I love these reports; they are fascinating to read and really give us a good idea what is going on in the company. RottynDawg I agree about Steam. One of my favorite things about StarDock games is the fact that when I'm visiting my parents in rural Wyoming with no internet for miles and my game disks at home I can play on my laptop with no worries and no extra software running in the background.
I understand the idea of fast transfer of faction data based on color, but I think having no other color in the cloth map is taking the idea too far. The first time I came upon ocean I had no idea what it was until I revealed a good chunk of it. Others have pointed out deathlands, etc and I think its just as important to convey that information quickly as enemy units. Perhaps drawing the shoreline and borders differently so that they stand out better would do it without the
Its running pretty well for me; I haven't run into any crashes or stuttering. I have had some odd transparency issues with screens over text and some unit selection difficulty, but nothing crazy.
I'm not 100% sold on the art style. It works well in the interface, particularly the character drawing and minimap. I love the world map, again with the hand drawn look. The world view doesn't excite me though. While I understand that it is an extension of the hand-drawn look of the rest of the game, it just looks a little too cartoony for me right now. I don't hate it, but it doesn't do anything for me. Maybe it'll grow on me, or Stardock will tweak it ove