Really good design, I hope you will flesh it out with more content. The thematic tie is strong too.
Do you plan to add things to make it a whole game? With for instance, a campaign mode with a map of the realm to conquer or an encyclopedia with all the units discovered.
UI could be improved I believe, for instance by adding icons to specify the troop type on the card and clarify the damage type and life points better than just colours.
Also, the Elephant Archer description could be explained a bit more too, to make it clear that the troop just before it that benefit from its power.
I do plan to expand it. So far, the reception has been quite warm!
What's your idea about campaign mode? Honestly interested in that. I have some ideas on how to expand it beyond the current one-run gameplay, so I would love to hear other opinions.
Thanks for UI suggestions, that's something I'm always working on to improve. Although I'm very cautious with information overload, I'm trying to keep it minimal. - "specify the troop type": can't imagine right now what the use cases are for that - "clarify the damage type": it is coded in damage color (for damage type) and range color (for attack type), and also in the tooltip - "life points better": not sure what additional information is needed about life points. Maybe you're referring to when the unit is damaged?
Good insight on Elephant Archer, will look into that.
Campaign mode could be a succession of islands or regions, each one would be the current game, ending with the enemy defeat. After you win, you go to an other island and grow your army from the start again, caused you create a new outpost.
Not all the troops, troop evolutions and technologies would be available upfront, they would be unlocked progressively after your victories on each island or region. This could serve as an in-game tutorial with progressive difficulty and rewards for players, as they unlock new contents leading to new strategies.
You could even maybe make some choices, like do you good to the desert biome or the jungle biome for your next destination? Each one having different focus for the enemies strategies or advantages, and unlock different troops and technologies.
That also would be an opportunity to make different battle backgrounds based on the biome and to see a map you conquest, one after an other island or region.
---
Concerning the UI, my use case is that I would benefit for assessing the current board state at a glance.
For instance, knowing clearly with strong visual cues:
the age of each troop (to asset overall advancement and strength)
if they are an evolved version or not (which the indication is very subtle currently)
their type (to know which ones are affected by a technology or power)
the overall damage type (currently their is multiple numbers in squares of the same colour, like attack, range and armour are all the same, which was hard to grasp during my first plays and my eyes don't distinguish clearly the difference between the piercing colour and the health colour)
Some QoL improvements, I think could help:
highlighting all the troops benefiting from a technology when hovering on its icons and reading the tooltip
in the troops tooltip, decomposing base number from improvements by technologies or powers (like Swordsman: Attack melee 5 (3+2))
having the possibility to see our current army while choosing a troop evolution or a technology
knowing how much gold we will earn next round if we survive
---
On a side note, there's seems to be a bug when a Scythed Chariot inflict is bonus 1 damage to a Maori Warrior, making the Scythed Chariot losing 1 piercing attack, even if Maori Warrior power should only affect melee troop.
---
Finally, if you want to discuss more about the UI of the cards, I could develop my thoughts, which are coming from my experience in the boardgaming and cardgaming space.
This one is just for the fun of experimenting (as I played hundreds of games already :D ) but you can mess a bit with the central UI for turn, speed and victory message, if you buy enough technologies.
Also at some point the opponent ai seems to give up on improving its army.
I wish you the best until the next update and thank you for the game!
Oh, you’re really pushed the limits there. I’ll think how to move this panel when too much technologies.
I’m right now in the middle of the next big update, with a lot of balancing (cav archers primarily) and rewriting enemy AI from scratch. This should also fix their late game.
Right now the enemy works based on the weight system, while I want to make it play by the same rules as player. But this might make it easier to beat, what maybe not that bad, as right now average win rate is 30%, and around 20% for the tutorial game.
I would love to help advertise this game I am starting a company and want to give a few developers free advertisement on my website and discord and youtube(soon to be started) this is a company start up would you be interested? (https://www.greyboxinteractive.store/)
Ah yes, this design decision again. Making both sides attack a random enemy, instead of any kind of pattern. So win/loss depends 100% on targeting RNG. Love that.
There is actually a certain system for targeting. Right now, I haven't decided yet on how to explain it to the player, or whether I should even.
Basically, when the units are choosing the target, it always picks the unit in range that was attacked the least amount of times this turn.
This means, for example, that if the infantry attacked the front-most unit, the cavalry behind would avoid it and attack units in the back. This allows for some planning and strategy. Although it does not remove the randomness factor completely, which is a definition of the autobattlers genre at this point.
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Really good design, I hope you will flesh it out with more content. The thematic tie is strong too.
Do you plan to add things to make it a whole game? With for instance, a campaign mode with a map of the realm to conquer or an encyclopedia with all the units discovered.
UI could be improved I believe, for instance by adding icons to specify the troop type on the card and clarify the damage type and life points better than just colours.
Also, the Elephant Archer description could be explained a bit more too, to make it clear that the troop just before it that benefit from its power.
Overall a promising game!
I do plan to expand it. So far, the reception has been quite warm!
What's your idea about campaign mode? Honestly interested in that. I have some ideas on how to expand it beyond the current one-run gameplay, so I would love to hear other opinions.
Thanks for UI suggestions, that's something I'm always working on to improve. Although I'm very cautious with information overload, I'm trying to keep it minimal.
- "specify the troop type": can't imagine right now what the use cases are for that
- "clarify the damage type": it is coded in damage color (for damage type) and range color (for attack type), and also in the tooltip
- "life points better": not sure what additional information is needed about life points. Maybe you're referring to when the unit is damaged?
Good insight on Elephant Archer, will look into that.
Thank you for the feedback, very helpful!
Campaign mode could be a succession of islands or regions, each one would be the current game, ending with the enemy defeat. After you win, you go to an other island and grow your army from the start again, caused you create a new outpost.
Not all the troops, troop evolutions and technologies would be available upfront, they would be unlocked progressively after your victories on each island or region. This could serve as an in-game tutorial with progressive difficulty and rewards for players, as they unlock new contents leading to new strategies.
You could even maybe make some choices, like do you good to the desert biome or the jungle biome for your next destination? Each one having different focus for the enemies strategies or advantages, and unlock different troops and technologies.
That also would be an opportunity to make different battle backgrounds based on the biome and to see a map you conquest, one after an other island or region.
---
Concerning the UI, my use case is that I would benefit for assessing the current board state at a glance.
For instance, knowing clearly with strong visual cues:
Some QoL improvements, I think could help:
---
On a side note, there's seems to be a bug when a Scythed Chariot inflict is bonus 1 damage to a Maori Warrior, making the Scythed Chariot losing 1 piercing attack, even if Maori Warrior power should only affect melee troop.
---
Finally, if you want to discuss more about the UI of the cards, I could develop my thoughts, which are coming from my experience in the boardgaming and cardgaming space.
This one is just for the fun of experimenting (as I played hundreds of games already :D ) but you can mess a bit with the central UI for turn, speed and victory message, if you buy enough technologies.
Also at some point the opponent ai seems to give up on improving its army.
I wish you the best until the next update and thank you for the game!
Oh, you’re really pushed the limits there. I’ll think how to move this panel when too much technologies.
I’m right now in the middle of the next big update, with a lot of balancing (cav archers primarily) and rewriting enemy AI from scratch. This should also fix their late game.
Right now the enemy works based on the weight system, while I want to make it play by the same rules as player. But this might make it easier to beat, what maybe not that bad, as right now average win rate is 30%, and around 20% for the tutorial game.
Thank you for the kind words!
I would love to help advertise this game I am starting a company and want to give a few developers free advertisement on my website and discord and youtube(soon to be started) this is a company start up would you be interested? (https://www.greyboxinteractive.store/)
It's on the website now
Ah yes, this design decision again. Making both sides attack a random enemy, instead of any kind of pattern. So win/loss depends 100% on targeting RNG. Love that.
There's many way to mitigate the RNG. Using placement, synergies and troops that counter the enemy troops abilities.
I consistently win 90% of my game, after I played a lot and understood the system.
90% is honestly very impressive!
There is actually a certain system for targeting. Right now, I haven't decided yet on how to explain it to the player, or whether I should even.
Basically, when the units are choosing the target, it always picks the unit in range that was attacked the least amount of times this turn.
This means, for example, that if the infantry attacked the front-most unit, the cavalry behind would avoid it and attack units in the back. This allows for some planning and strategy.
Although it does not remove the randomness factor completely, which is a definition of the autobattlers genre at this point.
cool game
Nice game! Thx!