Day 1 playthrough comments

A bunch of thoughts about FE in general after playing 2 games.

First kudos on getting back to beta 1 of WOM. This is the type of fun gameplay I sorely missed after War of Magic had moved into beta 2 and things got very bland and more broken. Fallen Enchantress is already more stable than WOM was at launch and more fun than WOM has ever been.
New games seem to always crash around turn 30 and then the game gets stable (I just restore from save game). The game can play for hours until memory use builds up too much.
The game seems to run a lot slower than it should for the graphics settings I have used. Both in loading the game and actual gameplay.
Too many fissures on a balanced map. It seems to be a very over-used land feature. Half as many wouldn't be bad, though I kind of like some of the big ones.
Initial champion placement seemed very skewed. Both games had an extreme imbalance of Man/Fallen heroes. Once towards each imbalance.
I liked the one unique land feature I saw appear on my map. A series of caves to explore. I want these to pop up more often actually, especially on large maps.
I would like notification when it is about to go to a new game and units do not have orders. (i.e. a unit arrived at a destination set and has no further orders).
I would like notification when a cities queue is empty.
The spellcasting system is not intuitive. My champions and sovereign say they know a lot of spells but I can't seem to be able to cast them. Learning new spells and magic use is not intuitive. I have intentionally avoided the tutorial at this point (so the answers might be in there, but I know most game players won't use tutorials).
Not finding enough gildar improvements for my cities to support large armies while playing as Ironeers. I can produce them very quick and easy, but can't afford to keep them standing around.
Overall the game has a great Master of Magic feel to it, except that my sovereign doesn't feel like much of a spellcaster yet. When I'm able to figure out how to cast big world enchantments I think this will change.
I want a Master of Magic style spellbook. Accessing the sovereigns or champions spells just hasn't been that easy.
I need a way to better increase the XP on an administrator champion without subjecting them to combat. My one champion in my second game was an administrator (who despite spellcasting ability never learned any spells).

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Day 2

Found the spellbook and can cast directly from it. It wasn't obvious to me away from the other controls down by the map. More attention should be brought to it. Maybe illuminating new spells learned from ala MOM?
Played Tarth and oh what a difference from the Ironeers. Ranged champions are weaklings
Used a tactical damage spell and then engaged the army. Had to kill off units with 0 health (bug)
So now I've noticed lots of champion weapons for melee types. Where are the bows and cross bows? Where is the mage gear (I got a robe and a hat so far and a hundred pieces of weaponry and heavy armor).
The Tarth starting tech is far inferior to the Ironeer one, and lower down the tech tree.
Bow tech is hard to research. I suggest Shortbow be moved down with shields and spears, and that each of the existing bow technologies is bumped down accordingly. Add a new one at the high end (i.e. crossbow) (suggestion)
The AI isn't very smart about acquiring shards.
Most of the tactical damage spells seem quite weak compared to just whacking the enemy with weapons.
Auto-resolve AI uses up way too much mana, even on weak enemies.
Even on a large map with increased resources there aren't very many shards on the map.
I miss the way in MoM some good resources were guarded by monsters rather than simply being a pioneer rush to get to it.
My Sovereign as an Archer champion doesn't have nearly the upgrade option potential that melee champions do. They crush and she is relegated to spellcaster. Small groups of Clan of the Crow way outdamage her. The same can't be said of my champions versus their melee army counterparts.

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Nice to see a perspective of from Ironeers to Tarth. I only play Tarth and have yet to get a better bow in all my games. I usually make her a mage too just to have some options.

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Day 3

Didn't play as much today. Finally got unburied from enough snow to go to work.
Still playing Tarth, Magnus declared war on me and I have yet to find him on the map.
The game needs more "alerts". I don't have a clear idea of when turns begin and end, and if it isn't a production queue the game isn't good about alerting me.
Clicking on a unit on the right side alert icons should change focus to that unit. I clicked on a caravan and accidentally moved my main army stack.
There needs to be an alert which shows in active units.
Maybe move the spellbook icon to the top and put a button there for "awaiting orders". Also, the "End Turn" button should change colors or something to indicate every/unit city has been looked at or is doing something. (Suggestion)
I've tried a lot of combinations with champions and collecting all that I can. Some are awful and a few are good. The two good ones are: Fire Mage and any melee type. Earth and Air are very nice for overland spells, but fire is where it is at in combat whether tactical or overland. Haven't gotten a good water mage champion yet.
The different melee types of champions basically all play the same and there are no real choices, just trait optimization.
Archers starting in front during tactical battle, tanks in back. There needs to be a way to adjust the order.
I roll over Demons, but Umderdroths still give me a bit of pause. I think the Demon needs some buffing to have more "anti-army" abilities.
I would like to be able to find "Spells" just like we can find weapons. MoM made learning new spells a lot more fun.
I want to switch over to Procipinee or a Fallen race, but I'm still having fun late into the game even without a real challenge on "challenging". The game is fun to explore.
Unit runspeed is crazy. Needs to be reduced, preferably in multiple ways.
Kravox warned me about my armies encrouching in his territory. My "army" was two caravans that shouldn't have been a threat (bug)
Unit runspeed should be reduced fighting in swamps (Suggestion)
Fewer +Moves abilities, they should give either army speed or tactical speed. (Suggestion)
Need more debuffs to runspeed in tactical combat. Maybe defending assassin types can place caltrops, traps, or other things when the battle starts. (Suggestion)
My sovereign spends all her time roaming around and fighting. I have absolutely no reason to keep her at home actually ruling.
Some buildings should give sovereigns a bonus to being in the city. Whether for administration, military or spellcasting. (Suggestion).
I don't miss having to place housing, but visually it made them look more like cities.

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Day 1 of patch .76

Started with Lady Irane.

After founding a city I noticed all the grain/material scores everywhere I could see disappeared. I traveled out a ways and found shrines. Should I report this as a bug? It didn't happen in my second game except in the areas immediately around my first city.
Lady Irane's first recruit was a "spellcaster" who of course couldn't cast spells without being imbued. However, because I couldn't found a new city I couldn't really increase spell points and I was using Irane's magic to survive. A "Mage" champion that isn't imbued is utterly worthless and I was unable to get any melee champions. I gave up before turn 100 because it was clear that Irane was too weak to survive even the basic humanoid monsters now. Bear cubs and other small animals were dispatched with ease, but bandits and solitary butchermen were unstoppable in this game.
I quickly started an Ironeer game as my second for a reverse comparison. Difficulty curve is more appropriate but I hired Janusk and together they were able to clear the immediate area around my city. Loot doesn't seem as powerful as in .75 initially so the scaling isn't as insane.
I started work on a shrine in my area which was being developed seperate from my city's build queue. When I connected my city to it before it completed, it entered the build queue at the end. Is this as intended? (bug)
Champions and sovereigns sometimes just parked in the city, as it was a lot more dangerous to just wander around. I actually like this, but I wish there was more of a reason to it.

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Day 1 of Patch .77

I played 3 games for starters, Irane, Procipinee, Procipinee.
If Irane or Procipinee can't find a melee champion early on in the game, then they're almost guaranteed dead with the new aggressive monsters.
Procipinee's free enchantments doesn't make up for her weak defense and 1 or 2 points of damage if she has to fight... anything. Haste and Slow are great if there are units to actually buff up.
Lady Irane is almost as bad, she fares better against beasts thanks to the buff on her bow. But Bandits, Darklings, etc... no contest.
Why does Lady Irane have a racial buff from the Tarth on her? None of the other sovereigns do and it isn't helping her (bug)
When playing Procipinee she always seems to start with more Shards in the area. Have I just gotten really lucky/unlucky several games in a row? If the map is being engineered to her, I think it is overdone. Procipinee should need to expand some to grab as many Shards as I've been getting around the starting city (4-6)
Monsters need to be more defensive and a little less aggressive. They take out the AIs like crazy, and don't defend their homes so I can sweep in for free stuff too easily.
I recommend the monster AI leashes back after a set distance if the monster is associated with a lair (suggestion)
Training Technology: Text description says this gives the Barracks improvement. That improvement is available without Training (bug)
Training Technology: The absolutely most lackluster starting technology there is right now. Recommend improving it. (Suggestion)

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