kenata

This is fairly similar to the way this is handled in the warhammer fantasy battles. A unit can only attack those whose tile touches theirs. The problem with this idea is the same in that game, a squad of 12 guys would actually attempt to surround the one units and would not simply stay in formation while attacking one lone unit. This would simply add a gamism to artifically give a bonus to a single unit when fighting a group. Now, I agree that something should be done to help out the

[quote]For me personally, as long as the AI is significantly improved (doesn't have to be perfect) so it gives me some level of challenge then I will call the patch a success. Anything, and everything, else is just gravy.[/quote] I completely agree with this. As long as the game expands the AI to be a bit more challenging then I will be much happier with the experience. On a secondary note, I think a speed upgrade and some tactical changes would be nice to see, but really I am only h

[quote] That shit needs to go away. A short sword being two radically different prices is just lethal. They need to be actual inventory that you can use to equip new units. This is the whole point of having actual production. Looting weaponry is like looting resources, but you gain the actual weapons instead of mysteriously melting them all down into gold. You can end up with weapons you don't even have access to. Once you turn them into a product, the

[quote]I like the pillaging and drops idea. Put that hand-in-hand with a setting to increase the frequency of spawns and then you have something to do other than click the 'next turn' button. [/quote] I like this idea too, but It would probably require a lot of balancing as it could cause some series wackiness for an empire's economy. Since these weapons could be sold, players would gain an incentive to become a kind of monster bounty hunter instead of putting any effort into expandi

I think the OP places to much emphasis on resources as a reason behind city spam. While I would generally support an outpost/resource runner mechanic, I think these should be heavily limited to avoid simply trading city spam for outpost/merchant spam. If one really wants to end city spam, one would have to address the large question about the value of a city. In 1.09, getting one or two level 5 cities is a fairly simple task due to certain improvements, yet beyond these easy cities, getting m

[quote]Stardock, if you aren't willing to do that with this game, please, at the very least, create the tools so that I might make that sort of game possible, even if just for my own gratification.[/quote] I completely agree with this. Again, though I don't want a incredibly complex game model for the vanilla game, I think that is is a much better idea to simply give modders the ability to add this kind of depth if they want. Adding a complex model to the vanilla game would also give

[quote]Any job that uses Monty Python trivia to test new hires is okay by me.[/quote] No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

[quote]That's because you've either forgotten or never read the huge thread during beta. It was a landslide in favor of the more complex version. The simple version was leaps and bounds above the crap we have now. The two alternative versions following the feedback were camp 1+.[/quote] I think that the former beta members of the community need to remember that many people that have Elemental were never a part of the beta conversation, and now most of those conversations are long d

I for one am excited about the prospect of a 1.1 beta, though I am definitely in the camp of people who would love to see a semi definitive list of changes. Would really help me figure out in advance what I am going to have to change with my mods.

[quote]So then what's the "vision" for Elemental, so to speak? If you like the big system, and the forum likes the big system (which it always has), and we have this thread about big systems... are we getting one?[/quote] I am not sure how one would gather that the forums have always supported a large resource system. Reading this thread, it is pretty clear that the community is fairly split on the idea. I think the vanilla game should have a fairly simple resources system, but should

[quote]The thing is, with the quality of AI Stardock provides, they would. The AI is going to use these systems quite well, AI's tend to be good at this sort of thing, and Brad's an exceptionally good AI programmer. Also, it's late game where I worry the most about tediousness.[/quote] I think this hits the nail straight on the head, but doesn't expand it enough. Resource scarcity is a player problem, not an AI problem. Personally I play Elemental on the harder difficulties where t

[quote]Now, it's nice that you chose two games that fit your argument, but there are other successful and fun games that have more complex economic systems, such as Dawn of Discovery and Settlers, to name two, too. (I threw that last "too" in there just to use all versions of "to/two/too" )[/quote] I don't think I have ever heard anyone refer to Settlers as successful. Yet, you are right that there are a wide variety of 4x games which utilize an equally varied set of resource systems

[quote]The current system, that clay pit produces materials. It has trivial value to me because I can just settle over here and occupy this forest. However, that same clay pit and forest, when producing clay and wood, immediately have their value increased simply by producing their defined resources (clay and wood are used as an example here). I now need to weigh out making a play against my opponent for that clay pit.[/quote] Let's say every resource provides some unique type of r

[quote]With all due respect, and I appreciate and understand where you are coming from, but if you go that route, you are really risking alienating a good part fo the the modding community and likely part of the player community. As it currently stands, it's already oversimplified and doesn't work. I should not be mining Clay Pits or Forests and be returned something called "Materials." You may as well name them "Booger Mine" and "Crystal Meth Factory." I know this is not what you are say

[quote]The solution is an actual production system where making full plate knights is a major undertaking. One where you can take that plate armor and send it to an enchanter that makes enchanted armor with special abilities. Burning blades, regenerative armor, magic resistance, weapons of apocalyptic proportions. You can't do it simple. You get what we've got now. Insane training times and expenditures in a futile attempt to make them something other than the only choice. <b

The sword the sions use is not the elementium kazzaran sword. There are actually two kazzaran swords, one which the sions use and the elementium version which is available for champions to buy. This sword is not actually worth the price tag in fact or at least it wasn't the last time I looked. If you look at it closely, the regular kazzaran sword is around 200g and has 12 attack (same as the elementium version) and 2 bonus combat speed. The elementium version only has a 12 combat attack and n

I think this thread is slowly finding a well know divide in the 4x/city building game community. On one side you have those individuals who enjoy deep infrastructure creation as in Settlers, and on the other, you have those individuals who enjoy well defined easily mix/maxed singular structures as in civ or galciv. In the end it is hard to please both sides, those looking to simply build a singular structure with well defined properties tend to find the other side fairly tedious. Now, there a

[quote who="Stmorpheus" reply="91" id="2811526"]i personally love the unit creation. it was the big selling point for me. so i personally want: 1: unit equipment that gives special traits(first strike, set against charge, fire protection, slash protection, thrown etc). i like more generic stats, but giving a combination of stat +/- plus special traits would be excellent. 2: better tactical combat of course. it would s

What I like about elemental? I have read alot of the other posts in this forum, and I will probably restate some of their points. Yet, I want to go through my entire list to add emphasis to their points as well as my own. I love the sprawling cities. It is something that civilization attempted to emulate using worked tiles, but every city comes across as a circular mass. In Elemental, cities look and feel very natural simply because placement of buildings and shapes of cities p

[quote]Actually this has been debated massivly before in at least two other threads.[/quote] Actually I believe it is a few more than that, though I was referring to the overall community debate, not simply this particular thread. Since 1.1 will probably remove or at least vastly restrict teleport, I think the entire debate is ultimately moot until the new release. I think if a player or set of players have a problem with some game mechanic, they should simply attempt to handle the pr

What I really love about this debate is simply that no one even cares to point out that the AI does not teleport at all, nor would they even come close to exploiting it even if they did. While I can say that in MP this could be a "problem," it would be equally usable by all parties so there is no balance problem. Ultimately, the entire teleport debate still comes down to people complaining about how they feel forced to use something they might consider an exploit, which is pretty much just hi

I generally find these debates about teleport to be mildly amusing. Like most debates about the "flaws" of elemental, this debate has simply asked the wrong question. "OMG, teleport is OP, how do we make it less awesome so we don't feel like we have to make all our champions taxis?" How does nerfing one element of a game make the others more awesome? In general, it can't. If we step back from this line of questioning and really consider the underlying mechanics of the game, it becomes clear w

[quote]I'd like to be able to easily marry off grandkids to adventurers.[/quote] I agree, though I would want to see this as one part of an overhaul of the champion system. I would love to see loyalty added to the game and each champion given a side ( Empire or Faction ) which dictates their initial loyalty. At current, champions don't feel real enough as they are just like normal units whose level and equipment you can manage. It would be really cool if you could marry your daughters

[quote]I haven't played now for at least a month - but when I was playing, I never found this to be the case. Having more cities was /always/ better than having less, in so many ways - primarily by expanding one's sphere of influence into resource-heavy areas, places to teleport to, building armies and engaging in foreign (mis)adventures...[/quote] Let me begin by saying that there is nothing inherently wrong with city spam, and the current attempts to fix city spam feel a bit forced

Honestly, Improvements probably need an overhaul on how they are handled in general. As I have stated several times through this forums, improvements like most things in Elemental lack any element of choice. Consider that, the only real limitiations to buildings are tech pre-reqs, resource pre-reqs, numerical limitations, and building reqs. Yet, the tech reqs are simply a method of limiting how fast you can start building improvements and resource pre-reqs are a type of geographic determinism