Impression of Clockwork Empires after a month

Hello everyone,

I purchased the early access version of CE on Steam about a month back and have been playing it regularly ever since, from the 33 experimental builds up til 34. I thought I'd post my overall impression of the game - what I like, what I don't like, suggestions, particularly aggravating bugs, etc. I'm sure many of these comments have been made by others and/or are going to be addressed as the game is developed, but I wanted to give my two cents.

I'd describe my relationship with the game as an abusive one. That is, I like the concept and the gameplay, but stability, balance, and design issues make it an extremely frustrating experience. I'm well aware that this is an early access game, not even a beta, but it seems buggy even by alpha standards. Given that you're basically trying to create Dwarf Fortress with actual graphics this is kind of understandable, but DF isn't as glitchy (most releases anyhow) and it has a single person behind it! The most annoying/game breaking glitch right now (for me anyways) is colonists' tendency to get stuck inside modules, walls, or out in the middle of nowhere, particularly in the middle of burial duties. This has probably been reported umpteenth times already but I'd really like to see a fix (or at least some kind of kludge) in upcoming releases. Module placement also seems a bit sticky and difficult at times. I'd also really, really like the ability to remove zones (farms, empty graveyards, storage space) soon.

I've noticed it becomes increasingly difficult to feed your subjects once your colony hits a population of 30 or higher, particularly in New Antipodea. You'll typically exhaust all nearby berry bushes and fungi within a week at which point farming becomes your best, only reliable source of sustenance. The problem is, farming doesn't produce enough food. I've found that dedicating two large work crews (8-12 colonists total) to farming (no duties assigned) with 2-3 maximum sized fields as well as a full time kitchen crew (4-5 colonist; again, no other duties) can keep up with the demand (barely), particularly if you only ask for food supply drops. However, any disruption in the work chain (say, a fishperson raid, cultists planting Malfeasant Clawbulb, or the entirety of the work crew being asleep/gossiping/eating for a time) can quickly lead to your food stores being exhausted. The end result of this is that well over half your colony does nothing but farm and cook. Historically, this is actually fairly accurate, but it makes expanding your colony very difficult and isn't fun. More to the point, this is a Steampunk civilization, i.e., an industrial one, and the greatest invention of the industrial age wasn't steam power, electricity, or airships - it was the Haber process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process. The development of synthetic fertilizers enabled and sustains the worldwide population boom. I strongly suggest, if it wasn't already planned, that sulfur fertilizers should be able to double or triple the productivity of farms (and maybe another, less powerful but renewable type of fertilizer be made available).

Food isn't as great an issue in New Sogwood given the almost ludicrous abundance of coconuts; wood is, though, oddly enough. I think coconut trees should be able to be chopped down for their wood, forcing players to choose between a long-term renewable resource and desperately needed construction material.

I know that cult activity will be toned down in later versions of the games, but right now it's pretty insane (pun unintended). Around 70-80% of my colonists die due to frontier justice (and I only execute them if they 'enjoyed' talking about forbidden topics or catch them in the middle of doing something cult-y). I typically need to build 3-4 large graveyards after the first couple of week. I hope you'll be able to take more preventative measures against cultists soon. Building a chapel doesn't help, since half the time the vicar just winds up being converted to worship the Eldritch Powers even if he/she has seminary training. Booze may help, not sure, but it's used up so quickly I barely have a chance to make the more potent stuff. Plus, it's a waste of precious crops (see above). It'd be helpful to have some gauge of the colonist's overall level of happiness as opposed to viewing a collection of recent memories.

The military is actually pretty well-balanced right now. If deployed correctly and properly armed they can handle pretty much anything the game throws at you. This may change as new threats/armaments are added, but for now it's more or less solid. Military supplies are an issue, however, since you can't manufacture your own (i.e. the ability to make gunpowder doesn't currently work/is bugged). Speaking of which, there currently really isn't much of a point of building an arsenal since guns and weapons aren't used up and one or two supply drops will provide you with everything you need. Maybe guns should be breakable? Need to be repaired every so often?

On the topic of favors, they feel like glorified, redundant supply drops/immigration events. I think that, with increasing prestige, you should be able to ask for more specific favors, not just larger ones. For example, at a certain level of prestige you should be able to ask for an artisan with a specific trait (e.g. seminary training, military training), a supply drop consisting of nothing but one resource (bricks, food, booze), evict an annoying aristocrat, a bombing run on a pesky bandit camp, etc. Furthermore, instead of being available once a day for a brief period like supply drops/immigration, calling in a favor should be available at any time, but once a favor is called there should be a 'cool down' period before you can ask for another. The length of the cool down period should vary depending on a) how big a favor it is and b) how high your prestige is (it shouldn't be shorter than, say, half a day, no matter how high your prestige is). This would change the mechanics of favors, making them more of a reactive tool available to the player to deal with a imminent threat/need, distinguishing them from supply drops/immigration. Thus they would be more valuable thereby raising the impetus to acquire prestige.

A few other, miscellaneous things. Roads, which have already been mentioned before, are a must, and should increase walking/running speed. I'd also like to see a way of peacefully(?) dealing with fishpeople. After all, how can it be a game about Jingoistic colonization without the capacity to trade with and later enslave the indigenous people (only to have the tide turn, pun unintended, as their creepy, fishy influence corrupts your colonists and lowers your prestige with the empire if you're not careful)? It'd also be nice if naturalists and/or scientists could eventually domesticate indigenous flora and fauna, allowing you to grow Lingonberry bushes on farms and so forth. Finally, please put a cap on the number of bandit camps and make it stick. My military can usually handle them if I'm prepared, but after a couple of weeks it's like the surrounding countryside is a city of tents. Have a couple of tents spawn and have them spawn new bandit raids until they're dismantled by the military; more tents will spawn after a time, but for a while you'll be bandit free. By the way, foraging them for supplies is currently a no-go since they're so far away (particularly in New Sogwood since foragers tend to get picked off by random fishpeople).

EDIT: Also, I think it'd be a nice touch for more decor modules to have an effect on happiness. For example, a colonist working/sleeping in a building with no windows might feel depressed, feel safer at night when walking past a lamp, etc.

That's about it. Thanks again for this awesome (albeit incomplete) game!

 

I also recently bought the game and agree with many of your points. Regarding food, even with the recent simplification its hard to take your focus off of it after getting over 30 + Colonists. When I found that my crops were being replaced with clawbulb sprouts, I would focus on the work crew working on the farms. As soon as I found the culprit worker (cultist), by looking at which plant they sowed,they would be quickly dispatched or moved to another work crew. Otherwise 1/2 of my farm plots would be growing clawbulbs. Perhaps clawbulbs should have some other uses as others in the forum have suggested. Maybe they can be harvested for 'stew' with maddening effects, or something.

I also had the though that perhaps certain crops or the cooking process could provide more than one serving. For example, lingoberries after they are preserved can be eaten twice or thrice before they are removed from the food stockpile.

A semi-related problem, which also has been addressed in the forum, and has been appearing in my games. Sometimes the 'long pork' that remains after a violent outburst of fish person anger is picked up by colonists and returned to the food stockpile. I have had games where some colonists have eaten the long pork even when there was other food available. (But now, I think that this is intended - as there will be crazy colonists or cultists who should be the only ones who would perform these actions). In another instance, I had a game right from the start where 3 colonists walked into the fog of war half way into the darkness to pick up some beef steak. I was confused until I realized that foxes were killing aurochs, and the steak left behind was being picked up by idling colonists. They shouldn't know that its there. On the other hand I also asked colonists to forage defeated bandit camps, they would take the stuff out, but never return it to civilization. It could be that my colonists were too busy, but perhaps it was still marked as 'stolen' goods? I would like a way to designate an area where the items found within the area should be picked up and brought back to town, or untouchable.

Hope you guys had a great rest during the holidays

 

...And having just played through one of the most frustrating games I've ever had on a PC, I'd like to emphasize...

Dial. Down. The. Cults!!!

Seriously! It was goddamn ridiculous. One night I had FIVE colonists attempt to build a creepy shrine more or less at once with little or no hint of cult activity or provocation. The colonists weren't really that unhappy as far as I could tell. The fact you can click through the work crew person by person to find anyone who had forbidden conversations doesn't help on multiple levels. It feels like a chore, not a devious game of cat and mouse.

 

Awesome! Thanks for listening.