Viking vs Conquistador

[THQN Brad]

I see this topic come up all the time, both inside the dev team and in the community. Obviously we love both games, and there's tons of positive things we've pulled from both into Rome, as well as a bunch of things we learned to improve or not to bring in  (world timers from Viking anybody?! that isn't coming into Rome to be clear)

Would be great to see everyone's thoughts here. What did you love about Viking? About Conquistador? Did one edge out the other? 

Rome is a much bigger game, so we can't really compare Rome to the previous two entries in the series, but it's still very informative to hear what people think today when looking back at your experiences on both games. And who knows, maybe it'll inspire some of you to go back and play them again (or for the first time)

[Fijure]

Obviously I like them both, but for me, Conquistador is best. 

The reason is the exploration. In Viking, you had to unlock areas and visit them as they became plot relevant, and as a result you mostly do the areas when there is something in the mainq uest thar requires you there. In contrast, in Conquistador the world felt like your oyster. You could go anywhere you wanted anytime just for exploring, and there were huge areas to the west that you never visited if you only follow the main plot. You could go into the unknown any time you wanted and truly felt like an explorer. IN Viking you felt more as part of a plot. 

 

In Viking, the city exploration is great tho, and the cities really look amazing and feel amazing to walk around and explore. It really felt like a lively world you can experience and enjoy. I also think the story is better, and the ending mechanic is better. (Although I think how to achieve different endings is something that can be worked on in both games) I think the Expeditions feel is essential, so therefore I'd rate Conquistador a bit higher than VIking. 

[IsaMajor]

I only played Vikings. But, what a game ! I loved it. I loved the plot and how the player's decisions affected the world/the quests/the hird. I loved the characters, their personalities, even the NPCs were wonderfully written. I loved the music, so perfect. I loved exploring towns and all (and grabbing absolutely everything I could, haha). And I didn't disliked the timeline. I thought it was logical into the scenario, to have to succeed and really completing your quest before the Althing. (English isn't my mother tongue so it's hard for me to really express my feelings about this game)

[Tokala]

Hi,

I agree with Figure.

I prefer Conquistador (which Iam playing right now) for the same reasons and this even though Vikings are one of my favourite settings.

I loved Vikings as well -  I was more touched by the characters, but I hate Damokles`swords hanging over my head.

But Vikings lead me to Conquistador:-) I enjoy the gameplay , the great narratives and the concept altogether.

So Iam a little concerned about the new game, which adds all kinds of new skill mechanics - I hope it will not get too overloaded.

I would have been happier about a different setting like Asia (Marco Polo e.g. as an input) or the Orient ,

but nevertheless Iam happy, that you are still into it (just extraordinary  work - thank you) and Iam looking forward to what`s coming up.

 

[Koyoteblok]

Hi all,

I recently played through Conquistador and Viking back to back and I believe I can share my thoughts on this topic.

Expeditions Conquistador is one of the best strategy games ever made, imho. It blends perfect amount of out of combat content in the form of camping, map events, dialogue and exploration. Combat is brilliant, in a sense that you are limited by the skills you can use and you must use them in a smart way. Basically, less is more should be a motto of Conquistador and it shows a clear vision.

Viking is a huge disappointment. First, the combat. You have many skills, but their usage is very limited. Say, if you are playing an archer, the best way is to spam cripple or quick shot. Any debuff skills are far less useful when the enemies are capable of two shotting you. Also, cover is not very well thought out, you can't really tell the line of sight, positioning is less useful on a far smaller combat map than in Conquistador and preparation phase is completely useless because of it. Second, the characters are just weak. In Conquistador even though majority of characters were randomized I felt the bonding between my crew through random events, missions etc. In Viking, they are not very well written and honestly boring. Finally, camping. In Conquistador you had to pay attention to every position. In Viking, the whole thing is convoluted and tedious. You have to set up two shifts, have to fix equipment, there are tons of resources you have to spam around the map to steal them (who thought that clicking on every highlighted barrel is good design?) and after like 3 camps you just set it to auto-assign and forget about it.

Therefore, my conclusion for the Rome is please make abilities actually useful, combat map tactical and camping less busy-work. Story and characters are subjective, so I will leave that out, although it would be nice if our companions had more urgency, personal desires, quests and so on.

All the best to the dev team, looking forward to the game!

[Tokala]

I answered already, but because I enjoyed Conquistador so much(and finished it now), I started a new play of Vikings (which I did not finish totally before).  Therefore I have a fresh comparison now. What really got me is how bad and simple the dialogues are written (very good in Conquistador) - diplomacy doesn`t help much either. What happenened there? Maybe out of time pressure? And every "hickup" produces a moral change on top.

Annoying , dissatisfying quests like the "Red Wedding" or "Kill the rats", which leave too few options to solve.

Camping, yes - no possibility to see what happenend in detail,because it is running too fast and why you have to go and pick up stuff separately (and therefore often need to make a detour), that has already been discovered by your scouts?

Conquistador was nearly perfect  - even the sounds changed depending of what you picked up (very charming - the snipping sound for herbs e.g.).All gone.

I appreciate your work nevertheless and hopefully "Rome" will change for the better again.

 

[Tokala]

I´d like to add something positive for a change;-) regarding Vikings.

To craft your own weapons and armour was a very good idea I think and I don`t mind , that the party does not have the first move (like in Conquistador), because it is an additional challenge to find the right starting positions.

And I love the Healing comments during a fight, especially Gunnar`s 🙂

[Foca]

I have only played Expeditions Vikings yet, but I'm looking to buy Conquistador in a few days.
I loved the plot, the branch that I took the first time was pretty much predictable with Nefja, as all the characters say when you ask about it, but from the achievements I get that you have other options if you don't go after that option.

The one thing that felt pretty heavy were long texts when a lot of explanations where needed, and after working all day, it was a little more tiring. I think that it would be easier to go through the game if, at least the long explanations were narrated or had dialogues. I feel like the dialogues in Exp Viking were a nice extra, getting to know the voice of the character and leaving it to imagination for the rest of the interactions, but it makes the game heavier ( I understand the dev side of this problem, and the budget that dialogues and narratives require, but dreaming of improvements is free hehe) .

From here, everything is nitpicking, and I'm just using this opportunity to send every little thing I have to the devs, in my opinion, to improve the game 

Something that feels weird is that if you upgrade all crafting skills to the max with a character (pretty easy after you sail across the water) and have enough resources, you can craft even better weapons or armour than a blacksmith can do in his shop.
The christian characters felt weird as companions,  specially Morcant. Having a monk fight against its own people, and against his will made it feel like something was off. It would be nice to have companions follow you, as he was doing against his will (at least the way my campaign went) but make him stay aside when it's time to fight, or make him fight only in ambush battles or battles that decide his fate too.
As Tokala said, healing comments are nice, and Gunarr is hilarious.
I feel Koyoteblok is being too harsh about the combat skills, There are many skills that feel useless because of the quantity of characters in each battle, but in the few battles you get to control more people, those abilities shine, like the skald tree or the christian equivalent.
The sword tree feels weak when the other option is the axe tree.
The items like caltrops or poison caltrops feel useless, but traps or fire pots are too strong (and still you don't feel the need to use them)
Defenders or shieldbearers (Heavy defense shields, like the crown's champion in Northumbria, not shields in general)  feel like wasting a spot in your 5 companion slots, and I'm going back to the quantity of characters problem, I don't feel like I'm on a shieldwall with two shields, one berserker, a rogue, a healer and an archer (formation you get counting your character, Asleifr, Gunarr, Nefja, Rvoska and Ketill).
Northumbrians and picts feel like they are both the same, they will tell you the same when you ask for alliance, they will send you to crush the other one before they send warriors.

 

That's all I can think about right now, thanks for giving us this space to compare the games, and let you know what we think, even if I took half of the assignment and threw it off a window.
And to close this, sorry for my broken english, I'm argentinian and it's not my language.
 

[Uponyourmom]

I only played Vikings but i defiantly like how hard the game was without being total bs. Like every fight felt like you could very well lose even when you were well prepared, if im playing something like Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder WOTR, when you enter a fight you can basically always win by blowing through your spells/abilities, you wont be prepared for the next fight but you could pretty much always win a non boss fight. But in Rome and Vikings because your abilities comeback after every fight you never feel compelled to save anything and you can play to your full tactical advantage each fight, this is the same reason i love the divinity series combat style so much.