Fun fact: Dol-Sirion in Sindarin is roughly translated as Head River, or Hill River. Perhaps "headwater" would be a better translation, however. Which brings up the more important question: will there be rivers, and will they be navigable? Rivers were the highways of the world until recent history.
My only wish for a cost-benefit system is smooth curves. I hate breakpoints from a design perspective, because it encourages min-maxing, giving distinct advantages to micromanagers. If benefits and penalties scale on a smooth curve (preferably not linear), then it comes down to tactics and strategy. The best "breakpoint" dependso on the situation: either the situation presented by the player, or--for good players--the situation created by the player.
GalCiv2-style building tools for buildings will be awesome. Any chance for creature/unit creation with a similiar system? And don't worry, I promise not to yell "S****"; I know Stardock was working on this before that came out. :p
If you're adding quests, will there be a Quest Builder as well? If so, will it be available during the beta?
Hey, you're right? I could have sworn it said +0 yesterday....must have been staring at the screen for too long. Cheers!
I'm game to playing cloth first. I'm most interested, though, in getting my hands on the various builders. I guess I never out-grew legos...
It might be interesting for one or two of the factions to start off without a city, and without the ability to create one until they trade/buy/steal/capture the abiltiy from another player. However, they could start off with a large, war-like population. Think "German barbarians" around 300-500 A.D. Whole peoples on the move: that sort of stuff.
I like the idea a lot. It definitely helps the player suspend disbelief, as it were, and makes the world come alive (sorry for the cliche).
Any chance the tactical game will be something like the Total War series, or is it discrete turns displayed continuously (a la many of the D&D CRPGs out there)?
Tolkien definitely had a clear line of good and evil, but there was some grey. Feanor? Thingol closing off Doriath to the rest of Beleriand? Oh, one feature request: make declarations of war not 100% controllable, at least for some factions/situations. Think "brash liegeman who gallavants off to strike your neighbor a deadly blow, all in your best interest of course."
It could even work well if it power regenerates over time, but never quite to the level it was before. A Diminishment gameplay style may also need play-balancing around world-altering spells. Methinks Brad doesn't mind the occasional de-stabilizing influence (Random Events in GalCiv2, anyone), so you wouldn't necessarily want it to be "everyone cast a big random spell and see who comes out on top".
On the other hand, it would definitely qualify for "most annoying spell ever." :)
Since some of Elemental seems inspired by The Silmarillion, I think the following two gameplay types (not necessarily mutualy exclusive) could be fun: 1. Diminishment - Game starts with palyers immensely powerful, but they tend to diminish in power over time. This could be accomplished nicely with finite resources, or dwindling resource rates, the permanent expenditure of power, etc. 2. Survival - One or more factions (call them "Great Power(s)") start the game with adva
I second the lack of a tactical grid for tactical combat. It doesn't have to play like a RTS (in fact, please don't), but a smoother feel would be cool. Btw, will we control tactical combat, or just watch?
I gotta say - I love this business model. You pre-pay for the privilege of beta testing, thus ensuring at least some cashflow for the developer (and maybe publisher, if that's the distribution model). In return, you get some say in how the game turns out, plus the geeky benefit of playing a game before-hand. The lack of NDAs is nice, too. Contrast this with the usual industry approach of closed betas with the winners determined by lottery. The quality of beta fee
Silmarils. Rings of Power. Lesser Channelers (a la Maia). Units under "loose" control. I.e. You can give them orders, but they may not follow them, or they may follow them based on their own interpretation (have fun with this AI, Brad). Hidden cities. Spells which make geographic regions (i.e. the Forest of Such-and-Such) impassable to some or all other factions, or certain unit types, or other criteria. Spells which gat
C.S. Friedman's Black Sun Trilogy treated this concept very well. Even "evil" necromantic magicians could heal, albeit with somewhat sinister means (e.g. little parasites that would eat diseased flesh, thus curing the victim). Is the idea that the "Life" school should handle the more spiritual or mental aspects of magic in Elemental? If this is inspired by The Silmarillion, then what do the various mental powers (mind's eye, and even allusions of reading thoughts) come in?
How do you plan to play-balance user-created content? Will object (unit, creature, spell, etc.) creation be on some sort of points-based system? If so, I have to recommend using some sort of non-linear sliding scale. In most games, specialization is king. It'd be cool if specialized things had their place, but came at some sort of cost. Just my uninformed 2 coppers, of course. :)
Count me in.