Hello,
Good reading, i'm looking forward to the release. I'm happy to be one of the early supporters, you did a great job so far with answering questions, support (including Linux) and updates.
Did you do something about the map(s) ? Last time i played (1 or 2 versions ago), there were too many layers of maps before reaching the actual "game" part. World, Region, Local, Mission... for no real good reason, but multiply the nodes before being able to actually "play".
In xcom, Xenonauts, UFO:AI... there is one global map, with several missions to pick, and then you reach the battle map. And still, few would argue about the lack of depth of these games.
About the Easy Mod, i'm glad you think about it. I really dislike the perma-death in any game, there is a kind of fashion these days where you must be "roguelite" somehow... and it's often limited to permadeath and random generation of the world. I call this more "messy" and "lack of personnality". Being able to simply retry a failed mission, without any drawbak (locked acgievement, less loot...) would be great.