Hello respected patrons of this establishment (I say this, because from what I've read of the posts here so far, it certainly does not seem like the too often encountered immature run of the mill gamers forum)
This is my first post here, so a quick introduction. I am Triglav, it's not such a huge gaming world after all and someone may have encountered me ranting or raving also as Trig or mtTriglav on other forums and sites. If any of you have played Mount & Blade's TLD (The Last Days) mod, I was heavily involved with developing that in the recent years and modded a bunch of other games as well. Not that any of this adds any weight to my opinions below, it merely testifies I have a passion for (niche) games.
I've spent nearly 200 extremely enjoyable hours on Galactic Civilizations 2, particularly with the Star Wars vs. Star Trek mod (all kudos to the makers). Bought GalCiv1 too, just to show my gratitude for enjoyable game design.
Did not participate in FE beta, only just got it after 1.0, and so far spent some 40 hours playing it, so (apologies for the long read coming)...
What I think of FE this far & what I'd enjoy seeing enhanced
Music: 10/10
I usually have music in games turned off and play my own as it gets too repetitive too quick. Not the case here. I actually enjoy having it in the background, particularly the eerie scores surrounding wars.
Sound: 7/10
Perhaps a bit too basic and generic. Would appreciate more diverse battle noise, horses galloping, men yelling when charging into the strike (now only the wildlings are always giggling like mad), etc
Graphics: 9/10
This being entirely subjective here. I know different graphics quality is expected by different gamers, but for me, this game offers just enough polish in every aspect that I enjoy it a lot. It is not a 10 only because of a few minor glitches (trees turning white when zooming in and out, some trees not having the alpha cut, etc). Also why are unit outlines a default? Don't they make them look a bit more cartoonish than without them?
The greatest plust of FE, however, is that units look credible. Most wield actual-looking weapons, and wear, sensible looking armour. I have gotten overly frustrated with games that think fantasy = traffic-light-sized swords with 20 different hooks and curves and armours the size of trucks... Congrats to Stardock for keeping it sane!
Playability: 10/10
Thorougly enjoyable, even when frustrating due to the random generating start not always being kind to me (and just the opposite of me ranting for instance on the XCOM forum about the frustrating nature of that new game), but it does reward smart gameplay, allows for many tactical and strategic approaches, and customisation is brilliant!
Re-playability: 10/10
Probably doesn't need an explanation at all...
Customisation/Costumisation: 9/10
Why a 9? Simply because if you make it as good as it is now, it makes the player want even more. Greedy, greedy. But seriously. I refer to designing your monarch and factions as customisation, and designing the troops as costumisation. I absolutely enjoyed this part in Galactic Civilizations 2, where I spent countless hours just designing spaceships (usually in shapes of dragons lol), while here I can do the same with troops. But what I'd like even more, of course, is more options in both. Even more tweaking of starting character and custom factions.
1. The custom factions for instance could have more resistance to/weakness to options (fire/ice/magic/blunt/cutting, etc).
2. The custom faction leader could have more of the existing stuff from in game available at start (including the wounds, diseases, phobias, to offset the positive traits)
3. Troop customisation should allow for more diversity. For instance, several elements with same values but different looks. At least 3 different looking helmets or armours with same stats within a tier, so own and enemy troops would look less generic and similar to each other. Perhaps same with shields and weapons. Even if just slightly different, like straight and curved swords, squarish or roundish shields with same values for visually diferentiating specific troops.
4. Also, default colours. It is fine for generic troops to only use the faction prescribed colours, but what if I want an all yellow troop even though my faction coulours are red and blue? Like the faction leader start game settings allow for picking custom clothes colours, the troop editor should allow for the same.
Diplomacy: 5/10
A bit of a disappointment when compared to Galactic Civilizations 2, particularly the trading bit. Why no option to trade/give towns, troops, technologies, spells? I enjoy playing less warfare-more diplomacy games, where I can help and equip allies more, even give them towns I capture if they're out of my intended zone of control, etc.
1. Nothing wrong also with buying or demanding a town from an enemy, as well as sell or give one... Same could go for outposts as well.
2. What I would particularly like to see, is being able to donate troops to factions. Maybe with a simple mechanic, if you march a troop into an other's zone of control an additional "Give" button appears in troop orders menu, which then gives that troop to the faction in whose zone of control you left it.
3. The + and - attitude modifiers should also include things like "Gave us aid", "Occupied our cities", "Defeated our champion", "Loyal to Empire", etc, which would reflect your own actions in game more.
4. Asking factions to go to war with someone --> should also offer an option to ask factions to make peace with someone.
Strategic: 9/10
No major qualms here, seems to flow nicely, the AI goes for its goals and the race for resources is often a very tense experience.
1. The trade caravans bit should probably have more value so you'd want to protect your caravans as well as raid the enemies' (and also get a few gildar for every one you destroy/rob).
Tactical combat: 9/10
For what I expected of the game it pretty much delivered well. Nothing revolutionary but it works nicely and enjoyably. I'd only enhance the siege and outpost things a bit. The point of fortifications is to give defenders an advantage from direct attack. An unfortified town is fine with the battle taking place in front of it, but a heavily fortified one should really only allow one entry through the wall, with all defending troops safely behind it, safe from a cavalry charge, so the attacker must either destroy them all with ranged attacks, or fight his way in through a narrow gap. Likewise an outpost battle should offer a palisade that can be somewhat effectively defended with a modest garrison. I actually like the scale of things and don't really miss larger armies, as some have suggested. I tend to find it logical and immersive that a champion might take on 3 to 5 regular troopers at once and defeat them, but if he was to take on 20 or 50 I'd probably raise an eyebrow a bit.
Items: 8/10
Very nice, relatively sensible and balanced, but not enough of them. Goes for costumisation above as well as for loot. The loot becomes too repetitive. Maybe a simple solution would be that you can only find or win one piece once? I don't need a 5th flute or 7th escape battle scroll, really. Even if I find some crappy item after just losing half my army to an ogre, at least I'd want it to be a new one each time so it surprises me...
Quests: 8/10
Also relatively sensible, some with very nice twists or easter eggs. Don't know if intentional but that thingie where you can buy quests kept spawning the same one over and over, so I only tried it 3 times, then didn't want to exploit the game to get free XP all the time as it didn't seem to serve any other entertainment purpose. More unique rewards would always be nice though. 
Spells/Abilities: 10/10
I absolutely don't miss a spell forge and custom ones, as the variety is great and enjoyable and offers many different approaches to any situation. Perhaps the ability to manually place roads should be more available, it's not that much of a science building a road after all. I once got a companion who was able to build roads, but it would probably make sense to make this a bit easier also for other characters. Or maybe I missed something there...
A.I.: ?/10
A bit hard to judge. Tried several difficulties and somehow I get the feeling A.I. has it easier than the human player as somehow they always manage to build tons of buildings, armies, resources, when I'm just barely struggling to keep them coming. So far I've won once on normal and once on advanced level of enemy wits (and lost some 3-4 times in early to mid game), and each time I only won through aggresively fighting and raising skills of my army, so I beat them with quality, while they kept spamming me with tons and tons of troops. Still, it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the game, so I'll leave this unrated, for as long as it's fun, I don't care how it achieves that. I would appreciate a bit more consistence though. Guys you've been at war with don't become your best buddies in a few turns and guys (or Kingdom/Empire sides) you've been helping all along don't just start hating you for no reason. This way nurturing relations would become more important. I felt this too was a bit more polished in GC2. Right now it seems factions just judge your military strength when deciding their attitude towards you. So rather than bother with influence or prestige or diplomacy or aid I just build a dozen more spearmen and it achieves the same effect (or better).
Story/Depth: ?/10
Likewise here. I mean, I read some negative reviews reg. this game lacking depth or good story, but I cannot really form an opinion on this. What would those reviewers really want there? Personally I didn't find anything lacking. No holes which would make any game element appear too silly or non-credible for my enjoyment of the game. But probably I'm hardly enough of an expert on the matter to be able to judge...
Ok, I think this was tiresome enough, though I could probably fuss some more.
Hopefully some of these suggestions will someday make it into some patch or mod, but even as is, I can see the game taking up a lot more of my time. Many congratulations and much gratitude to Stardock and the modding community for all your efforts and good work.
