No...the month after that.

Well my one, true concern here is that I'm starting to see history repeat itself.

Very shortly after EWOM got released I -personally at least - realized that the game was, for the most part, a failure, and that it was beyond fixing. Brad wanted to fix it anyway and I can understand that, on a human level, but logically... well, very few are even playing it at all at this point, and even in these forums we witnessed people say that they held hopes in fixes and updates to "magically" make the game fun, until they had to finally give up and realize it was a lost cause. To me - painful as it may sound - the wise, humble course of action would be to accept what happened, let it go and move on. Instead, we see the poor, lifeless horse getting beaten still. Not good.

Worse yet, some of the new fixes (es: the HPs issue) managed to appear even more baffling to the (sparse) audience than some of the features of the originally released game (you just hear less complaints because fewer people are here to make them). This suggests to me that the development cycle still has serious unsolved issues and work keeps progressing a tad aimlessly. Not good.

On top of that, we get the announcement that FE is going to be the "best ever" release by Stardock, which is exactly the same announcement made in regard of EWOM. Not good.

I don't mean to sound as the Prophet of Doom. I do believe that Stardock needs to be aware of its limits if it wants to deliver. You don't have to convince me: after all, I've already paid for a game and I don't have to buy the next one. You have to convince new players, people who heard less than exciting things about Elemental and decided to steer well away from it. Your next game will possibly get even less than fair reviews, since people will be overly cautious and "suspicious" about it. So I say if you want it to succeed you have to focus on that with all the available resources and with the assumption that FE, too, has problably tons of serious, underlying issues that need to be spotted yet and addressed before release, since customers won't forgive another day-one misfire and most certainly won't have the patience to wait for "upcoming" (and constantly delayed) fixes to come and save the day. Hope you read it as a constructive post because that's what it is, and that's the way I work

Also, I say this as a schmuck who preordered Elemental: WOM. Just dump the support for it and go Full Power in FE. The only people who still play Elemental are those that pre-ordered or got in early enough to get FE for free. I'd really suggest you let your pride go, once again, and just get as much woman/manpower (and AI programmers, because this is what makes and breaks strategy games) into FE because if this bombs, I feel like you'll be stuck in Molyneux mode forever.

I feel like you need a reality check from people that aren't dedicated fanboys that worship your every move, Frogboy. I'm doing this because I love you and because I want this game to work because I enjoy your company and its products.

One of the issues I didn't dare to address so... "directly". Thanx for breaking the ice

While some of the things we heard about FE sure sound promising, under the surface I sense the same "daydreaming" approach that ruined EWOM. We'll do this! We'll do that! Customers all over the world are used to promises of all kinds, and I still remember an enlightening sentence written by one of EWOM's developers on these very forums: "feature xxxxx has been moved to modding." (!!!!?!?!?). I'd hate to see that happening again with FE, and I'm sure it would be disastrous for Stardock if it *did* happen again.

So I'll give my suggestion once again and then I'll shut up for good: stop wasting time with EWOM, put all the available resources into FE's development and do not underestimate the work that needs to be done for it. And as the previous posters pointed out: if you expect the AI to be difficult to code, put someone on it now, full-time. And now back to my lurking-mode, waiting to see how this whole thing unfolds...

Just a note to say that I deeply appreciate the continuing efforts that Stardock has made to improve EWOM and the promise to give a free copy of FE to purchasers of EWOM. Most other companies would just cut their losses and run.

That said, I still find EWOM to be boring. I find the game too predicatable, the AI is deeply flawed (and predicatable), magic is too limited, tactical battles are a cakewalk and the game lacks the excitement, backstory flavor, racial differences, and immersive background that would make it a star. 

It never became that strategic fantasy in an RPG world that I was hoping to see.

Despite that, I am deeply looking forward to FE.

If development does continue on EWOM I would suggest focusing the next upgrade on one element of the game that would have a dramatic impact on game play. Be it 1) the fog of war, 2) less predictable strategic AI, 3) tactical AI & new tactical spells, 3) new quests that impact the campaign (by aiding your enemies if they are not completed by date x), 5) improving champions, 6) differentiating one or two the various fractions and races while adding backstory & flavor to the game.

Example 01 - Less Predictable Strategic AI

In 1.2f the AI sovereigns follow the same strategy and none focus on archery or magic.

Summary: Sovereign AIs have a chance to select different strategies for each game. This would make the game less predicatable as you might be facing AI that specialize in an Archery, Magic or Melee combat strategy. In two to three weeks you could release an update that implements this feature (allowing one week for specifications, one week for code writing and another week for playtesting) if you limit this to a selection of 3 to 4 strategies.

Altar (Altar strategy variable = AS with a randomly selected value of 1 to 100, the value of this variable determines which research and build strategy the AI will follow)
----- Archer Strategy - 30% per game (01-30)
----- Champion & Magic Armor Strategy - 20% per game (31-50)
----- Magic Strategy - 30% per game (51-80)
----- Melee Strategy - 20% per game (81-100)

Trogs (Trog strategy variable = TS with a randomly selected value of 1 to 100) (Physically strong Trogs favor melee combat)
------ Archer Strategy - 10% per game (01-10)
------ Melee Strategy - 90% per game (11-100)

Wraiths (Wraith strategy variable = WS with a randomly selected value of 1 to 100)
------ Champion and Magic Armor Strategy - 30% per game (01-30)
------ Magic Strategy - 40% per game (31-70)
------ Melee Strategy - 30% per game (71-100)

Also the fact that there have only been 3 posts in this thread since I made my last post should tell you something. Whatever they're doing now ain't working. If you're going to put all your eggs into one basket, make sure its the best goddamned eggs ever laid.

I said it before and will say it again if they stopped updating and working on wom I will not only be pissed that I spent 40 bucks on a game that is not complete and will also be be dissappointed that stardock left wom to wither and die,

please stardock continue working on wom, the game is very different from when it first came out dont give up !

Does this mean that Stardock has the staff in place to develope a world class 3rd person RPG based on the world of Elemental? I think so.