Well? Its been out for a few days and not a peep from any of you fanboys...whats the word?
i think we all got scared off by the beta updates
Well I have it and like it a lot. People mentioned issues with the last beta but I haven't seen any problems...for example, there is sound in combat. Anyway, I like it. It's beautiful, deep and fun. I haven't played a lot but haven't noticed any game breaking bugs. Same with star drive.
Of course, go to the forums and every bug makes the game "unplayable" lol
I like it
People say "well, I should expect a bug free game at release" my response is that you used to pay $40-50 for a game like this...now you pay $19. Small developers don't have the time and resources to deliver bug free games at a deadline many times. So, it has bugs I'm sure but I havent noticed any.
I plan on getting it in a month or two as there is just way too much I've barely even played yet.
I wish someone would create a device that makes x0.25 Time Compression a reality!
Altough I just ran into a bug which I have yet to see how much stops my progress, I have been really enjoying it. Especially compared to the worrisome feedback from the recent beta updates, it's cool.
Got me keep playing during most of yesterday and that hasn't happened with a fantasy strategy since a long while.
AI players keep kicking my butt though, not sure how much they cheat in available income and number of units.
Im still playing first one :)
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 20, 2013, 06:29:19 PM
Well? Its been out for a few days and not a peep from any of you fanboys...whats the word?
Quote from: mikeck on April 20, 2013, 07:01:55 PM
Well I have it and like it a lot. People mentioned issues with the last beta but I haven't seen any problems...for example, there is sound in combat. Anyway, I like it. It's beautiful, deep and fun. I haven't played a lot but haven't noticed any game breaking bugs. Same with star drive.
Of course, go to the forums and every bug makes the game "unplayable" lol
I like it
People say "well, I should expect a bug free game at release" my response is that you used to pay $40-50 for a game like this...now you pay $19. Small developers don't have the time and resources to deliver bug free games at a deadline many times. So, it has bugs I'm sure but I havent noticed any.
I pre-ordered it and haven't installed it yet due to the state I've read it's in. But after read mikeck's post and ydejin's post at Qt3 (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?68619-Masters-of-the-Broken-World-Turn-based-strategy-fan-s-wet-dream&p=3370130#post3370130), I'm very tempted to install the game now.
Yeah, I don't understand all of the wailing over its condition at release. As with almost all games, certain systems don't get along. I can only speak for myself. I have seen no bugs, everything seems fine. Ymmv. Some people are having problems, many others see what they want to see...they wanted to see a broken game so for them, every little bug is a game stopper.
To be fair, there may be bugs But I just don't realize they are bugs.
Quote from: mikeck on April 21, 2013, 11:39:23 AM
Yeah, I don't understand all of the wailing over its condition at release. As with almost all games, certain systems don't get along. I can only speak for myself. I have seen no bugs, everything seems fine. Ymmv. Some people are having problems, many others see what they want to see...they wanted to see a broken game so for them, every little bug is a game stopper.
To be fair, there may be bugs But I just don't realize they are bugs.
People are complaining about a lot of bugs, crashes and the game being unplayable at all.
Not to mention it's not very optimized, and the Hotseat option is strangely stll missing (despite Internet play being available).
Well, as I am playing the game, I can't say it's unplayable and I have not had any crashes. I don't doubt that others have had problems but I simply have not. Like I said, there may be bugs and things missing that I don't realize because I don't know how things are really supposed to work yet. Only played about and hour is so but no issues.
As for multiplayer or hotseat, that may be true but as I don't play either, it's not a showstopper for me.
I downloaded and installed it shortly after my last post. I've been playing it for several hours now without any problems whatsoever on my 64-bit Windows 7 PC (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103274) which is a couple of years old now with 12 Gigs of DDR3 RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470.
I'm not halfway through the tutorial yet, but Eador: Masters of the Broken World looks to me like Eador: Genesis with updated graphics and more than one save game slot. So, if you liked the first Eador game, you're going to love this new one...unless you are a chronic complainer or a masochist.
Quote from: Greybriar on April 21, 2013, 02:25:32 PM
I downloaded and installed it shortly after my last post. I've been playing it for several hours now without any problems whatsoever on my 64-bit Windows 7 PC (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103274) which is a couple of years old now with 12 Gigs of DDR3 RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470.
I'm not halfway through the tutorial yet, but Eador: Masters of the Broken World looks to me like Eador: Genesis with updated graphics and more than one save game slot. So, if you liked the first Eador game, you're going to love this new one...unless you are a chronic complainer or a masochist.
When the game gets patched to fix up its flaws, then yes. Until then, it has its defects in comparison with Genesis.
Mind you I'm not encountering any crashes, but the lack of a hotseat option is quite a con for me until the patch that's due soon.
Quote from: Tpek on April 21, 2013, 02:29:53 PM
When the game gets patched to fix up its flaws, then yes. Until then, it has its defects in comparison with Genesis.
Mind you I'm not encountering any crashes, but the lack of a hotseat option is quite a con for me until the patch that's due soon.
Since I haven't and probably won't be playing anything but the single player game, I could care less about multiplayer or a hotseat option. Sorry I forget to mention that in my previous post in this thread.
I've had the chance to play for several hours today. Only had a couple of glitches with one particular province or other's information becoming froze on the screen. Definately not a game stopper. It has everything Genesis has but much more polished. I only plan to play single player so no troubles there. I must say I'm very pleased.
Noticed Steam was downloading a patch...
Quote
Patch Notes (22.04)
Hello everyone,
Today's patch for the game has the following changes and fixes:
- Updated HUD for provinces.
- Multiplayer stability is improved.
Fixed:
- While attacking his own guard a player could control both sides during the battle.
- While attacking an enemy hero who besieges an allied province, players could get a wrong description of the enemy's army.
- Missing battle results during exploring of a province's sights.
- Number of taken shards wasn't updated in the statistics.
- 'Keys of Truth' questline was considered complete after the tutorial ended.
- On the strategic map death of the last unit in an enemy AI's army by poisoning could lead to the game's crash.
- Tooltip display bug after conquering a shard.
- Impossible to hire heroes during the tutorial.
- Game crash during a battle with a unicorn.
- Dead units appearing during tactical battles.
- Game crash during a battle with no restriction for magic.
- Fixed 'Necromancy' skill.
During this week we'll also be adding to the game:
- Hotseat for the tactical mode.
- Turn timers in multiplayer.
- Faster unit animation.
Yeah, but they didn't bother to distribute the patch to GOG.
Instead they want people to use their broken and non-working patcher to download it. :P
Is it like the first game where you can only save as you exit the game, thus preventing you from saving before a tough battle so that you can reload and fight it again?
Quote from: Rayfer on April 22, 2013, 01:45:14 PM
Is it like the first game where you can only save as you exit the game, thus preventing you from saving before a tough battle so that you can reload and fight it again?
I remember this being in Genesis as well.
Quote from: Tpek on April 22, 2013, 02:23:12 PM
Quote from: Rayfer on April 22, 2013, 01:45:14 PM
Is it like the first game where you can only save as you exit the game, thus preventing you from saving before a tough battle so that you can reload and fight it again?
I remember this being in Genesis as well.
Yes, I was referring to Genesis (I thought that was the first game in this series?)...I was wondering if Masters of the Broken World works the same way or not?
You can save any time in Masters.
Quote from: Tpek on April 22, 2013, 12:52:40 PM
Yeah, but they didn't bother to distribute the patch to GOG.
Instead they want people to use their broken and non-working patcher to download it. :P
Did they release that update? I thought it was 'in the works'?
I plan on getting it trhough GOG, when I do. What's this non-working patcher thing?
Yes, patch is out. Apparently the auto installer for GoG doesn't work. I always use Steam to purchase games when I can so i can't say.
I'll be getting it later, too many other games I'm working on right now. (Besides this gets the bughunts out of the way.)
+1 although with the rate my Dom 3 empire is failing now, I might have some time soon! ;)
I've been holding off on first impressions for more than a week in large part because the game has been such a moving target. Snowbird has pushed out 4 patches in the first week, which says 2 things:
- The game wasn't quite ready for release and they should have held off. For whatever reasons (contractual obligations, trying to time their release between other competitor releases, etc.), they chose not to. That said, it's not like 1/4 of the titles out there aren't released in the same state.
- They're quickly whipping the game into shape. The auto-updater now seems to work just fine, and they're stomping out most of the universal game-affecting bugs (there are still a few which are causing real problems. But the team is committed to the game, and they've done more to remedy a buggy game release in the first seven days than lots of shops with 5x the budget will do in the first seven weeks.
My sense is that it's whipping into shape nicely and should be ready for a deep review in another couple weeks. A number of the longtime Eador players were expecting
MotBW to, at release, be
Genesis with a boob job, and in that expectation they've been sorely disappointed. But, with a few more patches under its belt, it'll be a much more beautiful version of
Genesis with better tooltips, good documentation, streamlined campaign play, and a few added features. Basically, I think it's shaping up to be everything I hoped it would be, but without real MP (which is a significant omission, but for $20, I'm not expecting the moon).
After seeing the pace of updates in the first week, I'm very optimistic that the game is shaping up nicely. Folks who never played Genesis before seem to love it, by and large. In the meantime, I'd honestly recommend holding off on it for another few weeks, just to give it a little more time to mature and to make sure that they continue to stamp out the bugs.
I'm planning to submit a review of
MotBW, but not until the game state has settled down a little bit and I've had more chance to test the state of that "settled" game state. Think I'll go play it for an hour right now while both my kids are sleeping, though!! ;D
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I think when Steam agrees to distribute a game, they basically force you to release on the date that was initially agreed to in the contract. They tell the developer "don't worry, with our system you can release as many patches as you want as soon as you want". Seems that alot of these indie releases on steam take a few weeks to get patched up. Same with StarDrive. I like it alot but it could have used a few more weeks
Quote from: mikeck on April 27, 2013, 04:23:38 PM
I think when Steam agrees to distribute a game, they basically force you to release on the date that was initially agreed to in the contract. They tell the developer "don't worry, with our system you can release as many patches as you want as soon as you want". Seems that alot of these indie releases on steam take a few weeks to get patched up. Same with StarDrive. I like it alot but it could have used a few more weeks
Don't forget that indie devs aren't exactly sitting on piles of money. That 4 extra weeks of development is 4 extra weeks of expenditures with no revenue coming in. It also adds to the overall development bill, meaning you now need more sales just to break even. And any time a game is delayed, a lot of potential buyers start wondering about it and go from "I'll buy on Day 1" to "Oh, it must be a mess. I'd better wait."
Yes, Steam has a release schedule and they fit you into "blocks" around the big-time releases (a few of which are coming in the next weeks and months). So indie developers basically have to take what they are assigned depending on the blockbusters. This is a big downside to Greenlight, it allows for "releases" that are actually just continuations of the beta.
SpaceSector has posted their review (http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/08/eador-masters-of-the-broken-world-review/). It's notable for at least a couple reasons:
1.) The author waited until now to do the review because he so many issues with various bugs the first month after release.
2.) He has only been able to get about halfway through the campaign.
I didn't realize that Masters of the Broken World isn't a true "sandbox" 4x game like MOM or the Elemental series. That alone is kind of a turn-off for me.
What do you mean? In addition to the campaign there are random maps.
I never had any bugs or crashes. Ran smooth. It was just boring and repetitive.
Quote from: mikeck on August 10, 2013, 08:33:04 AM
I never had any bugs or crashes. Ran smooth. It was just boring and repetitive.
Eador is a game you play in spurts.... I've never set down and played it over 30 min at a time.... There is randomness to the maps, but overall your strategic options are limited and thus the repetition sets in. With so many other games out there, I can recommend you skip this one. For me I play it in short spurts, but even then the turns maybe weeks apart.
PE
Now that I've quit GW 2, I've been looking for something to play so, is this worth picking up now?
Is the developer still providing support?
I keep hearing the game gets boring once you learn how to play it and each new patch breaks new things.
I don't know about the patching problems, and my experience is limited to portions of the opening 'screen', so please treat my testimony as very limited. But yes, I got bored with it quickly. I'm not at all sure why, because I love Master of Magic -type games. I felt like there was not only no momentum but somehow even anti-momentum. I can't put my finger on why I felt that, but there it is. My best (but still entirely intuitive) guess, is that there may be a subtle but prevalent interface design problem.
Also, I played a lot of King's Bounty (the new remake), and eventually got very tired of its tactical combat, with a side helping of what-the-hell-am-I-even-achieving-in-this-game. Eador's tactical combat runs very similarly, but with much less variety for the effort involved. Maybe that changes in later maps of the campaign, but I'm sure it didn't help me like this game better. As a sidenote, the similarity to the tactical combat was certainly a factor in why I've put off trying to beta test Mechwarrior Tactics, and I love Mechwarrior computer games, and the similarities in MWT aren't even more than superficial! So take that as a very subjective reaction on my part.
Actually, I'm on the opposite side of the fence in terms of repetition. I've played Masters of the Broken World probably 80-120 hours, and have only very recently found it starting to get repetitive. And that's after having spent 40-60 hours playing Genesis, which involves almost identical game play.
The game is deep, a lot deeper than any of the Heroes of Might & Magic or Kings Bounty series. Unfortunately, a lot of that depth is hidden from players, most often through game mechanics that aren't sufficiently well documented in the game's default literature or in the game's tool tips.
It is easy to get into a rut playing the game, and play every scenario the same way. However, the game itself is actually far better than most TBS Fantasy titles at offering up different "best" solutions to different situations. While you can probably win every Shard going for a Scout hero who specializes in Ranged Damage and fields an army of Swordsman and Healers, that's not always the best approach. Other Shards are more easily conquered by other types of heroes with other types of supporting units. Just as one example, the hero & complementing unit-mix you choose can and should be optimized versus the monsters in your home province and the surrounding six provinces that you need to conquer.
There's depth and replayability there, but it requires player who really are curious to plumb the depths of a gaming system to unlock it, and that's not for everybody.
In terms of continuing support for the game, Snowbird Games gets an A for Effort and a C- for Quality Control. The game was released 3-6 months too early and was a buggy mess, with multiple game-breaking (and even one or two game-spoiling) bugs. Since then, they've released 10-12 patches and dramatically improved the game. Sadly, every 4th or 5th patch introduces one or more major new bugs--some get fixed via a hotfix within a few days, others don't get fixed until the next patch comes out in another 2-5 weeks. The most recent patch was one of those, and the game is now in a less stable state than it was one or two patches back.
Judging by past history, they'll fix it sooner or later (and they've committed to releasing true Hotseat Multiplayer free-of-charge as well), but it can be an uphill climb waiting for them to fix stuff that was working until recently. The beauty of the game system is marred by the developers' inability to get their crap together, although it's shaped up to be a very nice, very deep game.
That said, getting into Eador is kind of like dating a sexy, bodacious witty and sexually voracious girlfriend who's really hard to get to know and who has really bad PMS.
For what it's worth, the only problem I've had with MotBW is the same problem I've had with certain other games in the genre (most notably King's Bounty) - no information on enemies. Unless I'm missing something - and I might well be - I can't see how to gauge the defenses of a province. So I have no idea whether the army I'm fielding is enough...the battle could be very easy or ridiculously difficult, and I don't know until I attack it. That's really off-putting to me.
It is fantastically deep though, and has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in a strategy game. I'll go back to it soon and try again.
Huw, that's exactly what I'm talking about in terms of depth of game play that's opaque to users because some stuff isn't spelled out as cleanly as it could be. As you may or may not know, Province Guards in the first ring around your castle are much easier to defeat (typically numbering 4 or possibly 5 defenders--5 only if they're wimpy) whereas Province Guards in the second ring out from your castle are harder to defeat (typically number 8 or 9 defenders).
The exact match-ups vary by Hero class (e.g., a Lvl 7 Scout does very well against Giant Spiders whereas a Lvl 7 Warrior is Spider-bait; but a well-armored Lvl 7 Warrior will chew through Centaurs that would shred a Lvl 7 Scout), but as a general rule, here's the difficulty of neutral province guards: Free Settlement < Goblins < Orcs < Bandits < Lizardmen < Prince's Land < Dwarves/Elves < Nomads/Wild Forests/Centaurs.
It takes a little trial and error, but once you know what you're doing, any Lvl 0 Hero with a few side-units of any sort can conquer Free Settlement or Goblin provinces without a battle (although you may not want the latter--Goblin provinces frequently contribute less in gold than they take away in late-game Corruption due to their lazy, sneaky habits).
Terrain also makes a difference. Warriors rock in Forests, where the terrain creates choke points and they can Melee opponents in detail as they come up. Scouts don't do as well in Forests, because the trees give enemies too many good hiding places and extra Ranged Defense. Scouts, however, do very well in Hills (where stationing yourself on top of a Hill gives one extra Range, and the Hills slow down oncoming opponents, giving your Bow time to decimate their ranks) and in Swamps (where Swamps end all movement for the turn and lower defense, giving your Bow time to decimate their ranks). Wizards do best in any terrain that slows opponents down.
Hope that helps!
That was an extremely helpful post, yes. Thank you!
Would it be better to just skip the campaign, then? Is that even possible? Or are you saying the game becomes more witty and sexually voracious on later shards, FAS? (I've heard some things to that effect.)
The Small and Tiny shards get pretty boring pretty quickly, but as you win more Shards in the campaign game (and get more Tier 2 and Tier 3 buildings that you can build) then the Shards start getting larger. I actually like the Average size shards. They're big enough to churn out some brutally difficult neutral monsters and they let me level my Hero up enough (level 15-22) that he gets to do some different things.
For me, the real killjoy is the bugs. There aren't many of them, especially compared to what they had at release, but when they introduce new ones (if only temporarily) it does leave a bad taste in your mouth.
But try to win the Tiny and Small shards as quickly as possible (this adds to the challenge, adds to your Victory points, and gives you more variety). The campaign game is long enough that there's no real reason to explore every Shard or conquer every province.
I'm a fan of Eador: Genesis and I know this one suffered through some bug issues.
What's the current status on the bug front?
The bug patch that was released on September 17th is still the last one that they've released, it's not as stable as its predecessors, and it reintroduced some bugs that had been previously fixed. They're promising a big patch (reportedly including Hotseat MP play) "sometime in December or January", but that promise and $4 will buy you a latte at Starbucks.
Based on previous history with what they've promised when and what they've delivered when, I'm not counting on the patch anytime before March or April. It's not even been released as a beta on Steam, which they promised to do (but again, their statements about things like that are... less than 100% reliable).
I completed an AAR on the game about 2 months ago, but have been waiting to see what sort of shape the next patch leaves the game in before I publish it here. I'd hate to suck additional folks into playing a game that is equal parts awesome (the game play is deep and very gratifying) and frustrating (the bugs dramatically mar what would otherwise be a very, very fine game).
If anybody's heard more or speaks Russian, I think there's a lot more up-to-date intelligence on the Russian-language side of the Snowbird forums.
Thanks sort of the impression I've gotten from reading some other forums. Too bad, but Eador: Genesis is a fun game with plenty of challenge.
Yes, it is. MotBW has a lot more potential upside (much better interface & tooltips, much larger variety of random events, quicker-moving campaign, etc.).
The bugs just kill me. It's like going out on a date with the most beautiful girl in the world, but she drools. Really hard for me to get past those imperfections, maybe because I like so many things about the game. (thus my 120+ hours of game play, despite the bugs)