Just downloaded the v1.11 update, very eager to try it out! The download was 8.64 MB for me, by the way, I didn't have the 1.9 GB download problem that other people have reported.
I want to give a big thank you to everyone at Stardock who has worked so hard on this game! Your company has earned a new loyal gamer! Like many other people, I have been reading these journal updates and watching the progress of the game since its ill-fated launch. When v1.1 came out in December, I decided it was time to jump on the bandwagon and I bought the collector's edition box as a Christmas present to myself.
I have to say, I have been extremely pleased by this game overall. I never ran into a single stability problem. I have played through the whole campaign and just finished my first sandbox game, all without a single crash or game glitch. The gameplay is awesome and addictive so far. I agree that the AI needs work, as I steam-rolled through normal mode (and I'm speaking as a complete newbie here, although I do have experience with similar types of games such as Civ 5). So I'm looking forward to seeing if the AI can challenge me in v1.11, and I'm sure that it will just keep on getting better!
I'm a computer programmer by profession, and used to write simple DirectX and OpenGL games as a hobbie, so I find it fascinating to read journal entries from the developers. It is interesting to get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes when working on a game like this. Keep up the great work Stardock! I'm sure I will be a loyal customer now for many years to come. 
I do have some suggestions for improvements to the UI, maybe this can be worked on a bit for v1.2:
1. When a city is idle and you go to the build menu, it would be great if the city resources stay displayed at the bottom of the screen. Often I make construction decisions by thinking about what resource generation can be improved (i.e. if my city generates a lot of tech, I want to build one of the improvements that gives a 25% tech bonus). I keep finding myself having to close the build menu, check the city resources, then open the build menu again. A minor inconvenience, it would be great to see the resources and build options simultaneously.
2. When an event happens such as a roaming monster destroying one of my farms or something, it would be nice if the game map would focus in on the monster in question instead of just giving me a generic message such as "your south-east farm has been destroyed by a bandit". These message boxes force me to hunt around my vast empire and figure out where the offending creature is. I like the Civ 5 method of focusing in on enemy movements as soon as something enters your territory. After all, your territory is supposedly filled with your citizens & spies & other loyal subjects, so it makes sense that somebody would report suspicious creature movemenets to you when something nasty enters your territory.
3. In tactical combat, sometimes the action text above combatants heads (-5 hp, <dodge>, etc) disappears and the only way I can tell what is happening is by observing changes in the army life bar at the bottom of the screen.
4. I've noticed that sometimes city names get duplicated. For example, I had a city named Elvander, then noticed another city suddenly got renamed Elvander too. When I zoomed out to the cloth map, the names corrected themselves. But when I zoomed back in, the wrong name was shown again. I'm sure this is probably already on a bug list somewhere, but just so you guys know it still needs to be fixed.
Anyway, that's my two cents worth of feedback for you. All of these are minor issues, but would be nice if they're taken care of for v1.2. Thanks again for making a great game, and it will be fun to see how it continues to evolve over the coming months!