Looks pretty good.

Is there a graphical difference between the beaches and cliffs on the cloth map?  I couldn't see a difference in the video, but maybe I was just missing it.

Very cool, can't wait to get my hands on this...

Kinda fun to hear you talk about the graphics stuff we discussed.
Having this kind of direct communication with devs surely is unique.

The Game is definitely coming along from the first time I fired up the BETA, looking so much better...

Frogboy so far I note your vids all follow a similar trend. Clicking tiles, throwing down building icons, noting NPCs, recruiting and stat referencing. For me I still dont see the immersion factor yet, I dont even feel the fantasy element....it currently could be any RTS game I've played. Example: When NPC 'cards' become merely that....stat cards, why have histories or pics even?

How are you going to build in this immersion, and how are you going to make this world come alive?

One thing I have wondered (and maybe it's possible now) but is there or will there be an "undo" button?  I saw Froggy make a mistake and his guy stepped back on a tile he didn't intend for.  Is there a way to correct that or is that just a wasted step?  I'd hate to accidentally move in one direction then have to waste a turn to correct it.  Then again, perhaps there is a way to do that already and I have missed it.  I haven't played or messed with the Beta much recently and I don't recall any other way to correct any missteps except to hit the "end turn" thingy. 

Are you serious? It's a game and in games if you make a mistake you have to live with it. Have you played any games besides Microsoft Word that do have an undo button?

The one thing that really draws my attention was that it wasn't obvious whether the water was shallow enough to cross or whether you could "cut the corner" where the ocean and mountain met.  This really does need to be self-evident as to whether it's passable or not.

That said, I totally agree regarding keeping the map clean.  Eye-candy is well and good, but it should be background detail.  If it's in your face, then it's not doing its job.

Also good use of the empire tree; I think it's actually more suited to a game like this than to Sins.

I hate people who load and saves to avoid mistakes. This is the reason our society is in shambles!

Learn to live with your mistakes here or you will not be able to cope with the ones you make in real life or in multiplayer.

I am mostly joking.

I would love to see a "path" marking the route you'll take to a waypoint - even MoM did this!

As to the water being too shallow - I think at least one fix is to ensure the random seed/maps don't ever put a land mass less than 2 or 3 tiles apart (or something)?

This is really coming together well. I'm excited to try out the storyline of this game.. And when you follow the story of the game, i'm sure you'll get a fantasy feel over playing this game. Even thougth i'm pretty excited to try out the editors and create a custom map or even play a random large sandbox game. It's looking amazing so far.. Looking forward to the demonstrations of tactical battles in a few weeks.

We don't need any undo button (it's cheating, haha). It's not like some of the turns are going to go by quick anyways.

To recruit a NPC, you have to click on the NPC Unit, then you get some negotiating icon you can clcik on, and the NPC ask for a small amount of gildars and if you accsept, he will join you.. And you can control him. Have him join your army or go to a city or something like that. (In the latest B1Z (v0.32) i was only able to negotiate with an NPC as long as he was within my city limits).

Looking forward to try MP beta 2 with 3D GFX this week thursday rigth?

Speaking of NPCs, is the only way to recruit them going to be paying them Gildars?  Because there are a lot of other interesting possiblities there.

Like an NPC/Creature which eats mana from a particular shard instead of asking for gold?

nm

This is looking nice! (START PREYING BOYS! FOR THURSDAY RELEASE!)

Will some navy ships be able to bombard cities from a few tiles away? And Tower defenses? I'm really interested in any info you got on that.

You know I just had a thought maybe when your planting cities down (when you haven't clicked to confirm its location) the neighboring tiles flash green if their useable. They pulse green in the first set of surrounding tiles, then the next set of tiles, etc... to a certain distance out. And they pulse red if its not buildable. This might help out new people from really screwing themselves over with bad city locations.