The AI opponents trading must be closely balanced or it will be GalCiv all over again, where every AI has every tech and bobble the world has to offer = not fun. The concept is acceptable, but the devil is always in the execution.

As to ability ideas minor elemental resistance, one per elemental type 20-40% resistance to that damage type.

Major elemental resistance 60-80% resistance.

Elemental immunity 100% resistance less other modifications, to one elemental type (fire, electricity, etc.)

Metal immunity as above but  only to metal weapons.

Darvroth

I would love to see the item shop interface get some attention, it would be cool if, for example, when you mouse over an item in the shop, a pop up window would show how your stats are going to change if you equip that item and possibly show what the equipment would look like on the hero. currently its a bit clumsy to equip multiple heroes

Hope its on your to-do list

game is coming together nicely and im especially happy with the performance tuning that has been done, i finally getting good framerates!

Dont know if im following 100% but there was a game called Kohan which i really enjoyed playing (fantasy RTS) that you had to build more cities and pick how you wanted to build their resources so your overall pool (gold wood metal magic ect) could support your army. i recommend the 2-D sprite one, not the 3-D one.

I may have to give it a shot, as I've not played it before.

More of what I meant by organic community growth was that as your city gets bigger, new communities form around it. (Though I would like to see more specialized options than what's currently available for a city when it levels up.)

I have a couple suggestions, though the abundance is already pretty high.

Heart's Fire - Cast a tactical spell from hitpoints instead of essence and ensure max damage, might qualify as more of a spell you'd prepare as an enchantment pre-battle...

Mob/Pack Mentality - Units gain increased attack in parties, and in groups of individuals of 3+

Fanaticism - Never panics, 1.5x normal morale bonus, can't retreat

Ritualist - Can combine Essence rating at 1/1 ratio with another unit to cast spells, with exponentially diminishing returns per extra ritualist added

Tranquil Fury (Yep, right out of tvtropes) - Champions only; When army is at half strength and unit is at (>50%) hp, (Constitution)% chance of +4 str, dex, and +1 combat speed, and immunity to morale

Cut and Run - Disarmed, but receives +1 combat speed (in addition to speed gained for losing equipment [which is not replaced at battle's end], for the sake of retreating

Can an option at game creation be turned on so we can choose if we want goodie huts?

One idea I'd like to propse, borrowing from AoW series

allow gain of special abilities at random as a choice for level up.

What about cursed items or items that only benefit one faction and curse the other? Thatd be kind of cool. What about various acts that please gods at random that create random world effects in the game?

the randomly spawned guardian units need to be more buff :/ 

Special Abilities

1. Stealth - allow units to sneak up on an enemy.

2. Steal/Pickpocket - allow a unit steal items/gold from a unit vs. preforming an attack.

3. Beast Master - ability to capture & train creatures vs. just killing them.

4. Raise Dead - Create a skeleton from dead units on the tactical map.

5. Transmutation - Ability to convert one resource into another (iron to food, gold to crystals, etc.).

Just a couple of ideas ->

Auras -> heat/chill/etc -> Periodic damage [Ex.:5fire dmg/turn] if an unit stands near the creature.

Disease  Cloud -> Breath attack, which does X damage/turn in a small area & spreads disease amongst the other units. Diseased units will take X dmg / turn and it also weakens them. [- to their dmg]

Paralyze -> I don't think that I must explain this one.

Teleport -> The ability to teleport on the battlefield.

Stone Gaze [ranged] / Petrify [touch] -> Turns the target to stone.

Ethereal -> Non-magic attacks hit only X% of the time.

i like your idea about satellite communities Gorstagg. it just seems weird to have my territory covered in mines, farms, temples, and libraries. and not have small clusters of population running them. would be cool if, as a city level up bonus, you could build a small village attached to an outlying resource.

Healer.  Improves healing rates of units in the same tile.

Diseased.  Reduces healing rates of units in the same tile.

Plaguebearer.  Any unit attacked in combat has a chance of becoming plagued, losing attack and defense and taking 1 damage per turn.

Acrobat.  Gains extra dodge bonus.

How about:

Beta tester- Cause unit to stop doing anything but play Beta 4, and pull their hair out waiting for release

My wishlist relates to the AI for computer allies:

-I would like having preferential trading terms with computer allies, such as being able to trade for that midnight stone more easily from an ally versus a neutral party (even if this is as simple as neutral party wants 200 gold, ally only wants 150 gold).

-A more complicated addition would be having your computer ally help you in attacking the same opponent with coordinated attacks on their kingdom, and possibly even allowing tactical battles where the AI joins your army to fight an enemy at the outset.

Game is looking/playing great!