Great feedback! Thank you!
Your welcome. 
The biggest pet peeve I'm having, by far, is the bug that relations aren't initiated until actually come into contact with a unit. Apparently this occurred during an optimization of the FOW code. It's being fixed today but won't go in until next Thursday.
Woot! woot! It's getting fixed. That's what counts. 
Since this thread has mostly been a lovefest, I'll play devil's advocate so that the devil is equally represented in today's more tolerant world.
1. Blindness is perfect. Leave it alone.
2. Wargs are perfect. Leave them alone.
3. If techs are too slow, then play on FAST or build more research buildings or cast more Inspiration or play factions that specialize in research. Research is better in .981 than it was in .980.
4. Pioneer spam is no longer rampant. I am as good or better than the AI at spamming pioneers. Do not remove the ability of pioneers to create outposts. Outposts are critical now because of the contiguous kingdom unrest penalties.
5. Scouts are great for factions that get heroes like Kraxis and Altar. They do not need the ability to create outposts.
6. I just played a map that had a ton of essence and it was a standard settings map. If you want more essence then change your map settings. Do not give all factions a scrying pool.
7. Random events are rare. Don't expect to see them.
There is one thing I agree with:
1. Turn 50 and you hadn't built any troops. I find myself waiting until I can make 5-man troop groups before I make my first unit. That has mostly been because the AI doesn't attack soon enough. That appears to have changed slightly in .981. I need to play more.
Nice that you want to play devil's advocate, as I love the debate, but reasons are required behind some of your points...
1. I find blindness to be quite crippling. There is no redemption once it's cast (unless there is a cancel enchantment spell that I'm missing).
2. Wargs fall infinitely short compared to horses. A bonus to attack would tempt you to pass up on the additional movement that horses grant.
3. I like playing on normal, as fast would make the game progress too fast. As is, these techs feel like they're for epic.
4. Well, in the game I am currently playing, I've had to rush build every single building so far so that I have enough queue time to build pioneers so that I can build outposts so that my cities will con contigously connected. That's pioneer spam. I don't recall off hand, but it was something like 14 pioneers in under 50 seasons. If it took 8 turns to build a pioner (many took more, but I also rushed some...so I'll say 8), that means the 4 cities that I've built have been cranking out pioneers almost the whole time. If outposts could NOT be built by pioneers, I'd have built 3 pioneers...cause I only have 4 cities. (8 now cause I took over some Gilden turf and just built my fifth city). This would open up all sorts of queue time. Grant some of that queue time would have to go towards the unit that did build outposts, but the scout is a lot cheap to build than the pioneer is...
5. I'm not sure I understand your logic on this one. Kraxis and Alter has access to all sorts of heroes. I would argue that you'd need scouts even less as you have more heroes to do the scouting relative to the other factions.
6. My map settings were posted at the top of the thread. Granted, maybe it's the map generation that needs some tweaking. So far, I've gotten very little for essence, Whether essence is consistently high and no scrying pools, OR whether essence is consistently low with scrying pools....makes no matter to me....so long as there is a consistency.
7. I have random events set to 'plenty'. imo, once every 100+ seasons is not 'plenty'. My kingdom gets bored if nothing interacts with it on a random level. It needs monsters popping up, quests starting...things to keep the interior of my empire busy while my heroes and would-be troops focus on the borders.
To the point of troops, yeah, my cities are completely defenseless....all 8 of them...and I don't need to worry cause I've purged all the threats and have the enemy bottlenecked with my overpowered heroes. Granted, I can play on a more difficult setting, but I'm looking out for the guys that want to play on defaults. I don't think it should be that easy for them...
B, 1: I have seen you say this tons of time, and everytime I read it I really disagree, I think the change should come as a balance change to the overall land map, the grain/materials/essence is too dependant on random shards and resources near your starting location, I think that is a mistake...
I also do feel there should be a few spots with high materials or grains but without magic, you know the lush grass field with a river have tons of grain, but sadly is totally void of essence, so you can choose between magic or a huge city.
...
Sincerely
~ Kongdej
Yeah, we're probably going to disagree right until release. That's okay though.
In my current game, I built 6 cities so far. Out of all of them, 1 essence at my capital. I took over Gilden's two cities; they each had 1 essence. That's a total of 3 essence and I have some off 15+ city enchantments to choose from. Balance here just isn't doing the game justice, as I don't get the chance to play with all the spells the game has to offer.
IF, I had access to scrying pools when I got the 'arcane mastery' tech (well, I'm around season 60 and am no where close to getting it) around season 200, then I'd be able to bump all my cities by one. That would result in 11 essence accross my empire. Almost enough to play with all those spells...I'd have to tinker with others in another game.
Ever since brainstorming the idea out, I've been focused on it cause I really think it would benefit the game. In the early game, essence would still be really low (unless you were paradin) so no one would really get out of hand. In the mid game, everyone gets to play with more magic (paradin gets additional mod to theirs). Everything is still balanced. Late game, conclaves kick in and you get a few more essence (if conclaves are your strategy). Additionally, having another unique building available for your cities is never a bad thing.
Anyways, we'll probably continue to disagree. Who knows, maybe Stardock with reconfig the map generator and essence will become more consistent. That being the case, and tweaking scrying pools may not even be required anymore. I just don't really like being cut off from a main aspect of the game....and I really don't want to ctrl-N all the time till I randomly come accross a world with decent essence.
