This is not a whine post.
This post is aimed in presentation of our (Grey Order) opinions regarding the game mechanics of Strategus, and is primarily addressed to developers and other clan leaders, in hope that these comments will be taken into consideration in the inevitable patch to Strat. We also hope that this post will give an opportunity for other clans to share their experience in fiefs/castles/towns conquests and management.
The Grey Order most recently have taken the Haringoth Castle. Below we set out the principal bugs encountered during the battle; I know that in other posts this bugs were mentioned already, this is just to sum up our experience:
Catapults: It is nice to have them, but they are extremely accident prone and fragile. Catapults blow up after few shots, or even before that if placed in a wrong place.
Ladders: Two problems: (1) The ladders seem to be made from soap foam, a small buff to ladder hitpoints would make them more durable and therefore useful; now do not get me wrong, I am aware that this is an element of balance between defenders and attackers so this has to be made carefully. (2) Ladders tend to go through walls. Event of properly placed, the sink into walls and are useless. The worst part, there is no rule about where or when the ladder will go bonkers
sometimes the ladder worked well and the next one placed in the same place sinked in the wall. Combination of these two bugs made using ladders really frustrating. May be it is a problem of this particular castle
Equipment slot management: this was already mentioned in previous posts; some of us (carrying ladders/construction sites or material) had limited access to equipment slots (like only 2 available after using these pieces of eq.)
Siege Towers: these work well; not easy to maneuver and place correctly on uneven ground, but still the best piece of siege equipment.
[to be updated if necessary]
Apart from the in-game bugs, there is a principal problem:
Does it make any sense to conquer castles and subsequently towns?
We will disclose here some data that were difficult to obtain before:
Recruitment
Castles are not good for that. Even with few (3-5) persons recruiting the chance of recruitment of one troop per hour is 22% - 28%. That is not related to the population of the castle.
Gold (Work)
This seems to be related to the population of the castle. In a fully populated castle you may earn appr. 65-66 gold per hour with 3-5 guys working inside. Following the conquest of the castle the population drops to 100 and the wages drop to 2 (!!!) gold per hour with 3-5 guys working inside.
Population Growth
This is an important factor as apparently gold depends on that. If you conquer the castle the population drops to 100. The current growth rate is still hard to assess, but not higher than 20-30 per 24 hours. If this rate is constant (i.e. if the pop growth rate does not increase with the increase of the actual population), it will take appr. 150 days to achieve full population in the castle. 4 5 months
And it is now impossible to convert population into troops and troops into population.
In addition to that fiefs and castles do not earn money on their own (i.e. for the fief/castle owners). There is an issue of the Capital City. This feature was bugged in the first Strat. As far as we know, even if you set the Capital City, your fiefs will not earn money on their own. Maybe (just maybe to be verified) the Capital City have to be in the TOWN, but no one checked that yet.
So if you are considering conquest of the castle, be aware that you will pay for that with the tickets lost and gold paid for equipment. Even if you are lucky, 4500 tickets and some 500k gold is at stake. Your gain, however, is really limited.
Towns are a big unknown at the moment, but obviously recruitment is shitty there as well, and gold production decent (about 85g per hour with appr. 30 guys working inside). However, if the conquered town behaves in the manner similar to the castle (low population after conquest, low population growth ratio, drop of money earned due to drop of population, low recruitment) which in my own humble opinion will be the case than it will require a very brave clan to risk at least 20.000 troops and who knows how much gold to risk the attack and gain close to nothing for quite a long time. And even after the castle or town is strong again with full population, the return of investment is very long - term.
A word to developers:
We are all beta testers of this game. We check the in-game bugs and report them to you hoping that the next game version will be better and more fun. We pay for that with our RL time and frustration when something goes wrong.
Strategus is a strategic game. We fight for land and influence. To do that we need troops and money, (as well as some political skills, patience, in-game tactical skills and ability to look in future but this is another story). Any conquest we attempt is driven by all this factors, but, just as in RL, the gain (or lack of it) influences shapes of any ambitious plans to a greatest extent.
Being developers, you probably want to see epic battles for towns and cities. That gives you better understanding of what needs to be changed in future patches. For that reason, please be advised that the current game mechanics provides a very little MOTIVATION to start a new battles for castles and towns. We are aware that this paradigm is aimed in providing better chances for smaller clans without land. The price, however is a lower number of Strat battles overall. Lower number of battles for castles and towns in particular. And this gives you less chance to verify implemented game mechanics.
Just as in the first Strat there will be a moment of stagnation, where all land is distributed, political stabilization achieved and only minor fights between neighboring clans occur. Will we see another Pub Crawl then? Just to prolong the life of this Strat version?
Give us some motivation to fight. The targets make clans stronger and players involved. Players' ambitious plans make Strategus stronger.
A word to other clan leaders:
Share your experience and thoughts. It is a part of beta, isnt it?
Now, a word to all of you:
Do not be surprised if you will not see epic conquests of castles or towns arranged by Grey Order in the nearest future. We do claim, however, the towns of Praven and Suno as well as Ryibelet Castle and Tevarin Castle as our own. If you dare to attack it we WILL take it back, at any cost.
Erasmas
Grey Order
Right, if we want battles in a game designed for battles, stop playing and get a life?
Where is a Gnjus palm when I need one...
You didn't save it? Sucker! I'm gonna......not post it because I also forgot to save it xD I suck