Just like to say I am loving the midgame section. The exploration, the dueling with other nations, the fighting of monsters etc is just awesome. For me it has the one-more-turn quality I am looking for. I played a game this weekend and completely neglected my family as I explored and plundered my way across the world as Tarth.
Starting a new game however, is a chore and pretty dull. It is always the same ( or at least very similar), same choices same frustrations. And everything takes a long time to get off the ground.
End game is also not so great. In the end game you know you have won but the enemy AIs don't know it yet. Often I cannot cast spell of making because I need 4 influence (I can not find where that stat is).
Also I cannot get a diplomatic victory because some AIs refuse to warm up to me even after massive ongoing payments etc. So it is impossible to form an alliance with them all.
I can't do a conquest victory because I have various agreements with the other kingdoms that don't allow me to declare war.
The end game is often tedious. So why do I drag it out to the end? I want to see how many points I scored and I want to see the feedback in terms of graphs. Is there a reason we cannot access trhose graphs at any other time?
One last thing, why are there very few magic bows? Millions of swords, maces and other implements. But I believe I have only ever once found a magic bow.
