Ryan Hanson

Want to see Youtube videos!!!!

Modding guide looks awesome, but did I miss the actual Beta 4 patch notes? Or have they not been posted yet?

It's encouraging to consistently see Brad noting the same problems that I see when I play, namely the UI is click-heavy and still not that intuitive and magic is just not there yet. Magic is especially problematic right now. But am I the only person who thinks that more spells is NOT the answer? There are already a ton of spells available and the magic system and interface makes choosing and using them extremely micromanagement heavy; its easily the most complex single pie

It's worth noting that Wintersong's indeed excellent guide is unfortunately somewhat outdated now, it looks like the last time it was seriously updated was Beta 2A. However, much of the information on there still applies.

Very cool, definitely the best way to show people what can and can't be implemented is to show them the details of how you implement things. Since it was mentioned, I do NOT like the idea of leveling cities getting points to spend on buffs. While it sounds fun, there is already information overload when it comes to cities, this would just add to that. I prefer to have citie characteristics managed entirely through the improvements, as there is already a ton of flexibility

1. "Cyclone" 2. Strategic 3. 16 4. 10 5. Air Shard 6. Targets sea space with ships, cyclone appears and ships are heavily damaged and/or destroyed 7. Air Spellbook 8. Summons a cyclone to destroy or damage an enemy fleet. Ideal effect would be to destroy 1/2 to 2/3 of enemy ships and leave the rest damaged. However, this spell could easily be adjusted for gameplay reasons to be

I like the first option, i.e. "scale units" UNCHECKED. However, the example is zoomed in pretty far, so some subtle scaling up when zooming farther out would be nice for visual clarity purposes. I REALLY don't like having the units shrink as I zoom way in, it destroys any sense of scale which is essential for immersion in a fantasy game with weird creatures and stuff.

I agree that most every major concern I have wtih the game right now was addressed in this dev journal, so was encouraging. However, I also agree that the release date seems incredibly soon given the current state of the game as perceived by beta-testers. I realize beta-testers are getting a purposefully nerfed version of the game but it does seem like a huge leap in a really short period of time. I'm excited, the next few weeks should be great to watch as this masterpie

Brad, given that it seems you intend for the AI to make minimal use of crude bonuses to be a challenge, how do you intend to differentiate the difficulty levels? Will there actually be an attempt made for the AI to play "dumber" or "smarter" at the different levels? Or will it be one level of "intelligence" with resource bonuses/handicaps to differentiate the levels?

[quote who="Tormy-" reply="47" id="2607398"] Quoting Ryan Hanson, reply 46 On the other hand, the Civ 4 AI was pretty weak out of the box but got substantially better with future releases and with some community involvement. Given how well that worked out, the potential with the Elemental AI is staggering. The Civ4 [BtS] AI is far from being decent. It's cheating @ the highest diff. levels. The Civ4 AI isn't cheating on medium settings however, and it's he

[quote who="leeboy26" reply="25" id="2607139"]So Frogboy has started on the AI eh? Well I don't know much about that but if it's anything like the Total War games he'll be finished by tonight.[/quote] Haha, awesome, so true. The only one I ever really played was Rome:Total War, which, despite being a really enjoyable game, had an absolutely abysmal AI. On the other hand, the Civ 4 AI was pretty weak out of the box but got substantially better with future releases and wit

From the perspective of a semi-casual gamer without a ton of time, put my vote down for focusing on making interesting, distinct, and developed pre-made factions that are fun to play as and against. Some customization is ok but the emphasis should be on having solid pre-developed races that players are encouraged to play. One of my minor pet peeves with Stardock games is the multitude of options you have when you start a game; having a massively customizable soveriegn/race/facti