Aggressors: Ancient Rome

Started by Grim.Reaper, May 05, 2018, 03:21:08 AM

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JasonPratt

Okay, I'm in-game live now, which can be easily found from my Steam user page here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/mikonesesaga

Just click the "watch game" button under the snapshot window in the upper right corner.

I'm unsure if the microphone is working, but people should be able to send messages by typing through Steam chat.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Okay, actually broadcasting (with working mic now).
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

steve58

Government is not the solution to our problem—government is the problem.   Ronald Reagan
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.   Thomas Jefferson
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.   George Orwell  The truth is quiet...It's the lies that are loud.   Jesus Revolution
If you ever find yourself in need of a safe space then you're probably going to have to stop calling yourself a social justice warrior. You cannot be a warrior and a pansy at the same time   Mike Adams (RIP Mike)

JasonPratt

Yes, not hexes.

Tiles, oddly, are circular within the squares. The square arrangement, as you know, allows a little more map exploitation by moving diagonally which, as far as I can tell, costs the same movement rate (not a hypotenuse of the movement). Not a problem, just a detail.

Just finished broadcast. It's... eh. I'll probably like it better when the random-map generator is fixed. It's far from a bad game, but it's a Civy game. Some nice touches here and there. I like Civ games, so, y'know.

Considering that I've played it for 2 hours, it's mine now in any case!  ::) I feel pretty sure it's a keeper, but I have a lot of other games to play already.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Gusington

What are some of the nice touches you like?


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

CJReich46

I'm intrigued. The spec requirements are low for this one.

Which *sigh* I might be getting this one. But will be patient.
" He either fears his fate too much
Or his deserts are small,
Who dares not put it to the touch
To win or lose it all."  - James Graham 1st Marquis of Montrose

JasonPratt

Quote from: Gusington on August 30, 2018, 09:18:11 PM
What are some of the nice touches you like?

Nothing that I'd say is decisive (yet). I'll give an example.

Last night, toward the end of my play, I ran across a really nice touch that the game did, which I didn't recall seeing in any other 4x Civ/MoMish game I had played before. It was a practical improvement in how something worked, not just window dressing, and I truly appreciated it, and I was impressed the designers thought of it.

I have no idea this morning what it was. None. Zero. The most I can remember is that I ran across it around 9pm near the end of my play with the game, and what I said in the prior paragraph. I can't even tell you where it was 'in the game' that I saw it. (Map operation, research, diplomacy, no idea.)

(Steam apparently doesn't save livestreams, so I can't go back now and look for it either. Note to self, use YT broadcast next time.  :buck2: )

I'm legitimately sorry I can't remember what that touch was, but it exemplifies the game for me so far. Considering that TWO GUYS are making this game, it's very good. Whatever happened with the random-gen failing, I hope gets fixed, but that was the only bug I ran across in two hours of play. It doesn't really do anything yet that makes it stand out for me, though.

That's a very meh review, I realize, based on less than 2 hours of actual gameplay. But I would consider refunding, not because it's a bad game, which it isn't at all, but because I've got a bunch of other games to play and I'd rather save that money for something else.

Put another way, playing this game didn't make me want to play more of it this weekend, so much as it made me want to see where the developer of Genesia (long ago in the Amiga age!) has gotten with his remake Genesia Legacy: Ultimate Domain. It's a much smaller scale game, but I can name a number of interesting things in it off the top of my head despite having played only 47 minutes (as I just checked -- I thought it was more like 2 or 3 hours.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Rayfer

Today's "Flare Path" from the RPS site, about half way down the article, covers some of the more interesting aspects of the game. 
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/08/31/the-flare-path-infinite-patience/

Gusington

^Thanks for posting that Rayfer, Flare Path seemed to enjoy it.

Pratt your last post has left me befuddled :/


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

bbmike

Quote from: Gusington on August 31, 2018, 04:12:21 PM
^Thanks for posting that Rayfer, Flare Path seemed to enjoy it.

Pratt your last post has left me befuddled yet again :/

ftfy  :P
"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."
-Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

"There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you!"
-The Doctor

"Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth."
-Clifford D. Simak

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

jomni

I think the dev described it as a medium ground between Civ and EU if I'm not mistaken.

Lowenstaat

I'm just starting to dig into this one. It does remind me of Civ a bit, but it also plays like a modernized, fleshed out version of Legions: Conquest and Diplomacy in the Ancient World (Mindscape) from the mid 1990s.
"Initiative compensates for a lack of skill."

JasonPratt

I did discover that the inability to generate a random map seems connected with trying to play it in 720p resolution. When I switched to 1080p, it didn't have any problem generating a map.

I put another several hours into it yesterday, along that line. (Tried to save it as a live YT broadcast for future reference, but the signal died without telling me about 5 minutes in.  :buck2: ) Still makes me want to look into the current state of Genosia more, but it's fine. Don't believe the estimate for completing a road, though -- the code isn't actually programed to calculate that. ;)

The supply-source limitations in the early game are interesting if just a tad hacky. I started with a "nomad" which is the basic unit, not terrible at combat, and able to build a settlement but that's all. (All units can build settlements in this game, btw, unless I misunderstood the rules, but the nomad and settler are better at it.) The nomad had both the "forager" and... um, rats I forget the other ability, pioneer maybe. Their descriptions sounded exactly the same for effect in different wording, so I couldn't figure out why there were two abilities: basically the unit doesn't take damage being outside supply. Okay, great, makes sense for nomads. I find a good settlement spot, the TEN THOUSAND NOMADS (unit sizes are weird in this game) found a settlement, and things move along. I create a settler (which sets off riots in my settlement, damaging it, because the settlers need TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE leaving over barely a few hundred at that point to regrow the settlement), and it doesn't have those abilities. This worries me, but turns out, nah, it has them but just doesn't say so. Okay.

Then I create a nomad to go scouting (once my settlement has bred back up to over ten thousand people), and I send it out to go look around because it can take care of itself better than the settler army which has no offense (but which can build roads and fields and clear woods to make fields later, etc., which is what I've been doing with it.)

The nomad army gets four squares north off past a lake into the woods and through a mountain pass, and starts to die. Because it's out of supply now.

...what? I thought nomads had those two (apparently equal) abilities to live off the land?! I happen to notice now that the two markers for those abilities are missing. They were given to the first nomad unit by the game to keep it alive until it founded a settlement. They aren't inherent abilities for nomads.

The ability to live off the land without dying, isn't an inherent ability for a nomad unit.

No doubt this is for game balancing. But still.  ::)

I did enjoy the extra 3 hours I put into the game yesterday. I don't feel I've gotten my money out of it yet, but I can see that's possible at least.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd