Ok, first I did not really have time to check the forum if my points have already been addressed in some other post(s). I have couple points to share. I also have a computer that struggles to keep its W8 os running so I'm not going to go into crashes, graphics etc. At the moment I play mainly/only single player because of my slow computer.



I played Normal speed game on normal difficulty as vaulters. 6 players in total (5 AI). I won a walk in the park scientific victory on turn 297. I could have won on any other victory condition but wanted to explore different game mechanics and paths to victory (and also get the achievement for finishing main quest. Looks like you really don't need much of an army to beat the AI. I enjoyed the the game but would like to point out couple things that could be improved or changed. I also leave AI out as I take it's under improvement.





Liberal market for heroes:

It was surprisingly hard to find a (good) hero from my own faction on marketplace. Heroes from other factions were also roughly equally expensive. (I bought only 1 vaulter hero as I thought other ones were better for tasks I had in mind, so no problem) Any way it would make sense that heroes from rival factions would be at least more expensive (by some factor), especially if you are at war with their faction. Just an opinion not really a problem in my mind, but at least it could be said clearly that skill tree is a one way street. (Tutorial might have had something on it, I did not do it)



Still on heroes: I assume there will be more variety of heroes inside factions? different types (infantry, support...) heroes of same faction.



Skill tree /Drakken hero:

I was irritated to notice my drakken hero hired as governor was not able to skill up from "cultural ambassador" to "inspirational leader". I had to pick 4 "useless" skills (and levelups) from common skills to get there. Is it intentional that you cannot go to lower tier skills from higher tier ones, also is drakken hero skilltree like this on purpose? The vaulter, wild walker, ardent mage and necrophage heroes I had seemed to have more chances to cross between different skill areas and have more straight forward development routes for governor hero in my opinion.



Market usability:

It would be nice to switch strategic / luxury resources and stockpiles to match the corresponding selection on marketplace automatically. So when I have strategic resource tab open for trade and click luxuries tab open it would make also the box listing my current (for sale) resources to luxury resources. Besides this I think market works smoothly.





I share also a couple of (more or less wild) ideas that came up to make this more than a list of complaints.





Neutral Armies could be able to siege resource extractors etc. or even raze them to make them more dangerous.



Terrain height as strategical issue:

I would love to see more use of terrain height differences on strategical map. now it seems to be cliffs = no go, forests = real strategic hindrance. but hills in my opinion are there just for good looks on strategic map. Yes they have effect on tactical battle, but I would like to see more. I do not know how the movement system is coded and is it easy/possible to make moving from higher to lower (and/or vice versa) cost more move points. This could be reduced/removed by a skill for a hero. By gods, there could even be a (high level) hero skill that would allow an army to bypass cliffs.



Local weather effects:

It would be cool to have other weather effects than winter. What I mean is non global, possibly moving, weather areas on map in style of blizzard that would halt/hinder movement of your units and possibly damage them if they end up in them at the start of their turn or dust storm that could improve dust production of hexes it is in the given turn. I mean something like satellites from civ beyond earth, that would cover couple hexes on map and move and cause effects without control of player. Of course their movements should be more or less predictable, after all there is climatology guild and the other building to improve winter forecasts.



Trade missions:

A civ 5 stylish trade mission would be nice: hero would travel to a city controlled by another player (or some other location) with some pack mule units (that would take slots from military units in army). Then player would get dust (or resource or...) per pack mule depending on distance to his capital or so. This could make use of heroes more versatile than just generals and governors.