Improvement to Sylph and overall gameplay !!!

First, I just wanna say that this is truely a good game and it is very unique on how the game is played. I was quite surprise to learn that the game developers, ShinyBoss, and people from the Interplay distribution indulge themselves in the game with occasional appearences on the gamespy MP server. If that's not self confidence on how good this game really is, I don't know what is.

Sylph, seems to be me is the weakest missile unit in the game strengh wise. However, they do have the special ability of stealth that does prolong their lifespan and also bringing additional strategy into play. But, after many lost games of trying to maximize the potential usefullness of stealth with little success, I notice a problem with the skill that really hampers its uses in battle. Sylph's AI will completely ignore all advance (attack a designate area) and guard command when on stealth mode. By that I mean sylph will NOT attack anything and remain in stealth even when they are order to attack a certain area or guard the wizard or building. In fact, the only way they could uncloak and attack is by right click or an direct attack command on the enemy or structure. This may seem like a small problem but just try target a group of frostwolves that's doing about ninty mph or on a smart player who will run their units in zigzag toward you. To make things even worse, one slight miss click slightly to the enemy's right or left and the whole group of sylph will perform a mass suicide by marching directly into the enemy ranks without firing a single arrow. Solution ? Simple, just change the AI so that sylph would automatic uncloak and attack when enemy is within range when given a guard or advance order.

"Never see it coming."
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Famous last words of sylph ambush due to bad clicking.

Another is Sacrifice lacks a fundamental basic compare to other RTS, SCOUTING. As of now, Sacrifice's gameplay is this. Wizard A builds up an army while Wizard B builds a different army. On a medium size map with hills between the two, a random advantage will already be given to A or B even before they fight not because of A have gathered more soul and manalith or B have a tactical higher ground position and can micro better. Rather, this advantage is from that A's summoned troops are better counter to B's units or vice versa. Just like playing rock-paper scissors, A decides to throw rock a split second before the show and B decides to throw scissors, the result is already determained even before they show what they have. What this has anything to do with the game is that Sacrifice discourges scouting with other units other than the main wizard. Go ahead and try sending out any unit toward the other side of the map and you'll soon realize that it can only travel to area that's within the LOS of your units and buildings. It wouldn't even allow a simple scout north command, instead, it's required that you repeatedly tell the unit to move to the most northern edge of its LOS just because it's not possible to venture into the unexplored black area on the mini-map. Okey, let's just say if someone have enough patience to continue moving the unit toward the desired location and by some miracle, the enemy army is within its LOS. Even then, the scout is useless from the fact that you can not tell what the enemy armies are comparmise of and their location is also worthless because it's not permanent. I don't know what the origonal argument is that took out the first person view from the units but right now scouting is one thing definately missing from the game. Someone mentioned before on the board, sorry can't remember who, but I think it would be a great idea to have an additional spell like scrying or farsight that allows a wizard to see from one of his own unit's viewpoint for scouting purpose. Also, allow the unit to be able to explore black areas on the mini-map.

Other thing that the game can improve on is the mini-map. It's understandable that only wizards and buildings are represented with symbols because they're the main foci of the gameplay. But I think more emphasize should be given to the individual units and souls by expanding their corresponding dot size when zooming in up close on the mini-map.

Okey, enough rambling for now :P

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Mooglez