I've played with this a lot since it came out and during the beta. There has been an incredible improvement with each new release. I'm excited to see each and every fix, expansion, and improvement. When I get home, the first thing I do is check Impulse for updates. You guys have done a fantastic job. Keep up the good work.
What I love:
1. Music: I love the music you have in the game. I'd love to hear some more songs, too.
2. Art style: The visual aestric for the game is quite unique and really has a nice look.
3. Questing: This is awesome. Please continue developing this. I rather enjoy running around completing quests and finding cool stuff.
4. Building your empire: creating new towns and such is awesome.
5. Stardock: I love you guys. Your dedication is an inspiration to all of us. Keep those updates coming and I'll keep buying all your games. And telling all my friends.
6. Strategic influence: I love that this got transplanted from Galciv 2! Make placing cities important. What resources are available isn't always the only reason to build a new town.
7. Technology trees: I like the way that this has been implemented.
8. Out of the box mod support: This is fantastic. I'd love to see a spell editor, unit editor, etc. I haven't messed with the XML yet, but I plan to start once the game has settled down some.
Suggestions and bugs:
1. Sounds: After a while of play (say an hour or so, the sounds in combat stop working. Not sure if this is a memory leak or what. The only way to get it back is to quit the game and reload a saved game.
2. Equipment: The list of equipment available doesn't work right. After getting additional equipment, a number of items disappear. Traveler's boots, Journyman's Cloak, and Traveler's cloak, in particular disappear.
3. Equipment 2: I have a ton of heroes (including my sovereign!) who can buy items from the shop but cannot equip them because they don't appear in their equipment list. VERY frustrating.
4. Magic: My current game, I have four mana shards of both fire and water. The spells do so little damage, it's not even worth casting them. My suggestion: damage needs to be re-worked entirely. Instead of a mana shard simply extending the upper bound (thus increasing the variance), tack an an extra "die" for each shard you control. If you have a caster with INT 20, he does 1-20 damage with no shards, 2-40 with 1, 3-60 with 2, and so on. If you feel this is too powerful, simply cap the upper boundary of 100, that way, each new shard increases the average damage. I'd also suggest increasing the lower boundary by INT/5, rounded up. Also, obviously, there is a bug in the game where the shards don't work in tactical combat. Finally, increase the mana costs to compensate. If I cast a spell, I want it to be a BIG DEAL.
5. Magic 2: the magic system overall, seems bland. There is not enough variance in the different spells. I think there needs to be a theme for each school of magic, and these schools need to be well defined paths. There aren't enough neat special effects to make the various spells unique and fun. Suggestions: Wall of ice, wall of fire, floating cities, wall of brambles, acid storm, avalanche, ice storm, fire storm, choking vines, lava vents opening up beneath my enemies! Spells that make people fall down! If you'd like a full spell list, I can do that in another post.
6. Magic research: Getting access to spells is too easy. You shouldn't be able to progress in elemental schools until after you gain access to a mana shard. Develop some basic spells to take the place of the low level elemental magic (magic missile!), and shove the elemental spells off until after you gain a shard. Require a shard for every two levels of elemental magic you can research. This will make having control over a mana shard a BIG DEAL. Also, the number of shards in the game is ridiculously high. I have probably 25 in my domain in my current game. Fewer shards makes them more precious, sought after, and fought over.
7. Mana regeneration: Okay, so we have a game that uses magic. There's a limit to it, which is how fast you regenerate your mana pool. There is only one thing in the WHOLE GAME that increases this rate, and it's a unique improvement. Each mana node you control should increase you regeneration rate. Make this a steep climb so it doesn't become too silly. Make it double the number of shards you need to increases it each time, so the first one gets you one point, then 2 more, then 4 more. Expand the number of different city improvements that help the channelers regenerate magic (perhaps one that offers a single point, and one that offers a % boost later).
8. Quest triggers: If you are going to leave quest locations on the map, please make some sort of indication of whether there location has been visited or not, if there is an active quest, and if there is no quests. If there aren't going to be quests there again, take it off the map. It's boring and it clutters up the map with uninteresting items. Make them glow blue if they haven;t been visited, green if they have an active quest, and no glow if they have nothing going on. You could also occasionally pop new quests in there.
9. Quest triggers 2: These need to be seriously looked at. I just finished the Sagog's egg quest. I've got the egg, but I have no idea where to go now. I went back to the original location, and nothing happened. So I think it either lost the trigger between saved games or something.
10. Disappearing stuff upon loading saved games: this is particularly frustrating. I've loaded games and had caravans disappear, different monsters than were there before, etc.
11. Monster spawn zones: I'd like to be able to go and destroy these. I think a spider lair that spawns spiders that you can destroy would be an interesting addition to the game. Have the adventure levels spawn new zones in addition to spawning monsters. Having to pacify an area of monsters before rolling in with your pioneer would be cool.
12. Quest UI: I'd like to be able to keep track of where and what is going on with a quest from the dialog box for quests. Having a button that points out the next location to the quest on the game map would be a great help.
13. Lists: I'd like to see a city list and an army list, so I can better manage my cities and armies in large games.
14. Trade caravans: One per city seems kind limited. How about an improvement that increases this by one?
15. Workers: I'd really like to be able to build my own roads, fortresses, bridges, and such. Make it cost resources and require a unit. Put the ability to do it in the construction tech tree.
16. Rivers: Can we see rivers? They add a cool element of strategic importance. You can build bridges , create natural fords, etc.
17. Terraforming: I'd really like to able to create beaches and land bridges and stuff. The invincible cliffs that are everywhere really limit how you can use boats and raise land spells.
18. Seas are boring: How about "rich fishing grounds, clams, or coconut trees" as a resources near or in the water. Maybe you create a "fishing fleet" improvement over them. Put some boats out there, have them bring in food. Oh, and how about some nice sized lakes for fish, too!
19. Defined item slots: You should only be able to wear one necklace, 4 rings, one hat, etc.
20. Magic items: there aren't enough neat magic items in the game. Magic hats, rings, necklaces, earrings, pants, shoes, boots, whatever.