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I'm not sure it was fair of me to vote "fair"... The more I play the more I enjoy it. With the upcoming adjustments to city building I think this will be close to excellent.

I do crash more than I have with any previous beta though.

Perhaps there should be more events (like raging xy or marauding Bandit Lord x in the west/north/...appearing in x turns, or "global quests" (like missions that every player can fulfill) to make the world more "non static vital".

More movement/changes and "non-fighting-interesting-places"... perhaps travelling traders, smiths looking for ressources to sell special weapons, Castles where Collectors of rare Weapons live, mercaneries that work for you for several turns for money, Bounty hunting, neutral fractions with special interests or missions, Druids protecting their holy super-earth shard, witches evoking a demon at a stone ring... more "pseudo-roleplaying" making the world vital and telling storys... that would perhaps to much, but very nice would be when your actions would create positive or negative reactions (at neutral fractions?) or at least when you would gain influence-points.

I also liked the marry-idea in Elemental.

We have a fantasy-world here that can be creative filled, it has not only to be kill&loot.

The quests are good, but I would like to see more of this kind of gameplay.

Judging as a finished game, not just a beta, I went with "good." I've been playing since the very first WoM beta, and up until now I always felt like Elemental had potential, but hadn't quite realized it yet. Starting with this release I think FE is genuinely enjoyable to play in its own right, and not just because I'm excited about where the game is heading - it finally feels like we've gotten there, great work.

That being said, FE has a lot of little balance/variety/general "polish" issues that hold it back from "excellent," so I'm looking forward to seeing the game get even better before the official 1.0 release. But the basic game mechanics finally feel solid, and those other things are small changes, FE is definitely approaching "excellent" in my book.

"I always felt like Elemental had potential, but hadn't quite realized it yet." is exactly what I think, too.

The question always was "will it realize it/finish it at all?"

The main difference between Elemental and FE are for me the noticeable presence of opponents in FE.

Elemental was a little bit like playing alone sometimes.

It is more concentrated right now, where Elemental wanted everything but nothing really was finished.

For me some things of these "Elemental everythings" can return one day as expansions, when the main game is ready.

You can say I voted a "fair+". It is true that it is close to good, seen technical, but I am not sure how to see it as a long-time-motivating strategy game for ambitious players and if the AI ( or the illusion of AI) will arrive a level at difficulty "challenging" or "hard" that makes dealing with the opponents an interesting challenging fun.

I do not know how close is 0912 to the final game.

Sounds close to me, but on the other hand you can count endless, even when you count patches as well, so the steps can be 091 to 1.2 but it could also be 0912001 to 1.20001.

Can the BETA POLE be made a little more in depth than a 1 question survey?  Maybe 1 question on each main area of development?  AI, Combat, Faction Diversity, Stability, Fun, overall impression... etc?

FE is looking much, much better.

There are still some stability issues and some serious polishing issues,  but we are getting there.

Please, Stardock, heed the suggestions from some of my fellow forum members. They have provided some amazing feedback. Some of it is so good that you couldn't buy it anywhere and they gave it to you for free.

I voted good. However, I don't necessarily think the game is "good" yet, due to the inadequate AI, balance issues, and obviously polish. But I do believe the game is going in the right direction, and positive forward momentum is being maintained. I agree with all the changes that have been made so far, even if only conceptually.

So, good on you, Stardock. Even despite my misgivings about certain aspects of the game, I'm still raving about it to my friends in the hope that they will get on the beta.

Second this idea. It'd be interesting to see which specific areas of gameplay people want improvements to in order to get them up to "excellent" (if they're not already there). For me it's: AI, faction diversity, and balance of the tech trees/the different paths to victory.

You could actually do it with two questions: overall impression, and which area of the game do you think needs most improvement (like this poll combined with that one we got earlier). Although being able to rate every game area as excellent/good/fair/poor would be even better.

units seem to be stronger then heroes late game- much so before magic- which would seem to relegate casters to buff bots late game. I was playing as GIlden and at the end of the tech tree companies had a attack value of like 200 plus and some crazy defense as well. No champion of any level can compete with that. I'm not sure if this is a balance issue but I would like to see more champ damage scaling based off of level.

Hi,

I just voted. I voted good previously, and now I voted fair. I'll explain why.

Obvious to me, the game has never been better than now, but at the same time I think there are still some balance issues and the general state of the game if near release worries me a bit. At the same time, I sometimes wonder if we are not too much demanding. But I will get FE for free, so maybe I'm not to critical because I think it is a nice gesture. If a friend would ask me the question : would I buy FE at release, I'm afraid I would say no And Stardock's goal is to make an awesome game and sell it to as many people as possible. So, I'm afraid I have to give my opinion even if it is unpleasant.

Ok, I'll try to point out why:

General feeling (MOST IMPORTANT)

I voted fair also on intuition because I don't get that 'one more turn' feeling. Worst, I'm not able to clearly point what the 'problem' is. I think what keeps me going in such games is at some point you always have some unit that becomes overpowered because you cared for her. Champion of course comes in mind (I always create mine), but it should be true for heroes as well. So far, while they are nice, they lack some personality IMHO. recruitable heroes should be very memorable.I want some really rare heroes, but it shouldn't be level based. MoM did that right, you could get all champions lvl1, but some of them were better than others (stats and feats). If you care for that rare lvl1 hero giving him best stuff, you would on the long term gain an advantage. Now, when I cross a lvl 9 hero, I don't even bother since I didn't want particularly to research Ereog's journal. And if I did, there's still the chance an enemy faction would kill him in the meanwhile

I remember posting on these forums about the relative scarcity of new heroes to recruit in late game and how making them immortal was not such a good choice for me Allow permanent death for faction-recruited heroes and make them just pop-up to hire at cities depending on prestige, even if there is a finite set, we would rename them anyways... A hero that cannot die : no one cares for him. Superman is less interesting than Spiderman. Game of Thrones characters are memorable because they can be killed, wounded at every point in the series. So that hero I have, I would care a lot more for him if I had a chance to lose him. This is maybe even more important than making them distinct from each other. Killing the other's faction über-hero would also be a goal, a memorable thing. It would also help balancing I think by preventing never-dying high-level heroes

For caring about 'normal' units, you made already everything possible since we can design them (thanks, one of the best features in the game like ships were in Galciv). So, I would bury them under buffing spells and make some elite units. But since heroes are too powerful, they just don't interest me, so I'm not interested in what's going to happen to them the next turn. So balance again, should be a major attention point.

Also, early in the game, I'm not too busy. Care that I don't ask for more quests (more tiles with something). It's just that all quests that are given and that I'm allowed to do, I know I can complete them : no thrill . Allow me to fail them. So I have to scout (an incentive to create units). So dungeons, quests should have random, unknown difficulty. I should only know after being once there. I should never be allowed to just send one champion to see without fearing him to encounter harm. Hence I would really want to improve and build that army to defeat that Killer dragon or horde of less powerful critters and if I do, please make it worthwile (right now, quests reward are a bit lacking IMHO). If I had to work to that powerful item or rare champion, if I fear I could lose them I will care for them and will be anxious about what's gonna happen to them on the next turn

Balance

Like Brad already said, heroes shouldn't be able to kill that much. Because early in the game, I don't even bother making units.

In general, I have a hard time to figure if and why a unit is better than an other. The Battle window is a great help of course, but I know that unit A is strong, B is weak but I don't know why. Is it because one does magic damage and the other not ?.

Bugs (not severe ones, just to say)

I played like 2-3 hours and I think I noticed those bugs:

- infection doesn't seem to work (or I don't understand it. I thought that if you cast it on a enemy, finally, bad spells on said unit should also affect its teammates).

- I casted the spell to kill an ally to gain a spell level, but it didn't seem to work (or I didn't understand it, but I read it carefully, maybe a translation problem, but maybe there should be some kind of feedback message that would say what has happened). Maybe that would be a good idea for every spell that just don't affect hit points, def, att, etc...

Well, maybe I'm right, maybe I'm stupid (wait, I sure am ), either way, some other people might not understand it as well. If the bugs are legit, there are probably a lot more since I didn't test the game for hours.

That's what I think at the moment, but I'm sure it will improve. Maybe is it only a matter of polishing things now and balancing the game, adding more artworks, creatures, summons, objects, weapons ? It's not a lack of feature. I would like to ask more, but let there be some space for expansions I could buy if I enjoy FE (magic items creation, dynasty : Yeah ).

I didn't want to sound harsh, tons of good stuff and it's still going in the right direction.

Cheers!

My two points of feedback are semi-related:

1) In response to players finding high-powered loot early in the game, is it possible to rank the "goodies" in the goodie huts based on the "level" or "difficulty" of the quest? That way, you don't get a +5 bastard sword of smiting from a spider nest?

2) In response to many quests being automatic successes (and the requests for the possibility of failure), how hard would it be to make some quests more text-based, choose-your-own-adventure style, ala the King Arthur the Roleplaying Wargame? Choose Your Own Adventures are quite fun, and you quickly become vested in wanting to succeed, but sure rue it when you lose!

I voted Poor for the reasons I posted in this thread: https://forums.stardock.com/423742

I haven't been able to play a game past 30 or 40 turns because of those problems.

I voted fair. 

Since the original game came out, I've played as Lord Markin of the Ironeers. The game is much better than when Elemental was first released, but still broken and just not up to task. If you release it in the state of the current beta 3 you will be clobbered in the reviews like the original. 

I have 4 outstanding tickets in the bug tracker. With 2 of the newest bugs being things I could a half hour into beta 3! Balance is also still broken.

Kraxis empire has a score in the 60s and I just got to the low 20s by paying the Tarth for non-agg pacts and trade teaties and the Altar for the same and an econ treaty. I've had Lord Markin running around killing everything and equipping random equipment he find. I have him suck the soul of the 'clumsy' fool who had been injured 1 to many times for me to find acceptable. He single handedly wipes out several large Kraxis armies in 1 turn. Then I can't advance the turn. Can't move Markin, can't press the next turn button even though it is lit up. Can't save and load to advance the turn. Nope, just broken.