As the game progresses it seems that hiring heroes increases greatly. I've see Heroes costing 500+ gold late game and even seen one at over 1,000 gold !?!

This doesn't make much sense when the heroes that you hire are just as powerful as they were back in the start of the game. It would be understandable if the heroes were more powerful having leveled up but they are simple level 1 heroes. Even late game 500-1000 gold is a serious investment and you could easily hire whole armies for that price or build a decent size city for that kind of cash.

I know there is a lot of balancing to be done but this is especially troubling given how weak heroes are. I often use them as XP farms because they are weaker then most monsters and to expensive to bother hiring. When I think Heroes in Fantasy world I think of those that stand a cut above but even your SOV is seriously underpowered currently.