[LDiCesare]

I'm not that confident about modding.
I'm used to modding games like Call to Power 2 and Civ IV, so I'm a bit spoiled, but the lack of a programming language (python was touted early on) will certainly hurt. Modding the user interface for instance doesn't seem possible, nor is modding a map script. It will be possible to mod new races, techs, and probably spells and effects, though, but I still think EWOM modding will fall short of my initial expectations.

I think there are 2 main issues in the beta which make the game unenjoyable/unplayable:
-Brain dead AI. I'm quite confident there, as Brad Wardell will take his time, but turn it into something challengin. Unfortunately, this may be at the cost of gameplay/variability/breadth of strategies available.
-Lack of army management UI. It's not possible to group 2 units outside cities and have them work as a single army. This has been the case from the first beta, and not fixed yet. I hope they change it, or make sure it can work seemlessly if it's supposed to work, but as it stands, this problem alone would make the game unplayable.