Rikazema:  Well thought out -and very effective.  I agree wholeheartedly with with your ideas (reply #25, preceding).

Thank the stardock gods! This is great news! 1 step closer to perfection.

Here's my list......which is pretty much the same as alot of people's I'd imagine. I will probably make plenty of mentions about MOM, but tbh thats what was the inspiration for this game.

1) Magic - Lacking as it currently stands. All the spell books are far too similar and lack varity, lack unique feels and do not give the player a unique style of play due to the nature of the spells. Id like to see magic being similar to MOM in how spells could make a huge impact to a game. Also I would prefer that it was not possible to take all the spell books without diminishing the power of each schools magic or restricting the number of spells, or limiting the spell level maximum for taking mutiple books. Just like picking your empire or kingdoms, then picking your faction, selecting spell books should be an equally important choice and a limited one. This way the replayablity of the game is increased alot and each school should hopefully give a unique style of play to it. Spells are the next issue; all the schools share the same spells in a diffirent coat of paint. Boring and deminishes the diversity of spell schools to near zero. This needs to be thrown out the window. The higher tier spells are jokes; so much research to reach level 9 and only a few worthless spells that don't do anything new. Thats something I'm going to highlight, higher tier spells shouldn't just be bigger fireballs, THEY NEED TO LET YOU DO NEW THINGS that you couldn't do before. They should let you play god with the world and the higher the tier the spell the greater the level of playing god should be. Think time stop from MOM (Baldurs gate 2 also has some of the best spell designs ever), think the spell that banished all summoned monsters in the world, think the spell that attempts to block all global magic being caste. This is what level 10 spells should be like, godlike and game altering.

2) Tactical battles - Just far too simple as it goes atm. There is no great level of depth to the tactics, just simply bring a bigger sword to the fight, end of story.

3) Heroes - A whole list of problems, but it's now 1 shorter thanks to 1.1 introducing HP increase per lev up. Some of the skills are worthless, such as 1 gildar per turn, 1 tech per turn, 1 lore per turn. Other skills are nice, but could be even better, and it makes sense that they should improve for the hard work of keeping a hero alive and leveling them up. Ideally I'd want a full hero skill tree to allow us players to fully customise not only stats but hero skills. Failing that I'd be happy with skills improving per level up. For example a merchant should either give 10-20 gilder per turn @ level 10. I have a massive problem with the research tech for better heroes; they start off at higher levels, meaning if you wanted to build them up specifically from scratch u cannot do that anymore the way you would want to. I think it would be much better if the tech made heroes with much higher starting stats @ level 1 enter the world. My other issue is that I don't like the random wondering heroes thing. There should be 3 additional ways to aquire heroes; a specific quest building (Like a tavern) that remains in the game permanently and a city structure you can build. This method would be for aquiring a hero at any point when you want one. Next would be aquiring FREE heroes from quests, imo the best heroes in the game should only be avalable from high level quests. Lastly there should be a spell to summon heroes to you.

4) Magical forging - The enchanted/magic weapons/armor and accessories (at least partially, they are done better though then the rest) are pretty much the same old things that any regular unit can use. Allow players to make their own items in a way similar to MOM. Let us customise our heroes to suit are needs and give heroes unique items that are actually special (Specific effects and powers, ect).

5) Cities and economics - This is not as bad as I once thought it was, however it still needs work.

As a buildmonger the part of this game I enjoy the most is developing my cities as the game unfolds into progressively more powerful, impressive-looking metropolises by endgame.  With that in mind, here is my list in order of importance:

1. A change to the restriction on building cities, including city improvements, within 5 tiles of each other.  Devs please allow this to be modded at least; or maybe change it to be calculated from the actual city center, rather than the outermost city tiles.  In the end it doesn't really matter to me how it might be changed as much as wether it is changed at all, although my first choice would be to simply make it moddable.  I run into this restriction constantly and it's driving my enjoyment factor way down. 

2. Make city improvements rotateable in city build mode.  Objects can be rotated in the tile editor, seems not unreasonable to imagine this for city build mode in-game; simplified of course to one axis and say, 8 directions.

3. Do something with forests.  Make it easier to get rid of them, chop them, mash 'em, smash 'em, stick 'em in a stew...anything other than how they're treated now.  Making a  faction special ability to be able to build in forest would be neat.

4. City-oriented quests.  Yeah I totally swiped this from Kael Little stories that unfold in your cities would enhance the immersion of the city building part of the gameplay.  Have quests that trigger based on what you do with your cities and/or conditions in your cities. Maybe have the guilds give out quests. Visit the tavern (after you build it of course) just like the shop, complete with background art like the shop and a barkeep, look on the bulliten board or ask the barkeep about "jobs."  

5. Oh yeah kinda related to the one above (only because I mentioned the tavern) make the shop only available after you build a merchant. Make it upgrade into several (or more) after you build a bazaar -- one specialty shop for each "species" of lewt:  one for weapons, one for armor, one for potions, etc.  Make it upgradeable again when you build a trade center. Make some really cool rares available from the best shops.

5a. I'm really liking the idea of buildings you can interact with after you build them, as in talk to people, get quests, etc. Maybe make certain buildings the reward for completing a quest-line, such as an enhanced palace (Mage Tower!)

Ok I'm in danger of going from a "top 5" list to a simple brainstorming session, but all the above ideas are aimed at helping to enhance the builder part of the game, and I don't even think they're that hard or complex, since they all involve elements that exist intact elsewhere in the game.

One last thing:  If any idea, not just mine but anyone's, is passed over for whatever reason, and is not currently moddable, please consider making it moddable so at least those who would like to can incorporate it into their games.

Thanks for reading!

I totally agree about oceans, I think it's a missed opportunity.  I'd like to see proper coastal cities with ocean resources.

In regards to children, my #1 wish is that your first born becomes the sovereign when your current sovereign dies.  It seems like this was the direction they were headed, because on your first child's picture it says "first in line for the throne".