1. When a unit goes up in level there is no obvious location to show this. Recommend an info slot on the character info 'sheet' for units so I can tell when that archer that I wanna use with my hero to smack an ogre around a lil' bit has got some time on the battlefield or if it's a newb and I may have to send out a second to help out.
2. I would love to build a road where I want to instead of my lackies deciding for me. I am the king, after all. Food for thought.
3. So, you've learned enough tech in civil technogolies to build an embassy. Now, all you have to do is give up 2 REAL gildars per turn for one FAKE one. (snicker) Come on... really? Maybe diplomatic capital is worth more in v1.1, but since it wasn't before I wasn't going to waste my money finding out.
4. Inns/Pubs, etc. are commercial businesses. They bring IN money to a community, they don't cost it money or the people would burn it down. The cost for these buildings doesn't make sense. Furthermore, in the game mechanics as they currently are it isn't worthwhile to build them because they generally aren't available until the city is almost at capacity and you are busy trying to manage food to optimize city sizes. Again, just my two cents. I like the prestige idea with these, but I think the cost in population and the initial building material costs are enough of a drain, the gildar upkeep is overkill and again, it doesn't jive with reality. A hotel that doesn't make money doesn't stay in business... maybe the profits go to the independant owner instead of the king. I am getting taxes afterall, that makes sense.
5. Healing necter and Salted Pork are redundant. One should heal more and cost more too.
6. Wild improvements don't tell you how long until they are complete when you are building them. They all show a standard 'time to completion: 0 seasons' when you click on them until they are done.
7. I like the tax, caravan, market, merchant stuff for your economy. It is a HUGE improvement over the last version where gold mines were a MUST HAVE. The caravans can get over combersome though. I recommend you tone it down and maybe create a couple more buildings that improve economy via a percentage or a direct gildar contribution (it would be nice to have more than just the merchant for this). Maybe the athletics department like a joust or arena or the arts like a theatre.
8. In the interest of the developers not wanting the city building to get out of hand with the map littered with cities every few game tiles, I have an idea for extending influence. Guard towers and forts could be built (maybe by an engineer unit that could double as the games road builder so that I could build them where I want them... but I am getting off subject) to house units giving a small defense bonus or extended line of sight. They could have a given radius of influence. You may want to make it's influence inferior to a city's though to prevent the build up of these items at a person's borders to try to enclose them in. I dunno... can't decide if this is a great idea, but I figured I would toss it out there.
Anyway, I love what you guys (girls) are doing here in this game. I too played Master of Magic (and I still do, on DOSBOX sometimes). I love this style of game, and I love the fantasy setting with the game mechanics. It just works really well together, and you did a good job keeping it alive. Can't wait to see the game evolve more.
