If only Stardock had actually made a sequal to Master of Magic rather than dart off into uncharted territory. I think ELemental would be in much better shape if they had stuck to more of the core elements of the classic.
[quote who="Mtrixis" reply="13" id="2739328"]Check back in six months to a year ... and possibly after the first paid expansion To be honest, I'm feeling pretty burned. The state of the game *now* would be a good, solid, REAL beta test. It has all the pieces in place. It has lots of little bugs (and some major ones). But it has huge, huge gameplay issues, on every balance front, from AI to city development to spellcasting to tactical combat to army buildup to research to
[quote who="dawgs4ever" reply="1" id="2739343"]I ordered the game and paid $10 for overnight delivery. I still haven't received it. In fact, I haven't even received any sort of notice that it was shipped. Fortunately I was able to download the game a day before it was released.. but why even offer the box for sale.. and why in the world did you offer me overnight service AND charge me for it if it wasn't going to be sent overnight. I'm thinking about demanding a r
[quote who="Sythion" reply="10" id="2737769"]+1 Nice read! I have a few disagreements with the implications, but all allegories have flaws [/quote] Hee hee, well, the point is that the game has too many "cool" components that don't mesh with each other well. The dynasty system and sovereign immortality, for instance. On their own, they both are interesting but when you put them together, they subtract from one another. The same could be said for uni
[quote who="kiriantris2" reply="4" id="2736686"]I once wrote a story to describe the fact I couldn't fix things as fast as my boss could break them. I sent it to him via email and whence he got it promptly called me into his corner office and proceeded to just stare at me. It was an awkward 10 minutes of silence while he searched for what he wanted to say. Finally, "Clever. I must say I've never gotten anything like this before." Then a concerned look washed
[quote who="charon2112" reply="6" id="2736980"] Quoting pmaura, reply 1 ok if you actually played masters of magic that would mean your atleast 30 so you should have enough brain power to figure stuff out. right now the tactical battles are super simple, posess zero challenge. its not even close to the games strong suit its its weakest link. Listen, this is a turn based strategy game. You're lucky that there's tac
[quote who="Sethai" reply="43" id="2736839"]personally i prefer stats and game systems to special abilities. the latter seems tacked on, the former is integrated. game needs stats for magic resistance, separate defence versus missiles (you can't parry an arrow) and i still hate the whole concept of combat speed. just play it straight and give us a simple movement speed stat, no of attacks stat that make sense and are obvious in their meaning at first glance.
Well, it took a good 2 1/2 hours. When inspiration strikes...
[quote who="Spyndel" reply="16" id="2735941"]There's really only a sampling of the things they eventually want to get into the mix in the game right now. When damage vs armor types are made more transparent, that will help. In addition some units have special abilities, and they wanted to do more of these. I can easily see research-able magic items or kits that grant special tactical abilities to units, like the assassination ability, or that smiting ability some heroes have. If magic r
So I wanted to devise a post about a deep and fundamental flaw with Elemental's core design but I was having a hard time expressing my message. So, I decided what better way to pass on a message than... to write a fable!? So here it is: The Stallions and the Frog. It's about the philosophical decline of the video game industry, the rise of Stardock, and the current conundrum of Elemental. And yes, it is a bit tongue and cheek. Let's see if you can guess what
[quote who="the Gorgon" reply="7" id="2735726"]There is a lot to this post. In addition, the worst thing with Elemental's unit design system is that all units look and feel more or less the same. All are human with more or less same weapons and abilities. It is just too realistic and down-to-Earth, kitchen-sink boring. Not enough flavor, fantasy, special abilities, different functions in the game. Already when the idea of designing only-human units this way was trumpeted out by FB
[quote who="the Gorgon" reply="29" id="2735673"] Quoting Demiansky, reply 25 Dynasties were a silly thing to add to the game to begin with. Why? I'll say the same thing that I did when I first heard the idea to begin with. If the sovereign can't die of old age nor can his offspring inherit his kingdom, you've already removed 95 percent of the point of dynasties! The point of a dynasty is to secure one's rule over a kingd
[quote who="scyldSCHEFING" reply="4" id="2735653"]The problem with this feature, and the major endemic design problem with both the development of this game and Demigod, can be summarized thusly: A bunch of neat features were put together without enough thought given to an over-arching design plan that would integrate these features into enjoyable overall gameplay. As a sandbox game, this has manifested itself in Elemental as a bunch of meaningless timesinks. Unit design
[quote who="Polistes" reply="3" id="2735638"]Some times I use it to make a unit with a lot more hitting power than the designer makes automatically. [/quote] Right, there are a few minor things you can do with the designer, but they are all "gimmes." That's not how unit design is supposed to work. Let me illustrate how it should work, with MOO2 as an example. In Master of Orion 2, I would spend a long time in front of the ship design interface. After all
What the title says. Tactical battles are so simplistic that designing a specialized unit is, well, not really even possible. If I'm aiming for autocalculation, I design for getting the most efficient "unit weight" for my buck. If I'm designing to be effective in tactical battles, I just pile on as much whoop-ass I can. Get a new tech? Add additional increment of whoop-ass to all newly trained units. What. A. Timesink.
I agree with the OP but I would take my observations even further. The game needs more than just balancing but a fundemantal re-examining of game concepts. As for Stardock's response, I think it is noble that they responded, but their comment about tactical combat seems like a bit of a... bait and switch. I seem to remember quite a few dev journals that spoke very specifically about detailed tactical combat. As it stands now, I find Master of Magic's tactical combat
Dynasties were a silly thing to add to the game to begin with. Why? I'll say the same thing that I did when I first heard the idea to begin with. If the sovereign can't die of old age nor can his offspring inherit his kingdom, you've already removed 95 percent of the point of dynasties! The point of a dynasty is to secure one's rule over a kingdom after one dies. Remove the death part and what does the dynasty system leave us with in Elemen
[quote who="sage2" reply="2" id="2735267"]Or, you could do some sort of mechanic where the city becomes ruined, and unleashes bands of brigands everywhere. [/quote] Or... nothing squirley happens at all and the cities become neutral. I don't see why they necessarily need to disappear, be inheireted, unleash bandits, or do anything else than what would be the most obvious consequence of a leader of a kingdom being killed (aka, they say, "Oh well, maybe we can get by wit
[quote who="Ben Sones" reply="64" id="2731537"]I just want to say that I understood that Brad was frustrated, and that I didn't take that comment personally, or feel like I needed an apology (but thanks for offering one!). I don't think that either one of us expected that off-the-cuff conversation to turn into the topic for news items on other websites. I guess that posting under your real name can be a double-edged sword--people tend to take you more seriously, but then again, they also tend
That was big of you Brad. Thanks for the confidence.
[quote who="GeneralEtrius" reply="131" id="2731315"]God, I really hope Elemental doesn't follow the path of Demigod... Wasn't Elemental supposed to be released in Feb. 2011? [/quote] It probably won't. However, get ready to wait for awhile. As far as my personal gaming experience is concerned, Elemental's tragic early release won't effect me one bit. If they had waited to release it, I'd be waiting 'till about February 2011 to enjoy it. Now?&nbs
[quote who="Mtn_Man" reply="126" id="2731213"] Quoting Renevent, reply 114 This is the first time I have seen this kind of negativity surrounding Stardock. I think 'ruined' certainly is an exaggeration, but I think some manner of damage has been done. Stardock is also a lot more well known than they were prior to the release of Sins of a Solar Empire. That game put them on the map for a lot of people. The problem with online commu
[quote who="Frogboy" reply="52" id="2730783"]My biggest problem with the article is the quote he took out of context. Qt3 isn't just some random site. It's my home away from home. And Ben Sones isn't some random forum poster, he's a friend of mine (FB friend and all) and when he called v1.0 an "early beta" I admit, it ticked me off and I snapped back. I shouldn't have said it and I regret saying it, but for PC Gamer to take that comment without any context and put it out there is c
Great attitude Frog. Keep up the good work.
So now that I've played the release of Elemental, I would definately like to see an expanded edition. I would like to help in a variety of ways and though I have experience with game modding, (Europa Universalis, Total War, etc.) I'm still a bit new to all of it. I'm a novelist, fluent writer, and long time D&D DM so I can definately help with literal script and quest dialogue. Let me know where I might be of use!