I would guess you are right Anomander that the tactical element and visuals has not been top priority so far. From what I read in the forums development did not start in that end.

Many games have great tactical combats but boring strategic gameplay. I'm very glad that Elemental seems to not fall into that trap. A game like this should be fun even with tactical battles turned off, otherwise make a purely tactical game instead.

Also I find the unique graphics style nice and what's wrong with plastic miniatures?
But sure, some variation in poses would not hurt, even miniatures have that.

Nothing... If their on a table somewhere... And not in my PC.

lol

FTA: "Kingdoms play more like traditional strategy games where you build up population centers and keep everyone happy, whereas empires are more about producing great people."

I was under the impression that the difference between Kingdoms and Empires was that Kingdoms used Life magic (and were "good") and Empires used Death magic (and were "evil). I generally enjoy being good in games like these, but collecting great people sounds like a very fun play style. Is it possible to use Life magic as an Empire? What exactly do they mean you "produce great people"?

@Naidrev

Well see the problem here is that your automatically associating death with evil... It's an easy assumption to make I mean, death, darkness, destruction... Seriously though. Just because they Channel their magic through death and believe in a supremacist mind-set doesn't make them Evil... It just makes them kinda obnoxious and gothic... Like a teenager.

That same obnoxious gothic empire could also love kittens and be bloody well kind... Of course the kittens would probably be forced to survive by killing their siblings and their only really nice when you offer them tribute, and their idea of being nice is not killing you...

But does that make them evil? Naaah.

They are just misunderstood... But why do you care... Wouldn't you be Emperor? I say to hell with all these pitiful maggots before me!

Bwahahahah!

I'm gonna go sit in the corner now.

... I think you should adjust how you see good and evil and you'll see. From the mindset of the Empire... They are strong... And henceforth, by default they are good.

Is it too much to ask to have both...apparently N:TW comes close?

If you state an element as a feature 'Tactical Battle' then in my mind it should BE a feature, but I agree the game should stand alone with the 'TacBattles' turned off.

I am lovin' this video! Now I really can't wait for Beta2.   Hm, I have only one problem: I think that the game world looks kinda empty. There should be much more "objects" on the world map. Take a look at this AoW2-SM screenie for example. ->

The map is full with various objects, and it looks very cool this way. This is my subjective opinion of course.

Noooooooooooooooo lets leave the clutter out! I want great forest expanses, plains and mountains. Not a Fantasy theme park!

Its not clutter as in a lot of actors, merely "more objects" as in more interesting foliage ... although I agree that the beginning SHOULD look sparse. After the land has some time to be "Revived" we can add more plants and things. (like hawks flying overhead, and foxes in the bushes)

Uh, maybe I'm just projecting my own preferences, but I think most of us definately want the fantasy theme park!

I think that part of the map emptiness comes from the fact that terrain types don't really exist. You have mountain, forest and open land. With more terrain types that have an impact on gameplay, the map would fill up nicely. SD so far is treating this terrestrial map like a galciv map; you have goodyhuts and resources floating out in 'space'.

AoW2 was great.  I'm going to reinstall that if I can find my disks.  Between Steam and Impulse, I'm going to miss my scavenger hunts. 

If you want a fantasy theme park you can make your own maps.  But Elemental's maps are largely randomly generated and have to support very very VERY large maps.

My preference is for a world that is much like our own but has the presence of magic.

However, with magic, you can cast spells in game to change your area into looking like a magical garden (and those spells cost 0 mana).

Do they cost 0 mana because there is 0 gameplay effect to having a magical garden vs throne of skulls wasteland?

Exactly.

Ohhh I really like the idea of beauty spells which does not cost anything, but help you shape your world based on your vision, that would be really great

I mostly limit myself to lurking here even though i've been following this for quite a while now. No need to voice an opinion that has already been worded by several others .

In this case I'll make an exception though.

To simplify this process, the game has only one resource type, so you don't need to worry about gathering wood and stone and a bunch of other things from the environment to build out population centers.

Through my regular reading here I am almost sure this is a rather blantant error. Last time i checked (quite recently :P)  resources where global (to reduce micromanagement) - but there was no question of a single resource. The only time you'd notice local(ized) it would be in times of siege. We still have food and wood and stone and metal and swords and shields and potions and pens and ~> 

It be real great if Brad, or on of the others, could confirm this is down to another industry hack short on time before his deadline (read a kinder description if you please).

Screenies do look nice

forums are wonky - double post



Hmmm, in my opinion, that's a missed opportunity. There is fun to be had by making such things functional. If my throne of skulls wasteland is encroaching on magical bunny land, it should be something that is good for me, but non-optimal for them.

100% agreed. We already have HoMM and warcraft. Time for something fresh. 

edit: I also want to disagree with anyone who says that those beauty spells should have functionality. There are plenty of functional spells in the game for you to tweak / add more of if necessary, but having a nice arsenal of beauty spells would be great, great, great. That would really go along with the customization aspect of elemental. Having spells that can make barren deserts, magical gardens, lush forests, serene grasslands, rocky crags and dead earth would really allow each faction to kind of have much more unique flavor then they otherwise would.