Ok, I just finished reading all the posts, and there are a LOT of interesting (and repeated) ideas... but what surprises me the most is how everybody talks about civ5 and MoM. I own both, and I really thought Warlock was a fresher MoM in a Civ 5 suit... but it isn't. This is Ardania, and we must think of Majesty when playing at it. And that's where my ideas go:
* In Majesty one and two, when we build a guild, we hire heroes. Except for the really OP (they should cost 6 perk points instead of 5) mega destroyers of the pre-order DLC, everything else are just armies. I like the way the combat is made, but I'd like to see more heroes, either because you "buy" them with perk points, or because you win them by doing really difficult and special quests.
* Again, following Majesty's path, lets see at the economy. When you get to build/conquer a lot of cities, you can specialize them in order to get gold, mana or food. I won't bitch about the different races and their strong points in the matter, but lets go to the other side. Most of the time, by the end of my campaign over the poor sods that draw the short straws when the game decided who to put in front of my armies, the map has one color (all over it, even in the Island setting): mine. No neutral cities, no other world access, no nothing, just my own banner. And then, I find that most of my cities, even with a market built in, are loosing gold (except for 2 or 3 that are sustaining the whole economy). That can't be right. If the frontiers of your cities are in contact, you should get a "trade" bonus (like in the civs games). This isn't just because it's there, but because you had it too in Majesty (I and II). You had a Marketplace in town, and several outposts everywhere around to send donkeys with goods to get better funds in the Market.
* When you heard "The Dwarves just joined your Kingdom, Your Majesty", you could build the überpowerfull Ballista Tower. But here, even if you have access to a dwarven settlement, you get squat (oh, yes, the ability to build dwarves is nice, but most of the time, I rather get the +10 gold AND weapon upgrade). The fact that you have access to dwaves in your kingdom (not in the city), should add the chance to upgrade the punny towers to ballista towers, and the city defenses too (which as of now, they suck big time). Oh, yeah, they are ok (barely) for most rats and bats, but when an elemental comes down bashing, you get flattened in 3 turns. Not to mention when upgraded/OP units appear outside your gate just because. City defenses should be dangerous for armies, and cities should be take down by several armies simultaneously (not just one troll with nice upgrades).
* There is a serious balance issue with the races. Clerics (and their "enhanced" forms) are useless. Trolls are OP (Old trolls don't even qualify for that definition, they just need a new term). Stubborn Knights NEED an upgraded form (they are ok against most enemies in the lower tiers, but against the upper tiers, they are as usefull as warriors, which is nothing). Ghosts are somehow OP, if you train/enhance them right. I had a ghost unit that by itself took 3 Monster cities in one Normal game.
* Overall, the early game is dominated by food and mana, but the ending game is dominated by gold, which means if you are playing humans, you suck up till the end (if you manage to get there). One way to balance this isn't just nerfing/pumping units, but by making the upgrades more expensive as more units have them (because you get to deplete the resources). Also, if the resources deplete after 1d6+4 units upgraded, having another source of the material makes sense, and makes us think carefully which unit gets which upgrade (and the units built in the city that has the resource don't get the upgrade for free).
* My personal favorite are the Undead, but I'd love to see another races or even units (how come the Monsters don't have gorgons or arpies???!!! They were SO common in Majesty I...). The Monsters are Ok as a secondary race, for the trolls, mostly, and for the food (for the special units, since there are none which consume mana instead of food).
* On that last point, and begining with the magic part of this post: add a spell of alchemy, to transform food/money/mana on another resource as needed.
* I know a lot of people already said this but: This is a game about magic and warlocks, and we can only throw 1 spell at a time (sometimes less), and we can't channel or powers through our troops... that must change.
* I get the idea about not needing "terraforming" spells in the city, since everytime we build a structure over hazarduous terrain, that piece of terrain becomes "normal plain" and even has a road, but it could be nice to transform the terrain around us (maybe lowering an unpassable mountain, or raising the sea floor to build something else there...).
* Following the last entries, let's talk about the magic itself. Jus for maintaing balance (I'm a big fan of it), but also making the game already more interesting, all NON-GLOBAL spells should have their casting time reduced to half what they have now, but also cost 50% MORE mana.
* Ah, also, there are lots of elemental damaging spells, a couple of death damaging ones, but there are no Life or Spirit damaging spells. That's a serious lack there, since undead are totally immune to Death, and you have really cheap ways to improve elemental resistance (armor upgrades and spells). Perhaps, the "Ghost Wolves" could change their damage to "spiritual", and ghosts too (which would make them the most dangerous creature out there, since no creature is resistant to spiritual and they are virtually untouchable).
* Speaking about immunities... I know this has been said, but... How come Fire Elementals suffer elemental damage??!! Seriously, I destroyed one with a fireball. Perhaps is too difficult to separate de different elements and have units more resistant to one or two, instead of just "elements", but hey, at least put their resistance in 100 (also, drop the Death Immunity to 50 or 75 resistance, there is no reason for them to be immune to death magic).
* Summons cost too little, both in casting and maintenance. That's the principal reason the other warlocks create a lot of ghost wolves and rats (the second is one of the most useless spells in the whole game). Rats are just annoying, specially by endgame.
* Which brings us to AI. The opponents only use lower tier units, usually depend a lot on towers (which are SERIOUSLY useless) and summons (as I said above). They never build dragons, nor summon elementals. They totally should.
* Yes, the diplomacy sucks. I really don't understand the way it works. If I just met one, and I have some gold/mana, they usually ask, for about half of what I have. When they propose non-agression pacts, or even alliances, they tend to ask for a lot less "tribute" and sometimes even offer trade (not that you can change what they offer, but still is nice to see I don't have to obliterate them just because). It's funny to see they declare war at me after I took 3 of their cities and I'm camping with the same 3 units that just destroyed them outside their capital. The AI should know when is overpowered and try to play "nice" long enough to regain strenght (I did it a couple of times, so I know it could work).
* I don't agree with the idea of having portals in the cities to travel around, since we have a super-teleport spell, but we need a "group teleport" spell for moving lots of units at once.
* About city management, since I touched that subject, I agree with all them out there that asked for a way to: demolish buildings (make it cost money and twice the time to build the next one), construct upgrades of buildings on the same spot (like instead of having a granary, a mill and I don't remember the other building, we use only one spot for that building, and for a bit of gold (and perhaps when the city reaches a predetermined level) we upgrade it to the next. Obviously, we do the same with the mana and money buildings. This way, when a city is conquered, you don't get to have "greyed" buildings since you won't loose the previous tiers, but all together.
* On this note: upgrades for buildings don't get to be constructed when the city grows, but whenever a city is iddle (not recruiting, either).
* Some military buildings can use the previous rule, but others (most of them, I recon) can't.
* The inteface ideas everyone's been giving are ok, they have my vote.
Ok, since it's already 2 AM and I have to work in the morning, I'm leaving. Please, excuse any errors I might have commited, but english isn't my birth tongue, and it's been a long week.
If I get any more ideas or comments, I'll edit this here.
