stage 3

I play Totem Tribe Jotun from the beginning and so far I liked alpha 1 and alpha 2 verry much.
Now we have alpha 3, I must say the graphics are outstanding and you did a lot of good work.
Stone Age
It occured to me that there has been a lot of changes in the stone age compared to alpha 2 .
For example there  are much more resources needed to upgrade and the upgrades cost a lot more time.
I know that some adjustments are needed but I think that this was a major adjustment.
Take the huts for example, the more huts you have the more workers, less time to upgrade something.
But when I want to upgrade a hut from level 3 to level 4 it takes around 2 hours and to level 5 around  5 or 6 hours. So 2,5 or 3 times more than an upgrade to level 4. I understand  that when I upgrade
a chieftans hut or shrine or totem pole or altar that it takes a lot of time because they are important.
Is a hut just as important as they are, I think not. 
Can there be no distinction between important buildings and minor in terms of upgrade time and resources,
because the little buildings are to expensive.

Classical Age
Wow so many things to research that after mining I didn't know which next research was the best.
-    Do I research the things for defense, but when I do that my my culture doesn't get any higher and my  dwelling     doesn't grow. But when my neighbours grow they will "steal" pieces of my land, and when they attack me with katapults     my dwelling can be destroyed.
-    Do I research the things for culture, but when I do that my defense is not good enough etc, etc
I decided to play with multiple hero's(4) so I could try out everything. I had 4 hero's in stage 2 and that was easy to manage so the couldn't be a problem in stage 3. But the more hero's in classical age the more priorities there are. So many priorities that I get the feeling I don't have the time to do relaxing things such as looking for resources or bonuses in my dwelling.
Yes I know that your answer could be: than don't play with 4 hero's when you have that feeling, play with less hero's.But then I must decide what research must come first and research in classical age takes a whole lot longer than stone age.
When my hero meditates to level up I need one figurine. I know that from a certain level you need 2 figurines to level up. Very expensive if you can't donate to by the figurines. What to do if I'm constantly being attacked and haven't got the ability to level up my hero? Must i be patience untill I get a figurine? Ten I sure must have a lot of patience to get 2 of them.
Don't get me wrong I love to play the game and it's very addictive. So addictive that somethimes there isn't enough coffee to drag me through the night.
But I think that some re-tweaking couldn't hurt.

Mandy has many good points.I also think that leveling up hero is too expensive now at higher levels.

And i have the feeling we have too many priority things to do at the same time now.That really gets frustrating sometimes:) . In alpha 2 priorities were more clear. But now if you want to go for expansion victory for instance,you also need defense. Getting through the research tree to figure out which ones you need first is okay,but if you make a mistake, it can cost you days or longer,or a lot of resources if you decide to delete.

There is also lots of new things,like the funny monsters, but i still have the feeling that the priority issue takes a lot of fun out of it. Cramped together as we are,and i do understand why that is, many of us get a little frantic:) Have to do THIS now and THIS and oh yeah,THIS too now,but that is just impossible:).I'm sure we will figure it all out eventually (like we always do).I guess we should just give it a little more time.

I build my 3rd town. I was waiting to get across the sea, but every time I upped my culture points enough, my country grew in the wrong direction. Now it takes for ever to build anything. I want to build a harbour, but that won't happen for a while, because it has very expensive (resources) requirements. the result is, I am getting bored and I find that I start playing other games. In short: couldn't the building time of classical age be shortened, as it was in alpha 2 (so I read in this thread)?

This is an interesting thread.

When playing Alpha 2 I had 6 heroes and 20 towns and it was easy to flip around from one to the other and keep the expansions going. It was easy to complete the entire learning tree and "max out" on buildings. I could see completion and move on to battles and pursuit of achievements.

Alpha 3 is a completely different animal. My habits in Alpha 2 no longer apply. It is going to take a lot of time and effort to complete that learning tree, and in further Alpha and Beta tests this will only be more apparent, and "maxing out" on a building only means I have an entirely new set of upgrades to complete. Maybe I choose not to "max out" on a building but instead destroy it for the option to skip to the new-age version. Do I build culture? Do I build protection? Decisions, decisions. It feels like it never ends. And I am never sure which is the right way to go.

In Alpha 2 I beat the game. I completed everything there was to do. Not here, not anymore. This is a different game .. it is an ongoing process of moving from one age to another, making strategic decisions, learning new technology, increasing strength of buildings and heroes. I am in such a hurry to get to completion of a building or a tech, so I can "move on" to pursue my battles and achievements. But learning and upgrading is as much a part of the game as battles and achievements. There is no "completion" because that is the end of the game. 

I want a hero with high stats and enough resources for an incredibly strong army to protect against catapults, (and whatever scary item comes next) and a wide expanse of land to build that army. I want it all. The thing is, I cannot always have this, and it is incredibly frustrating. It takes an incredible amount of resources to complete any high level building only to begin again in the new age. I am finding that in order to pursue one facet of the game I am needing to ignore all the rest. However, successfully playing the game so far does require success at many pursuits simultaneously, not choosing one path to complete as Gromus and the gang suggest when giving "The lost memory" quest. I am a strong believer that because of this fact the resource and time requirements should be reconsidered. At the same time I do feel that I need to quit being in such a hurry to "complete" this or that .. (I am so impatient!) that the game is ongoing and I actually have all the time in the world  ... and instead enjoy the journey that takes me there - and in many ways change the mindset that Alpha 2 taught me.