1) Better City UI screen.
Master of Magic City UI screen Making the games more intuitive, showing how many population (worker vs farmer etc), what is the things that produce by this city to the whole empire / kingdom etc.
In Elemental, City only has 3 options, improve city, rename city, train unit, very minimum info except city level
I have to count the improvement myself, keep mouse over to check 1 by 1, as well as estimating how big is the population, city even grow bigger later, and quite messy for me,
2) Better unit detail screen
In Master of Magic heroes detail A to Z whether he is capable of melee or range, his H/P, his special ability, his movement speed, his upkeep, his armor strength even his resistance to magic is all there canbe understand in 1 look / 1 page.
In Elemental to hire a hero or wandering unit I mouse over on him, Some limited info being displayed like his H/P and attack not including his attack type. I don't want to care what he says, that is the last things to bolder,but as a strategy lover, attribute and info are tasty meat of the game that I love. Elemental certainly can increase much of the tasty feeling here
3) Better Tactical battles screen
In master of Magic there is escape button, there is also field magic Msgic toolbar for us to know what is being cast on battlefield, Even a "info button" to display the screen.
In Elemental, Heroes need to go to the "shine spot at the end of the the battle field (leftmost) to escape. some trained unit I try many times cannot escape. Spell cast are basically done.
4) Better diplomatic screen and interactivity.
In Master of Magic you can know if your opponents like you or not by looking in the eye of the creature in diplomatic screen. red is hatred green is friendly etc, AI are proactive, they come talk to you, even assist you when you are in danger if you are good enough with them.
In elemental no such visual indication yet, Elemental AI seems busy building army, I think at this moment AI still prefer conquest victory option over others. They wont care about player much unless player engage them.
5) Simpler and better (faster / focused) pacing game
Elemental is a deep game with research. Unfortunately too much research to unlock not only the game have 5 research area - Civic / Diplomatic / magic / adventure / warefare it also have spell to learn, 6 areas for me!! this slow down the games. and make the player focus too wide.
While Magic of Magic is reseasrching spell alone in depth which is the most unique and enjoyable part (the tasty meat) of the game to focus on.
Elemental certainly can have more than 1 area of research but for me going up to 6 areas may not be the best game design choices.
Probably 3 will be enough 1 more all spell and Magic related, 1 for all city/diplomatic related 1 for advaneture and war related
My humble conclusion
All above is sorely my personal view and sincerely.
Certainly Stardock trying hard to improve the game, however, I really hope we can work at least another 6 months before rushing for another expansion or sequel.
For me Overall, Elemental is a very deep game with long story background, however even with those stories loosely tie to the game It is very hard for me to feel the faction uniqueness, the "umm" if "the tasty meat detail" is hidden away from the UI screen.
