Goontrooper

Has anyone played the space strategy game 'Distant Worlds?' http://codeforce.co.nz/ Some great ideas in that game, although they lack development. That game is one of the first I have ever seen to actually model a private sector economy. The AI automatically develops transport ships, mining ships, mining bases, and things like that and builds up a private economy. Very cool, wish the game had more like that going on. I think

Not much new here...lots of people have been asking for the same things. Good ideas though.

Good stuff. We have seen many, many posts with similar ideas. This isn't a knock on you, just a confirmation that many of us are with ya!

Good stuff, exactly what I was clamoring for throughout Beta as far as making Elemental have a 'Living World.' The best description of this was from Stardock when they said the kingdoms we build should feel like the Kingdom you might adventure through in a traditional RPG. Right now that isn't the case because there isn't much going on. This is one of the key areas I hope to be able to mod, but we shall see...might not be possible to get things the way I want them witho

Agreed. This is another one of those areas that I have been crying about since Beta. NPCs are just stat lists with no real personality. Same for cities. How cool would it be if that big library you built would attract mages and scholars? You could then recruit some of these NPCs or give them quests to fulfill as independents. Same for the classic Inn example you have mentioned. This would make the world feel more alive and would make both NPCs and cities much more inte

A good idea, although #2 would be a big change. I would like for #2 to also have some kind of auto-deploy feature (basically what we have now) for battles where you don't care how the units get placed.

Agreed, across the board. Many of these issues have been brought up throughout Beta. It really gets down to depth. What makes a great, deep game? Meaningful decisions. Right now, Elemental is horribly light in that area. There is room to expand...but the base game lacks it. 1) AI: Agreed. I think Brad will keep working this one since it is his stated passion. I'm not terribly worried about this. Hope it will improve, and I'm confident that it will. 2) Tech: Agre

Great idea! In fact, it would be cool if there were optional buildings in some cases, ie: anyone can choose to build a village for the refugee camp, or can build a slave pen. Really something we should look into with some of our mods.

Great idea, although it could be a bit unbalanced with a high con giving huge HP. But I suppose that would be ok since you would have dumped points into the stat and thus created a meat shield that couldn't do much else, so it would be balanced.

Great ideas, and really needed. I was worried how this would be handled when we had the big debate about Races and Factions during Beta. I'm all for what Stardock has done as far as creating their own unique races, but what is the point when they end up basically the same in the game? When I conquer a city with a different race...so what? I don't even really have to worry about uprisings or anything. I still dream of

This is exactly what I have been asking for throught Beta. It would serve many purposes, including greater gameplay choice / decision making (the heart of any game), would make NPCs more useful and interesting, and would make cities more useful and interesting. This would be especially great if it could generate quests, ie: I station an Arcane Researcher at a Study and he might generate a quest based on an old scroll he was looking at. This sort of thing could have make

[quote who="Spicy Mike" reply="30" id="2721112"] quoting post Could you tie research (Propulsion) to expanded views? Planet level is the 'starter' setting, and you'd need to research 'Space Exploration' to go to a system view. And then 'FTL Propulsion' to move outwards? Hmm. I haven't paid any attention to modding info, yet. [/quote] I've actually thought about this...it would be rea

The game will be available for just about everyone, soon. I'm in a location where I can only download with a slow internet connection, so it may take me all week to get it! I'm as eager as anyone else, and I can understand the frustration of wanting it as earlier as possible. I'm not saying that complaining about this is a good thing, but those of you that have responded with such vehemence ne

I would be amazed if there is anything in the base assets that is Sci-Fi. There may be some content that can be reused in a Sci-Fi mod, but for what I have in mind, most of the art would have to be replaced. To do a total conversion level mod, we would need extensive work on unit models, tiles, equipment, etc. I plan to play the SP Campaign and the sandbox mode a few times before I really dig into modding Elemental, in part to learn everything they have done since Beta

Just to throw this out there early...I'm also looking for Modern and Sci-Fi content. Modeling is not one of the things that I can do well, like many others, so many of the mod ideas I have will force me to rely on the kindness and talent of others. I will, eventually, be looking for a variety of Modern and Sci-Fi weapons, equipment, clothes, armor, ships, vehicles, and aliens. If anyone is interested in non-Fantasy work, I'd definitely love to start talking ideas.

Release is right around the corner, and I'm getting very excited about playing the SP Campaign (even if it will be short), the sandbox mode, and of course, really dig in with the mod tools. I've been debating about several ideas for mods...a fairly traditional Fantasy mod, a Fallout / Post-Apoc mod, and of course the space 4X mod. I may just start off by trying to get some of the cool systems in place, which will help me to learn Elemental modding

I'm sure that modders will create new campaigns that will let people use custom Sovs. It is bound to happen. I don't see it as lame...give it a chance before you bash it. They might have a really fun campaign for us.

This sounds like a great idea, could help give cities a bit more character and individuality. Might be cool if you could even select from multiple options. So if you are designing a seedy port town, you could select a particular tile set that reflects that concept.

I think this is a good idea. I'm all for anything to plus up the empire development side of the game, because right now it is a bit lacking. I want cities to have more stats, like happiness and other needs. It might make sense to build an outpost because you wouldn't have to worry about those issues.

This is one of the things that I would love to see, and I think it could be awesome. Just think of LotRs for example or other stories where a council is called to deal with a big issue, ie: a council of 'good' factions coming together to discuss how to deal with a big menace. That could be great in Elemental. You could use it to form alliances to deal with specific threats, or even to start a quest (ie: Destroy the Ring). I'm sure this can be acco

This is great, thanks for the preview. Looks like, as expected, the campaign will have more character and flavor than what we saw in the Beta sandbox mode. Very exciting! Also great that such cool content can be created with the included tools. I think we could see awesome things created for Elemental for years and years to come.

I've been kicking some similar ideas around in a few threads. I like the titles, good thoughts. I think the game would greatly benefit from a system similar to the CIV IV Civics system.

[quote who="edpfister" reply="12" id="2710961"]More diversity. Hoping this is coming with the polishing we are not seeing but in the Betas I didn't feel there were enough meaningful differences with races, factions, armor, weapons, spellbooks, etc. The faction differences is one of the main things in MOM and MOO that keeps me coming back.[/quote] Agreed!

Right now, I see a few ways of handling planets / solar system. 1) The second screen method, open a new map where you can develop colonies. Might be very cool because you could have detailed development of colonies. You could also have colonies from different factions on the same world and have ground battles. This would allow for the greatest detail, but might be too much trouble. 2) The second screen method, but like Gal Civ or Moo or other game

Now that we have a good idea of the final game, I'm starting to think more about what I want to do for mods. I'm debating about throwing my efforts to support this group or another group, or just doing my own thing. The main areas I want to improve on are: 1) Overall gameplay depth, more options, more things to do, more decisions to be made 2) More character / story / life in NPCs, quests, etc.