0-day update is out now. Version 1.05. Let's see how (and if) it improves the game.

Edit: performance seems much improved for me now. The campaign tutorial messages should help out newbies a lot as well.

"If you can't shut them up, ban them."
I've just been given a ban warning on Neowin. :lol:
EDIT: Funny though, Stardock were one of mu favorite developers/publishers. I think they are around the bottom now.

Good to hear. Sounds like they've added a lot more map 'seeds' to the mix as well, which will hopefully improve the variety in map creation.

Well, that just means they released an unfinished version to retailers. Does the box state that an internet connection is needed to get the finished version of the game?

Actually, 0-day patches are pretty common these days. And while it seems you'd love to get some sort of "Cause they're out to screw us!" angle out of this, that isn't thew case. Beta testing continues after a game has gone gold, because it takes time to press, box and ship all of the physical copies to where they need to go. That post-Gold Beta testing often finds more that needs fixing, hence the 0-day patch.
It isn't an 'unfinished version' or anything that dramatic...it's a patch for a game.

They want to make you log in to impulse and register.

In other words, they DRMed the game, for real.

No randomly generated maps? That is a deal-breaker for me. Glad I didn't rush to buy the LE. I'll wait a few more weeks and see how things go.

Cheers for the answer.
To anyone that knows:
I read that one of the prior updates had added new seeds (maps from what I can gather) to the game for maps. Yet I can only see three for each size, which is what I remember seeing before the latest update. The maps for each size are also called the same.
So, has anyone else experienced this? Or am I mistaken about new seeds being added etc.? Also, one other issue I've experienced is that the first time I booted the game up, it took quite a while to get past the initial loading screen. After that, it was fine. I just ran the game up again though and it took quite a while to load again (however, I did just install a custom map, Westeros, which might explain the slow loading). Also, it seems the login is down at the moment, for me anyway. (Also, this reminds me: It seems you need to restart the game to get installed content to appear.)
Regardless, I've not actually played the game yet. Well, I played for a short while last night to see how the game worked, before hopping to bed. But didn't play long enough to do anything.
I played long enough to learn how to build farms, place buildings, move and end the turn. I also checked out the screens, so I know how technology/research works. From what I've seen, turns seem to be simultaneous as well.
As for map randomisation, it's true that I don't think you can randomly generate the landmess of a map, but from what I can gather, quite a few elements are randomised like the location of resources and quest locations etc. Again though, I've hardly played the game, so I could be wrong. I do remember reading about that though regarding map randomisation. (I'm going to give the game a good go now though, and hopefully the performance is noticeably improved in the game, in terms of the lag between actions being reduced like opening a menu up.)
Edit: By the way, when I mentioned not being to login, I didn't mean multiplayer. But rather, to see what mods are available like maps. It seems to be working again though. The loading speed thing I'm beginning to suspect might be caused by internet protection I have running. (Or the fact that I pressed alt + tab due to it taking a while could have made it take longer. For instance just booted it up now, and it ran up very quickly.)
Edit 2: Found something else out. If you want to be able to take control of every battle, go into options and set tactical battle threshold to 0.

Long story short I gave them lip. They blocked me on Twitter as well. Nice people who listen to their customers.

The thing is: if you buy a DVD later, does the shipped version include the patches or do you have to connect and download all the patches? Then there would be only little difference to Steam.
The game seems to be released in an to-some-extent unfinished state on the DVD which is quite normal nowadays. Actually one should have to look at the number and size of patches coming in the next two weeks to judge the degree of unfinishedness.
If the DVD version always will be the same from pre-zero-day, then it does not make sense to ship DVDs at all IMHO. Why would somebody want to have half a game on a physical disc when he must download the other half anyway..

Major deal breaker there.
I would get the game without randomized landmasses only if the price drops below $10.

Interesting post on the PC Gamer blog:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/25/elementals-disastrous-launch-stay-well-away/
Some quotes:
"Elemental: War of Magic was released in some stores and for pre-order customers on Monday, a day ahead of schedule. It’s a mess. As PC gamers we’re used to launch day patches and bug fixes – that’s part and parcel of gaming on our platform. However, the scale of Elemental’s pre-patch problems is appalling and we want to warn you to stay away from the game for now."
"In response to someone saying Elemental “plays like an early beta” on the Quarter to Three forums, Brad requests that anyone who thinks so “please stay away from our games in the future. I consider it ready for release and if others disagree, don’t buy our games.”
Rock Paper Shotgun also picked up on the situation:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/25/stardock-rescind-own-bill-of-rights/#more-36993
"Stardock’s own Gamer’s Bill of Rights is no longer to be found on their site. That’d be the Bill of Rights featuring the proud bulletpoint:
“2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.”
You used to be able to find the bill right here [link to a removed page @ Stardock].
In entirely unrelated news, fantasy strategy epic Elemental: War of Magic was released by Stardock this week, a day ahead of schedule. We’re still waiting on our code (as are most other online gaming sites, judging by the game’s barren metacritic page), but the metaphorical word on the digital street is that it’s broken to the point of being unplayable, having never convincingly left the beta that was available to pre-order customers. Here’s people being upset right on the RPS forum."