ancient hearth
The research system in the game just does not feel researchy. There is no mechanics focused on obtaining tomes and storing them for later research by the mages. Speaking of, there are no researchers themselves, just a few buildings. Why can't we hire a mage to be our head researcher? Why don't we have missions from this hired mage, asking us to send him underlings to manage the book stacks? Speaking of book stacks, this is a proper research operation, why dont we have a library that we can fill over time with a mountain of tomes and volumes for the researchers to go through? Why dont we have massive piles of junk tome and garbage literature that occasionally needs to get tossed into the garbage while we hunt for spells? Where is the dueling court, where we watch two or three mages who have been researching magic use the fireballs and lightning spells on target dummies? Where is the intrigue between two or three rival researchers, vying for our attention? Where is that harebrained wizard who promises us a spell, if only we can storm a certain fortress on the map, only for there to be a chance we destroy the spell in the process? What about that mad explorer who wants to go to the place where magnets all point, and wants us to sponsor his expedition? Where is that steam punk research? Where is the college, the mage tower, the research hut, etc?
Its all MISSING in this reality/timeline, and aow is the worse off for it!
lapis hedge