Thanks for posting that.

I don't use the steam forums for anything; so, it's good to see and a good direction. It reminds me of my pre-release suggestions I had many months ago.  

I wish that had been posted here too.

I like the ideas they have posted.  For me, the game currently has extremely limited replay value.  Not complaining as I feel like I got my money's worth playing some beta rounds and the finished campaign.  I just can't see investing any more time in it until there are some changes and content.

I can agree with the OP's sentiments. I love SK and hope to see more bug fixes, Ai and balance updates. I know there are some items that don't work properly and to me that's inexcusable considering this is 1.3.

Replayability is why I haven't really played it since it came out even though I logged a lot of hours in the game before it game out as a beta-tester. To be fair, there's a lot of games I've beat and then come back to play when new content come out.

Ironically, this is the same issue that presented itself back in May in this thread: http://forums.sorcererking.com/466063/page/1/#replies

My suggestions, which are on the first page, still haven't changed but the same concerns about allocating resources in an undesirable direction still exists I imagine.

If it was me though:

1. I'd want to create a set of separate goals/endings that any sovereign can achieve in under specific circumstances. Become the Sovereign King, make SK your slave, go through with the spell, make friends with all the allied factions and become king, enslave all the allied factions, destroy all the shards, abuse the shards for the win, use them for good and cast the superfriendly win spell. 

2. The above list is the set up the second most important goal for the game: make the steam achievement mean something. I have 85% of the achievements done and the last five I didn't do out of not having played the game lately. There should be at least twice as many achievement and all should be totally doable but possibly hard or only possible in several playthroughs with different factions. For example, there would be achievements for the list above, one for getting all the shards, or even do twenty inn quests without failing. 

I play Europa Universalis 4 in Ironman mode because I like setting a goal. Sure, playing as France is different than England, but a secondary goal is an achievement I can do. I've only reached like 25% of their achievements.

3. Ideally, for this series, each faction is playable in someway. I see this taking a lot of resources though but it would make me want to play through each faction as long as they played differently and perhaps had different goals.

Major question that I've always wanted to know: it feels challenging to know what to improve on the game next knowing the limited resources. A lot of this problem seems to stem from not knowing if the end result will make a profit or even break even. For example, I know personally, that I'd buy a sovereign customization DLC as long as it was priced fairly. Could you do almost a kickstarter type circumstance where, like the example above, you get pledges to create a sovereign customization DLC. You then quote the amounts and how many people would need to pledge to make it happen. 

I think I understand the challenge in regards to scripting/writing/art and balancing the current load with the possibility of hiring new people who have benefits and time to learn the process. This altogether with hoping the dlc will continue to make money. 

Thanks

http://forums.sorcererking.com/466063/page/1/#replies

I've always said that adding more than a few more lieutenants, adding some Sorcerer King variability, and adding even more quests (especially more that provide unique monster encounters) is your best bet towards replayability for now, until you add races. Why not have a few different Sorcerer King forms, too? One time he could transform to a shadow dragon, another time a giant spider? Having a few different forms - and therefore some added variation to his unit types - would really add replayability. 

Also, add ways that I can obtain unique once-in-a-few-game items, like powerful mounts, swords or armor. The excitement of finding those types of items would definitely generate more replayability. 

I do find it crazy that Thea: The Awakening, a game that's incredibly similar in premise to SK, has already sold more than SK. Perhaps you should add some more survival elements like Thea has? Take a look at it, for sure...

I like Thea.  Good game and can be tough.  I think one thing that would help SK is bringing in more of the elemental theme.  Having recently picked up LH, I don't feel there is a good tie in between the two.  If you play the campaign, you kind of feel like there is some tie in, but it's vague at best. 

I think adding races will definitely help replayability.  My big wish is that they make it so you can put up and add mods through steam.  Test it with SK, where admittedly the modding community is small, but we can be a test group, petri dish or whatever for doing it.  I'd be willing to do more modding if it could be done through steam and put up there.  As it is, it's hard to know if people are using it and such.

Adding "more stuff" isn't likely to address the underlying challenges the game faces.   Also, SK is not meant to be Fallen Enchantress II. 

The fundmanetal problemI see is that there is a replayability expectation for SK that wasn't present for Star Control or FTL. 

I would love to see SK features in a game with the replayability of a traditional 4X.

As I've previously said elsewhere, making things work will add a good chunk of replayability.

Make crystals (not shards) work, make non mounted units work, make more than 20% of spells work, make heroes besides of varda-drogan-swordsman work, make more items and enchantments work, make more than one branch of heroes's skills work, sovereign trees need some love as well. People will start to actually use all that stuff, make it just a bit more scarce, and players will use different stuff every game.

Also that's would be great to see more diverse maps. I believe it can be achieved without adding more tiles, by simply rotating said tiles .