The AI is not very good. It needs a leg up to be an interesting opponent.
The sweet spot for battle difficulty is when victory is assured, but you have
to play tactically to avoid losing units.
Small armies can be just as fun as big ones.
With a few exceptions, rank 1 units are boring. I mostly don't use them once
I get higher-rank units. The exceptions are:
sprites, and any ranged unit (halflings, crossbowmen, centaurs, orcs).
One-unit stacks are good for taking retaliation
Units with a magic ability (leprechauns, imps) can be very useful in certain
situations.
Units with two attacks (berserkers, wolves) are good for taking down Citadel
or Castle gates.
The people I play with are less familiar with the details of the game than I
am, and prefer a casual experience to a challenging one.
We all get a kick out of exploration.
Micromanagement is annoying. Optimal caravan play is especially tedious.
If you're optimizing for fun, the right number of towns to have is about 2.
3 is okay. More than that is too much to keep track of.
Similarly, the best number of heroes is probably about 3.
Castles are OP. Probably only Death should be allowed to have one.\
One of my least favorite features of the game is the "the enemy turns to flee
at your approach" dialog.
If you choose to fight, it's a boring fight.
If you use "quick combat," the stupid AI may lose units or spend more mana
than needed.
If you let them run, you miss out on XP and any items the mobs were holding.
A common problem with existing maps is that on low difficulty settings, the
late-game fights are too easy, but on high difficulty settings, the early
fights are too hard. How to make the army strength curve match the mob
strength curve?
Mob armies grow over time. I wonder if the growth rate depends on the
difficulty setting?
In a multiplayer game, losing your main hero really sucks. It's basically
game over.
Concepts and forces
Exploration over optimization
Role-playing over strategy
A casual experience
Organic/thematic design over balance
A game is a series of interesting decisions
Ideas
Start with a few rank 2 units instead of rank 1s. The early game can be about
keeping these units alive.
Start each player with 2 heroes, but don't allow taverns to be built. Or give
each player two adventure-map taverns, 4000 gold, and a one-way portal, so
they can choose their heroes.
Additional heroes could be obtained from prisons.
What if heroes are imprisoned?
Trigger an event on the player's home town that builds the tavern and gives
them a bunch of gold and maybe units. "The people organize to free their
hero from prison!"
Incentivize exploration by scattering free goodies over the map.
How to prevent players from having too many towns?
You win when you capture your fourth town.
Maybe each player's second town should be from a neighboring alignment? Makes
things more interesting. Consider how players could choose which alignment
they get (or just let it be random).
How to prevent armies from growing too large?
limit gold income
whirlpools
kill off units somehow (with difficult battles at chokepoints?)
but how to encourage players to go into the fight before their army is
big enough to win with no losses?
quest hut that buys units, perhaps offering a stackable item (lucky charms
or viewing crystal?)
How to prevent caravan micro?
Timed event: each day, all creature dwellings change their owner to a
computer player. This computer player is not allowed to build caravans.
The only way to recruit from a dwelling is to travel there with a hero.
This also nerfs the strategy of having a small army stand next to the
creature dwelling and recruit creatures each day.
How to make "the enemy turns to flee at your approach" less annoying?
Incentivize Charm (Order magic) and Diplomacy (Nobility) somehow so there's
at least some reward for attacking outnumbered creatures
Give mobs items? Could cut both ways.
Give mobs heroes? Maybe they won't run then. Doesn't work.
What if you could keep playing after your hero dies, but with a different
goal?
Research questions
Do neutral armies with a hero ever flee from combat?
Yes.
Can an army without a hero free a hero imprisoned in a town?