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FE has too much micromanagement!

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FE has too much micromanagement!

from Elemental Forums

It's time we faced an unpleasant reality: Fallen Enchantress simply has too much micromanagement, and the UI is completely inappropriate for this type of game.

It is simply beyond imagination that in 2013, there is still a game that makes me design my own units in order to play optimally.  This speaks to the poor quality of the AI as much as anything else.

It boggles my mind that I am compelled, turn after turn, to make decisions about what my cities should be producing, where troops should be going, and in which direction my empire should expand.

I find it maddening that the UI has literally (I counted them, so yes, literally) several dozen places I might click on in any given turn.  Really?  Several dozen?!  Can the designers honestly not think of any way to combine the simple, repetitive tasks of checking budgets and resources, managing troops and cities, research, magical advancement, and diplomacy into a single, or at most a few, buttons?  Recall, I'm going to have to click these buttons for literally hundreds of turns.  It gets tedious.

While we're at it, the concept of things taking whole turns to build borders on micromanagement as well.  Six turns for this, 12 turns for that?  Really, you can think of no better way in the 21st century?  Just have the AI advance the turns automatically, after calculating where I moved my units, what treasure I took, and what battles I won with my predesigned units and how I expanded along my precalculated roads.   You can have that idea for free.

In short, too much effort on my part to play the game, too many decisions, too many things to look at or decide on.  Clean up your act, Paxton.

 

(dedicated to those who think that building roads with engineers is too much micromanagement).

33,992 views 29 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 15
Wow. I'm so on the other side of this.

I so much want there to be more decision making.  If I were emperor of FE, I'd have more sliders (not just taxes) and I've had city terrain matter a lot more. Probably a good thing I wasn't the designer.
End of Frogboy's quote

 

I think there are things that can be improved.

 

Road building should be an on/off toggle.  Excess production should be counted.

 

I don't want too much micromanagement,  I think the game is close to the spot I want.   What the OP wants, I think it's what the says he wants, instead of what he actually wants- a game that just plays itself isn't too interesting.

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

I would love if more micromanagement was offered as an option, maybe even just for higher difficulty levels and with the weaker difficulty levels the AI takes care of these decisions for you.

Options are good.

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Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Gammit10, reply 27
I would love if more micromanagement was offered as an option, maybe even just for higher difficulty levels and with the weaker difficulty levels the AI takes care of these decisions for you.

Options are good.
End of Gammit10's quote

This.

I like this approach. Let the game automate what you want it to and allow the player to focus on what they want to focus on. For example, maybe I don't care about research, city building, or unit design... I just want to play the General and fight the battles. Let the player do that if that's all they want to to but bury it somewhere inside the game. Allow cities to have AI governors (like Civ), let an advisor handle research, use pre-made units (ingame already), allow advisors handle diplomacy (with approval from you). A major aspect of being a leader, King, or Emperor is delegation... why do so many games miss this when the AI within them basically do it?

Anyways, regarding the OP. I feel there is a bit too much micromanagement, HOWEVER, it could actually use more. I'd enjoying seeing more depth to cities and the overall empire, questing, and the RPG system in the characters. I feel that the problem with the micromanagement isn't that there is too much of it but that the interface isn't supporting it enough. I like the pop-ups on the side but I feel they should be bigger, make noise, and alert you when you try to end your turn and you haven't done something (ala Civ V). If the interface would support it then the game would be much easier to manage.

Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top

I agree totally with the OP. In this age of enlightened life and starbuck's on every corner why should I have to press buttons at all?

Just give me the One Button. You know, the "I Win" button. I press that, and the game progresses automatically. I really don't like making decisions anyway and my life is just too hectic to spend time looking through allll that information so I can make informed decisions about designing some silly little make believe soldier man. Why can't this game be more like COD? I just press that "Make my army" button and Voila, they run around the map and shoot stuff and I getz Lootz...