Roots matter !, Remove spells from Champions and remove Pioneers.

You mean, return to the untouchable abomination that War of Magic was? FE still needs a lot of work, but come on

Those are the roots of a different game my friend.

LOL OP!  Time to brush up on your modding skills for FE or shake the dust off EWOM.  I'm sure Brad will be happy to hear that he gets to add one more notch on his bedpost.

I am pleased to hear that you liked War of Magic.  

However, Fallen Enchantress is a different game.  Different designer. Different development team (for the most part).  

I know this , but that mechanic of WoM just made sense, and had more atmosphere than the mechanics of FE right now.

I am not unhappy with FE, quite the opposite, but the changes and additions in my original post just makes sense to me.

(Edit: typo)

I gotta just say I hate those ideas.  I don't think having champions able to cast is a problem.  Nor do I think there should be a penalty for it.

I am curious what you hate about the non champion ideas, would you like to elaborate ?

I agree with the OP. Fallen Enchantress is superior in alot of ways, but I think the imbue champion-system, and the original system of individual mana had alot of potential, charm and strategy to it.

I agree that the champions in Fallen Enchantress are overpowered.  I like the suggestion of imbuing by sacrficing a shard.  I think that would be fun to play.

Just having outposts have a construction time and have a gold and material costs would go a long way to fix pioneer spam.

I must say, I think poineers should stay. But as a note, I also abhor the complains about 'pioneer spamming'. If you want that fixed, make monsters attack the AI the way they do the player. There, no more random outposts surviving or towns next to dragons.

On the second note however, I do actually kind of like that idea. Although I think removing magic from champions is a little bit aggressive. I think, champions should be limited in how far they can advance without a cost. Say, they can always get up to level 2 spells. But after that you need to sacrifice a shard for each magic category they want to uncap.

Champions are indeed overpowered, but it's not the case of spells or imbuing, because sovereign is also OP. The problem is really simple: you have two heroes from the start, and they can easily, without any risks, kill all the near fauna, quickly gaining levels. This enables them to kill the more powerful specimens (maybe previously buying some armor in a shop), again boosting their strength. And so on, up to the point the two of them might just as well steamroll all AI opposition. Meanwhile, you can manage cities all you want, but it's not really even necessary.

I say: delete that starting point champion, make mobs deadly enough that players will fear sending their single sovereign, reduce XP gained and HP bloat, increase offensive potential while decrease defence and maybe then the game won't become Herohammer. In Master of Magic, you didn't rotflstomp enemies with heroes only, because they, awfully powerful as they were, made easy targets for damage spells which the otherwise brainless AI used.

They are overpowered because of the spell they cast as they run into battle.  The Fighter-Mage is really a problem regardless of what "path" they are on.  I am fine with the Sovereign being overpowered, they are suppose to be.  But three champions can take over a level 5 city that even has extra troops.  They are completely decked in armor, they have fantastic weapons, and they are also launching area effect spells.  By the time they are even fighting the city defense is has been decimated.

Also global spells like Curgen's Volcano, Raise and Lower Land, Shooting Star---I would like to see the sovereign conjuring the spell on the map.  The Sovereign cannot move while they draw power to cast this enormous spell.  Then they have to spend a couple turns not doing anything while they recuperate.  There is a level in Frozen Throne where the Lich is conjuring demons and you have to protect him while he does it.  I think something like that would be neat to incorporate into the game.  Leveling a city and creating mountains should take time and energy.

In my oppinion the gap between champions and regular units is caused by the level difference and the amazing gear they can get from quests or monster looting.

If i replace the assassin blade with one of the swords regular troops can use, my unbuffed lvl 24 warrior is no longer dealing over 100 dmg/hit to the best enemy troops. He stil wins the fight (quite easily i think ) but he needs 3-4 turns to kill a unit instead of just one.

If i replace his armor (with average armor not the best available for regular troops) he might lose vs several packs and for sure he won't be able to  wipe complete armies one after another.

Even with this gear the toughest monsters I've met so far are kill-able. I might need to use some buffs and more troops and maybe even lose some of the regular units but imo those fights will become better this way.

I know removing extraordinary gear will diminish the excitement of exploration and monster fighting but something needs to be done to decrease the gap between regular units stats and champions.

Maybe make the regular units more attractive: more powerful / give them special abilities / allow players to keep upgrading and improve them whole game long.

Some mix might also work: make regular units cheaper and more powerful (mid late game )  and heroes less powerful and harder to come by. 

Magic has little to do with why champions are so powerful compared to regular troops.

The spells i use are mostly buffs and i can cast them with 1 champion on any unit not just champions.

Damage spells are far too expensive for the dmg/utility they provide.

Debuffs are nice but also optional, I only used shrink once in a while to make sure my units were not oneshot by epic monsters.

I think some forms of magic play should be improved to make them just as attractive as buffing/debuffing. 

I'd love to have a champion that can afford to spam damage spells at low lvl and win fights just as easily as a warrior or mage with buffs/debuffs.

I'd love to have an mid/end game champion that can be as efficient and successful as a warrior or debuff/buff mage .

And since I started rambling I'd like to see scary champions fighting with ranged weapons. 

I am curious about your opinion about these ideas

1. A option to set how sparse/dense the amount of fertile land distribution during creation of a game.

2. A option to set how sparse/dense shards and resources will be at start location.

3. Individual auto combat option in tactical combat.

4. Individual or global ON/OFF auto spellcasting in tactical combat.

5. Auto spellcasting spell selection in spellbook, TICK on/off.

The first paragraph right under return to the roots.   The 2nd paragraph I don't necessarily agree to, but not as strongly as the first.

The additions as you call them with numbers, I can agree to those.  Not sure #2 will get looked at as I wonder won't some/most say that you can do that by setting density of resources already. 

HELL NO! in referance to the Sovereigns be the only ones that can cast spells. I like the fact that Champs and Henchman can cast spells. Also I am opposed to the removal of Pioneers (makes no damn sense.) Now if you want to put more options in the game that will do this then great (I'll never choose them) however they would be there for others that do like that sort of thing.

Now I am in favor of the 5 Addtions you mentioned.

Well we will have to agree to STRONGLY disagree.