I bought this little beauty a while back and played the hell out of her and I got to say... yes, she is gorgeous.

At least as long as you don't turn on the light...

This game is good, the mechanics work very well together, like a lot of little cogs in a bigger machinery.

Stardock set a pretty nice foundation for addons to build upon. I remember Galactic Civilizations 2 being a similar case. The original game was well made, but had a real lack in detail. The polish was missing in a lot of places and I hope Fallen Enchantress will go a similar way in the future.

So, what do I want to rant about anyway?

Here we go.

Section 1: Exploration and the Map

Even though there is a lot to see, the maps feel somewhat devoit of life. If you break it down to the basic principals, there are Monsters, their lairs, quest locations and ressources. The high fantasy background story of the game and its RPG Elements offer a lot of potential to improve in that direction. The Map offers enough room to be filled with special locations like shops, villages, teleporters or locations that give local boni (Much like the outposts do now, just pre set). Those are just the things I came up with while writing, so sitting down and thinking about it would, for sure, turn up a lot more interesting locations to explore.

In addition to the initial lack of variety comes, that the diversity of the maps deteriorates with time. Every explored location simply vanishes. Keeping them on the map with a slightly altered explored look would do much good for the looks of the whole thing. This one is mostly an immersion thing and I see it pretty far down on the list of things I'd like to see changed in the future.

Section 2: Expansion, Cities, Outposts

Well, I pretty much like this part. Most of the rant here is a cosmetic thing, though there are some little things that would add a lot to the strategic value of the game.

For instance the thing about the type of city being set in stone. More than once I found myself in the situation of wanting to change a city type. The borders of my empire change and I like to have fortress cities on the edges. It's hardly possible right now, as I need every city type and I can't change them in retrospect. Giving the option of changing the focus of a city in exchange for a loss in level and all it's focus bound buildings would offer a lot more strategical depth.

The Outposts are pretty nice as they are. A second Tier of some of the addons would do a lot of good though. Building these into real towers to watch the land or fortifying them with more than just some wooden walls would a) offer more things to build (Right now FE has a fair amount, but more wouldn't be too much) give a better feel of immersion, as your empire starts to fortify itself, making the feel of transition from puny village to safe haven even more appealing and believable.

Next thing is a pure "oh my god, I need that so much!"-point

Fortified Borders.... no Idea how to implement those right and feeling like the cog they are supposed to be in this grand scheme, but being able to build Walls around your empire to hold of the wild just feels so.... right. Civ 4 Great Wall anyone?

Last thing is the fence around Town and Conclave cities. It's just... ridiculous. What are my people? Cattle? Those tiny fences feel wrong and out of place. Either real walls or no walls. Those little thingies are worse than nothing.

Section 3: Tactical Combat

Well, groundwork is there. But with those myriads of different units available, it still almost feels the same every time. It has been said before, more than once so this point is pretty obvious.

What I would do to change that? Don't ask me. It's just a thought. For me the battle system mostly lacks variety. Variety in maps, skills, size. Maybe even more variety in AI behavior

Section 4: Heroes

Nothing to rant about, nothing to add. I like them as they are.

Well, that's that for now. I'm sure I can come up with some more thoughts in time. I'm pretty much open to comments and would like to hear what the rest of the community thinks about the game as it is.