oh... good, never liked the defense system

I'm happy to hear that things went well. I wish you all the best, of course. Especially with all the hard work (and money) being sunk into FE.

I'll post links to any stories that go up.

I suspect that it might have something to do with the fact that in a demo Brad has control over what he shows, whether it's been thoroughly tested internally or not.  That is, he might be showing features that QA knows will work, but only under controlled conditions, and not ready for beta testers.

But the question remains. When do we get out next version

I for one am glad there is no new beta this week. I am having too much fun with this version. The next beta means I'll have to redo pretty much my whole mod to fit these mysterious new game mechanics. I want to keep a copy of .86 for posterity. 

Sure! You can go to the FE Modding section for a better description, but the basics are:

1. Summons Mod: This is mostly Heavenfall's mod, but I will be helping do the gritty xml stuff. He is making some beautiful creatures for this and Expanded Factions Mod. This mod will add around 100 summons to the game. It will be the most important mod and is scheduled to come out soon after FE's release.

2. Ivory Towers Mod: This is mostly my mod, but Heavenfall has been helping with the specifics and more may join me if they wish. This mod is all about adding a new strategy choice to the game. It will be something the AI can fully use. It will be mostly building additions and new summons and trained monsters. There will also be a unique story to go with it, done through quests and random events.

3. Quest Adventures: Circle of the Black Thorn. This will be a series of storyarchs added to the quest system. I have been working on this one since WoM, it just needs that new quest editor and some reworking to fit FE.

4. Quest Adventures: Return of Slayer. This is another series of storyarchs to be added to the stock quests. Also just needs some reworking to fit FE.

5. Quest Adventures: Tales of Orpheus. This one is partially done. It is a collection of smaller stories that resemble a choose your own adventure style.

6. Path Progression Mod. I am sure there will need to be some additions to Paths some time after release. This will be open to the community to help.

7. Books of Bedeviled Bewilderment. This is a collection of spellbooks and artifacts I wouldn't mind adding at some point to the random loot and quests. They use riddles to tell you what the spell does. Some have unexpected effects. There too little whimsy in the magic system.

Anything else I do will have to be planned for after the expansion. This is my current priority list. I have about 300 quests in total to add after I finish Ivory Towers and Summons Mod. Then I do some new Paths and spellbooks. After that it will mostly depend on how the game turns out and whether or not there are improvements needed to the vanilla. 

will there be a MEGA mod that includes all the major mods for the game (or will they be compatible with one another, they have something like this for Wesnoth), and will (please) it be as easy as press this download button here, for as interested as I am in modding I have no, I repeat no ability to even add the simplest mod but would love to have as many as possible and these sound good.  I can't wait to get all the summons to be added to the independent camps/spawns, still wouldn't give me the 'minor factions' I want but would add a considerable amount of variety