Hi SolidDoc, I just finished playing though v0.189 and have some ideas/thoughts for you that I hope you consider for the future
Whew, that was a long one
First of all, glad you're enjoying it, really lifts my spirit up when i see someone having fun with the game i have been working on
I will address some of the points, although i do not want to go into great lengths here, not a fan of forums personally
When it comes to more character. Me, i would like much more, different cultures, mythological beings and all kinds of stuff, but as you pointed out, they are competing for the very limited slots on the field, which needs to be addressed. I am working on a squad system for the map, to garrison those teams in a province for protection (more enemies are coming our way after all and i need to make the map more interactive and fun, as it is quite bland right now (i want to work on some resource management elements, assigning people to get resources to fuel the war effort, that sort of stuff)). One more thing about the characters, they were all designed around a certain theme, i don't want them to feel all too samey, but it takes time to implement
When it comes to map visuals and UI, i totally agree, but there is one issue. I am terrible when it comes to visual stuff. The map was made in a free map generator i found online. Most of my attempts to beautify it have failed. Maybe one day i will get someone to paint over it or something. For now it will be same as it is
As for the dark scenes, they are kinda fun for me, although some folks on my discord been trying to get me "outside the dungeon". Some of the scenes are made dark for a reason, some could use some work (i am remaking prologue as we speak as the quality back when i started was terrible)
Mounts and equipment sounds fun, although that will take a lot of coding, and i am struggling with time as it is, i barely get any game time with the updates with the time i have and i have some many things i need to improve on, it's crushing. I am currently in chapter 4 in my head, while still in the intro with the game, so extra systems will have to wait
As you can see, most of it comes down to time and i don't want to let people down by not making new content, since the game is already afloat, so i am in for a long run. Hope you stay along for the journey, thanks for suggestions