Intro:

So... since I couldn't find a specific thread made for feature requests / game suggestions, I decided to make one. It's long overdue since I was planning to make it a year ago but then again, I didn't know anything then either.

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- Feature to preview / watch games along with a different interface for it that summarizes all the player's action.

- Larger, pop-up chatbox in-game (PLEASE! it's so small and difficult to scroll)

- (Ironic) Clear out the green update that appears in the chatbox in-game after a game starts since nobody reads it, it's redundant as you can't read it outside of the game and it REVEALS your opponents in FoW ... (E.g. Player is now Leader of Eire, Player is ready, 3v3 FTW has started)

- Allow more liberal features for hosts such as kicking, disconnecting, choosing starting locations (for other players), inviting (and accepting requests) players to the game, see who end turns late, see active/afk players (through ActionsPerMinute?), etc.

- Require two clicks of "End Turn" to actually do it as I'm sure a lot of people have accidentally ended their turn before doing anything.

- Complete overhaul of the UI as it is horrible, both in-game and in the Lobby! No friend/ignore lists, no options to (click) whisper players in-game (even though you can check who's in-game by clicking the silhouette on top-right of chatbox), no invites/requests to games, no "Show (Active) Players" from Lobby, unresponsive scroll bar (You have to even click a specific spot or else it won't move), etc.

- Disable / Close games that are completed after a set period of time as I sometimes see afk players losing their caps to AI's or completionists that conquer the whole map and stay in the game for hours doing nothing (e.g. turn 137). Likewise, automatically log off people who idle or are afk from the lobby after a set period of time.

- Add a "Pause" button to games that will save all the stats and progress of the game to the Host, accessible through a directory (whether locally or online). This has multi-purposes as you can replay games at a later time, watch it to learn from mistakes, share it around if it's an epic game or extremely balanced game, etc.

- No extra guest logins for similar IPs to make it harder for Anons to disrupt games, stalkers to uh... stalk people?, etc. Another option would be to limit the features a guest can access like only able to play Singleplayer. For those wanting to double, there should be an option for registered users such as:
A) access to play several slots in a game at once
B) generate mirror accounts that can be recognized as 1 person through bundles/groups? (No more aliases!!!)
C) separate lobbies for users and guests?

- Introduce more user (and noob/newb)-friendly features that can be enabled/disabled through options. Examples include: Warnings when ending turn w/o doing anything, warning when not switching any production after a period of time, warning when turn is about to end, tips and suggestions when deciding on Turn Orders, etc.

- Add a Leaderboard / Rankings, Points, Achievements, Prestige / Status, Class, etc!! Something that can encourage more activity like advantages to active players! Also, if possible, use the Rankings to determine and create balanced team games when players choose random so that the skill level does not become overly favored on 1 side.

- Obviously, allow more customization for users such as Profiles, Avatars/Display Pics, Coat of Arms, specialized features (like Attila: advance 1 turn less for all lands) maybe costing points to make it less unfair?, etc.

- "Report Bug", "Suggestions/Feedback", "Request Assistance" (through email?) forms added to the game.

- Perhaps a change in the in-game interface where specific actions can be done through pop-up windows so more (text-based) features can be added? Why not create a separate server for the developmental testing so it doesn't affect normal gameplay?
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Anyway, this is all from me for now. I've probably had/heard other *great* ideas that sadly, I've forgotten so I'll be adding & removing to this list (or post an updated one if I can't edit this post) so this isn't final by any means. Overall, I'll probably be using this thread to add other general thoughts that I think can improve the game (not specific suggestions) and I'm sure the feedback'll be just as varied...

This is all just earnest ideas of mine which, mind you, shouldn't be taken too seriously but I just hope they sound practical enough to be (eventually >.>) added to the game and make it more dynamic and interesting ... (Considering it's been unchanged for 13+ years and yet has so much potential...)

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P.S. Xuul/Alex, this (*ANCIENT!!!*) forum needs to be replaced please, it's hurting my eyes :/ There isn't even any Bold/Italic/Underline or color options that's standard! >_<

P.P.S. I'll probably recycle ideas from the old 'Feature Requests' forum in the Archives since I'm sure some if not a lot (*most*) features haven't been fully implemented.

P.P.P.S. Can this get stickied? :3



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2014 11:45AM by Fenix.

Oh Fenix, you are so great! This is a very good and comprehensive feedback. I can assure you that most of these points have already been discussed and many are on the todo list already (like new forum, leaderboard, ranking, better community features at all).

I will update my todo list by this thread and your bug report in the other thread and some of these points might be part of the next release.

You live in australia right? I would like to invite you to a skype call in the next weeks so we can talk about all your suggestions a little deeper.

Please always keep in mind that this game is merely a 1-programmer-show and that i have a regular job and family w/ children besides.

i have a suggestion, and one that should not be to hard to implement. i have been using the generated maps lately, and like the "blind capital" aspect, only it sometimes comes up with short distances like saxony - corsica, which was tricky anyway, but with the hidden capitals and FoW added, they are pretty much unplayable, so i suggest a minimum 5 step distance (in case of 3x3) if FoW is turned on. i say 5, because 4, like for example hanover - corsica turned out not to work very well either. thank you. and sincere greetings to your wife, children and extended family.

:D

P.S. good job. i have been cursing you a lot less lately )))

"guess who's advancing"

Fenix, yes, I hope to replace this aging forum (which uses Phorum) with a new one that will tie into your in-game username. I haven't decided whether or not to custom build one from scratch or try to implement an existing solution.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2014 03:27PM by Alexey.

actually i do have another suggestion. for "blind maps" make the colors random. now the greens are always in center, yellow in spain, red in UK, etc. so while we don't know the exact caps, we still know who is in which approximate position.

The colour issue sounds reasonable atti... gonna do that. Is 4 steps rly unplayable? Cant u build a fort and see what happens?

well, 4 steps is borderline, i personally dislike it, because it decreases the strategy factor and increases the luck factor, if i want that i will play slots ))) now 3 steps, like we had sax-cors 2x today is undesirable even without FoW ))

4 steps is fine in my opinion so I'm going to play devil's advocate to Attila's suggestion.

The close capitals tend to not work out very well for people that just grab their surrounding lands and rush advancement in the capital. This game has many different winning strategies and play styles. I don't believe that having FoW ON should change the distances of the starting lands. I do feel that people should be aware that if they are playing in the middle position in a N vs S game they may be closer to the enemy and should employ alternate strategies and/or use of the sight from forts/diplo's or even try expanding 1 extra space so you have time to react and change production. Sometimes a fast game is nice instead of always playing epic long games.

Suggestion: Maybe the FoG game option needs a couple of choices for Epic games with larger distances between capitals and shorter distances for quick Skirmish type games

I was trying to think of a suggestion to make regarding diplomats. I love that they give additional sight now but I feel they are still fairly useless beyond their initial use when capturing new lands. I can honestly say I have never used the 25 diplomats to increase sight by 5. If I had the resources for that on my front lines I'd just expand instead.

Unfortunately I haven't come up with much for diplomats that would actually allow them to be used strategically without feeling as though resources are being wasted needlessly.

This is what I came up with so far:

1st idea - Allow diplomats to see through fog of war games to reveal an increasing amount of info on the enemy's score tab. 3 diplo's reveal the number of lands he has, 6 might reveal how many armies 15 would reveal his capital or population.

2nd idea - is to allow diplomats to agressively spread culture to neighbouring lands. Instead of making armies to capture all the lands around, you could make diplomats and make them rebel. It might still be faster to use soldiers, but this way you could subvert neutral and enemy lands without the limitation of 5 physical soldier movements. It could also be used to reduce production in enemy front lands if by making them discontent.

i think there arent so much config with 4 steps.. but i plan to make the config public anyway, so u can change them. besides, i like the "epic vs skirmish" idea.

about diplomats.. using 25 diplomats is rly pretty useless, but expanding fast and using dilomats to peace the rebellious lands is a strong strategy. currently, i play this fast expand style building dipls in all lands which cannot make 1 army per turn and i am very successful with it. however i like the idea to reveal more score info.

imho, it is more important to push the castle. a fort and a keep are very useful since they give u good control over an area in fog of war. but a castle is extremely expensive and its just not worth its cost. i am thinking about increasing the sight for a castle from 4 to 5.. any other ideas?

Some other ideas I came across:

- Allow hosts to choose the auto-generation of resources for the map so you can find lots of devs or mostly prim early on. (Abundant/Rich - Balanced - Impoverished "modes"?)

- Add much more detail involving influence so it shows something OTHER than "hostile to me" ... makes much more sense if you also show "Supportive to Ally / [AI/Player Name], especially for Team Games. Another, more flexible, method is showing how much influence affects lands in percentage (positive/negative %) per turn. Positive from culture and negative from losing troops on that land during winter, for example.

- I think you should formally name (Forts, Keeps, Castles) as Battlements/Fortifications or something like that so players don't refer to castling as forting, etc... better yet, rename the existing defenses to less general terms like Citadel, Stronghold, etc.

- (Balance) you should remove* the defensive aspect of forts/keeps/castles in Fog so their role is more for vision than both. Another solution is they can cost cheaper but have much less defense rather than increasing sight for them since sight is for the most part, only useful during the early game where you're vulnerable to rushes. In mid- to late game it's not as important since you've pretty much taken vital adjacent lands and can see where the enemy's at.

- Allow editing of own posts in the forums as you can only do that before someone replies to your thread/post.

- The game and forums do not appear as browser pop-ups when clicked, cuz it's kinda annoying imo :P If I wanted it on a new window, I would open it as such but atm, you can only open it on a tab by typing the url directly.

- Allow the option for hosts to "lock" games*** so that if they are the sole player, they can leave, re-join and switch capitals rather than closing the game. A more flexible way of doing this is letting users already in-game/playing to be able to switch capitals through the chatbox/stats so balancing teams is also applicable.

- Allow users to spectate a game through the "waiting room" of a multiplayer game. Maybe add an extra tab in the lobby where it separates "Players" from "Spectators"? A good example is if a game is full and the only slots are for "AI Only", they can't play but are able to join the game / "waiting room".

- Allow more customization options such as allowing player/host to choose colors for starting lands (this should be obvious tbh, since you can choose custom flags) plus upload and/or save custom flags so they don't have to choose each time they join a game. Specifying the auto-generation of the map for games should be possible as well like choosing North vs South than East vs West rather than random.



~~~~~~ The following ideas is for a more dynamic change to the game, meaning it's drastically different to current versions** ~~~~~~



- Adding on to six's ideas on possible uses for diplomats, my suggestion is that they become capable of temporarily boosting production by % that increase as lands become more happy/angry with you. (i.e. Devoted, Supportive, Content, Restless, Rebellious)

- Seasons have a more important role in the game. E.g. you get a small boost in production during spring/summer like +2 troops (OR) you have worse battle odds during winter (in fog, for example)

- (Taken from idea of Player skills) Starting lands/Capitals have a certain "skill" they can utilize. For example, Spain/Portugal can produce extra gold/more influence due to their merchant nature or Russia can produce bonus troops but they are weaker than usual, could be shown as 8(+2) in-game for example? You'd have the option of buying a lot of weaker troops or less normal troops.

- Influence spreads further than just to adjacent lands, stacks with own/allied lands but there's a decrease the further away from your capital. Influence should also be renamed to something like "Devotion/Satisfaction/Behaviour" and the devoted stage be changed to something more appropriate like "Delighted".

- Influence should grow much slower or only to a certain point the further away from your capital. This probably requires lots more stages introduced. Another way is always having a risk/chance of rebellion in the outlying lands compared to those close the capital.

- When battles take place on maps in fog, add a mechanic (which increases during Winter) where troops may stray from the destination resulting in "severe losses" aka insane odds. Another way of implementing this is adding a height factor to lands so there a lot more factors at play than "luck".

- Add more seasons or change the way troop movement works such as adding the option to "Siege/Defend/Supply aka Garrison/Do Nothing" when arriving on other lands with Siegeing/Defending taking longer than Supplying. There should be also be slowing factor in sea routes such as UK -> France / Netherlands or Italy -> Turkey ...

* = at least some
** = Probably not gonna be implemented since the game is imho, way too conservative >.>
*** = even for singleplayer



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2014 10:10AM by Fenix.

Just found out that you're unable to edit after a time limit instead of after someone replies to your post/thread... [prntscr.com]

Also, I credit my last suggestion from reading Paars' thread on "Build time(turns) option" where he suggested "a certain amount of turns option before you are allowed to attack a player/ai". I think it'd add another level of play if you completely revamp the way troops move.

- Extra suggestion/inquiry. Does the client auto-update when new players join (a yet-to-start game) and/or choose a flag because I think it's a small issue that I can only refresh is to join & leave the game. What's the reason there is a short interval when you attempt to join a game anyway?

I'm gonna begin calling a game that hasn't been started as "lobby game" for easier reference >_>

Other stuff I notice should be fixed (cuz I couldn't edit it in time :/):

- The color issue Attila mentioned, where you can easily predict everybody's capital based on color alone. Yellow for Spain, Red for UK, Green for Germany/Scandinavia, Teal for Cors/Sard, Blue for Russia and Purple for Nicaea. Or you can simply see the order the color is in where it is listed in order without fail (http://prntscr.com/2pi5xs)

- The gold support cost that is shown in the infobox for player/AI lands should not be shown as players can easily deduce where an enemy capital is located from it. E.g. if capital is Eire and enemy has lets say 12 troops in 40k Normandy. 12 - 4 = 8 extra troops. It should show 32 gold support cost so 32 / 8 = 4 gold (1 in cap +3 distance) per troop meaning capital is 3 distance away from Norm = Eire/Ulster/Scotland. Bit technical since lotsa people dislike maths.

~~~ Get ready for another block of text filled with my crazy ideas :3

- Add a troop morale & combat experience system to the game. Bonus troop production and failing to pay troops in winter causes armies to lose morale thus increasing the chance of volatile battle odds and/or complete loss. Troops that survive battles may accumulate combat experience & morale depending on terrain and battlements (fort, keep or castle). Morale can also be affected by sheer difference in army size w/ enemy or engaging in an unfavorable position like attacking a fort.

- Adding on to my previous idea about bonus troop production, you could name the bonus troops as Conscripted troops (option available for lands with excess farms/population?) and they should have minimal combat experience.

- Something else I just randomly thought of: Lands that have been put on producing Troops for consecutive turns will create stronger/experienced troops as compared to those that haven't so backlands + capital (put on Gold) are less suited to replace Fronts.

- Neutral lands have their own AI's that may interact/cooperate with players. Replace their troops with militia's instead. I've yet to decide what the difference should be but I think militia's should have their numbers & strength to scale with their respective land's culture and population.

- Introduce more in-depth "Culture" development trees that provides more specific incentives than just a multiplier for production. E.g. choosing to research Architecture increases defense of Battlements by ...%, advance route for higher economies, etc.

- Game Host has the option of toggling a "blind (Fog) map" option but still customizing the map (changing cap positions).

- A concise explanation of the vague "height factor" I mentioned when talking about combat in Fog: add Terrain, Height, Distance (plus Seasons) to maps so battles aren't solely affected by "luck" any longer. I was suggesting that in Fog of War maps, there should be a possibility to lose your (whole) army when attacking/moving through "unfamiliar lands" aka you've only just had vision over the adjacent land.

- Add a feature to Fog of War battles that diplomats can be used to hide, confuse or muddle enemy Vision/Sight so Stats on Land Infobox or Troops Numbers can be changed & inflated than what it actually is. (Does not apply to allies in Team Games ofc)

- Option to create more teams than just two... *duh* :P

- Introduce other methods to engage in battle like Trench Warfare between land borders, constant Guerrilla Tactics in backlands, Naval Warfare between sea routes, Siege Assaults from Forts/High Terrain, plundering of Supply Trains, possibility of Civil War or Coups D'etat if population becomes too discontent.

- Diplomats = (Counter-)Espionage, Cold War-esque Spy Battles sounds suited especially for Fog of War! As sixamplayer mentioned dips should be allowed to, "agressively spread culture to neighbouring lands; instead of making armies to capture all the lands around, you could make diplomats and make them subvert / rebel"

- Green-colored system messages (both in-game and lobby) should fade over time since it's only important short-term imo ... At least, I'm sure not many pay attention to them, if any.

- Create a use for this *currently* redundant feature (showing players from chatbox) in-game: [prntscr.com] such as whispering through clicks, showing activity/end turn timers, possibly showing turn orders for allies in team games, etc...

- Maybe add a notice to the website/login page whenever the game is updated to a new version so those who access it through old bookmarks or still haven't refreshed the client to the new version won't get stuck w/ bugs & errors.

- (Suggested by tinky, posted on his behalf) Battlements (forts/keeps/castles) increase troop production. Dev Forts +2, Adv Fort +3, Dev Keeps/Castles +4 - +5, adv keep/castle +5 - +6, etc...

- (Minor Aesthetic Changes) Allow us to see the players in Lobby through a pop-up box, much like the Options/Help menu's while in-game. Add links to the forums from the login page. Add the title of the map above the selection for Capitals for Lobby/Waiting Game. Ability to Drag-Drop player names to choose player's starting positions. Ability to lock/unlock, toggle features, kick players, re-customize map, etc... [prntscr.com] (Excuse my bad handwriting :P)

Btw Alex, if you read this, could you remove the time limit for editing posts so threads don't get overly cluttered with posts everytime an edit could solve? That's it for now; probably will have time to brainstorm more on the weekends.

- (Minor fix) If, say someone joins the last spot in a running game but does not press "Ready" (stays in Waiting Room) and join it, their spot will be run by an AI yet people can't see his/her name from the Lobby unless they ready up and become active. Needs to be fixed so you can see who's in a game, regardless if they're playing or just idling. E.g. [prntscr.com]
(Note: I haven't checked if players in-game that are active and playing can check if an idler has taken a otherwise free spot in the game, excluding through system messages like "[Player] has joined [Game Title]" that's now included in Lobby as well)

- There's a bug in the client where a game will say there are, for example 14537/4 players in the Game List on the top left-hand side of the lobby. Currently, it seems to affect those using Firefox as I'm on Chrome and have yet to see this bug. (reported by 5-6 people so far: tinky_winky, MadMan, sqUEEgIE, etc)
[prntscr.com]

- I >THINK< the cause for "Join Game" issue where the game map superimposes over Lobby if you click "Join Game" button multiple times seems to stem from multiple requests to the server to join. I did this when I dced earlier and the Lobby was literally spammed with system messages saying "[Fenix] joins 3v3" and "[Fenix] leaves 3v3"
superimposed = player leaves the game. click "Show Map/Lobby" = player joins again.

Oh and, of course I didn't mean to imply any blame on you XuuL. I understand this is actually just a part-time project you work on during spare time and don't expect this to be implemented in the immediate future rather, I made this thread to post how I think the game should/could be developed to make it more interesting & friendly. Also for feedback and just an overall place to exchange *cough* and criticize (my) ideas since whispering them around like secrets in-game hardly works :P



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2014 08:40PM by Fenix.

Hee-haargh, hee-haargh!

~ Comrade-D

Currently "Income" and "Support" tell you, respectively, how much income you'll make in the current turn and how much you'd need to pay in support if the current turn is winter. I'd also like to see a figure that tells you how much gold you'll be above or below what you'll need in winter based on what your production is currently set to, i.e.:

- The gold you'd have would be equal to current gold + (amount being produced per turn x number of turns until winter)
- The number of troops you'd have would be equal to current troops + (amount being produced per turn x number of turns until winter)
- The calculation would include the reduction in costs from population growth in any lands that will grow at or prior to winter.

This would be a much more useful figure than simply what's going on in the current turn as it would tell you at any time of year whether something needs to be changed. Rather than trying to calculate this out roughly, the player's focus would then be on how gameplay could alter this calculation, which I think makes it less of a math problem and more of a part of gameplay.