Distributing XP evenly isn't really a change, it's just less of the same.  See this post as a fairly simple alternative.

One interesting idea - to help balance out the difference between character/heroes and units - would be to have two types of characters: Generals and Heroes.  Heroes would have a limited number of train-enhancements and in focused areas, whereas Generals might have a different (higher?) limit with entirely different traits available.  

You would then impose a stack limit of no more than one of each type in a stack, meaning players would be forced to diversify armies with a balance of a General, Hero and a group of basic and advanced units.  This might help to balance the game, prevent or limit the super-stacks of character-only armies, and encourage a more 'realistic' type of unit/character mix.  It may open up utilization of characters as 'governors' in cities, developing traits that will strengthen the economy or other aspects of the city, instead of the combat-centric focus that is so common now.

- edit - 

As a follow-up, there should be a system incorporated into the game allowing the player to cultivate and develop or recruit new characters, to prevent a character lock-out from happening.  Granted, they might have only low-level characters to work with, but at least they have someone to lead the grunts if all of their characters die in action.

From playing on hard quite a bit, I have the feeling the factions AI is a lot less threatening than the monsters, in that I can usually just ignore them and concentrate on killing monsters and earning xp for my sovereign and heroes because I know they pose no threat (unless I went to far in the map to protect my realm), and then steamroll them.

I also noticed the lack of bows and skills that matter for heroes/sovereigns that choose that weapon. And it's not clear for me which stat would be more rewarding to increase to make them do more damage. Is it dex, str? For skill tech choices, is it path of the assassin? warrior? Most of the skills you get after seem to be more appropriate for a melee character than a ranged one. I tried pure mage and pure warrior sovereigns (I love playing "heroes" kind of games, and make them really powerful), and they both work really well. Mage's damage and cost of spells escalate really well, especially in large maps where you get access to several shards. And warriors get the same through skills and gear. For archers, I just don't know...

One last thing: I still could't finish a game. At some point, I just can't load my saves anymore (none of them). Maybe it's related to some quest bug, I don't know.

P.S.: I didn't know where to post feedback, so I did it here. Hopefully it's not misplaced as it may get read and be of some help.

I think champions should have an increased chance of dieing after 2 injuries; or if people dont liek that you could make it an option as I personally dont want immortal champions that come back to life over and over. I personally think this would be really good giving you a chance to make a couple of mistakes and still have your champion.

Anyway I just hope you at least include champion death as an option thanks .

Yay I want .78 now

on a side note Steam is having a sale on Skyrim so I think I might finally buy a copy which should keep me busy until .78 is released

You need to post any problems with game function in the FE Support subforum. The Developer Journals are where the devs tell the testers about upcoming changes. 

I am on this bandwagon. When I think magic fantasy, I think of a game that can cover all bases - what about Cannons? Magic inspired siege weapons? What about caravans with alternative transportation or protection methods? City walls made of crystal? City walls formed of magic (Dalaran from WoW)? Magitech, anyone? This of course brings me back to summoning idea too. If you could build, say, a portal to the underworld that generated 1 skeletal horse......

Most of this is nuts, of course. I do feel the tech tree is really mundane. If a game based on the history of the world, Civilization, can have a more interesting SINGLE tech tree than a game built in a world made by imagination that has 3 tech trees (which is an awesome idea imo), I really feel the trees need to be more exciting.

Another great game with awesome tech trees? Galactic Civilizations 2: Twilight of the Arnor.

At risk of repeating what others have said, all champs being able to case makes the no-magic-on-autoresolve option even more important.

Am unenthusiastic about spreading xp points.  I like having high-level heroes, and I thought good balance could be achieved by other means like making the higher levels take more XP points to reach them.  And I think spreading xp is unrealistic (not that unrealism is a fatal flaw in a fantasy game).  You can gain experience by being present in a combat and playing even a small part.  With more units in the army, the total amount of xp gained ought to be higher.

My only problem with this is; what do you do with a battered old champion?  just let him hang around uselessly?  since they can't die then there needs to be something that will restore a champion, like a quest or some sort of expensive spell.  just having a gimped character hanging around is not good in my opinion.

You know that after you imbuing a champion has no maintanence cost it was a one time deal

*single manly tear* this game has so much going for it its quickly becoming my favorite TBS (over might and magic and AOW) welldone guys welldone

Or maybe just have a slight chance of fixing a random disease for each turn he sits around in a city.  Or maybe for each turn he spends sitting stacked with a healer.

Maybe old Champions could be "attached" to cities, having the following effects

-he becomes part of the city's militia

-he provides an XP or stats boost to units trained in the city.

Or add a "retire" option. When a hero retire you can chose what he will be doing now : training new champions in the attached city (+1xp per turn for garrisoned champ), forging weapons, reducing training time, working for a better understanding between nations, etc.

I have to say I LOVE the idea of Veteran champions being used as magistrates in cities, lending their wisdom (faster construction, better resource use), or as ambassadors (more influence) or as arms masters (better troops) or as treasurers (more gold) I actually don't think that a great champion who can no longer be a tank is a useless game element - on the contrary, these kinds of elements lend character and generate a great feeling about the game.

In fact, let me throw out another idea - when great champions finally die (if they end up doing so) we should be able to construct Mausoleums bearing their names in the city of our choice, which would be unique buildings and improve morale, influence or population uptake for that city !!!

I am also WILD about the fact that magical item crafting has been included - I loved that feature in MOM, and it is a great RPG element when your champion or hero wields the magical sword that you created for him... I hope the crafting techs can be used to make great and wondrous items (at an appropriate cost of course) - and PLEASE let us choose the name and / or the appearance of the items we craft !!!

Finally, I would like to echo the desire for even more variety of mundane weapons and / or armor choices for the early game. I realize it's a graphical drain and perhaps a poor use of your graphics artists, but the ability to generate more varied troops (different armor, different weapons) even in the beginning would be very nice! Of course, being greedy, I would expect the variety and quality of available items to improve even more as higher levels and more techs were reached (you can never win with us gamers :))

Anyway, keep up the great job - I am actually daydreaming about this game, which may end up being a great and worthy successor to MoM, and all of us appreciate your responsiveness and efforts to make it as good as possible.

In addition to my earlier comments, I have to say that removing Imbuement also feels wrong. It was one of the original ideas that ADDED to the flavour while giving an additional layer of choice to the player. The accessibility problem could have been solved with a big red line "Unit cannot cast spells unless imbued!". But yes, they also had to give a fighting chance to enemy heroes standing there in the open. Which in turn descends from the ill-conceived idea to have heroes standing there in the first place, either waiting to be slaughter or "unlocked". 

Similarly, speeding up research isn't really a fix to the blandness of the tech tree, it'll just allow everyone to learn every tech, every game. 

It happens in my job as well: unless you're willing to fix the mistake you did at the very start of the chain, it'll haunt you till the end and taint the final results as well.

Post not relevant any more.

This whole issue with champions not being able to cast spells is pretty silly. Let's assume for a moment that 'mage' champions have lost the ability to cast spells of any kind. How (and why) in the hell did they train themselves to use something that no longer exists? The cataclysm happened a few hundred years ago, not last week. Secondly, assuming that they did somehow magically obtain the knowledge of spellcasting, why do they -charge- you to hire them, when without you they would be as useless as a sack of rats?

If some dude was like: Join my army and you can cast fireballs and/or level mountains, I would get down on my knees and suck his **** for the opportunity.

Now lets assume that soveriegns are the only people that can 'tap into crystals' is the driving point behind the lore. That is to say, normal people can still cast spells but lack the mana reserves and the appropriate shards to cast world changing magic, therefore we still have a reason for the soveriegns. So there can be champions that have set up a base (with some protectors) using their 'minor' magical skills to awe or placate their followers.

The alternative is to start NO champions with magical skills, as learning such a thing would be ludicrous in a world supposedly devoid of magic. Then on top of that.. why in the hell are there ogre shamans that can cast spells, and why do dragons exist? Aren't they 'magical' creatures?

Where does the soveriegn even STORE mana? Is it in his trusty treasure box in the treasury room of his non-existant castle?

Seriously.. there are some times where you have to take the functions of a video game with a grain of salt - this is one of them.

I agree.  I was getting a bit carried away with black-and-white interpretations of the lore. ;-)  What has been said since my comments regarding imbuing has made a lot of sense.

Back in the mists of time, when I saw the first glimpses of Elemental, I was very excited.  It reminded me of the classic wargame 'Lords of Midnight', where your heroes would set off into a vast white world, to save the land from conquest.  It was the scape of that game, and the constant sense of danger and mystery that kept you playing, just one more turn...  Could I recruit the legendary hero Utag of Utag in his citadel in the south-western wilds, before the enemy sundered those lands..? 

Well, fast forward 25 years..  Technology has changed quite a bit (although apparently we still can't have red shirts and white leggings on the same character), but has gameplay advanced?  I'm afraid and sad to say, on the basis of Elemental, in both its guises, no.  I was greatly encouraged when Kael took the helm, hoping for imagination, inventiveness, a confident approach and some unexpected treasures - but these have yet to surface.  I don't think that E:WoM ever quite recovered from that crisis of confidence from day 1 of the premature release.  Now, FE tries to distance itself from that magnificent white elephant - but it's very hard to run from something who's shadow is so long.. 

There seems to be no clear roadmap for FE - no clear identity that shouts, 'I am Fallen Enchantress, tremble oh mortals before me!'  The distinct character that we were promised has not materialised.  When you load the game, you are not immersed into its world, its myths and folklore, its perils and whispered promises.  What it certainly still is, is WoM with a new wardrobe, but the same identity crisis.

I mean - to make sudden decisions, U-turns, back-pedals with such huge things as imbuing champions, feels like a drowning man (or woman, Elf, etc..) clutching at straws.  The things that worked in WoM (like Dynasties) have been abandoned, despite huge popular outcry to bring them back.  At least in WoM, you could build a port, build a ship and travel the world - get off your own island and see what lies beyond.  Until ships are reintroduced (in whatever basic form), I cannot play this game with any kind of enthusiasm. 

The Stardock team, I think, has really got to make some fundamental decisions about exactly where this game is going.  Someone needs to take firm control, as Kael did in Fall from Heaven.  There needs to be a spark or two of real inventiveness and left-field thinking - from somewhere.  It can happen.  Please, let it be so...

A short while before I became aware of E:WoM, I was running my own net-based wargame called 'Elemental Wars'.  In each hex of the map, there was a small chance that you would discover a rare resource, that could be of great benefit to your Empire/Kingdom.   Maybe it was a phoenix colony in the shadow of a volcano - that could provide you with phoenix feathers - with a bit of arcane research and applied military science, you could create a lightly encumbered unit with phoenix boots, that could fly for brief distances - the perfect scouts/adventurers.  Or you might find a village of ancient tribesmen, you could teach you new technologies, crafts, battle skills, spells..  A crop of glowing buckwheat, that made magical draughts of ale to inspire your city or give whoever quaffed it strange dreams and visions of the future..  Prospectors would scour the land for new mineral resources, which could revolutionise armies and send the gathering foe fleeing from your lands.  Please, don't homogenise things, don't make Sovereigns more archetypal, as you say you are doing.  What we don't need right now is archetypes and cliches.  What we need is inspiration!!

Good points!  I think FE can be still quite a good game, but it does lack that "spark", like Heroes of Might and Magic II or MOM have.

Thanks :)  And yes, absolutely.

The game world needs far more connection with the gameplay - including the oceans.  More than just a hunt for the tiles with the best food/materials, to build a city.  As the name Elemental suggests, all elements should be crucial to success - be they forests, water, stone, metal - or rare and magical.  We must feel a part of the world in which we are playing - we must feel that everything on the map matters - and we must feel that the land is alive, and a part of our unfolding story within the game.