Frogboy

[quote who="Satrhan" reply="28" id="3113558"]That had better not be a joke [/quote] It's not a joke. I'm almost positive Kael had blogged on this at some point. About the city specialization? That a city on the main map would be 1 tile and would "grow" a little bit based on what level and specialization it was but the improvements would be built on a separate screen ala Civ. You could look at your pretty city in the city build window but on the main map it'll ba

[quote who="LNQ" reply="24" id="3113539"]Frogboy, thanks for letting in on that city building is going to change dramatically. That's the first time I heard this and I have been hoping to read it for a long time.[/quote] I was under the impression we had posted previously that we were going to make city building no longer a main map thing? I thought Derek had put that in a journal?

[quote] I hear what you're saying but you can't let that matter.[/quote] Sure I can. ;)

[quote who="FatNonFree" reply="17" id="3113495"]My question for Frogboy is,"What does it matter if you give too much away?" It's a game. It's not like it's nuclear secrets.[/quote] Because then we'll get endless speculation that always ends up with people jumping to negative conclusions. Look at response 14 for an example.

Great feedback. Derek (lead designer) has very similar views to this as well. So far, we've had Beta 1 and Beta 2. Beta 1 was just the initial beta to test the "new engine". In WOM, we waited way too late to do that and that resulted in a lot of launch problems. Beta 2 had been our general gameplay feedback beta. That is, get the AI playing the game, get the raw mechanics going, etc. Next up is Beta 3. That beta will take awhile to complet

I don't approve of people getting personal in their reactions but I do tend to filter out opinions that aren't constructive. That is, there's not much point in trying to satisfy someone who thinks WOM was a 1 or that FE is a 2. There's a lot of feedback to go through so I can't spend a lot of time reading every post. Hence, it does help indirectly when a user makes it clear that they're not the intended audience. I can't make someone who thinks

[quote who="UmbralAngel" reply="3" id="3113033"]I definitely agree with your logic Brad though I am puzzled that you wrote the code without the event based system in the first place. Is it customary to go back and add-in the event based system after the code is working or was this a deliberate decision that was inherited from EWoM?[/quote] When the tactical system was rewritten during WOM, it was made without consideration to MP. And we've inherited this.

I have longed for someone to ask this question. Here is the reason: In a multiplayer game, the game needs to send messages back and forth from the "Server" to the player. Nearly every part of Elemental was written this way. Let me show you what I mean in pseudo-code: Message Base: MySoldier->PostMessage(MSG_ATTACK_ENEMY,params); This would be sent to an event queue which would then handle the message MSG_ATTACK_ENEMY which in multiplaye

I find ratings and scales interesting. But they're also useful if there's a point of reference. For example, you could just get away from the number game entirely and go with actual game comparisons. You can get a good list of the best games of all time here according to reviewers. http://www.gamerankings.com/browse.html?si

My monster machines are less than $2K. Really, the big thing is 64-bit Windows 7.

I suspect modders will be making lots of "stuff" that will end up saying "64-bit users only".

I'm not inclined to invest in Android development.

It's pointless to try to give an early beta a review score. I think something got lost in the debate. What I am saying, and you will see this happen in the coming weeks: The PREVIEWs will be written. They will be posted. And then the battle in comments areas will occur. You will likely find that almost anyone who totally craps on Fallen Enchantress has never played WOM or FE. But they heard "how bad" WOM was and so they'll feel...compelled to comment.

Well not really. In YOUR build, all kinds of crapped increased zone of control. In OUR build, nothing increases zone of control except for specific improvements.

We look at you guys as our investor? I wonder how many people have been around long enough to remember Stardock in the old days? Not too many privately owned tech companies these days of significant sized controlled by 1 guy (facebook is one ironically).

@feelotraveler, you can't start marketing after a game is done. Games are typically announced years in advance and they don't have public betas like this. Whether we'll have public betas of our games in the future really depends on how this game turns out. At some level, we have the hope that beta testers see where we are -- as a beta -- and can see a fairly clear pathway (i.e. items A, B, C, and D need to be done) to excellence. That is our only e

[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="43" id="3111639"]I would say FE is more in the 7.5 range right now. It's good, it's solid, but right now doesn't have the replayability to push it to 8.5 nor the wow factor to push it to a 9+. I certainly think that you guys can make it great.[/quote] That's pretty similar to our view. I was going to write 7.5 in my previous post in fact.

[quote] As it stands now, FE is still a 6/10 or so experience.[/quote] When you put it together, just remember that WOM scored 5.3/10 overall. So the question I'd have to ask you is this: Are you saying that FE is only about 10% better than WOM? Master of Orion 3 was a near 7/10. When we give out numbers, I highly recommend http://www.metacritic.com/games . Not because I like Metacritic

Perhaps in a separate blog post I can write about the nature of marketing as marketing is, sadly, more important to the success of a product than the product itself. As long as a product meets a certain threshold (let's say in this case, a Metacritic of 80) then its success is largely dependent on a multiplier M (marketing). All this falls apart if you get less than 80. Now, the case of Fallen Enchantress, from a *marketing* perspective is much like the case of Star Wars:

Kael has nearly finished implementing the stat system for FE. It's like that line from Star Wars "The last vestiges of the Old Republic have been swept away."

[quote who="DexCisco" reply="7" id="3110660"]IIRC, the AI must be programmed to micromanage its tax rate, which is evidenced by the Gildar graph at the end of the game. Player gildar is usually a smooth line, but the AI is a jagged, up and down line. I have also checked AI town details and seen extreme changes in unrest from one turn to the next. I think maybe Frogboy has trained the AI to take advantage of the inconsistency here.[/quote] Shhhh! Don't make my goo

[quote who="Publius of NV" reply="26" id="3111317"]XP users who can't afford to upgrade to Win 7 64 have their priorities wrong. What's more important, gaming or food?[/quote] This is the correct opinion. :)

[quote who="UmbralAngel" reply="9" id="3111336"]Where in california are you going to be? If its in the bay area, maybe I can buy you a beer or something [/quote] San Fran and LA. Oh, it would be awesome to get together sometime. Unfortunately, my "handlers" have me booked every minute of every day.

[quote who="Publius of NV" reply="1" id="3111301"]Would it help if we tweet about #FallenEnchantress?[/quote] I'd say it's still too early. At some point, hopefully by Summer, the game will have reached a level where it is indisputable excellent. And then we'll spend another few months making it even better. In the near term, it'll just be a matter of those who never played WOM but still feel the need to comment on articles anyway, not being able to domin

lol.