Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Development Update

Stardock's Brad Wardell has provided us with a quick development update on Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, in which he confirms that a fourth beta build will be available soon, that Steam won't be required, multiplayer won't make the release version, and more.
When will Beta 4 come out? The best I can say is (This Summer). It definitely won't be out in June but might make it in time for July.

What will be in Beta 4? Beta 4 focuses a great deal on the civilization aspect of the game. Specifically, the way cities are constructed. A third prime resource, essence, will be introduced (grain, materials, and now essence) which will help encourage greater specialization in cities. The graphics and user interface will also see a significant series of improvements for Beta 4 as well.

Will there be a Beta 5? Probably. Depends on how we're feeling about Beta 4.

Will Fallen Enchantress require Steam? No. We plan to make Fallen Enchantress available to purchase on Steam. But it won't require Steam to play.

What is the status of multiplayer? It is our intention to add multiplayer after release but it won't be available on day 0.

What is the status of modding? We would like to open up modding officially during the Beta 4 phase. No promises though.

Will there be more spells? Yes. We add more spells as we go along.

When will the final game be released? We don't have a release date yet. But we are hoping sometime this Fall. We want to make sure we have all the time we need to make Elemental: Fallen Enchantress as good as we can make it.