I am also interested in the mystery that is the 'channeler'. We really haven't heard much other than there will be options to customize him/her? I'd like to know what options..I like to imagine some hybrid between MoM's customization and Oblivions customization.

Agreed. MoM is awesome because it is varied every game. So many elements make it that way:

1. You couldn't go into a battle even with a powerful set of units and know you would win. The distant magician's ability to affect the battle, in late stages significantly, made every combat interesting.

2. Every game you could get a wide variety of units with advantages/disadvantages by taking over enough cities. So you could experiment with races without locking yourself into one.  If you love Trolls, you can usually get some.

3. The richness, balance, and variety of spells

4. The Heroes ability to affect a battle, movement, magic castable per turn, etc. made for lots of variation per game based on which Heroes you could get.

5. The ability to build a new town whereever you wanted.

Making it better:

a. smarter AI, especially looking for patterns. If you take 3 towns with Ultra Elite slingers, the other mages should start putting Guardian Wind on everything. I know this is hard--that's why multiplayer would be so cool

b. some way to get more spellbooks; if you didn't get lucky you could sometimes not get high levels of spells. I'd prefer that you could buy one, or use mana to buy one (maybe 10,000)

c. better graphics

d. multiplayer

e. more time to play!

Chalk me up too for variety in races spell lists etc.

I also loved that you could rule an empire with a huge variety of races and their units, not just "your" race that you started with. Alternatively you could genocide all other races away, if that took your fancy. (As it so often did with my death magic wielding Wizard and his ravenous swarm of Halflings. )

What really took it above a fantasy version of Civilization though, was the personal involvement you had in battles and overland through your spellcasting. You're not just the leader of a nation, you're a powerhouse in your own right.  

What I particularly liked was that your personal ethics (as reflected in your spell list, at least) had very little to do with the race you started out with. You were clearly a very powerful being in your own right, and you would rule over anyone you conquered, not just one particular group you chose in setting up the game. This emphasizes the importance of the Wizard/Chaneler as an individual, not just the superpowered king/chiefain/whatever of a race.

With essence and all, i would have to agree. It will be interesting to see how conquered cities will react, will there be a benefit to building a Fallen warrior instead of my regular ones much like there were different benefits per race in MoM? 

I seem to remember finding spellbooks in caves and whatnot.

Yep, you *can* find more spellbooks in MoM.

And there is at least two or three everygame.

Yes the idea of exploration in MOM was a big part of why it was better than a "fantasy" Civ.  Also the different units for the various races just all seemed to have so much character.  You really rooted for your halflings, they weren't just another ranged unit.  It's a subtle thing to build into a game.  While the game mechanics of Elemental and unit design may be quite advanced, be careful that the fact that everyone is a human(or fallen) doesn't make the units lack character despite their functional differences.

High men, barbarians and nomads are radically different in terms of play-style, even if they seem similar conceptually. All of the Myrran races (Beastmen, Dark Elves, Draconians, Dwarves and Trolls) are completely different and all are unique and interesting to play. Hell, even the hated Lizardmen and Klackons are fun to play if you adopt strategies suitable for them. They are both extremely strong early game and grow quite fast, not needing very many buildings. Gnolls and Orcs were the most boring races to play, although Gnolls could be quite powerful early as their basic units do a lot more damage.

For me, half the fun of MoM is simply imagining and discussing complex strategies and combinations of spells with different races. The other half, of course, is testing them out and seeing how powerful they turn out to be.

The real magic of MoM is the elegant way it blends simplicity with complexity in all the right ways. The tactical combat hits the sweet spot for complexity without being bogged down by too many units or being drawn out too long (like Empire Total War). The simplicity of each spell, with the complexity of the hundreds or even thousands of combinations of spells and units, complimenting their strengths and hiding their weaknesses.

I'm pretty concerned that no matter how good Elemental is, people put MoM on such a high pedastil that they're going to be disappointed. You see the same thing with Everquest junkies who are disappointed every MMO launch because they're comparing it to nostalgia-laden opinions of playing EQ years ago back when it was their first MMO. Nothing can possibly compete with that, because all the broken and stupid stuff gets forgotten so easily.

Because I want more of this type of game made, which means I want this one to be successful. A 300 page thread full of people complaining about how it doesn't reach a standard imposed by nostalgia is not terribly helpful.

It's a valid concern and certainly not what I am shooting for. I thought I was favorably comparing the so far very vague ideas we have about EWOM to MoM. I think there were thesis papers written on why MMOs never captured the magic for original EQ players and essentially it was compared to losing your virginity - you just can't re-experience a first time experience AS a first time experience!

All that taken into account, i think anyone with a brain does not expect this game to resemble MoM at all, in fact "spiritual successor" status might even be questionable at this point. That does not mean that much of what people loved about MoM cannot still guide the development of EWOM - that's the goal (at least for me) - and if a different direction is taken, which in many instances it surely will be, at least it will be an informed decision.

I have certainly expressed things about MoM that drove me nuts (and so have others) that we completely expect EWOM to surpass MoM in many of those "aggravating" areas.

Certainly it will exceed MoM in bugginess (by meaning EWOM will run better and crash less), the AI will surely be superior, and the graphics cannot be anything but a vase improvement - even the pre-alpha screenies that we have seen are orders of magnitude improved.

I am not asking for the same options, but I am asking for a comparable or higher number of significant options for replayability. I already know that we are not getting the racial variety, but I am hoping that the factions provide the diversity of strategic choices that races provided in MoM. I don;t think puttin gthose ideas out there hurts the devlopment or the eventual success of EWOM!

Oh no, neither do I. It's what Spartan said, I just want to see this game evaluated for what it is and not compared to an impossible standard.

Haha, sorry, Starvault is another company working on a game I'm following. I get them mixed up when I keep posting in the different forums alternately.

Having said that, I honestly don't care about what people think of Elemental, so long as I like it. I don't have any vested interest in it beyond that.