DeletedUser
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What was your first impression of the game as a whole?
When I first opened the game, I thought "Wow!" The graphics look very smooth, the style is very interesting, and albeit the slow load time, the game seemed worth the wait.
Did you find it hard to learn how to play Forge of empires?/Were you ever unsure of what to do?
The tutorial so far has seemed great... The one issue I had was how to move around the city until I stumbled upon that... most of the stuff should seem straightforward to browsergame fanatics, but I fear some other folks might have issues. The one other issue is when the tutorial goes 'too fast', such as with the creation of a goods building (i.e. when you don't have the resources to complete something). I think the tutorial should come as something that can be done in under a hour from start to finish.
How can we make things easier for new player?
The tutorial seems fine as it is... I come with the bias of already having played TribalWars/DieStamme and Grepolis, so I am not sure how folks playing their first InnoGames game, or even folks just starting to play browser games in general will follow.
What do you think of the Gui(user interface) of Forge of empires?
The GUI seems a little bulky and slow (the buildings seem to have a slight latency when interacting with them and some menus take a rather long time to load). However, it functions smoothly and looks beautiful. If you are going for aesthetics, it's perfect.
How can we improve the gui/ What buttons or features would you like to add?
Certain operations should have shortcuts. For instance, the Tools area should probably come up with the Build menu and there should be an option to immediately pick a new thing to produce at a production building once it finishes. I also think your "points" should be visible on the top of the GUI/HUD. In addition, a "Unit Tree" to show what types of units are available and give statistics would be beneficial, even if it's only in the form of a page on a help or wiki site. Lastly, an option to toggle on a visual overlay that shows how much time is remaining for each building's product would be nice.
What do you think of the balancing system of forge of empires?/ Is a unit, building or feature over- or under-powered?
I really only think that it is strange that things that take LONGER produce LESS total products/coins. I would think that a player would then much rather have a lot of lower buildings or produce a lot of simple products and rely on numbers. Honestly, if I have to wait four hours for five times as much as I can make in five minutes, I'm pretty sure I'd rather sit around for twenty-five minutes to go by than wait four hours. I understand that this is a theme throughout the game that is pretty much part of the foundation, so I reckon it won't be changed.
What are your thoughts on the world-map overview? / How can we improve it?
It's BEAUTIFUL.
The one qualm is the load time... of course, it all matters who you are marketing this to. If you don't want this to be an aesthetic game, consider caching the map in smaller images and loading it that way or by using more mid-fidelity image files.
Also, some clouds on the map seem to not blend correctly with the map, with sharp edges.
What did you think about the hex battlefield system, which lets you control your unit in battle? What is good, what is bad and how can we improve it?
The hex battle system is an excellent idea... although I fear some people will call the concept stolen from Civilization V with the art of Civilization III. I personally think the unit graphics don't match the quality of the citizens walking around the city... they look almost comic with the black outline. I heavily suggest smoother characters with slightly faster framerates are used (again, only if you wish to make an aesthetic game). The process of moving the unit is also novel; most people would expect a 'Hold' and 'Move' button to be available on the HUD/GUI.
What do you think of the premium system(diamonds) and which improvements and features would you like to see in the future?
I don't believe this system is functional yet (I see no button to purchase the diamonds), but I would suggest to pick a new name for them... the name 'diamonds' is already in use in a VERY similar browser game (or at least, I think so...) and I seriously think there could be a much more applicable name. I would suggest using some sort of "Charisma Point" system with the current style.
My main issue with this is that I dislike a game where you can use points to immediately 'get ahead'. I really like the system that was in place in tribalwars with just the premium packages that let you do more and do stuff easier instead of just faster or without work. While I don't mind the system in place, I would expect purchasing options to be affordable.
I'm not sure if you have this already implemented (and I do know InnoGames knows of this), but a great marketing method is to provide a small amount of premium/a taste of premium powers... plus, it would be helpful to have some for testing out how it works.
General feedback:
Please state your thoughts ideas or visions for the game that did not fit into a category above:
My only huge qualm with the game is rather silly... I would like to see some of the unit names changed to more fitting names and a few buildings seem mistranslated. Some names seem very uncreative while others seem excellent. I get the feeling that much of the naming and technology was poorly researched, which I think is a definite negative towards educated players (noting the theme of History in this game, you will run into a large group of history fans who will go to no end complaining about poor name choices).
For example, "pottery" is not the proper name for a structure in which pots are made... a potter's [workshop] is.
Here are some suggestions (please take these cum granis salis~ with a grain of salt):
pottery -> potter
school -> library
stone thrower; stone thrower camp -> Catapult/Onager; Siege Camp
roof tile houses -> terracotta roofing/ tile-roofed house
Militia -> Army Standardization/Professional Soldiers/Standing Army (Soldiers are most certainly not militia)
Cottage -> Insula/Appartment (if applicable; Roman housing of this time would have evolved into four-story apartment structures called Insulae (insula singular). Cottage is a medieval term denoting a small place of residence)
Legionnaire -> Legionary (Legionnaire is right with spellcheck, but the wrong term history-wise... if you want to go really far out, Lego, Legionis is the proper Latin for Legion, referring to the entire command structure of the ~5,400-man fighting unit. Perhaps Phalanx or Palace Guard would work better.)
Mounted Warrior -> Equestrian/Cavalry (not exactly the right word here, as Equestrian actually refers to a social caste of middle-upper Roman citizens, but it's much more proper history wise... mounted warrior is in the same era as horseman)
Chain of Command could be changed to Military Organization or Military Discipline if desired
Cobbled Road -> Cobblestone Road (Cobbled road is okay, but Cobblestone Road is more clear)
(note that Mercenaries did not reach general use in Europe until even the High Middle Ages with their most use in the 16th to 18th century)
(Aqueducts are from the Iron Age... they didn't find their way back into the cities of Europe pretty much until the use of early modern plumbing in the 18th century. Perhaps switch Aqueducts and Sewerage)
Armored Infantry Camp -> Men-at-Arms Camp (perhaps)
Physics -> Tension Catapults/Low-Arc Siege (rather annoying thing here... Catapults don't utilize the physics available at this time. They rely on animal sinew stretched very tight around the firing arm and that potential energy to launch the projectile (essentially guesswork). If I remember correctly, they did not have a concept of potential energy at that time aside from the common-sense stuff about it. Trebuchets on the other hand could be created using calculations and algorithms, as they used a large counterweight on the throwing arm to operate and thus mass could be related to force without needing to have a force gauge {not available for a few hundred years} handy)
Berserker -> Skirmisher (Berserkers are highly isolated soldiers, only found in the North... you can certainly use them, but a more applicable term would be Mercenary, Skirmisher, or Doppelsoldner (double-soldier, paid twice the normal pay to fight in the front line))
Ropery -> ? (I believe there is a proper name for a rope-maker)
Heavy Siege -> Physics
Great Swords -> Hand-and-a-Half Swords (If I understand this correctly... the Germans had a certain sword called a Zweihander (two-hander) that probably refers to this)
Great Sword Warrior/Great Sword Warrior Camp -> Imperial Guard/Imperial Guard Camp (rather poor original name... see what I did with the Imperial Guard below)
Longbow Archer -> Longbowman/Yeoman
Letterpress -> Printing Press
Imperial Guard -> Tercio Pikeman/Pikeman/Halberdier (Tercio (sp?) was the term for a Spanish Square/Pike Square, a mix of pikemen and early musketeers as well as various ranged units designed to counter the highly effective Late Medieval Knights of this time (and they did so very very effectively))
Higher Education structure: University
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Other than that, I have yet to find any major issues, but I will add more suggestions and such as I do.
-Samulis
When I first opened the game, I thought "Wow!" The graphics look very smooth, the style is very interesting, and albeit the slow load time, the game seemed worth the wait.
Did you find it hard to learn how to play Forge of empires?/Were you ever unsure of what to do?
The tutorial so far has seemed great... The one issue I had was how to move around the city until I stumbled upon that... most of the stuff should seem straightforward to browsergame fanatics, but I fear some other folks might have issues. The one other issue is when the tutorial goes 'too fast', such as with the creation of a goods building (i.e. when you don't have the resources to complete something). I think the tutorial should come as something that can be done in under a hour from start to finish.
How can we make things easier for new player?
The tutorial seems fine as it is... I come with the bias of already having played TribalWars/DieStamme and Grepolis, so I am not sure how folks playing their first InnoGames game, or even folks just starting to play browser games in general will follow.
What do you think of the Gui(user interface) of Forge of empires?
The GUI seems a little bulky and slow (the buildings seem to have a slight latency when interacting with them and some menus take a rather long time to load). However, it functions smoothly and looks beautiful. If you are going for aesthetics, it's perfect.
How can we improve the gui/ What buttons or features would you like to add?
Certain operations should have shortcuts. For instance, the Tools area should probably come up with the Build menu and there should be an option to immediately pick a new thing to produce at a production building once it finishes. I also think your "points" should be visible on the top of the GUI/HUD. In addition, a "Unit Tree" to show what types of units are available and give statistics would be beneficial, even if it's only in the form of a page on a help or wiki site. Lastly, an option to toggle on a visual overlay that shows how much time is remaining for each building's product would be nice.
What do you think of the balancing system of forge of empires?/ Is a unit, building or feature over- or under-powered?
I really only think that it is strange that things that take LONGER produce LESS total products/coins. I would think that a player would then much rather have a lot of lower buildings or produce a lot of simple products and rely on numbers. Honestly, if I have to wait four hours for five times as much as I can make in five minutes, I'm pretty sure I'd rather sit around for twenty-five minutes to go by than wait four hours. I understand that this is a theme throughout the game that is pretty much part of the foundation, so I reckon it won't be changed.
What are your thoughts on the world-map overview? / How can we improve it?
It's BEAUTIFUL.
The one qualm is the load time... of course, it all matters who you are marketing this to. If you don't want this to be an aesthetic game, consider caching the map in smaller images and loading it that way or by using more mid-fidelity image files.
Also, some clouds on the map seem to not blend correctly with the map, with sharp edges.
What did you think about the hex battlefield system, which lets you control your unit in battle? What is good, what is bad and how can we improve it?
The hex battle system is an excellent idea... although I fear some people will call the concept stolen from Civilization V with the art of Civilization III. I personally think the unit graphics don't match the quality of the citizens walking around the city... they look almost comic with the black outline. I heavily suggest smoother characters with slightly faster framerates are used (again, only if you wish to make an aesthetic game). The process of moving the unit is also novel; most people would expect a 'Hold' and 'Move' button to be available on the HUD/GUI.
What do you think of the premium system(diamonds) and which improvements and features would you like to see in the future?
I don't believe this system is functional yet (I see no button to purchase the diamonds), but I would suggest to pick a new name for them... the name 'diamonds' is already in use in a VERY similar browser game (or at least, I think so...) and I seriously think there could be a much more applicable name. I would suggest using some sort of "Charisma Point" system with the current style.
My main issue with this is that I dislike a game where you can use points to immediately 'get ahead'. I really like the system that was in place in tribalwars with just the premium packages that let you do more and do stuff easier instead of just faster or without work. While I don't mind the system in place, I would expect purchasing options to be affordable.
I'm not sure if you have this already implemented (and I do know InnoGames knows of this), but a great marketing method is to provide a small amount of premium/a taste of premium powers... plus, it would be helpful to have some for testing out how it works.
General feedback:
Please state your thoughts ideas or visions for the game that did not fit into a category above:
My only huge qualm with the game is rather silly... I would like to see some of the unit names changed to more fitting names and a few buildings seem mistranslated. Some names seem very uncreative while others seem excellent. I get the feeling that much of the naming and technology was poorly researched, which I think is a definite negative towards educated players (noting the theme of History in this game, you will run into a large group of history fans who will go to no end complaining about poor name choices).
For example, "pottery" is not the proper name for a structure in which pots are made... a potter's [workshop] is.
Here are some suggestions (please take these cum granis salis~ with a grain of salt):
pottery -> potter
school -> library
stone thrower; stone thrower camp -> Catapult/Onager; Siege Camp
roof tile houses -> terracotta roofing/ tile-roofed house
Militia -> Army Standardization/Professional Soldiers/Standing Army (Soldiers are most certainly not militia)
Cottage -> Insula/Appartment (if applicable; Roman housing of this time would have evolved into four-story apartment structures called Insulae (insula singular). Cottage is a medieval term denoting a small place of residence)
Legionnaire -> Legionary (Legionnaire is right with spellcheck, but the wrong term history-wise... if you want to go really far out, Lego, Legionis is the proper Latin for Legion, referring to the entire command structure of the ~5,400-man fighting unit. Perhaps Phalanx or Palace Guard would work better.)
Mounted Warrior -> Equestrian/Cavalry (not exactly the right word here, as Equestrian actually refers to a social caste of middle-upper Roman citizens, but it's much more proper history wise... mounted warrior is in the same era as horseman)
Chain of Command could be changed to Military Organization or Military Discipline if desired
Cobbled Road -> Cobblestone Road (Cobbled road is okay, but Cobblestone Road is more clear)
(note that Mercenaries did not reach general use in Europe until even the High Middle Ages with their most use in the 16th to 18th century)
(Aqueducts are from the Iron Age... they didn't find their way back into the cities of Europe pretty much until the use of early modern plumbing in the 18th century. Perhaps switch Aqueducts and Sewerage)
Armored Infantry Camp -> Men-at-Arms Camp (perhaps)
Physics -> Tension Catapults/Low-Arc Siege (rather annoying thing here... Catapults don't utilize the physics available at this time. They rely on animal sinew stretched very tight around the firing arm and that potential energy to launch the projectile (essentially guesswork). If I remember correctly, they did not have a concept of potential energy at that time aside from the common-sense stuff about it. Trebuchets on the other hand could be created using calculations and algorithms, as they used a large counterweight on the throwing arm to operate and thus mass could be related to force without needing to have a force gauge {not available for a few hundred years} handy)
Berserker -> Skirmisher (Berserkers are highly isolated soldiers, only found in the North... you can certainly use them, but a more applicable term would be Mercenary, Skirmisher, or Doppelsoldner (double-soldier, paid twice the normal pay to fight in the front line))
Ropery -> ? (I believe there is a proper name for a rope-maker)
Heavy Siege -> Physics
Great Swords -> Hand-and-a-Half Swords (If I understand this correctly... the Germans had a certain sword called a Zweihander (two-hander) that probably refers to this)
Great Sword Warrior/Great Sword Warrior Camp -> Imperial Guard/Imperial Guard Camp (rather poor original name... see what I did with the Imperial Guard below)
Longbow Archer -> Longbowman/Yeoman
Letterpress -> Printing Press
Imperial Guard -> Tercio Pikeman/Pikeman/Halberdier (Tercio (sp?) was the term for a Spanish Square/Pike Square, a mix of pikemen and early musketeers as well as various ranged units designed to counter the highly effective Late Medieval Knights of this time (and they did so very very effectively))
Higher Education structure: University
------
Other than that, I have yet to find any major issues, but I will add more suggestions and such as I do.
-Samulis