A random observation having started to explore the territory on the other side of Fort Joy is that the game's difficulty seems to have ramped up considerably since the earlier alphas: it seems that even at the same level, enemies often have better equipment and a very significantly better array of spells and abilities at their disposal than I seem to have any chance of accumulating, making it sometimes quite challenging even on explorer mode. I'm not really sure I'm entirely comfortable with this direction given that I'm not the most tactically-minded person, and for me, combat quickly stops being a challenge and becomes more of an obstacle to my continued enjoyment of a game. It's not all about the combat.
I don't know if it might be related to something I read about way back, which was to do with play-testing: apparently testers should have a high turnover otherwise they quickly start to learn all the tricks and exploits and will report back that the game is too easy for them, so the difficulty is ramped up and then excludes many players without the benefit of that experience and who may lack innate ability or sheer good fortune to navigate their way through. Not that I'm saying this is happening, I just hope it doesn't become absurdly difficult as was the case with Ego Draconis.
