DrGuppie

[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="45" id="2329810"] As always. Face-to-face contact is overrated, anyways. [/quote] Wrong kind of contact then... :)

I don't mind doing an extended beta process, though I would sincerely hope that the extended-schedule "Beta 1" was for everyone who's preordered (rather than the current quick, month-long alpha, then the beta for all preorders). I figure it would be, but it's worth putting out there. Beyond that, my only concern with the extended beta is getting new pre-orders involved. Historically Stardock has only let new pre-orders in at the major beta releases, but there are awfully big gaps betw

If Stardock operates as they have for past betas, then the bug tracking won't be available to the beta testers. For instance, in the Demigod beta mostly the reports went into the forum. Same for beta testing of expansions to GCII (to be fair, was only part of testing Twilight of the Arnor). Perhaps it'll be different for Elemental, but I haven't seen anything so far suggesting that we'll be working with bug tracking software.

[quote who="BoogieBac" reply="23" id="2317871"] Both? [e digicons]:grin:[/e] Horrible answer, but I forgive you bacause of the smiley face [e digicons];)[/e] [/quote] Well, I'm only half-kidding ;) If the quantity of quality, player content is large enough, then micro expansions might not be that interesting unless they were gameplay expansions.

[quote who="BoogieBac" reply="20" id="2317865"] I'd be curious what you guys think about this subject as the beta's move forward...big expansions or micro? [/quote] Both? [e digicons]:grin:[/e]

If you're comfortable with it and the game is old enough, you could do a virtual machine (VirtualPC or VMware, etc.) - then you can tell it to have just one CPU, a low screen resolution and 16-bit video. Yeah, there's a performance penalty for a VM, but if the game is old enough that you're having these problems then a VM might be perfect.

Sweet! Eagerly awaiting a deluge of elemental twitter updates ;)

[quote who="arstal" reply="8" id="2228627"] Was referring to the private, got a feeling the public is going to be quite delayed though- to get things right. Usually Stardock wants their public beta to be at the quality level of 1.00 games from other companies. [/quote] Eh? No they don't - their betas that are available are usually very focused and often barren. That's especially true of the first beta (not the potential, invite-only alpha), which is going to be

This is a total, wild guess, but I would expect the download to be at least 1G (and quite likely more). GalCiv II (the base game) is 1.4GB as reported by Impulse, and I expect that Elemental will have higher amounts of detailed art assets. As for the other part of your question, you might want to just email [email protected] - they should definitely be able to tell you and I've never had a problem dealing with them. Of course, they won't respond 'til Tuesday or Wednesday I'm sure (Mo

[quote who="Tiefling" reply="23" id="2218749"] Camp 3 sounds good in principle. I am a bit concerned however that I might end up with piles of resources where I don't want them. [/quote] Resources should be flowing to where they're being used, not to where they aren't, in option 3. I would consider it a bug or a flaw in empire management if resources are somehow going someplace that you didn't want them. By which I m

Yup, Camp 3 is now my vote. It's sophisticated but not complex :) Things like auto-upgrading units with improved tech, how supply would work for units outside of your influence, etc. are probably all things that will get hashed out during the betas, but Camp 3 is clearly the right direction (IMO yadda yadda).

As described above, neither "Camp 1" nor "Camp 2". The first scenario is just complex and the 2nd ridiculously simple minded. To me a sophisticated resource/production model is one that means you have to make interesting and meaningful choices, not one that means you have to fiddle with sliders all the time. Such as "I've built a town to mine ore, but it's on the front lines. Do I build production facilities there, and risk them being captured if someone takes the town, or do

[quote who="ddd888" reply="24" id="2215981"] well i dont get it i dont want a multiplayer only game but EVERY game in the 2009 has to be a good multi game after you play with ia try different races or avatars or whatever YOU WANT to play with friends every game actually has to tend to multi [/quote] Has to? Not hardly - there are tons of games out there that have done critically well without having multiplayer and more coming along that are anti

[e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]

If you're talking about the "A Murder of Crows" expansion, I've not heard any positive rumors that it'll be on Impulse. And I have heard people say that AMoC won't install if you've got SotS from Stardock :( [Edit] See here

Yeah, I was gonna say the demo shouldn't be all that big. I don't think I would have guessed 32MB as the size, but that's gotta be doable ;)

The game is sort of like a bridge building + lemmings type game. Your goal is to get a certain amount of goo balls to the exit point, but you have to use the goo balls to build the structure to get there. Not all the goo acts in the same way (some stretch, some float, etc.) and the structure you build won't be rigid so you often have to get creative about how you get to the end. So that's the basis of the gameplay, but the presentation is just outsanding (IMO). I really enjoyed the ar

[quote who="b0rsuk" reply="4" id="2177513"] Can anyone explain what's so good about podcasts ? It's like information, but slower, without ability to search, quote, and skip to interesting parts. It's like trying spread information with Flash. I have seen single isolated cases of Flash being useful. [/quote] Their advantage is that you can listen to them while you do other things, like driving, walking, running or just accomplishing household tasks. Hell, even browsing

[quote who="Denryu" reply="21" id="2171802"] I cannot believe how long it has been. DemiGod must have had some serious birthing-pains. [e digicons]:waaaa:[/e] They have about 5 weeks to get beta-0, started (their front page says BY June, which to me means June 1). Also, will there be an official announcement here when beta 0 is started? Seeing as how I am sure anyone in it will not be allowed to say they are in it.... I let my Everquest 2 account lapse specific

There's always going to be many "direct" spells and fewer "manipulation" spells for all the reasons stated (easier, effective, etc), but there's definitely room for variety and differentiation based on their side-effects/consequences as well as providing direct spells that effect the environment. So, if we have "Earth" spells, deform terrain to give your army an advantage by raising the ground under your troops (putting them on a hill). But then the fire mage on the other side lights

[quote who="dionisus1122" reply="17" id="2146066"] Quoting Wizaerd, reply 11 I will most likely be in the minority, but I have zero desire for multiplayer. This goes for ARPGs, RTS, TBS, FPS, etc... If I want a multiplayer experience, I'll bring out a board game and my friends and I will all gather around the kitc

[quote who="GW Swicord" reply="6" id="2129546"]I'm also curious about whether we'll be able to simply draw some boundaries and give them a label or if we'll only be able to rename specific 'geography' objects on the map. I'd like this especially for the larger maps, where I hope a 'bioregion' thing like a desert or forest could be fairly large, e.g. in the Big Dustbucket desert, I'd like to be able to mark the tile or tiles where a great battle occured with some name like Especially Bloody Sa

I can see the potential for confusion, but I've got a couple half-baked ideas for how you could reduce or eliminate that and I'm sure SD does too (and hopefully their's are a little more well done). Thinking about it now, I see multiplayer as one of the best places for such a feature. Who wouldn't want to name the forest "DrGuppie's Fall" after utterly destroying my main army? :)

[quote who="CapnWinky" reply="22" id="2129013"] quoting post What do we mean by that? Well, at the cloth map level, you’ll be able to label the world as you see fit. Give deserts and swamps and forests names. It’s purely cosmetic but it’s about making the world yours. I'm a little confused

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="4" id="2126970"] so is beta 0 invite only or not? I'm still unclear on this. it doesn't appear to be, however I see people talking about it as if it were. [/quote] As far as I know, the betas are [i]all[/i] open to the people who've pre-ordered. There was some talk/hinting/rumors that there might be some form of limited "pre-beta" or whatever, but that looks like Beta 0. If they weren't, I would have expected Brad to mention