I wonder if the crits don't maybe belong on each weapon type (blunt, cutting, piercing.) Like +crit along with apprentice swordsman upgrade. That maybe making it a bit to complicated but it would help bring some specialization and heroes wouldn't be able to go from doing massive crits with a sword to massive crits with a mace.

Then also keep magic crits as their own separate crit as well.

Agreed. 5 mana is WAY too low.

At 50 mana, it felt like a pretty good balance as it usually costed 200-400 mana to adjust a section of terrain to your liking. Means that those who are not magically inclined, will be less inclined to change terrain. Gives added benefit to factions like Resolin and Pariden.

At 5 mana, it'll be the same game everytime. Lower land, islanding yourself and then go for the reseach win. BORING.

I understand, though unfortunate as it is, that spells and ranged attacks are kinda the same thing, which makes assassins' crit damage apply to spells. A shame as I agree that crit should NOT apply to spells. Perhaps there is a way to have  crit only apply to melee weapons? I know that reduces the assassin's ability...but mages should be getting their power from the raw magics.

In addition, has the abilities problem been fixed? When a character gains an ability, for example "Crushing Blow", that ability is attached to the character as if it were an enchantment. This means, unfortunately, that NO ONE else with that ability can attack another hero with that ability because "that hero already has that spell cast on him". I think this one can be a game stopper...cause there are many abilities to be had...

Apparently they made these spells level 1 (Earth Adept) for a reason.

I would prefer they made these spells level 3 and keep the 50 mana cost, but that is not their design goal I guess.

Derek - I like to play games on large maps that take a long time to develop.  Right now I can play as a custom magic based Sov, and with a few trusted champions (with melee and healing skills), pretty much take on anything the game throws at me.

Please remember that this game is really about Magic.  I don't have any problem with people being able to play without a true Magic user, but at the end of the day if we can't use magic to rule the world you're not being true to the reason this game exists.

Why not apply partial resistance to spells that deal damage as damage reduction?

That way spells like haste have a chance to be resisted by resistance. While spells like firedart compare the caster's magic skill and the victims resistance and based on the difference reduce/increase damage.

That way it will deal reasonable damage to same level enemies, low damage to stronger enemies, and one shot weaker enemies.

With the change to the max accessories from 3 to 4, was the Global event that modifies that setting also changed? Does it now go 4 to 5? Was the text updated?

I loved it when I got that event, although it mentions something about technology which sounded kind of ridiculous (better technology means I could wear an additional ring? Give me a break!) How about we change it to be fashion-related (I think it was Heavenfall's idea). 

If the text hasn't been updated from 4 to 5 - when you fix that can you guys change it to be about fashion instead of technology? It would be way cooler. And not just because I work in fashion.

Or it could be a tongue in cheek thing where we claim it is technology, but we all know the whole concept is a little illogical. One way to make the limit more logical is to tie the number of items to the unit's innate magical affinity, but then it would open up questions about why even high affinity units are limited by the same restrictions of low affinity units. Sometimes good game concepts just don't have a logical basis. Better to acknowledge it and give the game some humor. 

I've been saying that about essence since 0.951. No change yet.

I like the level of magic we have. Path of the Mage needs some work, but the overall flavor and variety of magic is just right. Of course, it's pretty clear that the focus of the game is on starting off mundane and working your way to a magical fairyland. I would bet that a MoM mod would satisfy those who want the primary aspect of the game to be magical. I plan to play both.

I suspect they did this because there are times when people start in non-ideal locations and need to bridge themselves out of the bad spot. I was thinking maybe 10 mana would be sufficient for the purpose. Because you don't want people to game the map either like GFireflyE says:

Another benifit to this is that the AI is having sight difficulties. If one could add a building a tower of some kind that grants an eagle eye spell or something that allows them to cast on the map to search for goodies for the low low cost of 5 mana reveal a section of the fog of war for a turn. But this spell addition is probably for an expansion. Even a quest to a ruins of a white tower granting this spell as the reward. Something to help the AI find things and help the player out by examining the path they intend to take around the world.

Been playing the betas lately and really enjoying how the game is shaping up.

With the path of the Mage,  could you have it so that only Mages have access to the level 4 or 5 spells, while the other paths lead to a cap at say level 3 or 4?

This has probably been mentioned before, but with so much discussion happening, it's easy to miss things.

Also, is the Create Faction screen going to get some love?

Some tool-tips on what strength/weakness a race gives when cycling through them would be helpful.

What does selecting ideology do? Is it just that you have more favorable relations with other races of the same ideology?

This info on a tool-tip would also be good.

It sounds like the workshop has an advanced faction creator like the one in WoM.

Ah, so the current faction creation is only temporary, and ultimately faction creation is part of the workshop?

I bet we will have the basic one left where it is and the more advanced one in the workshop, but who knows?

Just fired up the EoM faction editor, and it's basically the same as the FE one, even down to the missing info regarding races!

Now that city defense is more meaningful, let's make sure city defenders are spawning for each battle. For some reason they only spawn once per turn.

That, and having a spell like Eagle Eye would make scouts even MORE useless than they already are...

I don't think there is anything inherantly wrong with defenders respawning only once/turn. Defenders are only meant to fend off smaller monsters and skirmishers. If you have several attacking your city in the same turn, then maybe you do need a troop or two stationed in that city too.

I have 6 defenders in a city. The enemy sends a single wilding to attack it and loses horribly. Then the enemy sends in a single militia and takes the city. You think that is a good balance? There is no reason to have defenders only work once per season. It's a bug and needs to be fixed. Currently I have to teleport multiple stacks of armies away to make sure they don't cheat. I also have to wait a turn before attacking again. It's a real hassle.

I disagree with scouts being useless.  And no not talking about master scouts either.  It's a pretty darn cheap unit at the beginning of the game.  really low wages and can reveal the map.  They can get creamed by armies and big bad lair monsters.  The Idiocy of the monsters I can't help.  Darklings love to clobber them while last game I was able to waltz past a death demon and his army.  Death Demon.  You heard me right.  WTF indeed.  So between my Sov going one way, 2nd champ going another, and scout going a 3rd way - I had 60 to 70% of a medium uncovered by turn 50.

I also disagree with GFireFly again on the militia types defending only 1/turn.  Agree with Seanw3's point there. As long as they weren't killed off, they should show up for any subsequent attacks. 

Ah, I misunderstood.

My bad.

I thought the defenders still existed through subsequent attacks and only did not if they were killed off.

Yes, this is a bug.

We probably need a little more dev time on city defenders. The current implementation has them spawn after each battle, but it bugs out often and they don't respawn. So sometimes you can kill the same city defenders twice and other times they just up and disappear for the next battle. I am not totally sure what is causing this, but it seems to happen when there are alot of units in the first battle. 

A scout is an early unit builder. You build it in the beginning of the game when you scout out your territory. The eagle eye spell is something I would add to mid-later game, when as you put it scouts are pretty useless and the intent is that the AI is preventing you from seeing some important items on the map. Also, the when I reveal a map (by cheating) there are islands that I would never find without cheating. This spell would allow one to find that level 9 army sitting on an island just out of view with a telescoped unit. My intention was to make it come after a medium quest or after some research down the magic tree.

I use the scouts in the beginning game because I played a lot with epic research. It was basically the only military unit I could get for a long time. It made them an actual choice (having that slow research option, mixed with the normal production). Militia were also a viable build option for the same reason, but I like the mobility of the scouts to avoid monsters.

I made Eyes of the Eagle reveal a 12 tile radius and have Book of Wind always available, with a higher tech cost. The mana cost for the spell is around 100, but it shows you everything you need to know if you choose to invest in it. Later on I have 3rd Book of the Magi unlock a reveal map spell, which is almost a necessity IMO. 

Exactly this

Devs - Follow Seanw3's example for scouting abilities!