Where are the citizens?

If I recall this feature was scrapped in the effort for memory use freeing and game stability a few versions ago.

Why cant it be returned as a user selectable OPTION?

Probably because then you have to support something almost nobody will see. Options are not magic. Both options have to be tested and supported, except that the default is what the vast majority will see because UI studies have shown that 90% of users don't change default settings.

you know, ive been sitting here at my desk staring at this game i purchased the day it was released, the ce version, and i keep thinking to myself, was it really worth the $70 buck's i spent on it? all this time has passed and i still come to the forum's to see if there's any good new's for this game?, and it's the same thing for prob a year now, nothing! and now i have to sit here for god only know's how much longer for something to make up for this game that should have never been released in the state it was in, sorry if i pissed any fanboy's off but really,!? this is complete bullshit! and i liked the little people that was in the town's and now that's gone wtf???? lesson learned here for sure.

deadzy13 do not worry about pissing off fanboys, the only one left kroaks a lot.

Harpo

lol

yeah i think from now on, anything with a stardock symbol on it, i'll ease on past it

i finally discovered where all the citizens went.  In a thread started by frogboy about FE, he shows a pic of a new civic enhancement project: a gallows.  Starter pak comes with platform, steps, overhead bar, and four (yes four!!!) pre-tied hangman's nooses. 

So, if you are wondering where all the citizens have gone - look no further - they have seen the future.  And they are running back to the desert.  Civilized life just isn't the same with the new and improved gallows pak awaiting them in FE.

I really hope the citizen animations make a return in FE. Its a minor thing but I always enjoyed seeing it in EWOM.

Looking at this issue reminds me of The Langoliers. Maybe the people just kept moving on to the next present, while WoM was left behind. Let's start a malware virus that eats up the game code of WoM. It's the only way to get to FE. 

They can be modded back in, I'll cook something up tomorrow.

Edit: Nope, it caused a crash.

@heavenfall   'cook up... citizens?'   thats worse than a gallows....  LOL  jk

I guess I was one of the few people that missed the feature as well, kind of reminded me of Civ 3 when they still showed the citizens. (Version 1.12 got rid of that and made them boring ghost towns) I do hope it comes back though, along with some of the other features. (AND A FIXING OF ALL THE FUCKING GLITCHES IN 1.4!!!!!!!!!)

One by one, the things that made Elemental unique and cool are being removed.  I just don't get it.

edit: I just started my game to check, and zoomed in...yup, no citizens.  I can't believe they're gone.  That level of detail was always something I could point to and say "see, these guys care about the little things".  Between this, and the custom quotes on the hero cards being gone...and dynasties being removed in Fallen Enchantress.  All the little details that made Elemental unique are being removed.  

Really disappointing.

The dynasties are going too? God I may as well just not buy the game....because that right there was a cool thing to have in a strategy game.....

Dynasties were cool on paper. As implemented in the game? Not so much. The axe fell on stuff like that which simply can't be made to really matter so more effort can be devoted to the core mechanics.

Exactly this.  It's pretty clear that FE will be a far superior game, largely due to the tremendous focus on the core game elements, of which dynasties was very definitely not a contender.

See that is the problem though, neumerous games have proven that things like that which work well on paper, can work well in a game too. You just have to have a dedicated team to MAKE it work....and people that don't complain about not liking it (so that they then axe it for those of us that enjoyed it).

I do pose the questions of how do you think they have not worked? To me it seemed they worked fine (and I never saw any glitches or anything with the system of it all.....) I just want to know where and why you think it "doesn't work out".

They don't do anything. Dynasties in WoM don't matter in the slightest to how the game plays. Fundamentally all it really does is provide a way to farm a good champion up. You could axe it and it wouldn't really change the game.

The "dedicated team" is busy improving more important things (like cities, tactical combat, and magic). When you have limited resources you need to devote them to where they'll do the most good, and figuring out how to make dynasties into a core game element is a lot less important then improving the actual core game elements.

I'd like to see the concept come back at some point, but only when the resources exist to do it well. There's a lot of stuff like this in WoM where "less is more".

All true, but it did give you heroes that you gave a damn about, as opposed to the other 50 (that shared 5 names between them).

I fear we may never see dynasties, ships or harbors again and I think the game/series will be the worse for it.

Um... I am pretty sure FE will have boat travel guys. Frogboy has said that this is something he would like to expand in a future sequel.

Something like Seafarers of Elemental.

That is what I am talking about, it was cool, almost like a way to create (if I may call them as such) Custom Heroes (that were not tied into the game directly) and were different each time. That whole thing reminded me of the dynasties system from Medieval Total War 2. And how every so often the characters would grow up and leave for a different empire. Perhaps it isn't a "core" or "important" feature. But it sure as hell made the game all that much cooler.