Strategic map looks
 

From the screenshots at Illwinter's (can't find them now.. did they remove them ?), the D2 strat map got much improved over the Dom1 one : zoomable, and indicating fortresses IIRC and gold revenue (with a pile of gold).

It would be even nicer if we could directly see on the map the buildings, the defense level (with szay 1 militia icon/10 defense), and Lastly if the armies were represented by "real" counters instead of the rather ugly Dom1 semi-transparent NATO symbol...

What can we expect ?

Re: Strategic map looks
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think that 'real' counters only would clutter the map, at least if want their number to be proportional to the size of the army present in a province. You can see temples as well as castles on the map.

Re: Strategic map looks
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think that 'real' counters only would clutter the map, at least if want their number to be proportional to the size of the army present in a province. You can see temples as well as castles on the map.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Cool for temples and castles ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
As for counters I agree that they won't look good if proportional : they could be fixed size but with color codes and number ranges info (for examples green 1-9 for 1-100, then orange 1-9 for 100-1000, etc), or even "3D effect" with height according to size...
"Counters" could also be an option.
Oh well, no big deal ... When will the game ship ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif