First off I love Sacrifice and it has far exceeded all my expectations even *after* I was stuffed so full of hype it was coming out of my nose.
But my older brother dislikes the game for one particular reason - soul harvesting is boring.
During the first few minutes of play it *feels* exactly like C&C or any other typical RTS build-up quarter. Run out, claim souls one by one as FAST as you can, build manaliths, then after 5 minutes of tedium finally get around to summoning creatures and the meat of the gameplay.
I have to agree with him. During multiplayer and skirmish games the first 5 minutes are simple and pure repetitive tedium. Haste, Manilith, Haste, Haste, Convert, Convert, Convert, Convert, ..., ..., ..., portal to frontline manalith then begin to play.
I really *like* the idea of having to convert enemy souls in order to turn them to your side and the opportunity for your opponent to disrupt the process.
I just wish there was a less repetitive way (like a mass sac-doctor summon spell) to go about this. As it is now we have to go from soul to soul one by one casting convert.
*** This is like camping a C&C Infantry Barracks and clicking on the soldier button every 5 seconds. Boring! ***
Maybe a new spell that summons a "Sac-Surgeon" or whatever. It's like 10 Sac-Doctors in one giant Sac-Surgeon. He can carry up to 10 creatures and will auto claim souls within a certain radius and then head back to the Alter/Shrine.
Sure the spell would be risky since your enemies could attack the Sac-Surgeon and release all 10 souls in one strike. That's fine! I would only be casting this spell when no enemies are clearly in sight and I don't have to baby-sit for the next 5 mins.
You know you can speed up the sac-doctors by casting speedup on them right?
And make sure you have enough mana coming to you when converting a whole bunch. You can have all the souls in the world, but if your enemy has all the mana, then..... =)
I don't find it tedious at all to be honest with you. Try other games like StarCraft and as you said C&C, or ack Age of Empires. There's always that running around preparing for war. It's a balance issue if you ask me. Imagine the computer not spending it's first few minutes of the game gathering souls and instead rushing you right away. It's also a strategy thing, a lot of maps require you to venture off far to get the souls, whoever can acquire the most before battle begins might just be who will win that war due to their arsenal being larger.
You are in complete control of how much media you put up your nose. It could just be acid reflux
You know what gets me about Real Time Strategy games, its that they always have all this strategy stuff in them, and on top of that they make time a factor also. Man if I could only find a crowbar, I bet I could crack some rocks, and have all the souls I need, just like that.
Understood, I can see where the replies are coming from. Valid points.
But the thing is that they were not points in response to what I posted up as a boring gameplay aspect. Some of the responses even cover stuff that no one even put up as a point. Everyone please read what is posted and reply to what is written.
I don't mind that there are souls on multiplayer maps that are there for the claiming. I don't mind having to run to them to harvest them in order to get a advantage over someone who doesn't. I don't mind that Sac-Doctors take time to pick-up souls. I don't mind that they have to run over to an Altar or Shrine to drop them off. I don't mind that it takes *time* to convert and sacrifice the soul.
What I *do* mind is that we have to baby-sit the operation soul by soul - regardless of the situation. If the souls are on the frontline or near the enemy I will use the single sac-doctor conversion spell. If my enemies in full retreat/turtling/no where near me and I have 20 souls laying in a expanse of 15 feet I would use the mass Sac-Doctor conversion spell.
Including a mass Sac-Doctor summon spell wouldn't remove or hinder strategic play in Sacrifice. You'd just give the players more time to actually do something interesting rather than run 2 feet from soul to soul which are in no threat from the enemy and having to camp the site for 5 minutes.
This would not degenerate the game into a mindless rush fest. Sacrificing souls wouldn't be sped up by a mass Sac-Doctor spell. It would simply do away with a really tedious and weak aspect of Sacrifice. It would free up *all* players in the game to venture out and do something interesting.
Emphasis on *all players*. Every gods spell repitoire would get this additional mass Sac-Doctor spell.
I really hope Shiney does *something* to resolve this dull aspect of Sacrifice. I'd hate to think they would ignore this and label that choice as "we did it for strategic gameplay" like Westwood did with Tiberium Sun (no function to queue up units) and Ensemble with Age of Kings (no queuing for farms).
In the end they *finally* realised that getting rid of the mindless tedium did not hurt the gameplay when they resolved the problems in follow up products.
why do you spend soo mutch time converting souls? hell I cast the spells real fast and then keep running and use the souls when they become available. Now if only I could beat marduk and the 5 or is it 6th stratos mission
This site is part of the Defy Media Gaming network
The best serving of video game culture, since 2001. Whether you're looking for news, reviews, walkthroughs, or the biggest collection of PC gaming files on the planet, Game Front has you covered. We also make no illusions about gaming: it's supposed to be fun. Browse gaming galleries, humor lists, and honest, short-form reporting. Game on!
General Gaming 
Sacrifice - Boring gameplay aspect 
Linear Mode
