onomastikon

Oddly, this game feels a lot like GalCiv2 to me. Unlike most space-genre games I have liked (such as Sins of Solar E or Star Chamber, amongst others), in which the vast reaches of empty space are imagined by the player but not part of the playing field, GC2 does not have space lanes or jump nodes, choke points, or other strategic trimmings of the map. In other games of space genre, action takes place around objects of interest, and you are not burdened with transversing huge sections of

Wait for the demo. Personally, I think the game is currently in an exceptionally state which makes little fun to play, so why not wait until 1.1 is out when you can see for yourself?

I've searched my Impulse client and cannot find any contact information whatsoever -- can someone here direct me? I have successfully purchased a few games via Impulse in the past quite happily, yet am failing to purchase Mass Effect 2 (I get the error message that it's not available in my country). Thanks much

Nice to see qualified people coming on board! Hope Elemental doesn't become even more like Civilization however...

Good luck Kael, you have a tough road ahead. I'm looking forward to seeing if Elemental can be made into something truly fun and compelling, hopefully by Q2 2011.

I agree with Frogboy. If you were dissapointed with Civ5's release, I cannot imagine you being happy with Elemental 1.0xx (currently 1.09E) -- it plays like a less buggy Elemental 1.05. I can get the game up and running and usually do not have a lot of problems having it run -- but so far, I have only been able to complete 1 game before quitting. There are just so many other things out there that my attention span seems to enjoy more after the better part of a year on beta.

Elemental plays like its space-based cousin GC2. Each piece of fertile land or important resource is like a planet. You must build a city there. Everything else is empty space, mere filling. Even if some bits of that space read "hills" or "forests", it matters little to your empire. If you control 50 or 50000 of those tiles, it matters little. This makes "Zone of Control" even less important. That's what I miss most about terrain in Elemental. Not that it doesn't look pretty at times;

I mean with this: [quote quoting="post"] Make city founding cost essence. Make Pioneers or whatever you want to call them require imbuing with essence (kind of like buildable heroes). [/quote] that I am not saying that only Sovereigns should found every city, but that (for example) Pioneers can found cities, but that Pioneers should have some sort of strategic risk/cost to them, such as (as in Brad's original idea) Essence, which could be done much like imbuing a Hero wit

What ever happened to Brad's original idea that we saw in the very first alpha versions? Remember?: Only sovereigns could found cities (or at least the first city), and that COST ESSENCE. I kind of liked that. I particularly liked the idea of a tradeoff: there is a strategic CHOICE that the player must make, and that was supposed to be supported by having varying plausible ways of achieving dominance (Brad hinted that he wanted to make it possible to win without ever founding a city). <p

Favorable review from worthplaying here .

But if you (frogboy) agree with most of the reviews, what is it that you love so much about the current state of the game?

[quote who="lordkosc" reply="188" id="2753205"]updated list with PC gamer score thanks Profligate! [/quote] Thank you. That was an excellent review from another fan of Stardock's other projects. One of the best reviews so far.

[quote who="dragoaskani" reply="152" id="2750641"]Alright so I was in a really bad mood yesterday and took it out on Fatindian. (Sorry indian) In other news, I don't really like some of these reviews. I can only assume some of them are playing the gold version to score it this way. Which of course since thats what "shipped" they have every right to do so. [/quote] Um, your <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/elementalwarofmagic/player_review.html?id=735442&tag=

[/quote][quote who="Mtn_Man" reply="153" id="2750647"]There also seems to be a "Let's stick it to Stardock" attitude making the rounds, which is unfortunate since some of these reviewers seem determined not to give Elemental a fair shake. [/quote] That doesn't seem to be the case at all, to me. Quite the opposite. Aside from Neoseeker, who gave it a fantastic rating (and apparently is a member of this community, on the beta team, which does make his review somewhat idi

[quote quoting="post"] ITEM #4: The Environment is Boring [/quote] I still think this still sticks out as the biggest issue that is not on the current "Master List".

Thank you! Nice list! If I could add ONLY ONE thing of most things not on this list that I think we need most, it would be changes to terrain / the playfield. The Map, Terrain, and Movement . In GC2, one main shortcoming was the uniform map, due mostly to its space theme setting -- there were no terrain variations which yielded strategic choices (e.g. chokepoints e.g. pat

Thank you. I just had a look and oddly enough, cannot find it on Impulse, bizarrly enough. EDIT sorry just not under strategy; had to sort by publisher to find it

Thank you for these first two replies. Just to clarify: I meant speed up or slow down the time of the game. If I understand you correctly, I can only speed it up, not slow it down? (I'm old and slow: I don't mind if things are in slow motion.) Do I understand you correctly that there are no AI settings (that is, AI is only one level, you can't choose "hard" or something)?

I do not see them releasing a paid add-on before Q2 2011. They will certainly need the rest of 2010 to get things here ship shape. Until then (Q2 1011) and after that as well, I am sure there will be plenty of updates. But of course that's just my take

Hello all, I see a lot of talk about SoSE, but I have never played it, because, basically, I have never really liked RTSs much, basically because I'm slow. But I have heard that this game is a bit different and would like the opinion of those who have played it (whether you liked it or not). In general, I have a lot of sympathy for Stardock products (although I belong to the "less than pleased with Elemental"-fraction so far, sorry), but IIUC, SD was merely the published, not

[quote quoting="post"] Let me say that I'm glad that most people seem to like the game. [...] Well, historically, the way it works is a game is released and if people don't like it, they're supposed to buy some expansion pack for it that "fixes" things that people thought should be in the original version. [...] That means we can release free "expansion packs" for Elemental until such a high percentage of players love

Tormy summed it up succinctly: Excellent MP fun. If simultaneous turns, automated tactical combat, huge variety in races, ancient and outdated graphics, emphasis on war (as opposed to economy), robust and varied magic system, good RPG elements (lots of stats and items), and quaint UI are good for you, then this game is it. If you need an AI, or decent graphics, or simple mechanics, or dislike micro-managing hundreds or thousands of troops, then you might want to look elsewhere.

How likely that, when you have spent enough time researching a technology area to achieve a "breakthrough", that you will be able to choose THAT particular breakthrough as your reward. I hope that addresses your question.

Contradiction 1 : - (thesis) "This is a great game and a lot of fun." - (antithesis) "We’ve been in 100% ‘make the game’ mode, giving us no time to enjoy our creation (I’ve snuck in a few hours, but always feel guilty about it). Now that we have time to play [...]" (BoogieBac August 28) This first contradiction makes the most sense to me, because it demonstrates (I hope) merely poor judgement on the part of Stardoc

This has been the most comprehensive and detailed UI thread I have yet to see. Bravo. I think you hit a plethora of nails on the head.