Honestly I think what they've done has worked fine. They just had two issues imo
a) they have overdeveloped the side character paths, likely because they want broad appeal and each fulfills a niche. Imo most of them have enough story to go into the second act, particularly some like the elf secretary, the goblin milf, the Andras NTR path or the drow boytoy.
b) they just messed up the gameplay element.
The skill system is overcomplicated for no payoff (I've said what I'd done to still keep it, have Rowan choose to have a major specialization and a minor one in Combat/Social interactions/Exploration that would give you replayability. No leveling. You pretty much autowin events that you are specialized in and have a great chance at the one you have a minor with).
The random elements have no payoff. They are limiting when it comes to ruler events, possibly leapfrogging over events you'd want to see if you advance non-random events too fast. They also keep you from seeing the events you WANT to see by not letting you focus enough on the character paths you are pursueing. Similarly the map random events have minimal payoff. Imo you could merge the map hexes and reduce the size of the map by a significant margin and it would still work. And fewer places should be random.
Another issue that imo is more minor; the timeline. You are fucking around for a year and a half until someone realizes you have infilitrated and taken down a major keep, taken control of the entire countryside and recruited a substantial army. I get Rastedel is dysfunctional but no one else has spies in the area? You need all the extra time ofc because a) the map has too many events, b) you get only one random event at the castle at a time.
My solution to that would be to take about two thirds of the ruler events and just attach them to the castle map as events you can activate. Then have everything happen in less than a year. Raeve should fall by week 10. Rastedel should fall by week 40-50.
Base building imo actually works, it is the one choice I enjoy making each week. Though the fact that you have 70+ weeks means that by Astarte battle, your choices don't really matter since you can have everything important unlocked.
