Wood And Metal

[Sebovzeoueb]

Does anyone else find that you really need a lot of wood to play this game? Not necessarily saying that is a bad thing, but it seems to me that a disproportionate amount of wood is required compared to the other resources. I look forward to a faster wood cutting tech. On the plus side though, there do seem to be enough trees to support the wood requirement.

On the other hand, playing the Latium random map, I just had a map where I only had one metal mine, at my starting base. Once depleted I scoured the whole map for metal, but couldn't find any.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Well, to give some perspective, a Celt barracks costs less than 2 trees worth of Wood. Perhaps we can make buildings more expensive, while making units a bit cheaper.

[Kimball]

It depends on the faction to be honest. Greeks tend to be very wood-heavy, if that's what you've been basing your observation on.

In any case, keep in mind that the game is far from being balanced at this point in development. We're currently working on implementing at the very least basic iterations of all the features we intend to include before focusing on gameplay optimization. Once we've gotten to that point, we'll begin to fine tune unit stats and prices to ensure that gameplay is balanced, engaging and enjoyable.

[Sebovzeoueb]

I've found all of the factions to be pretty wood heavy. It's because pretty much all of the buildings (including farms) need wood, and most of the units too. I am aware that the game is far from finished, but I thought it may be useful to post my observations on this feedback forum, to help with the balancing when it occurs.

Well, to give some perspective, a Celt barracks costs less than 2 trees worth of Wood. Perhaps we can make buildings more expensive, while making units a bit cheaper.

I never thought about the costs of stuff in terms of trees before. That makes a lot of sense. If buildings are made more expensive though, I think there need to be appropriate increases in wood harvesting.

I currently reckon that about half of my gatherers are gathering wood, a quarter on food, and the other quarter between metal and stone, with an increase in the number assigned to metal once I start making strong units. And I still never seem to have enough wood.

Also I think houses are a bit expensive for the amount of population they provide. Especially with some units taking 2 or 3 population, meaning that you only get 2 or 3 unit increase with the houses that provide 5 population. While this is realistic, it requires building lots of houses, which in turn requires lots of wood. I'm thinking in terms of trying to raise armies of 500 or so units. The Romans could have Insulae (block of flats) to house more population, but I'm not sure about the other factions.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I never thought about the costs of stuff in terms of trees before. That makes a lot of sense. If buildings are made more expensive though, I think there need to be appropriate increases in wood harvesting.

Do you have the SVN version or an Alpha version? I increased Trees to 200 Wood in the latest SVN version.

I currently reckon that about half of my gatherers are gathering wood, a quarter on food, and the other quarter between metal and stone, with an increase in the number assigned to metal once I start making strong units. And I still never seem to have enough wood.

That seems like the same ratio as in Age of Kings and AOM, IMHO.

The Romans could have Insulae (block of flats) to house more population, but I'm not sure about the other factions.

Barbarians (Celts, Iberians) have houses that give 5 pop. "Civilized" factions (Greeks, Romans, Persians, Carthage) have houses that are larger, cost a little more, and give 10 pop. I think we'll give the Imperial Romans in Part II the Insula.

[Sebovzeoueb]

I'm using mtkaz's OS X Alpha 5 binary. I don't really get how SVN works, but I assume it involves compiling (I'm a noob at that kind of stuff).

My problem isn't the quantity of wood on the maps, it's the gathering speed, but with techs I imagine it will be possible to gather wood faster.

Maybe in the later phases (that's what your calling "Ages" right?) we could have bigger houses or something, like a celtic longhouse for example.

[chaosislife]

the main point of the svn is compiling from what i can tell but oddly enuf i've found that i don't have to compile it to run the game, the textures load slowly at startup but everything else runs fine and i can see what the team has done since the last alpha.

Honestly, I've found myself wishing i had more things to spend my vast amounts of wood on, it's metal and rock that disappear too quickly and i can't farm for either one. This would probably be more of a problem if I couldn't rule the map with just spear chuckers and some towers. Does take forever to take out a town with ranged units tho.

Edited June 13, 2011 by chaosislife

[Mythos_Ruler]

the main point of the svn is compiling from what i can tell but oddly enuf i've found that i don't have to compile it to run the game, the textures load slowly at startup but everything else runs fine and i can see what the team has done since the last alpha.

If you're running Windows, there is a pre-compiled exe in the SVN repository. It gets recompiled automatically every so often to include changes in the source code.

[chaosislife]

If you're running Windows, there is a pre-compiled exe in the SVN repository. It gets recompiled automatically every so often to include changes in the source code.

Is that what that auto build thing is for?

[feneur]

Is that what that auto build thing is for?

Yep