Ynglaur

Good trivia. [e digicons]:beer:[/e]

Nice. Can't wait for whatever beta I get into.

I'm glad I'm in good company, at least.

Roughly, yes, though I would argue that Sauron's center of power was less in himself, and more in his armies and captive nations. His center of gravity was certain the Ring, however. Indeed, the conclusion reached by the Council of Elrond was that the West could not defeat Sauron through military might alone; that is, they could not face his center of power directly. Fun fact of the day: This decision, perhaps more than any other, shows Elrond's willingne

Sorry: military doctrinal term. Very roughly, the center of mass is that which allows one force to influence another. The center of gravity is that which, when removed, prevents the exercise of power. The idea behind the modern maneuver doctrine is to identify and destroy your opponents center of gravity, vs. his center of mass. E.g. Who cares if the Soviets have 20,000 tanks if they can't get fuel for them; 20,000 metal pillboxes aren't nearly so dangerous. Fo

One trick will be to differentiate between the center of power, and the center of gravity. Though in some cases the two are identical, in most cases they are not. if the game can separate them, we'll have a very interesting time. If not, we go from version to version of the "Stack of Doom": the only difference being the size of the stack (one Channeler vs. hordes of whatevers).

Thanks landisaurus! That's precisely what I was looking for.

I'd love to help with the Alpha, and think I could do well since I've done a fair amount of software QA, but acknowledge that with only 7 Karma and a few Stardock Titles (Galciv II through TOA, everything ObjectDesktop-related, Sins+Entrenchment), my changes are pretty slim. That given, when is Beta 1 (the "open beta") tentatively scheduled for?

We should try to get an IRC party at the launch of each alpha/beta/gold release. Of course, the Stardock team might rather go home after such milestones. They probably want to play Elemental betas with their spouses and kids (for those who are married). [e digicons];P[/e]

If Essence is finite and cannot be replenished by any means, then it seems that using it for "permanent" works is by nature the most advantageous use, vs. more "banal" utilities such as shooting off fireballs in battles. Will some magic be useable without expending Essence?

It may be that "Essence" and "Mana" are two different things: the former representing a non-corporeal part of the channeler; the latter representing more of a "short-term endurance". I don't think every little spell should cost Essence, but major works should. Otherwise the end-game will just become a physical slugfest.

I thought one of the earlier Journals specified it was finite.

My own pseudonym seems pale in comparison: a mere phonetic set of letters that aren't likely to be repeated in the English-speaking world.

And here I thought Denryu meant "Troll" in some ancient tongue... :p

It needs more rainbows and unicorns.

Give an inch.... :p

[quote who="Szadowsz" reply="13" id="2235017"] I agree with the first paragraph The second one has be edited to be a tincy bit more accurate. I would suggest there be different levels of roads ranging from dirt to gravel to paved or something like that.[/quote] Good point. Roads of different techs would be nice.

Whichever option gets adopted, I really don't want automatic, instantaneous empire-wide distribution of resources. Resources from far away should take time to get utilized, even if I get a steady flow once the "pipeline" is primed. Roads needn't be a hard requirement: ships can transport very well, and rivers can be great resource transportation systems. Keep in mind in the ancient world roads were rare and expensive propositions for most empires: Rome was somewhat of an ano

I've started a new post at the linkbelow which discusses some options for some of the concerns expressed here. Thoughts and feedback welcome as always. https://forums.elementalgame.com/354396

A lot of peoplein the "Getting Back to Elemental" post (link below) have lamented the perceived loss of hotseat if Stardock hosts all multiplayer games. Is it possible to do one of the following: Allow one player ("user") to play multiple factions in the same game. Ensure every other player ("user") knows this, however. Allow multiplayer games to be hosted locally, but not to allow non-local users Allow players to submit turns to Stardock's serve

Borg bears.

[quote who="Denryu" reply="3" id="2230134"]@climber - you read my reasons for going this route, correct? If you have 110 resources (presumably more in late game if you have multiple sources of any resource) the map is going to be AWASH in caravans. The only options then are to abstract caravans (not popular because people want to be able to raid them) or you forget about ever seeing the ground because your kingdom is going to be one frothing mass of caravans. They won't even have to move - th

Perhaps it's better to say, and would be better to have in-game, that large armies require more training and greater discipline to move and react as quickly as a smaller army in a similar circumstance. Logistics is the killer: most ancient armies foraged a great deal--sometimes foraging involved paying the locals, sometimes not--and there just aren't many places in the world capable of supporting large populations with ancient agricultural techniques. Enter channelers, however a

I'll happily accept Karma, especially since it increases my chances of getting into the Alpha. :p But cookies are good too, especially those snickerdoodles that are just a little bit chewy on the inside, yet slightly crispy on the outside...but I digress.

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="12" id="2228965"] If only the channeler can use magic, and if fantastical creatures are only rarely encountered (in player v player combat, anyways), the game will feel a little less fantastical to me. So I want magic itself to be common and very noticeable, but I'm very happy with the decision for magical creatures to be rare but accordingly powerful - I think that's a great idea and will result in magical creatures having a larger impact than