1. from the day the xpack comes out, for about a week, massive numbers of people will be on, doing both rated and nonrated:
every1 will want to try out the new civs, prudunce would suggest non-rated play, but I suspect that most people will throw caution to the winds and do rated with not a thought to their hard-earned ratings. depending upon how much smurfing has been fixed, this will be a great tme to do rated :-P :P :P :P
2. zeus will become the next set:
zeus is powerful as it is, but it is already known that he has been strengthened in the xpak, plus with the edition of the titans, he will becom the next almighty unstopable one.
3. the fm-titan will become the next favorite strategy:
most civs can fm, however, ra, zeus, and loki will be the ones to watch out for. ra was soooooo devastated by patch 1.03, that people will fm with him just so that they can get to a half-decent unit :-| 4. isis will becme unstopable (and most popular) in team games: the ancestors/eclipse combo is powerful as it is, but as more people are drawn to isis, multiple ancestors, then eclipse will devastate opponents. also, this leaves one (at least) player free to go anubis, which is the better choice anyways. 5. set will be so much weakened he will fall below even ra in usage: people have been complaining about set for a long time now, however, ES is listening, and they say, if thats what you want, thats what you get. he WAS a problem, but only because they took away heroes' bonus vs animals. 6. fh will become popular again: the addition of free mu's (which are also improved) will give players a fair ammount of defence, esp. if they build towers as well. in addition, atlanteans will be especially dagnerous with this strategy, as their god powers may be used multiple times. can you even IMAGINE multiple undermines/curses/other gr8 gps??!! I can and it ain't pretty. 7. oranos will be overpowered, but it won't surface until zeus is nerfed: oranos' sky portals will be deadly, simply because there isn't a flash when one is built. his starting tc los will enable him to snatch enemy tc's and forward build by them, howver the catch is that his villies won't have to cross the map, wasting seconds, and on some maps getting eaten :-P additional predictions: 8. smurfing will decrease for a time, until every1 figures out how to get around the system 9. expect ES to announce either their latest game, or (more likely) the next xpak for aom within 2 months, after every1 at ES has had a nice loooooooong vaction :-) 10. map creators will hurry and create their own forgotten city maps. at least, until they hear that it will be coming out with the next xpack :-) btw, speaking of the title, has anyone here ever seen escaflowne? its not on anymore and I just found out about it :-( thoughts? commments? Proud Leader of the Order of Champions - OoC_Wolf
and there you have it, my 10 predictions for the titans xpack.
"Fanatics find their heaven in never-ending storming wind
Auguries of Destruction be a lullaby for Rebirth"