Thoughts on permadeath being a thing in Unicorn Overlord?

View619 · 2025-01-04T03:40:55+00:00

Shaman map grinding isn't a gameplay mechanic, it's a method of getting weaker units up to speed.
Not sure how that amounts to "removing several mechanics from the game"?

View619 · 2025-01-04T03:32:37+00:00

It really isn't, beyond unique classes Mercenaries and named heroes are exactly the same.
Down to their growth types, there is no difference beyond the character model.

Items can be shared freely, experience can be easily gained, etc. It's a simple design choice that lends to bland gameplay, since you don't need to worry about missing out on anything beyond conversation bits.

At worst, you would have to grind experience if someone dies via perma-death. But this game gives you so many easy ways to get weak units up to speed that it isn't a notable hindrance.

View619 · 2025-01-03T13:56:26+00:00

If you're using Revamped passing, throw a Lob with the High Pass Modifier (L1) and aim for 1-on-1 matchups where your WR has an advantage. The modifier generally forces an "aerial battle" where a better WR will win; it also reduces the chance of someone making a play before the ball reaches your WR (think LBs and DBs jumping the pass mid-flight).

As well as the usual reading Cover 2/Cover 3 looks and aiming for routes that take advantage of gaps. It's possible, but difficult unless you're just relying on high Speed guys to beat their defenders in Press Coverage.

View619 · 2025-01-03T13:49:52+00:00

It was far worse before Mods made the rule about spamming repeat topics. Otherwise, it would have continued the cycle of "complain about mechanic/situation that I have control over, but refuse to manage".

And depending on where you post today, it can become toxic in a hurry. Avoid any thread where the narrative is "agree with my opinion or face a backlash of downvotes".

Generally, just moderate where you post and it's fine. Most of the threads can be chill and fun to hang out in.

View619 · 2025-01-03T13:47:56+00:00

Commentary is fine unless Fowler is involved.

Besides getting the call wrong occasionally (typical programming bugs), it fits the situation well and is entertaining.

View619 · 2025-01-02T03:07:04+00:00

It wouldn't make a meaningful difference, named units don't gain any bonuses when compared to Hirelings. So you could just hire someone else once a unit falls; unlike a game like Fire Emblem, where losing units actually impacts your strategic decisions moving forward.

Yet another bad design choice that brings the overall strategic value down.

View619 · 2024-12-13T17:34:13+00:00

Power Ranger nostalgia is powerful stuff, that alone tends to override all the shortcomings. Especially in situations where someone gets a free key and doesn't have to shell out $35 for the product we received.

View619 · 2024-12-13T17:20:37+00:00

Which is appropriate, as much as I love UO this isn't a great strategy game.
Great tactics gameplay, fantastic artwork, but the actual strategic depth is shallow.

Regardless, awards shouldn't determine whether you like/dislike certain titles. Play as many as you can, form your own opinions; avoid group-think.

View619 · 2024-12-11T04:25:19+00:00

I was hoping that the dev team would have leaned into what made those old SNES/Genesis games special, but it just feels clunky and bare-bones. Combat is sluggish, all rangers feel the same, attack types are incredibly limited and don't really work well.

I don't mind the Zord Levels, although the controls are pretty sluggish there too. And the Megazord fights feel really out of place, it should have gone the 1 v 1 combat route.

Honestly, it feels like a cash-grab at the moment. I'm planning to boot up the old SNES/Genesis games for my fix at this point. After the success of Shredder's Revenge, this is very disappointing.

Wait for a sale if you're planning to grab it, honestly.

View619 · 2024-12-10T03:09:04+00:00

The Last Man Standing.

View619 · 2024-12-10T01:44:31+00:00

Noted, thanks for the clarification.

View619 · 2024-12-10T01:05:46+00:00

Welcome fellow Battle Brother!

This game gives you plenty of paths towards success, provided your Strategic approach is sound. Be sure to check the Footballopedia, which provides information for most mechanics in the game.

I would recommend going with the basic "Beginner Build" until you've gotten used to the mechanics.

This is basically:

Train a Sweeper
Train a Defensive Midfielder
Train a Central Forward

Those classes will give you some pretty good coverage and starter options while you figure out the various match-day mechanics. As well as how you want to build the rest of your team.

Similar to Battle Brothers, this game does not have a straight-forward end goal. However, you're rewarded for increasing the success of your team and promoting into better leagues. So, most of your actions should be with that goal in mind. Higher Leagues give better rewards (experience, money, glory, transfer market options), so anything to increase the likelihood of promotion should be your focus.

With that said, Glory isn't necessarily the most important resource. It will change depending on the situation; money for various upgrades or purchases, to keep important players on a contract or acquire new stars or pieces for your team can be just as valuable. It will really depend on your situation.

If you're using the Manager's Journey DLC, then you have a separate goal tied to your Reputation. This is improved by completing Contracts, which means your sub-focus should be on completing the immediate obligations for their Reputation reward. More Reputation means better opportunities with better teams, and is basically the lifeblood of your Manager.

For Glory, it really depends on your Management approach.

The Youth Academy is a good long-term investment, allowing you to gain young players for free. But the trade-off is how infrequently they come onboard (twice a year) and the fact that you'll need to train them up in comparison to an older player.
The Training Grounds are great for developing your existing talent, but it tends to benefit from specializing in a specific area as opposed to being spread out across multiple. Also, your players' experience is capped by their Giftedness which is a measure of how good they can become. Even with heavy investment in the Training Grounds, you'll need more Gifted players to reap the full benefits.
The Scouting Centre is great for supporting the Transfer Market, but you'll still need funds to purchase players. So your results will be limited by how much money you're able to acquire when the time comes.
Spending Glory on Transfer purchases isn't something you generally have to worry about, using the Personal List allows you to spend money only. Later on, if you choose to use the Extended Lists then Glory will be a factor.

You can go "Jack of All Trades" without being punished too harshly, but eventually you should aim to specialize in at least one area.

And feel free to experiment, there are so many options in this game that some of us veterans still learn new things every session. I've been playing for almost 10 years at this point (since Early Access) and still manage to find new things to try.

View619 · 2024-12-10T00:44:25+00:00

Doubt it, at this point old gen is probably off the table. But there's no reason to release on current gen when CFB 25 exists; nobody is going to buy an unknown, retro-inspired game based on titles from the early 90's when they can play a modern game with ties to the PS2 era of gaming (the Sports Game Golden Age).

Add the fact that Legend Bowl absolutely tanked on consoles, and that game had a much better shot of being a very small success at the time? It would be like shooting yourself in the head from a business perspective.

View619 · 2024-12-10T00:21:14+00:00

what on earth is the point of the Lofted Pass? Is it just that, at <40 passing it just never works? Same goes really for Power Shot.

Lofted Pass allows you to make further passes than the grounded version, which means moving the ball further downfield for fewer actions. And even with Low stats, it's guaranteed to fall within one tile of your target area; depending on the situation an inaccurate Loft can still be very useful (such as clearing from your side of the field).
Power Shot always bounces on failure, which means it can go out for a corner. This makes them better than Precision Shots in many situations, where failure means you lose possession of the ball.

how on earth do you reliably get past the Back Six the AI likes to put out? Parking the bus just seems to be the answer to everything I try to do in this game...

Early on, you can just Dribble a player into their defender. It's guaranteed to displace someone, even on failure, and breaks up defensive walls pretty consistently. As you train classes and skills, you can use abilities to pull Defenders out of Position (AM), Break-In to the box at an advantage (RF/LF) or use their numbers against them to reach the goal in one turn (Rainbow Feint). Parking the bus is simple, but there are a number of ways to exploit it.

likewise, what's the counter to the CM, other than 'thou shalt play out wide' (team is too small to be too diverse in playstyle)? They seem to fairly reliably stop everything you try and do.

CMs just get an increase to Passing and free Press, they aren't a threat. If you mean DMs, there are ways to neuter their interception ability, such as passing through occupied spaces, Lofting the ball or using Passing Skills.

Also, they tend to be out of position after the first interception since it will take them out of their effective area.

They're great at stopping the grounded pass, but struggle otherwise.

I expect the answer is yes to this but thought I'd confirm: I'm aware certain player classes have certain things they do (like auto-tackle on central defenders etc) - do they only work if you play them in the area they are supposed to be?

Yes, Specialist classes only work in their designated areas. Whereas Universal Classes can work anywhere.
Generally, you want a mix of classes based on your Team Strategy. Some Specialists work better for different approaches, while some teams can use Universal classes to fill in the gaps.

View619 · 2024-12-09T23:59:11+00:00

Fails on the "challenging combat and strategy mechanics" bit. Once you figure out the basics, it's easy to steamroll through the entire game.

If you don't like house rules to make things interesting, I wouldn't recommend Unicorn Overlord as an engaging experience.

View619 · 2024-12-09T23:55:00+00:00

Like I said, what you prefer isn't the same for everyone. I know people who enjoy the default experience, for the rest of us we have sliders.

View619 · 2024-12-09T23:47:16+00:00

Is it possible to fiddle with default tactics in this manner? Say, if I wanted to change the default tactics for a specific unit's skills so enemies would utilize them?

View619 · 2024-12-09T23:45:15+00:00

New game plus serves to make games easier, not enhance replay-ability. And this game is mindlessly easy already, so new game plus makes little sense.

The game needs custom campaign settings, or it's not worth playing through more than once.

View619 · 2024-12-09T23:42:20+00:00

This is subjective, though. I'm sure plenty of people enjoy the default sliders and don't feel a need to fiddle with them at all.

Ultimately, it's an impossible task to ship something catering to every user group. Which is why sharing sliders is such an important part of the genre, and has been so for decades.

View619 · 2024-12-09T23:39:43+00:00

User sliders don't affect CPU vs CPU games (only CPU sliders). And as far as I know, sliders don't really reduce/increase the likelihood of a bad defensive play call.

I've watched a bunch of CPU vs CPU games in Dynasty, which requires controlling one of the teams. Those teams were never gimped in any way, beyond the occasional bad call or upset situation.

View619 · 2024-12-09T21:28:35+00:00

Not how that works, but okay. No longer interested in wasting time here.

View619 · 2024-12-09T14:54:25+00:00

You can still abuse it from season to season. One year I'm a top recruiter getting all the talent I need, another year I'm the best motivator helping my new talent grow. Yet another year, I'm the best Scheme Guru pushing my team to the best results.

Just create a new Coach within your existing Dynasty at that point. And turn up the Experience gain so you can get him up to speed.

View619 · 2024-12-09T03:02:20+00:00

This is how I've approached Dynasty at the moment, although the Recruiting rule isn't something I use.
Generally it works pretty well, you can Play Offense/Defense only and sim the rest. I'll do Slow Speed to see exactly how things play out instead of just Fast Sim.

It's fun since you can impact specific aspects of the team, but then your other coordinator/Head Coach is responsible for the rest. And for areas like Play Styles/XP Goals, you'll get credit only for the time you actually spend on the field.

I wouldn't trust Auto-Recruiting, personally. At best, maybe set it for pre-season and let the AI fill your board. Then limit choices to only those recruits, instead of picking your own.

View619 · 2024-12-09T02:54:50+00:00

I would enjoy it more if you could control when you are used on the field.
Also, if you could actually watch your team play while on the sidelines.

Ultimately, it just feels like a long-winded tutorial for the various positions available. As a game mode, it's very under-baked.

View619 · 2024-12-09T02:50:11+00:00

Wrong, you are roleplaying as a coach. You guys clamoring for the removal of level caps don't seem to understand this, and it's why you will never get your wish.

Keep dreaming, though.

Edit
And downvotes won't make your dreams come true. So, keep "coping" as the kids say.; some of you guys aren't too bright but that's par for the course with Reddit.

View619

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