maybe they just ran out of idea's for KB and wanted to try something new. i only hope H6 will be good unlike H4 & 5 and that the MMO doesnt tank badly enough that they will never be able to do a KB2. it would also be nice if I2 would announce warlords 5 & warlords battlecry 4 and quit with the puzzle games already!

As for possible older alternatives we can resort to - anyone knows this:

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/age_o...s_shadow_magic

They've just rolled it out on GOG and it has enthusiastic reviews.

I thought I'd post my 2c.

At first I wanted to make a long list. Eventually I decided to point out just the most crucial issues, the way I see it. (I tried to sort them in the order of importance)

1. Correct English
Unfortunately KB games were written in a very poor English and I wonder why so few people have pointed it out. It's not only grammar (although some of the grammar mistakes are just sooo ugly), but the whole linguistic approach is non-Aglo-Saxon. It's Slav. To me it's on the edge of acceptance. You can't release a game with such language errors! This is absolutely crucial. So perhaps making sure that the next KB is written in a proper English would be good.

2. Storyline
This is more individual and might be just me. I see KB storyline as a very simple one, too simple. And too flat. I understand that the entire concept of KB involves a nice, warm and kinda sunny ambience, but still the storyline could definiately be enriched. It's not only KB, I think a lot of the computer games lack a lot in the storyline department.
Come up with some 3D characters, add some story arch, add more conflict. In other words make it more epic. Additionaly taking the KB's charm, perhaps introducing some romance plot/plots wouldn't hurt.

3. Inventory
I see nobody's mentioned this. Inventory management is terrible. Consider implementing folders and give players a possibility to arrange the items by putting them in different folders (or they might be bags instead of folders). With an option to name the folders. So you could have a folder "boots" or "female robes" or "my items" or "useless junk" etc etc.

4. Lack of 'farming'
Sometimes I would find myself stuck, as I didn't have enemies on my current level. I had to travel much looking for a match. I was surprised that there had not been any 'farming' spots in the game. I mean enemies that respawn, so you can fight them again and again untill your skills increase.

5. Game balancing issues
I think it was mentioned already and some people seem to consider it to be serious. To me, it's a minor flaw and the game is playable, although I must admit I was stuck in a few places and had troubles moving on. (see my comment on the lack of farming)

6. Items balancing issues
To me items are imbalanced. I couldn't gather a single set. Some items seems overpowered to me, while others are plain junk. This is not a major thing, but improving it would add to the game.
Maybe once in a while a selection of merchandise in shops could change, giving player more variety.

7. Lack of maps
Some areas don't have maps, especially the dungeons.

age of wonders have a very good following and there are some great scenario @ aow.heavengames.com. Most of them require the fan made patch4 which is quite good. However the graphics are dated and there have been a few complaints about the ai at higher competitive levels (I've always found the ai to be ok; not exceptional but ok esp with the fan made scenarios which are much better than the campaign which is a bit lame).

My biggest beef with the game today is the graphics; I just have a bit of issue picking out fine details in games like aow2, avernum 6 and divine divinity on larger monitors. (I mention the other two games which have similar graphics in case you have played any of them). Anyways of the turn based fantasy games aow-sm is my favorite - head and shoulders above disciples and heroes of magic series but it is a different type of game (imho) than KB series.

RichardTyler; I agree with most of your opinions (good this thing need a good inventory sorting/viewing option!!) but I disagree with the 'farming' one. The game doesn't have it because you have to use what little it gives you (yep; enemies are here to make you stronger not to resurrect like crazy).

The farming one would allow any difficulty to be just too easy although I agree that a certain amount of farming could be allowed (come units of your level could resurrect so to get new levels)

Most of the sets are not that hard to use (of course don't try to get the 4-5 item sets, but the 2-3 sets are very possible to obtain). Some items are to bad because they are meant to be used at the beginning and to have a little options at the start and don't feel 'naked'.

The maps in the dungeons could be nice, although they are not that big to get lost.

Instead of farming I propose a dynamic difficulty (you can change difficulty any time and the change doesn't affect your items(units(etc.). The enemies and amount of exp changes so to adapt to the desired level of difficulty. Of course you would get the nickname "Amelie, the weak minded" XD.

I think the story is simple because almost no one cares about it (although the first one was very funny with a little Diskworld XD). Is true that they could do a less generic story or more complex and developed (a world that was changing as you progressed) but we'll leave that for the next game XD (maybe WE SHOULD write the story?)

I also disagree with the farming as well as the inventory one; the current inventory is not terrible - you can sort it by cost or by type which is fine by me. Good points otherwise.

Good to see some responses. Usually when a game has an editor there is a strong base of fans. I don't know about KB. I was widely surprised to see no fan made scenarios (I mean other than mods that add/tweak the existing stuff).

I see your point of view and it's interesting to read it and compare. Honestly I really found lack of farming a bit annoying, but it was mostly in KB TL. In AP/CW it was much better, since you could travel between the islands quite fast. Changing the lvl of difficultly dynamically would help. Not a bad idea at all. Or perheps teleporting might be implemented. Let's say you press a button and you can teleport to a number of key places on the map. You might even have an option to set up such teleport points of destination yourself.

Inventory is a pain. Yes, you have some options to sort the items and I used them, fine (especially sort by type). Unfortunately it was far from what I felt was needed (I had a dozen of items). Perhaps it's not much of a coding work to implement the folders/bags or improve the inventory in some other way.

I would like to elaborate a bit on the storyline issue. You have been warned, if you find it boring or you think I brag :) just skip the next paragraph.

I disagree that you don't care for the storyline in a game. You might think that you don't care, but imagine just having a game with a queue of fights, no purpose whatsoever. KB is not a drama type of a storyline, but it seems like an epic tale with this particular type of a warm ambience (sweet sweet KB). What struck me was that I virtually found no antagonist. Just a protagonist. (you know, no Doctor No, Lex Luthor etc... Nobody to stop Amelie from collecting the jewels) So no conflict in a real sense. How did the protagonist change at the end of the story? Not by much, I'd say. Compare it with any of Warner or Disney movies or a book. Even an average one where you have a lousy stroyline... It might seem that Amelie had travelled to another world and came back after a long journey, but I'd argue that it's the experience during this journey that counts, not a journey itself. It's like assuming - OK, since Amelie will travel to another world, we don't need to do much more with the storyline. I mean I'm not expecting any pre-defined story (well, surprise me Katauri!), but certain story elements help to make an interesting one.

Add poor English to that and you have lots of reading that puts you off.

I was wondering why Katauri didn't do the voice acting. Perhaps they don't have native speakers to do the job... To me good VO adds a lot in games.

I haven't even opened the editor myself, but based on the comments I've read, it's so clunky and unintuitive (and apparently has bugs, too) that hardly anyone has bothered to put enough effort into it to create new scenarios. Looks like Katauri threw the editor in more as an afterthought. :(

Kind of reminds me of Majesty 2 (developed by 1C) whose editor was also nearly useless. There was even a contest - with prizes - for user-made scenarios; as far as I know, it was canceled due to a lack of entries.

@RichardTyler; with the story I meant that most people don't care about a deeply or complex story or a very single and generic one (the authors obviously don't want to add that much story here; they aren't trying to create a complex living world that you feel connected with it a la Bioshock).

I don't meant I don't cared for the story (In fact I rode every text line in AP). It's just that most people don't care if it's a generic story or a very good one if there are other things that limit the fun they have with the game (they won't care much about it since they they have other issues: Bugs/inventory sorting problems/Editor crashing/skill mistranslations, etc. XD). When they are having fun, they will want to learn a little more of the story, simple as that.

Of course every game would benefit from a better story so it doesn't feel as a copy&paste job.

Voice acting would be very expensive and would be difficult for Russian developer since the game has a lot of text (look at some of The Witcher original text/dialogue problems in the original edition). They would need to reduce it or get more funding, and since KB is very niche, I don't think that will happen but since the text in general is above average, it could benefit the game (although the new voices that are at the beginning of CW (where you meet adult Amelie) give me the chills man)

Voice acting would be very low on my priority list for KB. Hiring actors costs money, and you'd need a different set of actors for each different language version. I'm afraid they'd just end up doing a half-assed job with it and either hire a bunch of cheap, talentless amateurs, or have three or four actors each playing 20 different characters. I've played many games where they've done just that (Oblivion, anyone?), and in my opinion that tends to reduce rather than improve immersion. A possible compromise would be to give voiced dialogue to the most important characters with the most lines and keep unimportant side characters silent.