Some Questions -- making up my mind, advice needed

[onomastikon]

Would anybody mind answering these last couple of questions of mine? I am still trying to decide when and if to purchase. I really liked Dom2, it is still on my machine, but since I WONT be playing much multiplayer (time constraints), my main incentive for getting dom3 (unlike most of you out there who need it to play with others, who will all be buying dom3) is different.
I currently visiting my brother in the US and would have a chance to get it shipped easier, hence the odd questions now....

Thanks much in advance.

- Priests and preaching. Did Priests get nerfed? I *loved* the preaching element of Dom2, but Dom3 preaching seems nerfed, since priests all have 1 level lower. (I saw that priest spells are all lowered one level, makes sense, but I dont understand when you "cannot raise the dominion of this province by preaching". Obviously, the rules have changed, but the demo doesnt say how.)

- Balance.
1) I couldnt tell from the demo, since there was no info and it is very short, and you can't research past level 4, I was never able to make Life Stealing items: How does life steal work now? I heard it was different?
2) Summons. Like I said, the demo is very limited, I couldnt really tell if at higher levels Summons was just as (over)powered as in Dom2.
3) Economy. In the demo, on regular settings, it seemed I had tons and tons of cash, but the prices for units were similar to Dom2. The prices of buildings were much higher, however. Is this an "Age" thing? (Are buildings cheaper later, gold less common?) Is gold supposed to be so common?
4) Units. Well, I only got to see a couple of races, but I was a bit confused. Agartha said it is a race of poor amphibians, but all the ones I recruited were full amphibs. I could even buy PD underwater! And none of them need to eat?? Is there consensus that this is ok, or what's the deal? I also saw in that monkey race that I can buy an archer for 9 gold 3 recourses with a short bow and 10 precision, or a bigger ape archer for 20 gold and 4 resources with the same bow and less precision. I think the cheaper archer was also stealthy? Why would I ever want the more expensive one? Well I suppose all that is no matter, really, just confused me a bit....

- Buildings. Do starting forts have to do with your starting nation or the starting terrain? Some forts just seem so much better than others (I saw one with Admin 60, while a different one had Admin 20). I thought at first that I would build forts my nation started with, but it seems terrain-dependent. So is starting province terrain mean a whole random bunch of luck with which free fort you get at the beginning?

- UI. When I click "view battle", my screen would go dark for about 5-8 seconds before playing. Is that normal? And "e" now automatically generates a turn instead of giving that secondary screen -- did everyone else *want* that? I can't see how far along a saved game now is (I think in Dom2 you could see "turn 30" or whatever, now I have no idea).

- Random Map Generator. Does everybody like this? I thought it was a nice idea, but the maps I got were just no comparison to the good, human-made maps I had for Dom2 (strange borders, chokepoints, etc.).
(And it looked like Jason Lutes made that small map that came with the demo -- awesome map! I love his maps.)
Does the full version come with some more human-made maps? Or did I just have bad luck with the randomness dealt me?

- AI. Like I said, I will mostly be playing SP. I know this is an MP game, and MP Dom2 was awesome, but I found other games better in SP. Dom3 is supposed to have better AI. I couldnt see this in the demo. It still prefers chaff, it still flails about aimlessly without a real plan, and it still builds weird pretenders.
OK, it seems to make forts, but even these are put in the strangest of places, seemingly at random, without regard for strategic need.
Well I just goofed about without really trying much, and even with the 40-turn limit I trounced the "Mighty AI" easily. Maybe it was just luck, I don't know, but I don't suppose the AI will be upgraded in patches. I know that Stardock really tries to work on that for their GC2, but I doubt that JK and JO have time or interest for Dom3 (what with it being a multiplayer game and their RL jobs).
So: Are there any SP players out there with any opinions from the full version? (Please, please, if possible, a critical view -- I know this is a fan site and everybody wants to support Illwinter (me too), but I am hoping for a tiny bit of objectivity, thanks.)

Well, thanks very much.