I've now played for a number of hours and i must say i am dissapointed but not surprised. The factions are way too similar, the tactical battle maps all look the same, nothing has been done about creating interesting, different battle grounds to fight in. Right now early combat still consists of an overwhealming majority of meele creatures rushing at each other on completely empty maps. Small but insignificant improvements have been made towards creating the need for more advanced tactics, like using spearmen against high armor units or having high dexterity heroes attack enemies with maul, but that's about it as far as i can tell. Thin soup. The factions are way way way too similar. Most of the factions share the different spells they can use at the beginning, wich means that the approach one takes in early battles is pretty much the same each time. Since early units are more or less exactly the same, the early game quickly becomes tedious and there's really no big point in trying different factions since they all play the same way. The quests and the way the player approach them is basically the same since war of magic and it's still not good. You do all the quests you currently have enough power to do in your surroundings and then you wait until you get powerful enough to do the rest. there doesn't seem to be any special tactics or strategies needed to beat the different quests, they are all played out on the same, empty battle maps with melee creatures rushing at each other. instead of a big improvement over war of magic, i basically see a slightly different game having been made with perhaps a bit more depth but still very empty.
How to solve these issues?
A: The factions need to be completely overhauled, make half the amount of factions but make them very different to each other, with very different unit types that needs to use DIFFERENT strategies to overcome creatures in their surroundings. Unit types should be HEAVILY specialized, much more so than today. The difference between a spearman and an axman is almost non-existant. compare this to the difference between a zergling and a hydralisk. All units should have their specific role to play and all redundant units should be removed. If you guys want an insight into how this is done in a turnbased setting, check out the miniature based war game Warmachines It's an extremely deep, rich and satisfying game with big differences between units.
B: Create tactical battle maps that actually contains something different. Like i've mentioned elsewhere: Obstacles, choke points, differences in elevation that has an impact on stats, places where certain units can dig down and/or create fortifications. This will make the tactical battles infinately more satisfying and the early game will be much more fun.
C: Make quests that are faction specific that relies heavily on the different units and skills of the very different factions. This will give a big boost in replay value. Make it so that the player have to choose wisely between which general quests he or she will take. It's not about doing them all, it's about doing the ones that benefits that players specific strategy the most and the ones that are possible to finish given the players current faction.
I will one more time recommend Warmachine as an excellent example of depth and intelligence in turnbased combat.
