To buy, or not to buy...

[HolyFire]

Hi all. As is quite evident from the title, I have played the demo, and liked it to the point of considering purchasing the game. Just as evident is that I also have doubts about it.

The obvious barrier is the price tag of 55$ + S/H. Trying to avoid a flame war about whether this is justified, I will only say that I find this to be a lot. Should I buy it, I expect to receive a lot in return.

It is clear that the depth, wealth and quality of this game are all quite remarkable. I really have no complaints there. But I think this goes to waste if there are shortcomings in the UI which really hinder the ability to enjoy them. The two major issues that have bothered me while playing the demo are:

a) Automating some tasks: Even in a game as short as in the demo, I have reached a situation where part of my routine for a turn is to go to each of several provinces, set the newly created scholarly oriented commander to research, and order the recruiting of yet another such commander. I really wish there would be a way to do this automatically. Since in many cases I want these commanders to never do anything but research, I would also like the option to make them disappear from the UI, to avoid cluttering my list of more active commanders.

b) Battle commands: I found that the choices for battle orders are very limited. For example, I could not find the option to have filers \ archers target enemy commanders (is this option, perhaps, deliberately absent, as it would be too powerful?). I have also had a problem with spellcasters. I want them to cast useful spells according to the battle situation (preferrably, with the ability to choose the kind of spells to focus on). But instead I must either give them a short list of specific spells to cast (thus pretending to possess the ability to prophesize how the battle will turn out), or let them choose spells on their own and watch them cast useless or even harmful spells.

As such, I would much appreciate everyone's input regarding the following:

1) Are there any changes between the demo and the current full version which help cope with those issues?

2) Are such changes planned for, or are likely to appear in, the near future?

3) Is there any workaround to alleviate these difficulties?

4) Is there any other reason why those issues are not as consequential as I currently believe?

Thanks in advance for whatever insight you might bestow upon me.