Countdown: 9 days to release

You spoil me with your daily videos. 

That is really appreciated. Thank you!

The biggest things that I read that made me worry about release have mostly been handled in these last 2 vids. This exceeds the expectations of my best case scenario. I plan on buying when the next beta is released (tomorrow) to help final playtesting and to... play. 

Fantastic!

Archers in the back row - the best thing since sliced bread!

I'm liking the vids. I know when a champion falls in battle (even when you win) they get an injury. But it doesn't cost any mana when the sovereign falls in battle and you win... I think it should cost maybe 1 / 2 of what it usual costs when you lose. Or does it already?

Archers in back!  Glory!

Love it.  I really, really want this game to succeed. If it takes off, this will be the greatest engine for fantasy mods... At home we still play Age of Wonder scenarios, and it's about time something else came along.

So i guess thats still a "No" for more any more focus on oceans/bodies of water?

It's a "Not Yet."

Great news!

Glad to hear that about archers.  Also noticed in the last release or two that Air Elementals were now using spells more intelligently, and not always resorting to Titan's Breath when a relatively powerful unit was attacking them at melee.

Why archers don't retreat each round? Imho constant retreat is more optimal than standing for archers.

Excellent. You guys are really putting in some serious polish close to release. Loving it!

Archers in the back. Great!

oh alright. A couple monthes ago I decided to just wait until the game is released to really start diving into it, so you can imagine how excited I am!

Thanks for the daily updates.  Looking forward to the final beta tomorrow, and will FINALLY try to take off for this game - Oct 23, here I come!

This is a great improvement! Should make battles more interesting/tactical.

Next step- manual placement of units prior to the start of battle.

I hate to post a negative comment on a game that's definitely made a lot of progress, but its still lacking a few things to make it the best 4x fantasy strategy game.

First I cant harp enough about magic. There really needs to be more added to the magic system to make this game a worthy successor to MOM. For one it needs global spells and a way to counter them. Next we need regional spells that take effect in your zone of control, and there needs to be a way to protect your cities from debuffs... and btw what ever happened to the npc's casting spells on your cities?

Next the game needs more summons. i.e. Angels for Life mages since Death has access to Demons, and where are all the undead? and what about late game summons such as being able to summon a dragon.

Second the AI. There has been a lot of improvements with the AI after all this time, but I have yet to see a sovereign cast a spell on the strategic map as of this latest build. Whatever happened to enemies cursing your cities or casting earthquake on my cities, and why doesn't the enemy cast pillar of flame on my armies etc...

Third the UI leaves much to be desired and here are some suggestions:

1. Why isn't there a spell hot-key bar on the strategic map? Seriously its a pain to have to constantly open up the spell book to cast the same spells over and over.

2. Next when I try buffing a whole stack of NPC's, why cant I press shift or control to buff several npc's at once instead of having to cast the same buff over and over again.

3. Lastly in combat there needs to be other ways to move your field of view than just click and drag. There has been a few times where I have tried to cast a spell from my leader and I cant click on an npc in the far corner because the arrow keys wont work, and often with click and drag you accidentally end up casting the spell on the wrong npc or on an empty space.

Lastly it would be nice with the next build if we get the modding tools enabled, so that the community can start playing with these.

I see the AI casting spells all the time on the strategic map. Unit buffs, city buffs, summoning.

But you say best 4X fantasy strategy game, I am curious as to what is the best 4X fantasy strategy game you would recommend to someone to play if not Fallen Enchantress?

I actually don't want manual placement of units. It would make every tactical battle take a long time. I want tactical battles to be short not like a Total War game. I suppose if it were optional maybe but I'd rather see developers spend time on something else.

From the OP:

Also, the AI has gotten a lot better at tactical spells

Seems like you'd at least leave this one off your list in a thread about how this has supposedly been addressed for tomorrow's build.

But I agree with you about global/regional spells.

I am in agreement with Kobracan on this point.  I really don't want the time-consuming micro-management of manual unit placement in each and every battle.  I recognize that I may fall into a minority position here, in comparison with the majority of the Beta-testers, who are naturally, generally, hard-core players. 

However, my preference may well be in-line with the majority of new players, who you are hoping to sell this game to, after commercial release.  I really don't need FE to be a  deep  tactical warfare game.  And a majority of future customers may feel the same. 

I think you have achieved a good compromise -- given the improvements shown here.  I could even argue, that occasionally less-than-perfect unit placement is sometimes more realistic.  In the real world of primitive or medieval combat, how many commanders always had all of their units show up (in time) in exactly the perfect place?  That conceit is more suited to an artificial board game, than to the real world ... full of its bumps, and hazards, and errors, and mis-communications, and (random) luck ... 

I agree, the game should be about adventure and exploring.

I actually think the unit customization option is a bad one because of this.

I don't really want to spend a lot of time making the perfect unit every time I discover a new resource or unlock a new tech.

I do like everything else though.

Mike.