Hey everyone,

Ever since Beta I have been kicking around some mod ideas. I'm now, finally, starting  to move forward, mostly just to learn what I can and can't do at this time. It is tough since Elemental is in such an evolving state. Some people are already doing some great early modding, and it has been nice to see.

I'm looking at doing something a bit different. Many of the mod ideas have focused on adapting some kind of source material, such as Warhammer, D&D, MoM, AoW, etc. I think this is great and I can't wait to play these mods. I'm also interested to see how the 'vanilla' world of Elemental grows. I think there are some great, unusual concepts and I applaud Stardock for trying something different. I just wish all of the 'Random House lore' had actually made it into the game.  However, I'm looking to build something new that is designed from the ground up to work with the game, rather than trying to make existing lore fit in Elemental's game world, or trying to make something deeper out of the rough foundation Stardock has created for their own, stock world.

The key things I plan to focus on for this mod are:

1. •Lore / Character: Creating an interesting, fully fleshed out gameworld, and actually making that impact the game.
   
2. •Strategy: Allowing for a diverse range of effective, interesting, and fun choices at the strategic level.
3. •Tactics:  Allowing for a diverse range of effective, interesting, and fun choices at the tactical level.
4. •Depth: Increasing depth to allow for more gameplay choices that matter and have an impact. Give players more to do.
5. •Diversity: Provide vastly increased variety in factions, units, equipment, spells, etc.

So what does this mean?

I'm interested in feedback on the basic concept. How do people feel about trying a mod based on original lore, rather than established lore or the base game's lore? How do people feel about the priorities I have laid out for the mod?

I have already laid out much of what I want to do in a series of design documents that I have been working on for the past few months, on and off. All of this is subject to change based on the mod's evolution. The core of what I want to accomplish is in the above priorities. That said, I already have lots of ideas for what I want to do with the mod.

I am currently starting by implementing two new factions that will play differently from anything currently in Elemental, and differently from each other. This is actually well within the scope of current modding possibilities, although I won't be putting in any new art assets or making any truly radical changes...that will mostly come in time, hopefully. The idea is to implement the above priorities with two new factions, built from the ground up to thrive in the Elemental engine. These two new factions will be balanced against each and should provide a fun starting place for the rest of the mod to be built on as our ability to mod Elemental grows. I am not a great scripter or coder, and I'm not an artist. My skills with mods have always gone into design, balancing, writing, testing, and other areas. However, I am working with the XML files without much trouble and making the changes I need to make my initial ideas happen. At some point, if people are interested, I will likely seek some help with things like new art assets.

Depending on interest, I can provide more detailed previews of what I am doing. I will be interested in your feedback, and hope  to have the initial version of the mod out soon.