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Strive: Conquest

A successor to first Strive For Power game, currently at alpha stage · By Strive4Power

Suggestions for gameplay improvement

A topic by LuzieSaltalt created Jul 19, 2023 Views: 552 Replies: 6
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(1 edit)

I have played this game far to much and only part of it is because of the "artistic enjoyment", I do have a few gripes which I hope will be fixed in the future. Here is a list with things I think would make the game better ranging from QoL to large changes, no objective truths here just my thoughts, feel free to discuss.

1//

 Slave price should be increased tenfold, x10, and skills and training should add value exponentially. Currently I do not see a reason to ever sell a slave, even if you would make a large profit its just not worth it compared to having them work for you. This is also true the opposite way were I don't ever feel like the price for a slave matters even when I'm just looking to upgrade someone with them. If base prices were increased so that buying a slave means spending thousands of gold but also selling a well trained and obedient slave could net me tens of thousands of gold I would have a reason to engage with the trade in a way that is not just looking for purple to sacrifice.

2//

The sacrifice mechanic sucks. Not only is it quite bad, boring and tedious, it is also the only way to improve your people. I understand that the basic stats is supposed to be the characters potential but this system completely ruins it. I think there should be a way for characters to improve but I don't think it should be this easy and cheep. The only reason to not level all your characters stats to at-least an average rating is because its boring, this is not good game design. I suggest to add a classroom upgrade where characters can tutor each other to improve their stats. The upgrade gives a wits job that does nothing but open up a new job, to study. This could be either a wits job or an unspecified job that every time a worker finish a cycle one of their stats get increased at random to a maximum of the tutors stats -1. In addition there could be new classes that could improve the speed of a cycle or increase the maximum skill that can be gained( one teacher class and then 4 follow up classes for teaching, phy, mag, wit and cha). I think that the other stats, sex, tam and tmd, should be treated like skills and change in response to actions and treatment.

3//

Obedience and loyalty should be changed, I think that obedience as it stands is to easy to just kiss away until its not a problem, meaning classes that focus on ensuring obedience are mechanically useless. Fear is also an element but again it serves no mechanical purpose. I think that loyalty should be removed and that obedience should be the cost in the place of loyalty. skills that currently gives loyalty should be changed to instead increase the maximum obedience of a slave to enable more expensive upgrades to be acquired or to allow the slave to go for longer without supervision.

4//

resources should be harder to acquire the rarer they are. Currently there is almost no reason to not just go mine mithrill for the first few days and then have top tier tools for the rest of the game, this is dumb. I like the idea to be able to make strong tools early but it should come at a cost, currently there just isn't one. you only need one tool because you probably only have one miner so the opportunity cost compared to other materials just isn't there. This problem goes both ways too, why cant I hunt for bones as an example? are the animals boneless? There needs to be a balance for resource value and I think it needs to be in travel time. If travel time was counted in days not in quarter days traveling for resources becomes a cost instead of an inconvenience. this also makes combat quests harder but that can be balanced in the quest-rewards instead.

5// 

Speaking of time, why is each turn not just a day? I don't like how micro managing it makes everything when everything can be done in very small increments, just changing the game to go day by day would make the game harder by itself but with some balances in the beginning regarding the loan I think the game will be less tedious over all.


6//

All classes should be seen when unlocking requirements, even those that are not owned or that a character never can learn.

7//

there should be fewer quests and they should not require me to hand them in after they are done. In addition the noticeboard should show all accepted quests and allow me to hand in resources, slaves and tools from there. Also there shouldn't be a text popup after I accept a quest.

-=Edited Continuation=-

8//

You should be able to equip multiple tools.

1/ You really get shafted on slave prices. Maybe there's a tax on slave sales? That, or the slave traders are making huge profits.

2/ Don't like the trading of slaves for attributes either, but it does explain why everyone isn't walking around with 6s in every attribute.

3/ Obedience has gone through a lot of changes. I agree that as it stands, it doesn't matter much, and is only an issue early game. More obedience uses might just lead to a lot of micro managing, though.

4/ Mithril isn't really a late game resource, more of a mid-game one; and it takes a long time to mine enough for all tools, weapons and armors, so it's not really an issue to be available early on, but maybe locking villages until a few quests are done early game would make steel more relevant.
Screw bones though, who ever heard of bone tools past the ancient era?

5/ Days used to be 24 turns long. It was kind of micro manage-y, so 4 turns is a reasonable compromise. Things go pretty fast sometimes.

6/ Should you be able to see race-specific classes, or unique classes from unique characters?

7/ Agree on everything there. And more quest variety wouldn't hurt.

2// I don't think it stops you from maxing characters, just makes it to annoying to put up with.

3// My point (or what I was trying to say) is that tying obedience to training means you generally don't have to worry about it unless you are currently invested in the slaves skills. This would make the system serve a purpose without forcing you to manage it for everyone.

4// my point was cut short by my limited attention-span. What I wanted to say was that early access to mid-game resources makes it a chore to bother with early resources, for quest and upgrades, and also means it will take a very long time until there is other resources to use. I like the idea of being able to make a few powerful items but when all of you items are made out of mid lvl. material there is no reason to upgrade because when late resources are available the difference they make are to small to be exited about.

5// I don't mind things going fast but its annoying to micro everyone, personal preference I guess.

6// I think all classes except for character specific classes should be at-least viewable somehow.


thank you for the discussion=)

Most of these are not as much as improvements rather its complete balance revamp suggestions

those 2 are not mutually exclusive, no?

would you like to share your thought on my suggestion?

To be brief
1. Basically a whole balance revamp and I'm not willing to get into it right now as I believe balance is mostly in correct place
2. Factor upgrade system is actually exists as easy mode mechanic, we plan to remove it from hard mode. Also see 1
3. See 1
4. See 1
5. See 1
6. I think current class display is alright, what you can't see you can eventually learn about anyway.
7. We'll consider adding automatic quest submission but I don't really see why make fewer quests
8. There's an upgrade which makes tools bit more versatile, otherwise there's no plans to add more tool slots.

dissapointing but fair