There is no such thing as MoO3. I hope Stardock will make it someday.  

Anyway: nice survey as usual.

That would require them to notice this thread, which assumes they pay attention to anything other than their inane, repetitive demand for more glitz over gameplay.  Demands which, no doubt, will quickly turn towards 'gearing the game towards a wider audience' once they start playing.

Edit:  yes, I don't like them.  So what?

Actually, exactly two people responding with "I am that idiot", so I am guessing they took the survey - hope they got a chuckle out of it.

Do you really think they wouldn't have chimed in here?  Upset that we dare call them by their right names?

What happend to mass murderers?

As promised, here are the results. The answer to "how many suckers you can catch on one hook?" is 100.

1. There have been some lively discussions about espionage in Elemental recently. How important is espionage? A. It is critical and should be included even if the best they can do is sliders to allocate resources to espionage and counte espionage. B. If is important, but Stardock should only implement it if they can come up with something new and innovative. C. Spycraft?? We don't need no stinking spycraft!
	answered question		99
	skipped question		1
		Response Percent	Response Count
A		13.1%	13
B		62.6%	62
C		24.2%	24

DownloadCreate Chart2. How do you feel about Elemental being compared to other games such as Master of Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic, and others. How do you feel about such comparisons?
	answered question		99
	skipped question		1
		Response Percent	Response Count
Elemental should be judged on its own merits.		28.3%	28
A balance of comparison vs judging its merits is ideal.		31.3%	31
Elemental should be judged against other similar games.		15.2%	15
This is a really stupid question.		25.3%	25

DownloadCreate Chart3. If beta were pushed back to October I would feel:
	answered question		98
	skipped question		2
		Response Percent	Response Count
Homicidal		11.2%	11
Suicidal		3.1%	3
Depressed		18.4%	18
Unconcerned		18.4%	18
Glad that Stardock is crafting a quality game		29.6%	29
Excited to watch the rants on the forums!		19.4%	19

DownloadCreate Chart4. Some people have recently expressed concerns that without a high quality trailer and or cutting edge graphic or animation, that Elemental will be doomed to failure. Such people are:
	answered question		97
	skipped question		3
		Response Percent	Response Count
Idiots		35.1%	34
I'm one of those idiots		10.3%	10
Stupid idiots		10.3%	10
F***ing stupid idiots		44.3%	43

DownloadCreate Chart5. This survey -
	answered question		99
	skipped question		1
		Response Percent	Response Count
is not your best work		22.2%	22
sucks pretty bad		22.2%	22
is better than no survey at all		34.3%	34
was painful. If you can't do better than this, please stop.		21.2%	21

DownloadCreate Chart6. Frogboy is working on a book that will provide the backstory for Elemental. Your thoughts? (choose all that apply)
	answered question		98
	skipped question		2
		Response Percent	Response Count
Awesome! I will buy the hardcover version!		17.3%	17
I will wait for paperback.		25.5%	25
I will wait for the movie.		13.3%	13
Should be included in a collector's edition of the game.		50.0%	49
Should be included in PDF in the standard version.		43.9%	43
I'm really not interested in the book.		26.5%	26

How sad that the first question the mayority prefer the second option or the third. If it's not combat or economy (maybe diplomacy), it doesn't seem to deserve a chance. And don't point to the "innovative" part because I could ask combat not to be included unless it was innovative too. And then I would get flamed and named idiot of the month. Probably. Maybe.

I chose the second option on the first question, because espionage that I ahve seen done with sliders is not fun and is just a chore and a money drain. Obviously that is just an opinion, which the purpose of a survey is to get people's opinion.

Saying that you could say the same thing for combat and that it needs to be innovative, I would still put option 1, that it needs to be in whether it is innovative or not. That is because combat is fun, regardless if it is MoM style, Empire:Total War style or even if it was Civ style, which we will eseentially see in beta. So, no, I don't think it's quite the same.

The second option is what i picked as well. Id like to see stardock attempt something fresh and new even if it were to fail, then of course id also like the option to turn it off just in case.....

I'll definitely agree with you about the opinion part. I'd rather have a status quo espionage component than none at all, and some of my very favorite GC2 games ended without me ever firing a shot or being fired upon.

True, as a dedicated GC2 "culture warrior", I agree that combat is overrated. However, I also agree that slider espionage is not fun....... plus it would inflame the "loud people" again......

Homicidal only got 11 votes?

And about that last question, I don't think there is going to be a collector's edition, just an expensive limited. More chances of it coming with the book then (thank Annatar/Yarlen for that information)

 A. It is critical and should be included even if the best they can do is sliders to allocate resources to espionage and counte espionage.

Doesn't mean using sliders, just that in case of not being able to pull something as detailed as combat (to say), at least they should have sliders. And you may find them horrible (some are) but I think that the effort should be made. It's not like asking for an Epic Generator (sorry BoogieBac! ) and with time and proper preparation they should be able to do something interesting.

B. If is important, but Stardock should only implement it if they can come up with something new and innovative.

And matched with cutting edge graphics too. (I heard they determine the success of a video game... that and an uber intro video)

C. Spycraft?? We don't need no stinking spycraft!

Neither economy, diplomacy or any non combat magic!! Yay!

So yeah, mine is an opinion and yours is, obviously, yours. That's fine. But those asking for Camp 1 should be voting for no economy in the game unless it's innovative. And if we can start with a simple economy according to Frogboy and from there make it grow along the beta, why not a espionage system?

And for the record, autobattle is a good friend of mine.

Slider espionage is trite and boring.  Spies and assassins in Rome: Total War were rather fun.  Elemental could have a "sewer maintenance" slider, too, but that wouldn't be fun.  Moats, however, are cool, as are swamps.  So, I absolutely want putrid anaerobic gooey water in Elemental, but not as a slider.

People who don't share your views are not all "sad", and you're mischaracterizing them, anyway.

I'm just curious, do you consider me a loud person, Scoutdog? Because I don't try to shout anyone down - OK I only try to shout Hortz down - but gerneally I think all opinions deserve to be ehard and ultimately Stardock gets to decide who to listen to (including no one if they have their own ideas) - however, if I certainly will get vocal about opposing what I consider a bad idea. Not really wanting you to name names, but I am wondering who you are labeling (in your own mind at least, and btw thank you for NOT calling them out publicly, that's all we need is a flame war) as "loud people". I think everyone is pretty respectful of each other here, adn it really hasn't gotten out of hand excep[t when two devs responded to someone and they just would not get a clue that they were barking up the wrong forum....

Who doesn't try to shout Hortz down? I'll admit, I *might* have tried to be a jerk to him, but I think he deserves it   

aww, I missed it.  oh well.

Me too brother, me too...

And yet...  I almost prefered that approach in GalCiv2 to the new, 'agent' based approach.

I voted for no espionage.   I've never liked it because defending yourself against it has always been too passive - you just build anit-spy units/buildings and hope the RNG is kind to you.  At least in the 4X games that I've played.

Somebody probably could do it differently or better but I'm not sure EWOM is the place for it.

Edit:

And I truly hate how we cannot even try to have a system because until now it has never been fun (I liked Gal CivII's), or it would be nice just don't try in this game because you reduce the time for the feature I want, blah blah... bs. Really. Obviously, we won't get any good system until someone bothers to actually keep trying to make one. Oh, yeah, let's wait for modders.

Ignore me, I just need some vacations (still a few days more...) and all this pisses me off quite a lot.

75% of the vote went to either "its critical" or "its important". I'm not seeing the problem. People clearly do want it, but only if it actually adds fun to the game.

Which makes sense. I'd rather no espionage system over one that makes the game tedious.