If Elemental has navies, it should implement the ideas above.  I don't remember seeing anything about ship warfare, but I'm not quite as active as others.

If navies can't add strategic depth and are enjoyable to play, I'd rather they be left out.  Either that, or make them so basic/easy to use that their inclusion doesn't cause any problems.

Along these lines, I'd also be interested in knowing whether or not bridges could be built over rivers or not.

I'm ok with autoresolve, or the MoM style where your units get the same tactical map as land approach.  Either way allows for the benifits of island kindoms etc... which is pretty important.  You raise some good points, but I'm guessing that won't make the initial release, an expasion with that would be cool.

Man, there have been so many "what we wish we had in the water" threads.   I know I've talked about floating islands and cities (like floating in the sea, not in the sky... though I'd happily take either)  and underwater or at least water based dungeons.   Sea monsters, and pirates......

We'll just have to see what happens.

I'd imagine we will see water channelers able to shape the coast, causing water magic to be a big deal if you're planning to be the supreme naval power.   (end game of course, where earth might raise land in place of the newly created coast, then create a wall of uncrossable mountains that prevents naval landing and amphibious assaults)

If they study naval warfare and do it right, fucking awesome.  Just imagine having ships rake each other with trebuchet fire before grappling and having a blood bath between the crews.  You could do it with tactical combat and have pure awesome.

Unfortunately, history tells us that naval warfare will suck, so I'd rather not get my hopes up.  If it's going to suck, I'm opting for the minimalist approach.  Hassle me with it as little as possible, to the point of being able to pretend it doesn't exist on various map settings.

Which is why you give fleets an engagement radius (to prevent the ferry system from sneaking by under the enemies nose).  In a medieval game naval bombardment isn't really a factor (as the weapons in question didn't really have the destructive power or the range to be anything but tactical in nature), and water based trade could, in large part, be handled through a ship based version of the wagon transportation system that has been discussed for land based trade.

I've been pushing more towards having underwater sea battles... which opens a whole new realm of possibilities with creatures, spells, structures, and items.  One type of spell may be powerful on land, but weak underwater  OR  vise versa.   One creature may be weak on land, but powerful underwater  OR  vise versa.

Navies definately sound like a great idea. Good ideas too. As long as there are boats to get armies from one place to another though I'm happy. Perhaps even "Flying Ships" ala Final Fantasy would be nice. You know the old school ships with hellicopter props on them to make them fly. Or maybe ships with blimps attached to them so they float. The upgraded versions could be levitated by magic of course. Also on that note, perhaps flying cittadels as well

I would settle for an auto-resolve for naval combat, a CIV-4 type use of ships would be awsome too, but i would like to see trade by sea and other stratigic uses of the waters. Fully done naval combat does not seem needed right now, i would rather stick to land battles, or ship-boarding situations if the hero units are involved(like Heroes of might and Magic III)