Very early on, you said something about a special 'beta offer' for those not using credit cards - making the beta available through PayPal for a limited time. Is this still the plan?
[quote who="Frogboy" reply="9" id="2085290"]Hope you all pre-ordered. [/quote] Don't forget the promise of a special pre-order phase for PayPal users! :D
Don't forget to make the Beta pre-order available to PayPal users. :D
Let's start with the fact that Dom3 has dedicated servers, supports Windows, Linux AND MacOS, ... something that Elemental clearly won't. The graphics aren't as good as latest titles, but on the other hand it comes without any DRM and takes up about 400 megs on my hard drive instead of 20 gigs like Sacred2 for example. Saying 'it will be like Dom3 only good' isn't a comparison in any way. You can't honestly try to compare the two games, of which one isn't even in Beta y
The AI in GalCiv seems quite capable of handling user created techs in mods. There, each tech has hidden values (that influence how strongly an AI favour this tech, wants to trade it...) and the rest is analysed at runtime, if I'm not mistaken. And since Stardock has probably learnt a lot about AI coding during GalCiv, I expect the Elemental AI to be top-notch as well.
MoM did this, SotS does this with techs... A couple of guaranteed core spells and the rest randomised with different probabilities. Possibly affected by choices you made during the game - if you conquer a lot, you might be able to find combat spells earlier, if you explore a lot, maybe healing or world-altering spells...
I'd rather have governors in the way GalCiv2 has them: As agents to reduce micromanagement. Building preset buildqueues in cities, sending units to prearranged rally points, building up mines, etc.
I'd be willing to offer some views from across the pond. ;)
Yep, it seems that nobody actually hooked up the RSS feed. [quote] Feed Address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Stardock/27/forum/513 HTTP Error (Code) and Message: (404) Feed not found error: FeedBurner cannot locate this feed URI. [/quote]
Simply perfect. If that works out as described, it would be a compeltely new way to handle unit production. And a good one at that!
Seconded. RSS feeds for all Stardock dev journals would be greatly appreciated.
Hm. This is the first time that I regret going with a 32bit Vista instead of the 64bit...
While a full weather system may be too much, seasons should be doable. They can alter the general look of the map (a series of filters) and convey a global bonus or malus. For example, in winter, all cold-blooded units might be at a disadvantage. Dominions 3 has this system (complete with random events particular to each season), and Dom3 is what I see Elemental competing against.
Of course it's cold, it's a space-MMO. :P On topic though: I also think the new content will be added in-between games, as each game is a 'world'. However, I'd like to know more about the options that players can use to customise the streaming content.
I'm curious how the balancing will work though. The new units and buildings etc. are going to have stats that affect gameplay. Will it be a complexity budget like Spore? A space limit like GalCiv2? On the subject of Spore, what I like is the Sporecast feature, and being able to subscribe to the creations of certain people only. Something like that would be perfect for Elemental.
Couldn't preorder, because of PayPal. But since SD announced that PayPal will be accepted for a special 'Beta-preorder', I'm definitely in as soon as possible. :)