Alstein

Honestly, what makes critters like these special: is that they're not as common as bandits or wolves. You need to make sure you see these guys, but you don't see them all the time. Even the best designed critters become ho-hum eventually if overexposed. See Vampires and Zombies.

Those look quite impressive, I'm liking it so far. Some ideas based on this: You need a variety of elemental critters (I'm going to assume this isn't a complete list) Some spell ideas, borrowing from a mud I used to play: Elemental weapon enchanting fire, water, air books : ignite weapon, freeze weapon, charge weapon- gives weapon the appropiate element. Tactical spell and lasts for INT/3 rounds. This shou

I think for you to not have tactical battles in MP, you'd need to really improve the quick battles. I find the current system in EWOM to be broken- it was actually better pre 1.1 due to sovereign's casting tactical spells based on INT. Then again, I felt the old system needed to be modified not replaced. Co-op multiplayer could have an audience. That said, I'd prefer the resources spent on tactical MP be spent to make quick combat work like it should

[quote who="kenata" reply="13" id="2900418"] Well when it comes to streamlining I think it's hard to say that it's outright bad or good. I'm sure even the most hardcore complexity fan can find streamlining changes they actually liked if they think about them. I completely agree. Steamlining itself has both good and bad uses. The current trends in the game industry are fairly understandable when one takes a look from a purely business stand point. Most games make the vast majority of

[quote who="AlLanMandragoran" reply="1" id="2900340"]Which difficulty were you playing? You should have seen Brad's test build over Christmas break - that was a nutso experience. He had troll groups spawning early and constantly. The troll warrior is a hero killer with that special it has to do 3x normal damage attack. Anyway I've found the monster spam to not be a problem when I focus on making all cities at least level 3 and pushing back monster spawns with the ZOC. I've act

You can streamline without cutting out depth. It is in the eye of the beholder to a degree. Streamlining you like= eliminating tedious micromanagement. Steamlining you don't like= dumbing things down. One example of how it's in the eye of the beholder is a fighting game that was released a couple years ago, SFII HD remix. The creator of that game simplified many motions, and made balance changes to make certain situations more balanced

One other factor: would STARDOCK fans care for DLC? I suspect the clientele you have developed here with games like GalCiv and Sins, may be resistant to a DLC pricing model. I think there's a preference for the traditional model- though mini-expansions would work.

[quote who="TorinReborn" reply="14" id="2899733"]If the price of the game was normal, personally I would never pay additionaly for a standard feature as MP. Actually bullshit like this would make me pirate that game just to send a message. And actually, since I bought EWoM and was promised next two expansions for free and then I would need to pay for a basic functionality like MP this would be the last Stardock game I would ever buy.[/quote] This i

I'd support this, for future titles. Not Elemental. Also only if the AI is truly top-notch at launch (aka GCII AI not Elemental AI).

On DLC- what I've found out is that there's a huge difference in perception between DLC that is "on the disc" aka unlock codes, and DLC that is created. If people feel content is held back, they will resent it. That's a large part of the reason the console market is failing for non-AAA devs- people feel robbed, so they're more careful about what they buy- aka they buy less and buy used. You gotta make people think they're getting value on the DLC, and that it's someth

On these account security features, I'd like it if you could authorize 2 computers for them. I tend to play my games on 2 different computers, so most security features are worthless for me.

That's a legitimate concern. That said, so far Reactor DRM hasn't been different then using Impulse. Generally, if I can run the game without a 3rd party client running or rootkit installed (aka SECUROM) , I'm not going to be complaining or devaluing games over that. If Impulse needs to be running to play a game, I'll be upset.

That 1% figure is true for other games in the genre as well, not just EWOM. The only one I've ever played MP was AOW2SM, and that was becaue the SP AI was non-existant. Stardock games usually have at least somewhat of an AI.

For $20, and the discount given to folks for FE who have Elemental after the deadline most likely, you might save yourself money by getting it now.

It will be up to the publishers to determine if this gets abused. Consumers have shown a huge willingness to get abused, so their input doesn't matter until they refuse to buy.

I'd say Yes.

Question: if you have Sins but not the expansions, do you get a discount/ are you going to be missing content?

I want this to do really well. Will this ever become Mac-compatible?

I think for diplomacy to be good, the AI needs to be able to make the player do things that aren't in the player's best interest- just like how the player can do the AI.

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="2" id="2896543"]1. The beta won't go out until it's fairly far along. 1A. Unlike War of Magic, we won't be closing the public beta early so that people can complain right up to the end. 2. Personal opinion on this: The MP is likely to increasingly go in a different direction to make it better for MP without gimping single player (quests in MP for instance not doable).[/quote] On #2- you tried this before I think and the

Butcherman- proud member of the Iori Yagami school of pants fashion.

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="10" id="2896514"]I do know one thing that's a pretty big change, the land itself is dynamically generated. In War of Magic, we make the land masses in the tile editro and then the game randomly generates the goodies on them. But in Fallen Enchantress, it's appears that it'll all be dynamically generated. I can't say one way or the other whether tiles will be giving bonuses and such yet. Our focus is making Fallen Enchantress an awesome game.[/quot

[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="7" id="2896478"]Right, they don't have to do something just like the Civ games, but now they are just completely useless, prettier would be better, but having some function would great. And I totally meant dessert and not desert! I want to know if the land will produce jelly donuts or not! Don't judge me![/quote] I just don't see how the way buildings are produced in this game and terrain would m

This isn't Civ. I'm not sure having the land do things, outside of bonus tiles, would help the game be any more fun. I do think we need more variety in the bonus tiles though. Having certain land have combat modifiers like woodlands/hills/etc, or having it affect tactical maps- might.

[quote who="Godplex" reply="14" id="2893936"]Great read, thanks! I particularly enjoyed the compiled statistics from the customer survey; I was surprised to see that Impulse users favored Android phones over iPhones. I guess the openness and edginess tends to attract more elite computer users, like developers/enthusiasts. I'm curious to know how many others here are programmers or techies of some kind. One thing I'm wondering is how Stardock plans to promote the Gamer's