Some thought from a newbie

[MaximB]

Hello !
My name is maxim and I'm 27 years old.
it's my first week with Zatikon and I've ordered and preordered the expansions in the 2nd-3rd day of playing.
This game is very good but there are some issues that need to be fixed :

1. My OS is GNU/Linux - Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit , and for some reason the game runs slowly on my system and consumes a lot of CPU (although I have strong hardware, quad core, 4GB RAM etc...).
I hear the game runs fine on Windows and MacOS, so this issue needs to be fixed - I hope it's not a Java issue but something that the developers can fix (and flash isn't the "best" option under Linux, if you want to create a flash version).

2. While I like the 3 boxes/windows, the main game box/window is a little bit small and there is no way to maximize it or making it bigger (stretching) - I don't think this should be a big issue to implant, but it will help greatly the older people who could hardly see the units on their 24Inch wide screen monitors

3. The game "levels"/difficulty makes little sense :
The first 10 "levels" were much harder then the next 10 "levels", and in the 30's it's 50/50 - sometimes the AI plays well and sometimes it suck, there is no linearity here.

4. A newbie like me find it hard to know/learn which unit do what - there is the description but I didn't know for instance how strong are the skeletons and zombies that the necromancer summons before I bought him.
And I didn't quite understand many other skills of many units and how they work.

5. There are only 1000 points.
A "good" unit can cost 350 points, this can leave you with about 3-4 units making "barracks" a must as the AI can deploy units all the time without restrictions and your 3-4 units won't cut it without the ability to create more units.
You are very limited in the amount of units you can have, and some units are almost mandatory.
I suggest making an option for 2000 games.

P.S
I suspect (didn't count) that if you play random against other player you both get more points as there are a lot more units then in a regular game.

6. There is no way (that I know of) to pause the game, even on single player mode - if I have some urgent matter that I need to attend to - I might lose my turn.


Off course those are issues to be fixed and improved - but overall the game is great (you don't see me complaining about the simple graphics ) and I still got a lot to learn.
 

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

1. My OS is GNU/Linux - Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit , and for some reason the game runs slowly on my system and consumes a lot of CPU (although I have strong hardware, quad core, 4GB RAM etc...).
I hear the game runs fine on Windows and MacOS, so this issue needs to be fixed - I hope it's not a Java issue but something that the developers can fix (and flash isn't the "best" option under Linux, if you want to create a flash version).

If you have any more information about this let us know.  I fear it is a java problem though.  Do you know what version of java you have installed?

3. The game "levels"/difficulty makes little sense :
The first 10 "levels" were much harder then the next 10 "levels", and in the 30's it's 50/50 - sometimes the AI plays well and sometimes it suck, there is no linearity here.

The difficulty in single player depends a lot on which units the computer is using, it can make the same difficulty level vary a lot.

5. There are only 1000 points.
A "good" unit can cost 350 points, this can leave you with about 3-4 units making "barracks" a must as the AI can deploy units all the time without restrictions and your 3-4 units won't cut it without the ability to create more units.
You are very limited in the amount of units you can have, and some units are almost mandatory.
I suggest making an option for 2000 games.

P.S
I suspect (didn't count) that if you play random against other player you both get more points as there are a lot more units then in a regular game.

In random you do get more points for your army.  We have discussed different "sized" game modes and it might be something we experiment in the coming updates.

6. There is no way (that I know of) to pause the game, even on single player mode - if I have some urgent matter that I need to attend to - I might lose my turn.

Good idea!

[Norsker]

5. There are only 1000 points.
A "good" unit can cost 350 points, this can leave you with about 3-4 units making "barracks" a must as the AI can deploy units all the time without restrictions and your 3-4 units won't cut it without the ability to create more units.
You are very limited in the amount of units you can have, and some units are almost mandatory.



I suggest making an option for 2000 games.

It's certainly true that it becomes increasingly difficult(if not impossible) to defeat the AI at high levels without certain units(you generally need a summoner and something with allows for swapping/converting their units), but I'm not sure that 2000 points would help in the long term-at some AI, that's probably going to be insufficient without certain units.  The only 'solution' would be a more intelligent(but unit limited) AI, but I imagine that's hard to program.

I suspect (didn't count) that if you play random against other player you both get more points as there are a lot more units then in a regular game.

You get 1000 + general/gate guard.

6. There is no way (that I know of) to pause the game, even on single player mode - if I have some urgent matter that I need to attend to - I might lose my turn.

Yeah, time-outs would be nice.

[MaximB]

Hello !

It seems like I run this game with the OpenJDK which indeed runs slowly.
When I've run this game with R.I.P sun Java web start 6, it runs as it should.
But for some reason after a few minutes of inactivity (and several games) , the game crashed.

BTW I have an idea for unbeatable A.I : summon only Heretics - and lots of them
This unit is way OP, specially against high level mage units and low hp units.
When the A.I summons them I know my Channeler will be soon dead and I will lose the match.
This and other units makes the Catapult/Artillery a must, as there is now other way I know of to kill them without penalty.
But the Catapult is not  that effective with only 1 move per turn, and you must be in the correct angle to kill them.

So that brings me to the 1000 limit against A,I's unlimited limit


Also a question about ranking, how do they work and why am I leveling so slow ?
 

[Norsker]

BTW I have an idea for unbeatable A.I : summon only Heretics - and lots of them

This happens every so often at high level AI.  You can beat that using an artificer, changlings/summoner, or priests with protection.


This unit is way OP, specially against high level mage units and low hp units.
When the A.I summons them I know my Channeler will be soon dead and I will lose the match.

Also a question about ranking, how do they work and why am I leveling so slow ?
 

I'm not sure about the precise ranking system, but have you repeatedly been playing against the same opponent?  After a few times beating them, you will stop gaining rank. (After a while, though, you can play them again and it will count). 

Play(and beat) people of significantly higher rating, and yours will skyrocket.

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

Also a question about ranking, how do they work and why am I leveling so slow ?

If you are playing invite games vs other players you will not gain rank.