First of all, FF is a great game with lots of original mechanics and beautiful atmosphere.
I’ve played only once, 7 hours (20 in-game years). v0.9.6. Let me share my experience.
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Difficulty. I’ve set to Vanquisher and prepared to die, but … game was very easy with no challenges at all.
1.1. Raiders very weak, can be killed by 2-3 hunters with some micro. 6 archers + 6 swordsmans are unbeatable without micro. Just send them against any Raider group (Alt + Click) and they will kill them without loses. Even if you do not abuse Raiders AI (check AI part). So, Walls and Towers are useless, because you can kill all raiders in the field before they reach village. But sieges are the most interesting part of such games!
And 12 soldiers can beat any Raiders camp without loses (except one with 4 towers).
1.2. No hunger, just build Fisherman hut + Smokehouse and forget about food. Nothing can stop food collection. I love survival games like Rimworld/Stronghold, but in FF food collection is just a routine, not challenge.
1.3. No more than 2 sick villagers at the same time (and recovers very fast with 100% guarantee, just need hospital).
1.4. Every hostile animal easily killed by 2 hunters. Just need some micro.
I understand that i can add difficulty by custom tuning (will try later), but it looks un-natural, like “skip first 100 turns” in other games".
Proposal 0: Add at least 2 difficulty levels (5 in total). And add remark that player can’t lose in first 3 levels. -
AI
2.1. Raiders is moving without attack, one by one in line. If you just intercept them on the march - most of them will die without attacking.
Proposal A: Move using formations (not in line)
Proposal B: Move in “kill on sight” mode
2.2. Small raiders groups (5-6 mans) every time came in the same places (Ruins). That a purpose of this attack? You can just send your 6 swordmans to kill them all. It’s just a routine, not challenge.
Proposal C: Small raiders group must attack outpost / mines.
2.3. On year 20 (250 villagers, 24 soldiers) came 26 raiders. I’ve tried to remove all villagers and soldiers from the village (just call the Bell on the City center). To see how much damage Raid will do. Result: no damage. All died near the city center. It looks like raiders do not want to make damage, just pretend they want to. They walk past Gold mine (with 40 gold ore stored), but hits only temporary house nearby. And even did not destroyed temporary house (about 10% health left). Why? Thieves ignored 40 gold ore. So i can conclude that Raiders is a fictional disaster, soldiers / towers / walls is not needed at all.
Proposal D: Thieves should “steal on sight”. Amount of stolen displayed in icon/bubble will be helpful.
Proposal E: Part of Raid warriors should “destroy buildings on sight” and “kill villagers on sight”
Proposal F: Raiders should make some calculations before attack. If forces is not enough to destroy City center - do not come to City center, destroy buildings on the way.
I understand that taking too much damage to village will be hard to restore, because supply chains are fragile and killed people can’t be restored fast, but we can solve this by:
- Raiders can stop harassing after some time. Can retreat (or die under city center) after destroying some building / timeout reached and so on.
- Boost after Raid (morale / immigration / productivity)
2.4. Even in “Attack” formation Archers do not shoot enemy in range. Has status “Waiting”, “Moving to destination” (but holding / not moving). After some time - starts shooting. Looks like “enemy in range” algorithm has a bug. The most annoying with wolves. Wolves can come close to Archers and attack them. Move + Attack command (Alt + Click) also has a problem: sometimes Archers move close to enemy instead of shooting. After about 10 meters - starts shooting.
AI is the most common problem in long strategy games because online match vs human is not possible.
And i have an abstract question: Why nobody uses Neuro-net? A lot of players can teach neuro-net for free just playing vs AI.
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Balance
3.1. Bread is useless. Required 4 farmers + 1 mill + 2 bakers. Has farming risks. At the output: 500 - 800 food (6 months storage time). Same 6 fishermans + 1 smoke produce 900 - 1200 food (19 months storage) without any risks.
3.2. Farming (including animals) is useless at all. Requires too many peoples and buildings with small output. Hunting / fishing / fruits are more promising.
Proposal G: Tune balance to make Farming more effective, decrease fishing / foraging effectivity after some years.
3.3. Improving village do not have too much advantages. Taxes / luxuries / trade requires a lot of people and do not give too much in output. Sending people to Gold mine is much more effective.
Proposal H: Decrease Gold mine effectivity of add bonuses for upgrading buildings (more peoples in houses, more taxes…)
3.4. Peoples was the main problem for me. I’ve built everything for them, but every time got “Laborers amount very low” warning. Especially after 100 villagers. It’s looks like “peoples, spent to attract new people is not pay off”. -
Interface
4.1. Fish depleting is not clear. Fish amount in the lake is not changing until drops to 0.
Proposal I: Add warning when Fisherman’s huts is too much for the lake, or other indication of fish depleting process.
4.2. Gold report is unclear. Monthly and more detailed report will be helpful.
4.3. “No water in house” indication when house is right under the Well looks strange. I understand that the problem is that Residents just far away and did not refill water. But when Fisherman has all that he need in the hut, but must return home to refill water - looks strange.
Proposal J: Display “No water” warning only when resident tries to refill water but unsuccessful.
4.4. I’ve set Ruins as Priority target, no other priority targets exist. But workers do not want to go to Ruins. Only when i have a LOT of workers they do.
Proposal K: Priority must work as expected.
4.5. When i build something on the Tree/Rock, clearing ground automatically sets as a Priority for workers.
Proposal L: Manual priority should be more important when automatic.
4.6. “Units do not want to do what i want” - is the most annoying in FF and in similar games (Majesty, Settlers…). So, when i send worker to Wounded villager / expansive item (Sword/gold…) on the ground / ruin… I’m expecting that he will take care.
Proposal M: Make the same mechanic like with Hunters → Dead animal carcass.
General proposal:
Possibility of attacking another village will be great. On the same map (like Settlers) or on the another map (like Rimworld).