During the latest stream it was stated that the plan is now to get rid of the defensive line and just stick with the attack line of the outpost.

Could it be an idea to replace the defensive line with one general upgrade and a specific sovereign upgrade. The outpost would then have 3 attack and 2 other upgrades. The general upgrade could be determine at the start of the game. 

General upgrades could include:

- +1 ZOC

- Better attack

- Better defense

- reduced movement for enemies

- more movements

- More resources, +1 mining, +1 wheat etc.

Sovereign upgrade:

Wizard, Beacon of Magic, +1 essence

Tyrant, Beacon of Power, greater dark tiles conversion (the tile he needs)

Tinker, Beacon of Harvest, occassionally (seldom/rare/not so often) goodie huts working the same way as the skill. However this one is more rare

Priest, Beacon of Light providing better protection of shards e.g. darklings and urxen cannot damage shards, only armies with combat rating of at least 25 can damage shards

Warlord, Beacon of morale, movement (in addition to general), initiative (reflecting a morale boost)

Guardian, Beacon of Nature, healing the land e.g. giving more fertile land, converting from dark/swamp/desert tile to grassland/fertile tile

I know that Scott shot the idea of other upgrades in the stream, but you can always hope.

edit: changed the guardian upgrade.

Can you combine outposts? If you build say 4 outpost, can you then combine them with a 5th outpost to build a really shiny outposts blinding all creatures with a dark heart? (damaging units with 20 damage in a large radius around the 5 outposts). And the graphic could look really cool, something like rays of light going from the 4 outposts to the 5th outpost, and light going from the 5th outposts outward to the area of effect. So. Cool.

So expansions of other minor races being the playable faction, then? PLEASE LET US PLAY AS SWAMP GIANTS