Kantok

[quote who="seanw3" reply="84" id="3018606"]It is rather unrealistic to assume anything about WWII is comparable to this fantasy game. It would be more useful to talk about Napoleon's attempt. There was little nationhood before the industrial era. To peasants, one King was as good as any other as long as there was gruel and water on the table. Taking over a city should have economic costs initially, but it is both unrealistic and bad for gameplay to have rebellion past the

Looks great so far.

[quote who="Alstein" reply="80" id="3018567"] That was a common tactic in Kohan (old RTS that I really wish Stardock would make a spiritual successor to) You need superfast units for that. Speed is a force multiplier in TBS, you have to be careful implementing it. [/quote] This could also be from infrastructure upgrades between your cities. By itself it doesn't solve the stack of doom problem, but it is a start. Maybe I&#3

[quote who="Ausland" reply="79" id="3018565"]My above points are pretty much how Germany lost World War 2. Germany basically stacked their army and marched into Russia. Russia kept withdrawing further and further into their territory, and the German stack moved with them leaving German cities lightly defended. Because the stack had moved too far away, the stack couldn't come back and help defend Germany when it was then attacked by England, USA, etc. <br

[quote who="seanw3" reply="71" id="3018275"]While I had already suggested flying monkeys, you bring up an interesting point: what about the world creatures? Making defense too strong will cause expansion into new territory too easy. [/quote] At this point we all just have to make the assumption that SD will properly balance all the gameplay elements against one another. As long as they do, this isn't a concern. I imagine it's something we'll discuss a lot

[quote who="Vandenburg" reply="67" id="3018046"] Let's add some buildings for the civ guy that gives high attrition damage to attackers (%-based to simulate starvation and diseases which the attacker has to deal with). Add a new category of super-combatants that do increasing damage the more enemies there are. Problem is, balancing those is much harder then adding some spells that are able to combat the worst of a stack of doom. (And also spells make more sense then some mobs that ju

[quote who="Vandenburg" reply="63" id="3017940"] Well, we have magic in the game for some reason: I can think of tons of spells that make big stacks very very costly to use if they're not necessary and would help against stacks of doom. [/quote] Right, except you just chose every players' play style for them. If the player doesn't go high enough into magic to get your super-duper anti-SOD steam rolling spells than any compete

[quote who="Trojasmic" reply="60" id="3017889"] Quoting HenriHakl, reply 59Wouldn't this problem be solved to some extent by having more ways to slow-down the march of a stack of doom? that's not a bad idea dude... stacks of 1 or 2 have full movement points... 3 or 4 lose 1 movement point... 5 or 6 lose 2 movement points, etc. i always hated getting steamrolled while playing Civ. i had to learn how to be a steamroller to finally have any success with that g

[quote who="Campaigner" reply="52" id="3017640"]Alstein & Grizzlyloins, It's my firm belief that acting (attacking) MUST defeat defense (being passive), otherwise the incentive to attack is lost. [/quote] Your firm belief might not survive contact with Napoleonic or World War II history. Not only should a defensive strategy be possible, but is has been shown to be historically viable. Like in all things, your execution matters.&n

[quote who="Itharus" reply="33" id="3017581"]I'll be honest, even with the screwed up launch, SOTS 2 looks to be a great game. Kerberos has a pretty solid history with good and frequent updates. I believe the game will be cleared up within a week or two and then made successively more B.A. all the way up to their expansion point. Furthermore, when you compare SOTS to SOASE, I hate to say it - SOASE comes up short (even just compared to SOTS1, let alone 2). SOTS is a far more co

Frogboy, I'm curious how you steamrolled the AI when all the indicators showed that they were competitive. What did they do wrong? Not trying to stir trouble, just curious what the AI got wrong that caused such a drastic change in the picture so quickly.

[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="27" id="3016879"]A "wait X turns until you can fight" is fine if it is done like in Shogun 2. There, you can starve the city in X turns, and if they don't get assistance or charge out they surrender. But really, at that point there's very little reason not to fight. So the siege mechanic really works like a build-up to an epic tactical combat (which isn't dependent on strategic manoeuvring, but more how much force you can muster in a year or so). Tha

I'm actually curious about the difference in the graphs. What caused your population to flatline for two large sections of years while the AI's was steadily increasing? On the research graph does the Y axis represent research generated per turn? If so what caused your sharp increase followed by a matching sharp drop? Did you destroy a research generating building? Lose an outpost? All of these graphs make it look like an even match up between you

[quote who="seanw3" reply="23" id="3011229"]I hope Gamestop dies. I also hope that any other company that puts the dollar before the user dies along with it in some sort of corporate apocalypse. Capitalism in its most evil incarnation is ruining the gaming industry. There should be laws against C&C4![/quote] I was going to let this go as it isn't really apropos the thread, but I just can't. Capitalism isn't ruining the game industry. Consumers are.&

Should there be a book 2? The first one was entertaining enough that I'd buy a book 2. Guess that's the only measure that counts.

Bought two games on Impulse since it went to Gamestop (including one just today because of a sale). Both times I got a "Your order has been added the the processing queue. It will be processed sometime in the next day." And it actually has taken hours to process. In the time that Amazon can MAIL me an item Gamestop can't even process my f***ing credit card. I'm done with Impulse.

[quote who="Edwin99" reply="3" id="2999302"]Ah, finally news on the Elemental RPG.[/quote] I somehow missed this part my first time through. Now I want to know, what is the second one that's in the works? WOM, FE, RPG, ???

I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised by Destiny's Embers. Not because I doubted Brad's story or ability, but because there is a glut of poorly written (and especially poorly plotted) fantasy out there. Meaning this as only compliment (and not a snide WOM comment) I'll say that Destiny's Embers is my favorite part of the Elemental Universe so far. Followed closely by the cancer.. err excitement over Fallen Enchantress.

[quote who="marionesi" reply="145" id="2998491"]I think we all wholeheartedly agree that the game should not be entirely "plannable", nor entirely "unplannable". Devils is in the details, as always. I believe there will be a lot of uncertainty in this game: in the World - starting position, monsters, crystals, lairs and so on - in random events, random quests, random heroes, in randomly drawn traits that can pop up differently in each game. Having different opponents playing differ

[quote who="gunnergoz" reply="50" id="2998243"]Definitely a wrong turn somewhere. I appreciate humor as much as the next guy and this is a fantasy game, but some comments here are just a bit much. If this is the route that Stardock is taking the game, I will just have to look elsewhere for my games. This is just too juvenile.[/quote] So you can annihilate a city of a thousand or more with a volcano, start war after war to conquer the world, killing thousands in the p

[quote who="DsRaider" reply="141" id="2997595"]Are there factors other than taxes that cause workers to become dissidents, like annexing a city, magic or events?[/quote] I would hope that there are spells and/or special units for inciting other nations populations. The dissident mechanic has way too many uses to simply be another economic indicator.

[quote who="Climber" reply="132" id="2996694"]Yes, I like the direction FE is going. I do have some concerns other posters have, but let me focus on getting Random improvement when city level up. I understand it has to resolve the all city look the same issue, but removing gamer's ability to plan city precisely is also an disadvantage. Can pre-requisite be implemented for improvement? It is not the traditional pre-req but it is civ4 Wonder style pre-req. E.g university needs 5

[quote who="Alstein" reply="12" id="2996415"] Borders are more likely to form on natural features, so the influence cost to cross a border such as a river or mountain should be higher, to increase the likelihood that borders meet there.[/quote] Fine by me. I think this makes the feature even more interesting as you haggle or war over regions say between a mountain range and a river or what have you. [quote who="AlLanMandragoran" reply="14" id="2996445"]I think

I like the idea. I like anything that makes diplomacy more interesting. I've always thought it a horrible game mechanic that cultural increases push borders back and forth with no consequences* in most games that feature the mechanic. How many wars have been fought over where a border lies? Once to borders meet, they should stay where they are until something actively changes them. War, treaties, founding of another city, destruction of a border-producing c

Fantastic game with good, varied gameplay options, good level design, and an enjoyable story absolutely ruined by a completely contrived ending that invalidated everything you had done up until that point. I'm not talking about the possible endings and the story consequences, though I thought those were a bit weak, I'm talking about the way the game ends. Hours and hours of gameplay leads to... pick one of four buttons? Seriously? No matter what