I have exactly the same feeling.
The game is very good, but something is missing... and i don't know what.
Perhaps the system of town and region ? Far less choice for players as you cannot build where you want, but at the same time region has some advantages because in AoW3 a big town means you have no place for others town... both systems have advantage and disadvantages...
And... i spend lot of hours in AoW3 too, and finished the AoW3 campaign several time, and never finished campaing in PF...
The empire mode in PF is a good idea, but again.. something is missing,
But here i know what: You cannot lose, you cannot end this king of "campaing"
IMO it should be better to have lot of planets to conquers... 50 for example, and you cannot roll for others planets, and when you have finished, it's terminated for this empire game. Or an other end possibility : Found a "last" relic, in one of the hardest planet (accessible after conquered some others) you can conquert; and then it's terminated... Perhaps the unlimited heroes recrutment.. perhaps it will be better to limit this, and let the player found others heroes in some planets ? And, a system that force a player to make choice... a system where you can up level according a race or a teck, but where you can lose level too... IMO empire mode is a good idea but was quickly made and is a sign that game development is terminated.
So, this is a response for the thread question.. A future ? IMO, no; not in this game.
Perhaps in an other i don't know.
there is 4 main issues in the game that makes it stale after a while.
1/ the lack of threat.
-the AI do not update the mod loadout they create at the beginning of the game. that means, unless you are playing on a very high ranked planet in empire mode the AI troops will keep their low lvl mods until the end of the game.
the AI alos seems to not use T3 or even T4 much. and when they do they are often not modded.
that means that you can pretty much overpower the AI with high level mods and units which makes any late game trivial.
-leaving a marauder/monster nest live and grow? it will not be a threat in the future anyway (except for newly created cities) as they will never exceed a group of 4 units and never attacks with other marauder/monsters stack.
-late game invasion are more of a nuisance than a threat you would want to prepare for and beat. (so i always play without it. the game often finishes before they even spawn anyway.)
-going at war vs a npc faction... who goes at war with them anyway? it is not worth it.
-overly defensive AI who never attack you if you are too far away and always with just the amount of force he think it needs to beat you except of using it full available force.
throw a lone scout toward their borders and they will quickly gather evrything they have to defend their territory from it.
in conclusion it lacks something that keep you on your toes and push you forward into making the right decisions.
2/the AI lack of strategy.
-it does not think as an army but think as many individual units in its army.
while in battle you can easily bait them with a spell, they use their units psecial ability as soon as possible even on inadequate target, separate their forces with a lone unit somewhere else and deal with its stacks one by one because they will never regroup their forces.
unless you are vastly outnumbered or out modded (which happends only in early game when your army is still small) there is too many easy cheese you can do vs the AI.
-AI seems to lack common sense and declare war or refuse treaties when they are not in a postiion to do that. many times did they requested a peace treaty only when their capital was already surrounded and would fall the next turn which seems pointless.
in concusion an easy to manipulate AI which can makes fights and territory control dull.
3/ the lack of wonder. (ironic isn't it?)
-gold landmarks battle map are ugly and sometimes really unsatisfying to take over. kinda epicless.
-landmarks effect are often negligeable.
-most hero loot isn't interesting ("most". some of them are really cool but really random to get..). there is no late game super special artifacts for the hero you would want to strive for.
-no devastating late game spells you would dream of having.
-most neutral buidlings you can take for your empire are either just bought off from a neutral faction or auto battled with one beefy stack or tons of little stacks.
-neutral factions are just quest givers shops. the way you are upgrading your relationship with them feels very cold, repetitive and identical.
-anomalous sites, while an amazing addition, feels pointless and tedious to do(if only to costed only 1 turn instead of 3). (the hard ones are cool but you often never come to a point where you can find one as it requires you to do many little ones before and waste precious turns)
-maps are often big, empty and too randomly generated. even if i always play on random maps when in multiplayer i miss those amazing hand crafted maps from older games.
of course the lack of underground or any special area to explore contribute to this feeling.
in conculsion the lack of excitement into exploring new land and looking for new powerfull loot and powers.
4/the lack of consequences.
-the leader or a hero dies? you lost too many battle in a row? your territories is getting pillaged or taken over? you have good or bad reputation (spam compliments)?
this has no real consequences. unlike in AOW3.
-war with npc faction needs to be forced for it to happens. tho the AI sometimes manage to make war with all of them in the late game for some reason.
-no evil, neutral or righteous path to follow. no particular politic or ruling.
-revolts? never seen those.
-easy to compliment AI to keep them happy toward you.
in conculsion the lack of choices that matters and impact your empire.
game after that. However a small hope still lingers. It will be Paradox Insider 2021 on 13th of March. If we won't hear something then AoW PF is finished.
