Armageddon Empires

[Calistas]

It sounds neat - I'll give it a go tonight.

Mind you, you say no giant walking robot game, but boy does that market CRAVE a decent game to play. If I hear my mate go on about 10 year old mech games one more time!....

[Calistas]

Had a go - neat stuff! Getting things moving was tricky mind you. For a demo I'd recommend some kind of hint mechanism or popup in game.

Pretty good work mate, well done :)

[mutt]

Vic, if we need to redownload the full game, is there a way to do it?

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by Calistas

Pretty good work mate, well done :)

Thanks!

Originally Posted by muttbunch

Vic, if we need to redownload the full game, is there a way to do it?

You should be able to download for 60 days. Some of the early orders had a 30 day period so if your password has expired then send me an email with your name, orderID etc. and I can renew it.

support@crypticcomet.com

[strategy]

Originally Posted by Calistas

Had a go - neat stuff! Getting things moving was tricky mind you. For a demo I'd recommend some kind of hint mechanism or popup in game.

I've spent a little time on the demo as well now - fun experience so far. But let me add my voice to that suggestion - more tool tips would really come in handy to increase the accessibility of the game - especially in the demo.

[mutt]

In building our decks, it would be nice to have some kind of ability filter to show which cards share which special abilities. I was thinking maybe you could make it so if you click on an ability on a card, any other card types that share that ability would turn some color (like red, if red's not being used now) in the menu. That way, if we wanted to focus on, say, stealth in our deck, it would be easy to see which units were available to fulfill that role.

If you really wanted to get fancy, you could extend that idea to other things--e.g. AP cost or whatever--for decks built around cheap units and so on.

[Raife]

Does the AI know where your Stronghold is is off the bat? I've had enemy agents show up there early a couple of times now, and my current game had an Assassin there on turn 5. Kind of rough in a 5-point tile start, especially when they have the Slayer ability.

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by Raife

Does the AI know where your Stronghold is is off the bat? I've had enemy agents show up there early a couple of times now, and my current game had an Assassin there on turn 5. Kind of rough in a 5-point tile start, especially when they have the Slayer ability.

It has no idea. The AI does divide the map up in to sectors and keeps track of how well it has explored each one. And it has high priority goals to find every enemy's HQ. If it gets an assassin or sabotuer type hero early it does have the ability to send him on a probe type mission to try and harrass an enemy early even if it doesn't have an exact HQ location. Generally the search area is the nearest random suspected neighbor so the target is as likely to be an AI as the human if it's more than just 1 vs 1.

[mutt]

Vic, the Mutant Hero Mitochs card has "gentetics" instead of "genetics." Also, I ran into the Brotherhood of the Snake out in the wasteland, headed by some guy named Pliskin. His card is missing the ability descriptions.

[Raife]

Originally Posted by Vic Davis

It has no idea. The AI does divide the map up in to sectors and keeps track of how well it has explored each one.

That makes sense.

Originally Posted by Vic Davis

And it has high priority goals to find every enemy's HQ. If it gets an assassin or sabotuer type hero early it does have the ability to send him on a probe type mission to try and harrass an enemy early even if it doesn't have an exact HQ location.

Heh, mission accomplished.

Originally Posted by Vic Davis

Generally the search area is the nearest random suspected neighbor so the target is as likely to be an AI as the human if it's more than just 1 vs 1.

Got it, thanks.

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by muttbunch

Vic, the Mutant Hero Mitochs card has "gentetics" instead of "genetics." Also, I ran into the Brotherhood of the Snake out in the wasteland, headed by some guy named Pliskin. His card is missing the ability descriptions.

Thanks. That's odd about Plisken. I'll check him out. He should have something like master scout 1, stealth 6, and raider 1. None of that is showing up for you?

[mutt]

Originally Posted by Vic Davis

Thanks. That's odd about Plisken. I'll check him out. He should have something like master scout 1, stealth 6, and raider 1. None of that is showing up for you?

I should have worded that more carefully. "Master scout 1," etc. shows up on his card, but in the popup pad where there's normally a short description of each ability, that part's missing.

EDIT: Ok, I see what the problem is now: This has to do with armies in a base. When you click on an army in a base, the first card's info is displayed automatically in the info pad, but without the picture or the ability descriptions. If you click on the card itself, however, then the descriptions will show up.

Also, I noticed that when you first open the base screen, the first card in the garrison (where the garrison is selected by default) is not automatically displayed in the pad. That only happens when you manually click on the army name ("Garrison") in the left hand column. You might--or might not--want to change that.

[mutt]

(See the EDIT in my previous message first before reading this one if you haven't already.)

As a suggestion, why don't you just automatically display the first hero card in an army or garrison when the base display is opened up or the army name is clicked on in the left column? I mean the whole card, picture and all. And if there's no hero in charge of the army or garrison, don't display anything.

[mutt]

Another minor issue: I purchased Hirzal and put her on a base that already contained a hero. When I opened the base, the infopad window graphic was displayed over the base screen, blocking the "Close" button. The infopad was empty--just white space with a square where her picture would go--but it displayed nevertheless until I moused over it. Then it went away.

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by muttbunch

(See the EDIT in my previous message first before reading this one if you haven't already.)

As a suggestion, why don't you just automatically display the first hero card in an army or garrison when the base display is opened up or the army name is clicked on in the left column? I mean the whole card, picture and all. And if there's no hero in charge of the army or garrison, don't display anything.

Right now a click on the army text brings up the information about the army itself so you can see its experience level, prestige points gained etc. I'm hesitant to just default to the cards because that means another click on the army text to get the info up and displayed.

The info pad for the cards in the hand can be a little unruly. It sometimes sticks around if the card is being moved quickly and the mouse pointer comes off the card and then reenters. I've engineered it so that a light breeze gets rid of the pad so that it will never block anything...you can move the mouse over it to dismiss it or click on the game board. I'm going to also try and improve the safety locks a bit so that it doesn't stick around even when the cards are being whiplashed around.

[tiohn]

I just bought this. I'll play it some tonight.

Didn't I see somewhere about more sample decks to download?

[Vic Davis]

You can get a starter deck for the Mutants and Xenopods here. Just unzip them to your SaveDecks folder in My Documents\ArmageddonEmpiresGame

http://www.crypticcomet.com/Support.html

Down towards the bottom. They are just basic well rounded decks. You will want to start experimenting with your own. That's half the fun.

[tiohn]

Originally Posted by Vic Davis

You can get a starter deck for the Mutants and Xenopods here. Just unzip them to your SaveDecks folder in My Documents\ArmageddonEmpiresGame

http://www.crypticcomet.com/Support.html

Down towards the bottom. They are just basic well rounded decks. You will want to start experimenting with your own. That's half the fun.

thanks a lot. I was just looking for some more variety while i learn the system

[Raife]

Can every assassin use Fate when defending against assassination attempts? I never noticed that before, but the AI used Fate this way against me twice last game. Maybe I've just never had my assassins targeted, but I thought it was only Tactics cards.

[Edit]: Actually, one of them might have been when an enemy assassin was being hunted.

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by Raife

Can every assassin use Fate when defending against assassination attempts? I never noticed that before, but the AI used Fate this way against me twice last game. Maybe I've just never had my assassins targeted, but I thought it was only Tactics cards.

[Edit]: Actually, one of them might have been when an enemy assassin was being hunted.

Yeah, Assassins are special when they are the target of an assassination attempt. The challenge is considered a duel in that either the assassin or the target can be killed. The difference between the die rolls is applied as wounds to the loser. The targeted assassin also gets to use his fate.

In capture kill attempts the only way a hero can use their fate is if they have the "elusive" special ability.

[Raife]

Thanks, I guess I never ran into that situation before. I'll bet it's even covered in the manual!

Originally Posted by Vic Davis

In capture kill attempts the only way a hero can use their fate is if they have the "elusive" special ability.

Ah. Yeah, he did.

[Raife]

Is there any way to attack a stealthed (non-hero) unit that you've detected without moving an army away and back? That's the only way I've found to get the combat option to trigger, and it's kind of annoying when you're dealing with garrisons.

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by Raife

Is there any way to attack a stealthed (non-hero) unit that you've detected without moving an army away and back? That's the only way I've found to get the combat option to trigger, and it's kind of annoying when you're dealing with garrisons.

You get the option to attack when the stealthed army is first discovered by your moving unit (this is a free option no AP cost). Othewise you have to move a unit again and thus spend some AP to initiate combat. The garrison issue is annoying by design :) The idea was that a garrison can't easily sally out of its defensive positions to bring the stealthed army to battle. You have to be mobile. Thus the requirement that you move at least one army to initiate the combat.

[Raife]

Originally Posted by Vic Davis

You get the option to attack when the stealthed army is first discovered by your moving unit (this is a free option no AP cost). Othewise you have to move a unit again and thus spend some AP to initiate combat. The garrison issue is annoying by design :) The idea was that a garrison can't easily sally out of its defensive positions to bring the stealthed army to battle. You have to be mobile. Thus the requirement that you move at least one army to initiate the combat.

If it's discovered it by a moving army, yes. I'm talking about if a base sniffer, garrison, or an army sitting at the base discovers it passively. In that case, there's no way to have the sallied garrison or an army attack without moving it away and back. Any chance of adding an attack command for this situation? Maybe also allow any non-garrison army there a free attack as soon as it's discovered?

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by Raife

If it's discovered it by a moving army, yes. I'm talking about if a base sniffer, garrison, or an army sitting at the base discovers it passively. In that case, there's no way to have the sallied garrison or an army attack without moving it away and back. Any chance of adding an attack command for this situation? Maybe also allow any non-garrison army there a free attack as soon as it's discovered?

I see what your are saying. I think the attack needs to cost something and the way it works right now it's proportional to the size of your army stack. It's meant to be a negative balancing factor against garrisons and large killer stacks in a way. Let's say a pesky Imperial Recon unit is stealthed at you Home Hive. You have an 8 unit card army there guarding it. You now have to pay 9 Action Points (8 plus 1 for the hero) to chase that guy down. That should factor in your decision process. Of course if you have a small patrol army nearby that has just one recon unit card in it you can move him into the hex and initiate combat for just 1 Action Point. I look at it as a way to force the player to make some tough choices about force distribution.

[Raife]

That makes sense, and I should have to pay AP's to attack on my turn. It's just that having to move away and back to initiate an attack is both kind of annoying and potentially impossible depending on the terrain.

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by Raife

That makes sense, and I should have to pay AP's to attack on my turn. It's just that having to move away and back to initiate an attack is both kind of annoying and potentially impossible depending on the terrain.

Ah I see. You can just click on the same hex to move into it and start the combat. You don't have to leave the hex. Plus you get any observation checks you are entitled to so who knows what else you might discover.

[Raife]

Heh, I didn't even consider that.

[Raife]

Sort of a weird thing about some of the Tactics cards, and this may be as intended. You can play cards before the roll, so dropping a +dice card then will give you a better shot at success without having to worry about being able to tweak your successes later. However, if you drop a +success dice card before the roll, they'll still get rolled along with the rest of the dice.

I'd guess that -success dice cards played pre-roll probably work the same way.

[Vic Davis]

Originally Posted by Raife

Sort of a weird thing about some of the Tactics cards, and this may be as intended. You can play cards before the roll, so dropping a +dice card then will give you a better shot at success without having to worry about being able to tweak your successes later. However, if you drop a +success dice card before the roll, they'll still get rolled along with the rest of the dice.

I'd guess that -success dice cards played pre-roll probably work the same way.

Yeah you need to be careful about this. The add dice to the pool vs. add positive dice to the pool is a big difference. Same goes for removing dice vs just turning them negative played against the enemy dice pool. You are wasting the add positive dice card if you have to do a reroll at some point. Of course it gets tricky because if you wait to add the guarenteed positive dice you run the risk of the defender just accepting some small damage and ending the challenge right there (Defender's Perogative). It's all about risk vs. reward.