Anytime someone starts a post/statement with any variation of "Not to offend, but. . ." I immediately disregard everything else they're saying, because they basically just said "I am going to say something very offensive."

I suspect I am not the only person with this reaction.

And the plumber example didn't help your argument.

Besides being a replayability issue, everybody wants to know that this world belongs to them only, and the story they are writing with the gameplay is uniquely theirs.

     You know, I don't plan on buying this game, as soon as I see tiles, I'm out. And Dawn of Discovery, a very different game, had graphic's that put this game to shame. ( those are cities)  That said I agree with this poster that maybe going on vacation immediately after launch, no matter how deserved is not a great idea.

You know after posting in another thread I've decided that I needed to comment on this. Your assessment of the stats is misguided I think, based on how you are approaching the game.

1. Str and Dex are good for attack/defense, yes, but that's equivocal with CON, because with CON you can absorb a couple more retaliations, plus you can eat a couple of spells from an enemy caster.

2. Int is balanced once Magic is brought up to par. The problem isn't that INT is unbalance, the problem is Magic is generally weak and narrow, this will get fixed.

3. Essence/Wisdom is huge. It is absolutely huge, but people don't recognize it because they aren't making use of its greatest function: "Imbue Champion". Imbuing your Champions can make for some major strength. Sure, you'll end up limiting a lot of your casters (besides your sovereign) to only casting one or two spells, but when you add the Unit Essence Bonus techs in the Magic tree (which people think is useless, because again they're not using Essence/Wis to its utmost) they stack up to be powerful casters. Hire more champions. Imbue them with some casting ability. Split your armies. Don't just have your Sovereign be your only real force. You have so much capability with a high Wisdom to spread your spellcasting out to more than just your Sovereign it's almost a pity no one ever seems to use it.

4. CHA is a lot more powerful than people think. They think it's not powerful because of the issues with #3. If you take into account that you can splash your Essence around and make a score of armies led by some moderately-powerful casters that can adjust the tactical floor (which makes the Tac battles a lot more Tactical) then you will begin to see the real value of CHA when you move to hire the higher level adventurers that, with a CHA of 8-10 cost over 200gildar, but with a CHA of, say, 13-16 cost a mere 160ish gildar. 

Remember "Imbue Champion" and "Make Caster" are there. Remember that. That is the single-most powerful spell in the entire game, and I really think no one realizes that.

I find those being so anxious to stand up for the developers, to use another bad anology, like a hostage not wanting to piss off there captor.  If we piss them off they might stop trying to develop patches.  We will never really know what was in their minds when they released this game.  "Maybe they really did believe it was ready for release".  Close your eyes, say that three times, and click your heels.

I am actually liking the post patched game, having played about twenty hours with very few problems.  I am just commenting on the process following the release problems.

To be fair, just about every 4X game has you pretty much building the same building on every single city or planet...

1. I think in the current version and even if the combat mechanic will be changed the HP are too low to protect your character in the late game where a single hit can inflict 20 or more points of damage.

2. You are probably right, but my comment was aimed at the current version.

3. and 4. Yes i forgot that you can give your Essence to other Champions, but i think WIS and CHA should be not used only for Imbuing Champions.

I'll definitely grant you #1. I think 5:1 is too big of an exchange though. 3:1 would be a lot better balanced. 5:1 would make sov's way OP. 2, yeah, but thankfully they are fully aware of it and have pledged to get that resolved.

Well, Essence will also become more powerful once the magic system is fixed, in all honesty, but I do agree with CHA. It is not underpowered by any stretch, but it could have a wider range of function. I think that was my primary meaning and I just did not convey it well.

Oh, i meant that your character gets 1 HP per level after the first for every 5 points of CON (CON 10: 10 HP at level 1 and 2 HP per level after the first).

I think the Enchantment book should be moved from the character creation to the Magic tech tree and the Elemental books should cost 2 points per maximum spell level.

This would bring the character creation closer to MoM and gives the player more options to customize his character.

Can't wait to see where this goes. Gl&Hf

EDIT: Having issues with quoting Islanddog

Elemental, really is a great game. But I've found some minor issues that, in my opinion, need fixing;

-the faction strengh "Master Archer" need to be fixed. At the moment it gives you archery, and the ability to research the techs that has that as there requirement. This means you can research the best weapons in the game, immediately. The requirement for all techs, should be changed, so it is all preceding techs, so that "Master Archer" only gives you archery from the start of the game.

-When playing as an Empire, you can build a peasant unit with 13hp, base 5,+8 from Con.

-Legendary Gear is to cheap to buy for your champions and sovereign and to easy to get in the tech tree.

There are many bug, polish, and system issues which I could list here, but there's only one problem i don't see being addressed currently by the team and will focus on instead.

For me, the biggest issue is the giant gremlin in the room . It's the thing on your list of improvements that many 4x and stardock fans really don't understand:

"- More Maps"

As someone else has already said above, no one wants more maps. More maps is a temporary fix. We want a real, working, random world generation algorithm.

All the current statements out of Stardock on other issues give me confidence in the future of this game except this one; When i first heard what the game was currently doing my jaw hit the floor. The mind boggled and to this day remains in a boggily state. I guarantee you this is an issue that will become more and more pressing with time as player's start realizing that the game is just recycling pre-created maps over and over again. The way things work now, most players won't even be aware the game is doing anything differently than they expect when they start a new game and make a new world. But when they do, it will be a rude awakening.

Even 100 or 1000 times the current number of maps can never gurantee a player won't end up in a ruined game. And without a real algorithm, players can never tweak the maps for the base game to their liking, or for mod makers, to fit their mods the way they would expect to be able to.

There has never been a game i can remember in the genre that has not provided this feature or has attempted to get by with this current approach. World creation and exploring the unknown is the core of 4x and without it Elemental will always be less than it should be, especially to the fans that put the most effort into learning, playing, and modding the game.

Civ, Moo, Mom, GC; how many of these games would still be relevant today if they shipped with the system Elemental is using? It's hard to make any sort of positive argument for this approach, especially with how much focus the team has put on saying that the sandbox is the focus of the game.

It's also been said by Stardock that mod creators will provide maps and this will somehow solve the problem long term, but this idea is rather strange. Why would modders create hundreds of basic maps designed according to a strict standard for playability, just to have them placed anonymously into a seed directory. And why should the player have to download them just to guarantee the basic mode stays interesting--not to mention the time a player loads up a map and realizes the ocean is shaped like a penis.

For the longevity of the game, the team needs to come forward and reassure players and modder's that a working world generation engine will happen at some point.

For more reference there was a large topic on this with feedback from many people, including some big names in the civ modding community: https://forums.elementalgame.com/391353

I'm a huge fan of GC 2, Sins, and Stardock's general approach to game design. I just hope you guys come around on this issue so i can breath a little easier. 

I'm glad your listening and working so hard to get this game in ship shape. I know this issue can seems less pressing than bugs, ui, and big game play problems like the magic system, but it's still a really important part of the game and should be given some love as well.

Good lucks guys.