, Jason )

Get what I mean? You guys made the new units too good (in a flattering way) It's just that I (we?) want a mod of largely the same quality. The CA units are just not on par with yours!


Just my 2 cents,
Pink Beard

[TheFirstONeill]

The hope is to start making faction by faction upgrades, that way we can release smaller parts at a time, and there will be less time pressure. There are a number of factions I have fairly large plans for, so I will be discussing these with Caki, and togather we will formulate a plan.

Thanks for your continuing contribution Pinkie, you are a valued memeber of the Thera community ( especially when you dont spam the bugs thread)

cheers as always mate
Jason

[Caki]

Thank you guys so much for the kind words and yes we are planing to do some new stuff but let us enjoy the mod for a while after the hard work and I promise you we will do our best to make THERA even better

[toluas]

Thank you guys so much for the kind words and yes we are planing to do some new stuff but let us enjoy the mod for a while after the hard work and I promise you we will do our best to make THERA even better

Absolutely. I did not want to push you in any way. (Of course not) Just used the thank you to take a sneak peek to V3.

[Caki]

Hmmm nice plan mate but you are busted LOL

[Noble Savage]

As mentioned in the other thread the only real problems I have found are really cosmetic and don't ruin the gameplan whatsoever.

The only very minor gripes I have are

1) I think this was mentioned in another thread too but I really don't want all the "cool" factions doing each other in during the early stages. I have just started with the ice cool Samurai blokes and before I know it , the Dominion and the Romans are at each other.

2) I have reached turn 20 and not one faction has offered me an alliance.This was the same with version 1 even when the "Black and Whites" owned about a fifth of the map.

3) At the start of the Samurai campaign all but one rebel town/castle had no garrison in the whole continent. Was this deliberate ?

As I said these are very minor grumbles and this version is pretty much how I would make the perfect game if I had your skills.

[TheFirstONeill]

As mentioned in the other thread the only real problems I have found are really cosmetic and don't ruin the gameplan whatsoever.

The only very minor gripes I have are

1) I think this was mentioned in another thread too but I really don't want all the "cool" factions doing each other in during the early stages. I have just started with the ice cool Samurai blokes and before I know it , the Dominion and the Romans are at each other.

2) I have reached turn 20 and not one faction has offered me an alliance.This was the same with version 1 even when the "Black and Whites" owned about a fifth of the map.

3) At the start of the Samurai campaign all but one rebel town/castle had no garrison in the whole continent. Was this deliberate ?

As I said these are very minor grumbles and this version is pretty much how I would make the perfect game if I had your skills.

I have set relations very low at the start, so it does take quite a while to normalise cross cultural relations, so that alliances can be made, but early on it is difficult, charming princesss are your best tool in the early game.

The reasoning being that I want the reputation of the faction to be made by the playing style of the player,

In order to become an attracive faction for alliances, you have to work hard early on and be very decent in your dealings,

This way if you are a blitzer ,very soon a lot of factions do tend to treat you as a real threat and seek conflict with you. The only faction that isnt set like that is the Uruks who start with a much better base level,

I wanted lots of potential conflicts early on, it is a world that has been decimated, so the people are fearful of outlanders, suspsious of all that is foiriegn to them, looking for someone to blame for 'The Great Torment'

Eckk the Lao Che empty settlements is a left over from version 1 where I purposely had empty settlements early on, but people didnt like/understand the reasoning behind it, so I thiought I had populated all the empty settlements,

I shall fix that in the first patch due at the weekend, once more feedback is gathered.

I know what you mean about the the southern continent containing some 'cool' factions,, but during the months of balancing I tried so many different combinations of different regions for different factions, and it was the present config that gave (I felt) the best results. I did feel the Uruks and Romuli had to close togather as they share a lot of culture type troops.

Going forward I would love to overhaul a number of the other northern factions so we have a better spread of 'cool' factions. I would like to take Valhalla and Hispanics in a more barbaric direction. With Wotan becoming a more advance faction, then it currently is.

Thanks for your feedback, (as I say to everyone) it is truly invaluable in helping the ongoing tuning of the work.

And I'd also add thanks for the other help and support you have given me and this project, you are a scholar and a gentleman +rep

[Noble Savage]

Well that explains everything.

When you put it like that , it all makes sense and actually I'm glad you made the effort with those small touches to make the game last longer and more enjoyable.

Now I have to find a way to split the "bad boys" up and get them to make friends

Thanks again for you prompt reply.

[TheFirstONeill]

Well that explains everything.

When you put it like that , it all makes sense and actually I'm glad you made the effort with those small touches to make the game last longer and more enjoyable.

Now I have to find a way to split the "bad boys" up and get them to make friends

Thanks again for you prompt reply.

Ok have populated all those Lao Che rebel settlements, some nasty suprises hidden away for your next campagain

[toluas]

More to kill liberate? Bring'em on!

[Caki]

I wouldn't say that if I were you (those are going to be really nasty surprises)

[toluas]

I guess so. But I'm not so easily scared. Should I?

[High Chunker Greens]

Loving V2 so far. I know you have said you dont like to put stone forts in but could you (pretty please ) make a mini mod so that stone forts are buildable. I think it would be really cool if the prices were raised but they were stone forts. Well thats just an idea, you dont have to.
Good work so far

[TheFirstONeill]

Loving V2 so far. I know you have said you dont like to put stone forts in but could you (pretty please ) make a mini mod so that stone forts are buildable. I think it would be really cool if the prices were raised but they were stone forts. Well thats just an idea, you dont have to.
Good work so far

I will probarly make a patch for that, but the forts are permanent and the AI builds lots, so the map becomes very cluttered with big ugly stone forts everywhere(the wooden ones are much more descreet in my opinion). Also with the free upkeep in forts , making them stone too, makes for a massive player exploit in my opinion,

If I make a patch for it, I would never use it myself, but its a personal taste thing

[High Chunker Greens]

Cool thanks

[Nerva]

Really good mod ONeill and Caki but I have a little criticism, I think cavalry is a bit overpowered with the charges, I have never noticed out that in V1 as I play with chivalric factions whose cavalry are suppposed to make powerfull charges, but as I began my campaign with the sycorax I noticed that even my lightest light cavalry make exelent charges which I think they aren't supossed to (as they are really light) so maybe you could fix that out, or it was intended to be like that?
bye
Nerva

[TheFirstONeill]

It is a balancing thing, they have so litttle 'heavy' troops, that I allowed their cavalry to be very strong to allow them a chance, also to simulate that they are supposed to be excellent horsemen