With beta4 I actually felt like I like the game. Previously I felt like I want to like the game. I still have major issues with some screens (font in the empire created screen is so bad) from design point of view, but now the overall feeling the game is quite inviting for fans of 3.. 4X games.

UI changes have made a massive difference. It still could be more "obvious" UI, like having city names shown instead of having player to hover over or guess them. But it does look 10x more polished and professional.

Gameplay-wise changes done seem good after the initial 1 hour play. 

I get the feeling I'm enjoying this iteration a lot better than the last. But a lot of the changes are confusing me. Especially the difference in spells. Is there a spell list I can view somewhere?

I think some half decent starting 3-men units would help the game get started a little quicker.  Maybe when balancing the Sov Professions, all profession could get a Profession-specific starting unit or 2, or if they only start with units and no other bonuses, give a bit more powerful, or more numerous starting units, preferably the former (to make up for not getting any other bonuses).  This would mean the early game when still exploring the land you have some more direction and obvious things you can do.  Starting military should be 3-man units with leather armor and probably a decent sword (or other weapon).

That is a great idea, but i think 3-men units will too powerful, because it will be too easy to wipe the early monster with them off the map. I think a single unit would be not as powerful and the type of the unit could depend on the faction like an bow unit for tarth or a hammer and shield unit for gilden.

I have noticed more spellcasting problems and i think the damage scaling is the main problem. Spells should be useful without a shard, without the warlock profession and without the path of the mage, but that is currently not the case. With the scaling per level (Burning Hands, Flame Dart, ...) and the high bonuses of shards the warlock profession and the path of the mage increase the damage too much and other spells (Heal, Courage, ...) are not very useful without a shard. That is the reason why i have increased the base effect of the spells and reduced the shard bonuses of the spells.

Trait:

- Path of the Mage: - 25 % tactical spell cost and + 50 % damage -> - 25 % tactical spell cost and + 1 additional fire, water, earth, air, life and death shard

Spells:

- Aura of Vitality: + 2 HP per Essence -> + 3 HP per Essence

- Courage: + 3 Spell Resistance and HP and + 1 per life shard -> + 5 Spell Resistance and HP and + 2 per life shard

- Dispel Magic: New spell -> Removes a random enchantment on the target unit, 10 mana

- Feedback: Disrupts a spell and inflicts 6 fire damage and 6 fire damage per shard -> Disrupts a spell and inflicts 10 fire damage and 3 fire damage per shard

- Flame Dart: 2 fire damage per level and 4 fire damage per shard, 24 mana -> 10 fire damage and 3 fire damage per shard, 20 mana

- Storm: 20 lightning damage against a random target and 10 lightning damage per shard, 18 mana -> 15 lightning damage against a random target and 5 lightning damage per shard, 15 mana

And outposts should take one season to turn over to another side. One turn of no one benefiting seems like a good strategic design. That way I can't benefit from taking over an outpost next to the AI. On the same coin, the AI can't benefit from an outpost that I just took over, which is currently the case.

Spells:

- Fireball: 18 fire damage and 6 fire damage per shard, damage is NOT multplied with the number of units, 50 mana, casting time 1 -> 6 fire damage and 2 fire damage per shard, damage is multiplied with the number of units, 40 mana, casting time 1

- Billzzard: 8 cold damage and 4 cold damage per shard, damage is multplied with the number of units, 30 mana, casting time 2 -> 15 cold damage and 5 cold damage per shard, damage is NOT multiplied with the number of units, 40 mana, casting time 1

Fireball with the smaller area of effect should be very good against large units, but it should be more difficult to hit units that are scattered over the map. Blizzard with the bigger area of effect should be very good against single units that are scattered over the map.