Stromko

Reply to Why This Game Is Too Slow and How to Fix It in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Ports and ships aren't near useful enough. Ships are far too slow to be worth building for transport, and that appears to be the only ship I can build-- a combat ship to destroy transports in auto-resolved combat would at least provide a minimum of naval combat. There are also far too few beaches, and I can't make beaches with Lower Land which doesn't really make sense. I think a big problem with military growth in the game right now is that a just-built city can build

Improved start-up behavior vs Firewalls, please in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Whenever Elemental: War of Magic is patched, and I start it up, it freezes my entire PC and requires a hard reboot. Why? Because I forgot to go into my Firewall's settings and tell it to allow Elemental to access the internet. Even if I forgot, all it would take is being able to alt-tab out of the start up screen and click 'Yes' when it asks me if I want to allow Elemental to access the internet, but this is impossible. It locks up my entire syste

Reply to [Suggestion] Travel takes too long, add Gate spells in War of Magic Elemental Forums

There is nothing wrong with teleportation spells being in the game. Teleportation is a staple of most fantasy settings that involve magic in any way. It's also good game design as it is now-- having to move forces in finite ways all the time makes things far too simple and burdensome. The only reason it is broken now is that you can channel essence to a bunch of different heroes, and once they level up a few times you've got enough mana to telepor

Reply to Demigod Day 2 Update! in Demigod Journals Demigod Forums

[quote who="abluecardigan" reply="9" id="2144652"]As soon as I click Internet under the Multiplayer menu, the game locks up. Fantastic.[/quote] SAME! I suspect that ZoneAlarm is blocking it from connecting, since the program has changed (that is, been updated) and so is no longer being let through. Every other game at this point would allow me to shut them down, click the ZoneAlarm pop up and allow them, but Demigod is completely locking up my system and refu

Reply to Demigod: Day 1 Status Report in Demigod Journals Demigod Forums

[quote who="WickedDemiurge" reply="6" id="2144219"] Maybe you're playing a hero not your style? I could win in a 1v3 against Normal AI as Unclean Beast (except in Domination, which emphasizes team size differences much more), let alone a fair match.[/quote] Maybe I'm just not able to optimize my demigod well enough, or I was playing the Unclean Beast very badly. I just tried a 1vs3 as Sedna vs Beast, Rook, and Regulus on the same map (Crucible) to see if I was righ

Reply to Spore a huge disappointment in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

I'd have to critique the creature builder as well, for some entirely unnecessary limitations. You can't use the carnivore or herbivore mouths if you're an omnivore, or vice versa etc. So if you want to have an herbivore with mandibles, you can't, because mandible mouths are only for carnivores. That limits both aesthetic and gameplay possibilities for no particular reason. You can just use the external creature creator and mix-and-match all you like, and then inject that into the creature pha

Reply to Demigod: Day 1 Status Report in Demigod Journals Demigod Forums

The balance seems a little wonky in some cases, and I'm just talking about single-player. Try playing as the Unclean Beast, with allies Rook and Regulus, versus Sedna, The Oak, and Lord Erebus. With normal AI, you'll still probably lose. It seems like Generals are roughly equivelant to Assassins in one-on-one strength, add Minions and they're drastically stronger. Am I right in assuming that at some point in development they considered making Generals and Assassins just as strong, but

Reply to Trading Strats in Strategies Stardock Forums

I find freighters to be very useful and I use them every game. It's the only way I ever haul myself out of debt in the early to mid game, and you shouldn't underestimate the importance of anything that improves your relations with other races, unless you like being ganged up on. If you're doing very well they might turn against you anyway, but by then you won't need them so much. Building economy starbases for no other purpose than to increase trade revenue doesn't seem worthwhile, espe

Reply to Very Dissapointed? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Oh, and my two cents on pirates is that they're actually quite helpful and I've wanted to actually add to MY bounty several times to ensure they attack me. Why? Capships! A decent fleet with capships can handle pirates no problem and gain access to potent abilities without ever meeting the 'real' enemies. Other enemies don't throw away big fleets in battles they can't possibly win, thus giving you loads of experience without your capships truly being threatened. I guess their s

Reply to Request: In-game speed change in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

I'd call this a vital feature, it's certainly a feature every good RTS has and I've just been baffled it's not already in. In multiplayer couldn't it just be handled democratically? Pick an average speed amongst what everyone 'votes' for by tapping their = and - keys and there you go, nobody gets forced that much. Even a single dissenter could stop it from being maximum speed, at least, but the majority still gets it 'pretty fast' so they don't boot the poor bastard. It must be

Reply to Do fleet tactics matter in this game? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Good post Dragoon, but the back ranks aren't much safer than the front ranks, you can come in from the front and you won't be blocked from moving in to fire at their support ships. I don't think most sides have an ability to 'pull aggro' and choose who the enemy has to fight first, and repair/replenish abilities don't seem to work on percentage so a weaker capship can be restored by the fleet almost as well. The small timing difference that attacking from the sides or rear mak

Reply to Very Dissapointed? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Sins of a Solar Empires does have the four x's accounted for, but a lot of other things that're typically in a 4X game, particularly a 4X game set in space, are missing or simplified. There's no custom ships. Capships gaining experience and letting you choose abilities doesn't count, because eventually (should they survive long enough) they will all have the same four abilities. I know Civ4 doesn't have this and that's considered a 4X too, but I'm talking about Custom ships is

Reply to Kol only good capital ship for TEC? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Though I always build the Kol first (when firepower is at a premium), I consider the Akkan to be an absolutely crucial part of a big fleet. It's usually very easy for the enemy to retreat from any battle they can't win. I can usually only catch up with them for a few seconds at the edge of the gravity well, and the ion bolt ability means I can stop a capship from fleeing and my fleet can kill it. This was key to my only victory so far, that, and restarting over and over until I had some

Reply to Planet Bombers need to be weaker. in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

I ran into the same issue as the original poster. It's frustrating, and all this talk about how much siege frigates are setting back the empire that uses them to rush with, are frankly bull. What's 'bull' about it is that those siege frigates are not sacrificed in the strategy. Once they encounter something that can actually destroy them, they either flee or move onto the next planet and commence more bombing. They can keep wrecking up sh*t. I didn't actually lose my homeworld

Reply to Good game with 2 drawbacks if you ask me in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

I haven't tried a lot of diplomacy so maybe I'll like it more when I try it out more, but presently, I'm very underwhelmed by it. Doing inane tasks to make a number go up, a number that means they'll be more likely to accept tasks from me. Hm. Might be better when I'm taking advantage of it instead of the other way around. Didn't get around to it last game though, I was too busy trying to deal with 4 siege frigates that were marching through my empire destroying all my planets. There wa

Reply to New addon for CIV IV - copying GalCIV 2? in Strategy Stardock Forums

Final Frontier and GalCiv aren't at all similar. I think the turn limit in the demo did a good job hiding how well.. limited the mod really is. Five types of ships, a couple more if you count fighters and bombers. Each ship has about four or five upgrades. I like that they made new perks for ships that gained XP, although they pretty much amounted to the same thing the regular game's perks did. I didn't feel the mod had any longevity is my problem with it. I didn't even bother finishing

Reply to Supreme Commander in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I've got 1.5 gigs of DDR RAM, an Athlon '3500+' 64-bit processor (approximately 2.2 ghz, single-core), and a Radeon X800 XL (AGP) with 256 megs of memory. I say all this in the belief that my system really isn't up to date for a desktop PC built strictly for gaming, but I =am= able to run Supreme Commander. I've played through two of the campaigns and a half dozen skirmish matches and I'd say it's always ran pretty servicably. That said, I never have more than five players in a CPU skir

Reply to Video Games Are Anti-Social and Addictive in Gaming Stardock Forums

I think one has to take into account how utterly stultifying and same-old life can be, and how damaging that is to emotions and intellect. Games offer variety, challenge, and can make a person think about things they might never have thought about otherwise(much like a really good movie or book, granted). In the medium to high levels of difficulty, they also require a high state of consciousness and promote a person learning to be more aware and logical than they otherwise would be. My

Reply to Gameplay Example (DA): Rise of the Galactic Republic in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

I'm still sorry to see the epic generator go the way of the dodo, it was the feature I was most excited for in the expansion; probably in large part due to these awesome gameplay examples. Thanks for posting anyway, was a great read and has me hyped to play the game again.

Reply to XBOX 360: It's over?! That's all there is? Really?! in XBOX GalCiv2 Forums

Action games are short, almost as a rule, because action tends to get kind of boring after the 12th hour or so. A-list action games tend to push the envelope of graphical splendor as well, which means the content takes longer to produce. RPGs tend to be much longer, but they operate more by dangling a carrot on a stick rather than on the experience of the moment, also the experience tends to change constantly as you gain new levels and abilities. But, I think what you're really

Reply to Ideas for Two Small Enhancements to the planet screen in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

He means he wants to pre-designate what to build on tiles that have yet to be terraformed to a usable state. Personally I don't see how this would really reduce tedium, it only gives you the option to do the work at the start instead of the end, meaning you can ignore your planet more. It doesn't really save you time by my reckoning. Though maybe a simpler way to introduce this feature, and that would really hit to the core of the problem it means to address, would be to allow

Reply to Land Combat enchantment ideas in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I wouldn't want a blind rock-paper-scissors model like MoO3 had, it was mostly just random but eventually I found out that clicking 'Flank' or 'Ambush' were the only valid options. Sitting here thinking I thought the most compelling idea might be a way to 'purchase' greater advantage by spending money, and then I realized that system is already in place in GC2 in the form of MiniSoldiers, Tidal Disruption, etc. It might be interesting though if the defender also had tactics they could

Reply to Epic Generator -- a feature too far? in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

I hope this feature manages to be implemented, it's the only reason I wanted Dark Avatar. More flavoring, more immersion, and something to show for all the hours you put into actually conquering / losing a galaxy. I don't find the asteroid fields or the research changes or anything else to be very compelling personally.

Reply to Stardock Please Revive MoO! in Strategy Stardock Forums

Wheeloffire, Silent Storm was a pretty good game but the incredibly lazy, buggy, and criminally unsupported sequels (Silent Storm: Sentinels, and that other one about being a KGB agent I can't recall the title) make me rather certain that Jowood cannot be trusted with .. well pretty much any license! About 75% of what they make is bargain-bin fodder hardly fit as a coaster, and the other 25% are slightly broken gems. The category any game fits under is somewhat random, I think it comes down to w

Reply to That Gears of War 'Mad World' commercial in XBOX GalCiv2 Forums

Awesome to see another shooter with a co-op mode in the campaign, there was a long gulf of time where it just got left out.. Duke3D was the last 'old' game I remember it being in, and then there was the console version of Doom3.. between those two there was a patch for System Shock II that added co-op, which was awesome, but anywho.. Gears of War is a very different kind of game compared to Halo, and personally I like that. The first Halo was great but the genre has to move forward