The Protectors of Etheria Windows, Mac, Linux game

There was a bug about this that has been fixed in the latest patch. Also note that you need army limit space for the ghoulification to have effect (it is too OP otherwise).

Easy difficulty does work and there is also a very easy difficulty. We've made the AI a lot smarter (and the game more balanced) so the spike coming from the original game is big. I recommend taking your time to learn your favorite faction and play skirmishes versus Barons for awhile.

Remember: the AI does not cheat (except Demigods and Emperors), it just knows the game and is good at micro.

That's understandable. The release of 0.9 was what I would refer to as 'sloppy', which may be a somewhat charitable description in some respects.

There are some things in it which I wish was done better. There's some parts of it which weren't remotely finished or ready for release at the time. There are also some parts of it which were mistakes or oversights as well. I would have loved for people to have received what was envisioned of 0.9, but unfortunately what was released wasn't representative of that vision. I feel it's a good base to start with, though there's a lot of work that needs to be done to bring it up to that vision.

The complexity of the thing has, I think, gone off the rails with regards to the quantity of everything in the game, and we just don't have the manpower to keep up. We without doubt overstretched in many areas, despite the amount of time we've been working on it. That, I think, is what's especially frustrating to me - to have worked on it for 3 years to see it have such a sloppy release. I hope that gives some context to my response.

There are some things which I agree with you on and some things I don't. I prefer the way army limit is done now, with the capacity for smaller base sizes. It doesn't have the issue of the infinitely-cycling unit production via barracks-spamming which we think presented issues regarding players' ability to make comebacks too easily, and made it too difficult to achieve high army limits whilst also overemphasising it as a win con. There is an option to use the old army limit in one of the skirmish option windows.

I see item durability, as it is implemented now, as more of a detriment to 90% of the game than a benefit. It's cool to switch and manage items in a campaign run which is designed for it, but for the entire rest of the game, it's a meaningless, extra chore. It's also extra work which we didn't/don't need. Similar with keep research in the campaign. It's awkward and unnecessary for a load of chapters and campaigns. I like the concept of the retinue missions, though they could use some more focus.

With regards to the way that resources currently work, we are looking into this and plan on making some revisions. As we have a lot of other things to look into, this may come in a later patch.

The new AI is much harder than the old one because it's much more sophisticated (it doesn't cheat on difficulties lower than Emperor too). Because of this, it does break certain missions. Campaigns and chapters could use some attention regarding this issue. Offending maps could have certain sides lowered in difficulty or if there is no alternative, they could be removed. The campaign/chapter maps could also use some calibration so that they incorporate all the new map features like cover, negative cover, terrain height (not new exactly, but it now has a big impact and certain races require it), army limit settings and more.

It's going to be a lot of work, which I hope is achievable. We may have to make some difficult decisions, we'll see, but at the end of the day it's important that we end up with something which people are happy with.

There's an item curse that does this. Visit an in-game decurser and he'll tell you which of your items is doing this and can remove the curse as well.

Unable to reproduce. Can you provide more details?