Ditto.  But i think they can still salvage the "Assymetrical 4X" idea if/when they get the balnce right.  Doomsday counter never reallly comes into play.

 People are caught up in the hype of popular titles. I know cause my brother plays war thunder all day, well I let him try sorcerer king and he didn't think it would be good, and played for 2 days until he had to go back home. I know sorcerer king has a lot to offer to many people who just don't know it yet and they have no idea. Including me I wasn't sure at first either, I was not sucked into this game by the marketing I bought it cause of fallen enchantress.

So here's some marketing idea's i'll throw out. Hope this helps sorcerer king really take off.

 * People have no idea what features are actually in this game or the depth of this game.

- I had no idea crafting could be enchanted, I had no idea how diplomacy worked or if it was there.

 * Diplomacy as well is prolly one of stardock games strongest features the political features. And nobody really see's it. At least I didn't.

 * People need a reason to drop 40 bucks on this game and the only thing that is gonna ensure them to at least try it is to let people know how you came from elemental to fallen enchantress take pride in the fact you over came a hardship that company's like EA or Ubisoft would have never done. People are mad at AAA titles.

 * Last marketing idea, you should allow people to try the game. Everyone jumps on free to play games cause they are free, and a free to play weekend.

 * Other than that someone make lets plays.

 * Oh and let people know in a very short detailed manner what is to come for sorcerer king and why it's unique compared to other games and why people should trust your name.

two words..

Eastern Europe

as far as i can tell at least half of the fantastic strategy game playing demographic is Eastern European.  my original trolling around strategy game boards regarding fe instigated many conversations and received thousands of views..

although now the genre is much more saturated than it was then, and in the face of aow, endless, m&m, and kings bounty, i really think sd needs to distinguish the elemental brand to compete.

the fantastic civilizations series

just fun food for thought.

m&m = explore / adventure

endless = exploit / i dont understand what people see in these games

aow = exterminate / tactical combat

kings bounty = rpg

elemental = expand / quest

own it sd.

sharing sorcerer king -

http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=41705

"fallen enchantress / legendary heroes is a strategy game - you manage an empire against other empires.  although sorcerer king is also a strategy game, it plays more like an rpg - you manage parties on a quest to save the world."

id estimate that at least a third of the views on that site lead to posts on eastern european boards

my thread on fe/lh had over 5k views

this is just one of the hubs for fantasy turn based strategy games

most of them have a very large community of eastern europeans

*shrugs,

perhaps this faq from the eador site explains it?

"Why strategy games are such a big deal in the Eastern Europe?

For some reason, Eastern Europeans really like strategy games. Especially the military ones, about conquering the world and suppressing the enemies. We don’t know for sure, but it seems that we’re big fans of the iron authority here and strategy games are the easiest (and usually safest) way to feel that kind of power in your own hands. Well, at least this is the one of the theories."

i think this is mostly a matter of branding and marketing - instead of owning the elemental series's spotted past (and embracing its admirable comeback), and creating a "family" of games that compliment each other and connect into one overarching story, sd has consistently opted for an iterative approach that renders the previous game as both obsolete and as self-competition.

imo the slogan for sk should be: "Elemental Revolution", or some such

"How do you kill a god" could potentially ostracize a large demographic of religious fantasy nerds

 

i second the notion for a new engine

 

lh 2.0 is quite solid.  i just really wish the enchantress and the king would stop fighting for my affection.  pokemon red and blue didnt when i was younger: they were practically the same game and i wanted to play them both, simply because of how they were branded and integrated.

i feel like its going to take another elemental game on a new engine to finally see the results of this great open development experiment that the series has been thus far.  honestly; interacting with the devs and community in contribution to the development of the game(s) has been just as much fun as playing them (although the devs have been slacking in communicating with the community lately imo).

also

aow, m&m, and kings bounty all cater to eastern european audiences in marketing, sales, and community support... just sayin