I agree with Xia. This game is really bland right now. Even if we get real good AI, the game is still going to be really bland. There needs to be a hook. If you look at successful franchises like Diablo, HOMM, WOW, and Civ and ask yourself "what have they got that I ain't got?", the answer is "courage"... oh wait, that's from Wizard of Oz. What they've got is some hook...
With Diablo, they have the concept of common/uncommon/unique/rare items. How many hours did you spend trying to find the coolest weapon or armor out there? Not to mention there were socketed items you could make even cooler. The other thing Diablo had was a skill tree for the sovereign. How many hours did you spend on getting just one more level so you could add another point to your skill tree?
With HOMM more of the same... skill trees for your heroes. By the way, HOMM also has way better movement across the map and easier/faster/cleaner tactical battles, but let's save that for another discussion.
With WOW, you had many interesting quests and skill trees! How many hours have you spent fishing just to get your fishing skill up?
With Civ, it seems I'm more willing to hit that end of turn button for an interesting technology finally being researched or an interesting building/wonder finally getting built ... on second thought, those aren't really "hooks", just things that Civ does better than EWoM.
So I guess to sum up, we need common/uncommon/unique/rare/set items, skill trees for our sovereigns/champions, and lots of interesting quests.
