Scoutdog

[quote]Really really nice picture. Wish we could get a daily pic or something (in the forum...).[/quote] Brad? Braaaaad...... yooo hoooooo............ +1 karma for excellent idea and final non-eyebrow-raising avatar. Although if you look at it a certain way....... NO! THIS WILL NOT BECOME THE BEAR CAVALRY THREAD!!!!!!!

See, it's centrally located, while the other four are around the sides. It is also part of the title, and it appears in boogiebac's runic texts as a hyroglyph(sp?) for the word "magic". That is what makes me think it is the sum of all the others.

[quote]maybe one other thing to note: big does not necessarily mean territorially big, it could for example also refer to a large amount of (possibly fairly undeveloped) territory or to just one or two massive cities. that might mean less territory, small in a sense, but you might still have a high industrial and military capacity. and of course it'd be much easier to defend. on the other hand ofc you might not have access to all the resources you want.[/quote]That's exactly why big isn't alw

That's why I called cheap shot. Now, back on topic! (If there ever WAS a topic....)

Banned for inarticulate noises.

Well, there are only four elemental crystal pictures. Since the four were released, why would they withold a fifth?

[quote]Also, any ideas on what the bottom numbers could be, one says 1000 and the other says 11 I think, maybe gold and population?[/quote] That's it. My question mis: is 1000 gold rich, or poor?

UPDATE 2: And, as soon as I ask, I find the post with the answer. Never mind......

UPDATE: Where are you getting these screenshots? I've looked all over the site, and they don't appear to exist outside of this forum. The URL just liks to ImageShack...

[quote]5 shards[/quote][quote]5 different types of shard[/quote][quote]if 5-element spells exist[/quote][quote]all 5 types[/quote] I know I'm being a bit of a jerk about this, but I still think there's only four.

I don't thing that both of the resources are herbs. The one on the far right looks like smoke or gas or something. Also, Essence is listed along with attack and defense. This implies that it is more like mana than I had previously thought.

[quote]I don't see what medieval medicine has to do with it[/quote] In the early Renaissance, the "humors" were thought to be expressions of the four classical elements. I am currently attampting to locate the thing I read that said Ether was the sum of all four.

I rarely play GC2 anymore, I'm so wrapped up in modding it.

One thing that I noticed is that you see resource lists (red potion and two thingies of herbs) despite the fact that it is a unit that is highlighted, not the city. This could mean one of two things: The UI allows you to select both a unit and city at once. A good touch, but not terribly impressive. Individual units can carry and hold resources. Now, THAT opens up a whpole range of possibilities... I am also reasonably sure that the "sun-like halo" is

Well, having big empires always win, while realistic, does not always result in a fun game. Generally, the problem that happens is that you know you are going to win halfway through the game, and the rest is just mopping-up. I for one like the idea of a "going Gandalf" option.

[quote]Specially with bears.[/quote]Cheap shot.

Therein lies the problem.

True. It would be really nice for each tactical battle to use its own mapgen algorythm to create a ballefield based off of the tile and the ones surrounding it.

Banned for coming in 12th.

True, true. I typed the last post while eating a bowl of ice cream, unplugging my laptop, and waiting for my favorite TV show to come on, so it was a tad confusing. Just thought I'd clarify.

True, but those are more or less insignificant on these map scales: any road that meanders outside of its tile and into another is a disadvantage with no puropse. Now, if they twist a little bit within their tile just to look good, that's fine, but anything more would begin to effect gameplay.

Rivers (especially in civ 4) and water in general are often exceptions. But have you ever seen a tile divided, say down the middle into jumgle and deasert

I looked at the cover art and thought of the classical earth/water/air/fire system, and it looks like "life" is in fact the sum of the other four. Life also makes me think of essance, hence the essence cost.

Well, by my understanding of midaeval medicine and the Elemental cover art, the fith element is actually a combination of all four others. Therefore, I suppose a five-element spell would also require essence to work.

Well, while meandering roads look good, they are NOT wery efficient. I don't know enough about the game's math to tell if they could ruin you, but they would definately make things a LOT harder.