I more than think the game is "finished", as I'm pretty sure it said version 1.0 not long ago. So long as you have patching, games are in theory never "completed", but I think it is fairly clear what was being stated. The game is Gold, not pre-alpha, or even beta. Gold. Done. And you'd have to define "very much". In Elemental in total, I have around 130 hours+ (about 50+ of which are in FE).

Yep, thats how games are released now.. And in the past too really. Every game I have played on the PC has one bug or another. It is the nature of PC(and any medium) games.

Indeed. Among that plethora, MP can fit nicely.

The evidence required here would be an understanding of how long it would take to actually set up the game for MP. Unless you happen to know how long it would take for Brad and others to get it added in, we can't do a ROI because you do not know the time invested vs payout. So it is all speculation unless they chime in.

I'd also like to add that I never stated when I wanted MP. They do not have to work on it right this moment and to hell with everything else. If anything, I'm patient. Just so long as the option for MP is there and worked on at some point is what I'd like to have. And if they do not.. Well, I'm sure I'd get over it.

has anybody else noticed that several of the towns on anthys map as pictured are within FOUR squares of another town and therefore could not have been built?

harpo

Many of the gamers that like MP for these kinds of games haven't bought this game yet. As an administrator of the Steam NO QUITTERS-group (under the name NQ-Luckystrike) I'm alot in touch with the Civ5 MP community, and I'm promoting Fallen Enchantress like a madman. People are intrested and think the game seems like something they'd want to play, but the first question I always get is; Does it have MP?

Bringing MP in will in a short termed view, as you say, reallocate some of the developers from other things. In the long run on the other hand MP is vital to broaden the community of Elemental; Fallen Enchantress. In the long run I'm convinced it's the way to go and that it will benefit the community as a whole.

Another thing; MP in this game would be bloody fun. That's an important factor as well.....

I would rather not see MP for enhanced single player capabilities. It's going to take a lot of time and money to make FE multiplayer ready is what I am suspecting, and even if it does happen I believe people will be disappointed because I am sure certain features would need to be dumbed down or dropped all together. I would rather see all that time and money spent developing the single player experience because that is who is going to want to play this game. MP in a 4x TBS is a niche inside of a niche. The market is a lot smaller than the entire market because these games are hard to do MP, I mean they take copious amounts of time. Dominion 3 games can take months to play, but that is what that game is built for and that is why people are still paying $60 for it. 

tl;dr: No multiplayer for better singleplayer 

Most, if not all, of us agree the great thypical singleplayer features should stay also in multiplayer. An example is of course the unit designer. Games like FE don't atract those who want 10-30 min rts multiplay. We want the singleplayer experience but versus humans, or a combination of humans and AI.

How would that work though?  Who can dedicate the hours/days/weeks that's required for a good long 4x game to a session of MP?  And you're counting on all of the other human players playing in character appropriate to their faction and using diplomacy?  I don't see it ever working.

When Brad first announced the free expansion, he said that people that bought WoM before a certain date (which I believe was anytime in 2010) they would get the first two major expansions free.

Does anyone have a quick link?  I can't search right now.

People who bought WOM before the end of October 2010 get the upcoming expansion pack to FE for free as well.

As for MP, we've had a lot of internal discussions on this. Nothing has been decided. It won't be in the expansion though. IF we have it, it'll be in a future update. Just comes down to available development resources and deciding whether tactical battles would have to be supported to deliver the experience we would require.

Thanks for confirming that. 

Also, the image in the OP serves to reinforce something I've discovered while playing:  the cloth map is absolutely beautiful!  Nice job!!  I set the zoom level on it pretty low so I can play cloth map most of the time, and only zoom in to the "regular map" when I really have to.  Love it.

Yep, this exactly. We know it will be a long game, so we like the same level of FUN that the single player has ... that means all features, unbalanced and all

(at least normally ... eventually ppl will be calling for buffs and nerfs once they start playing a bit more competitively, but almost ANY singleplayer game can be multi-played in this fashion ... for the experience of playing the game you know and love against humans)

About the OP map image:  Is that the current size of the large maps (tile width and height) when using the random map generator?

Nope. It's much bigger.

quite likely