seanw3

[quote who="LightofAbraxas" reply="100" id="3208739"]It's not you, it's me.[/quote] Agreed. :P

That is the one. Looks like we have some ability to set custom map generation now. I plan to make one with no water to see if balance is improved. [e digicons]:rofl:[/e]

Bread mentioned in his video that there is a new UI for battles on the way in beta 4.

Graphics are what is wrong with games today. I love the look of Elemental. Not sure how different graphics would help the game improve.

The new focus seems to be on a desperate expansion early on. I don't like that as much. There are a few factors making the "more cities is better" approach not work. It relies on good map balance. This sort of thinking assumes that each player has the opportunity to expand that is relatively equal to everyone else. That has never been the case. Two of even the weakest cities are still better than one bountiful city in this new beta. That works fine if we all have an equal chance to expand

Ranged units are problematic for balance. Humans, you see, are very good at maximizing ranged power. The AI is less able to take this advantage. This is likely why standard bow weapons are so incredibly nerfed. I can use ranged units and retreat to the very back to get 2 strikes in before the enemy can catch me. That might seem powerful, but bows need to stand well balanced in normal tactics. That exploit is not a logical basis for nerfing. Let's look at the figures for bows versus staves

But the road no longer affects movement until after the wildlands quest is completed.

Anyone look at the new map generation xml yet? It looks like Boolean values galore!

Dodge used to avoid poison and now it doesn't. I wonder why it has changed.

One thing that I did not see in the calculation was Enchanted Hammers. Now of course, you did not have it for Magnar, so that is fair in this case analysis. Still, a 4/2/2 is great if you cast Hammers to double production. Your overall observations are spot on. I would also point out that at least in my games I cannot find a point to settle another city until many many monsters are cleared out. So I build logging camp or merchant first. Playing as Magnar specifically, I would take a 4

Staff attacks are the exact same as bow attacks. They also are affected by ranged dodge. I did a staff mod awhile back that confirms this.

I know the meaning of fertility. It has many meanings and they depend on the context. Within this context it could have meant either. That possibility escaped me. Probably because GalCiv2 had fertility clinics.

I can confirm that the AI is not choosing things based on Essence as far as observation can determine.

I suspect that the AI is also not seeing Essence. It would make sense if that is the case.

That is most certainly a bug. You ought to provide the save so that the devs can play it and see what is happening. Monsters are supposed to treat us and the AI the same way. This is pretty good proof that it is not happening. I have noticed less atrocious acts of kindness by the monster AI. Yours is pretty bad though. Don't give up on beta 4 just because of this. If you still want to play the save and continue you need to learn some beta cheats. There are two ways to get rid of u

Hint: For Pariden you need to focus on Essence. At level 2 choose Conclave for any city with 1 Essence or more. Then you can get Oracle (+1 Essence) at level 3. You have a building that is +1 Essence as well. This is the best way to specialize the faction.

I am just not getting city spam in my games. There are maybe 20-30 cities on my maps total. Between me and the 7 other factions, that is 2-4 cities per player. I am getting many more outposts, but those are not a factor when I think about spam competition. I build maybe 5 settlers in the first 100 turns. They are well spread out and only queued once I have cleared an area for expansion. I don't get hardly any spots on the map that can be settled. Most of the time the land is barren or Wil

I assumed that each city specialization added some resources to the city. I checked the XML and you are indeed correct. It is a minor research bonus only. Odd that each city has the same bonus per level. I would expect each specialization to get some of all, but much of one. This area needs refinement. I still disagree about the population change. In my opinion, the population adds to immersion. It gives us a connection to the state of a city that is easily relatable. There are in fac

I will say that the AI is still easy to exploit in tactical battles, but it is not as easy to exploit as it was in Beta 3. I know this AI personally and it has gotten much smarter than in previous versions. I especially like that armies set into a formation and designate a flanking unit. Of course sometimes they designate the wrong unit, but I see what it is trying to do.

See for yourself: https://forums.elementalgame.com/429509

[quote who="darkehound" reply="17" id="3208277"]If it is going to be built in a city then why can i que it and rush it?[/quote] If this is as I suspect a typo and you meant can't, you can now drag and drop items in the build queue. If it was not a typo, I don't get what you mean.

Great knowledge here, tanks. As to staves, we need special hero staves that are masterworked to have less of an Init. penalty. Also need some that do attacks in a radius of 1, 2, 3, all enemy units.

I knew that influence change was going to do that. Called it! [e digicons]\o/[/e]

https://forums.elementalgame.com/429509

I was thinking fertility of the women...