I just went to liluras website, and looked up the TOEE section. Under the title "The Dream" the writeup outlines exactly what I hoped would happen in reality....alas, it wasn't to be...Copy paste incoming:
In 2003, Troika release
Temple of Elemental Evil to critical acclaim. A few mainstream news sites attempt to paint ToEE as "too difficult" or "too complex" for the public to consume, but quickly change their tune and rewrite their articles when Troika shifts a boatload of units. Polished almost to perfection, ToEE is built on the
three pillars of design required for greatness in the D&D sub-genre; namely,
isometric perspective,
turn-based tactical combat and
full party control. Along with that, Troika execute a near-perfect implementation of the
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 ruleset, seamlessly integrating the SRD with hyperlinks embedded to stat panels and the combat log. Not only is ToEE mechanically supreme, but its beautifully-painted backdrops coupled with slick sprite animations cement it as the most aesthetically-pleasing isometric entry in the genre, blowing away the
Infinity Engine entries and even
Diablo II. Last but not least, its factional reactivity modifies the landscape within the Temple mega-dungeon itself, adding greatly to replayability.
Fans of traditional RPGs and Pen & Paper D&D flock to the social boards
en masse, not to report show-stopping bugs, stability issues and broken mechanics, but rather to bestow praise upon Troika for what may well be the
ushering-in of a new D&D era of computer role-playing games akin to the Goldbox of old. So many threads are entitled "Praise be to Troika" that it borders on religious worship. Everyone is looking forward to the future of cRPGs spear-headed by a dev that has proven itself; first with
Arcanum, now with ToEE. Fans clamor for another adventure set in Greyhawk as Troika patch their game of the few bugs it shipped with. ToEE is refined to masterpiece-level: in its final state, it is a polished diamond. The money just keeps rolling in for Troika, who expand from 14 people to 40 as a result. Within the next couple of years, they have released several conversions of Greyhawk adventure modules along with an Aurora-like toolset (which employs 2D tilesets for easy area-creation for amateurs). Single-player veterans of the Infinity and Aurora engines drop
Baldur's Gate and
Neverwinter Nights in a heartbeat; thus, RTwP and dumb companion AI are put to bed, never to be spoken of again. Moreover, over the next decade, an army of community members build dozens of award-winning amateur adventures for the full array of D&D campaign settings. In short,
Troika far exceed the era of Goldbox. Then,
Temple of Elemental Evil II is released employing
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rules. There is no end of happiness in sight.
Sigh