Eador: Masters of the Broken World

[mikeck]

I never had any bugs or crashes. Ran smooth. It was just boring and repetitive.

[PanzersEast]

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

[SgtRock]

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.

[JasonPratt]

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.

[FarAway Sooner]

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.

[Huw the Poo]

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.

[FarAway Sooner]

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!

[Huw the Poo]

That was an extremely helpful post, yes.  Thank you!

[JasonPratt]

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.)

[FarAway Sooner]

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.

[Bison]

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?

[FarAway Sooner]

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.

[Bison]

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.

[FarAway Sooner]

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)