So they release a game that has us folks who are quite sick of the generic crap that has saturated the industry as of late (seven Call of Duty games, and you know eight is already in the works) quite excited, and it falls flat on its face. So Stardock apologizes, promises to fix the game, and as a show of good will asks for our input. For the most part we are ignored as they go on to do as they please, actually steering the game further from what we had hoped for.
Instead of more diverse, intuitive, and interesting spells, the mana system is butchered and the spells are dulled to the point where they are entirely forgettable. Now that you've spent several turns studying, you can give one group +1 movement. Now that you have spent more turns studying, you can give one group +2 movement. Intelligence? Oh, that used to differentiate casters by making their spell effectiveness variable. Now all it does is remind me that I should have dumped all my hero's levels into INT instead of STR so that they can teleport out of that box that enemy borders have created around them. Wisdom? Never heard of it. Makes casters more diverse by defining how many spells they can cast per battle? What a silly idea.
We ended up with an equipment system that is not at all as significant as we had been led to expect. I doubt I am the only one who figured that Dagger would mean Quick Strike or Piercing or Backstab or some combination thereof, to give us any reason at all to use the Dagger instead of immediately-available Club. Given that the game boasted an RPCiv play, we figured combat would be more intuitive than archers fire, archers fire, archers fire, battle over before enemy reaches knights. Off the top of my head, archers are long-range, deal moderate damage to unarmored or lightly armored targets, and could come with abilities such as Snipe (High accuracy, twice as much AP as a normal shot), Rapid Shot (low accuracy, half AP as normal shot), Crippling Shot (low accuracy, all AP cost, halves target's movement until battle's end or target is healed), and so on. Then you have crossbowmen, who are shorter range than archers and use more AP per attack, but deal moderate damage to heavily armored foes and significant damage to unarmored or lightly armored foes. So on, and so forth.
I suppose I could keep griping, but it has all been said before. Do not get me wrong, I love you guys, and I had a blast with SoaSE, and while I could not get into it, appreciate the scope of GalCiv2, and I was very surprised to see a game as potentially kickass as E:WoM. The thing is, you dropped the ball, in many places, and when the community tried to help you, you gave back everything but what was desired. Yes, it is your product and you may do as you please with it, but unfortunately, the strange design choices you have made have caused E:WoM to go from being a total masterpiece to something entirely forgettable.
I bought E:WoM the day it released, and was gripping my chair with anticipation as it installed-not literally, of course-only to be rather confused. You guys have made progess, but I believe that unless you listen to the community, you will only fail at what could be a landmark product, and the gaming industry will slide further and further into shallow shooters, half-assed indie games, and screw-the-consumer business models. Your community adores you, not because you deserve it, but because you earned it. You need to keep earning it; nothing is a granted.
As I bought E:WoM day one, having payed an absurd price for something that would not become "maybe" worth it until months and months after the fact, I am encouraged by the fact that, as far as I can tell, I am entitled to FE. I also appreciate that you folks seem to be implementing most of our suggestions and your offerings this second time around, but I have to ask, what of E:WoM? If you are really releasing FE as the fantastic product that E:WoM should have been, fuckin' great, but what about those who purchase E:WoM after the free-FE date? I would hate for these people to resent you because they payed good money for a product that you would essentially force them to pay a second time for.
Your community adores you so much that we did not abandon you, and despite our rants are more than happy to "allow" you this second chance at creating video-game greatness. This time around, do us right and you'll do yourselves right, make us proud and you'll be proud.
Good luck, Stardock. May FE be all that your team has dreamt of these passed few years.
-A formerly silent Stardock enthusiast.
