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One of the things which plagues RTS games is that there are abilites that enter the game and sound cool, but are generally not used because there are better options. BFME2 is actually full of such pitiful things. Hour of the Witch King, Gondor Archers, Wormtongue, Walls, all are examples of things that are rarely used options due to their excessive price tags or the fact that there are better things to spend your money on (or they just plain SUCK). As such, I reccommend to anyone who is thinking about abilities, units, and other game features makes sure that every one has a good reason to be used. Whenever you have a faction idea that you think would be very interesting or would add spice, make sure to think through what it's purpose is and what it's competition is. If it is competing with something much more useful (Wormtongue Vs. Lurtz... Gee, that's tough, slow guy with knife who is hard to level up and has usually useless abilites, or big strong Uruk who is flexible in his abilites and has lots of "bang for buck"... tough choice indeed), it won't be used by decent players, and will quickly be forgotten in the landscape of the RTS.

These things can be corrected, even at the latest stages of development (or even post-development).  It just gets more and more difficult as time goes on.  I don't think there's a problem with seldom-used material that has specific purposes; the problem is when you get something like "Gondor Archer" which is never used at all because "Ithilien Ranger" is so MASSIVELY superior that the cost difference is laughable.  Of course, these units had balance issues anyways.

I agree with you, most of these things can be fixed (Patch 1.05), but it IS better to catch them sooner than later.

we're not EA, we don't have long extensive quality checks. we can produce a patch in a day

i do think that this game will need to have some good documentation for modders, so they can easily find out which stuff is where, what naming conventions we used, etc. that may help us in patching, because the players will be able to make and try changes themselves.

True, but there is no point in trying to make a patch so a superfillous unit can be given purpose.

yes, but what i'm saying is that it's not as important for us as it was for EA (but still important)

Of course, and no doubt right you are.