The concepts were good, initial game play was addictive, but in the end the lack of polish leaves me very unsatisfied.
And then we have the launch with very little fanfare with many bugs and improvements still left undeveloped. This tells me that the developers are sticking to a predetermined schedule and cost not quality are driving their actions.
Now let me now remove those rose colored glasses and be a bit more critical of the now live version of LOU.
The Good:
The concept of a web based game that runs in real time and only requires a few hours a day at your convenience are appealing. The Castle / Non Castle idea works for those liking both PVP and PVE. Using continents to keep new users at the same pace with their neighbors is brilliant.
The Bad:
The fact that the most efficient city design is to remove all your natural resources is absurd.
The city micromanagement is fine at the start, but once you establish your second city it's just more and more of the same.
Abandoned cities littering the map and the slow spawn rates of dungeons, often hours away, is stupid.
Night protection is a poor idea and not implemented well.
There is no mechanism to restart /abandon your city, pick a continent, or play near your friends.
The lack of information from the developers on basic concepts like how attack and defense values work is disturbing.
No zoom controls on city or overland maps.
City layout is boring with only 2 types (with water / without water).
Alliance controls are not polished and have no confirmations, many players thought they had a non aggression pact with me because they selected it and were upset when my armies arrived on their doorstep.
Finally I searched my favorite game websites for LOU info… they didn't even have the game listed.
This makes me think LOU is a low budget B-rated game at best and will receive minimally funded support to add new features.
The Ugly:
I have to give LOU a score of 3.5 / 10
I had high hopes for this game. I checked the forums daily for hopes of new features to be added. The concepts were good, initial game play was addictive, but in the end the lack of polish leaves me very unsatisfied.
How I would have done it, just a few suggestions:
Cities should have populations. People should have a general Health and Happiness meter. When both are high more people will come (subject to maximum city size determined by the town hall).
Health and Happiness can be controlled by Food, Buildings (Entertainment / Medical), Tax Rate, and frequency of enemy attacks. The population and happiness of a town, not the number of cottages, should determine production speed and levels.
Troops should have 3 experience levels (Initiate, Veteran, Elite) and groups over 100 must be lead by a General who can reach level 10, is more powerful and hard to kill. The number of Generals can be determined by Town Hall and Castle size. As a General's level increases he can lead larger and larger armies. At level 10 these Generals become Barons and can found or conquer a new city.
Troops and Generals can gain rank thru dungeons, raid bosses, or leading assaults.
Generals should be able to equip 2 artifacts that can do things which will affect their entire army, such as provide 10% attack bonus, 10% speed bonus, etc.
Towns should be able to specialize into Support, Trade, or Military. Sub specializations may allow access to different type of unit, etc.
Speed up overland movement rates, get rid of night protection, limit the number of times a city can be plundered to once every 12 hours.
Launch LOU with enthusiasm, when it is ready, with new servers. Start fresh with a reset and perhaps give your closed/open beta players diamonds as rewards based on their efforts.