First of all, I really appreciate the hard work that's gone into the patches that were released. Having said that, I'm curious if there will be any official (or unofficial) effort to tie up the remaining few major bugs (e.g., dead/kidnapped people showing up for trials/council meetings). The game is SO CLOSE to being completely playable; it would be a shame if these issues weren't addressed. Even a very small unofficial mod that addressed them would be great.
Thanks for reading.
Just wanted to post these impressions after playing 4.2 for several hours.
First of all, I've been in a lan game (with one other person) for about 5 hours wit no OoS problems, so well done there. We're both running in windows xp service pack 3 compatibility and based on what some people have been reporting I have a hunch that this prevents some CTDs.
In any case, my suggestion:
The AI (especially colored dynasties) is not building new workshops, they are not buying ones for sale, and they don't seem to be upgrading their existing workshops. This is the case even as the game progresses and they gain more than enough finances. To me this is a huge deal, since not only does it make them less competitive, but it also makes the marketplace pretty empty of important items.
Related to this, there are a huge amount of buildings for sale at the start of the game (and they aren't being bought up by the AI as noted above). Again, this is problematic because it means there aren't many worthwhile items on the market. It's also just not as much fun seeing all of these empty/idle workshops.
The legacy mudpack took an interesting approach to this problem. It made it so that shadow dynasties would automatically occupy ownerless workshops but they would remain for sale so the player (or ideally also a colored dynasty) could still purchase them.
So, my suggestion is to consider implementing that "fix" and also tweaking the AI dynasties so that they actually build, buy, expand, etc. They do seem to be upgrading their houses, but that's it.
Thanks for reading and considering my thoughts/suggestions.
Just read the newsletter and wanted to say how excited I am by all the news. I am ready to support further development with ideas and my pocket book. Since the donation system isn't set up yet, I will go ahead and list the top priorities as I see them:
1. Develop the AI further. This is central to an enjoyable experience since many of the game systems rely on competent AI (e.g., the political system).
2. Fix the hospital issues.
3. Impliment the proposed trading system (which you already mention in the newsletter).
4. Not sure... I have some ideas but want to flesh them out comprehensively before I propose anything in the forums.
Anyway, really excited about the future of the Guild, and now Kontor as well. Keep up the good work Nirvana et al.
Yes, I can confirm that (and a bit more ;))
You are such a tease.
Some good info is accumulating in this thread. I would like to add that I've been playing the recent build more and have noticed many of the same problems. Banking still needs work (it just isn't that profitable) and the medicus/hospital still has a flew glitch issues. In one game several people got stuck in a treatment loop and a crowd accumulated outside the hospital. There were literally people dying of old age b/c they were stuck there so long.
Anyway, Nirvana, I'm not asking for a release date b/c I believe it is important to spend as much time as needed on these patches, but can you just confirm that the patches are still in the works? I am curious if there is a long-term plan to release a 5.0 or something that is not labeled as a "beta" patch. Thanks for all of your hard work!
Nirv, are you saying... with enough persuasion from us, you could actually include this in :intello: ... just sayin
That's what I was thinking. How much would it take for Nirvana to devote 40-80 hours to this? Yes, I'm talking cold hard cash, Nirvana.
Nice work you two. Maybe this can be part of the official patch?
Hah. That is a pretty rare and amazing set of starting circumstances. Just hope the dynasties are able to continue living and NEVER stop playing that particular game. Of course, it will be a bit surreal when the year is 2011 in-game.
Hah... for all of its bugs this game is still awesome. Reading that list just reminds me of how ambitious The Guild really is.
Anyway, when I play as an alchemist I poison the well very often. I will have to keep a close eye and see how other dynasties react. I'm also going to have to share this list with my wife because even though she tries her hardest to play a nice, legitimate crafts-person, she always ends up in feuds with other dynasties.
It's particularly funny because I usually play a rogue and am on fairly good terms with other dynasties. This probably has something to do with my constant politicking, though.
This is very well stated and a superb first post. I agree with all of your points, but have provided some detail regarding my own experiences below:
1. NPCs do not purchase titles.
While I cannot state definitively whether or not this is true, I have observed colored dynasties in possession of titles higher than citizen without full civil rights. It may, however, be the case that some dynasties begin the game with higher titles. Nirvana can easily clarify this.
2. There is a serious bug related to political meetings. It is one that breaks the system.
As with point one, I have not observed this particular scenario first hand, but I have come to a point in several games where the magistrate position was unfilled and NPCs did not seem to be applying for this office. The obvious consequence is that trials could not be held. Note that I do not think the way trials work (i.e. that they require a magistrate be in office) should change, only that there should nearly always BE a magistrate in office. This goes for other offices as well. It makes the game far more interesting when they are filled (and being competed for).
3. The method of filling the top offices after town growth is not ideal.
Again, I agree. I have seen some strange things happen when town status increases. This ranges from what you observed with your fast promotion to office holders actually losing their seats.
4. Towns grow too fast.
Also spot on. Just the other day I was giving some thought to my experiences with Europa 1400 and even some previous version of The Guild 2. In these cases one of the more engaging aspects of the experiences was that I felt invested in not just my own dynasty but the progression of the city. There is much potential in The Guild for this dynamic to thrive. We already have systems for town progression, employment, overall religious affiliation, and an economy in place. It just needs to work properly and give the player (and other dynasties) the opportunity to influence it.
5. If certain settlements are supposed to be larger and more powerful than others, have them start at a higher level and have the persons filling the offices possess the appropriate titles.
I could go either way with this one. A more dynamic system might allow for towns to grow in power based on the economic and political decisions of the dynasties residing and trading there. This relates to my remarks under point 4. It would be extremely rewarding if I, as the player, could help my home city thrive, thus positioning it as a more powerful city relative to the others. The economic and political advantages should, in this case, also mean something. Again, this is already built into The Guild. Only the capital city offers the position of Queen/King and its market is generally more diverse.
1. No
2. Yes
So it looks like I should try the tips in the technical faq. The computer I'm using is awful, so that might very well be it.
Forgive me if this has been reported/addressed already, but something happened to me in multiplayer for the first time.
This was a lan game. The host loaded the game, I joined, and she launched it. The game crashed to desktop for both of us about halfway through the loading screen. I tried copying the same exact save to both of our computers and that didn't help.
Any ideas?
Too much now? I can decrease it a bit, if it's too high now.
I haven't actually seen that much of an increase. My game has been going on for about 25 rounds now. What else changes as the difficulty goes up? I know you said the chance of the plague was increased, and I think the AI dynasties start with more gold, right? Maybe the difficulty can stay the same for the hardest difficulty and be decreased slightly for the lower ones.
This topic has probably already come up directly or indirectly in another discussion, but I want to address it individually since I think fish is the only resource entirely dependent on map conditions.
Essentially, non-water maps have no access to fish. At first this doesn't seem to be an issue but some high level alchemy recipes rely on fish.
I'm fairly certain I recall Nirvana mentioning that it isn't possible to change the maps to make fish available, but is there a way to make them available in the market without changing the way other goods work? In other words, can you just make fish available every so often and not touch the way other items enter and leave the market?
Another idea for this that would require more work is to allow people to buy goods that have a zero stock in the market. Any items bought like this would cost double (for an import fee).
I do see two problems with this: 1. Rich players might just buy tons of weapons and armor regardless of their stock levels, creating balance issues; 2. If the AI bought items at double price on a regular basis it would make them completely unprofitable.
Maybe there would be a way around this, but if not, what I'm basically proposing is that fish make their way to all markets one way or another.
Patch looks pretty nice so far. I've been in a a multiplayer game for about 15 rounds now and have not had an OoS. We tried with the last patch and kept getting OoS within the first few rounds, so something is obviously working.
As for AI behaviour, I've at least seen them apply for office levels above the first tier, so I believe they are applying for higher titles. I've also kept close watch on the graphs of their assets (rather than just wealth) and have noticed they aren't bankrupt as much. After about 10 rounds they are also now gaining more assets so I think their spending is better.
On another note, we started a game where my wife was a blacksmith but there was no coal or iron in the market. After about 8 rounds or so the AI started producing these goods. If this is because of the high demand for these items in the market and low demand for other goods from the same production facilities then this is great. I also saw the same thing happen with pine/oak wood. I don't know if this patch has anything to do with it, but still looks pretty good regardless.
Oh - forgot to add, as far as aggression goes, my wife's character was kidnapped by an AI dynasty pretty early on. This is something we haven't seen happen very much prior to this.
This is happening in one of my games now but the stuck character is another dynasty member so there's not much I can do. Did that script edit work for anyone?
Makes sense, but had to ask. Is it possible to change it so that Sleeping DOES cure disease? Might take several game turns (years) to heal serious diseases, but then at least you'd have a way out if no Hospital exists. That'd take care of the early games ruined by incurable disease, plus it'd mean that the Deep Sleep ability would suddently be useful (halving time needed to recover).
I like this idea, especially since it does make that perk a little more useful. That said, I'd change it a little and instead make sleeping have a certain percentage chance to cure a disease. The worse the disease the lower the percentage chance. The deep sleep ability would just increase the percentage chance of healing any disease.
I'm not entirely sure this is the case, but my understanding is that sleeping will just recover health over its duration.
As for the pesthouse, I believe this term was used to describe places where people with diseases stayed (and were only sometimes treated), so it's appropriate that it's the lowest level of that building.
Also, I don't think the flies are an illness in and of themselves; they merely designate that someone is afflicted. Even people with sprained ankles, broken bones and burns will have flies above them.
As for the issues with people not being treated, this has been ongoing but has improved with the newer patches. Serious illness will probably not be curable early on though, but I think it's also less likely to occur early on - especially the plague.
Other threads have commented on this but it is possible to "avoid" going into contact with other people who are sick, thus lessening your chances of contracting the illness. I'm curious if someone with - say, the cold - can contract something more serious in this way. If so, standing around waiting to be treated in a pesthouse that can't treat you might actually lead to a worse illness.
Will increase it for the next release a bit (depending on difficulty level).
Nice! I'm very glad to hear this.
We don't want the market to include a shadow market again. That was one of the most criticised things of Guild 2, people wanted a realistic market.
Now with the latest beta patches the market is pretty much stable. It's clear that there are no resources at the market when there isn't a source for this resource on the map, though.
I for one am in full support of keeping it this way, too. The only thing about the market that still confuses me is the list of top bought/sold items. It seems like the items in these lists are either not actually the most bought/sold or are reversed.
