I think it would take too much effort and time to polish/change the combat to be more widely accepted. And I think most of the people were prepared (including myself) simply dealing with this combat system for all the other promised features. And this is where they're going wrong or maybe they realized they don't have enough resources to really put out any good features that would add to the game. So they've gone with refining and minimal changes. Even posted this on their (now dead) forums as one of the last messages:
http://forum.ofkingsandmen.net/index.php?topic=2450.msg38248#msg38248All these small surface fixes, time wasted if you ask me. Just to give off the impression to their already minimal playerbase that they're doing something. Honestly believe it would be a much better decision to simply say "we're reorganizing and redoing stuff, we'll be back when we're ready", shut down communication for like 1 year+ and work hard on features that will actually interest people, possibly even those outside Warband community. Ride with your friends shit. You guys had LIRIK himself stream that hype-ass trailer, he said it looked great. Also don't forget to update your info so the whole project doesn't look like a fucking scam, lmao. Shit, possibly even rename the game and the firm, you've got enough bad rep as is.
The linked roadmap is unfathomable and gives off the impression they're just trying to milk off whatever players they have with additional surface changes. The only actual piece of content in there is the '''''''strategic map''''''', which given their track record, could as well end up to be a singular webpage with a shitty, unenjoyable strategus clone - there is nothing to indicate it's going to go any better, trust is at zero. Good for those obsessed with strategus I guess, bad for all the (massive) rest that were expecting to actually ride with friends, control npcs and build towns. Instead they go for shit like equipment upgrading and crafting, loot boxes, visual mood overhaul (???? lmao what) and UI overhaul - how is this necessary when you don't really need to use UI to play this game apart from HP bar, pretty much all useless under Player's experience apart from cav and throwing weapons. New maps? Yeah that's exactly what the people were asking for.
Mind you I wouldn't be expecting this of any other, bigger team. But wow, the OKAM team is already limited in manpower and resources as is, they need to drop
all the shit that doesn't matter and completely focus on what might actually rejuvenate the game. I have doubts that even their miniscule discord community was asking for most of the "features" presented on roadmap.