So... about the map.

I know that there are landscape-altering spells in the game. I have even seen some of them and had a chance to use a few myself.

Maybe there is a way (but if so it's TOO RARE) but it would be great if there was a way to push back the shadow lands around my cities. Is there a way to do that? I have played a couple of games in Beta 5 on the smaller maps where there were very few city locations to build on at all and most of them were tiny little islands of green surrounded by shadowlands. Of course, the shadowlands give no resources on city expansion which makes sense but really sucks the joy out of expanding when your new city is gimped from the start and there is nothing (apparently) that you can do about it.

Now one would think that the Restore Land spell is the ticket! The name of the spell sounds promising but... the description is kind of vague... Of course, it turns out that shadowlands do not count as "marginal land." In point of fact, I have yet to find a valid tile to cast that particular spell on; as far as I can tell it is a waste of mana and turns to research Restore Land at all. Is that spell borked or something? Are there tiles that are supposed to be considered marginal land that are currently not being recognized as such?

Anyway, it would be really cool if there was a way to push back the shadow lands (and those spiky viney things) as my cities grow or maybe as a spell or city enhancement spell or SOMETHING. If there is already a way to do that, please someone tell me how!

If there is already a way to do that it is 1) not obvious, 2) doesn't come up often enough (if it's a spell).

More generally, I don't know if certain spells get a weight in the RNG when it comes to what pops up to be researched but if so, the weighting seems a little off. For example, I get that summon skeleton spell every freaking time. I never cast that spell - the unit is super weak, even at the beginning of the game. I only research it to get it off the book and make room for the possibility that something more useful will become available.

TL;DR - The art in this game is beautiful and I love the idea of being the guy who is bringing life back to this land that has been ravaged by centuries of warfare and (lately) truckloads of evil. But it doesn't seem possible to actually DO that in-game and it definitely should be (and if it is possible, HOW?).

Other Frustrations:

1) Sir Kriston/Kirston/Whatever - why exactly does he exist? He is just about the most useless unit in the entire game that I have seen so far. Not to mention the fact that his HP is so low that the AI likes to target him a lot and he does not last very long in the game. He seems like some weird kind of half-champion and honestly, would be better replaced by a standard soldier or pikeman unit.

2) Scouts - I love scouts with auto-explore. But here's the thing - They are NOT picking up goodie chests and they ARE triggering quests if their movement ends with them landing on a quest location. Any chance of reversing those behaviors? Because it is SUPER annoying the way it is now.

3) Logistics Points - I totally get why they exist and I like the mechanic overall. But the balance is a bit off at the moment. We need one of a few things to happen: 1) We get a 2-3 more logistics points at the start of the game, 2) Structures that give logistics points need to grant a couple more each, 3) City building sites need to be more common than they are now, or 4) Some combination of the preceding fixes. We need to be limited by Logistics but not to the point of frustration. (Do units from Minor Factions use up Logistics points?)

4) Minor Factions - It's cool that they give units and champion-esque characters to play with but... what about the cities? It is nice to have vision around allied Minor cities but there is nothing that the player can do there (that I have found so far). What if the minor factions granted small empire-wide bonuses once you're allied with them? Maybe to mana generation or logistics... maybe one could provide a few additional metal or crystal...

Sorry for the wall of text but I really like this game want to help in the small ways that we non-math/non-coding guys can. Thanks to the devs for all your hard work.