There's a number of tricky things with regards to the lairs. For example, the AI does tend to leave lairs because it gets XP from farming them. But in 1.4, I've made it more aggressive about going after them since people assume the AI just doesn't know what it's doing rather than doing something that's actually pretty smart.
also, if you're reading this and have and iOS device: Absolutely get Dead Man's Draw. I don't say this to self boost but for regulars here, it would be really useful I think for you guys to see what a game that was designed from the outset for a mobile device can be like. The whole game was made for less than $200,000 from start to finish.
Funny thing on the space game. We designed it before we got Star Control. But it's an infinite exploration type game.
[quote who="Borg999" reply="33" id="3400077"] As a mod on another board, I deal with a lot of trolls and people using the anonymity of the Internet to be jerks. And I agree with most of what has been said here. But to claim every troll is an unemployed loser is just over the top. Not everyone who is unemployed is a lazy good for nothing leech. Most people are unemployed because there are dozens of people looking for work for each open position avail
[quote who="Fistalis" reply="25" id="3399947"]Anyone who needs anonymity to feel empowered against another individual has nothing but a false sense of empowerment.[/quote] Well said!
[quote who="dacty4491" reply="2" id="3375506"] Thanks. I assumed the release version is out. I'll wait upon that.[/quote] The random hard drive formatting and malware has been reduced by over 9% in this build...
The AI updates in this build are pretty significant.
[quote who="the_Monk" reply="116" id="3349459"] I couldn't disagree more, but then that is why I ended my rather long post on page 4 with that 'agree to disagree' remark. To me, what I posted about 'societal stewardship' is something no society on earth can afford to ignore........at least not in the long term anyway.[/quote] Understood. I was trying to prevent my post from being hijacked by people wanting to turn it into a referendum
If they're working there voluntarily they're not slaves. I'm not sure why this is such a difficult thing to understand. It gets really old seeing people complain about how evil companies are for outsourcing to other countries who have people willing to do the same job for a lot less while they themselves happily buy products made in those same third world countries. People pat themselves on the back for supporting minimum wage laws in the US while being aghast that
While I think there is a serious sickness in the heart of the Islamic religion, that is not the point of this topic. The religion of the perpeatrators -- for the purpose of this topic -- is irrelevant. My general point is that if we want to keep the society we have, we should be thankful that most people's emotional instinct towards those who would seek to destroy them is anger and not compassion.
You do know that slavery is involuntary servitude right? Someone voluntarily working somewhere in exchange for money is called getting a job.
[quote who="Flexie216" reply="1" id="3204295"]I doubt anybody thinks it is easy, but it is something that needs to be improved, sometimes I've had plenty of resources around, sometimes almost non, or useless ones for early game. When that is the case I almost always felt obliged to start a new map.[/quote] Yep. We've put a lot of time into this since Beta 3.
Assuming the game does even moderately well, which is looking more and more likely, we plan to keep enhancing it for years to come, especially in terms of MP and social gaming. Hell, I'd like to see people make their own quests and campaigns and share them. The campaign Jon Shafer has made "The Fallen Enchantress" was done entirely with built in tools (i.e. no special programming) and it's insane in how complex you can get. Seriously, go back and play Baldu
[quote who="Savyg" reply="31" id="3194251"]I'm guessing the possibility of actually getting an answer is low, but I assume you're not implementing DX10/11 on this title. Any idea if it'll be in the next one?[/quote] Not any time soon. We'd have to cut out Windows XP support and we're not prepared to do that (and we can't afford to support two completely graphics systems).
[quote who="Grizzyloins" reply="1" id="3193789"] we allowed to have any idea on what Beta 5 might encompass?[/quote] Sure! Things not addressed in Beta 4!
Derek's very busy with making sure Fallen Enchantress is awesome. He's been working crazy hours for the past several months straight. That and he doesn't type 120wpm like I do. :)
My guess is that we're looking at early August for Beta 4. The Political Machine 2012 is tying up our QA resources this month.
I don't know if this has been widely reported yet but... http://www.impulsedriven.com/publisher/valve
Essence isn't gone, it's just not a stat anymore since you pull from a global mana pool. I.e. a magician must have essence to cast spells and only channelers have essence inherently (but can imbue heroes to have it). It's a bool.
Just remember, all these buildings are totally customizeable by players. Think GalCiv II ships.
If there really is global warming it ain't happening fast enough! :)
With regards to the spells, the fun factor will determine the final number, not meeting some arbitrary comparison with Master of Magic.
There's going to be some exciting announcements regarding the writing.
(1) Depends on what we find fun. I think you should go back and look at the Master of Magic spells with fresh eyes (I know I have) and look at those 210 spells. (2) No. I can't let you know yet. :)
I'd be curious to know what turn-based game AI is better than GalCiv II's where the scope is even remotely the same. We take AI very seriously on our games. And I take the AI very personal since it's the part of the game I personally code.