Nathikal

My wall of text died. So...repaired wall of text! Regarding the Living World I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Heroes of Annihilated Empires was, by all rights, a letdown of a game (if you want to see what rushing a product looks like, look ye to HoAE) but I still frequently play the skirmish mode. While my allies are building up bases (you can play it as an RTS or have your hero level and function like an RPG) I would have a blast hiring as many gobl

Too much is just that - too much. What we want is the basic - if we want more, someone can mod it later - to make NPC creatures less than a temporary boost to XP or a source of [stuff] after their slaughter. And we don't want monsters to just walk down one day because they want to kill something (often), but instead the power to manipulate everything. Ish. I'm personally tired of RPGs and strategy games that merely have monsters/creatures/random people for the sake of being a shift fr

I'm with Demiansky. All that I really want is for randomness to happen. Honestly, how many games have you played that are just the players doing stuff on a map? How many maps have events and just random things that happen because they happen, and not because they were specifically scripted to happen? Why should Elemental, being the next evolution of PC games, be limited to things that have been done to the point of boring? Look at the scenarios I just quickly typed up. They called for

On one hand, yes, I do agree. Everything struck me familiar, as I had played GalCiv. On another hand, there's a book coming out in a few months. I expect that there will be a measure of lore in there...and that the current lore will change with time.

A living world would make you truly fight to become the star, and not just hand it to you on a plate and say, "Go get 'em!" No other game has done this for me yet - and I am hoping that Elemental does it. And so far, I like what I see. Not on the Beta, no, but just the fact that Brad and the others keep us informed, actually read the forums (so many people made amazing ideas on the Elder Scrolls forums pre-Oblivion, and whenever I play Oblivion I keep seeing moments when I have to say, "That'

I don't worry about pirates. So far as I'm concerned - pirates or no, if I feel the game is worth the money, I pay for it. No, I don't 'buy' from pirates...if the game isn't worth the money, it's not worth my playing. Elemental I look forward to. Hopefully, without having my hopes crushed under realism.

Found nothing on google. So I'm gonna say probably not.

Either you win, or you learn from your mistakes. I think that you'd still gain XP from a failure.

I wouldn't go so far as to consider it a Sim game. Sim games seem to involve randomness as the main feature - if X happens, you must do Y or Z. In this case, with Elemental, the player doesn't have to do anything and can just let the game world continue to develop of its own accord. Sit back and just build your nation in peace, or actively try to control various lair dwellers to help your cause. Heck, it'd be interesting if the player could somehow lessen the food in a region, guide the (foll

The point of a living world is to have a game that does not totally revolve around the player - the player can influence it, or leave it alone. Most games aren't like that - you'll have the leaders of the various factions, and that's it. Stuff happens because one or more leaders/factions make them happen. This is the same as having a machine that, in and of itself, does nothing but can be tweaked and moved and adjusted by the various players. The machine itself just sits there and looks prett

I've always viewed essence in this game as the breath of life. To me, it was like your Sovereign was taking part of his/herself, directing it into the world, and using this purest form of magic to revive the shattered lands. To totally take that away from building the first city seems weird to me. I think that the first city should claim essence, and all others claim materials - this first city is meant to be your shining beacon on the world. It should be a personal investment, I feel. The ot

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="24" id="2624849"] Quoting HuaynaCapac, reply 21 -That-[/quote] That's always been one of my favorite things to do in games. I'd load up a trainer and super-power my faction in Sins, for example, take a few planets and just sit back and watch the others. Being super-powered made it easy to intervene when one faction became too powerful, but mostly I'd just let them fight it out on their own. Or, another favorite, is to s

In Age of Wonders, I usually played a caster-type. And you only got XP from landing the killing blow. So generally, I was using spells and energy for the sake of my budding 'empire' instead of battle. However, what that game did was, at the end of each turn, I would get 1 XP. Mind you, it's about 5 xp from levels one to two, and ten after that, then fifteen, etc. But since it was a strategy game, well it worked. Usually as the end of the map neared, I had hit the max level for that map (3 lev

Couple o' things... 1. I think the main reason that everyone loves making their own Sovereign/Civ is because they want to enter this new world totally free of preconceptions. Procipinee is 'someone'...the others Sovereigns are 'someone'. I think that's saying something about Elemental as a whole - here is a new world, ready to be explored. Why not explore it as your own character? In this, I agree with Brad - the RPG is, indeed, about the player. The star, if you will. 2. What

I've thought a couple of things while reading all of these...and I want to say that this is a great idea. But I think that it's being torn apart. Scroll down to "What I'd Like to See" to skip my feelings on various points. See "Short Version" for the...short version. Regarding Points No points. I think that taking diplomacy and putting it as a set value that you can do every so often is fairly pointless, if you'll excuse the pun. It seems childish to be told,

I personally like how it was handled in Alpha Centauri. First and foremost, if you want to choose blind technology, you can (in the options) before starting a game. From there, every so often when you make a tech breakthrough you get a window, asking you what your scientists should focus on next (conquering, exploring, discovery, etc.) From there, techs would increase in tiers, and you would decide the generalized direction and what would come of it. For example, researching into conq

Not sure if this was already recommended, but I didn't see it on the comprehensible suggestion list, so I'm going to assume 'no'. The Glade Runner, a start-level Elven unit in Age of Wonders II, was designed for skirmish combat. Due to the game mechanics, he failed horribly and was little more than a decent scout. I've been thinking...why is it that the only battles that seem important involve 10,000 vs. 10,000? Guerilla warfare and brief skirmishes, to harass enemies, have be

PigeonPigeon, I think that diplomacy goes alongside Democratic style governing because it shows a willingness for cooperation and compromise. As you said, a despotic government could wake up one morning and declare war without any sort of debate. That amount of power lies in the hands of one. If one person has all the power, how diplomatic would they be? It's like the typical only child, who stamps his/her feet and gets whatever s/he wants (granted, I'm an only child and I don't stamp

Even more, why not throw in spells such as Illusion of Order and Illusion of Chaos? The former could be used on a panicking army, or a broken/routed one, to (temporarily) set morale at a stable level, only to have it fall further once the spell has ended. Illusion of Chaos? Make it appear your army is broken...therefore, a juicy target for enemies. Illusion of Haste gives a temporary boost to distance (your army thinks they are travelling faster or over less space) at a universal penalty to,

Perhaps a static value, then, for intelligence? 0-10, with zero representing absolutely no intelligence (mindless golems, for example) while 10 would be superior intellect (dragons and the like). Traditionally, I don't see many soldiers having very high intelligence. They aren't stupid, but when you were a soldier back in the day, you didn't spend your days learning, but training. A rough way of doing things...giant spider, a zero. Standard human, a five, and noble a six.. A spellcast

Three is a fine base...but I really do see around 4 or 5 being a safe bet. They'd follow, likely, the usual pattern - Pure X, kind of X, halfway, kind of Y, Pure Y. Despotic, military tribune, council, parliament, democracy...something to that effect. From left to right, it goes from the Sovereign holding all the power, to the people holding all the power, and the quantity of those people increase. Likewise, I can see a few unique techs appearing based on your choices...those who are

I'd love to be able to specialize in trap-laying. That is, follow a tech path to where normal spells are weaker compared to other spellcasters(who have worked their spells up through other techs), but traps gain potency. For example, mastering the trap-laying-spells tech tree would increase the size of some spells, or their damage. It would also work immensely well with triggers for the likes of summoning or transporting spells. Even ward magic could be designed - traps could last for a

In such a case, it would be great to have all factions ascribe, in some way, to these. Much like Alpha Centauri, if you choose one way, those who follow other paths may or may not like you, or may not care. Example...your closest neighbor is a Sovereign, named Mike. Now, Mike loves magic...to the point that he hoards all that he can fine (IE: Secret path). He meets your kingdom, where anyone and everyone can learn magic. Likely, two things will go through Mike's mind. First, here

(There is a point, just a bit down) I'm a college student with scant time...but, sometimes, I pick up a game. Of late, I've been playing Final Fantasy - Dissidia on my PSP. One of my favorite characters is Emperor Mateus, the trap-laying sorcerer. With Mateus, you can't just go around throwing spells all willy-nilly. Instead, you have to think about what you'll do. Going to lay that trap there, or perhaps a bit over? It got me to thinking. I've played Age of Wonders, I've enjo

This has been a concern of mine, too. I mean, sure, being able to customize your units with weapons and armor is nice, but eventually won't it just become everyone-has-the-highest-upgraded-items. The various sides should be different, because it doesn't matter how many factions there are, if it's me facing a dozen me's, it's just me. No variety. Seeing new cavalry - nay, other units - based on location would be a great way to not only make you want to try and achieve new locations (or