My general impressions so far, including suggestions

I hope this covers it. I'll put my bugs elsewhere: Berserker, some of the below may repeat what I said in my first impressions report... but most of it should be new.

Overall, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the game. Whatever small amount I donated has come back in gameplay a billion-fold. Also: as an alpha version - this is bloody amazing!

1. The loader is pretty - maybe you could include hyperlinks so if you want to read more of the news item, you get
directed to the website while you wait for the loader to finish

2. I really like the flashing when you hover over a start zone option - helps identify basic place where you might want to start

3. Not really an issue for people not familiar with discussions about the progress and development of TT2, but worth mentioning: I got confused at the start of the game because you could choose your hero, and male/female, but actually choosing the Hero's looks and costume came later in the game. I'm not sure why the order is like that, but it was initially disappointing and then surprising when it finally turned up.

4. LOVE LOVE LOVE the character designs and choosing the looks. Now we just need a few more options... maybe? ;)

5. As expected the talking characters and cut scenes annoy me (only a little). I hate cut scenes - I generally skip through them. It would be nice if there was an option to do it. One thing I liked about Big Fish's Drawn series was that you could skip the cut scenes, but if you want to get all their achievements, then you had to watch them - that way there was incentive to watch them, but you didn't have to if you didn't want to.

6. Love the music and graphics. I've been mostly playing for several hours at a time, and the music doesn't overwhelm or get boring. It's not so repetitive that you can't continue listening for ages. I think graphically you've done very well to keep the TT theme, but still give it a fresh look. It's nice to see all those little rocks and pebbles, shells and so on, that are so familiar... And yet, new! Love the detail on the graphics too - the wooden carvings on the bottom menu!

7. The tutorial seems a bit slow to me, but then I usually hate tutorials and prefer to just play and learn as I go. Having said  that I think it's probably extremely well timed and balanced for most other people. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I think I was just impatient to play ;)

8. Not a bug, but when I first tried using the inventory button in the right-bottom corner, I couldn't figure out how to close it again for a few seconds; a more obvious 'X' (close) button is probably needed - just making the colour red or something might help make it a little more distinguished from the rest of the screen elements.

9. I'd love to be able to close the task window at the top center of the screen; or just collapse it. Like with TT1 this bugged me the most. Because my screen is wide and not so tall, 2/3 of the display are taken up by the menus/navigation/stats. In fact, I almost wish I could collapse the top and bottom navigational bars - they get in the way of my view!

10. I want to change the name of the hero. This has 2 points: I want to not have my username attached to my hero name. The other is that I would like to change the name of the hero without having to start all over again with a new one/game.

11. The map.... wow, what can I say. Every time I explored my home town, the map seemed to get BIGGER and BIGGER. And then you get outside of your home town and MY GOODNESS THAT'S BIG. I really love that because it makes TT1 and TTG seem so small now. You've gotten rid of all the discrete levels and maps and I really like that. Plus, I like that I can explore my home town with my hero, and also explore outside of it with my scouts.
12. Sometimes it's hard to know when/if your character gets stuck walking around/into stuff. This was a problem with earlier TT but in general it's 'worse' now because of the size of the maps. Wish the hero would learn to walk around things a bit better ;)
13. In general the interface easy to use and intuitive.
14. I like how you can select a group of buildings at once.
15. At first I was thinking "why can't you upgrade more than one fertile ground at once even if you have the lumber for it? You also can't have more than one hut?" but after playing for longer, I see how this works. I think the tutorial may need to have a small bit of text which explains that you can do things like this later in the game.
16. I like how you can categorise the inventory so you can see different things according to what you need
17. Love the wheel of fortune and the well. I like the idea of having to go back to the wheel over time. (See below comment for other issues with these things)
18. Is there a way to undo sending someone to another town? I wanted to see what would happen if i sent my military unit instead of my hero, but the game wouldn't let me continue without sending the hero - so now I have both going!
19. I love how the background of the screen on the tech page marks out the different ages
20. I like how the sections of the home town that you can't access are clearly 'marked' with the brambles and other things (nice to see the iceberg in the forest - ah, brings me back to the early TT!). In general I think you've done very well to carry over the earlier TT gameplay of having to go back once you've researched something and discover something new in an old area.

21. There are no gems to collect? I understand there are random things, and puzzles, but I was kind of disappointed not to see gems. They were a big part of the earlier games, so people may come and expect them.
22. When you pick up the hero flag, you should be able to scroll the window to another part of the map - like you do when you are building stuff and want to place it somewhere else not currently on screen.
23. When taking units from one town to another, you should be allowed to click on the squares to move the units, and not drag only. And you should be able to drag and select several units at a time, not just all or nothing.
24. A remember me function for the password would be great. Especially as I can never remember mine, and can't copy and paste while the launcher/game is open.
25. On the numbers puzzle: I obviously forgot my math classes, because I don't know what a 'summand' is... Maybe a simpler explanation would be better? Or even a hint button/item?- Didn't complete the puzzle, couldn't understand how the puzzle works, and I love puzzles!
26. When the pieces of the stone scythe come together, it would be great to have a background or something behind it so that it can better show off the 'magic' joining of all the pieces - like the opaque background for tool tips.
27. Love the animal tracks - what are they? Curiosity piqued!
28. It would be great if things like the wheel of fortune, etc were marked on the map - once discovered of course - so you don't have to go looking for where they are again. Actually your own map markers would be great. Then you could add a notation or marker for things that YOU want to remember (this is done in Aquaria, Knytt and other similar games)
29. When in the world map, you should be able to go back to your home town by pressing the 'game' button (top left of screen) - especially because the game gets you into a rhythm of clicking that button to get back from other screens. I know technically you are in 'game' but as I say, it's a rhythm the rest of the layout encourages and in this one place you're forced to go to the bottom centre of the screen to go back to your home town/wherever. It's confusing.
30. If you go to world map, when you return to home town you should be returned back to the place on the map where you last left, not be returned to the actual camp area again.

31. I sent a scout off, and happened to be in the home town map area that they walked through to get to the tile I sent them to. I saw them walk past on their way - I liked that little detail!
32. I like the sound effects for the discovery of new tiles on the map - but wonder how this would work with sound off? Notifications in the chat area might not be noticed.
33. When sending a trader to other player's town, can't seem to use my scout to continue exploring... is the scout used for trading? I'm confused, because when I've traded with the herald a number of times, I've always been able to continue using the scout in the meantime - scout lost because of lack of resources?
34. I like that I have dogs... but it wasn't initially clear to me how I trained them. I know I gave them the bones, and assume that did it - but I think when you train an animal for the first time there should be some sort of notification of congratulations or something, just to make it clearer that you succeeded.
35. I like that you're encouraged to trade the extra resources through the use of the reminders in the chat box.
36. The chat character count seems too small.
37. Initially I thought "is there a way to speed up research?" and now I see upgrading the building does that.
38. I wish that once a scout has discovered a tile - before they return home - you can send them out again. That way you don't have to keep waiting for them to return in order to keep discovering new map pieces.
39. I like finding resources at random around the map; but scouring the map for them is tedious. Although now I'm just clicking randomly on the left-bottom-corner map and looking, then clicking again on the map, etc.
40. My initial concerns about having to be connected to the internet or not having a pause button were incorrect. While waiting for the alpha, I've spent the last week or two playing Pixel People and the Simpsons "Tapped Out" game. I can see now that it doesn't make much difference not having a pause; the game automatically runs out of resources after a while and everything slows to a stop. When you come back to play, you have to reset the resources... so you don't miss much in the meantime. My only concern with no pause/being connected is a bug - see my report.
41. When viewing other player's town in the world map, and you see 'dwelling of [player]', then there is their name below it; you should be able to click the player's name and see more of their stats
42. I'm assuming that initially the game is 'slow to start' while you are building resources. Kind of wish there were more side quests to do while I'm researching/upgrading. But I assume they'll be added later since this is just alpha.

43. I am actually wondering now if it relies too much on having played TT1 and TT2 before. The areas that you need more research for, the puzzles, it's obvious to me what to do because I've played the other games. But to someone who has never played before, will they understand what to do? But then, I don't remember having confusion with the originals either; at the same time, each level of the originals progressed in such a way that you kind of knew from early on that you'd need to go back after researching something. There's less hand-holding this time and so it might not be as clear that you'll need more X to unlock Y.

44. Where's the button that takes me to my hero, no matter where they are on the screen? - ie, you could look at the units (top right of screen) and click on the unit to be taken to them

45. It should tell you if you have no manuals left to use on building speed instead of "can't use now" - it implies that you have it, but can't use it.

18. Is there a way to undo sending someone to another town? I wanted to see what would happen if i sent my military unit instead of my hero, but the game wouldn't let me continue without sending the hero - so now I have both going!

Yes. Select units marching on the world map and there is "Recall" button active if they have gone off too far.

21. There are no gems to collect? I understand there are random things, and puzzles, but I was kind of disappointed not to see gems. They were a big part of the earlier games, so people may come and expect them.

It is impossible to add gems at this moment. In original games there was exact number of gems which unlocked guardian moon. This time around, we will be adding new locations with updates so it is impossible to know how many of them will be and program them accordingly. We will add gems later with update when major part of the quest maps will be complete.

32. I like the sound effects for the discovery of new tiles on the map - but wonder how this would work with sound off? Notifications in the chat area might not be noticed.

There is a reports tab that also has report about your scout found something. Where there are unread reports, the tab is highlighed.

33. When sending a trader to other player's town, can't seem to use my scout to continue exploring... is the scout used for trading? I'm confused, because when I've traded with the herald a number of times, I've always been able to continue using the scout in the meantime - scout lost because of lack of resources?

You should be able to use both. MAybe some kind of bug. Are you sure you had scout at that moment? When scout finds something (other player town, unique resource, etc.) it disappears and you have to train another one.

42. I'm assuming that initially the game is 'slow to start' while you are building resources. Kind of wish there were more side quests to do while I'm researching/upgrading. But I assume they'll be added later since this is just alpha.

There will be follow up to the tutorial  in form of quests given by your advisors. They will be less intrusive than tutorial but will allow you to continue learning the game. Doing those quests you will learn how manage your town/country and rewards for those quests will allow you to do speedups to the construction, thus the game will have a smoother learning curve and will not loose pace after tutorial is over.

Overall - great feedback, much food for thought, especailly if summed up with feedback from other people. It's great when players talk about the same thing they don't like, but in different way, providing different points of view on the same problem.

18. I see it now. Geez, I should pay more attention ;)

21. Understandable. I don't think it detracts from the game, just from the POV of a past player, people may come expecting them and be surprised to see they're not there. Gems could be linked not to additional 'levels' but maybe other things, like increases in wealth or resources. Just a thought.

32. I see now the tab is indeed highlighted - I never noticed before and actually it's very subtle. 

33. I'm 100% sure I had a scout at that point. Having said that, it's very possible that I discovered another town, and my scout disappeared... I've sent out my scouts (party 1) and my hero and dog (party 2) to separate locations since and haven't had problems.

42.  Ok, great. As I suspected then, I just have to be patient and wait for more stuff :)

PS. My #24 is wrong. I can paste my password into the field, it's just that I have to shut the game down in order to copy. It's the copy function that won't work, not the paste.

A question - the Herald is within the sphere of my (growing) town. Does the Herald appear in different places for everyone, or the same place? And if the same place, does the Herald being in my town's sphere affect anything?

I also have to say that the game is addictive. I've been 'playing' whilst doing some work on my computer, going back to the game and then Alt-Tab-ing out of it as I need to. STOP ME! :)

And lastly... I do hope that my fellow players post their thoughts too. I'm curious to know what they think and what ideas they have about the game.

 question - the Herald is within the sphere of my (growing) town. Does the Herald appear in different places for everyone, or the same place? And if the same place, does the Herald being in my town's sphere affect anything?

I also have to say that the game is addictive. I've been 'playing' whilst doing some work on my computer, going back to the game and then Alt-Tab-ing out of it as I need to. STOP ME! :)

The quest locations are in individual locations since only you can see and interact with them, the other objects on the map are shared. And if you feel the game being addictive it's a great success for us, because it was meant to be so :) Especially considering that it does not offer much at the current stage of development.

Ok then. That's almost disappointing, I was kind of excited to think that other players would have to cross into my town just to get to that location. But yeah, not having one location makes sense.

Success, definitely. Or it could just be that I've been waiting 2 years for this...

The server just disconnected me, at 2.30am, and good thing too, otherwise I think I'd be going all night :)

I would like to be able to send my scout off to explore and send my hero to the Heralds house, but it does not seem possible which is a bit of a bummer :(.   So that and the non collapsable task/quest/map bar are the only things I havent liked so far.

I would like to be able to send my scout off to explore and send my hero to the Heralds house, but it does not seem possible which is a bit of a bummer :(.   So that and the non collapsable task/quest/map bar are the only things I havent liked so far.

I was able to do this with no problem.

I can do it now - think it was me just doing it wrong - lol

Also when I did revisit Heralds Home I wish he wouldn't tell me there is nothing to do here when I was still trying to figure out how to cut the bushes.

Have you seen this message again before or after tutorial was over? (it's over when Gromus leaves) Cause when tutorial is over it should not pop up. If it still pops up, its a bug.

The Herald is still talking to me and I finished the tutorial on the first day 

The game looks a lot like Travian. I guess if it will be as addictive as that one it will make a lot of money. Especially because it is more complex from the quests and exploring point of view. 

No criticism intended, i just think it is a smart thing. 

The game looks a lot like Travian. I guess if it will be as addictive as that one it will make a lot of money. Especially because it is more complex from the quests and exploring point of view. 

No criticism intended, i just think it is a smart thing. 

Sir, i Dont see any similarities to travian, can you explain why you think that

well, almost all the buildings are similar with travian, the general ideea, only the quests and the story will be different

well, almost all the buildings are similar with travian, the general ideea, only the quests and the story will be different

Ah, in that way.

K thanx