We are listening and you can look at the game like this:
There will be v1.0. This is the game that will be in the box but will never get played on-line because we will have the Bonus Pack on day 0. V1.0 is designed for single player which has been a lot of our focus that beta testers haven't seen. We like multiplayer but v1.0 is focused on people who don't have Internet connections and just plan to play the game single player.
Bonus Pack will be v1.01. This is the 0 day update. This version will have balance changes and all kinds of other things in it that are almost exclusively for multiplayer players. For instance, we plan to put in a new concept: Rebound. That is, some items and abilities that allow players to have magical spells rebound on the person who cast them. We also plan on having Skirmish mode where players have match-making going on.
Then there's v1.02. I don't know precisely when this will hit but likely in the first 30 days. This will make tweaks to the game based on initial player feedback and fix any bugs that might have gotten missed. The usual stuff.
Then there's v1.1. This will likely be the first significant update that will have some new items, support a new Demigod (we plan - operative word is plan as opposed to "promise" which some people around here like to throw around that word..) or two, new items, new abilities, etc. This would likely be out this Spring.
Beyond that, it really depends on sales. Mike Marr and GPG and I have lots of ideas for cool stuff based on how well the game does. Clan based tournaments, custom mod games (i.e. official mods of the game counted as sub-games), lots of new items, Demigod epics (single player thing), Official game tournaments with cash prizes, Active towers, changes to generals/assassins dynamics, new types of minions, etc. We have the ideas. We just have to wait and see what the demand for Demigod is first.
Right now, we feel pretty confident about Demigod. We've seen people play enough that they really like it. It plays pretty well on mediocre hardware so it wshould play on a lot more systems than most strategy games currently out.
All that said, the issues raised in this thread are valid and need to be addressed as much as possible. As I have described to my friends at GPG "The problem here isn't that expert players beat newbie players, it's that expert players can make life hell for newbie players and expert players vs. expert players would just be mutual hell."
Where I tend to disagree with some of you is that I don't want to see things nerfed as much as much as I want there to be counters to them. Rebounding for instance introduced as items and powers. Stun immunity as a power that players can research. But the idea being, have there be counters to powers so that there is more skill.
For example, from a C++ perspective, rebound means detecting X has occurred and having Y happen instead. Lots of interesting things could be made. For instance, you could have a derivative of rebound where a player could capture an incoming stun and turn it into an area buff for themselves and nearby allies intead of getting stunned. If done right, it just means players have to use a little more skill when using this stuff.
If anyone here has ever played Magic the Gathering, you can imagine the thinking process going on at Stardock and GPG with regards to powers.
