Hi Guys,
I’ve been playing the first chapter of Age of War for a few days now, and had some feedback for you.
The new stamina system is working well. It makes the combat more immediate and less meticulous, which isn’t a good or bad thing itself, but I have found that with enemies doing so much more damage per hit, you are much, much more likely to be killed because of bugs. For example, your character is pinned to the geometry and can’t attack/block/move/etc, or your horse decides to invade your personal space while you’re trying not to be mauled by a leopard. I’ve had a lot more deaths because of buggy shenanigans, which is Not Fun.
Second, the weapon damage needs more balancing. Usually a two-hit dagger attack will kill me no problem, or at least drop me to critical condition, while I can easily block a two handed sword with the side of my head and only lose ~20% of my health. Daggers are a bit of a pet peeve of mine in general (don’t bring a knife to a sword fight), but this definitely needs some number-massaging.
Third, with enemies dealing so much more damage per combo, thralls die. They die all day. I feel like I’m just shoveling them into a wood chipper. Thralls don’t consider their position, animation/combo length, cover, or suddenly remember they left the oven on back at the base. They just take way more damage now, and die before you can get them disengaged. This can combine with my first and second points. Thralls are an investment and you get attached to them as NPCs, so having them die at all is Not Fun, but having them die a lot is… Well, it kind of ruins the enjoyment of that play session, and the next few play sessions.
Fourth, by changing the Yellow Lotus Potion, you can’t easily change your attribute points at level 15 anymore. Removing raw ash from the Potion of Bestial Memory recipe was a good idea, but I don’t know of a way to get blood until you unlock the fluid press, and that is restricted to level 28. Or beat the Midnight Grove dungeon, build an altar to Jhebbal Sag and convert demon blood. At level 22 I have a lot of demon blood, and no normal blood. Maybe change the requirement from blood to yellow lotus powder? That way you still need access to a grinder, which is unlocked at level 17. Level 28 is a too long to wait for basic attribute changes.
Last, as an offline player, clan banners are not a thing for me. That means every entry in the battlepass related to them is a waste of time and effort. There’s always something in the battlepass I’m not interested in, but there does seem to be a lot of banner related things this time.
Anyway, I know this chapter is mainly laying the foundation/systems for chapter 2. I’m interested in the upcoming purge redesign, and pve sieges. Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to mention I play with combat settings on “Barbaric.” I Don’t know if the damage issue is similar in “Decadent.” Sorry.