I know this has been repeated ad nauseam but the spawning raiders in hegemony 3 are so incredibly not fun that I can't even force myself to play through them. I've been a huge fan of the series over the years and often come back but I just don't see any of the charm or fun from the first game in either of the second two games.

Staying on topic here, the raiders that randomly spawn in H3 do not play well with the current mechanics. Limited expenses that preclude squads of troops in each major city (which is good mechanic in isolation to the raiders), also the incredibly slow speed that units march across vast distances means that the main army is of no use in fending off attacks. Every time I try and have some fun or attempt some of the rather frivolous missions that keep bugging me I get sent a wave of raiders. These raiders then proceed to rip through some carefully set up supply lines and demolish my camps while my hastily built soldiers attempt to chase them down. Eventually forcing me to kill them off and then reassemble the whole thing. I understand that the supply lines are part of the Hegemony charm but even this gets boring when you are in the process of setting up the same supply chain for the 4th time while a bunch of raiders are pillaging the other side of the empire and you know you'll just have to rebuild that chain as well.

I can't keep supporting the company and buying into this series off the charm and success that I saw in the first game. I bought the first game twice, once for phillip and once again in the gold version for a friend. I was unexpectedly gifted a copy of H2: Rome by Longbow and then proceeded to buy my own copy some months later since I like to support good companies and don't generally accept freebies. I bought H3 as a day 1 release and have attempted to love this game too. Finally in desperation and frustration over what is so close and yet so very not a fun experience I felt I needed to write this post.

I know this has been repeated ad nauseam but the spawning raiders in hegemony 3 are so incredibly not fun that I can't even force myself to play through them. I've been a huge fan of the series over the years and often come back but I just don't see any of the charm or fun from the first game in either of the second two games.

Staying on topic here, the raiders that randomly spawn in H3 do not play well with the current mechanics. Limited expenses that preclude squads of troops in each major city (which is good mechanic in isolation to the raiders), also the incredibly slow speed that units march across vast distances means that the main army is of no use in fending off attacks. Every time I try and have some fun or attempt some of the rather frivolous missions that keep bugging me I get sent a wave of raiders. These raiders then proceed to rip through some carefully set up supply lines and demolish my camps while my hastily built soldiers attempt to chase them down. Eventually forcing me to kill them off and then reassemble the whole thing. I understand that the supply lines are part of the Hegemony charm but even this gets boring when you are in the process of setting up the same supply chain for the 4th time while a bunch of raiders are pillaging the other side of the empire and you know you'll just have to rebuild that chain as well.

I can't keep supporting the company and buying into this series off the charm and success that I saw in the first game. I bought the first game twice, once for phillip and once again in the gold version for a friend. I was unexpectedly gifted a copy of H2: Rome by Longbow and then proceeded to buy my own copy some months later since I like to support good companies and don't generally accept freebies. I bought H3 as a day 1 release and have attempted to love this game too. Finally in desperation and frustration over what is so close and yet so very not a fun experience I felt I needed to write this post.

Developing games: Get it right, and all your creative and financial investment that you poured into the game pay off, but get it just slightly off and it is received way worse than a bad game, since you see how close it is to being really fun and enjoyable to sink time into, but instead all its potential feels wasted.

For me, the original Hegemony was the real deal as well, even though with the second it was more its bugs than its gameplay that put me off. I still occasionally go back to the first one, though.

Thanks for the feedback Blxz. The raider system has been overhauled for the new 3.2 update that's coming out shortly. You can read more about the changes in my 3.2 preview post over on Steam.

That was an interesting steam forum post. Thanks for providing the link. I am cautiously optimistic about the new changes. I am interested in the city management system, especially if it gives me an easy way to prevent rebels by keeping taxes low and people fed.

For me, the important thing is to avoid being distracted from the fun part of planning future expansion. Obviously many people have varied ideas of fun but holding an empire together is not, in my opinion, the strength of this game. Rebels and other internal issues are not modeled to the complexity required to make the management of these issues interesting. As such I feel that they decrease enjoyment rather than increase. The real joy for me in Hegemony games is expansion and finding ways to leverage your resources to facilitate that. I think the development notes you linked above are a good step in the right direction, if I understand them correctly. Good luck.