PurpleSector

ooooooo!!! you really told me didnt you? pfffft...I remember 6 years ago when I was Ferrari_Warrior and all of you told me I was crazy for suggesting you go open source....I stand by my remarks. Just keep bloating the game with civ after civ and feature after feature and watch what happens...it won't be any fun to play....not that you can even play it now (after 10 years)...pffffffffffffffffft...same old same old...

You know what you think what you want to think. I worked at Gas Powered Games and I saw what those guys went through balancing units...it took weeks of attack scenarios and tweeking...that is EXACTLY how you balance units. So keep living in dreamland, you will find out later when the game is mature and all the good players play the exact same civ and own everyone. Find out the hard way. Be my guest.

Perfect example. So you think because there is a counter unit to these elephants they are not overpowered? This is what I mean. The problem with the Carthage elephants is how quickly they take down structures when massed. Try it yourself, play qbot very hard in death match mode, and let the computer player build for a while - then mass the elephants. You will see what I mean. So you really think in say a 3v3 MP game massed carthage elephants wont be able to attack unopposed? And already you are talking about restricting buildings or units as a balancing measure? What real RTS player would want that? This is just one example...and these kind of problems are going to be compounded per civ. I'm sorry but you kids are in la la land. There is decades of RTS development behind you, all with competitive play balancing issues. These issue were in games with peer to peer civs that worked relatively the same way, and you guys have created something like Carthage and Rome and think its possible to balance this as an after thought? LOL.

I'll just say this final thing - if you want to see the most overpowered unit in the history of any RTS - play deathmatch and mass Carthage elephants...in fact, Carthage is some kind of super RTS civ - 4 different barracks, sacred band out of temples, and uber elephants...I mean maybe you folks are some kind of geniuses and know how to balance an RTS better than all the studios that came before you, including Ensemble, but I seriously doubt it...I think you are deluding yourselves...IMO balancing this game is going to be incredibly difficult and it may never happen...I see at least 5 different totally overpowered units...

I have played multiplayer on the LAN - I could not even imagine MP over the internet - the unit lag would be horrible, as over a LAN its already unplayable. But it's an Alpha release so...it is very nice to get a feel for it. But yeah, no offence but your team is making the classic mistake all developer driven teams make. Too much content not enough optimization. It's a shame as you have something great, but having been in the creative and dev tech industry since 1991 or so, I'm sorry to see that you are making such a big mistake. If you take a look at any other RTS that has ever been produced and played extensively, the development team started with a manageable set of feature set and optimized it. Trying to release version 1.0 with this many civs is just a mistake...you will never keep up...you have literally 3 releases and you are trying to cram it all into one release...makes me wonder what kind of leadership you have at the project management level... That is my feedback good/bad/or indifferent. I urge you once again to focus on Sparta, Athens, Carthage, Persia, and Rome. Release the other civs in follow on versions...this will give you the time and space to address the serious performance issues you have and narrow your focus so you can balance the civs in a measured way...this is really development 101...I'm not sure what else to say...

48 year old male in Seattle...long time RTS player. I'm sure you know the game is unplayable with the massive lag, but that is what Alpha is I suppose. Been playing death match mode just to get a feel for the fighting. I don't really get the formations unless they are just still really buggy...the soldiers do odd things when you assign them to a control group and try to focus the attack, its best to just select them and control click towards the enemy. That's a little disappointing as micro should matter more, but again, might just be the alpha nature of everything. It's an impressive game overall - but I really doubt you will ever balance all of these civs. I'd suggest dropping half of them, just stick with like the Spartans, Athenians, Persians, Carthage and Rome. This will be far easier to balance, then you can release the others one at a time and balance those carefully. I mean right now, looks like a Spartan rush is near unstoppable... My suggestion would be narrow the civs as suggested above, improve the tech three (more choices), and work on the lag...it is really really bad.