Threadtyrant! Freedom for theads to live their lives as they wish, and in their true chronological order, free from the tyranny of the mods!
Anyways - Still really excited for this. It kinda depends on whether they have kept the insane possibilities for doing totally overpowering things or not - if they have “balanced” and neutered all factions and spells, its going to be rather dull.
If everyone is the same with various skins, replayability goes out the window.
Oh yeah, so here is what happened - or what I’m worried about, anyway.
So initially when I saw folks playing the Press Demo, which was limited to 3 pre-set wizards/factions and some other restrictions, I thought “Hey I’ll put a video of that up!” so I emailed Slitherine’s PR and introduced myself and asked if they would be cool letting me have access to the press beta to show off on my channel.
The only time I heard back was an invite to the beta, which I assumed was due to my email from a few days earlier. I signed the form, and boom, got a download key and recorded the video I put in this thread. People seemed to like it and it was doing well for my channel, but it kept bothering me that when I played the beta I wasn’t restricted at all - I could full on (and did!) custom create a wizard. Looking, hours after I posted the video, at my library I saw it was listed as “closed beta” and I remembered the press version also had a “welcome to the press demo” disclaimer. I think I somehow managed to get into the beta… randomly… just days after I asked for the press demo access (which I still have not heard back on).
So out of an abundance of caution, I set the video to Private and reached out to find out what the deal is. I think it was just a wild coincidence, since months and months ago I did sign up for the beta, but it’s crazy that I was invited after asking for access to show footage off on my channel. Then again, I’d think an actual PR person would have written me back, not an automated email asking for a form to be filled out and then a second one with a steam key.
So, I’m really sorry, in short! As soon as I can show footage, I’ll re-record something - hopefully I hear back from them soon!
I finally got the proper press demo, so I started a new series. This first one is short, only about 12 minutes long, but I’m going to play more and go into detail as I go since I’ve been reading the strategy guide and remembering/learning a ton about this amazing freaking, incredibly clever and satisfying game. Man, this is so good.
The OG game guide, but most of it would still apply, they aren’t changing the game that much. From my observations so far, they have added several handy QoL features but the math is the same, so to speak.
You lucky fuck. I lost mine during a move at some point, and it burns my biscuits because I collect strategy guides, and this was always my favorite of all the guides I have (and my first guide!). I went to buy a copy last Friday and they run $270 on Amazon. I did find a copy on ebay for $35+$10 shipping but I was a bit concerned about the condition of the spine/glue, so I instead found a kind soul had uploaded a PDF scan of it on the gog forums, so I’m reading that copy. I wish I had the physical book again though.
I saw on ebay there was a second seller that had a copy of the book going for $38 + $10 shipping. I hemmed and hawed, but the pictures looked really good, better shape even than my old beat up copy was back when I had it, and I figured I got the game for free from the publisher, so I’m not technically out anything dropping $50 on this guide, so I pulled the trigger.
At the rate I’m going, I’ll have read through the PDF before this arrives, but that’s okay. This time it will stay with a collection I hadn’t yet started when I tossed this 20+ years ago.
I can say in the game I’m doing in the closed beta, the AI is building mid-game units that are on par with my best stuff, and casting terrifying spells in combat (he opened one battle by Distengrating my Basilisks and proceded to Doom Bolt and Warp Lighting to very nasty effect the rest of the fight) . They have a lot of cities, lots of units, and are casting and maintaining powerful enchantments. This is me playing on Easy, by the way. Is the AI good? I can’t say, I’m not good enough at these kinds of games to find and use exploits so the AI always feels like a fair challenge I can eventually overcome if I’m patient and don’t mind making judicious use of the Spell of Rewind (Load Game). I have a feeling if I never save-scummed, I’d lose more often than not, however.