Hello everyone,

I'm just going to go over the big lines of my game I just did with 1.08.

* AI *

*Military*

Now, I have to say. I noticed the AI has been paying attention in the past few weeks. ( ) No random war declarations out of the blue, and also when war was declared upon, the AI did try to strike at my most lightly defended cities around his strongest armies. (He was no match for mines but wtver, I saw him try)

*Economy*

Also, I noticed that the AI didn't start spending in the negative, a really show stopper for me as it would lead to insanely powerful armies. Although I did get the impression that the AI was having trouble getting a strong economy. Also saw twice, that the AI had failed to get a gold mine that wasn't too far away from one of their cities. Strategic Resources should be their main focus. Especially gold!

 *Diplomacy*

In terms of diplomacy, I also noticed that the AI perceived values of treaties was now normal. No more 98000 perceived value for peace treaties when you are 1 city away from crushing him. I've had diplomatic request constantly (maybe a little spamish but i'm happy to see the AI trying). A lot of requests for joint attacking another faction. Or bringing to light we could have a trade/research treaty. Happy thoughts for this.

I noticed something which i find is completely abusive. Diplomatic Capital is way too strong. If you start next to a scenic view, or get your hands on one you will be on top of the diplomatic capital. Since the techs to get diplomatic currency are far away and also require level 4 cities (for empire) before your opponent can start generating some, he'll be awed by your immense political presence.

I really think that Each Capital city should generate at least 1 Diplomatic Capital per turn? Or each city after it reaches level 2? Or link it to population? Have lower tiered buildings that can produce some? I just found it crazy how it allowed me to expand without fear as all my diplomatic relations were flourishing even though I was cornering my opponents with cities.

*BUG?*

Although I set the world difficulty to Challenging and the AI difficulty to HARD, the save game tooltip states they are all challenging...?

 * Essence *

I'm not sure if it was like this before, but now Shards also give an essence bonus to your units. I was also not sure how these essence bonus work but I realized they apply to your sovereign as well. I have to say that with an essence building in all your cities and a few shards, your sovereign will be able to have quite a bit of essence, not to mention your children  .

The one thing that isn't addressed and is a bit perturbing for me is mana regen. I'm guessing that when a global mana pool will be implemented each caster will give +1 mana per turn to the global pool?

In any case, in the mean time it's really annoying that mana regenerates so slowly and you can't do anything to help. There is the exploit about leaving your children in combat so that they can enjoy their mana regen (if they do have it).

Here is the thing I don't understand with that, why would someone be able get 2 mana per turn in tactical, but not get 2 mana per turn in the strategic map...?

I really hope a building or something is implemented to speed up mana regeneration. A building? Or just having your sovereign in a city gives you 2 instead of 1?

* Magic *

First of all, the attention given to the magic system is greatly appreciated. Feels a little OP for now, but I rather have that feeling then see stacks of spearmen destroy more than magic.

Even though we kept the 1 roll per dmg, the way that intel adds to base dmg and that also spells have a range of dmg totally helped. I think I never saw my sovereign do 1 dmg with a spell. (which was rampant in the past).

I posted a suggestion about the fact that I feel that spell levels should be global, but rather divided by spellbook. That why you need to research Fire level 3, Water level 3, etc... I find that would add a layer of difficulty to mutliclass casters. You get more spells for the same 'research'. Would help with balance.

Link :  https://forums.elementalgame.com/396831

Maybe a review of spell mana costs would be needed, i think 2 of the fire attack spells cost 2 mana, but one does way more dmg. Maybe put it at 3? Anyways, I'm sure a lot of balancing is on it's way.

Thumbs up on the current changes, I feel it's going in the right direction!

 Hope everyone got to enjoy the improvements.

Cheers,

V