I ended up purchasing the base game last weekend shortly after reading your reply! Sorry for the late reply back but thanks muchly for your advice (and Funamblist ) So, played a bit last weekend and very small bit one night during the week. Started off pretty overwhelmed but coming back to it after the first session things started to make sense. I like it a lot! The options are pretty staggering, high replayabliilty and great atmosphere for your imagination to fill in the blanks. Like a proper game should be! For sure the Neutrals are relatively too strong compared to the Factions IMO but I somehow managed to win my first game and was 7th in the world leaderboards (fair enough it was on the 3rd easiest difficulty setting tho haha). I like the pacing and speed you can rattle through turns (playing on iPad pro and AI turns are near instant. Probably with more AI Factions it will get a tad slower as in a quick game I started randomly there were 6 AI and it was noticeable but still super quick). I can appreciate the variety in your chosen race. That you have to play to their strengths and they do play distinctly different, not just a near-symmetry to other races. Like for example I started a game (which I lost) using the "dead" race (I forget the real name) and am I right that they don't have a way to earn gold? So you need to decide if you convert negative energy to gold (at a poor exchange rate) to support rushing buildings and fund hero wages if they are not from your Dead race, or if you can gather enough gold from caves and chests to support employing heroes of other races, or you forget gold all together and focus on other strategy...? I couldn't figure out how to create the "no upkeep" soldiers I read about here. The skeletal archers still had 1 energy requirement. Is there a step I missed? Also couldn't figure out roads too well. Largely coz my engineers got murdered before I noticed if they were doing the job right! Looked like they were digging, but do you have to manually do each tile to connect to other cities? Shame that some of the interface and art doesn't quite gel (the battle 3D mainly). Sounds are pretty lame too (was it better without them in v1? lol, just kidding). The main interface screens are really nice and makes a lot of sense but some things just drag the overall polish level down. I'm no graphics whore but it does feel better to play something that is satisfyingly slick in every area. Still it's perfectly fine. And for a game of this scope by a relatively small team I think it's very good. Haven't even touched on Forging yet. That kind of blew my mind (choices!) and I haven't dared use it yet. I need to improve my early game for sure. Stalling quite badly to get my economy buzzing in the right way. Still trying to figure that out, but I enjoy the learning so it's all good! I will read your guides in detail today which I'm sure will help me get going properly! Thanks Nullzone. Anyway, I'm gonna get stuck into it properly this weekend and start my 3rd game on medium or a touch more difficulty Oh P.S. regarding the game forcing you through to research or production screens if you try to end turn without starting something new, you obviously didn't play Civ 5 or Beyond Earth then?
Nice to see you diving in, Baracus welcome to the club, so to speak. Unhallowed and Gold: You cannot convert Negative Energy, only Mana. Which is why I usually play with the Alchemist perk, the 1:1 exchange ratio helps my playstyle a lot. When I played Unhallowed, I had so much leftover Gold from Ruins and chests, I constantly converted it into Mana. The so far 0 upkeep Skeletons will get an overhaul to make them less overpowered, so that trick won't work anymore soon anyways. You didn't miss out on much, only summoning Skeletons all the time gets boring fast. I'll pull the Forging post forward and try to have it up early next week. One hint right away: create ranged weapons for your Heroes, cheap +1 ones do just fine in the beginning. If you have questions, ask away And no, never played Civ5 or Beyond Earth, didn't touch a gaming computer or console in years.
It can be both, sometimes narrow passages connecting, sometimes pangaeaish as the screenshot shows (zoom in to see the small world map)
On an unrelated note, several bugs/crash-problems to report. 1. Current game, large, 3 planes, 6 oppos - game hangs at "waiting for other players" - tried reloading, doing different things last turn, still happens. 2. Game crashes a lot on such large type games (iphone 6) - every three turns or so. 3. Save game time stamp bug - my save games (i had six slots for this game) all get same time stamp +/-- 1 second. Autosave ends up behind manusl save slots. Hitting continue after crash thus puts me more or less randomly at some save. This could possibly be related in some way to above mentioned problems too?
Whenever I try to click on the dlc to purchase, nothing happens. Doesn't even recognise that Im pressing the button? Anyone had the same issue,Im on a JB 6+ with 8.3.
@manneger: I start to believe the crashes are more related to the number of Planes than opponents. I played a 3 Plane 6 Opponent as well, and it crashed only once or twice, and after hours of playing. My all Planes game is the one that crashes every 15 minutes or so. @Keitch83: DLC worked for me, and I cannot recall anyone else reporting this. My first bet is that the JB is the cause.
@nullzone That sounds reasonable. Also, for anyone new to this thread, I'd like to say this game is great - one of the best 4x games for iphone. Some bugs, and a weak AI - but that will hopefully be fixed, and other than that it is a very deep 4x. It is quite similar to the heroes of might and magic games, but quite a bit more advanced.
Picked this up today, and thus far it's a lot of fun. Now, to convince the wife I need $20 more for the expansions
Welp bought it now just hopping I'll like it. Will download tomorrow at work. Love star base Orion so I think I will. Is there any more stuff on YouTube besides the one video? How true does it hold to world of magic ? Like can you equip your units ? Is there a town view? And lastly is online mp planned down the line at some point ?
Thanks! Completed another game, playing as Grey Elves with the Grey Elf SL. On difficulty set 1 above Wizard I think it was, so just 1 harder option now. Took me about 7 hours I'd say... played most of the day Saturday and it was enjoyable! I guess I was taking my time because game was like 250 turns by the end... I could have made a final push a lot sooner I realise now, but was worried to leave my towns with less than 6 garrisoned units because previous to that, every time I took my forces to help elsewhere, I'd lose that town to Neutrals! Could claim it right back on the next turn but of course there are losses so it's not exactly efficient! Turns out I needn't have worried because as soon as I took the last neutral city, the game was a cakewalk finishing off the 2 Lords! They just sat there with 3 weak units in their only main cities and capital (3 cities), so it was a rather anti-climactic end to the game, just steamrolling them Does the hardest difficulty change this? If not, think I'll wait for the update they are working on before starting a bigger game. Not sure what happened in my game but I was really struggling with economy UNTIL Neutrals knocked me back to a single city around late mid-game. I was losing money and eeking out stable food until that point. After that, I regrouped and quickly got back to owning 3 cities (within about 5 turns of having lost them), and instantly I was in the green massively, even with the casualties of the city take-over. Sure this wasn't enough time for the AI to have remodelled my "old" city enough to make it better, so I don't really get how I went from struggling to dominating by LOSING my own cities hahah It let me pump out units in massive numbers and I just cleared the map after that. Anyway, I do have a few questions that came up... Hope Nullzone can give a little reply! 1) how do I build a Siphon? Particular unit or steps I must use? 2) do any of the map resources directly give gold to the city they're in range of, or only count toward Production (which translates to gold with certain buildings in place in that city). 2b) so what is the main "best" resources to build early cities near? 2c) what's the best way to generate Gold from resources anyway? Seems pretty random. Or do you just do raids on ruins etc and auto-scout for chests? 3) can the game be played entirely without combat? Just win diplomatically or through culture or sciences? Normal 4x games have multiple routes to victory (not just war) but it's not clear here. 3b) is it a total necessity to use magic? Can you beat the game on hardest difficulty without using magic/spells? 3c) or is there a middle ground where you could pick traits that use magic for only Infrastructure stuff... I know there are steel for this but I mean is it viable to play that way... I might give it a shot but don't really know or seen enough of the hundreds of spells available to picture if it could work! 4) what dictates how much Mana you can use in a battle. Pool just gets smaller with no way to replenish it (or guess I am missing the right spell to do it) 4b) does it make sense to not use all your mana in battle, or might as well use it all up? Is it reset even if you have another fight on same ' next turn? 5) what are the "essential" buildings when founding a new city regardless of what that city will,specialise in? I assume ALL cities should have granary, market, saw mill if forest near, smithy, stable, miners guild if mines near, foresters guild (?), sages guild 6) do borders around cities get bigger over time? I did t see it. 7) do some spells cast on your own units in battle only last for that battle, but others last for ever? Or only overworld spells are permanent? Sorry about Wall 'O' Text [TM]! Great game though, so much to do and think about. I'm >THIS< close to getting all the DLC... just wanna see how they handle updates to the AI first coz that will make or break the game/fun long term IMO. Oh and yeah, Nullzone, Civilization does this context aware End Turn button now. Good idea!
@Baracus: You are calling outside of our office hours, we are available from... Just kidding I have answers to all your questions, will reply later from my laptop (too much to type on iPad). If you are constantly hemorrhaging Gold, Food and Mana, your economy isn't sound. For some info on that, early/mandatory buildings, and about infrastructure spells, I'll toot my own horn and refer you to my "Swarm Build" guide and the accompanying Orc play till turn 25. That should give you a good initial picture. I'll try to elaborate more later.
Haha, thanks NZ...! I'm reading your stuff now and I see a lot of answers there already, sorry 'bout that! But secretly I know you love talking about it, so I don't feel too guilty about you having to write more specifically to answer me
@Baracus: Here you go, some answers to your questions. First, a short note on Crafting, as you asked earlier. Start with cheap items. If the Hero comes with a Melee weapon, craft them a +1 Ranged weapon they can use. Then I always do "+2 Saving Throws" Rings, Amulet, Cloak, Helm for every Hero next. Third round depends on what Heroes I have. If I have damage Casters, those get their basic items replaced with "+20 Mana, +2 Save". Rangeds get +5 Weapons without other enchantments (they last for quite a while). From the end - enjoying writing: Most assuredly yes I already have content lined up for at least the next two weeks. And I'm still learning new things constantly, filling pages and pages of notes for later Your 250 turn game: If you lose towns to Neutrals, you need stronger garrisons like you wrote yourself. Start out with 4 of the cheapest units, and then add gradually to it, depending on what opposition you see. I always keep my Capital better defended too, just in case. Enemy Wizard AI is pretty bad even on highest difficulty currently. Wastelands are working on improving it already, we should see first results with the next update. The Neutrals AI is very solid and aggressive on higher difficulties, a real threat to garrisons and smaller armies. Economy: If your economy tanks completely with only a handful of towns, something is seriously wrong. No problem with making negative Gold - even for a long time - if you have the coffers to weather it out, e.g. from Dungeon rewards. Would need to see a breakdown of what you did though, to give specific advise. In general, I use four "feeder" towns for one production town. They are tasked with producing food, gold, Mana and Research. No need to waste money on military buildings in every town. Re: Your numbered questions: 1) Siphon: You need units that can build one, like Magic Spirits or Insect Seers. They have a small Siphon icon where the Engineers have the "build road" one. 2) Resources: Longtap on a resource until the description comes up. You have all kinds, and for every resource except Research. 2b) Resource density and importance: I always play with resources on lowest setting, so I treat them as additional goodie rather than something crucial. Food/Production bonus from town location I find way more important in the long run. With fast-growing Races like Orcs, you can just build towns to grab resources. With my Insects now, I constantly build new towns in any spot where I get more than 2 resources. 2c) Gold from Resources: Neglectable in the long run. Ruins carry me through early and mid-game mainly. Starting mid-game (~turn 25), I work toward a completely self-sustaining town economy, which I can get running in full swing around turn 50 by now. 3) No combat playthrough: You can win by casting the Spell of Mastery, so without fighting enemy Sorcerers would work. Diplomacy, I don't think so. But would be a great addition: like the Galactic Council in Master of Orion 2, where you can get elected as Supreme Ruler. At least, you'd have to defend your Capital from Neutrals, so totally without combat I consider impossible. 3b) I am sure you can win without ever casting any spell, or crafting any item. It'll just be a very different playstyle; and I expect it would take a lot longer to win, as spells really add to your arsenal on the road to victory. 3c) Infrastructure Magic: That is a very feasible strategy, see e.g. my "Swarm Build" writeup. There are quite a few town-enhancing spells, even global enchantments. Too long a topic to cover in detail now, and I don't even have a full list of spells to check on the high-level ones. 4) Battle Mana: That is determined by your Spellcraft score. You can cast the amount of your score value every turn (there's more to it, but again too long topic). In battle, the pool is available in - and gets refreshed for - every battle. The Mana you spend is drained from your general Mana pool. --> Which is why I like Caster Units/Heroes so much. They have their own Mana pools, independent of yours. And they bring so much firepower and variety into combat, that they pull way more weight than their production costs hint at. 4b) Spending Mana for combat casting: Definitely yes, if your strategy allows for it. E.g. my current Summoning build uses almost all Mana for summons, and I cast a combat summon only when absolutely needed. In that game I reached the point where I can keep both Summoning and another activity like crafting or combat casting fueled indefinitely at the same time around turn 75 with the Insects. They are on the lowest end of Mana production, so with a high-Mana race it'll go even faster. Casting strategies depend very much on - and can even be the main anchor of - your overall game strategy. This alone is a huge subject, and I expect I might need several posts to cover that even anywhere near to exhaustive. And that's part one for now, will continue tomorrow if/when I have time.
Wow, thanks so much for this NZ! Gonna read through it a few times. Seriously don't rush for "part 2"! I'm more than happy tinkering and digesting this lot for now (thumbsup) Additional question when you get round to it: What is the difference between city unrest and global unrest? Does stocking up with garrison even bring the Global Unrest down? If not, what does? Assume it's purely linked to tax rate but even with 0% city unrest, I think my Global is in the 30's on a new game I started. Oh, and please can you tell a bit about corrupted land tiles. I know the skeletons need it to found a city on a tile (?) but is there other uses and cases for making land corrupted?
We are going to have a new version of the manual for you tomorrow. Among other improvements there are "building schemes" showing which building allows to build next. Those are little rough, but will make them look nice later on.
5) Essential Buildings: Sounds easier to answer than it is Short answer: it depends. Longer answer: I always build Granary and Market right away, with a few exceptions (e.g. the Insects have a building that increases popgrowth, I tend to buy it outright in any newly founded town). After that it's usually at least a Shrine, to lower Unrest. As long as I can afford it, I build all the Mana/Research buildings I can in every town, to fuel my spell machine. Productivity-increasing buildings like Sawmill or Miner's Guild are worth it if - you need more prod in a military town, to crank out units in 1 turn. - you set the town to Housing or Trading, and the population count is high enough (this needs the mathhammer to calculate the various tipping points, when e.g. a Minerguild makes more money than it costs to upkeep). What's next depends on the town's purpose: - Military: go down that route, skip everything you don't need to build the specific unit(s) you want. - Money: Obviously focus on the money line first (Bank, Merchant Guild). After that, I keep adding Mana/Research buildings. 6) Town borders: That is the town's area of influence, it determines which tiles contribute to the town's output. There are 2 spells I know of: One increases the town's sight area (to spot enemies earlier), the other (an Earth spell) increases the influence area by 1 tile in every direction (this is a huge boon; if I ever do an Earth-focused game, I'll try to beeline for it). 7) Do some spells cast on your own units in battle only last for that battle, but others last for ever? Or only overworld spells are permanent? We have in-battle spells that only last for the battle you cast them in (e.g. Prayer, Darkness). Then there are permanent unit Enchantments (e.g. Bless, Acid Weapon) that cost upkeep and will stay active until you run out of Mana or cancel them. Note that some spells can be cast as both: E.g. Bless or Fire Weapon can be cast both in-combat or as permanent Enchantment on a unit. Last, there are permanent (and expensive!) Overworld Enchantment versions of some of those spells. I've seen permanent "Cast Prayer/Bless/Darkness at start of every combat" spells, but didn't use them yet. 8) Global Unrest and Town Unrest: Global Unrest is the base Unrest level you have to deal with. E.g. with 20 Global, a newly founded town will start with 20% Unrest as base value. Town Unrest: Global Unrest is then modified for each town by racial and tax modifiers, any traits you might have (e.g. Tyrant), Unrest-reducing buildings and spells, and garrison size. Two garrison units bring Unrest down by 1 Rebel / 10%. However, garrisons do not reduce the global Unrest value, they are on a per-town level. 9) Corrupted tiles: Yes, the Unhallowed can only build on Corrupted tiles. And as far as I know, non-corrupted ones do not contribute to their towns' economies either. For the other Races, it's the other way around: they need normal land, and any Corrupted tile within a town's influence area will not contribute resources. Other uses: The only other use I can think of is crippling an opponent's economy by Corrupting tiles within his towns' borders. The standard spell corrupts only one tile, so it'll need a few castings to be effective. Of note to the Unhallowed is the Global version of the above, it corrupts random tiles (don't know right away how many) every turn.
Just added some notes on scouting to the Guide thread, enjoy: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=3795613#post3795613 Crafting Basics is up next, just in case Barakus gets impatient already
Thanks for the update to your guide NZ!! And thanks doomtrader for the upcoming manual update!! Finally got through the first draft and it's a great help in understanding the game (as are nullzone's guides of course)!!
