How many entries is one limited to?

Dear derek

I am sure that you will find here (see link: an official thread!) everything you are looking for. No need for contests when you've got at your disposal such a mine of ideas/suggestions/lists/mechanisms as this forum.

It's becoming tiring to see Stardock wanting to look cool by asking time and again the same things. STOP ASKING! You've got all the cards in your hands; now create the game or throw the towel, the customers won't do your job!

Official Elemental Spellbook Wishlist: https://forums.elementalgame.com/386025

Boy aren't you a prime example of evolution failing.

I kind of agree with this although I admit it's cool that they're giving away money. There have been countless threads already with spell suggestions. I doubt there is much that hasn't been suggested yet.

Best quote from that thread:

"Depending on how fast my AI coding skills are, I can add a lot of spells in before release."

I am just fed up.

Not against Derek, he just arrived.

Against the whole thing: official threads for nothing, marketing ideas to drink the Kool Aid, asking for things that could be found by the hundreds just reading Dom3's or AoW2's paper manual, the sensation that 'they' just don't know what 'they' do, that 'they' just never knew what'they' were doing...

Yeah, I could choose one cool spell and do the contest. I won't. I already have a graphics card and the only game I want to play is the one I have already bought: EWoM.

I am just fed up of all those so-called 'updates' without any substance except for modders or coders. Ask us about meta-mechanisms, tell us about big features coming!

(Yeah, I'm ranting! Feel free to open fire!   )

This is a plea to Derek and the other members of the dev. team. It's been said above that there's been a lot of spell ideas on the forums already, but whatever, we'll assume this will be the OFFICIAL way of getting new spells in the game. My hope is this: if you see a lot of spells in this contest, do NOT dismiss them if they do not win. Please do what you can to make the spells in the game more fun to use, because (as I've said my times before) a game called "War of Magic" should have fun spells to use, not the bland ones we have right now. If you get 100 good ideas in the contest, then use them. If you get 1000 good ideas, then please use all of them in some fashion, regardless of which ones you consider the best and winners of this contest. If they're crazy and over the top, then change them up a bit so they're not (I know my submitted spell is crazy ). I know Derek has just arrived at the company, so this is mainly for the other devs: please use all of the spell ideas we are providing this time, please!

Mandelik has right there is a wishlist for spells and not 1 spell has been put it

and it would be nice to see some minor info about 1.1

Ok, I saw the rules and regulation, but do we need to add EVERY detail like: how much mana, upkeep, how many turn it should last, the AOE , wich book or something else or we just need to tell what kind of spell we want to have?

My response to this latest marketing gimgaw isn't entirely harsh, but I do sympathize solidly with Mandelik's general sense of being tired of efforts to whip up excitement with little prizes.

What I really find frustrating about this announcement from Derek the new guy is that his OP shows a clear understanding of how many of us are still frustrated by the lack of any sort of metaphysical framework for Elemental magic. Yet he asks us to keep doing more of the same stab-in-the-dark thinking that some of us have been trying since long before the first beta was available.

It won't surprise me to learn that Derek is reading backwards in the forums as ferociously as he's try to keep up with new chatter. But it does disappoint me a tad to see that he's leading the charge on such a terribly vague challenge to the community. The spells are hard to read in that contest UI (narrow column instead of following page or smart-sizing popup). And the input is just one 1,000 character text field when I'd hoped to see at least basic form parameters like the stuff Istari manually typed into the Dark Storm entry. (We can't even copy a URL to reference an entry for discussion here on the forums.)

I'll keep an eye on things and possibly make an entry, but the prize I'd really like to see from this context is a serious committment to have magic in Elemental gain a basic framework that both added some decorative meaning and provided global parameters to give the game a distinctive identity in the fantasy TBS genre. So far, elements are colors and essence is barely necessary. We should have elements that are like the cardinal directions on a map and essence that is essential to how a sovereign rules or leads a kingdom or empire.

Edit: I've not read the Rules thingy, but it surely isn't the place to put parameters that ought to be built into an input form.

atleast 1 spell will be ingame and the coolest

i just want to add i never played fall from heaven

tried it yesterday its really a awsome mod (after hearing wbc 3 music and iwd 2 portraits mmmmmmmmm)

I have to say I agree with you on this. It does seem rather haphazard. And as the format is not standardized, comparison should be quite difficult and annoying. I imagine (though I could be wrong), that some entries may be dismissed based purely on readability. In fact, I believe there was a clause in the rules and regulations stating that could actually be the case.

You have a valid general point. I just don't think that this side-contest has anything to do with anything else in the potential pipes. Just sort of a fun thing to keep people interested while they're waiting for 1.1.

Yes, it is a marketing stunt, and yes it is not the most useful request for ideas. However, setting a simplistic contest about spells does not preclude that suggestions made in the forums are not being considered. There is already a medium for the more complex ideas and suggestions that won't bear comparison as well as something like 'best spell'.

Here it is:

9.  CONTENT SUBMITTED:. By using this site, you agree to the following:

All Content uploaded onto this site must be original material created by you. By uploading any Content to this site, contributors are automatically assumed to be the creator and owner of the Content. You may not upload Content created by another person or taken from another source such as another website, etc, without express written permission from copyright owner. Copyright violation could result in account cancellation and in possible criminal prosecution.

By uploading Content, you give permission to the Sponsor to use the Content via online means or retail as seen fit by the Sponsor. Contestant shall have no rights to the content once submitted.

By uploading to the site you also acknowledge that the site administrators reserve the right to reject any of your upload at any time if they feel that they are inappropriate for the site in any way.

The Sponsor reserves the right to reject submissions for quality, completeness or other reasons deemed by the moderators.

I'm not sure how we are to gauge completeness if there has been no details given on what to include in our submissions. I imagine that this won't be enforced in any strict sense, and the best sounding ideas will most likely be selected.

When is the beta starting?

Best regards,
Steven.