Miscellaneous?

Random suggestions:

Now that the total possible size of the map has been doubled, there's more room to make changes in.

Neutral creeps: Salamanders are nice, but it could all use a bit of variety. Creeps might be more oriented to the geopolitical side they reside on, i.e. mercenaries and wizards on the human side and dragons and other monsters on the ork side.

Game Modes:

Although more would be needed in the future, I'm not sure about the coding to combine game modes.

-om for Only Middle
-rd for Random Draft (15 random heroes chosen out of the whole and then each team takes turns choosing?)
-ho for Humans v. Orks (The Humans, Eldar, and Tau v. the Orks/Chaos/Tyranids/etc) Each side can only choose from their respective taverns.
-tf for Tyranid Fleet. Basically, as the game passes, hostile neutral creeps will start to spawn in random places throughout the map and attack either the human or the ork side. The more time elapsed, the stronger and more numerous the Tyranid creatures are until either the Tyranids destroy both bases or the heroes manage to kill them all. This is a cooperative mode, where both sides are essentially allies.

More to come, hopefully.

Allied Creeps:

Should they scale as time passes in health, armor, and damage? I'm not sure if they get stronger if certain parts inside the enemy's main base are destroyed, but should that be an option as well?

Shops: Custom items are going to be needed. While I enjoy the linearly fashion of building up items, there need to be more items that offer more and unique options. With that will have to come a bit of organizing, but that's natural. There should be a clan-wide contest to propose custom items that can be implemented and have enough fluff behind them to seem handy.

Neutral creeps: Salamanders are nice, but it could all use a bit of variety. Creeps might be more oriented to the geopolitical side they reside on, i.e. mercenaries and wizards on the human side and dragons and other monsters on the ork side.

This is a rather good suggestion, and it wouldn't require a lot of work either.

My thoughts on your game mode suggestions:

-om (only middle)
I like it. I'd suggest having this command usable throughout the whole game. When the game goes to 2vs2 because of leavers, having an option like this would be great.

-ho
So, you're basically saying good vs evil? By it self this I think this would be more trouble than it's worth; because it does nothing but change the heroes you can pick.

-tf for Tyranid Fleet
If you make team 1 and 2 allies, It's just too much like a typical defense map, imo. However, this would be very interesting if the game was still team 1 vs 2 and the tyranids attacked both teams.

I'd definitely like to see game mode with a 3rd computer controlled race, essentially making the game 1vs1vs1.
I'd even be willing to code some basic ai for this.

Should they scale as time passes in health, armor, and damage? I'm not sure if they get stronger if certain parts inside the enemy's main base are destroyed, but should that be an option as well?

Both hireables and creep upgrades are coming soon. Grasshopper has been working hard on them; just be patient.

Shops: Custom items are going to be needed. While I enjoy the linearly fashion of building up items, there need to be more items that offer more and unique options. With that will have to come a bit of organizing, but that's natural. There should be a clan-wide contest to propose custom items that can be implemented and have enough fluff behind them to seem handy.

We know more custom items are needed and we're working on it, but ,sadly, nothing really seems to come from any of our ideas. The main problem is that it's very difficult to make an item that fits in the w40k universe. Why don't you go to the item suggestion topic and help us out a bit with ideas and concepts?

-om (only middle)
I like it. I'd suggest having this command usable throughout the whole game. When the game goes to 2vs2 because of leavers, having an option like this would be great.

Except if you make this an option to activate at any time, the best time to activate it would be when you lose top or bot

having om as a game long feature is definatly unique XD but i'd think that it would require a -yes vote from everyone playing, so its not abused like fromundaman says

-ho basically = races mode... cause there will be an option of order vs disorder... prolly anyway XD

-tf: there is a -nc mode, which makes lane creeps stop spawning, and the forrest creeps spawn more often, and upgrade over time... thats similar XD
and the adding random spawns as time passes would be a *real* bitch... considering how the neutrals currently work

and about neturals... there still just place holders untill i get some real creeps in XD but i suppose i could change it up a bit...

lane creeps: increase in damage and hp as the game goes on, i dont wanna give the creeps bonuses for destroying the other teams base, cause u already get +2 creeps per outpost controlled

and items: yeah, i know XD theres a brainstorm thread, and im prolly gona have a semi-item-dedicated patch sooner or later, to add in a bunch of new items

Another random suggestion:

I'm sure we've all heard someone complain about how thematically inappropriate it is to have Chaos and Imperials on the same team, and other such complaints. Now I know race mode is going to eventually provide a solution to that, but I am going to propose a more short term solution:

Make it so heroes of a similar alliance (Chaos or Order) get a small buff when near other allied heroes of the same alliance (2% ias and/or ms?) and a slightly larger one when working with allied heroes of the same race (4%?). On the flipside, when working with one of opposing alliance, make it debuff (2-4%?).

This would represent the morale of our heroes, since I doubt a Grey Knight would have great morale when fighting side by side with a Bloodthirster, and give a small bonus to represent that, as well as making some heroes compliment each other better than others. However, by keeping this buff/debuff small, it won't have an impact so large on the game that teaming two characters of opposite alliances would hinder the gameplay.

i think it was wanderer who suggested this before, altho it might have been u, i was actually considering it for a while, but decided agaisnt it, because instead of rewarding good teamwork/skill/decision making, it rewards/penalizes picking heroes... which takes some skill out of it, if u start off with bonuses just cause your allies picked heroes in the same race as you

Well, that's why I wanted to keep the numbers low.

The way I see it, it makes more sense for certain heroes to work well together. ALSO, despite what some may think, picking heroes is/should be a strategic process IMO, based on what characters your allies and opponents pick.

I just basically wanted to make hero picking a slightly more strategic choice without taking away from the teamwork/skill aspect.

if its a low bonus, then its not worth it

and yes i agree that picking should be strategic, to counter their team, not to get ez bonuses by picking from the same race

Meh, anything is better than nothing.

Yes and no. It should be to counter their team and compliment your own. For example, say my ally picks LoC. Regardless of the bonus, Chapter Master is a smart choice for a supporting hero.
Big Mek, on the other hand, regardless of the bonus, is not.

However, say I'm hesitating between two characters that can compliment him well... say Bloodthirster and Chapter Master. In that case, both can do about as well, and it is more thematically appropriate to pick Bloodthirster, so why not give a small boost to it, if only to acknowledge that fact?

On top of that, these bonuses I'm talking about would not be global. They'd only work when the units are close and actually working together.

because you alraedy get hero synergy for picking LoC - thirster... so what need is there to futher buff the two heroes. i think that picking should be based on how to counter the enemy team, not how to buff your own team... cause countering takes strategy, picking from the same race, doesnt really

All right.

Also, another idea (one that incorporates your avatar idea from Avatar of Khaine) for Tau hireables, when you get around to them:

Ritual of Tal'hissera: (For non-Vespid/Kroot Tau)

These units have bonded together, and when one is about to die, the others will take the damage in the nearly dead one's place. (Don't have the Codex in front of me, so the description is rough.)

i must have missed this post, but i like the idea. post that with some tau suggestions in a seperate thread tho (oh wait, would this mak more sense on a tau hero tho? -possibly a squad?)

ok, from this i have these ides to go on my list:
-only middle (om) mode, which can be activated any time, requireing a -yes vote after 15 seconds from everyone in the game

...wow XD
also, -races mode *is* comming eventually, its just really low on my priority list.
and depending on how soon the tomb spyder gets in the map, and how small the nid hormagaunts are... i could get some real neutral creeps in sooner than later