Demiansky

[quote]There is no really good reason why somebody should not be able to use a +5 sword, we're trained to accept this by Diablo and Ilk, but really, a good sword is Easer to use then a poor quality one. so if anything, leveling up would allow one to use poorer equipment... [/quote] I agree with you on most posts, but not on this one. If you hand a green soldier a flaming sword, they aren't going to understand that the heat generated by the sword allows them opportunistic blows o

[quote]I don't think units should have to gain experience or in any way "grow into" the ability to use their weapons to full potential. If I can afford to equip an entire 1000-man army with lightning infused mithril swords, I should be able to, without any arbitray level limits or whatever. "Oh, my army is only at 50% efficiency until they all get to level 10... great..." I like Tasunke's suggestion better, that leveling up makes that unit better, but there aren't any debuffs for n

[quote who="GW Swicord" reply="10" id="2490910"] Quoting Tasunke, reply 9 Maybe just have levelled units THAT much better. Like equipment gives +50% advantage for level 5s and up Something along these lines seems like it might do a better job of doing what Demiansky wants re avoiding 'elite unit spam' while also avoiding weird things like level-based limits on unit equipment. [/quote] Yeah, that works, but I just want to make sure that

[quote who="Finneglot" reply="6" id="2490775"]Putting it simply: your system is forceful and arbitrary, Demiansky - also, it is not needed. There is already a way of controlling how far your army modernization can go and that's called 'price'. By economical reasons, you will not be able to field vast swathes of superbly equipped peasants, unless you are fond of going bankrupt over and over again. A dragon armor is very expensive and it is nearly impossible to equip all your grunts with it. Ev

[quote who="GW Swicord" reply="4" id="2490519"]Maybe I'm not getting something about how upgrades might work (I haven't really messed with the unit design system other than to make decent scouts). I'm also probably making some unconscious assumptions that upgrades will work kind of like they do in GalCiv2, only without the basic framework of hull sizes limiting your options. And now that Doopliss mentions it, I'm also not fond of the idea of 'forcing' level-grinding into the game b

In most strategy games, elite units generally come from "green" units that start out with low experience and slowly gain levels through combat. Units attaining elite status can be anything from lowly spearmen to mighty paladins, and in game like Master of Magic, an elite squad of spearmen would be stuck as an elite squad of spearmen. Granted, in Elemental you will be able to upgrade your units, it's still quite likely that your elite units will end up with pretty much the same gea

Master of Orion 2 actually kind of did some things along these lines. Rather than simply having weapon tech directions and economic tech directions, they occassionally mixed them up. For instance, engine techs usually appeared in the "energy" tech route, but sometimes special torpedoes or mass drivers would pop up in the energy tech route too, which were pretty good but operated differently than the major weapons you gained from the weapons technology tech route.&nb

Ratchett City, Raven :-) As for my favorite city, Sigil from Planescape Torment is far and above my favorite city. For those of you who haven't played this cult classic, it was the successor to Baldur's Gate 1. It won drammatic and resounding acclaim, but sold few copies. No city in RPG history had more character than Sigil. It was essentially the crossroads of the planes of the D&D world, with portals connecting to random places through

Here is a possible quest nexus that could be available to all kingdoms. Basically, numerous quests would be persistently available at "Talon Mount." Some would grant reputation gains with Abraxxis the dragon with which you could purchase goodies from his horde and also sometimes one time rewards. When you arrive at Talon Mount, a brief story box might appear... Abraxxis Bloodtalon presides atop the Talon Mount overlooking the Snarling Rambles, contemptious o

I agree with Valiant. If you limit army sizes, you've basically destroyed any meaningful strategy for low level soldiers. If you want to destroy a stack of strong soldiers with weak soldiers, you basically have to throw piles of weaker stacks at the stronger stack, consequently innitiating a chain of battles you know you won't win until you've thrown away 4-5 stacks--- and that's just silly and tedious. Not to mention you end up with billions of small stacks late game and ea

This idea is sort of an offshot from another thread involving armor. I think it would be interesting if certain weapons and armor could be gained from tech lines that are normally specifically civil, rather than military. For instance, if you could gain access to "Chiten Armor" by both researching the agricultural technology "Monstrous Herding" as well as discovering a tamable colony of giant insects. Another example might be if the player researched enough into fo

Whoops, double post, please delete.

I'd like to see armor handled in the same way that Master of Orion 2 handled weapons and special systems. In MOO2, older weapon types alwyas held specific niches in warfare, and even after you had discovered 2, 3, or even 4 generations of new weapons, you could still go back to older weapons and use them in useful ways (also, each new generation of weapons provided new buffs that you could add to old weapons.) So rather than have a linear progression in which each discovery out-da

I'd like to see armor handled in the same way that Master of Orion 2 handled weapons and special systems. In MOO2, older weapon types alwyas held specific niches in warfare, and even after you had discovered 2, 3, or even 4 generations of new weapons, you could still go back to older weapons and use them in useful ways (also, each new generation of weapons provided new buffs that you could add to old weapons.) So rather than have a linear progression in which each discovery out-da

Ouch, I face palmed when you attacked 2 gnoll spearmen with a highman swordsmen and spearman (the two best starting units in the game against the two weakest starting units in the game :-) ) Yep, Master of Magic still prevails as one of the best games of its kind to this very day. That would be why I still play it for at least 20 hours every 2-3 months. As a matter of fact, I was playing Master of Magic when my bro called me and told me that Elemental w

[quote who="Aeon221" reply="6" id="2469358"]There's no reason to have provinces over cities in Elemental, and the system works just fine either way. I do agree that legitimacy of rule is a key concept that I hope elemental will explore. I'd also really enjoy having an undercurrent of democratic insurgency. It'd be nice to see the common people fighting for self-determination in the face of their tyrranical magical overlord. [/quote] I don't think anyone is arguing for

Noooooo, do not goad the followers of the dragon cult!!

[quote quoting="post"]The current journal mentions checks to see if the relationship is at either a minimum or maximum value for a treaty to be enacted. I noticed that it lacked a check to increase (or decrease) the value of trade based on relationships between states. Positive relationships should impart a positive modifier to trade, and negative relationships should impart a negative modifier. War would, of course, cut off most trade. Real world analogues abound, so I won't bother listing t

[quote who="moondoggiee" reply="8" id="2467865"]I'd like to also be able to siege a city and starve out the population. Well there is a problem with the concept of pillaging a city without first defeating the city's defenders. Realistically, raiders would be slowed down by the slaves and gold they were trying to make off with. This meant that the city's defenders could easily catch up with the raiders to do battle. In other words, it is not feasible for you to be able to pillage an

I'm definately in league with the skeptics on this one. For all of Gal Civ 2's virtues, the only thing I thought was meaningless in Gal civs was the various rock-paper-scissor style weapon types. There wasn't any strategic planning involved and it just plain flat out came down to being busy work. In response, I just kicked the difficulty down 1 notch and played the game as though it weren't even there. Now, I'm fine with basic different damage types, but as long

[quote who="VicenteC" reply="7" id="2464751"] Quoting Climber, reply 4 In RTS, they say you 'command' your units. But this is really a marketing BS, just a nice way to cover up the incompetency of AI pathfinding. In my OP example, if the RTS AI pathfinding is otherwise smart, why wouldn't the Fire Mage reverse its path when it see that itself will be slaughtered by an enemy Orc warrior if it keep moving forward? The mage shouldn't

[quote quoting="post"]I just finished watching the latest Naruto Sh. episode, I have been waiting for 5 years to see this and thought, is there any way a PC based RPG version of this series could be done? I understand there are Licenseing issues to be dealt with but I really think that the depth of the story and characters could make a really cool game. there are many platform based fighter style versions of the series, and 1 RPG version that I am aware of but I like my PC games bet

[quote who="Raven X" reply="3" id="2464978"] Quoting RisingLegend, reply 2 and this guys married.. Raven you talk about women all the time, I only have a girlfriend but if she found out i talked about harems... Lets just say that's why i hide this forum (and that way she doesn't know im a nerd either) My wife is perfectly fine with me having a harem so long as she remains the number one wife . In fact, for

In many strategy games, wars are either of obliteration or subjugation. I'm wondering if, in Elemental, this might be handled differently. Rather than obliteration or subjugation being the easiest route in war, perhaps raiding and slaving would be the most cost effective, short term strategy. This could be done fairly easily. In most strategy games, when you conquer a city you are given a spur of the moment decision. If you decide to occupy a city, your so

I'm not sure if anyone else would agree with me on this minor subject, but I'd like to see roads be costly, with fairly formidable benefits. In most games, roads generally don't cost the player very much, and building them is often times one of the "low hanging fruits." I'm thinking that perhaps roads should be a much larger strategic and economic consideration than they have been before (aka. much more expensive and more valuable.) Sure dirt paths would be chea