http://crystalshard.binary-people.com/leylines.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/leylines/downloads.html
Seems good. I’ll try it once I get home from work.
Has anyone tried it yet? Is it good?
I downloaded it yesterday and visited their website briefly. I obviously did not look hard enough because I could not tell if there were A.I. opponents available or not. Your link clearly states there are, so I will probably give it a try tonight. Not sure what the hell I was looking at last night after getting the demo from AVault.
Random maps, PBEM option, exploration, conquest, city building…the miniscule download scares me though.
I played the demo for about two hours yesterday.
The tutorial is efficient and to the point. It doesn’t explain any strategies, but after it is done you’ll have the interface down pat. The interface is rather intuitive, IMHO, save for some quirks in the city screen. No queues, for example.
The graphics are bland, but functional. I really like maps with hexagons. It just feels right. And old-school.
The sound wasn’t good enough to be left on for more than 3 minutes, but I usually do that, especially when my wife is trying to sleep. Therefore, I can’t really comment on the sound.
Gameplay is reminiscient of AoW, with the overland spells and building system leading to various units (50 in all). Worker allocation is somewhat like Civ, in that you have to maximize each cities Food/Work/Gold/Mana-production with the specific terrain taken into account. Combat is like a cross between Disciples and Warlords IV, with both sides chosing to place their units (max 6) in either the front or the rear rank, and then facing of on a single screen.
City-building is done like MoM, with a great ‘Survey’-mode allowing you to view exactly the pros and cons of each possible city location. The terrain surrounding each city can be enhanced and even magically altered. Cities also have morale and some ways to raise (festivals) or lower (levies) it. The Pioneer unit can also build roads, and there are some special roads as well (moonpaths?) which I didn’t test.
Various mercenary units can offer to join you, and these guys were often rather good, but I didn’t see any ‘heroes’ as such. Maybe later in the game. Ordinary units gain experience and levels, but I only played long enough to see that twice, once as a random event and once through combat.
The special locations on the map generally gives specific production bonuses, and require you to have a unit there to get that bonus. Some of the most important special locations are the Leylines. These sites generate mana and can also be used as summoning locations for your magical beasts.
I only played on ‘Easy’ so I can’t comment on the AI. Easy setting really was easy, though.
Don’t alt-Tab out of the game. That crashed my games, but that might just be on my computer.
I can find only one really glaring omission: Pathfinding for units absolutely must be expanded to stretch over several turns. It is a drag to have to give orders to every unit (or stack) every turn. Small minuses are given for the lack of building queues, and for the rather flimsy manual.
Overall it feels like an ambitious idea and a pretty solid design. It lacks the minutae of Dom2, and Geryk would probably find it a bit too simplistic, but, on the other hand, it is no where near as daunting as Dom2.
I’m already longing to get some more time with this one.[/i]
I kinda dig it, too. Sten hit all of the high points I would have. It’s certainly nothing groundbreaking, but it has a nice boardgame-y feel. You do not have thousands of options, but there is plenty there to keep you busy.
One thing. The tutorial is actually laid out pretty well with a lot more helpful “mouse overs” than in most indie developed games. I dunno, it just seems like there was a lot of attention to detail and neat little gameplay choices during my brief time with the game.
Sten,
I am not at home, but I am pretty sure there are options to allow units to continue their paths as well as an option to allow building queues. Both are turned off by default. I have not turned them on yet so I am not sure if and how they work.
They are either under the “Options” Tab on the City screen or the “Mirror” tab on the main screen.
One thing I like is that you can finish a Quickstart random map in around an hour or hour and a half. While I am sure many would rather just play AoW some more, it is different enough for me to warrant some of my time. I have picked up far worse games for $15.00.