Underwhelming final encounter *SPOILERS*

[unreal dagger]

So I just defeated ashbourne for the first time... and I'm really feeling like an idiot for having spent hours fitting out my 40+ man army in full T3 armor to walk up there and bonk him on the head almost instantly. Maybe its my fault for not having walked over to the brigands headquarters to check it out before fighting him but this is the same spot that I was getting reclamation parties of 25+ brigands at once.... I was expecting a huge showdown, a massive battle... I was expecting a WAR. I didnt even get to see if there was any bossfight mechanics beacause I wasted SO many hours recruiting and gathering resources to gear up my totally overpowered army just to steamroll over the "final boss" in less than 5 seconds because I was just way over-prepared for no reason. Whats the point in making a game about controlling movement of your own army if theres not even any other armies to fight against? This guy was apparently the lord of the realm... but his base is a broken down old castle ruins with like 2 dudes in there with him, how does that makes any sense at all? I thought it would have been a heavy duty fortress with dozens of NPCs on guard and archers on the battlements and that kind of thing. It honestly looks like I could have solo'd it as i was already lvl 10 in all stats long before I even went there :/

that fight really could have been bigger and more climactic. for what was a really good, long story mode that was such a poor way for me to end my playthrough. Clearing bandit camps was more fun than that was... even just a Mid bandit camp is more exciting than whatever the hell that was. 😦 very disappointed.

[prime herald]

Afaik, Ash is a chump, kinda like the Sheriff of Nothingham in Robin Hood.. game is in early access and they said that is not the end of the story.

[unreal dagger]

Yeah look I understand that from a lore perspective but the logistics and gameplay dont add up. They make us recruit dozens of followers and gear them up to the teeth to even stand a chance of running into a Big bandit camp... all that time spent developing your team, assigning books, managing resources to keep them fed and in good armor should lead to a climax of some sort where you get to put everything you've worked to build up that point to good use... also it makes no sense how I am having to defend against reclamation parties with over 20 brigands in them that quite clearly spawn at ashbournes place, but then when you actually go there its just him hanging out in a glorified tent with his small group of bodyguards.

Its just bad game design and I hope they do something to improve it cause I had enjoyed every moment leading up to that so much and Ive never felt so let down by a grand finale in a game like that.

[prime herald]

Imho the game is more about the journey at current time. as there is no real end game in it at current time.

My friend and me we got like a main villasge of 50+ dudes atm, 3 outposts and another garrison outpost of sort close to the brigands hq with some 20 dudes, to respond to reclamation parties. How wide you want to play, or how tall you want to play is the players choice end of the day

[unreal dagger]

I agree with you to a certain extent and I am willing to give the devs benefit of the doubt because it is still (very) early access at this point but there really is no weight to the choice of how wide or tall to play if there is no motivating factor to drive that decision. Actively building up a massive team just to defend countless waves of reclamation parties arbitrarily isnt really a game... its more like a tech demo for the concepts that could serve as the basis of a future game. For the price they're charging to buy Bellwright I really did expect it to be more fleshed out than this, its not enough to just say that the current build is stable and looks aesthetically pleasing because you could describe a wallpaper generator with the same terms... there really needs to be an actual game involved when buying a game imo.

[prime herald]

You can play a game such as 7 days to die and fight a horde every 7 days, it doesn't make sense either, just how the game play is.. Look at the reclemation parties as sort of a "toer defence" element to the game.

tower defense

Also, early access lable on the store page says the game can be in early access for like 3 years. I don't think we at a stage where can can complain its not more fleshed out at this stage, even though you can easy sink 100+ hours into it for what it is.

[unreal dagger]

Yeah I get your point, maybe I was just expecting something else. Im no stranger to early access, I played Rust for 6 years before it launched as a full game. Maybe I am being too harsh but i think the whole reason Im let down by it is because it really is a good enough game to sink 100+ hours into, as I have, for it to then "blue balls" me at the end of the (current) story like that just left me feeling really disatisfied with the time I sank into it, like it was a waste of effort for very little satisfaction at the end, but maybe I need to look at the game through more of a "minecraft lense" in the sense that you only get out of it what you put into it - I was just hoping for more of a "realistic skyrim meets age of empires" type of vibe and the abrupt ending with no big climax really killed that for me and I feel like it has so much more potential than just being a "tower defense with swords" type deal.

P.S. If any of the developers happen to be reading this conversation, I dont mean to offend you or undermine all the hard work you've put into the game so far... but also you should definitely consider giving me a job in the storywriting/level design teams, I could totally fix this hahah, please and thank you.

[prime herald]

to be fair. I want to pla the devs story, not your fan fiction ;p

[unreal dagger]

Hahaha but if I was on the dev team then technically it wouldnt be fan fiction, I'd be writing the canon ;D

Thanks for taking the time to make your points btw, defs given me some perspective ✌️

[tough tundra]

I get ya. I have played 1,318 hours, sunk a full week (real time week that is) into gathering a 40+ army and gearing them with all top T3 armor and weapons and when I faced him I took out 2 of theirs before bringing them to my army and as soon as they charged.. bam, done killed ashbourne in like 3 hits. on another playthrough I accidentally came across ashbourne and there were like 30 of them. I got annihilated but I think that was because I tried to head off a reclamation party to close to the headquarters and agroed the whole bunch. I was running for dear life I tell ya. 😂 I guess if you want that kind of battle wait till a big party starts and then hit them? but that would be a stroke of luck getting everyone there unless you got a base close to the headquarters.