Elemental is a game with more potential than I have come across in years. That said I am sure that it was challenging, fun and frustrating to develop (and continues to I'm sure).

               I am aware that your team has been working diligently to fix bugs and make the game a better experience. I am a software engineer myself so I can empathize with your efforts to make the game a better experience (espically your rants about graphic cards and compatability, yikes!).

               I was not part of the beta, but over the last three days I have logged close to 30 hours in game both the campaign and random games. I really like this game, and I want to help make it better so perhaps it will remain on my hard drive for many years.

               Please take my suggestions as just that, suggestions. You have created an amazing game that I want to make even more amazing.

NPC Heroes:  (Lump sum loyalty vs. salaried, place to work, & quest item trading)

                - I doubt an NPC can budget their lump sum money to last years I think the NPCs should move to a similar model of the troops and paid gildar on a per turn basis (and perhaps get a discount when garrisoned like I mentioned above).

                - Make it so gildar/arcane/tech producing NPCs only produce when they are stationed in a town. (Perhaps gildar NPC in a town with a market, arcane with a laboratory, tech with a study?).

                - Trading quest items between NPCs is tedious. Perhaps when NPCs find quest items like say midnight stones it goes to the sovereign’s inventory?

Weapons & armor:  (everyone is using the same inventory at mid - end game)

                -Just because you can now make broadswords does not mean that some people will be good at wielding them. Perhaps some of the NPCs have some disposition with blunt vs. cutting weapons (+25% attack with blunt weapons)... I don't know. The game loses variety when everyone has the same weapons.

                -There should probably be a harsher penalty for the heavier armor, or some strength requirement. Having someone with a 6 strength fully suited up and running around the tactical map is a little unrealistic.

                -Visiting the merchant to buy items for a NPC or sovereign is not user friendly. There is one long scroll menu with no ability to sort. What happened to those great menus you guys made on the “create sovereign” menus? The items should be grouped like in those menus.

Maintenance Fee on troops:  (Troops are to expensive to maintain early game)

                I have played several "New Games" in Elemental. I find I would rather equip & pay some npc (gildar/arcane/tech) hero a one time fee instead of hiring some peasants to protect a town because the cost/reward. So perhaps if troops are garrisoned in a town they get a % discount on the upkeep fee. If they end the turn outside a town there is no discount. This would encourage players to build armies to protect, but give them a discount when the army is not mobilized.

Quests and Notable Locations:

                -I think that the quest level should be auto tied to the NPC’s level not tech? If my Sovereign’s level is 3^rd level then I should be able to do level 3 quests? Anything above level 3 quests should not appear on the map?

                -I have no idea how to raise my notable location level (tech? if so the techs are not very descriptive to let me know what I need to research). I don’t even know what causes higher notable locations to show up on the map. There is a lot of confusion around this (I had to Google and there were apparently a lot of others in the same boat.) I love the idea; it just needs to be more intuitive.

                -The quest journal is not easily setup. Perhaps a horizontal split list and details view (http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83902)?

Tactical Battles:

                -There should be an option that has 3 options. Tactical battles always on, always off, and always ask. There are times when the computer auto resolves without asking me and it irritates me to no end.

                -Make the music on tactical battles more nerving. Hearing birds chirp in a tactical battle seems weird, there should be fast paced action like music to get the player going.

                -AI is non existent for tactical battles.  If the AI is heavily out gunned it should sit on a +defensive bonus hill and wait for the player to come to them.

                -The defensive bonuses seem kind of high.  50% is a huge bonus.

Kingdom Report:

                -What is “Our Reputation Level” and what is it used for?

                -Some mouseovers might help describe some of the items here.

                -Perhaps some grouping here might make the view a little easier to consume. Like a budget, production, population, army,….

Foreign Relations:

                -I should be able to request/give gifts to other leaders in the form of gildar, materials, these gifts should be configurable as a one time gift or a reoccurring payment (there is a big difference between trade and a gift. (Trade is just a swap, a gift comes with influence. Perhaps add gifts to the diplomacy tech tree).

                -Sometimes other sovereigns make demands for gildar, they should make these demands on materials they need as well (food, materials, iron, NPCs?, …) and not just a lump sum, they should ask for reoccurring payments. These requests might come with a random short term non aggression pact of lets say 15-20 turns.

                -Is “Might” on the bottom graph the same as Power Rating on the foreign relations tab? Should they be labeled the same if that’s the case?

                -Why should I be able to see how much gildar income the opposing kingdoms are producing? Perhaps I should only get access to detailed information of other Kingdoms if I marry one of my children into their kingdom? (Or maybe I can hire some adventurers to collect information?)

                -Perhaps if I am at war with another kingdom I shouldn’t be able to see any information about them (like their relationships with other kingdoms, income, might,…)

Dynasty:

               -This aspect of the game is great but I think it should be brought up a notch.

                -Icons/card of children change as the children age. (Ex: I have a child who is 19 years old yet still has an icon/image of a baby in a cradle.)

                -Children should show up in the palace city and should be able to be killed if the city is taken (evil, yet a cool twist)

                -Children should “enter service” (become controllable) at a random age between 16-18?

                -Children should require a salary that is much higher than most NPCs (they can cast magic right? Seems like princes/princesses always cost daddy more than the help).

                -I should have the option to stop having kids if I want lol….. They can be expensive (see last suggestion).

                -Should my wife die, I should have the option of remarrying. (Or should I want to divorce her?)

                -Should I be able to have children with anybody? Might make for an interesting dynasty tree.

                -It looks like there is an empty box above the “1^st in line for the throne of x” where perhaps I should be able to add some lore?

                -What determines if a NPC accepts my proposal? Perhaps charisma should have an impact on it?

                -Sovereign’s age does not show up on his Heirgamenon (it does display on Dynasty when he is selected)

                -Apparently NPC’s also have an age (my wife has one when I select her on the Dynasty tab). These should show up on their Heirgamenon. Do they eventually die of old age?

                -Why don’t any of my NPCs marry others?  If they were allowed to marry others would they have children of their own that would populate the world and be for hire by my children when they assume the throne?

Air/Water/Fire/Earth Shards:

                -It’s not clean how valuable these shards are. On the spell descriptions it’s difficult to identify the damage amount, as well as the damage bonus as a result of having a shard shrine.

                -If I don’t know how valuable they are then I am less willing to fight over them.

Research Technology:

                -Research seems like a slam dunk. No matter what, a breakthrough is guaranteed (nothing should be so guaranteed). There should be some randomness to it. For example make it so that “Turns until next breakthrough” says 4-6 turns and then next turn it would say 3-5, then 2-4, then 1-3, then on the next turn the breakthrough happens or it says 1-2, then next turn if it does not happen it says 1. The game is surrounded by randomness so god knows research and development should as well.

                -Have research setbacks. For example during any time prior to a breakthrough have instances where a setback adds X number of turns to the breakthrough time. These setbacks may be so severe that they actually burn down a study/university/school in one of the cities.

                -Make research cost gildar and research points. I’m sure even though I paid to build a study the people doing the studying have expenses (food/parchments/..). If research cost gildar and tech I might consider building an army instead of researching. They are exclusive now but shouldn’t in my opinion.

                -The magic tech tree is very short. Perhaps add a tech line for spell book size (# of spells that can be held in the sovereign’s spell book)?

Towns:

                -Renaming a town will not cause it to be renamed on the cloth map.

                -When I tried to build a town on a road I was given the error that I need to be on a free tile to build a town.

                -When I am in the build mode on a town and I click to build something in a specific location, the moment I click the map centers on the clicked location and I end up dropping the new item to build in a location I did not intend to. This happens VERY often and can be annoying.

                -There appears to be a colored ring around the town Heirgamenon button that I have no idea what it represents.

                -Is there a way to visibly show where the remaining open tiles are? Perhaps when you are placing new build items in a town, have the open tiles (where you can’t build yet) show up red (like the usable slots show up green during placement now).

                -In the Heirgamenon you should relabel the “Train Ratio” to “Train Rate” and convert it from a decimal to a %. Same with “Construction Ratio”.

                -I think the Heirgamenon for towns should be better grouped and intuitive. It’s difficult to understand the math of the modifiers. It should be grouped into production, modifiers and totals.

                -The randomly spawned guardians when town levels is a waste, and not practical. Perhaps other benefits should be considered when a town levels up.

Caravans:

                -How do I get a town to support more caravans?

                -How do I decipher the trade route information on a town Heirgamenon? I see it shows that there are trade routes setup, and I see percentages, but I don’t know what those percentages influence (gildar perhaps, food?). Also what does it mean when it says (No caravan sent)?

                -Perhaps a tutorial on caravans would help.

Boats:

                -There should be a tutorial specifically on how to build them, what their benefits are and such because I am 30 hours in and have not even touched them, nor seen any of the other empires building/using them. They seem like an afterthought but could be very useful in maps with a lot of water.

                -How come no quests that require boats? Or perhaps they exist and I have not gotten to them yet.

Misc:

-Experience and next level experience should show up on the sovereign /hero/unit’s Heirgamenon under stats.  

                -Randomly the “equip” button on the sovereign /hero’s Heirgamenon does not display. Yesterday while playing I accidently clicked on the build settlement icon (there was a pioneer in my party) and it brought up the sovereign’s inventory window.

                -After saving the game, when I click “Back to game” the game renders in 3d from the cloth map (I have adjusted my setting to cloth map zoom level to 95 in the options).

                -I have a game where a fire shard appeared on a warg on the map. Although this is possible, it is impossible to mine both.

                -There is no difference between a beach and a cliff on the cloth map.

                -Is there any benefit to “guarding” a unit (it appears it just “sleeps” them).

                -When a unit is “disbanded” perhaps a portion of the materials/metal/crystal should be returned and their population refunded to the nearest non maxed population town? (Maybe a recycling type technology that returns a greater %?)

                -Why can I design/train a unit and then trade weapons/armor with them that they cannot equip? For simplification trading with trained units should not be allowed.

                -Upgrading units should be simpler (why do I have to kill off my units and replace them to upgrade them?). Perhaps on the unit’s Heirgamenon “Equip” button I can select any of the new weapons/armor/items I have researched and can pay money to upgrade them (with also an increased maintenance fee as well).

                -How are the terrain bonuses beneficial on the strategic map? If I have a city that spans both grassland swamp and a hill does defending the city have any benefit based upon these terrain bonuses?

                -There should be more beach than cliff on a map to make boats more of a strategic tool. Being very limited where they can land troops leads to choke points that are easily defended thereby neutralizing any marginal use they have.

                -If I have a town with a fishbone (starved) why does it continue to have growth?

               -When starting a new game there are little in the way for map creation options. For example when playing civilization 4 I can choose several different attributes that influence the map that is generated. Archipelago, multiple continents, mountainous,…

               -When I create a new game and am at the prompt to select or create a new sovereign, when I select a sovereign I should get a button to delete. I know this can be accomplished by right clicking but that is sloppy.

               -I should be able to “recast” a summoning spell (familiar/fire giant…). Recasting should destroy the old one and create a new one at my selectable position. (Perhaps a warning that recasting the spell will destroy and recreate the giant/familiar/..).

               -Combat ratings seem useless.  No idea how they are currently calculated but I do not rely on them at all. Need a better formula.

               -After a tactical battle where one of my NPC/sovereign levels up the cursor remains as a tactical movement cursor (dotted line and X) which makes it VERY hard to allocate the level up points. This happens every time (I almost always use tactical battles).

-There should be an editor in the workshop to create NPCs, quests?,… (I love the workshop!!)

                -Selecting a town, on the “resources” tab and hovering over the “Prestige” brings up a mouse over that contains text that goes outside of the mouse over background box.

                -A sense of the “Year” would be cool (instead of just the turn number). I see that my Sovereign age shows up on the Dynasty tab, It would be nice to see the somewhere on the current year (since the cataclysm?) and how many turns are left in the year.

                -NPC’s don’t seem to wander too far. It seems like they like to hover around certain areas. It would be cool if they traveled between pubs/inns that were built between their random wandering.

                -When selecting a NPC it sometimes says travelling to 54,16 (coordinates obviously). It should instead of say.. Travelling northwest, travelling north, travelling south, travelling to the pub in x, travelling to the inn at x, (or heck if they are a merchant say “Travelling to the Bazaar at x),… relative to their current position.

                -Researching seafaring and building a harbor should allow for the harvesting of fish. Harbors should add +x food)

-Greg