Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (Full Version)

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HectorOfTroy -> Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 5:31:52 PM)

I'm still at work and will be sleeping all day tomorrow. So can you guys please leave early impressions of the game here.

Thanks [;)]



Grotius -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 6:41:49 PM)

I like Legends so far. The characters are interesting, though I haven't used them much yet. I am very pleased to have "borders" at least, and ship vectors (though neither is "on" by default). I love having race-specific victory conditions, and you can toggle them off if you prefer. In my game, they account for only 25% of my victory conditions, but I could make everything hinge on them if I wanted. Very cool.

I confess I don't see a huge difference in ship graphics, but then it's been a while since I played the base game, so maybe I'm forgotten how the old ones look. The game certainly looks nice to me.

One minor UI comment: most screens toggle on/off (e.g., F1, F2 are toggles), but the G (galaxy map) screen does not. Any reason for that? I can't close it by hitting G again, or by hitting ESC. Have to mouse and click X. A minor thing, but mildly annoying.

Overall, I'm enjoying it. I fired it up just to try it for 10 minutes, and two hours later, I was late for some real-life duties. :) A good sign.



Bingeling -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 7:57:32 PM)

I enjoy it this far. I started on "hard". The humans envied my colonies, and I caught their spy trying to do some nasty stuff. Then I spotted a 13 ship fleet in border lands. Soon after they declared war, and assaulted my 2nd best colony (near their 13 ship fleets), and conquered it. They conquered 2 more fresh colonies rather quickly too.

I have never seen such moves...

The war ended with +1 nice border colony for me though, I bought troop transports and took things back...

So far the things I like least is choppy zone of influence borders, and no popup on new characters. Also I had my invasion fleet stuck hard on attacking some mine, even if I turned off auto, it appeared to be some stance the AI had time to put before I took control.



WiZz -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 8:30:59 PM)

If anybody sees my creature, plz tell me (with screens) [&o]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 8:34:01 PM)

The Silvermist gave me some really hairy moments during testing. At one point it "ate" two of my recent colonies, then multiplied and I needed about three quarters of my available ships (of which I lost over half, including my main fleet and my best admiral) to clear the system and make it safe for colonization again. Great fun. [8D]

Regards,

- Erik



Erik Rutins -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 8:40:49 PM)

Also looking forward to the first report of an encounter with the "hidden faction" that we did not tell you much about... I encountered them shortly after the Silvermist encounter I mentioned above, which made for a very, very challenging early game.

Regards,

- Erik



Yskonyn -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 8:47:55 PM)

Initial impressions are good. Rock solid, no crashes.
The characters do give more personality to the various races. I would have liked seeing some variable character portraits though, instead of the single one with only a different icon for the type of character. On the other hand, it is a rather clear presentation the way it is right now and different portraits might be mistaken for different types of characters instead.

Movement vectors are a huge improvement for me personally. I always had a bit of a problem staying in the picture with all the moving icons on the map, but this helps tremendously.

I was hoping the 'robotic feel' (for me) of the game would be fixed with this expansion and I do think there is more personality now and the game provides me with the feedback I like to get to keep an overview. This reduces the effect of getting the impression that the game runs its own course rather than me playing it.
Good job! (about 2 hours of gametime)



Gelatinous Cube -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 9:04:12 PM)

I am beyond impressed. Its like every little thing I'd wished was a little different in DW+RotS got changed to exactly the way I wanted them to be! The fact that I can now more or less run my empire completely from the map is a level of control that really makes a huge difference for me. Not to mention the borders! I hated the way maps looked in RotS, but now they form pretty logical and easy-on-the-eye shapes. And of course the characters! A whole new level of immersion, with the characters plus the race-specific touches. I seriously could not be happier.



J HG T -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 9:09:53 PM)

Loving it so far. No major issues.
Started a 50 year game with Kiadians to get hang of new things. Normal difficulty (will definetly put it on hard on the next, serious game) 400 stars, huge size (and it's definetly huge now [:)] ), slowest research, second lowest colony prev. (I'll probably put this on normal in the future, to ease up AIs work) and ten random races.

Good start thus far; Homeplanet with nice resources, 2 marsh planets and one desert planet thanks to a derelict Dhayuut colony ship.
Have met Mortalen and Ackdarians so far. Mortalens are close to me but aren't real danger as they haven't found any planets to colonize. They are trying to stay on my good side for now according to their ambassador who resides at my homeworld.
Ackdarians are doing good. I'm trying to make free trade agreement with 'em, which is surprisingly hard now. Not that it's a bad thing. [:)] 

Got one of each characters, all with quite nice skills. I literally laughed and fistpumped when I got my first ambassador; It was Dhayuut from the freshly colonised desert planet! Nothing says "we come in peace on behalf of the Kiadians" like friggin' giant, furry tarantula. [:D] Also, he's currently working on Ackdarian homeworld and has inspiring presence, for a Dhayuut. Must be a real charmer. [8|]

Haven't run into secret faction, any random events or silvermist yet.
I'm doing good and feeling quite confident right now, but I also have a real bad feeling what might be cooking on the 2/3s of the galaxy I haven't yet explored. We'll see...

Things I noticed:
- Derelict ship fields are still quite damn large. Major nerf needed on them in future patch if possible.
- My scientist has creative perk and this lead to crash researches on queued techs. Is this WAD or bug?






Malevolence -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 9:52:19 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
The Silvermist gave me some really hairy moments during testing. At one point it "ate" two of my recent colonies, then multiplied and I needed about three quarters of my available ships (of which I lost over half, including my main fleet and my best admiral) to clear the system and make it safe for colonization again. Great fun. [8D]


To date, I officially have the worst SilverMist infestation ever recorded (was during testing)... horrific. [:D]

SilverMist + debris fields = SUPER SilverMist.




Ufarsin -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 9:52:46 PM)

First impressions: (and first post)
****ting my pants over the Silvermist. Scary scary
It appeared in a system with a independant colony...which it promptly ate (edit: also there was a debris field...but I dunno if it ate that too havent returned to see). Then it zoomed down to a nearby system with no less than two independant colonies I had recently taken over...and ate them.
Then I panicked and made some Ion weapon armed frigates and sent to the area. To no effect at all.. so far I can see Ion weaponry has zero effect on the Silvermist, contrary to description... and so it ate them too.
By now there are at least three Silvermists causing havoc. Oh my a very good start off to a not so good continuation.
Anyways I really like the new leaders (and also the omnivorious Silvermist though Im scared of it).

Had a problem with a troop general. Tried repeatedly to assign him to a fleet (with troopships and troops) only he kept transfering back to the Capital.. not sure why. Must leaders be in the same locations as the fleet hes transferring to? And must the fleet stand still while the transfer is going on?

Now I must be off to the Legends again.



Malevolence -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 9:56:01 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Ufarsin
Had a problem with a troop general. Tried repeatedly to assign him to a fleet (with troopships and troops) only he kept transfering back to the Capital.. not sure why. Must leaders be in the same locations as the fleet hes transferring to? And must the fleet stand still while the transfer is going on?


Check your automation settings... if you give the AI the power to move Characters, it will countermand your orders.




Nikolaj -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 9:56:39 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Yskonyn
I was hoping the 'robotic feel' (for me) of the game would be fixed with this expansion and I do think there is more personality now and the game provides me with the feedback I like to get to keep an overview. This reduces the effect of getting the impression that the game runs its own course rather than me playing it.


Could you (or someone) elaborate on the improved feedback? I'd be very interested in hearing more about that.

Also, what are the fleet management and automation improvements that the store page mentions? Can I actually feel comfortable with automating my fleets now?



elliotg -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:00:07 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ufarsin
First impressions: (and first post)
****ting my pants over the Silvermist. Scary scary
It appeared in a system with a independant colony...which it promptly ate. Then it zoomed down to a nearby system with no less than two independant colonies I had recently taken over...and ate them.
Then I panicked and made some Ion weapon armed frigates and sent to the area. To no effect at all.. so far I can see Ion weaponry has zero effect on the Silvermist, contrary to description... and so it ate them too.
By now there are at least three Silvermists causing havoc. Oh my a very good start off to a not so good continuation.
Anyways I really like the new leaders (and also the omnivorious Silvermist though Im scared of it).

Those ion weapons *should* be working, though even then it'll still take a lot of battling to wipe out a SilverMist. Other weapons also damage SilverMists, just a lot less than normal.

quote:


Had a problem with a troop general. Tried repeatedly to assign him to a fleet (with troopships and troops) only he kept transfering back to the Capital.. not sure why. Must leaders be in the same locations as the fleet hes transferring to? And must the fleet stand still while the transfer is going on?

Now I must be off to the Legends again.

You might have the automation setting 'Character Locations' turned on. This means that the AI is fighting with you over where your characters should be [:)]

Go to Game Options screen (O key) and uncheck the setting 'Character Locations' in the Automation section.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:02:42 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Ufarsin
Then I panicked and made some Ion weapon armed frigates and sent to the area. To no effect at all.. so far I can see Ion weaponry has zero effect on the Silvermist, contrary to description... and so it ate them too.


Hm, we'll check on that, could be a last minute bug? In either case, your best bet is to build some large fleets of ships with as much armament as you can put on them and send them after those Silvermists before they expand further. They can travel through hyperspace and will become a bigger problem if not hit as hard and fast as possible.

Regards,

- Erik



Ufarsin -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:07:02 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: elliotg
You might have the automation setting 'Character Locations' turned on. This means that the AI is fighting with you over where your characters should be [:)]

Go to Game Options screen (O key) and uncheck the setting 'Character Locations' in the Automation section.


Ah yes indeed I had. my thanks.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:13:08 PM)

When you next fight the Silvermist, you can also click on it and watch its health to see if your Ion Weapons (or other weapons) are causing it damage.

Regards,

- Erik



Malevolence -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:18:25 PM)

I can say for certain from testing the SilverMist isn't like the basic pirates... it is no push over.  You have to mass ships armed with ion cannons to eradicate the infestation.

If you're running ship/fleet ops on automated, be careful that your automated escorts aren't attacking SilverMist in groups of 1-2 ships over time... you're just feeding the monster.





WiZz -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:18:49 PM)

It's pleasant to hear, that Matrix implemented my idea without major changes [:)]



Ufarsin -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:23:47 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

When you next fight the Silvermist, you can also click on it and watch its health to see if your Ion Weapons (or other weapons) are causing it damage.

Regards,

- Erik

Yup I did. The Ion weapons caused zero damage. There was a single laser armed ship that chipped away at it to some little effect. But the Silvermist was all grown up and wasnt about to be killed off by some minor laserboat. Restarted the game after that so I cant do a double check at this point. Will keep an eye on it though.



Texashawk -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:26:32 PM)

Early impressions, to be sure but....

This is it. This with the expansions is what MOO3 should have been. And after having gone through the fiasco of SOTS2, I could cry in relief. But this is the Holy Grail, I think, of 4X right now. Bravo, Matrix. Bravo. (And thanks, Eliot. ;-)



Nedrear -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:30:12 PM)

I really love the silver mist idea, though I haven't found it yet... BUT I would like to chose the space creatures which appear ingame or I will sadly keep it deactivated or on "few". Some of those just feel wrong in a RP sense. I can live with a space jellyfish drifting and looking for food in hibernation or the silvermist but the space slug is too much. That is beyond explanation.

The game itself is pretty nice, though my leader got too good too quick and I have yet to see negative events. My human senator quickly arrose from a good bean counter with a knack for colonys to a well respected galactic senator more influential in politics as my ambassador all the while boosting economy.
I did not ask for the child of Warren Buffet and Kennedy... that is too good.

The borders are nice. I have to think about losing my fuel station to an expanding Gizurean colony all the while keeping them at bay as a mutual "enemy" of me and the Kadians while luring the Ketarov in a three way Defense Pact.



WoodMan -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:41:11 PM)

Ned, the leaders vary, in my only long game in Legends so far I went through 4 leaders in about 25 years (as a Republic).  The third guy totally sucked [:D]  Towards the end of their term they are usually quite good.

He was just starting to get decent when his term ended, but he had so many negatives he wasn't a touch on the others.  Careful raising your taxes after a leader change, in a Republic at least when a new leader is elected you get a boost in happiness which goes away, also if one leader is good and he is replaced by a less talented fellow (almost certainly will be at the start of his career) you may have to lower your taxes to adjust.  I had 16+ Happy on all my taxed colonies and a new guy came in, I forgot to change the taxes and next time I looked they were all +1, +2 etc, phew, narrowly avoided some rebellions I guess [:D]

Encountered SilverMist a few times, usually its an explorationship and I flee, careful the SilverMist is fast!!! Makes sure you get your ship out of there pronto!

Also, for your info, a fleet of 2 Capitals and 4 Cruisers, each capital having 1 Ion Cannon onboard, was enough for me to take down a single SilverMist in a matter of seconds. It was so fast though it left one of the Cruiser crippled.



Shuul -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:46:08 PM)

It looks like i will buy it for sure... when i got some money... [:(]

Erik, will other competition creatures be implemented on some stage?

Im still hoping to get a free copy[sm=innocent0001.gif]



Yskonyn -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 10:52:40 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Nikolaj


quote:

ORIGINAL: Yskonyn
I was hoping the 'robotic feel' (for me) of the game would be fixed with this expansion and I do think there is more personality now and the game provides me with the feedback I like to get to keep an overview. This reduces the effect of getting the impression that the game runs its own course rather than me playing it.


Could you (or someone) elaborate on the improved feedback? I'd be very interested in hearing more about that.

Also, what are the fleet management and automation improvements that the store page mentions? Can I actually feel comfortable with automating my fleets now?


Well here is what I tried to explain on another forum:
 
The big question for me was wether Legends could remove the 'robotic feel' of the game. 
With 'robotic feel' I mean that DW had a tendency (for me) to give the impression that it would run its course regardsless of me doing stuff or not. I realise this has got everything to do with the automation features of the game. I have no problem with automation, especially since a lot of the automation features of the game prevents you from having to do tedious things and more importantly it prevents you from falling in the big micromanaging pit of doom! 
But the big problem for me was that the game didn't present me with enough feedback to be able to keep myself in the picture of what was actually happening in my empire.
This resulted in a faily 'auto piloted' feel of the game.
Don't get me wrong; I fully realise that this is probably a direct result of how I play the game instead of the game being an autopilot experience itself. But its about how the game interfaces with me as a player. Anyway, I digress. I hope I can voice a feeling other players have had as well. 
 
Legends adds one important feature; movement vectors and influence spheres!
I have discovered that these two features alone have pretty much alleviated my struggle with the game to remain in the picture and devise solid plans. This directly results in diminishing the feeling of the game being on auto pilot and me just being an observer.
 
Furthermore, the characters make the races less generic and 'robotic' as well and present interesting tactical situations as well as nice discoveries with their hidden traits.
 
Unit graphics are a little less blurry, but not a huge improvement in my opinion. Sounds are still rudimentary, except for the explosions (they sound nice!). Especially don't like most weapon sounds. They mostly still sound like effects from the of NES or SEGA consoles.
 
But that's me nitpicking. The biggest gripe (or invisible wall, so to speak) I had with the game seems to be alleviated! Good news!
(Now back to my Rodents)

I hope that makes sense, but the bottomline is that the map is now able to provide me with the dfeedback I am comfortable playing with, by means of the new overlays.
 



Raap -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 11:15:01 PM)

Haven't played more than a few minutes yet, but really liking what I see thus far. Seems like improvements all over.

Most pleasant change so far for me is probably the increased physical map dimension. At least now in the start the map really feels large. Just hope it stays that way as I improve hyperdrive technology.



Bingeling -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 11:26:23 PM)

My experiences so far, after one night.

Disappearing troops is nasty, be aware of automatic troop recruitment possibly removing troops from you transports.

Leaders are quite fun, but no manual recruitment of intelligence agents? I got an agent that negatively influences other characters on the same location, and guess where they want to live? Capital. Where is the most income from? Capital. So keep that agent in action...

I love the ship vector overlays. I can see the massive trade to the Securans, lots, and lots of vectors into their capital. And also the worrying lack of lines into the system where you try to build a small space port.

I started on Hard, and compared to ROTS this is indeed hard. The AI is not in two other wars when they attack, and they attack with a plan. 20+ships and as many troops incoming quite quickly after declaration, and against your best colonies in the area. And this is pretty early game, mind you. Not that it will be impossible when you catch on, but combined with a troop recruiter that disbands your troops on transports it is hard to go positive if you don't want their bug infested colonies. I have also had a fleet properly chased first time since like... ages.

Hours flew fast. I was surprised I was hungry, but realized I must have been sitting there for 6 hours or so. Being hungry made sense after all.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 11:31:02 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
Disappearing troops is nasty, be aware of automatic troop recruitment possibly removing troops from you transports.


Just FYI, I play with troop automation on and have not had this issue, but we will investigate and fix. If you have a save that could help as it may require specific conditions.

quote:

Leaders are quite fun, but no manual recruitment of intelligence agents? I got an agent that negatively influences other characters on the same location, and guess where they want to live? Capital. Where is the most income from? Capital. So keep that agent in action...


Intelligence Agents work like other characters now. You can also Dismiss them if you are not happy with their traits and skills. If you are playing a species that has benefits in Intelligence, you should be able to replace them with a new Agent fairly quickly.

quote:


Hours flew fast. I was surprised I was hungry, but realized I must have been sitting there for 6 hours or so. Being hungry made sense after all.


Glad you had fun right off the bat.

We'll be here to support, fix, tweak and fine-tune as the feedback comes in. [8D]

Regards,

- Erik



Chet Guiles -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 11:33:32 PM)

So far, so good. I like the ability to mod races in a single sheet instead of that impossibly complex "spreadsheet" thingy.

I would still like to see us be able to "Save" individual ships rather than whole shipsets in the ship building and mod screen.

I would still like to see us be able to CHOOSE which bits of technology we use in our ships when there are several "equivalent ones" rather than having the AI choose for us and making us do each ship one at a time. Nice would be to select tech as "OK" or "Obsolete" and then a mass "Upgrade" would only use those techs we want to use.

I like the larger 15 x 15 format.

Haven't yet decided whether I like the leaders thing -- have to see how they affect play over a series of games.

Still my favorite 4x space game EVER.



ASHBERY76 -> RE: Legends: leave your impressions here, pls! (11/23/2011 11:36:47 PM)

This game just gets better and better with each expansion.The game runs smooth,no crash in 5 hours play and is feature complete.All the new gameplay systems improve the game as I expected, so does the new UI elements like vectors.The ship graphics look very sharp zoomed in max.This expansion adds racial immersion into the living galaxy.

1400 star, 15x15 sector size is sweet.

I just wish I had time to play it thoroughly but that will have to wait until the weekend.



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