Hrm, that's a disturbingly coherent and rational complaint. I feel.....fear....
My biggest problems with Stardock games has always been the complexity level of any said feature. Sure, they have this, and that, and this other thing...but each feature was only interesting in how it interacted with the strategic situation of the moment. Sure, at some point you might want to specialize a planet because at the time it makes sense, but when you're just building up power...? Every city is a clone of the next. Every tree is you just mowing down the requirements. Every battle is overkill.
The game should be as interesting, and fun, on easy as it is on hard, I guess is what I'm saying. If I get bored conquering the world or the universe on easy, having the AI breathing down my neck only makes stuff tactically interesting. The game takes longer only I have the benefit of losing, and there's no real reason to play again other than "Oh, wouldn't it be interesting if I have +50% production at start and -20% population growth....". To me that's not a deep system that will last me years. That's usually why I never play more than one easy game of many 4x games.
So I've been watching Elemental's city stuff closely, because that's always been where I have problems with 4x games. I'm not sure what I think on it yet, other than it seems like all cities can't turn into metropolises, which is a good thing, and are important for what resources they fall near. More important than in MoM anyways, since they're scarcer and are tied into the item and unit system.
I'm not happy about what I've seen of magic, at all, but I hope there is a huge battery of spells, that will at least make up for the completely bland and standard treatment they've given it. I'm underwhelmed by the demonstration of Magic in a game with MAGIC in the title, ffs. And I'm not really that thrilled with the idea of micro managing equipment on BOTH my main character, supporting heroes AND schlub military units. I can't decide if Elemental is trying to be a 4x game, or trying to be a turn-based hero game. The inventory and item management has just sounded and looked tedious to me from the beginning.
I can deal with not having 10k person battles. But I don't want to be bored, I don't want the same generic path to victory or experience of playing each time, and I don't want to be bogged down by tedious micromanagement and detail. We'll see. There's a lot I do like about the game though.
And seriously, one thing that annoys me more than anything is when game devs are so in love with their own IP, they start getting distracted by trying to write books and all that completely secondary stuff, while the game is in development. I know Random is helping them create actual content, but...for the love god...make the game first. Sell the game. Sell stuff to fans. If the game is flat and boring and generic, no one is gonna read the fiction. And I want to know that people trying to sell me a great game spent all their time making it, and not trying to get a book deal going. Anyone remember Vanguard? Same thing happened there. They were convinced they had an amazing setting that would wow everyone...and no one bought into it at all.