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Thanks for your detailed responses - I backed your KS and best of luck with it! Here are a few more thoughts after some further gameplay:

Maybe you're right about enthralled action restrictions getting micromanage-y. But I agree it would add a lot to gameplay if NPCs can take independent actions and form committees etc. I wasn't aware there were some "hidden" character stats controlling rate of Shadow spread and Suspicion growth, etc. That's actually a cool feature, and it is good to add more variability between NPCs (with some being weak-willed and easy to enshadow, and others less so, etc).

Adding more Traits to NPCs will help a lot, and I hope you'll also consider giving them a few stats/skills similar to games like CK2 (Warfare, Stewardship, Diplomacy, Perception, Magic, etc). These could influence the results they gain from taking various actions and their susceptibility to certain dark powers, as well as influencing how they're respected by NPCs with various traits. This could also make entourage members a lot more interesting, if their stats can sometimes contribute to employer's stats and actions (a skilled Captain of the Guard protecting from assassination attempts, a devout Priest making hostile dark actions more difficult, etc etc).

It's also kind of neat that all these NPC stats aren't all visible from the start on everyone. Maybe visibility into stats/traits of local NPCs could gradually get unlocked with time as you gain more infiltration or visibility in the local area (e.g. from local Shadow spread and enthralled NPCs, Fish Man spies, or controlling nearby Eye-of-Sauron like buildings etc :)

I also like that you're planning to add more customization to the player "Shadow" character itself. Rather than having a few fixed archetypes like Undead or Trickster (which would be totally different from others but play the same each time you choose them), it could make sense to let the player have adjustable stats for various powers (like Solium Infernum let players buy or earn points in Wrath, Prophecy, Deceit, Diabolism and Destruction), and allocate points to these and other special powers (Trickster, Deathlord, etc) during game setup, similar to character customization in games like Master of Magic. I'm hoping a system like this could be easier to balance than making a few dramatically different archetypes with unexpected dramatic effects like in your Undeath post :D

It could be cool if controlling certain Buildings and special map tiles (representing mana nodes, dark towers, ancient tombs etc) and performing certain rituals (e.g. sacrificing population in controlled cities) could let you upgrade stats and unlock more powers and increase Dark Power generation, at the cost of attracting Suspicion. This would let your character start out weak and expand its range of dark powers as the world falls into shadow, while having to strike a balance between growing your power and not becoming too obvious >:D

Anyway, hope these suggestions are useful and that your KS goes well. If you hadn't heard of SI, the manual could be worth a read for inspiration:
http://simanual.s3.amazonaws.c...

Thanks for updating! FWIW I figured out my loading problem was due to Comodo antivirus tagging it as unrecognized and running it virtually.

Really liking the game so far and looking forward to your KS. Here are a few thoughts and comments:

1) Characters and actions
As others have mentioned, the current game often leads to spamming certain actions repetitively over a short period (eg "share ideas" to set someone up for promotion) often followed by long periods of doing nothing.

I'm thinking it might work best to move to a system where each character on the map can take one action per turn. Most of these actions would be standard administrative or diplomatic tasks that non-enthralled characters will regularly do based on their own agendas, like Train Troops, Build Fortifications, Cultivate Farms, Send Scout, Send Messenger, Suppress Revolt, Eradicate Worms, etc.

For non-enthralled characters, the action they choose to do each turn will be based on their beliefs, personality and skills plus a random component (e.g. a Militarist character could often choose to Recruit or Train Troops, a Xenophilic character could choose Organize Trade Caravan, a Pacifist character would more often do Diplomatic actions, etc).

For enthralled characters you can command them to take any action (including special Dark Actions and rituals etc) but doing something far out of the ordinary for them will build Evidence against them. Alternately you could let them Lay Low and continue normal actions to decrease Evidence slightly. For non-enthralled characers, you can choose to spend dark power to change what a character would do (e.g. one potential strategy would be to interfere with beneficial NPCs at a crucial time, like preventing a skilled General from raising troops effectively through a sudden bout of lethargy or madness :)

Anyway, that's a thought for how to make actions a little more natural and interesting, and avoid repeated spamming of actions within a single turn. As the game develops you could also add lots more interesting actions for characters to do and for the player to interfere with (e.g. crafting magical artifacts, adventuring to explore hidden dungeons, etc etc)

2) Characters, stats and traits

The fact that most actions and attitudes are based on the Militarism/Xenophilia/Monarchy sliders seems to make the characters a little 1-dimensional. (ok, 3-dimensional.. ;) As a result, it can get repetitive if your basic goal is just to manuever M/X/M sliders into the right combo.

It's always a treat when someone with one or more of the personality traits shows up, even if they are currently pretty standard like "Charismatic". As development continues, I hope you'll continue to add lots more interesting traits similar to games like Crusader Kings 2 to make characters more nuanced (could be things like Pious, Dogmatic, Chaste, Ascetic, Lustful, Wrathful, Temperate, Drunkard, Decadent, Sadistic, etc etc). Characters personal likes/dislikes and their actions can be modified by their traits, making manipulation less of a "cookie cutter" approach and leading to lots of interesting potential..

Also, it could make sense to give each character some stat or skill sliders in addition to their 3 attitudes (e.g. Martial, Diplomatic, Administrative, and Arcane skills could influence what type of actions characters tend to focus on and give them an appropriate bonus to the result.)

Your dark powers could bless or curse important stats, and voluntarily or involuntarily cause enthralled to gain certain warped traits or mutations, opening up all kinds of evil possibilities.. >:D

3) Tooltips and UI

Though I'd assume everything's currently based on their MXM sliders, I often can't tell why lords vote or like/dislike things the way they do (e.g. in voting for offensive focus, wasn't sure what to do to convince more lords to target a certain country). It would be great to have a tooltip textbox appear when hovering over their portrait (like in Crusader Kings 2), which lists the factors contributing to their attitude/vote. Even better, you could display voter portraits along a line from "Strongly Opposed" to "Strongly Favor" and let players use tooltips to find out more.

For voting, it's cool to get the option to interfere with votes, but once you have several enthralled this often leads to repeated messages nearly every turn about votes that don't matter much (e.g. an "open gates" vote which repeatedly fails due to lack of support); these messages can be hard to dismiss and can get annoying. IDK what the best solution is, but maybe let certain votes happen less frequently or make the notifications less obtrusive?

Anyway, sorry for the long message but I'm excited about the game; good luck with continued development and keep on truckin!

Thanks for updating :) When I start the latest build, a "Development Console" window at the bottom left says the following two times in red:

<RI> Failed to register devices:
The operation completed successfully.

Then none of the buttons will respond. Any idea what's wrong?