Ya it's awesome to see you still trying to make Elemental reach it's full potential.

I was playing this game during the original beta, and right after release. As all of us I love the concepts of this game, but was abit disapointed of what was delivered at release day. Now, with 1.2 out, I have been starting to play Elemental again, and what a joy. I play on hard, because I love challenges, and I'm really having a good time.

Still think the AI build too many cities, instead of being patient and wait for boarders to grow and cover more ressources. I was never a fan of City spam for fantasy games. But that said; this game is fun now, and we finally have some good mechanisms that make few and huge cities more worthwhile. We will have more such mechanisms to, I hear, when I read about Fros 1.3 plans.. I have great fun developing my civ, developing my army and heroes, and that was number one to fix. Of course alot of things can still be done even better, but I'm confident they will in the future patches.

I for once like how population is an important factor now, but would like to see it limited to be used for new buildings in the city the population lives. Battles are much more fun now, but I'd like to see more strengths and weaknesses for weapons (Like we will have in Fallen E). Magic system and magic research is made smarter and more challenging, but I must admit I miss the old system of individual mana pool. I felt harder decissions had to be made then, but the system now also works.

The UI is OK, no complaints from me.

It's easy to understand the basic consepts of the game, but it's hard to master. Just like a good game should be.

Just write these words to thank Frog and the team for doing a good job on the game, and to say that I like the ideas I hear for 1.3 and Fallen Enchantress. I have returned as a big fan again! That said; I've never doubted Stardocks comittment to make this one of the greatest games ever. A game to stand the test of time.

I wish I had had the opportunity to refine the game mechanics of War of Magic over 10 years like I did with Galactic Civilizations (GalCiv for OS/2 was developed in 1992 to 1994).

There's so many different, interesting ideas to try. Some work, some don't.   Thanks to digital distribution, we get to take the Elemental world in very interesting, different directions and see what people like.

My *personal* preference is that War of Magic goes in direction A and Fallen Enchantress goes in direction B and then the third Elemental strategy game takes it in direction C where each time we're learning what ideas we liked and which ones we didn't like and refine, refine, refine.

GalCiv for OS/2 didn't have star bases, for instance.

GalCiv 1 for Windows didn't have asteroid fields or a campaign

GalCiv 2 for Windows didn't start out with unique tech trees per race or special abilities

If I had a time machine for Elemental, I'd have greatly slimmed down the scope. Trying to have War of Magic have "it all" was just beyond our small studio's capability.  I think those who think we should have just stuck with MOM and nothing else had a good point. I just didn't think (And still am not convinced) you could deliver a 2010 title with MOM features and have it be accepted (think carefully about MOM with a game reviewer eye and an objective look free of nostalgia).  But better a smaller scope game that is tight than a rambling scope title that does nothing as well as it should.

FE has a much tighter scope (no ships, no dynasties) but instead focuses on doing magic, combat, and empire buildings really...really...REALLY well.

Refreshing honesty. It's why I'll stand by Stardock and be patient. Elemental and spinoffs will be great one day. I'm in it for the long haul.

Vive la Middle Market!

Well there you go Brad, an idea for the third Elemental game.. Ships, dynasties and a healthy helping of Game of Thrones-style political intrigue. All done really...really...REALLY well. Anyway, looking forward to 1.3.

I'm surprised Derek didn't try and take a crack at making "water" work since water is huge part of having a better world experience and having a better world experience is one of the key aspects of FE.  It's not too late you know?!?

If they nail the "land" mechanics correctly, it'll be a lot easier to do a solid water component later. I mean water was basically a total non factor in AoW 2 and it still turned out pretty well.

I'm hoping that once v4.0 comes out we can merge all three back into one and have a sweet game that does everything.

I recently played Death Really which they remastered for Windows 7 and you may be right here since it's so "locked" gameplay wise and once you've played it through once there's only two other difficultylvls.

A Master of Magic today without the innovations from the Age of Wonders Trilogy would maybe also feel a bit "locked".

Personally, if Master of Magic II were to be made then I would have want to see some good enhancements.

I don't know if that would sell well.  I think there's a limit to what people can do in a game. 

That said, the 2nd Elemental XP, If FE does well, it should take FE, and add-on the features that players really want (I'm assuming navies will be one of those things).