[jaif]

Well, count my vote for keeping random events in pretty much as-is. I like games with random events: makes all my puzzle-solving, aquarium-owning, control-nut friends work for a livin'. :-) More seriously, I don't mind losing a game to an event - I'll get them next time. Besides, there's oodles of luck in combat, but because we don't see the 'die rolls' we don't complain.

I would ask one thing, though - killing off population by 1/4 or even 1/10 is pretty dang harsh in a game where population growth is tiny. Those events should kill a very small number of people (like 1%); the huge numbers don't seem consistant with the rest of the game.

-Jeff