FE came a long long way.

 

Best of luck with the release!

Hi Rishkith,

Sorry to hear about your memory issue.  We're always looking to optimize memory. We had gotten your reports and are looking into them. Unfortunately, it's an exceedingly rare (based on the crash logs we get which are automated) issue.  That said, because we want to introduce larger sized maps in future updates, we will be doing a lot more in the memory area.

Regarding the monster AI, this is something I have been addressing. Bear in mind, there really isn't very much "AI" to monsters. It is a very delicate balance between having them be "too tame" and having them be too aggressive.  For that reason, I've been making greater use of the world difficulty.

Regarding the raze, this was addressed in 983 already. Monsters may destroy towns but they won't salt the earth anymore.

Well congratulations. FE is a fun game.

I very much hope you have allowed enough time before release to fix some of the more serious outstanding issues which are obviously bugs and not design decisions (eg like my list at https://forums.elementalgame.com/433438, others probably have similar lists) plus as many as possible of the many little issues still being reported. I would really like FE to be well polished.

But regardless of whether you do or don't fix these issues I still hope you get great reviews. I'll be the first to cheer if you pull 85-90% Metacritic without fixing them! (I just fear it won't happen )

@Mist, thanks for the kind words and your list.  In fact, most of what you mentioned on your list is addressed in this Thursday's public beta update (the bugs are anyway).

 

 

I watched several ai games(.983) and the monster ai was targeting the square where the unit was before the turn and was missing the unit by moving into that square as the unit moved away, interceptions are more based on an unintended consequence of the npc and the monsters moving into the same square.

 

They are not going to get slammed for this specifically in the reviews but the ai problems as a whole will take it down several notches and this is the core of those problems. The turns should be completly serialized.

 

The monster ai, or lack thereof, looks schizophrenic at its best and the npc ai is still , as of .983, having problems to the point of essentially turning itself off(I mean that literaly watch a few ai games). The tower problem has existed as a known issue for a long time now and from watching ai games I believe is directly related to the simultaneous turn problem and the problems with pathfinding it causes. This is a single player strategy game the ai needs to work well, strategy game reviewers are going to consider all of these factors.

 

I'm very happy with my time with the game so far. Frustrations generally occur from bugs and balance errors, not the game's fundamentals. I also can't wait to try out the campaign!

Incredible job guys! This is quite an interesting game. I have been following it's development for years and am amazed that you have finally pulled it off! I have been playing since Beta 4 and consider the game unparalelled in it's depth. The graphics are great.

I am looking forward to many expansions over the years, not to mention mods. Quite a bargain all considered.

I wish everyone at Stardock all the very best of luck and that sales do a big rocket on you.

It might be a little early, but sometimes you just have to go for it, otherwise we could still be here this time next year.

As I have said in previous posts, I am really starting to feel the game and with the right sort of handling at release, it could be a block buster.

 

It has been my pleasure to be a beta tester, and in some ways I will miss it.  

I wanted to quote the above post [I haven't gotten a crash since 980]. I've gotten a couple of crashes with 983; aslo the 983 'patch' blew away my mount point causing a bit of a head-ache while I fixed it; so the patch installer itself is very buggy (in an annoying way). Also while I found 980 quite easy (on hard); I find 983 too difficult (even on easy) so if it were released in 983 condition I would be a bit unhappy. The basic problem (as others have reported) (there is a post with almost a verbatim expression of my frustration) if I try to expand monster clobber me and if I do not expand the ai decides I'm weak and multiple ai opponents will declare war. - The fix for these issues might be simple and further testing not needed but another month really wouldn't hurt (though I could understand that as you move into the holiday season it might be tough for a release).

This.  The game is already great; a little bit more polish will make it amazing.  I'm already spending all my free time playing FE

I was going to edit my post but I can't; what I don't understand is that there was a comment by a developer that they might consider restricting when monsters can attack you (based on difficulty) but there also seems to be an implied difference in how monsters treat human players vs computer players (and I've noticed this myself where monsters will ignore computer players - in fact I used to try to use monsters as a method to keep computer players in check with absolute no success). What I fail to understand is why this difference in treatment exist ?

It isn't so much that monsters are too aggressive or too tame, it's the fact they are perceived by many in this forum to be unfairly ignoring AI cities/pioneers while making a beeline for the player's. Now whether or not the AI is actually being unfair is besides the point since the fact that you've got plenty of complaints about this matter shows that it's still a real problem nevertheless.

In the same vein, there's been feedback before that monster aggressiveness being completely "random" isn't a good thing, and I tend to agree with that opinion. Inconsistency is the issue here since it (1) isn't fun and (2) isn't believable when a monster simply ignores the AI city/outposts right next to it because of a lucky roll and instead goes for one of the player's much farther away. 

A much better solution is to implement simple behaviors for appropriate types of enemies (which again has been suggested before by others), or at a minimum just fix the monster AI to target the closest city/stack/outpost if it wants to attack. At least that makes some sense.

 

Well, I'm playing beta about a week and game in it's current state seems definitely not ready for release. Tons of bugs, including major ones like CTD's, disappering graphics and UI elements, memory leaks making game unplayable in extended sessions or after just 3-4 save/loads, monsters completely ignoring AI factions, and so on. Add to this total imbalance between heroes and regular units - you can just steamroll AI players with heroes or achieve Quest victory when even mid-game units and gear are not unlocked, and this mid-game units are not comparable with heroes in power in any way.

 

I will love this game even more than Master of Magic when (if) bugs will gone and some balance will be achieved, but release now... i don't understand it.

I think Stardock should have the load button active only after restarting the game

This is just total bull mister. I dont see the forums flooding with CTD posts. Monsters do NOT totally ignore AI factions, the disappearing cities and AI empires was fixed a couple of patches ago. The total imbalance that you talk about is no longer present. Play on hard, dense monsters and hard world difficulty and you will see that the world is dangerous and you cannot easily win the game anymore.