I'm always in favor of more patches. Especially considering that in the last patch things you thought you fixed, you didn't (i.e. the save game bug). It is hard to get into testing when the same bugs over and over keep you from getting anywhere in the game. "It's a bug, check my list... yep already bugged that one"

But I'm very impatient to want to see this game come together and I admit I'm not really looking at the bigger picture.

When in doubt... defend? Altough it seems better than the Evade skill, I predict the page count of this thread skyrocketing in three, two, one... At least with that option only those who want to use the Sovereign to attack can risk to lose him which seems quite an improvement. But I must ask if that would be the only mechanic related to the SD=GO and/or if you are going to contemplate other alternatives. I'm not talking of dinasties or anything like that but Contingency Spells/Rituals/Skills(/Buildings?). I know it's still soon but it never hurts to ask.

The info cards:

1. The arrow buttons in the Unit screen should be bigger. Currently we have some of those arrow buttons combined with a cursor that could use some tweaks, which don't help so much (specially trying to get units out of a city).
2. Not sure if medallions should be thumbnails of the info card. They seem nice as they are and to read the info, we have the actual info cards?
3. Totally right about image_6.png and the army comment.
4. The battle screen seemed a pure placeholder to me so... Can we get a better way to select units in that row? Clicking the border (and only some parts of it!!!) to show other of the units can be clunky.

The only true point where I want Elemental to be like MoM is that it's fun and that has me spending hour upons hour on it (like Lords of the Realm... man, that game was awesome too!!!). The only bad thing I could blame on Elemental is that it won't be truly original in it's ranks: dragons? check. Trolls? Check. Horses? Check. Etc. When I first started reading it and its (collateral and maybe purely inspirational) relation with Gal Civ, I expected humans because of certain individual. But I somehow expected the lack of horses per se (maybe some kind of alien cavalry but nothing like in Earth) for example. Altough according to one of the theories I hold, you can justify horses, dragons and even watermelons if you want because of certain individual. I'm obviously speculating but I get lots of fun of it.

Mopping up... Well, I hope that Magic isn't the only solution. Altough it can be fun to end the game with an Armagedon or crashing the moon(s) in the planet, I'd appreciate the effort to design other systems that help with it too. In MoM I played quite often a martial wizard: focus on troops and magical objects for the heroes with some little support magic. Why? Because pure wizard was fun but I enjoyed greatly to focus on all those nice units that each race had. They seemed a waste when not used to destroy my enemies.

Obviously, I like the creating your sovereign part. I should advocate for having some kind of relationship/ties/link between civilization and sovereign. But as I suppose that the idea is to have civilization and sovereign creation totally isolated from each other, that cannot happen which is a pity but I understand. But I wouldn't say no to an option in the sovereign creation screen to link permanently that sovereign to a specific civlization already created, unlocking the possibility of some special perks/skills related to the civilization. In any case, I cannot wait to know more about those four areas you pictured in the other thread. ^^

About sovereigns returning to the nearest city.

I like the solution Age of Wonder has. You return to the nearest city with a wizard tower. If you don't own any cities with towers anymore and your sovereign dies, you are history. Doesn't have to be a wizard tower for elemental, but it should be quite an expensive building to make certain players don't easily build them in all of their cities. This makes a conquest victory a bit easier since you don't have to completely destroy or conquer every single city your opponent owns.

Finishing a game you know you're gonna win is very tedious and a mechanic like this prevents a tedious mop up.

I think waiting until next week for a build is fine. Though the other half of me is impatient...

All the points you brought up are great... just one thing, caravans maybe in the beginning just move one turn so you worry about them... but later on you can research some stuff to make them move a little faster but not too much faster. Also on larger maps maybe they by default move a little faster at the start. I mean hell 64bit game and those efing huges maps... it might take a little longer for the money to start flowing when traveling just great distances. Also hopefully there is research for better caravans ie generate more gold/bring more stuff. Im only saying this cause hopefully this time trade will really be an asset and help keep your econ booming.

Cant wait for more features! Dude this is great! Keep us informed! Thanks!

Indeed, and it's a good change. Now let's hope that the AI will play perfectly if he is going to attack with his Sovereign. This new rule will be helpful even in that case. Why? Simply the AI should "calculate" the outcome of the next battle, and if the odds are bad, the AI simply shouldn't attack with the Sovereign, instead wait for an incoming attack, if there is no way to retreat.

I tought that economy would be simple at first and maybe get more complex depending on player feedback and all that? So no stocked units of anything to begin (and maybe end) with.

The idea of Sovereigns only being vulnerable on attack is interesting, I reckon it probably has some tactical implications on top of making players feel secure. Armies with a Sovereign in might jink for position or try to slip past the enemy's main forces to go after softer targets. Not sure if that would be good or bad.

Some alternative ideas:

A lives system, including buying lives back.

Prepare some sort of warding spell at modest cost to teleport your Sovereign to safety.

Emergency spend gold/essence/prestige/the lives of your people to rescue your Sovereign in an emergency.

Lastly, I'd add that a little risk can make you value and get attached to a unit more, and add to the excitement of a crucial battle. I suppose it's when you lose the game to some stupid little skirmish that things are annoying.

I liked the previous poster's suggestion using the borders to determine whether you are the aggressor or the defender.

I wanted to add to the Sovereign escaping thing because a strategy really bugs me.

What is to stop me from using a unit with my sovereign not to attack, but simply antagonize my opponent? Go after caravans knowing that if the AI attacks my sovereign simply flees? Buff up my armies with him that siege the opponent again knowing he simply flees.

I'm fine with the sovereign fleeing, but you need to LOSE SOMETHING in order to do it. Whether its Essence, Mana, Health, etc, there has to be a cost to prevent it being exploited and used repeatedly. 

Otherwise I'll exploit the heck out of being passive-aggressive and it will lead to some silly gameplay that isn't really the preferred method.

The sovereign-can-escape-on-defense idea is a good way to avoid wanton Sovereign-assassination strategies, but a little refinement could help as others have mentioned:

- if defending sovereign is in non-ally influence they should have at least a reduced chance of successful flight (i.e. if they've been cut off from their normal sources of support in getting away); that way:

-- a really aggressive sovereign can still get cut off and killed because they've made the choice to stick their neck out

-- it allows an attacker to isolate a defensive sovereign by taking all the cities around them and then attacking them when they're all of a sudden in enemy influence.  Otherwise you could run into some excessive mop-up situations and it also makes it a tradeoff to have your sovereign in your frontline cities as opposed to something deep behind your lines.

The reduced chance of flight should probably be proportional to the length of the path back to friendly influence, rather than a simple on/off switch.

Edit: another refinement is to make a successful flight cost some quantity of essence, proportional to the difficulty of the flight.  If you don't have enough essence, bye bye.  Adds a tradeoff on how much of a safety buffer the player wants to have given their plans for sovereign usage.

"medallion should be a thumbnail of card picture"

Maybe I missunderstand, but I would prefer the card pictures to be a larger medalion, the medalions are awesome.

Also this is fantasty, since when did cards have to be rectangles?

I like the idea of the sovereign escaping when attacked, it gives the player a lot more choice / control.  It seems to me that there should still be a penalty when your sovereign flees - maybe a loss of resources, essence, prestige or even time (turns that the sovereign is unavailable).

One thing I'd quite like to see in battles where the sovereign may actually die is a 'last gasp' option.  We're told that the battle is going badly, and the sovereign can make a last ditch effort to win the day.  If they win, a great battle is one.  If they lose, they're dead, game over.  OR they may chose to flee, and take the resulting penalty (more hefty than normal perhaps) .  This way, a player can use their sovereign in battle (initiating an attack)  yet still exert some control over their fate.