That's very neat, although the upshot seems to be no custom factions/races in the multiplayer.

Even if allowed, I don't think you could balanace it (and some people would ask that the point-buy system be removed so they can buy whatever they want.) unless you've got special plans that way.

I'll miss the abillity to design your faction pregame and test it out against others on a competitive level. Still, mods will give me plenty of chance to experiment with races/factions.

A command post should be used to train higher quality units (as in veteren, elite, etc.).

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ Aizune- I like that idea, I've always been for the forts-like-starbases idea.

I am glad to here all of these improvements Frogboy.  I especially like the new way to claim resources, it is very logical and now that I think about it I should have suggested it myself!

I have a small cosmetical suggestion: when these resources are built maybe have a small dirt path leading to the nearest road or city and have small people or wagons carrying resources traveling, it would increase the immersion.

I am totally stoked about this game!  Perfecting the MOM model (with Stardock's signature of course!) with 15+ years of computer advances makes me drool.  Even reading all these posts and journals is exciting, though I am no beta tester.  This is shaping up to be a dream game come true that will be so goood it adversly affects my health that I stay up all night for weeks on end with long, large map games, while blissfully forgetting to eat and drink!

Questions.....

Would it be possible or practical to win the game with only a few cities (1-4)?

Regarding the Acquiring Resources changes....how big is the area of influence around a city?  Could it be enhanced via spells?

I like the idea of keeping shard based spells to only the most powerful ones.

I also like the idea of more slowly developing the amount and level of spells to slow down the pace and make new spells a more rewarding process. 

Regarding magic items...I hope you can still get lucky in early and mid-game and find some really cool and relatively powerful items in a goodie-hut or as rewards after battles. 

My preference is to build elite armies with relatively few units and heroes, and keep my number of cities down so I can focus less on civil management and more on conquest and exploration with my primary army, with a reserve army or two staying close to my cities to intercept any invasion armies.  I assume fighting within a city provides a considerable defensive bonus, esp with stone walls....

Thanks for everything, and I am counting the days until I can devour the manual, create my first sovereign, find the best location for my capitol city, and make a beeline across a map as I explore my very first game.

"Acquiring resources. Similarly, forcing a player to snake out to build a resource (OR be forced to spam cities) in order to make use of various resources IS NOT FUN. Instead, players will be able to simply select a resource and choose build if the resource is in their territory.  This not only “gets things moving” but also makes your area of influence matter more (since bigger cities generate a LOT more of it). "

Thank you, it never made sense to me why i couldn't build on a resource that was within my area of influence, but farther then 2 squares away from a city, that is awesome!!  Custom faction and the Tactical battles I look forward too, sounds really cool.

And on my above post, being able to steal a resource due to influence (or have one stolen) can add some extra strategy/excuse for warmongering as well

Yeah, I agree that the special units so far haven't been very exciting.  I kind of gave up on playing the empire nations as they don't seem very fleshed out so I haven't tried many of them though.  Just seems a waste to me to have to build a special building to build a unit that is just marginally better than what I could build before.  If I am going to spend all the time and resources it had better be something special.  If I could build a fire-breathing drake or something, ok but a peasant with +5hp, no thanks.  Beyond that I don't really like the concept.  I know you are trying to make the empire feel different but I think there are better options such as what the original poster suggested.  Taking away customization on some units isn't a good route in my opinion unless they are something really unique.

On a more general note, yes, we need more warning pop-ups. (I love the new pop-up when your city levels up and you can choose a special bonus )

An exemple of this need is the 'abduction cases'!! It happens sometimes when you send a unit (pioneer, champion) on a several turn journey, then concentrate on other units during 3,4 turns and you're suddenly aware that the unit you sent has disappeared!

A troll or something probably killed it in the wild but the game didn't tell you. Not only it should tell you but there should be the combat window. Some bug perhaps.

How has the fixing of bugs been going I sent 40 links? -Jeremy Sr.