I personally liked the idea that the sovs were so mighty (hence the original title "Elemental: War of Magic" as opposed to "War that includes some Magic but is mostly unmagical")...

Anyway, to my idea in https://forums.elementalgame.com/424106 I also propose a slider for items--do you want epic requirments for high end stuff or not?  If you do, slide it to high, if you don't slide it to low requirements, and each of us can have a wonderful game based on our preferences during world setup!

Anything that improves balance is good.

Concerning the good point about the relationship between map size and potential hero experience, I don't think that it's necessary to include an XP boost, because on tiny maps that level 15 maul, while not usable, will still be worth a fair amount to sell. Being on a tiny map simply makes that decision between hoarding high-level equipment and selling it off a bit easier.

This would seem like an excellent next step.

While I have been really enjoying .913 (Magic user, challenging, large map), it is a bit frustrating to not be able to get to the higher level spells.  Since the leveling rewards are now random no matter what path you take, it can take 3 or 4 levels to even get a magic choice.  It would be really helpful if the Path choices were always given at level 1 and at least one choice related to your chosen path was given on each succeeding level.

As far as picking up items goes, I haven't been finding a lot that I can't use.  Level 9 was the highest I've come up with (Sov just made 9 & everyone else is a 7 or 8), but I've been so busy with fighting war I haven't had time to go looking for higher level monsters or quests.

I also think 10% of value kind of ruins the fun of getting loot.  If nothing else change the value to a lower number so it's not so demoralizing to sell a $1500 magical axe for $150. 

Slowing down sovereign leveling is also having a pretty dramatic impact on faction prestige, which is affecting overall empire growth. I have a more indept discussion of that here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/424125

Supreme Shogun, your comment has surprised me very much !   You are saying that you are only getting 1% of the listed value of an item, when you sell it in the shop ???   In the game I am currently playing, I can still get 10% of the listed value of an item, if I sell it.   Hmmmmm ...  It's true, that I am playing my current game on the Beginner level (which is something of a sad story in its own right - but setting that aside  )  however, I am still getting 10% of the listed value, for items that I sell.  

I wonder if selling values have, now (in v0.913),  ALSO  been adjusted, depending on the level of difficulty that you are playing on.  Has anybody else noticed this ?

Very heartily seconded!  It is true that selling loot in earlier versions easily made large amounts of money - but I think the solution should fall more along the lines of reducing the value of "vendor trash" like wolf pelts, and common nonmagical items like spears.  Anyway, I don't see anything wrong with having an economy dependent on looting - this is a fantasy game, after all (and a 50% selling price is something of an established convention itself now).

Regarding champion leveling, I've found it still possible to powerlevel if you make regular use of xp boosts - perhaps that means things are working fine - though it might help to move the lvl 12-15 items requirements down a level.

The real problem to me is the stack XP penalty for champions is too strong for 2 heroes, especially at low levels.

I for one found the progression of 0.912 to be Ideal so I'm sad to hear that changed for the worse (still think the problem with normal units is that they cost way to much gildar in upkeep, probably even with the change. Though Warlord and having Verga surrender fixes that...). Will test 0.914 this weekend so I'll see what happens (and if riddiculous is still doable...)

They've changed it back to more fast paced leveling in .914.  However, non CHampions (so trained units and summons), only receive half the base XP for each fight.

However, they have coupled the increase in speed leveling with good items being much rarer than they were in .912 (at least in the couple of games I played this weekend).  This meant that I was able to have more abilities (which is cool!!), but not get superpowered till later in the game where the techs for the trained units are able to cope with it a bit better.

Pure mages can still be OP very easily though, even without the cool equipment.  But a pure mage witll only be OP vs non champions, or champions of significantly lower levels due to debuffs not being as easy to apply (you only gain 2 mastery per level, with 60? base mastery.  therefore before modifiers, equal level champions the mage only has a 60% chance of debuffing the other.

Overall I like.  And by the end of the game when you are picking up epic loot, it is AWESOME