Some feedback and suggestions

(WARNING! Bad english ahead. Proceed at your own risk.)
So, since i've been playing for a while, i guess it is time to make some suggestions. Some of them were already passed to the devs or probably pointed out by another player, but since i was advised to post them on forum - i'll try to consolidate my thoughts here.
1. Tutorial
I would like to start with my favorite topic - newbies. Newbies are the cornerstone of any game since they are the ones who grow into fierce warriors and noble allies, donate, invite friends, share word and enrich the community - assuming they survive long enough to do so. Therefore, i've tried my best to teach everyone i've met how to live long and prosper - whether they asked for advice or for staying away from their property. There are some questions so common that they should be highlighted in the tutorial:
    1.1. Wasteful use of blueprints. People usually don't know how to use blueprints at all and waste them on every building they see. Shed? I need more space! Hut of the brave? There's a reason they called brave, right? (because you should be very brave to pick up a fight with horrible stats like these) Point up that blueprints are rare and since there would be several settlements it is wise to focus on buildings that are going to advance through ages and keep the remaining BP's for future. Maybe tutorial should even name these buildings since you can't know for sure if the building is ever going to become obsolete.
    1.2. Meaningless rams. I don't know why, but for some reason newbies love rams. They build siege workshop, they build some rams, they keep them forever and even rebuild them if you break them. Some players even take them to the monster lairs (take that, dendrogs!). I've never got the proper answer why are they doing this, but in the end they had to dismiss rams and dismantle the workshop. I think, tutorial should cover the point that most of siege weapons are useful only for siege (duh!), should be used in large numbers or not used at all, and are extremely ineffective for collectivists.
    1.3. Mutually exclusive techs. Newbies often prefer cavemen over witch doctors and suffer for their choice, since cavemen are mostly useful for granting other players some additional experience. I think, tutorial should mention that if you are going to play defensively - you should learn Herbalism (frankly, i'm not even sure that cavemen have some good use - healers are better for so many reasons).
    1.4. Siege. Most of the new players - not only newbies but experienced 4x players as well - are never ready for their first siege. You can try to imagine the possible threats, you can make preparations and build-up your army - but in the end your first siege would probably be beyond your expectations just because you don't know how large are typical siege armies here and how does the siege mechanics works in the first place yet. Even i was surprised when Savi and Odin came to share some love and take away my siege virginity - and i saw psilon doom star fleet iykwim. Then imagine how stressful it is for a newbie, who came to this game for puzzles and fun and then one day opened the client and - BAM! EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE, FAVORITE FOX IS DEAD, OMG REPORT SO BIG ARMY CANT FIT THE SCREEN! DELETE ACCOUNT! DELETE CLIENT! SCREW YOU, GAME! You can't prepare them for that but you can introduce the player to the fact that game can be rude, and it's not an end of the world if you got raided. Some simulation waves of enemies, both in large numbers and with siege equipment would show the player what is siege and how to deal with it.
    1.5. Rebuilding. Since i'm talking about siege, simulation waves would also teach newbies another great feature - rebuilding. Not much to add here except for thanking devs for adding it to the game since i would lost two towns in one day without it.
    Also i should mention the elephant in the room - we are spawning too close to each other, and to weak and passive players that always end up in "relocate or die" situation. It scares and pisses off the newbies, so relocation button for single town is not just a suggestion - it's a necessity. Peaceful solution to the relocation problem would be entirely beneficial for everyone, and yes - most of the time you can't explain to a player that creating a new hero is not a big deal and he is not losing much progress anyway. He would still feel tossed and bullied and would stop even trying after a slightest pressure added. And that means less players, bad responses and whining mixed with anger in chat.

2. Defense
Some players came here for questing and puzzles. Other players enjoy exploring and expanding. Some of them seek glory in battle while other prefer to prey on the weak. This games offer all kinds of fun, but when warmonger meets pacifist fun usually stops for the latter. I'm not saying that warmongers are bad and pacifists are poor and helpless, no. But when it comes to a serious fight, pacifist usually have only two choices - either abandon his playing style and focus on beefing up his army in all of his towns (and probably seeking out for serious backup in case of group attacks), or lose some or even all of his progress. Also it should be mentioned that peaceful players usually have little to none combat experience, lesser amount of troops and towns to make them in the first place - and this makes it way harder to mobilize and repel the invaders. Since this game is not focused solely on war and many players has no interest in it, maybe some tweaks are required. Don't get me wrong, i like the war aspect - but i also realize that many others don't, and under current conditions they can't get a fair chance without deriving heavily towards the war path. So, here's some suggestions:
    2.1. Mutually exclusive technology. Although i don't like the idea of ME tech, maybe player should choose between advanced defense and serious offense. This is already present in game for some point, but maybe we should go deeper.
    2.2. New defense layer - disruptive obstacles. Spike traps, wolf holes, pitch ditches, mine fields, russian roads - any kind of traps and barricades. Example - Artemis system net and Warp field interdictor from MoO2. It could be implemented as a building that makes limited amount of traps, each trap has a chance to damage or even kill units before the start of the battle. While trap field is active, it also slows down the upcoming armies, giving more time for preparations. Or time for coming from work and saying "Oh, noes, my settlement is being attacked!". This type of building would make siege of protected settlement less tempting and more costly.
    2.3. New defense layer - artillery batteries. Earth ramparts, forts, bastions, fortified batteries - protected high ground where siege weapons can say hello to the attackers. This can bring second life to catapults, cannons and mortars, since they are actually can be used defensively IRL so why not here as well. This can be implemented as a defensive building where you can park some of your siege weapons (actually, that's a good thing in the first place since there is only shelters to park them for now), which gives them bonus armor, health and advantage against certain types of units until destroyed. This type of building would make siege significantly harder since the attacker would be not the only one with the machines that his enemy hates. Also this would bring up a second use of the siege units without making them overpowered by themselves.
    2.4. Flat bonus building - general headquarters. I know, there are strategic resources that give you the same bonus but there are too many "but's". You can protect only one of your cities with one resources. You must have a free spot - and you need sulfur, you need horses, you need resource boost - bam, you're out of spots to keep defensive resource proactively. You can have no defensive resource at all. But if you have (probably costly) building with a flat bonus - you can survive a bigger assault with lesser amount of troops. And this is exactly what is expected when you are trying to beat aggressive playstyle with pacifist playstyle.
    2.5. Catacombs. I like the idea of catacombs, but i think that their implementation should not be inherited from shelters. Since it is a building that congregates troops from all settlements, it should have one solid pool instead of having it separated among the buildings. This would achieve several purposes: 1) You don't need to allocate/gather troops among your towns every time you want to use them differently; 2) You can pull all of your troops out of catacombs in any settlement at any time (which is the main purpose of the catacombs in the first place, actually); 3) It would make it easier to implement marching formations if you are operation with a solid pool of units in the first place; 4) It would also make it easier to implement additional structures of the same kind - like railroad, subway, quick-response helipad or something like that (45-50 space per town is not that much after all). Anyway, that would be a nice quality of life update and also a boost to a game logic.

3. Quality of life changes
    3.1. There are many secrets, collectibles and miscellaneous goals in each location. Completion percentage and goal counters would be nice, otherwise people would either frequently miss content or spend time searching for a black cat in a black room with no guarantee of cat existence in the first place. Counters could be added with Insightful perk if direct approach is too casual.
    3.2. You are very good at hiding stuff, i give you that. There is always a tooth or a horn that would drive me mad for days. Don't drive me mad, implement some consumable that works as a sleuth (sleuth business card?). I don't even care if it would cost resources as well, just make it possible to resolve fruitless searches through something.
    3.3. Food drops. Since this drop is already has a condition to drop only food, maybe it should additionally check if storage is less than 90% full and don't drop food if it is? Those piles are horrible and force-feeding your troops just to empty the location is a cruel, horrible solution. Those nightmares of obese musketeer gagging on a grain pile though.
    3.4. Chat window. It would be great to be able to add custom tabs, where you can group messages by type. Notification on what item did you just pick (with an interactive pop-up) would also be nice.
    3.5. Random number generator. It is horrible, it is more cruel than the one from the XCOM, it tend to stuck on the same seed. Please add some predetermination formulas or at least improve the algorithms. I know it is not the first time i'm telling this, but i hate RNG as much as it hates me. Which is a lot, btw.
   
A-a-and that would be enough for now. Please don't punch me in the face. :)

You have made a lot of great points, i personally like the idea of added defenses like traps and helping new players learn more of unit building early on. Since a lot just here "build towers" and think everything will be ok.

This is the kind of constructive criticism I would like to receive if i ever made something. Your ideas are great, and I love how you try to add some spice to the already existing mechanics 

I'd like to chime in on your QoL suggestions, the counters one. I'd really like to see if I have collected every gem at a location without having to visit that location in the first place.

Really, really thoughtful post!  I like many of your ideas, I urge the devs to consider them!

This is a refreshing post to see.  Very constructive.  Great insight!  I like many of your suggestions.  I especially like your ideas in Sections 1.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, and 3.4, to name a few.

(Your English is excellent, btw.  In fact, it is better than many with English as their first language  :)

I would also like to see a way for Players to earn Enkord Cash. They can't level up since they do not have figurines or blueprints for buildings. It might help get them to see the benefit of donating to get more. 

. Defense :  first of all I would like to tell you how good it is to see a player with such a good positive way to think, good sense and also able to analyse all the aspects of the game. Your post is a very good one indeed :-) 

Some of the points were discussed ( like you said ) and for some others I think you didnt play enough the game  in order to catch up all the options for multiplayer part of the game , which is very important here.  But lot of players comes from TT1 and TTG and they still think they can play alone, without any interraction with the others "sardines" - yes , we are too close from each others, and the box is too small for sure lol. So big sardines are eating,  or at least they're trying to eat the small ones in order to get more space in the box. lol   Anyway, once you'll be more advanced in the game, keep posting your feedback :-)

But you're proposing also new interesting things , so, here here are my comments ( warrior point of view tho ) :

2.1  - Good idea indeed to propose more choices in tech tree in order to make a little bit more different / separate the aspects peace/war.

 Example :  1 new technology proposing : towers higher level OR lands units more powerful.... Or, another new tech proposing  1 building to reduce number of peoples in towers ( which are heavily populated and thus affect the construction time) OR 1 building allowing to increase number of levels / number of units to be trained in military buldings like garrison/ barracks....any other ideas are welcome....

2.2 The idea of new stuff like traps is interesting, as a "active defense inside town system " (  those traps have fix positions in towns , you cant send them out to attack another player). Maybe that will motivate some collect players to focus even more on defense . Having the choice between several types of defences will be less boring for them. Very good idea :-) 

As for the extra time, well, we already have snails lol... The pvp aspect of the game is already very slow comparing to all the others games , no need to kill it even more imo....

2.3 I think it's pointless for defenders to built sieges/destructive. Better switch despot and send them out to strike back lol  Plus, those buildings are extremely populated ( increasing to the roof the construction time) and they are reducing culture a lot, and this is what collect players hate the most as far as I saw... ( now, that I am thinking about  that ,despots hate that too rofl). 

2.4 Maybe you didnt experiment that yet, but your hero have perks that can be used when he is in a town. Those perks are giving extra protection/health for buildings/ressources....In general only 1 town is attacked , so, if your hero is inside that town, extra bonuses are applied ....All you have to do is to level up your hero in order to have the benefit of better stats / more perks rapidly .

Maybe some collect players may add other ideas ...

2.3 I think it's pointless for defenders to built sieges/destructive. Better switch despot and send them out to strike back lol  Plus, those buildings are extremely populated ( increasing to the roof the construction time) and they are reducing culture a lot, and this is what collect players hate the most as far as I saw... ( now, that I am thinking about  that ,despots hate that too rofl). 

Actually, before the invention of gunpowder you have to build siege workshop anyway if you want solid defense - greek fire, remember? The reason why i'm proposing artillery battery structure type is to expand defensive use of siege units without re-balancing them in the first place. This would give more defensive options and also the alternative for those who choose ballistae over the greek fire or got greek fire obsolete but has not researched tanks yet.

I am a collectivist, and primitive rams have broken crystal (and maybe slate, can't remember) obstructions for me a couple of times:)

2.3 I think it's pointless for defenders to built sieges/destructive. Better switch despot and send them out to strike back lol  Plus, those buildings are extremely populated ( increasing to the roof the construction time) and they are reducing culture a lot, and this is what collect players hate the most as far as I saw... ( now, that I am thinking about  that ,despots hate that too rofl). 

Actually, before the invention of gunpowder you have to build siege workshop anyway if you want solid defense - greek fire, remember? The reason why i'm proposing artillery battery structure type is to expand defensive use of siege units without re-balancing them in the first place. This would give more defensive options and also the alternative for those who choose ballistae over the greek fire or got greek fire obsolete but has not researched tanks yet.

Let's resume : greek fires, siege weapons and destructive weapons are 3 different things...Siege weapons : rams ( primitive and medievals) , canons , tanks are able to destroy towers and walls. Destructive weapons : catapults, trebuchets , mortars and artilery rockets are able to destroy pacifist buildings...Greeks are good against units and they have bonuses attack against specific type of siege and destructive weapons ( construction type).  

So, if I understood corectly, in addition to / replace of obsolete greek fires , you're proposing to improve capacities of existing siege/destructive weapons in that new building? and using them to defend your towns ? Not doable, because  those who are playing defensive politic, they're building exclusively greek fires , towers and walls, but they never  build siege or destructive weapons ( for the reasons i've mentioned above) ...Tho, I saw some players building some industrial siege /destructive, but they are very rare...and if they are building them it is to strike back not to keep them in defense...

I am a collectivist, and primitive rams have broken crystal (and maybe slate, can't remember) obstructions for me a couple of times:)

The level of the slates that can be broke using a primitive ram is "weak" = tool of level 1 needed , easy to find in a chest in a second town generally

I am a collectivist, and primitive rams have broken crystal (and maybe slate, can't remember) obstructions for me a couple of times:)

That's a fair point. Unfortunately, most of people i've asked did not use them that way.

So, if I understood corectly, in addition to / replace of obsolete greek fires , you're proposing to improve capacities of existing siege/destructive weapons in that new building? and using them to defend your towns ? Not doable, because  those who are playing defensive politic, they're building exclusively greek fires , towers and walls, but they never  build siege or destructive weapons ( for the reasons i've mentioned above) ...Tho, I saw some players building some industrial siege /destructive, but they are very rare...and if they are building them it is to strike back not to keep them in defense...

I can't see your point here. Yes, those who are playing defensive politics don't build siege weapons outside of greek fires - because there is no defensive use of siege weapons. That's why i'm proposing the defensive way of use of siege weapons in the first place. So if they want an extra layer of defense - they can sacrifice some culture and population for extra firepower. It could also bring some interesting results for mixed playstyle.

I can't see your point here. Yes, those who are playing defensive politics don't build siege weapons outside of greek fires - because there is no defensive use of siege weapons. That's why i'm proposing the defensive way of use of siege weapons in the first place. So if they want an extra layer of defense - they can sacrifice some culture and population for extra firepower. It could also bring some interesting results for mixed playstyle.

By experience, most of them dont sacrifice culture, nor accept increase their construction time to the roof ( due to extra population population in military buildings) .... but I agree that can bring something new , IF the players decide to use them...which I seriously doubt tho

Maybe some collect players can give their oppinion about that?

By experience, most of them dont sacrifice culture, nor accept increase their construction time to the roof ( due to extra population population in military buildings) .... but I agree that can bring something new , IF the players decide to use them...which I seriously doubt tho

Maybe some collect players can give their oppinion about that?

Well, they do it for greek fires, right? And i agree, some feedback from the collectivists would be more evident.

I don't think collect players building a few medieval rams is much of a problem... it's not like building them will screw up their game for eternity. However, I do agree that the tutorial steers them to building them, and as a result they end up having a few.

The tutorial is more of a problem in general, imo. It doesn't really prepare at all for what is most likely coming. So is the game description (text & new video), talks about all the awesome stuff you're supposedly able to do (not wrong), but not at all about the stuff you'll need to be doing/building in order to be able to do so.

Also, by the time the siege workshop does become important (greeks), the tutorial is over, or even if not, doesn't mention this at all (if I remember correctly. Basically, Bulat should pop at this point and tell defensive players to build greeks, greeks and more greeks!)

Anyway, about siege workshop and collective players - the classical one is useful in regards to greeks, the medieval & ren one useless (for collects, the point of loosing the ability to make greeks is also somewhat problematic, imo, should be later?), things get more interesting again only in industrial. There are collective players who build siege, either to accompany their despot alliance members (despite the lower hit points), or to strike back (this is rare, unfortunately!) Personally, I like the idea of either giving the existing siege a useful defensive function, or, alternatively, implementing a couple of extra defensive units (either by making them available per se, or by choosing in the research tree).

Well, they do it for greek fires, right? And i agree, some feedback from the collectivists would be more evident.

Greeks can be built in classical age..low age , low decrease of culture and few peoples by level...each new age bring military buildings even more populated than the previous one and with higher decrease of culture....

I dont know if you're able to see it already in tech tree, a new politic implemented this alpha - republic - provide you for the whole country a lot of extra defense bonuses :-) 

If you agree , we may continue this discussion in the game, no need to flood the forum :-) , better let the other players speaking for now indeed ...