No further patches for M2TW or Kingdoms (update: Kingdoms patch announced)

[alpaca]

Actually, the link between time being wasted on graphics and there being poor AI is unimportant. The people responsible for the eye-candy, e.g. artists and animators, are not the same as the code monkeys that are responsible for the AI.

Without being too condescending toward the graphics guys, I'd generally argue that it's easier to make competent graphics than it is to program effective AI. What I would like to see CA do, is bring strategy back to TW games. They've become a little too formulaic for my liking.

Not quite because the same codemonkeys who would create the AI will have to work on that new feature in the graphics engine that allows real bowstrings or whatever the artists come up with next. The problem is simple: SEGA/CA does not make gameplay a priority. It obviously ranks fairly low in the company's considerations for what their games should be nowadays. The same goes for quality of work and in general "finishing the job".

Note that this is not about the individual developers/employees who may or may not support their management's policy. Since I can't discern whether or not they do, this is merely a statement of my impression about the company's decision-making processes.