Hi
Durning first few hours with the game I was charmed by it but now the more I play the more I am aware that this game is somehow half-finished.
- What is a point of creating an army? I did play all my games on chalanging diffcult level (really doesnt like diff level progression by giving opponents bonuses) and in all my games there were no need to produce a single unit. Was using mainly beasts at the beginning. On the top of that there is "one more warfare technology" syndrome - "I will wait with training units before tchnology X/bonus Y is unlocked";
- Diplomacy ... oh boy. Even old good Alpha Centauri have better one. No option to trade resources by gold per turn. No option to surrender/buy/sell city. Even when I am about 10 times stronger then all my oponents together and I am giving them plenty of gildars and other stuff I am unable to forge an alliance (and I have all technologies and all avaible treaties active with opponents). Because of my strenght they should beg me to forge alliance with them;
- Terraforming. Another flaw in game design. When I choose Master Scouts trait for my faction I would like to be able to plant tress to use this trait to my adventage. Automatic road bulding with unlocked technology? To large shortcut in my opinion. In many games terraforimg is part of strategy but not in FE;
- What i a point of city management? There is no maintaince cost for bulding so in long run all get all bulding avaiable. I just spamm bulding query with new buldings until all are done and then switch to produce mana/wealth/growth/research;
- Tactical battle. No troops positioning by player. No flanking. Magic and mage characters are overkill in long run. In the beginning that part was fun and still this and hero development are the only things that keeps my playing.
- Champions. Because how EXP is divided after fight I see no point in using them. I did some testing with second chamipon used as a Commander with city traits but in the end I feel that it wasnt worth it. Also Adventures Guild bulding should give far more experience per turn or there should be another passive way to level champions when they are sitting in cities (there are two spells for this but this cuts off non-magic factions);
Minor stuff:
- No option to upgrade units by one piece of equipment. If I dont have all requaired crystal to upgrade to the best armor I would like to be able to upgrade only one or few pieces of equipment but I cant or I dont know how;
- No option to give existing troops trinkets and other equipment - only flat weapon/armor/size upgrade. If I know that I will be figthing a dragon I would like to switch to fire resistance stuff and after that tweak my army once again to be able to defeat enemy X with Y uniqe skill.
- "Wanderlust" is a must have perk because at some point there is nothing interesting to do. Also Ophidian related quest are overpowered source of crystals;
- If items like wolf's skin or demon's horn are intriduced they could have more use like ingriedient for summoning or some spells to balance them out;
- Would be nice when champions choosing screen pops up to be able to see their traits tree and stats and above all their level;
- There could be "loop' option on reasearch. It is annoying to choose each turn same thing when all techonogies are discovered and player is forced to research those overpowered +x perm bonuses;
- There should be limit for +x perm bonuses form technology or each next discovery should have increased research points needed;
- I am unable to go on a square where friendly opponents troops are positioned on strategic map for example when friendly caravan is placed at my quest location I am unable to go there;
- I dont know is it faction specified by with some faction trading metal doesnt give any relations points;
- Annoying to see message pop up with equip question when hero gets item which have lower parametrs than equipped one;
- No cutscenes for wonders;
- Razing a well developed city in one turn isnt fair. When I raze a city would like to be frozen for few turn and give enemy a chance to take his city back;
- Shield bash on dragon. Really?
- Mage character is way to OP. "Stupid" Sunder spell can kill elemental lords in few cast. In my opinion some spells should use crystals as ingriedients;
- Summons. Air Elemental is the most usefull and can be summoned way to early. Grave Elemental have some uses. All others are trash. Have no freaking idea why that fire snake is near the end of summoning tree. Also Delin should be tweaked because he vanishes before he can do a single action and he isnt cheap to cast;
- No universal treasury where items could be stored;
- Magic is a part of this game so there is a problem with game balance. In my opinon creating non-mage classes was a big mistake. All starting heroes should be mages with different specialization at some point like fire/water/poison/battle mage/etc. There is no such thing at the moment and in the end mage just rox because have more tactical options than other classes.
In the end FE has lacking empire managment, tactical battles, diplomacy. Is it really a good strategy?