Here is an easy 6 phase plan to save this project:
1. Rename Spire of Sorcery to Wild Mages Sister of a Dragon (they're already using the same assets)
2. Develop it in EA for 3 years, with hours of videos of new game systems
3. Throw it all away and redesign the game completely. It's now a fighting game with fishing and cockroach racing.
4. Rename Sister of a Dragon to Spire of Sorcery again, for maximum confusion
5. Don't release the game, but (this is very important!) continue selling it in EA
6. No profit
Repeat as many times as necessary.
One thing I will give them credit for is stating that SoS is dead. Not for the bizarre decisions that led them there, but for admitting it. That's better than lying that they're still developing it and giving false hope to the few people who actually liked whatever the hell the current version of SoS was. Now, they will get shit for it, much of it deserved, some of the die-hards who stuck with them this entire time (a small number already) will now hate them, it will be terrible for any future projects, with an unfinished EA game and a dedicated hater base, so probably not a good move PR-wise, but I sort of appreciate that they just bluntly admitted it and are trying to move on. We fucked up, there is no game. We wasted 6 years on this. Here's a new game, maybe. Sorry.
Also, the game didn't need a pre-set protagonist. It didn't need a fleshed-out story line. It didn't need companions. None of what I've read about this next game tells me anything about how it's going to be played. Is it an RPG now? Is it like "Wild Mages", but with pre-set characters? Is it a strategy? What the fuck is "matrix-based spells and personal progression with 8 schools of magic and 8 paths of personal progression"? Who knows. Feels like they're brainstorming and throwing shit at the wall all over again.
The original idea, of an old mage in his tower, on the run from the law, trying to survive in hostile wilderness, working towards a specific goal through his apprentices in the field was good. I imagined it sort of like a single, huge map from Eador, but with more wilderness and ruins, few tiny settlements and non-human races, no AI opponents, no armies but more focus on individual mages and small parties exploring the map for resources and improving the tower, no irreplaceable main cast aside from the old wizard protagonist. With a (very slow) time pressure of the inquisition trying to hunt down the protagonist or him simply dying of old age or sickness. With random events and map encounters in the style of King of Dragon Pass, with different skills or backgrounds of characters unlocking different outcomes. Easier said than done, I know, but that's at least something that sounds like a game, ever since they scrapped that original SoS setup I can't understand what they're going for or who the audience for it is.
