i think i actually requested auto-upgrading studies a few hours earlier in the forums. that is actually uncanny. it just makes sense and rewards people for developing their cities. funnily, as the game develops we are actually getting closer to what i've been arguing for all along, only that instead of getting buildings that produce in proportion to population and are limited by city level, we're getting production by level and limits by population. i still slightly prefer my way, but this also works.

monster intelligence is all fine and dandy, but personally i've often found myself under attack by groups in the early game that i could not possibly have developed enough military to defeat. personally i don't think they should be attacking towns at all on easy difficulty and should be more of a barrier to expansion than a threat to survival.

let me also join my voice to those asking that a city become occupied by monsters (and thus retakeable) rather than being simply destroyed.

Can you really say the AI isn't better if it kills you around turn 150 ?  Thanks for the post Frogboy, looking forward to the upcoming changes.

This is the magic bullet for me.  If Frogboy can fix the city spamming, the game improves two fold for me.

Independents take over city, strongest or smartest unit upgrades to 'leader' & becomes minor faction named coinsidingly with the leader's type (gaining diplomacy abilities, possibly limited to one alliance (joins you but stays independant, with the ability to finance their agenda/purchase units from'em/hire'em ta attack foes or defend your lands, etc.)), what units took over said city can then be produced at said city.  This would allow for elves, dwarves, lizardmen, gnolls, bugbears, trolls, goblins, orcs, kobalds, fairies, gnomes, dopplegangers (which would be good for quests), (I could go on but there's d&d monster manuels that can give the full description).  to be implemented into the game more.

>>One thing from the pics bugs me though. Some of those cities look WAY too close together. In my mind we should have at least the distance of an entire blank screen between each city so they don't look so bunched up, close together, spammed. ---- maybe capitol cities have a greater minimum starting distance apart (I'd be ok with all cities having a greater min. distance apart to give more of an 'oasis feel' to them which might help with the city spamming as well (could possibly even have 2 or so starting minor factions per major faction on random maps to add flavor to a 'bornagain' world (lots of races that would be reuniting could be added this way, maybe have them only spread by taking cities or some such)))

>>This is a good idea, but one that should be expounded upon. Not only should small groups consolidate, but there should be a method that when they do, there is a possibility that they get a weapon/armor bonus update. In addition, since the group gets bigger, the loot from a successful battle should be increased as well. In fact, there should be 'Dark Heroes' that look for these bandit groups and take them over thus making it a priority for a given kingdom or empire to hunt down and eradicate groups that become too big.  In fact, allowing an event to be spawned when a bandit group gets big enough that allows a given kingdom/empire to place a bounty on the heads of the group could be fun as well. ---- yeah

 >>if I hadn’t gotten killed, I would have been able to wipe them out  ---- can't wait till this isn't a sure thing, me and some friends waiting for the ai to get 'chess master' ability (I got a twenty twen twen here for ya frog if it'll convince ya ta write code through the holidays)

Good idea.

Best regards,
Steven.

"It’s a lot better than it was but it has a long way to go too."

Okay, well... I'll check back again in another 3 months.  Sucks that I can't play a game I bought for like a year after I bought it...