Strategic play feedback

Pathfinder: WotR Suggestions
#1

Caveat: I’ve played to the point where I’ve captured Drezen. Some of this includes my experience with Kingmaker, as it seems to be at least used as a major influence. Not sure if this can help, as it seems like we’re too far along for things like this to be addressed, but hopefully Owlcat finds it useful.

As I play WotR, the strategic portion of the game feels completely detached and separate from the crpg portion of the game. There is some statistical influence between the two, but otherwise there is no connectivity. There are situations where they have different, sometimes conflicting, realities which hurts the suspension of disbelief.

Examples include:

  • Companion/ministers who can be handling affairs of state while simultaneously out leading the adventurers life. Too busy to handle another appointment, not too busy to descend into Acheron with the party.
  • Buildings constructed in the strategic game not affecting the maps being used in the crpg game.
  • (So far) an inability to see how my decisions on army composition in the strategic game play out in the crpg game.

I’d love to see the two sides be glued together better, with decisions in the strategic game playing out in the crpg.

  • If I have an army parked in the town I’m visiting in the crpg game, show me more soldiers of the type I have in my army on the map. Lots of soldiers for a big army, few, if any, for a small one.
  • If I build out facilities for the town in the strategic game, show them on the crpg map.
  • Any decisions we get to make on the army’s equipment should be reflected on the soldiers on the CRPG map. I’d love to see a ragtag army, grow into a well equipped military force.
  • Adding strategic resources to the map, like mithral or adamantium could unlock special equipment for the troops, which per above, is reflected on the look of the troops on the crpg maps.
  • As a town’s garrison improves maybe less shady characters walking about, and more patrols by the garrison.

Also, not a fan of the combat portion of the strategic game. It just doesn’t feel right, and if I had the option to auto-resolve combats, I would, if only to avoid playing through it.

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#2

I think some of the “reactivity” you’re looking for is coming, just not implemented yet, as in Kingmaker what you saw when wandering around the capital did change based on decision you made (I’m pretty sure a CG King would see a lot less undead and hellknights wandering around than I did). Given comments the innkeeper in Drezen makes when you ask how the public feels about your powers, I suspect what mythic path you choose will have an impact, at least. Also, there are “strategic resources” of a kind - certain areas, if conquered, give you gold, “materials” or “divine favor” etc. allowing you to hire paladins/hellknights etc. Maybe if they had a different icon than any other “point” on the map it would feel more real.

A few complaints/requests of my own:

  1. Armies should have scouting range. When an army passes by a “point of interest”, would it be asking too much for them to mark it on the map? In the alpha stage the rules regarding provisions etc. are fairly punishing so I didn’t explore a lot in person and I’m gathering from other threads that I missed a number of encounter areas as a result.

  2. Enough with the kamikaze attacks on my archers. It doesn’t seem to matter who the enemy is, how many or few of them (or the archers) there are, everyone seems hell bent on ensuring that none of my archers survives the battle, to the extent of ignoring the paladins and hellknights who are actually killing them.

  3. While I get and appreciate the “advisor’s” skill being based on mental attributes, it leads to weirdness like Wenduag being an option for a role where she has a -3 and a faceless minion will do a better job than she does. I love Wenduag as much as it is possible to love someone with vestigial spider limbs, but nobody sane is going to put her in a role for which she is so obviously ill-suited. Not that advisor skill seems to matter yet, but I can’t help but suspect we’re the victim of an in joke that you have to be Russian to understand.

  4. The time scale between strategic action and quests triggering seems mismatched. Waiting to get access to companion quests is a major grind. Possibly armies should travel more slowly than the PC party (like in real life an army moves more slowly than a small group), particularly when out of your “control zone” so it feels more natural to spend weeks doing “nothing”.

#3

My main issue is that Kingmaker was too far under the bar of reactivity. That experience may have been great for you, it wasn’t for me. I’m hoping WotR steps up its game.