grobblewobble
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 11
Registered: 11-23-2007
IP: Logged

I tried Leylines on steam and noticed that some features have been removed. Not sure if some of these are locked, or they have all been removed.

Perhaps the old version had too many options, so cleaning them up was a good idea. But there are a few options that I miss badly.

1: Speed.
The first setting I always changed was to set movement to the highest possible speed. The standard speed setting is very slow: order a unit to move one square, wait a second, order it to move another square.. battles are slow as well, you are waiting half a second whenever a unit shoots.

Most strategy games I played do offer the option to the adjust speed, but if it has to be fixed, would it be possible to fix it at a faster value?

2: Random maps.
Do they still exist as a locked option? They added a lot of replay value.

3: Random elimination of spells can't be turned off.
This made me realise I always turned it off. Having to adjust your strategy to missing spells is a nice idea in principle, but the random elimination leaves you with too few spells to work with and that isn't fun. You just don't have enough options after you are done researching all available spells.

It also makes the research curve feel bad, because you will very soon be researching the high end spells. And then you reach the stage where Abjuration is the only thing left to research, far too early.

And the random elimination doesn't really encourage you to try different strategies in practice. It actually punishes you for trying weird spell combinations and makes you pick the spheres with the most generic utility (BMM in my opinion) every time.

So I think the game is more fun without this.

---

[Last edited by grobblewobble at 02-05-2019 08:29 AM]

grobblewobble
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 11
Registered: 11-23-2007
IP: Logged

Since I don't just want to complain, some of the feature changes that I really liked:

- Moonpath = Ethereal Path
I really like this change. It's fun, more intuitive and a nice little boost to the elves, and they were one of the weaker races.

- No more militant (based on attack value instead)
This seems a good simplification. And you no longer need to worry about morale as much when you move units into a city.

- Cleaner interface
Overall I like it, even if some options are no longer available.

- The campaign
Absolutely love it. Challenging levels, I much enjoyed playing them. Haven't finished yet.

- The new graphics!
Maybe this isn't a functional feature, but they are awesome.

I will make a separate post later for new bug reports.

---

[Last edited by grobblewobble at 02-05-2019 10:17 AM]

Radiant
Level: Moderator

Rank Points: 142
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

Hello Grobble, nice to see you've found your way back to us

It is indeed my view that the old version had too many options, so I've been streamlining some of these. For instance, the old random map generator offered too many confused settings (and some combinations of settings that make little sense), so instead there are the campaign maps that are all random-generated with a certain paradigm, e.g. Guinle = lots of swampy islands.

If you find that research is too fast, then that's an easy number to tweak. Personally I prefer that you don't exactly know what spells you're going to get so you have to be versatile instead of aim for one particular combo... as I recall it was also the outcome of our long-ago playtest that this played better? I don't think that most players other than you always pick BMM

It would be easy to add a turbo button next version, though. Thanks for the feedback, and I'll be sure to check out the bug thread too.

____________________________
= Radiant =

grobblewobble
Level: Roachling

Rank Points: 11
Registered: 11-23-2007
IP: Logged

Thanks.

Yes, a turbo button to speed up the game would be great.

By now I finished the campaigns, except the final level. I greatly enjoyed those levels, but at the same time I am a little worried about their difficulty level for new players, especially because they lock away a lot of content.

Looking at the global achievements list on steam, some 11% of players have finished the Guinle map. About half that many players have unlocked Elf, and it seems that no one except for me unlocked Dwarf. The Taurea (sorry, I don't remember the exact name) was a very satisfying map for me personally, but it makes me sad to think that no one else got to play with Dwarves.

The great attraction of the game is in the amazing variety between races, with real strategic differences between them. I am wondering if the current system is wise from an advertisement point of view? Perhaps it would be better to have more content available to more players, to show them some more of the variety that Leylines has to offer? Just a thought.

By the way, what happened to seasons? It was one of those little details that make the game special.. will they return?