Thanks much for the replies folks.   I'm looking forward to this game and being a part of its community. 

Well, Winty had to ask...... I agree that we probably would never model pregnancy, but it's also a matter of explaining why we won't.

If we see pregnancy (not in a mod) I would be really surprised. Conditions that affect population growth (be whatever they are) would be normal.

I had?

Are you not a native English speaker? I'm not entirely sure if that ideom carries over into all other languages...... either that or you're just sarcasm-impaired.

Modding in pregnancy?! Now I've read it all....

No you havent. No one talked about the birth defected mutant babies and the bonuses the one in one hundred would get to lead your army.

About modding pregnancy... haven't you tought of that epic unit squad of unborn wizards that cast rains of fireballs from inside the womb of their mothers?

I can't imagine pregnancy being a fun variable for regular unit combat mechanics, but it seems like a potentially interesting factor for some Life magic, especially for a channeler with a Life focus (if we'll be able to focus on an element). After all, the Lore scraps so far indicate that the Fallen had to come from somewhere sort-biological.

I relate pregnancy to population growth (ergo in the cities where civilians are and such worries matter) but as Scoutdog had to relate it to the army...

I doubt very much there will be any impact of gender/sex in the game. Surely it will be just men or if women are posssible, it'll be just a cosmetic thing. Still, considering that citizens are resources too, in theory I could draft the whole population of a town and discover that all were men!!!

Also, if to use women in the army would have some negative impact in the population growth while adding no benefits to the army (becuase they are made equal), it would have no sense to make them join the army. In an enviroment where numbers matters* and they cannot have an edge (or forced situation) that justifies adding them to an army, they are better at their homes for the safety of that precious resource that is being able to give birth. But if women were more adept at magic, for example, it would make sense to use them whenever you want to make a unit/squad that uses magic.

* as in kingdoms were considered more powerfull the more citizens they had as, between other things, it allowed for a bigger army.

I'm really anxious for this FAQ to come out. I realize everyone is very busy prepping for alpha within a fortnight (!) but having some juicy info to mull over in the meantime would help the time pass.

Sorry to pester, please carry on.

I know what you mean. I haven't seen any threads that have sparked my interest in a while. I require fresh data for analysis.

While I have certqainly appreciated the tidbits since then, the last thread that really grabbed me was the internal debates made external. I really hope in the upcoming FAQ they give us some clue as to which direction they decided to go or at least which way they are leaning. Or maybe the alpha will be complete enough to make it clear.

Maybe the next FAQ is scheduled to ship at the same time than the alpha (hopefully some time before it). As some kind of intro.

How much support will you give in providing tools to help in some of the rather rudimentary and basic levels of modding?

For example, in Civ4, even adding/changing Civs required going into text editors and a lot of cross checking of files to make sure it would work. Will Elemental help make it as easy as possible?