Zaisha

[quote who="onomastikon" reply="208" id="2336714"]Of course, I am in the minority, because I am not on the beta team (I simply wont have the time to dedicate, then, sadly) -- I think the majority of people who wrote "YES" many times are on the beta team -- quite obviously, they have nothing to lose and everytihng to gain. I think, however, that this is not fair primarily to YOU, the members of Stardock. So I would plead for: Early release, early first expansion -- for which of course the beta

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="147" id="2335164"] Less than the number of situations it can get you in. [/quote] [quote who="GW Swicord" reply="146" id="2335115"] A perjury trial? [/quote] Hey, if you're getting cought, you're not doing it right. [e digicons]}:)[/e] (All silliness aside: I'm not a fan of lying, but it can be nessesary in a social context. ie. Not violating NDAs and still maintaining a conversation. Also, that new

[quote who="ZehDon" reply="141" id="2334871"]I think asking something indirect through which the information can be gained doesn't violate the NDA. Something vague, yet helpful, like "Would you like a free Alpha pass?". Answering 'No thank you', or not answering at all, is clearly the mark of someone under the influence of an evil, all-binding document created by the Lawyers of Lucifer himself as no mortal man, woman or child could decline. [/quote] Ehm, standard operating proced

Anyone in on the alpha would basically have 3 choices 1. not post here anymore 2. lie about being in the alpha if asked/pretending not to have inside knowledge

[quote who="Ragnar1" reply="10" id="2328160"] I remember that one MOM bug where if you used a certain flying demon to attack in tactical combat -> crash to desktop every time. I wasn't up to speed on patches and such, so I remember just avoiding using those guys or if I fought them, I would skip tactical as a work around. [/quote] The one I remember most was that any magic-immune unit was immune to the attacks of all magical creatures as well. One unit of High Men P

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="7" id="2328078"] So has Annatar... I never posted too much on the Elemental boards, mostly just responses to journals [/quote] Lies! He's just trying to cover up the fact he's hogging the Alpha to himself![e digicons]XO[/e]

[quote who="KellenDunk" reply="9" id="2327341"] Quoting Tim4fun, reply 3 b. some way to get more spellbooks; if you didn't get lucky you could sometimes not get high levels of spells. I'd prefer that you could buy one, or use mana to buy one (maybe 10,000) I seem to remember finding spellbooks in caves and whatnot. [/quote] Mainly in high powered/heavily defended Nodes IIRC. I used to save before launching an at

[quote who="econundrum1" reply="4" id="2327387"] True that is the classic DnD style distinction and I agree since the sovereign gives them the power an elemental channeler is more like a classic priest. However in the wider fantasy genre sense what if a magic user believed his power derived from a God, while infact it was something intrinsic? Would they be priest or magic user. If they believed in and preached about a God they'd still be a priest in my book. Of course a

[quote who="Ron Lugge" reply="2" id="2327037"] Also, I doubt there is anything in the NDA banning you from lying to deny being selected The NDA probably doesn't prevent you from lying, no... but honesty and honor does [/quote] What are these strange and incomprehensable concepts you speak of?[e digicons]^_^[/e] [quote who="Istari" reply="9" id="2327148"]As Brad would say, Stardock betas are explicitly designed NOT to be fun in order to ensure the fi

Chalk me up too for variety in races spell lists etc. I also loved that you could rule an empire with a huge variety of races and their units, not just "your" race that you started with. Alternatively you could genocide all other races away, if that took your fancy. (As it so often did with my death magic wielding Wizard and his ravenous swarm of Halflings.[e digicons]}:)[/e] ) What really took it above a fantasy version of Civilization though, was the personal

[quote who="katabroc" reply="20" id="2326875"]Do you guys think Stardock will tell us how they chose that few 100 people? There´s a simple way to detect people who are under the NDA. You just ask then if they are! If they dont answer, you can be sure the NDA is under effect! Cheers, Katabroc [/quote] From earlier posts: AFIK they based it on a random number generator lottery (for people who indicated interest), with the numb

[quote who="BoogieBac" reply="25" id="2326383"]Sorry for anyone that didn't get in...'Damn you, random number generator!!!!!' [/quote] Spare some pity for the poor guy at Stardock who gets to check and countersign 100 contracts all at once. (contracts like these need to be signed by both parties to be valid under US law too, right?) Bets on the odds of employees having been extra nice to Brad over the last couple of weeks to avoid being handed a case-specific power

Most games these days would benefit from a longer testing/beta phase, so if you can handle that financially: Chalk me up in the "Definately yes" camp.

[quote who="GenBlood" reply="2" id="2304563"]it stops pirates from using it I'm all for it. [/quote] It won't. If they're very creative it might take the pirates a week or so to crack it, (as opposed to days, or near instantly even), but I doubt they'll have even that much succes. Mind you, I should probably thank EA for saving me some money, as I was interested in buying it up till now.

[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="17" id="2292634"] Yes, I suppose it's all about balance... altough in the world of conmputer graphics, as long as the system can handle it numbers do not matter: you can copy and paste essentially infinite numbers of characters, rocks, etc. into existance. [/quote] The part about "as long as the system can handle it" is the key factor here. The greater the amount of detail, graphical refinements and items on screen at one time, the more powerful

[quote who="Sarudak" reply="19" id="2274627"] Over a hundred years ago, the world of Elemental was nearly destroyed by the powers that strode across the world like titans. In their quest for dominance, they unleashed utter devastation on the land, nearly wiping out all life. I guess that's true that we don't know that it was humans using the magic. But we also don't know that it WASN'T humans using the magic. [/quote] IIRC the first bits of story that were m

[quote who="Sarudak" reply="17" id="2274309"]I adressed that. Essence is not considered magic by the people. It's not wrong by their philosohpy either because it's not controlling or abusing the maigc of the earth. Instead it is considered to be the spiritual power of you the channeler/prophet. [/quote] They can call it all they like, it's still magic. (and so are their special anti-magic powers, most likely) Not that hugely hippocritical fanatics are in any way impossibl

[quote who="Sarudak" reply="8" id="2273390"]They couldn't use magic true. But there are other ways to balance this. Their soldiers are stronger and they cna make more of them because the population supports the war. They can develop powerful counter magic to protect themselves from enemy magic or destroy enemy benificial magic. And they develop strong mundane technologies to help offset not having magic. [/quote] They'd have trouble building up their population/resources though,

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="16" id="2268533"]I remember the mention of creatures you would might play the game for weeks without seeing. I wonder what kind of stuff falls under that catigory. I find it hard to imagine what would work for that. It would need to have quests and such based on it. Some kind of ancient creature that has been chained deep beneath the planet surface, or perhaps a being that has been adrift and frozen in space for millions of years

[quote who="Mandelik" reply="22" id="2254168"] Quoting Zaisha, reply 8 (names made up on the spot) Not so... http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/watoomb.htm http://www.comicvine.com/wand-of-watoomb/18-49002/ [/quote] ......... I guess there are only so many names that aren't already taken in a sci-fy/fantasy context.[e digicons]:omg:[/e] (I made it up for the "tomb" part, ie. connection with the

[quote who="eobet" reply="7" id="2252549"]I didn't understand the elimination of good/evil alignments for races. Will there not be a alignment compability chart at all in this game, like with Age of Wonders, where pairing some racial units with others yielded penalties, and other combinations yielded bonuses? [/quote] The races are still innately good or evil, it's just that you don't get 2 versions of them. Original plan: You choose the Fallen race "Ho

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="15" id="2251317"]The only thing about this post that disappoints me is that it looks like there won't be dynamic alignment selection. I think allowing alignment to change during the course of the game would allow for tons of opportunities, both for play style and diplomacy. That said, I guess it'd be possible to start out as a given alignment but still change during the game. After all, good can turn to evil and vice versa. [/quote]

[quote who="aLap" reply="16" id="2250869"] This kind of bothers me. Life is full of shades of gray, different philosophies, all sorts of points of view, with paths dependent on the choices we make. Gal Civ is an interesting example of a way to let players choose which side they want to take based on game interaction. A clear-cut Good or Evil dulls game immersion IMO. I'd say that no player-chosen faction (at least)&nbsp

[quote who="Luckmann" reply="16" id="2245147"]Quoting Zaisha, reply 8 I think they're called the Fallen. Magic-assisted eugenics is pretty much the background for the Fallen, so I could definately see at least one faction of them conducting mundane and/or magical research along the same lines. Especially if their magical tech tree is the evil Life list. Obviously, something went wrong with the Fallen eugenics program, since they're clearly not superior to humans.<br

[quote who="Luckmann" reply="6" id="2244098"]Eugenics have been around since the first civilized societies, so if that'd be in the game, it'd be great. I'm not sure how I could see that worked into the game, though. [/quote] I think they're called the Fallen. [e digicons]^_^[/e] Magic-assisted eugenics is pretty much the background for the Fallen, so I could definately see at least one faction of them conducting mundane and/or magical research along the same lines. Especia