some questions and suggestions

[joe5000]

Hi,

I'm rather new here but a big fan of the game. I have some questions and also some suggestions. Perhaps the latter could be useful.

I recently read that there are some cheats, e.g., getting some resources and things like that. Can one somehow prevent that from being used in online multiplayer games? It would be unfair if one of the players used a cheat to get extra resources and gain advantage over the others.

I know that pathfinding is a big issue and causes the lagging. I understand that. However, it seems to affect only the moving units. For example, the battle rams hit the building with the same rate. This does not lag. It has happened that there were some battle rams already next to my building, hitting it but I could barely move my units because of the lagging. It would be much fairer and more balanced if the lagging would have the same effect on all units, something like slowing time for the whole game.

I read somewhere on the webpage of the game that the Roman siege camps and walls do not decay even when built in enemy territory. They used not to in prevous versions of the game but now they do, even if built on neutral ground. Is that a bug or is it intentional?

I think those siege camps and walls should became accessible already on Phase II. Now, on Phase III thay don't make much sense.

Perhaps the difference between units of different rank could be made more visible? At least one could put that information together with the rest that gets displayed when clicking on it. For example, Persian Archer, Rank I or something like that. I guess that, since the information is already there, that should not be difficult to implement.

It would be very helpful if there would be a more thorough list with what different buildings do. For instance, does it make difference for the shooting rate if I garnison archers or swardsmen in a defence tower or in a fortress? What is the arrow increase per soldier in percent?

Again, it is a great game. Keep it up!

[sanderd17]

Hi,

I'm rather new here but a big fan of the game. I have some questions and also some suggestions. Perhaps the latter could be useful.

I recently read that there are some cheats, e.g., getting some resources and things like that. Can one somehow prevent that from being used in online multiplayer games? It would be unfair if one of the players used a cheat to get extra resources and gain advantage over the others.

There's a setting for that in the gamesetup, under "more options". But I think cheats are disabled by default in multiplayer games.

I know that pathfinding is a big issue and causes the lagging. I understand that. However, it seems to affect only the moving units. For example, the battle rams hit the building with the same rate. This does not lag. It has happened that there were some battle rams already next to my building, hitting it but I could barely move my units because of the lagging. It would be much fairer and more balanced if the lagging would have the same effect on all units, something like slowing time for the whole game.

No, rams have the same lag. But you may have problems with your units trying to regroup in formation. Then they sometimes run back to the main group, which may be an issue if the main group is stuck after some obstacle. You may want to put your units in "no formation" mode to prevent this from happening. Apart from that, rams do indeed a lot of damage against buildings, so once a ram reaches a building, it's already too late.

I read somewhere on the webpage of the game that the Roman siege camps and walls do not decay even when built in enemy territory. They used not to in prevous versions of the game but now they do, even if built on neutral ground. Is that a bug or is it intentional?

I think that's intentional. There were players postponing their loss by building roman siege walls everywhere, and just garrisoning units in them at random places. Now that the walls decay, such a strategy isn't possible anymore (or at least harder)

I think those siege camps and walls should became accessible already on Phase II. Now, on Phase III thay don't make much sense.

Phase III is the phase that allows you to actually bring down cities. So the phase that gives you siege weaponry. If the army camps become available before that, they should have disabled siege units while in phase II at least. But I think army camps in phase II would be overpowered, as players don't have the means to bring down a building while they're in phase II.

Perhaps the difference between units of different rank could be made more visible? At least one could put that information together with the rest that gets displayed when clicking on it. For example, Persian Archer, Rank I or something like that. I guess that, since the information is already there, that should not be difficult to implement.

Ranks are disabled for now, to help with balancing. But this depends on how much stronger that higher-rank units actually are. If they're marginally stronger, it doesn't make sense to alter the gui for them. If the difference is big, that info might indeed be important. This doesn't sound so difficult, so if you can program a few lines, and want to help out, it's a good place to start I guess.

It would be very helpful if there would be a more thorough list with what different buildings do. For instance, does it make difference for the shooting rate if I garnison archers or swardsmen in a defence tower or in a fortress? What is the arrow increase per soldier in percent?

That count is hard to explain, and can even depend on the structure. For now, AFAIK, all infantry and also ranged cavalry increases the arrow count by a constant, and buildings also have a default arrow count. If you select a building, you can hoover the "attack" icon (the sword and shield in the middle of the selection pane), there you can see how many arrows are fired per time, and how strong the arrows are. The tooltip is updated when you garrison or ungarrison units. So with a bit of trial and error, you can find out a lot.

Again, it is a great game. Keep it up!

Thanks

[joe5000]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I remembered one more thing. What about introducing something like a factor for discipline that ranges between 0 and 1. It can be assigned based on the historical background of the corresponding civilization, e.g., Spartans and Romans are famous for having had a very disciplined army. So, a higher discipline factor could help preserve formations in battle or perhaps make the moving of units faster, at least in formation, compared to the same type of units but in a fraction with a lower discipline factor.

[feneur]

Higher ranked units are displayed differently in the GUI in that they have an icon over their portrait. There are most likely ways to make it more obvious though If you mean when there are more than one unit displayed that's probably a bit harder to do without making the GUI crowded with too much information, but it can probably be done one way or another.