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You can make your own creatures too.
For the BETA, you need Internet to play. But the final retail version won't require it.
Using just bullet points, what were the key, unique elements of Master of Magic that you think helps make it stand out?
We aren't going to do any real pushing until beta 3 when the graphics engine is in and we're closer to shipping. :)
The ones shown above aren't specific to any environment. But there are creatures that are specific to environments but they don't tend to be Fallen creatures as they were bred explicitly not to be stuck to an environment. But for instance: This non-Fallen (natural creature of Elemental) appears on
Everything in Elemental already uses DesktopX. http://www.desktopx.net You can download that and mod the UI right now. Just find the .dxpacks. Same for GalCiv.
Elemental turns are simultaneous by default.
32 players is the maximum. A mix of human and AI players (since I doubt most people will want to play with 32 real humans -- they could but it likely won't happen often). One of my goals for the MP part of the game is to have scenarios where the game would only last say 20 turns and what you do in those 20 turns determines the outcome. There's a lot of interesting game scenarios we can create.
I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171 It's a great book and has nothing at all to do with global warming but instead gives you a good idea of the industry of science over the centuries. To make a long story short: Scientists have had a consensus on many things over the centuries. Those who disagreed were often ridiculed. Sometime
We agree. It's coming.
[quote]Only men and dragons? Not bears, sparrows, monkeys, or other useful cretures?[/quote] In terms of sentient beings, yes. But there are all kinds of Fallen creatures that are based on other natural creatures. The umberdroth (in the book thread there's a picture) is a Fallen creature made by Lady Umber and bred in great numbers. They're based on natural creatures.
[quote]Whos veiwpoint willl it be from? Will it come from the rulers of the empire either being Fallen or Human? Or will it come from an omniscient person who knows everything about everyone? Or even will it just be a narration by an omniscient outsider who has nothing really to do with the story?[/quote] POV is from particular characters in the story. All mere mortals, non-rulers.
Death magic doesn't mean evil necessarily. But it does alter ones view of the world (in the game).
The Fallen aren't a different species, they're simply not "natural". Men (and dragons) are the two natural sentient species of Elemental. The Titans, however, took those two species and created a host of different species as new races. All of these new races and species are The Fallen. The Fallen aren't a race or a species. They're a classification of life forms that were MADE by the Titans by changing/corrupting Me
One thing I feel compelled to mention here is that both Galactic Civilizations and Elemental are based foremost on unpublished manuscripts. The main difference here is that Elemental's is going to actually get published. :)
From the book (unedited): Such was the ambition of some of these rulers that they bred their own children to be used as pawns in a political struggle to try to rule the world. It was said that this is how Sions came to be – they are the descendents of children of the original sovereigns who married their sons and daughters to other Channelers in an attempt to build alliances – even
In our company briefing yesterday the breeding part of the demo went on the longest because people kept wanting to see what kinds of hideous things were being made. It wasn't supposed to be more than a 10 second part of the demo but it ended up eating up an extra 20 minutes of the meeting because people attending kept wanting to see what horrible horrible creature was going to be made next. I miss pre-rendered graphics. I miss sprites. At least then, we had control over how th
The children are generated dynamically. So even we don't know what you're going to get.
[quote]rankly, some factions should be at least infertile when crossed - unless you use evil arcane magic to create hybrids.[/quote] Should be. Probably won't.
People still use IE? Chrome!!!
You'll get to see it soon enough. You guys will probably do arranged marriages just to have horrible off-spring. Now, next week I'm going to try to see what happens if I take a half-urxen and a trog and combine them for my great-grand children.
[quote]Um I thought Civ IV was wildly simplistic and ive never played master of magic[/quote] Then you will probably find Elemental wildly simplistic.
The next public update is scheduled for February 4.
[quote]I am concerned that the game is going to be too simple, it doesn't sound all that strategic.....[/quote] Compared to what? If you found Civilization IV or Master of Magic strategic then you will likely find this strategic.