I have played 0.981 extensively and made a list of about 80 issues of various sizes. I have also read the 0.982 and 0.983 release notes which don't mention fixes to any of the above issues so I expect the problems still exist.

Anyway the point isn't what I think needs to be fixed, the point is that there are a number of fairly serious issues which make the game seem unpolished. I'm quite happy for someone else who is currently playing 0.983 to make a list instead, I would expect the contents to be fairly similar. I'm just trying to kick the process off and offering to maintain the list in the apparent absence of anyone else doing this.

#8 is a still a definitive problem. I wish there was a way for me to control the AI in this respect.

Hi GFireflyE, yes I had a look at your playthrough notes and think there are many good points there. However by and large I think they were smaller bugs and suggestions. These DO matter but there are many of them, Stardock are making steady progress on them, and eventually there is going to be reducing returns on the smaller issues (tho I think we are still some distance from there because of the sheer number of small/medium bugs which still exist).

My concern is that there are some larger, more serious, issues (such as the ones currently in the list) which I'm not sure Stardock regard as important. My evidence for this is limited and I'll be happy if I'm wrong but so far the recent patches seem to have focused on small bug fixes and tweaks rather than addressing the remaining bigger items. Its almost like they have decided that these bigger issues are too hard or not worth fixing in which case I think they are wrong. Hence the post .

I'm still interested to hear if anyone else can think of other big issues?

Agreed on pretty much all counts, except I think all of the 8 items currently in the list are both serious issues AND within scope for fixing as part of the final beta. All of them are bug fixes or polishing IMO, just bigger or more important issues than the norm.

BTW, I forgot but the Ctrl-N issue was included mainly from your threads (plus the fact that I was able to reproduce it fairly easily).

Are there any other particular issues from your lists which you think stand out from the the rest?

@Mistwraithe:

1. The auto-road mechanic is very sloppy and uncontrolled. Cities should have the ability to build road segments into a building queue as if it were an improvement and, while not being able to determine the exact route of the road, can determine between two sites that a road should exist.
• In addition, the Road Building trait from the Path of the Govenor should be given to the Govenor at his level 4 level-up. In addition to building roads within your borders, the trait should also include the ability to raze roads within your borders.
• If roads were linked together into segments, the door opens up to upgrading and enchanting them as they become selectable, as if an outpost. I had many details to the development of this idea in other threads and I think it would work really really well. It is a new feature though...
2. Essence is still way to low and way too sparatic. The map generator needs to be able to allow for most cities being made to have access to at least 1 essence. However, since that would be somewhat warped that so much essence be made available at the beginning of the game, I have recommended that the Scrying Pool be given to all factions, but attached to a new deadend tech (now that the tech's have been redesigned) stemming off of Spellbooks tech. Could call it Advanced Enchantment. This way, all faction eventually gain at least +1 essence to their cities. Pariden would still receive Scrying Pool at the beginning of the game, but when Advanced Enchantment is obtained, the bonus to the Scrying Pool could be increased to +2 essence. This solution would allow the player to properly explore all the enchantment options available to him.
3. Champion and Troop balance is still a major concern. In my current game, I have 4 heroes and because of Tireless March, their defending my entire kingdom. I have almost ZERO need for troops. I try to fit some in the queue occasionally, but the truth is, there is rarely any available queue time to build troops because:
1. more important builds are needed that directly impact the growth of my empire
2. troop costs are way too high relative to their actual effectiveness. Any opponent hero just stomps them.
3. troops don't level on their own. They must be active to level. This is a major problem as heroes explore and level. Troops defend and maintain stability in your cities. (as a side notes, every troop stationed in a city SHOULD give a 2% unrest reduction to that city. Naturally some of the other unrest bonuses would have to be reduced to rebalance the mechanic, but would ultimately increase the need to have stationed troops within your city.)
4. Pioneer spamming still runs completely rampant, hogging 60%-80% of the early game queue time. Pariden (I don't think any other has access to the Arcane Monolith) is the ONLY faction that does not have to pioneer spam because of the Arcane Monolith and that beautiful enchantment called Meditation. Another mechanic has to be made for the construction of outposts for all the other factions so that the queue time can be used to advance the empire's growth, and more importantly: focus on building effective troops!
5. Scouts are still completely useless. Someone please prove me wrong. I've tried to build them and use them several times, but there are a multitude of flaws with the concept of scouts in this game:
1. Heroes do the scouting naturally because of the quests and loot to pick up.
2. Scouts cannot pick up loot and are too weak to battle.
3. In the end, scouts need to have more function to them so that players will want to build them. In addition, they have to be way cheaper to build in order to match their effectiveness. I recommended the idea for pioneers to lose the ability to build outposts, and instead have scouts perform that function. This way, a great deal of the queue time can be saved for more important things. Scouts have a usefulness. Pioneers don't have to be spammed. It's a win-win-win scenario.
6. City Razing is a major problem. Whether it be monsters overtaking, or AI conquering, or AI quitting, the result is always the same: The city is completely destroyed. This makes absolutely zero sense and is completely frustrating. Now, you are tasked with completely rebuilding that part of the civilized world. Waste of time. Waste of effort. Takes fun away from the game. All the infrustructure was already there. I shouldn't have to rebuild it again.
1. When monsters take a city: It should become a monster spawning point. Perhaps different monsters kill off population at different rates, and when the population reaches zero, then finally the city is destroyed and it becomes a lair. The ground should still be settlable have you retake that lair.
2. When AI takes over your city, they should have the right to raze it if they want to. (I think a 5 turn limit has been placed) This is a nice feature, and often the AI will want to expand their empire so it's only cities that they do not think they can keep, they'll sac.
3. When AI quit the game, a neutral race should take over. Self razing cities is very costly to the progression of the game. In fact, it would be really nice if neutral cities existed in the game already, in addition to the available factions. Naturally 'white' would be their cultural borders...so Yithral would need a change. There shoud no reason I have to rebuild 3-4 cities from the ground up just because the faction I was conquering 'quit' so that I could not add their cities to my distinctiveness.
7. Tactical Land in combat. I'll admit, with the inclusion of the new tactical maps to help limit the battlefield, this has been partially dealt with and I applause Stardock for the approach they've taken. Therefore, having tactical landscapes would be more of a feature now than a necessity. Nevertheless, it would be a really really cool feature. It doesn't have to be overly complex and I've listed some simple effects in previous threads.
8. The concept of Influence. With few exception, influence serves no purpose in the game other than to just hoard. You can't even trade it way for something decent anymore.
1. Imo, Heroes should cost influence when obtaining their services...not gildar.
2. An increasing amount of influence is needed for subsequent heroes. This provides balance of no faction getting all the heroes with no downside.
3. Imo, Heroes should be allowed to be bribed, obviously costing a lot more influence to accomplish, but also having a large strategic hit to accomplish aswell.
4. Treaties with AI should cost ONLY influence to help set up, depending on your relations with that faction. You should not be able to tade any item you want to balance the equation.
5. Prestiege should be dependant on the amount of influence you have. Thus if you have alot, you empire grows. However, since you need to spend it, your empire will slow in growth. These are important strategic decisions that would help propagate the game.

Anyways, these are the items on my list that I see needing to be done in order to turn FE from a good game into a great game. Many problems that currently exist would be fixed by adding in these elements. Clear things up for you Mistwraithe???

Thanks. Do you or anyone else know if this is a common problem?

I've left FE running for hours while the screen turns off and it has been fine for me but I haven't been running a screensaver, nor do I have the logon screen come up on resume. I'll try both tonight.

Interesting. I feel these things should be fixed before the game is released, not necessarily because they stop people from playing and having fun with the game but because they are obtrusive and annoying enough to be noticed by reviewers and give an overall impression of a buggy game.

If your experience is with the latest patch then it sounds like Ctrl-N has already been fixed? It was pretty dodgy for me in 0.981.

Out of curiosity what would be on your list of things which need to be fixed before the game is released? It might be that this list contains the wrong items, I'm quite happy to update it.

"something most people will never do"?  A joke?

The authority with which you write does not correlate to the lack of professionalism in the content.  Quality assurance is best performed by passionate testers.  Releasing an unpolished game is worse than not releasing one at all, as any market data acquired will be based on faulty standards.

repeated ctr+n still crashes the game (it takes more tries then it did in the last release but still crashes.)

^ This.

The gaming industry is very senstive and very unforgiving. Once that %% is stamped onto the game by reviewers, that's as high as you go. Rarely does an expansion give you a second chance. Even a good expansion will be passed over by many who did not feel the core met their expectations.

I disagree.  That is not fixed.

List updated.

I also added the AI stacking buff spells like burning blade and tireless march on a single hero (usually the sovereign) half a dozen or more times to get ridiculous bonuses. Its possible this one has already been fixed in 0.983?