GCI/Playtesting/Son of the Black Eye/Difficult

The beginning Orc units seem a bit weaker compared to those of the enemy. Even during the night when Orcs should have a noticeable increase in damage I end up seeing the same amount of damage. This makes it slightly unfair as the humans seem to have a constant high damage out put. The wolf rider feels like a complete waste of gold compared to the other two units as you can only really run around with them and watch them get massacred. The archer feels a bit too strong as they can easily kill a unit, I found them to be a main point in offense but a bit lacking in any uses for defense. The grunts seem well rounded but two weapon swings doesn't seem enough to compare to the human units who's damage is about even with three attacks over the orc's two. Had a random bug during the beginning mission where a unit had only attacked once, but got two hits instead of one. This occurred during normal game play so I can't really pin point the cause of this. This has caused me to lose several units, and I am unable to pin point how this is happening. Dodge is too strong, not only can this completely ruin a solid offense or defense, but it seems to become unnecessary frustrating when trying to mount a solid come back. Archers not being able to attack from more then one square is humiliating as they have little damage out put because of the way dodge is and get torn to shreds once a counter attack is allowed. Not being able to move the camera and having it jerked back is a pain. Key binds are seeming inconsistent, I.E. When I press control + R to pull up the recruit menu it will often spawn the last unit I recruited. Tabbing in and out of the game seems to cause some problems, this can become an issue with some gamers who like full screen and the ability to freely alt+tab. All units are missing sprites for being attacked directly behind, this looks really awkward. The AI punishes too heavily for preemptively moving any units even by a hair, this becomes a pain as the AI becomes extremely aggressive early game. This campaign is too high in difficulty and needs some adjusting. It might also be wise to give units different animations for being hit and dodging as it can get confusing. The human horsemen is too strong as he is able to move quickly and to far places, deal extreme amounts of damage and capture villages all at the same time. He's a jack of all trade who is too good at it, this unit is the hardest to kill out of all the human units this early on. Overall, from a first impression, the reason this campaign feels difficult isn't because of the AI, but because of the balance issues that are present. What often becomes a hopeful victory is crushed because of a mechanic isn't working correctly. What should make it difficult is the AI punishing stupid moves and putting up a strong defense with equivalent units that could actually compete. I’ll continue to put forth more attempts but I highly advise these thinking about these changes as of now, the game has a high potential, but relies highly on a well balance environment. I’d like to see more from this game. The major challenge to meeting the objective is that the enemy leader is a good leader, as he is able to do everything and then some. A major issue that made me lose and restart was the fact that the AI is too good. It should be something simple, but if feels like I am trying to kill a king and his best men. Overall, this needs some balance as a rough start is not a good one, I can understand that this needs to be difficult, but I feel that it shouldn’t be this early. Try to focus on easing the difficulty as the AI becomes smarter, not immediately able to bash skulls in faster then I can think. Overall: Fun rating: 7/10 because of how annoying the AI is that it becomes a game of wits at points. Difficulty rating: 11/10, when the AI doesn’t feel fair in it’s plans and such, it becomes a monster that is hard to beat. This needs some major tuning as I don’t find an AI that can read my every move and counter it perfectly an enjoyable experience. Played on Difficult.

Option 1 after Scenario 1: Scenario 2: Really easy if you just rush the sign post with a few grunts/archers. Wasn’t too fun, but still very early on in the game. Wasn’t difficult either, didn’t find many issues with this. Fun: 7/10, nice to see the trolls, but nothing more then a filler really. Difficulty: 5/10, easy if you just dash to the cross roads and don’t bother to try and go for the bonuses.

Scenario 3: This is awesome, the pre-game drama is really nice and interesting to see the rivalry between Orcs and Elves. I applaud you folks on this kind of dramatic battle with a good difficulty and a fair amount of fun. Might I suggest that you can speed up what the enemies are doing for time’s sake? Still working on this, this is going to be the longest battle early on and gives the game an epic feel.