What a great improvement to the game Beta 4 turned out to be. The future is looking bright and I think it is time to go over a very important aspect of the game that still feels...outdated.
[ROADS]
Ah! The all important and onipresent feature in any 4x game that isn`t set in space. Roads in FE are still a crude leftover of WoM and it is about time for it to get a makeover.
Now, I might be wrong but I get the feeling that the Devs do not want us to have to deal with making roads the old fashion way by having a pioneer construct roads turn by turn. That said the current system creates a lot of frustration.
- Using outposts to create roads doesn`t work so well since you can only create a single path, once you need roads that aren`t going on a single line outposts fail. They will always create the shortest route between themselves and nearest existing road so if you are trying to link up two roads you are either going to be forced to use a silly number of outposts coming from both sides or you are going to have a gap in your road system.
- When you have economics but you capture enemy outposts they do not receive a road going to them.
- I have the ability to lower a mountain and create a strategic path shortening the route to somewhere important but i can`t use a road to cross this pass unless I use outposts which will again, not link up two sides.
- There are no "improved" roads and with the low movement that armies and champions have on large maps it can take forever for them to move along to where they are needed.
- When you capture cities, the enemey surrenders or you capture outposts the road systems starts to really get screwed up, leftover roads all over the place, weird connections and roundabouts everywhere. Looks ungly and it isn`t useful at all.
Now I get that maybe the intention is to go a different path from other games and not have the player have to micro road building but in an strategic game not being able to create paths where units move faster feels more like a fault then a feature
Personally I would give pioneers the ability to road and remove all automatic road placement from the game. No need to make roads cost anything other then the time and investment to make them, but in my opinion the ability to control road building is a must.
- Give pioneers the ability to create roads.
It would be nice if we could get enchanted roads. MoM had enchanted roads. It could be unlocked in the magic tree as long as you had the proper civilization tech and it would cost mana per tile.
- Give us the ability to spend mana to make roads faster.
[Zone of Control]
Armies shouldn`t benefit from roads inside enemy territory.
Outposts could create zones of control, if an army is defending an outpost it should prevent enemies passing through without engaging.
Last but not least, factions shouldn`t cross eachother`s borders unless through a treaty. It`s so annoying to close a gap and then be forced to check every turn to see if someone is trying to get through. They shouldn`t be able to enter if i`m just going to ask them to leave anyway.
[TRADING]
Caravans for some reason are still in the game. They don`t seem to do anything other then clear the FoW towards the other player`s capital if you have an economic treaty.
Trading with another faction over a road system should be more profitable. This would help balance the huge potential that going to war and conquering everyone has in the game right now. Having friendly factions mean very little when its so much useful to just get everything for yourself.
The peaceful ruler needs something to have a reason to be peaceful. Right now, there is no debate, going to war is always better.
[ITEMS]
I like that my heroes are spread appart over a large map. I feel like they are on adventures and it is an investment to have them away from home searching for fame and fortune. That said another of MoM`s great features would be so nice for us. Let us use mana to teleport items to other heroes.
These are my ramblings about the subject. I do think roads need to be really looked at before release. Even the graphics are outdated and in a long game with a large map roads look terrible with all the crazy pathing that goes on.
Just give us back the ability to build and destroy them and be done with it. 
