Me three!

That had better not be a joke

It's not a joke.  I'm almost positive Kael had blogged on this at some point. About the city specialization? That a city on the main map would be 1 tile and would "grow" a little bit based on what level and specialization it was but the improvements would be built on a separate screen ala Civ. You could look at your pretty city in the city build window but on the main map it'll basically be 1 tile with each faction having their own unique city looks. This isn't in beta 3 btw. This is a beta 4 thing.  If you hadn't previously heard it, then ignore what I just wrote because it's still at least 2 months away. 

This must be disinformation. Someone has hacked Brad's account! No journal has ever mentioned such heresy. 

Holy crap this is totally new. I think this is a good direction to go though. But I would really like to see this mythical journal post.

EDIT: I really wish Derek would do more journal entries.

I have another little suggestion while we are at it (and while I am drunk, but ignore any spelling errors).

Passive ability Pack/Swarm. Some units (Wolves, spiders mayhaps) could have this ability that they get a bonus pr unit in the army. For each wolf in the army they get a +2 attack. If a normal wolf has an attack of 8, a group of 5 would have an attack of 8 + 4x2 = 16. If you kill a wolf during battle the attack would be 8 + 3x2 = 14 and so on.

Guardian soul. Passive ability. For each attack on such a unit a ghost is created that will fight for the attacked army. If you attack when you are too weak to kill the unit quickly, then you would face an increasing amount of ghost. They would not be very strong by themselves, but if you create many its a problem. 

Elemental avenger. Passive ability. All attacks on elementals are critical.

Arcane destroyer. Passive ability. All attacks on mages are +50% damage. 

I just checked my Powerball tickets and I won $300M!

Derek does need to say hi now and then, we miss him.

That was one of the main winning features of MoM, yes  Simple yet brilliant.

Also, I like what the OP said, and everything Brad said in this thread. Changes sure sound good  

If this beta was connected to Steam I think we would see the following scenario.

Techguy1 to Techguy2. "Hey, something is wrong here. The total playtime for last month only adds up to 80%. Whats up?". Techguy2 to Techguy1. "Its just the Stardokians going at it. You just forgot to include the betaplays again. They are betatesting 24/7 those crazy strategy guys"

Anyways, I have enough suggestions to fill the internet

How about a mercenary/monster/army offering to work for you for 10 gildar, 10 crystal and 2 metal a round. If you hire them and later cannot pay them for a round, they will turn on you. That would really keep me on my toes, and it would force me to take a tough choice to hire them or not.

That is great, because such a system will work much better than the current one and many good games, like MOO2, use such a system, too.

There are three levels of monster density. Random events could be the same. Lesser, Medium and Major random events. 

Some feedback of my own:

0) Is there a simple written guide/manual for EFE? I find the in-game help largely useless; the last thing I want is some video clip when I'm just trying to find out what a certain thing is or how something works. A PDF keyboard shortcuts chart would be nice, too.

1) EFE is what EWOM should have been (which, for me, raises the question as to why I've had to pay for EFE, but I'll let that go; I've spent my own time on the game design/development side of things). Even at this beta 2 stage, it is a more interesting and balanced game.

2) I know I should pay more attention to the various trade-offs in building my cities...but I was never very good at that in CIV, either. FFH2 was quite forgiving in that regard, so I've been spoiled. I'd like some brief, simple dashboard -- not a chart or a spreadsheet, but some visual, graphical indicators -- that gives me an at-a-glance summary of how each given city is doing, as well as my overall empire. I'm here to conquer the worlds, not crunch numbers.

3) Ditto what joasoze said about AI armies. I have a custom sovereign (named Salem, after my youngest daughter) who focuses on becoming a firemage with that nifty +10 initiative on her first move. Once I've staked out a few fire shards and she's gained the fireball spell (and a few +50% spell damage buffs), she's largely unbeatable -- her army meets the AI army, she throws a fireball, and they're all toast. I played a game a day or two ago where once of the other factions had build up its power rating to 800+ (I was down around 300) and declared war against me. I took Salem's army (and a backup army), marched into my enemy's territory, captured the nearest city (and left the backup army there to hold it), captured the next city in, and let Salem's army sit there. The enemy threw a steady stream of medium to strong armies at that city, all of which were destroyed on the first round. The enemy never sent a 'deadly'-level army.

4) Wilding cities. Better yet, wilding cities that somehow incorporate spiders, trolls, drakes, etc. And possibly a wilding empire that can become a threat to all other kingdoms, unleashing hordes of intelligently-directed monsters, sweeping all before it. And maybe a player option to play that wilding empire. Heh.

5) I really like the whole quest-region concept (e.g., the scrapyard, the caves of whomever, etc.). That is a great game design concept and has so many different applications. I now find myself looking for those dark green borders. I also like the user-selectable level-up buffs.

6) Speaking of manuals...is there any special significance to the little "Empire" outposts, or do they just represent more combat opportunities?

7) Speaking of outposts -- I like the city/outpost dichotomy as well.

8) Finally, here's a request I have of most games, though I have yet to find one that has implemented it: provide a means to delete all saved games with a single operation. (Yes, yes, I could go find the save games folder and do it myself, but it's cleaner if it comes through the game.)

Keep up the great work.  ..fritz..

Dudes, he's joking about the 1 tile cities.  They are not changing to 1 tile cities.  April Fool's Day is still a week a way and you're already falling for it.