STORY
I prefer story driven games. That’s why I find waves bland. CW is better in this regard, but not by much.
Standard maps have a briefing, we know why our heroes are there, why they fight. In CW, we know only the trailer. The whole thing looks like our heroes search the support of the chaos gods who put them on the test. If they succeed, they give their blessing in the form of nice chaos frames.
Actually it doesn’t require much effort to make little stories around maps. Often it’s just a few sentences in form of dialogs.
The ending should have 1-2 sentences what actually happened. Especially at the citadel. Okay, they want to talk to the gods. Why don’t they? And there should be an answer. If nothing happens, the heroes should tell they are disappointed or something.
There are many reused map parts. The heroes should recognize and comment them loudly. This way those details would become part of the story and they wouldn’t be just reused assets.
MAPS
The maps are good. I like the search for coins. And I like the concept change, the party should divide to look around for loot many times.
You certainly made a lot of assets for the environment but new enemies would have been more important. When we play we focus on the enemies not on the environment. If you make 20 new houses they have less effect on the game experience than a single new enemy type. Even the current enemies should be look a bit different when they worship other gods, not nurgle. At least the colors if nothing else.
The lack of books is good. The monster chests is very gamey, but it’s okay for me.
Finally maps where I can fight beastmen. They are uncommon in the base game.
I like the idea of random maps, its essence is very similar to quick plays. You could use this in general maps, too. For example there is Fort Brachsenbrücke with two routes at the start and after the river. I like when there are different routes. It would be even better if the style of the alternatives are different. For example one route is between rocks but the other is through a village. The goal is the same, to get to the fort but the way there could be very different. You could make many maps using this scheme. First part is the travel to the objective area, the second part is the objective, and these could be randomly paired.
The orange and the red upgrade options should be a bit more colorful. It’s harder to see the colors. Maybe even the green could be a bit greener. The blue is okay.
CRASHES
It’s hard to tell from memory, but about 10-15% of my games crashed. With that much crashes the playing time is too long. Hopefully you will solve these problems.
BOON PROGRESSION
The funny and OP talents and talent combos are cool however there are many underwhelming talents or disadvantageous talents. I think weak talents should be dropped entirely. There are times when I get 4 option to buy from and all are underwhelming. And this is not rare.
It’s very disappointing to get dash ult for Shade and it feels like a curse instead of a boon. The short teleport forward with push is the same case, especially with handmaiden. They are okay if someone gets them intentionally but not as a random boon from an altar. Natural bond is the same case but it’s not that disappointing in CW because many players might have medkits.
I think lesser but stronger traits would be better. Sometimes it’s not even possible to remember that many talents. And there is no time to check them. Nobody would wait me reading during the game and they cannot be checked between maps over the “chessboard”.
When playing XCOM2, it was a cool feature when our soldiers got a single skill randomly from other classes. So this randomization is a familiar feeling. What if a Shade could get asrai alacricity or serrated shots for example? Just to remain within the the classes of the same hero.
ITEM PROGRESSION
Dropping the starting gear doesn’t feel good. The decrease in efficiency is immediately felt.
Why didn’t you simply drop the hero power mechanics? Getting +10% damage and cleave per item level (or whatever) would be far easier to understand.
Punishing the purchase of lower level items is strange. I mean the costs. It doesn’t take long to realize improving every single step is unnecessary.
Random weapons could be more interesting but many heroes have 1-2 underperforming weapons which makes this a risky option. The other thing is weapons and THP generation talents correlate. So with an unlucky new weapon the THP generation may plummet.
If there would be a chance to keep the original one I would use this option more often.
SUMMARY
I don’t like the gear drop. I play this game mode for the new maps, the variety.