For example: Agriculture - No units or buildings are unlocked by this research.

 

Does Agriculture offer any direct benefits?  Or is it no more than a prerequisite to other research?

Here's the info available on Milling Tech:

 

"A vital skill for the growth of your city, learning how to construct mills, produce flour - and therefore allow your citizens to make their own bread."

 

How can I find out the cost of a Mill, the Production Cost of Flour, and the benefits of Bread?

 

As it stands now, I must first research both Agri and Mill before I can learn the cost of a Mill.  And then I have to build a Mill to learn the cost of Bread.  And after I have made bread, then I can learn what benefit it brings.

 

That's an awfull lot of unknowns that require a lot of research points, etc just to learn that I didn't need to make bread until later in the game. 

 

There should be a guide that sets all this out somewhere.  But "self-explanatory" this is not.

 

I built a consulate per the new player's guide.  Costing me 6 Food per Hr. But useless until I research Scouting.  But Scouting is useless until I build a Paddock AND build a Horse.

 

And another Tech Hole:

 

I need troops to defend my city.  So I build a Barracks.  Cost more food per hr.  But useless until I research Spearmaking and Spearmanship and Tanning and then Build Spears and Build Common Grounds and Build Cow and then Make Armour.

 

I can go on and on and on.

 

But I cannot find anything that shows me all the prerequisites required so I am making build and research decisions based on my intuition which is useless.

 

Where is the Player's Guide that will tell me all the prerequisites in advance. Trial and Error just makes a player noobie bait for the earlier adopters.

 

I started this game about 72 hrs ago and I am starting to feel like a rube at the carnival playing 3 Card Monty.  Other than building farms, mines, etc. I have accomplished nothing.  Researching Tanning is very costly so I am still 25 hours away from enough research points to start that project.  And then I have no idea how much Armour is going to cost me but I am sure I will learn I still need another prereq.

i.e storehouse lev1 needs however much wood, stone iron and clay, at lev 2 it needs more and so on.

i think he is after a list so he can read down to see what he needs for each building and at what lev and the same with the food, stone, clay and wood productions at each level...

 

I would also like a table that shows me production cost of Units.

 

For example, as a new player, I know that I lose automatic protection in 4 days.  That means I need to be able to defend myself by that time.

 

So I need defensive units.  So I research Militia to build a Barracks. But I can not build any units yet.   Not until I have built the Barracks do I learn I need to research Spearmanship.  After that, I learn that I can not build a unit until I have BOTH Spears and Leather Armor.  So then I research Spearmaking and Tanning.  It would be very helpful to know this BEFORE I built a Barracks and incur the hourly maintenace food cost for a Barracks that can build NOTHING!

 

Tubana,

 

This is nothing like the real world.  It's a game, not life.  A Barracks could just as easily allow me to build a Militia Unit that fights with sharpened sticks and no Armor.  But the game developers want something different - which is fine.  But why should it be a seek and discover instead of set out in a Player's Guide.

 

Developers, a 4 day auto protect is not even close to sufficient for new players given the long development times to a player's 1st defensive unit.  Players with a few weeks head start will just gobble up new players and the 4 day protection only gives established players an opportunity to plan, organize, and position for assualt against easy pickings.  This problem will only get worse as the game continues and there are more established players closer to newbies.

 

A Player's Guide will at least give noobs a chance to level the playing field.

 

Asking each question, and hoping for a responsive reply treats the new player as a helpless rube.  I can read and understand a Player's Guide - Don't make me ask teacher every question - give me the textbook so I can look it up myself.

Some gamers like to develop a strategy when they play a strategy game.

 

I suspect there are plenty of mysteries ahead in this game.

 

But the rules should not be a mystery.  Who would play poker if they couldn't know in advance what hands rank how?  Or chess if you had no instruction on piece movement?

 

This is more like a Mouse in a Maze instead of a strategy game.

 

 

The_Dude wrote: But the rules should not be a mystery.  Who would play poker if they couldn't know in advance what hands rank how?  Or chess if you had no instruction on piece movement?   This is more like a Mouse in a Maze instead of a strategy game.

I absolutely agree.  That is why I will be opening a wiki to public access within 10 days (as soon as I've finished school and upgraded some server hardware)