Reminder on Elemental horror

Good news ! I can hardly wait for the next beta ....

Gimme moaaar !

That's good news!

And here I was thinking this was the announcement for the first expansion pack for Elemental

That's excelent news Frogboy. I can't wait to test the next build.   Good job so far sir.

The best advertisement for a beta ever... I was considering pre-ordering, but now I am sure.  and now I did.

Since I am in software development myself, I look forward to the utter mess we are going to get

Also, what the people who can't run the game and so on need to remember is that this is what testing is. Stuff is broken, you find out what is broken, let the coders know, and then sit back and wait for them to try and fix it. The idea behind testing is to find out what is wrong, and make that known. When does it get fixed? When there's time.

In a testing phase, you aren't supposed to get good support. Their interest isn't in fixing your problem, in trying to make things work on your system. Their interest is in finding out problems over all and trying to rectify the underlying cause.

That's also the reason they are handing it out in pieces, rather than everything they have right now. It is to direct what you can test. The want feedback on certian aspects, they don't want people concentrating on other things or complaining about something they aren't interested in working on.

So just remember that if you get a build that's busted on your system. Test it out, see if you can figure out why it's busted, but if the answer is "it is broke and nothing can be done" well then report it and just wait until a new one comes out. Don't get bent out of shape that they won't give you personal support, that's not what it's about in a test.

I have to say that while there is not much to do in the game and several vital elements of the game are still missing, the game looks promising and the cloth map is something that I can't describe with words - it seems like you are playing a pen&paper RPG .

Now that beta is out I am finding it harder to make suggestions! i.e. it is hard to suggest thinks for the descendants/dynasty portion of the game without having an idea of what is currently planned - it is almost like I feel like I need to wait for that piece to be released in beta before I can make suggestions...(of what I would change)

I hope that there are profiles so that my sons and I can play on the same computer, and that their will be "career achievements" for each profile, kind of like the achievements in Sins (space ponies!) but it would be very cool to support multiple users (maybe 4?) per installation so that each player cankeep track of their career win/loss etc etc.

I also think that units need more than attack/def stats, at the very least heroes and special units need resistances to each element. To me if their are not strengths or weaknesses viz a viz each element, then much of the depth of having different elements is lost. Different factions could also have natural strengths and weaknesses to each element. Not just in using the magic from that sphere but being protected... I think this is critical but so far everything I have read points towards just attack/def rating - like GalCiv has the three weapons types and the three defenses specific to the type of weapopn being used...anyway...

Well I can't wait for the next build to come out! Hopefully they just keep flying out fast!

• A faction's borders are invisible until you actually make contact with them. You can see that someone has revived the land and wheather they are a kingdom or empire, but not who they actually are until you run into one of their units.
• Once that happens, you can see their border as the colored line we have currently. You also initiate diplomatic contact, mainly with the purpose of deciding what to do with the tresspassing unit:
  • You can keep your borders open (and a lot of AIs should be willing to do this if they are neutral or friendly with you). All units are allowed to pass freely.
  • You can completely close your borders: units that are currently in the territory will be given a time frame to get out, say the time it would take to leave by the most direct route plus, say, 10%. If any of your units are seen after that time, only then do they declare war.
  • You can also close your borders to only units with weapons, leaving any sort of workers or traders free to pass through (if peaceful units are implimented @ all).
• You can violate a closed faction's borders any time you want without declaring war PROVIDED that they can't see your units. If you're caught, unless they are on VERY good terms with you already

Look forward to proving you wrong on thursday!

Err..,

No. Um, I mean look forwarding to finding OTHER bugs on Thursday!

I wouldn't mind finding some of the same bugs if they are still there.:P

Very good news, because without being able to load, bug hunting is a lot harder

Cool we get a skeleton on October first

Wait, that's tomorrow!

With the state of 4x gaming this Beta is as good as it gets these days. Havnt been much new since CIV IV for me (I have Sins and GalCiv II, but I just didnt get hooked).

Can't sleep, bugs will eat me. *rocks in corner*

That's sounds awful. This will just result in one path all players will play. Personally I prefer a balanced game, not one that favors "speed builders". Guess I will not be playing online....sigh.

What I don't get is that of "one path all players will play". You mean it as every player will focus on one path and stick to it to get the bonuses before anyone else? Or that everybody will select the same path (easiest, overpowered...) and stick to it for similar reasons? We still don't know if it will be used that idea, which kind of bonuses it has (according to which path it belongs) and how the balance could be. Also, if balance is correct, specialization is its own strength and its own weakness.

Look at it this way. He didn't say "Only One" tech gets a bonus when you research it. Researching different techs first could apply different bonuses. This was the player isn't going to research the same things in the same order every time. Also different research paths and bonuses could work for different play styles. Light verses Dark, Kingdom verses Empire. I'm sure these separate paths won't have the same bonuses.

Besides. I'm sure they're smart enough not to apply a bonus to only one type of research being done first. That wouldn't be fair and it would throw balance out of whack.

Yeah, but giving a player a bonus for reaching a goal before others is favoring players. There are so many different tactics in games, but with this people will naturally race to get the bonus. I myself am a player that likes to fortify and build a rounded research.

No, not that every player (bad choise of words on my part sorry), but that the game will then favor one type of player, namley the person who sits there and finds the fastet path to the end tech. Like I mentioned, there are so many different tactics in a game like this, that giving a player bonuses like this unbalance the overall gameplay.

I don't really see it. If my goal is to build Legions of Terror and go around beating people up, I'm not going to turn around and focus my research on advanced peasant housing because it gives an extra bonus if i get there first. Let someone else have his fancy houses, I'm making catapults.

If I thought the Elemental Devs didn't know what they were doing I'd be saying the same thing you are about balancing. As an ex GM I had to be sure any bonuses or new abilities I gave to one class that I gave an equivalent to the other classes as well to maintain a proper balance in PvP. The same theory applies here. I'm sure researching other techs first will give different bonuses. Example:

Researching troops first can get you a slightly better then average starting unit. While researching Housing first can give you a slightly higher population growth. These bonuses will counter balance each other out in the long run. The player with the housing bonus can create more troops because he has a higher population. The player with the slightly better troops can make better troops but he can't make as many because he doesn't have as high a population. When these kingdoms meet in combat the armies will destroy each other. The weaker troops will die in droves verses the better troops but they will still overwhelm them in sheer numbers causing heavy losses to the slightly better troops. When the battle is over though the slightly better troops will have caused so many casualties to the weaker mass that they won't be able to invade your town without going back for more men. Balance achieved.

Have a little faith in the Devs until we have a chance to actually test these bonuses in Beta play. If we all start "nay saying" now before we even have a chance to test them they may end up scrapping an idea that brings a lot to the table when game play comes around.

Beta 1A is the real start of the path (content wise) and Stardock is more than eager to listen to what we have to say (be it positive or negative feedback) to make this game better, fun and balanced.