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General discussionRelease: Songs of Conquest - Vanir(18 posts)(18 posts)
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Posted December 17, 2024
Songs of Conquest, a turn-based strategy game inspired by 90s classics, left the early access not that long ago – but it’s not slowing down. Get ready for Songs of Conquest - Vanir, now available on GOG!

Songs of Conquest, turn-based strategy adventure game, fuses RPG, tactical combat and kingdom management. You get to lead powerful magicians called Wielders and venture to lands unknown, wage battle against armies that dare oppose you and hunt for powerful artifacts.

With Songs of Conquest - Vanir, you’ll take your gameplay even further! The first new faction has arrived from the shores of the Bleak East. Conquer the lands of Aerbor as the mighty raiders of Vanir and witness their powerful transformation into the Vildra. Carve a path through the snow in five new challenging Conquest maps as you command new powerful Wielders such as the shapeshifted Gorm Aelgrim or Jarn Steadfast, the one who refused to Change.

Now on GOG!
Posted December 17, 2024
No campaign is somewhat disappointing but I'm still picking this up. Hopefully they'll have their own campaign and song in the future.
Posted December 17, 2024
Thanks for the release!
Posted December 17, 2024
The base game is a really good price right now for anyone who doesn't have it.
Posted December 17, 2024
I'm playing through Songs right now (well, not right this second, but you know what I mean) and I'm loving it. So far it's pretty much everything I could hope for from a HoMM clone. But the lack of a campaign for this new faction makes this expansion extremely disappointing. I'll still probably pick it up eventually, but it's not a "must have" it would have been otherwise. It's even more regrattable as the Vanir look like they could have been my favorite or second favaorite bunch in the game.
Posted December 17, 2024
The pivot from "campaigns!" to "factions!" isn't what I wanted, but apparently the "factions!" faction are the majority, or at least the loudest. Still, new maps and stuff (oh, and a faction).
Posted December 17, 2024
The only disappointment with the game I had (played ~ 1/2 - 1 ya) was it wasn't running smoothly on a potato laptop. Was expecting a hardware running HoMM3 HD to have no troubles with the game on Minimal Settings, given all the advancements of the game engines for the last 20(?) years.

Hopefully Devs attended the performance issues meanwhile (or will do).
Posted December 17, 2024
I think I read somewhere that they initially wanted to release each new faction with a new campaign but after conducting a poll, the majority of the respondents was mostly interested in the faction and not the campaign. So if I remember correctly they decided to split big DLC faction+campaign into separate smaller DLC faction + DLC campaign. Don't quote me on that though, I might be mistaken or plans may have changed.

I suspect that people who participated to that poll were the most hardcore strategy players who only do skirmishes and never touch a campaign no matter what the game they are playing, I doubt they represent the majority of the player base though.

Personally, as a casual player, I would have prefer a big DLC with both the faction and the campaign but it's too late for this too change. I'll still purchase this and future DLCs cause the game is really awesome and I want to support the devs.
Post edited December 17, 2024 by Lhun Duum
Posted December 17, 2024
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Lhun Duum: I think I read somewhere that they initially wanted to release each new faction with a new campaign but after conducting a poll, the majority of the respondents was mostly interested in the faction and not the campaign. So if I remember correctly they decided to split big DLC faction+campaign into separate smaller DLC faction + DLC campaign. Don't quote me on that though, I might be mistaken or plans may have changed.

I suspect that people who participated to that poll were the most hardcore strategy players who only do skirmishes and never touch a campaign no matter what the game they are playing, I doubt they represent the majority of the player base though.

Personally, as a casual player, I would have prefer a big DLC with both the faction and the campaign but it's too late for this too change. I'll still purchase this and future DLCs cause the game is really awesome and I want to support the devs.
Nah, unfortunately, you are absolutely correct. ;(

Here's an attached roadmap back from spring/May this year.
There were new campaigns planned; but then they polled ''the playerbase''. =(

Well - the good news is - this game has a built-in map editor and a dedicated community. So instead of an official campaign we get user-made ones.
Pity that there are no new songs though.

I wonder how writing and composing songs factor in a development of a game like this. The artists should actually welcome it.
C’est la vie
Attachments:
roadmap.jpeg (230 Kb)
Posted December 18, 2024
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i_ni: The only disappointment with the game I had (played ~ 1/2 - 1 ya) was it wasn't running smoothly on a potato laptop. Was expecting a hardware running HoMM3 HD to have no troubles with the game on Minimal Settings, given all the advancements of the game engines for the last 20(?) years.

Hopefully Devs attended the performance issues meanwhile (or will do).
Newer engines target recent hardware and a new micro computer, like the 18€ Raspberry Pi zero 2 trounces a old computer when HoMM3 came out, performance wise.
Songs of Conquest is running on Unity engine, wich is not particulary light, plus all the lightning effects tax the hardware quite a bit, don't let the pixelized retro style fool you. It can be run at lower resolutions and framerate on Intel HD/UHD 620 laptop but the fans will spin like crazy.
It's a shame but it is what it is :/
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Atlo: Here's an attached roadmap back from spring/May this year.
There were new campaigns planned; but then they polled ''the playerbase''. =(
There was a talk from the Slay the Spyro devs that touch this very subject, when they ask the community they got all the answers but once they added telemetry to the game, they noticed that the answers they got was not even close to how most people played the game.
I'm not in the it dev business so cannot coment on perspective that but as a player only, small DLC, Paradox style, make me loose interest very fast. Actually any DLC make me loose interest very fast...
Post edited December 18, 2024 by Dark_art_
Posted December 18, 2024
Yeah, this is a 3D game, not a 2D game like HOMM3. It may have a pixel art look, but zooming makes it very clear that the map is 3D and has shadows and post-processing and stuff. Optimizing will only do so much if you don't have the hardware.

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Dark_art_: Slay the Spyro
Now there's a game someone should do. ;)
Posted December 18, 2024
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Dark_art_: Slay the Spyro
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eric5h5: Now there's a game someone should do. ;)
Poor little Spyro... That's just mean!
Posted December 18, 2024
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Atlo: Here's an attached roadmap back from spring/May this year.
There were new campaigns planned; but then they polled ''the playerbase''. =(
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Dark_art_: There was a talk from the Slay the Spyro devs that touch this very subject, when they ask the community they got all the answers but once they added telemetry to the game, they noticed that the answers they got was not even close to how most people played the game.
That is interesting. O_o
Slay the Spyre is a good game, I'll have a search for this talk later.

I wonder how all this looks from a developer perspective.

''Let's ask the playerbase what they want from our game. =)
Here's a questionnaire. Please answer it honestly.
Also - here's optional telemetry to track how you play the game.''

The results come in.

Out of 1.000 polled 700 want XYZ, 300 want ABC.
Out of 10.000 analized 500 play XYZ, 9.500 play ABC.

What

---

Most people, especially on sites like GOG, simply detest telemetry. But when it brings in results like that - that the loud preachers contradict how the overwhelming majority actually want to play - that sure shines a different light on how you want to further develop your game.

Off to search for that talk. Thanks for bringing it up.
Post edited December 18, 2024 by Atlo
Posted December 18, 2024
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Atlo: -snip snip-
Pretty sure this is the correct talk: Slay the Spire Metrics Driven Design and Balance
(link to embedded Duckduckgo youtube video): https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=slay+the+spire+talk&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7rqfbvnO_H0

My main issue is that wanting to appeal to every one produce the most generic videogame one can get. Of course the game maker is interested in sales rather than status but as an exemple I'll use my beloved game Battle Brothers, if it was made to appeal "to a broader audience", I wouldn't personally like it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that is best one way or another, the issue is how to get a good balance between vocal seasoned hardcore players who like niche games with lots of personality and broader casual audience, despite what pollls and metrics are saying.

Making a game is already a daunting task but making a good game that appeals to most people while having lots of depth is just another level...

I did only played Songs of Conquest for a couple of hours on a friends computer but it seemed at the time that the game has enough depth to appeal to vocal/devoted/hardcore players. Still, I'm not a fan of DLC's in general (modern monetization type of DLC I mean) and selling just new factions seem a little silly.
Posted December 18, 2024
The decision to have campaign-less factions seems pretty divisive to me idk, can't say I'm happy with that
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i_ni: given all the advancements of the game engines for the last 20(?) years.
On the contrary, unless the developers deliberately targets super low end hardware or uses an actual old engine (HROT, Ion Fury), new technologies will always be more demanding
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Community
General discussionRelease: Songs of Conquest - Vanir(18 posts)(18 posts)
(18 posts)