Austinvn

Been getting that bug too, constantly , maybe because I'm running XP. Annoying thing is it gets worse with every patch!

I completely understand the capitalist mindset, and I don't fault Microsoft for charging me $100 for Windows - shady business tactics aside, they dominate the OS market for a reason, for all its faults I think Windows is worth that $100 - if it wasn't I'd be running Linux. I'd pay $100 for a good game too, heck I paid more than that for Civ4 + both expansions, and I was willing to pay even more than that for Civ5 - but I'm not paying a dime for a game run on steam, I've tried steam-o

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="1" id="2619193"]Beta 2 is being made for every gamer who has felt like PC gaming has become merely a commodity of stale ideas and mass production concepts. We thank you.[/quote] Amen. This line makes me want to preorder again .

[quote who="John_Hughes" reply="21" id="2618950"] "Therefore, Beta 2 and 3 are being combined so that from here on out, all builds will be the “full beta” (minus the Workshop mod options and campaign)"[/quote] Right, right.. read the original a little too quickly. Thanks.

So, does this mean Beta 2 will still be multiplayer-only? Will 2 have all the extra stuff (graphics, gameplay, etc) that was originally going to be put off until Beta 3, and if so what's the point of beta 3 - will we just skip past it and have tactical battles in the next big phase after 2?

Good idea.. the all-too-common gaming convention where a 3 attack unit gets one chance to hit for either 0 or 3 damage can be far too luck-based. Changing that to three rolls that each do 1 damage if successful makes the results much more consistent without completely removing the luck factor.

[quote who="arstal" reply="59" id="2618344"]I'm fairly certain murder is a red card offense. [/quote] Of course - and naturally it's not viable for the entire robot team to get penalties. I'm just saying if a key human player were to come to misfortune, at the cost of a single robot being sent off (even better if he can get multiple humans) the robots could come out ahead in the end - organic professional soccer players are difficult to replace after all, much moreso than artific

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="48" id="2618076"]The current goal of modern robotic engineers (and robotic AI programmers) is to get a robotic soccer team to play with a human team and win ( without killing the human players ). This is of course, a long term goal. For now the focus is on getting cars to successfully race against each other on various tracks.[/quote] I don't see why the robots should be limited in such a way - if they have superior survivability and can be r

XP user here and every previous 1Z build has had me crashing every 10-20 turns. 1Z4 is a vast improvement, I've played two long games to completion with zero crashes so far, definitely ready for Beta 2 from my perspective. Wish I could get it to last 1000 turns before killing the AIs, it's just too easy..

[quote quoting="post"]Beta 1Z4 also marks the last public build without AI. Subsequent releases will begin to have intelligent computer AI that will continue to get better between now and release and then further beyond after release. [/quote] I see. ETA until the AI becomes self-aware and decides it would be better off without human interference?

Just to give you an idea what to expect, the Beta 1 we're playing now has very little graphics, gameplay, AI, lore, etc - we're really just testing to see if it can run without crashing. Although the gameplay has improved a lot during Beta 1, it's starting to show promise and actually be fun, it's still a very long way from finished. Beta 2 will be similar but multiplayer, really just to test if we can all connect and play each other without crashing, it's only supposed to last two w

You don't get beta access instantly - at the start of each beta phase they include anyone who preordered since the last phase, so you should get access when Beta 2 starts. They made an exception during Beta 1 since it was taking so long, and included new beta testers for the recent Beta 1z. Presumably they're still planning on giving more people access when Beta 2 starts, which should be pretty soon, sometime within the next few weeks at a guess.

First and foremost, the AI needs to manage its economy efficiently - this includes city development, resource use, research, unit design and production, and a dozen other things - without needing to cheat horribly. If it can also be taught basic military strategy, in other words how/where to use the units it has most effectively, that would be amazing - but first it needs to build an empire capable of competing militarily, economy comes before all else.

When you put it that way, my vote is for "Expand the race distinctions and provide more assets.." etc. The lore and default factions are very important for attracting new players that don't want to get into customization right away, but as long as you reach a certain minimum needed to suck new players in - and if you have a campaign and 10 well-developed factions either way, it sounds like you're going to reach that minimum - then any further time is better spent developing the custo

Focus on the canon races, please. As great as custom races are, and as great as customization/modding/etc is in general, the basic game needs to be awesome un-modded and un-customized. You need to suck in the new players, give them well-developed default factions and races, convince them to play long enough to actually try the customization and mods and such. Skimp on the default factions/races and the average new player just won't be interested. <p sty

I just want to say that this poll doesn't mean anything . The current factions aren't finished - hell, they're not even started - they're an icon with maybe one trivial difference from the other factions. Of course we're going to make our own factions with dozens of strengths and weaknesses to pick from, there's really no other choice. When the default factions (and races) are more complete and distinguishable I expect this to change - of course I fully support the idea of custom race

I like the Fall From Heaven system where religion isn't just about diplomacy and unifying your friends against a common enemy. By attaching practical advantages to each religion (unique units, buildings, civics, etc) choosing a religion becomes a choice of how your empire will be run and what it's strengths will be - to a certain extent anyway, other choices such as civilization or technology have more influence than religion. You have a difficult choice between founding a new religi

Add me to the list of XP users with constant (every 10-15 turns) crashes at seemingly random times. I can complete a game thanks to autosave, the crashes are not reproducible, but definitely not ready for multiplayer. ------------------ System Information ------------------ Time of this report: 4/25/2010, 13:31:32 Machine name: AUSTINDESKTOP Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2

Yeah the AI has been constantly declaring war on me all through 1Z, it's to be expected. The only change I've noticed with .302 is that the AI follows through on its declarations of war with actual attacks more often. They haven't "done" the AI yet, this beta is mainly aiming to get the game running without crashes so we can move on to the multiplayer beta 2, don't expect a real AI just yet.

I've definitely noticed the cities+moving units problems. There aren't just problems with moving your own units around/through cities, which is painful enough, but also attacking and defending cities - it seems like half the time I manage to take cities while some/all of enemy units in the city don't participate. I wind up controlling a city with a stack of enemy units sitting on top of it right alongside my own units, to engage them I have to move my army out of the city, then right click th

[quote who="RS-fx" reply="29" id="2596028"]Sword of the stars race managing system is not excellent but quite interesting : you have in the tech tree some xenotechs to improve the understanding between your race and the others. If you don't research them, when you conquer the city, they start leaving the city so it is a clear loss of taxpayers. On the other hand, if you research those techs, you get some diplomacy bonus, more chances for a planet to surrender and a possibility to keep foreign

Yeah the upgrade is available now, apparently I missed it too, until I saw the link in Wintersong's "Elemental for Dummies" post. Look for the upgrade option to the upper right.

[quote who="Sethfc" reply="7" id="2595367"] - Regular units should gain XP. [/quote] YES. Best part of Fall From Heaven (Civ4 Fantasy mod), any average swordsman who got lucky and survived enough battles could accumulate xp/promotions and become as powerful as a hero. And as cool as the game's heroes (analogous to Elemental's champions) were, somehow it was even cooler to see a red shirt ascend to heroic levels the hard way, by slaying dozens of orcs. Elemen

[quote who="vieuxchat" reply="12" id="2594418"] I would say that if you need to tap for Armed Forces in a city that is specialized, then you have not well played. You want a really productive city ? Just prepare yourself for that : you should do whatever you need to avoid building units in that city. [/quote] The original poster didn't really define "productivity" - what if it includes "speed at which you train units"? I think that's the problem John foresees; if your

Next you should post a [Bug] Graphics engine does not seem to be enabled ;) Sorry, sorry, just found your post unreasonably amusing.