ExitJudas

Looks awesome. If they nail the building experience, which I think they will, it is going to be a fantastic game.

vieuxchat, i think you are talking about the game machiavelli. that was great :D

[quote who="warrich" reply="19" id="2483748"]I agree with nitey and Jalicos, sovereigns subletting or issuing quests is a great idea! I also like the idea in reply #12, that the game would have persistent NPC heroes who could be hired on contract, but wouldn't be "your" heroes. It sounds like a couple ideas I think were mentioned before, regarding independent organizations and independent kingdoms, not quite sure where those are... It would be cool to have NPCs who either begi

[quote who="nitey47" reply="13" id="2483517"]Further thought. Taking the 'Ingame Adverturing Party' one step further. What if experience is given to that party making them stronger or the items given to them actually are allotted to the party for use from that point forward. Rulers could then cultivate/recruit these more experienced/successful 'Adventurering Parties' to aid in harder tasks. Sort of like mercenaries. Perhaps rulers could also grant resources to them (men/items/etc)

[quote who="Grogtank" reply="24" id="2483909"]This seems too formulaic to me. I don't want to deliver a potion to a princess. I don't want to kill rats. I don't want to deliver a special widget to special npc "A". I recall playing Age of Wonders and really enjoying exploring a crypt or dungeon for xp and loot. Nobody told me to. I also recall enjoying building up my experienced army in Panzer General 2 through nothing more than combat, Adolf didn't bark in my ear about traveling 3

quote: "OK, I chimed in from 'there are no computer RPGs' crowd earlier. But I've been reading this thread with great interest so far, and I finally have a question for the folks who know lots of computer RPGs: You've all named a bunch of cities, and sometimes more than one city per game. What was the largest number of cities you remember from a particular game? I'm asking a sort of 'blind push poll' question here because I expect to learn that in

This has got to be my favourite Game Design Conundrum! How to create the most immersive fantasy settlements in a TBS! Why? Because on the level most TBS games work, settlements are central to communicating the culture of the fictive world to the audience. Therefore they become the primary inspiration of the audience to start imagining the details, fill in the gaps in the story framework that the game provides. Done well, des

also giving areas and places some kind of mood text would be awesome. everything to enhance flavor and get the imagination going. example: names for forests, mountain ranges, city descriptions: that point out some special feature of the city or nick name, to get the idea of a culture and a living breathing world.

I think it would be a shame if elemental ended up being one of those games were a few playthroughs with a certain race immediately blazes a path of "only effective strategy" through the entire opening of the game. the galciv 2 planet rush comes to mind? Of course this is a broad generalization, but what I really want is something that challenges the min-maxer in my brain, so that every time i boot up a game with the same race against the same opposition, the experience, decisions and strategy

This is why I've always hoped, that somebody at some point, would create a 4x fantasy game, where you had to manage your resources indirectly, the way a leader does in real life, and making this premise a part of the core gameplay. Create a command interface, that allows the player to only see detailed information about the are that his avatar is actually in (a fog of war that is not only on the map), The rest of his information, should be based on what he remembers from visiting other p

In my opinion, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from previous 4x'ish fantasy games, their successes and failures. One of the more important lessons, that I think has been neglected in recent titles, come from the early homm titles: Basic Positional Audio to reinforce the sense of connection between unit and map! The early titles had small loopable samples connected to many of the areas. example: a hero was close to the coast, close to a mine, close to t

One of the strengths of choosing a fantasy scenario, is that you have the opportunity of dragging players into the world, by creating a vibrant, living world, through events, sounds, graphics etc. Space is much more tailored to straight 4x, simply because most of the game entities are either "technology" or basic blocks of important (planets/resources). In fantasy games, things like culture and history are a much more integral part of the narrative. So, personallly i dont see

i certainly hope stardock won't fall into the classic trap of obsoleting lower tiered troops, when higher tiers of research are reached. This makes for a dull, linear, and simple game. Research should expand your possibilities, not just make you stronger in different areas, although this could also be part of research. I mean, give it a thought: whats more interesting: research completed! you have reached chain mail. Now your armor is twice as strong as be

[quote]The problem with always having all the options availible to you is that your prefered path becomes almost rote. Ever played Starcraft? Do you know the optimal buld order for your prefered faction? Random maps can help but the more that can be made random yet ballanced the longer the game will hold your interest. The best solution would be for all units, items, and spells have base stats and then for every game adjust the power of each by a random 1% -4%. Then you would always have all

I still think someone should do a magic system along the lines of the Pen and paper role playing game ars magica. Basic premise: magic is changing reality through language. Therefore magic is categorized viatechniques (the verb) and forms (the noun): So all magic can be described as a combination of these two: In Ars, the Arts available are as follows: Techniques: Create, Destroy, Change, Perceive, Co