That would work, 

How about a branch that is unique to each race.....

Humans get some Civ. that others don't , like banking, diplomacy, entertainment buildings ... ect. 

Warrior races get some training or weapon enhancement techs 

Magic gets some mana production or race only spells, or spell power techs 

Mounted advantage like the ability to get extra horses or wargs, or the ability to build a horse breeding building to raise horses without having a node.

Any other ideas?

I am glad you are working on optimizing the trees, the game works great on my PC, but that one forest tactical map with all the tress kills my fps.

As for DLC release I would say every three months would be optimal (Give or take a few weeks for quality assurance). Personally I want a DLC every week but that kinda of request is absurd and would not give you guys enough time to release anything of worth.

1 - Stamp Pack

2 - Faction Pack

3 - Monster Pack

4 - Generic Loot Pack & Epic Item Pack

5 - Unique Buildings Pack

6 - Quest pack

A map pack I have no interest in, unless it were to add a unique stamps or story, as in a decent campaign.

For something that does not fit in the DLC catagory but more expansion. I would love to see a new faction/s that have new types of landscape corruption, a difference to the good or evil types we currently have. Perhaps wild colorful magical vegetation or spreading deserts or even winter for a "White Walker" like faction. You know, something to add variety, uniqueness to a faction.

So is this 2.0 update going to be XML only?   Like what modders can already do?

No, the stuff they have revealed so far for it couldn't be done through xml. Plus pretty much every patch changes C++.

1. How OFTEN do you want to see new DLC?  (Monthly, but you must lower price for 2-2,5$ per new dlc.)

2. What would you like to see our NEXT DLC be? (more fantasy factions/units like Dark Elves, but with some new mechanic for faction->Blood Magic spells, rituals, etc)

a. Stamps pack (for more random map generation interest)

b. More tactical battles maps                               (yes)

c. More magical spells (yes)

d. New factions (yes x3)

e. More loot (yes)

f. More quests (yes)

g. Something else (please  dont create more funy thing like in loot pack).

I'd like to see the dlc infrequently with plenty of content. Psychologically I prefer to pay more at longer intervals than less more frequently.

Things I'd like to see: more distinctive stuff for factions like the unique buildings that were suggested earlier. After that more quests are always good.

Now I've thought a little more. What really adds to games like this for me are the random events (in a single player game you don't have to worry that someone finds them unfair). The more of this we have the greater the replayability.

Maybe we could have events tied to our heroes? Not the whole crusader kings (the other strategy game I play at the moment) but something to make them feel more alive. I'm not suggesting extra game mechanics (unless that can be worked into the new diplomacy system you mention) just quests, or whatever, attached to having certain heroes; not always the same obviously, that would get tedious.

-- Also, I'd like to see more outlandish looking armors/weapons . This game is high fantasy so the more over-the-top the better please. The current conservative look I don't think matches up to the lore?

I thought this was the direction SD was going to go.....reason as to why the directory structure has the tech tree under Armeans....in that other tech directories were going to eventually be made.

I think it would be an interesting twist to rejig the tech trees to allow for specializations from factions to flourish.

For 2.0

I would like to see some refinements to the tactical battles - either flank attacks, range limits for missile weapons, line of sight (so that a hill or forest blocks a ranged attack or hides the enemy unit from view) or units with more special abilities (i.e. in addition for Fortify, add Shield Wall to protect against ranged attacks, Spear Wall to protect against cavalry attacks)

DLC

How Often - Quarterly

More tactical Battle Maps - Yes

I would like to see some maps linked to city improvements - i.e. Construct a Moat and the tactical battle map has  a moat crossed by a single bridge - perfect for defenders, build a city wall and city archers are placed behind a wall - think the original Elemental where you had to pass through a gate to attack defenders that took shelter inside the city; instead of facing the enemy on the battlefield.

In addition, battles that take place in a swamp, along rocky terrain with a maze of access paths

More Quests - Yes (see Jack in the Beanstalk Post)

More Spells - Yes - that really affect the tactical battle

More Monsters - Yes and better spell casting monsters.

+1

For DLC I believe quarterly would be best.

As for what should be in the DLC I would like to see more quests and items but only lore friendly ones please.

What I do not want to see is more races unless they can be made to fit the lore of the Elemental universe.

What I really want from Elemental is the one thing that I don't get. What I want is a sense of the epic; from exploration and quests to nation building, the clash of armies, and diplomacy. However when I play the game I simply do not get that sense at all. When playing it I only get the sense of playing an interesting but unimmersive and un-epic game. I think it is a good game, however... it's just missing that quality that makes it feel epic.

So what is needed to make a more immersive, visceral, and epic game? First make cities feel like cities. While not taking up a large amount of space on the strategic map find a way to make them feel like real, living, breathing cities full of bustle, life, and centers of things. Cities are the centers of a civilizations culture, economy, industry, etc and they in some way should feel like it. How to get this effect in a limited space I am not sure but for the game to become epic I feel it is necessary. Also the land around a city, it's area of influence, should automatically change as land is cultivated, minerals are mined, villages with Palisades created, etc. What better way to see your civilization make an impact on the world then to have your territory change and develop over time. The player need not manage any of this it would simply be a graphical representation of the people of your nation spreading out from your cities and taming the surround world within you territory. To add even more depth and a more visceral feel two more things should be added to this. When monsters or enemy armies inter your territory they should leave a trail of devastation though the fields, villages, etc which will take several seasons to fix. This will make a more visual and thus visceral feel to people invading YOUR territory. Second the degree and quality of the improvements in a cities surrounding territory should be greatly influenced by your cities level.

Make armies feel like armies. Having armies represented by a few men immediately kills immersion and leaves a sense of... for lack of a better term... un-epicness. An idea for this might be to have armies in tactical battles take up multiple squares rather then just one. This would allow for two things. One more troops can be seen for each unit of men making a company of soldiers feel like an actual company of soldiers. This in itself would automatically increase immersion and make a battle feel like a real battle instead of a few people beating on each other. Second it would add more depth to tactical battles. There could be other ways to make armies feel like armies that would require less in the way of coding. If there is then by all means run with it. Just give me the sense that I have an army and when my army meets an enemy army I want it to feel like an actual clash of armies. To make the game more immersive, visceral, and epic armies need to feel, look, and act like armies.

Make quests more special. In terms of tactical combat two thing should be done. First most quest should only be fought out by heros not with armies. When your heros come to some ruins the army stays out side and the heros go in. Second tactical maps for quests should be special. If your party of heros wonders into a fortress the map should be of multiple floors with rooms on each floor with something of interest in each room. Whether it be a cave, a tomb, a ruin, a fortress, etc. it should be an actual, tern based, tactical dungeon to explore and conquer. Whether it be a monster(s), a person to talk to, loot, puzzle to solve, etc. it should have something in every section of the dungeon. This will set quest tactical maps apart from normal battle tactical maps and will make it feel like real dungeon delving. Overall this will make questing more immersive, fun, and epic.

Quests should highlight and give depth to the Elemental universe's lore. The stories they tell and the loot they contain should all flush out and promote the lore of the Elemental universe. This will increase the players immersion in the game and in a small way cause a greater investment in the game world. Also enough quests should be made, over time in DLCs of course, that one could play five different games without running into the same quests twice thus increasing immersion and interest in each game.

I could go on but I believe I have made my point. The game as is only feels like an ok game. I, for one, would really like this to change. I want Elemental to became an immersive, visceral, and epic game. Even if you choose not to incorporate the above suggestions into the game please look at the game and ask yourself, how can I make this game feel, look, and play more epically? How can I make cities feel like cities, armies feel like armies, quests become more immersive, lore give the world a foundation and meaning? Think big, think grand, think epic.

N/A

1. I'd be happy to pay for quarterly DLCs and annual expansions which add functionality to the game.

2. For expansions I would like to see, in this order:

    - Tactical battle improvements / abilities such as flanking, swarming, stealth attacks etc.

    - Item Crafting

    - The return of marriages and dynasties 

    - Naval vessels / battles

3. For DLCs I would love to see any of these: 

    - More factions, especially non-human ones (elves, drow, dwarves would be fine)

    - More quests 

    - More loot (definately)

    - More wildland patches - I especially like the idea of smaller wildlands like a neutral kingdom, a spider-infested forest etc.

    - More random events

    - More / stronger late-game heroes 

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Quarterly DLC is good, no need to push something that is not ready if it's not ready.....

Monster ZOC would be great, as long as it applies to ALL factions, no just the human player.  And while I'm at it, adjustable aggression would be nice.

Diplomacy improvements are a great idea, too, not sure what happened to the whole "the longer you trade with a faction, the more likely they are to make favorable term/treaties" with you concept went.  And, giving a faction material help doesn't appear to do anything, either.  I can't remember off the top of my head what game would have the surrendering faction give you their cities when they gave up if you had helped them out.

pek

It will be more then great. If done right it could fundamentally improve the game. The current monster lair system has never worked. Monsters were just so random that they got nerfed to oblivion and even ended up never attacking cities. With ZoC super tough monsters can spawn early game and effect things around them without being ridiculous.  The AI will no longer let loose massive monsters everywhere and you won't be able to steal unguarded lairs. Best of all monster strength progression can be controlled much better since you won't have late game monsters running around early game. This means that wandering monsters can be made more aggressive and tougher so they become an actual threat to cities without them being impossible to stop. Thus Monsters would actually become an important part of the game and you will finally have to fight the land itself like the intro says.

1. Quarterly for larger content packs worth 5$

2. Battle maps, units, factions, loot.

Stardock is actually so fucking amazing that you put gameplay content as free patches so I just buy DLC to support company. I have probably played only around 20hours of Legendary Heroes and 40 hours of Fallen Enchantress just because I know you will make this game epic with time and patches like you did with galactic civilizations 2 over years