[DevDiary 28 - Intro to Tactical Battles]

On 7/20/2022 at 1:25 AM, William Blake said:

This question was talked over many times. They want multiplayer to be many people at once. The game is very long. There are a lot of battles. If each time 2 out of a six people want to have a 15-20 minutes battle the rest will have to wait and do nothing. It would take too much time and too much idle time for everyone else to have tactical battles in a multiplayer. They could not find a way to do it given the strategic game whey want this to be.

1. multiplayer can also be only 2 people, yes?

2. I think players should be able to choose the rules by which they play.

3. Nobody says all battles should be playable in tactical

 

[DevDiary 28 - Intro to Tactical Battles]

I also wondered why can't be an option to have tactical battles against other human players in multiplayer also?

If all the players agree to it, except battles against AI, all other battles could be "manual".

 

Also if the players agree, a battle against a human player could be also resolved automatically on the spot, even if they have the option to resolve it manually. 

[Possible Option That Would Include Mp Battles]

5 minutes ago, Zaza said:

 

 

[Possible Option That Would Include Mp Battles]

I also wondered why can't be an option to have tactical battles against other human players in multiplayer also?

If all the players agree to it, except battles against AI, all other battles could be "manual".

 

Also if the players agree, a battle against a human player could be also resolved automatically on the spot, even if they have the option to resolve it manually. 

[DevDiary 26 - Goods and Advantages]

In my opinion, the system SHOULD NOT be simpler than KoH 1, but more complex.

I liked that in KoH 1, the resources were randomly assigned to provinces and that not every province could make any goods. That game some provinces a uniqueness and strategic importance.

Also that kept the game fresh.

If I understood right, now all the resources in the kingdom are put in a pool and any province can make any goods

[When will we see release date and when we will we see war scenes ??]

In an age of instant gratification and unwarranted entitlement, seeing all this "when will it release" question over and over again, is not surprising.

It's not like this is is the only game on planet Earth soon to release or released.

 

More, I would advise you to wait at least 6 months since the release of this game. Because nowadays, the industry standard is to release buggy games at launch and fix them along the way with the help of the community.

But if you want to be an unpaid beta-tester and accumulate frustrations, go for it! 🙂

[Portraits]

On 8/15/2021 at 11:19 PM, Zerg said:

I share that feeling with you.

I've pasted screenshots from both the old and the new game at the end of my post for everyone else to compare aswell. As far as I can tell I see three big problems.

1. Used space is smaller
The new game uses less space, which forces the portraits to be smaller. This combined with the 3D-faces makes it harder to notice features of the face (wrinkles, mimic, etc.).

2. Bad background
I think the strange white/black background also takes away focus from the portrait. The black inner-shadow doesn't help at all. If its removed I am sure it would help a lot.

3. Faces are zoomed out
The first game just shows more face. If you compare both games, the first game just nearly had no background-space because the faces would take it all up.

Knights of Honor

Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

I think that the faces/portraits in Knights of Honor II are 3D and are randomly generated.

I would also want to be zoomed in like in KoH1 but maybe that would reveal imperfections in the 3D models and this is the reason they're zoomed out.

 

The portraits in KoH1 were all hand drawn, every one of them has a unique flair with identifiable features/grimaces/mimics.  The 3D portraits will never rival that.

I don't know why they opted for the 3D route. I see they have capable and talented  2D artists.

A low fidelity 2D portrait (for higher number in portraits) but with personality is better than an infinite number of 3D portrait iterations.

 

As an example I give the portraits from Heroes of Might and Magic III. 

 

  

Personality should trump bland mass production.

[Where are the past dev diaries?]

Where are the past dev diaries?

I tried to view some of the past dev diaries on youtube and now they're labeled as private.

What is the motivation behind this?

[Gameplay video impressions]

7 hours ago, Lighthope said:

No one here is in the beta yet.  Should we wipe out everything said so far?

And the "silent majority" is often code for "people who agree with me but I have no evidence of."

The silent majority is code for people who don't throw a fit because KoH2 is too similar to Knights of Honor 1 and don't go sperging about it after seeing just a short clip and emphatically declare the game is atrocious and it will fail commercially because it's not tailored along their tastes, hopes and dreams.

 

Something valuable is always to be had but not as valuable as the beta feedback from players that will actually play the game and will experience it AS A WHOLE.  

[Gameplay video impressions]

On 4/23/2021 at 7:13 PM, Ivory Knight said:

I actually have thought of going in the other direction. Instead of giving more building depth to settlements, maybe just take all of that out of the picture, and just have the settlements improve themselves automatically over time (reducing the micromanagement there).

^ hey devs!  

If you do that, I am not buying this game. Even from the bargain bin, several years down the road. 🙂  😛

 

It seems we're in that phase where some people are very upset the game is not exactly the one they dreamed up in this pandemic, after watching just short clip. And by invoking their wishes the game to do well, they think that throwing near tantrums and acting entitled, is the way to go.

 

To devs: the best way to hurt your game is designing it by "forum commission".

My advice to you is not about gameplay mechanics, but to stay true to your vision, listen to constructive criticism only from players that play the beta (but do not stray too far from the vision), and don't ever think that the silent majority is somehow beneath a very vocal minority.

 

PS: I've played Knights of Honor for the first time ever early this year (after 17 years since launch... mkay?) and the first thing I did, after completing it, was to buy a physical copy to add it to my games collection. But somehow the author of this thread wants me to believe that this game is s4#t!

I can attest your game withstood the test of time really well (yours and MechCommander 🙂 ) and you can take my vote and take it to the bank in 2021.

 

PS2: For the love of God, leave the "building depth" aloneee!

 

 

 

 

 

[Did they say anything about seiges?]

On 5/10/2021 at 8:39 PM, Lighthope said:

All they did was give the defenders time to call in reinforcements.

 

 

But it isn't supposed to receive a benefit by maintaining a siege. 🙂

And isn't this the purpose of a castle? To buy time, call reinforcements, etc?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cloud shadows/weather effects in the game]

Hello!

The first game had clouds that casted shadows onto the land which gave the game a nice depth effect.

 

Will KoH2 feature clouds or at least cloud shadows?

From all the screenshots I've seen, the land always is bright, locked in an eternal perfect cloudless green summer which is too uniform and boring to look at.

Will the game feature some weather effects like rain or wind, local storms with all those trees swaying in the wind a little?

I think all these would make the game more visually appealing and increase immersion.

 

 

If anyone else has any other examples of games with the same  bird's eye perspective that implemented clouds/weather effects, please do tell.