In Brad's journal asking what folks think about extending the beta schedule generously, he inlcuded this picture:
The filename is SwampLordPaintingFinal. The big thing in the painting looks to me like a very plausible candidate for Geoff the Slug's (single?) parent.
The beta schedule post also includes a (deceptively?) simple question about the number of players in a game, and already there are renewed posts about how 'empty' a 64-bit map would be without tens and tens of major factions.
I'm still firmly in the Big Maps Should Stay Mostly 'Undeveloped' camp, because I very strongly believe that enabling 'traditional city tesselation' (TBS urban sprawl) will be both boring for long games and remove a major chance that Elemental has to break new ground in the larger TBS genre. If you weren't reading around here back in late February and are interested in the older discussion, check out garysax's Will there be wild space in Elemental thread and ckessel's Independent Kingdoms thread.
