Top recently changes that I like, the feel good thread

[Madchess]

I think the forum could do with a little more positive vibes at times, so here is a thread to discuss what changes we like best and why.

If you don't like any changes or just want to post to tell how much you hate a specific change that I mentioned please do not post in this thread but post in the thread discussing said changes, or create a thread where there is none, the purpose of this thread is to have a place to discuss what good things has recently happened.

In no particulair order this is my list of recently implemented changes that I really like, it is not that I find every change without flaw, but rather I feel they serve an important role. Also I did not only post changes implemented under the current ownership.

One big change that was implemented a while back is the change to scientists from books, this really made science interesting for me as an attacker, a field that I mostly just ignored before, and the fact that you can reassign scientists makes for an interesting field to play arround with. The newest addition of diminishing returns after a specific cap actually makes it even more interesting to focus on because it gives more options for going over a specific number.

Another huge change I really like is hybrid based gains, I can't say I know all the mechanics there fully just yet, but it served a very important function of removing the nw drop via soldiers and I have not in fact encountered this or seen anything that could suggest that it is still being practiced, atleast not in any significant way. I think it is sufficient to say it serves its purpose.

The next one is a bit old, but I only recently discovered the shell kingdom option, I really like the possibility to play with just a few people and keep things simple without anny add ons or external programs, it allows me to focus playing the game more, without spending hours uppon hours chatting with others. The internal chat feature is plenty for our purpose and still allows me to socialise with my team members whenever we feel like it. The wall I think is a bit newer addition to this, but I can see great potential even outside the shell where struggeling monarchs can put it up and try to sort out their kingdom without forcefully having more provinces added. I know from my time as a ghetto monarch this could really have made a diffrence back then.

Let us not forget the new ownership and their approach to communications, I must admit that I missed the first stream completely and saw the second a few days after, but the third I watched live, and I can say I wholeheartedly support the attemps to adress issues, changes and questions this way. I also find it refreshing that we now have game owners frequently visiting these forums and replying directly to suggestions and questions, if I ever saw that from any previous ownership it must have been a long time ago, thumps up to that even if it varies how often they got the time to do this, it still makes us peons know that you read and care about some of the things we say.

We got new races this age and last age with another personality as well, while some of them are mostly renaming and tweaking an existing concept I really had a blast trying out Dryad last age. Personly I hope to see even more of this in ages to come, it adds greatly to diversity, and even if you make a race that is somewhat imbalanced, if it has the best stats for whatever I'm most interested in I'll play it for sure. I do not think it is a success criteria how many people chose the new race and races to come, if it fits someones playing style it is worth having arround.

I also really likes the changes to explore pools, we had a lot of abuseable situations with the kingdomwide pool, a few kingdoms went ahead and greatly made use of this oppotunity, but with the changes this should no longer be a big issue, this age flexibility was added to the mechanic, but potential abuse now comes at a prize which I think is good for the game.

Finally I think it was the right choice to drop elite values and make elites more killable, we had rather big numbers with even more modifiers last age, and it really should not be a defence in itself to run one of the races where 100% elite armies is the go to strategy. It also adds oppotunities to finally be able to focus on taking for instance an undeads offenses out via ns.

[the juice man]

My favorite change is that zauper and hawk don't play anymore.

[Korp]

It said to go and create your own thread instead of replying here with something non-constructive :)

THen why dont you live as you learn? Instead you just pour fuel on the fire. Best path in this case is to ignore such posts.

[StratOcastle]

I like the changes to undead even though I don't run them anymore. They presented a rich character to encounter.

Hybrid gains are cool because they make sense and it was funny balancing retaliation against land anemic- high nw action heroes. While I attempted to be nice, my intuition led me to compress their economies as a teaching device.

The micro-kingdom/mini-shell concept is something I've really liked but I don't like bothering Bishop. Thus, I've rarely sought out micros in the name of sympathy. While I understand this is a kingdom game, based in cooperation, I wasn't going to lead a team that asked lots of questions(I like bold) and I didn't enjoy the prevailing Utopian cultures: com systems, bots, vanilla strats. The micro-kingdoms offered me the freedom and daunting uphill battle I found satisfying.

My hope is Hawk and Zauper still play, at least time to time. The grief they sustain is from impassioned players; I get that. My absence this age has nothing to do with the game, but stuff that has to be done. The tick I abandoned was the tick my scientists went full professors, so it wasn't easy. Just wanted the devs to know I appreciate the color and effort they've added to the lineage of Utopia.

When I have time I'm going to start unravelling the mysteries of the top. It's something I'm curious about, but I want to earn it through experimentation/investigation rather than ask. That's going to be fun.

[Shrinky]

THen why dont you live as you learn? Instead you just pour fuel on the fire. Best path in this case is to ignore such posts.

Hence, the PS below my statement because I knew I was doing exactly the same thing as what he was also doing.

And since I know you like to troll and you want to have the last word in most exchanges, I expect you to reply to me once more and I'll leave it at that.

Now, back on topic. The removal of incoming hits penalty and reduction of outgoing hits penalty in prosperous stance does make things interesting. While earlier I would rarely see the need to hit into KDs in fort, now I see no issues with hitting into KDs in prosperous. Has opened up the game a lot more, freeing up more targets for hitting (which earlier would not have been viable for hitting due to gains penalties). Yes, I say this because I'm one of those people who are not running Undead so, no, I don't have to worry about leet conversions.
I also like that it's more difficult now to try and play the soldier ball game; keep huge soldiers, aid them out, bottom feed, take them back from your KD mate, stay out of NW range again, rinse and repeat. While it may have seemed like a good tactical play for the bigger KD, it sure as hell was annoying for the smaller KDs to be hit like this and then unable to return hit for good gains due to NW range issues.

[RollinHammer]

Im a huge fan of blind changes that are not put in notes. Like abolish rituals first 50 casts not doing anything