grimzag1

Glad all our whining is contributing to something ^^ I still feel that there need to be more cross-over between the elements in the game on this list. It'd be really neat if, for instance, you can only purchase high level items in a high level city, or if certain techs are only reachable if you get an ancient text from a dungeon or something. But I suppose that should wait until the basic game is better. I highly anticipate your next p

[quote who="vieuxchat" reply="24" id="2748536"] Quoting Annatar11, reply 2While "demand" wouldn't be the word I'd use, rolling 0 to max does have to go. Weapons, armor, and spells should have a minimum roll, and the stat modifier should apply to it as well. It's reasonable to always expect to do at least 1/3rd of the weapon's max damage, so say if a club can do 6 max, then your rolls are 2-6. The STR bonus then applies to both the low and the high, so if 2-6 is with 10 STR, with 20 STR y

You know, I had aa similar problem with Galactic Civs 2 until the last expansion. I really had little emotional investment in the races, they weren't that different, and I couldn't look at them and get a feel for how I should expect them to behave towards me. I mean, Ascension was much worse with this as far as Space Sims, but it was really hard to be interested in the game without the drama of the different empires at play. Then you get Civ 4 (even more with Civ

Like many reviewers said, you can't rate it fairly right now. The game is obviously unfinished :/ Honestly. Should not have been released yet >.

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="15" id="2739802"]Yes, cohesion is definately one of the biggest problems. As a matter of fact, I even wrote a fable about it! https://forums.elementalgame.com/393204 Anyway, I've been saying the same thing for quite some time, but I use a different phrase: Elemental lacks Consilience. In other words, different parts of the game don't have logical connections that serve one another. To the contrary, a lot of the game features are mutua

The AI wouldn't bump up against people so fast if there were some kind of cost for having more cities. As it stands, there is no reason not to spam pioneers besides worries about military overextension. But more cities always seems to mean more gold no matter what, so eventually you get a better army out of it. In Gal Civ 2, at least a new colony had costs attached to it besides the cost of the colony ship. An since adventuring is so important, having

I think this game will ultimately be better than FFH2, but right now I'd say that that mod is one of the best games in this Genre by leaps and bounds. The only one I can compare to is Age of Wonders 2, which is also good but much older, and, of course, the Masterful Master of Magic. If you already have Civ 4 and all the expansions get it (since it's free). Otherwise, wait until they make a new fantasy mod for Civ 5 :P The best part of FFH2 im

At the OP, I will say I like that it is refreshingly simple. But it needs to be more compelling. I say, make the combat mechanics simple, then add a whole bunch of modifiers and and speical abilities that make it interesting. Actually, wished they removed morale. It's a bit unintuitive as opposed to the rest of the game.

well, you can blame some of it on them building the engine from scratch, but that's a reason, not an excuse.

I just like how deadpan it is. Like, it's the dark ages, but they see no issue with you suggesting that kind of an arrangement at all except that it won't produce kids :P Interestingly, that was probably the most politically correct reaction the Stardock could possibly have given them.

Yeah, royalty. That makes historical sense. Sorry. BTW, interesting flavor note, I like how if you try to arrange a marriage between two kids of the same sex, the other Sovereign objects "but that arrangement won't produce any heirs!" :P

Yeah. Heroes should be your elites, for the most part. Your shock troops and aces in the holes. You could make a good army without them, but you'll always be at a disadvantage.

Precisely. We have starting abilities. Lets make those into classes! Even with sovereigns. You give them all a profession. That begs for a small skill tree. Nothing too game-changing and hard to balance, just something to make the heroes useful for something other than enchant slots. Thought: Empires should emphasize heroes less than kingdoms and focus on big monsters over levelled heroes. Or, at least, the

You forgot one use of heroes: +5 summons or enchants :D Hell, thats all 'I' really use them for!

[quote who="Edwin99" reply="5" id="2736972"]I like your comments about hero's and having an inn as a place to meet them. That said, I would like to see the hero's exhibit a tad bit of a personality;a taste for loot, power or independence. Now I hire a hero and don't really care about them or interact with them. I would like to see the hero's give the player advice based on their specialty and intelligence. Perhaps a skilled cavalry warrior hero designs

Exactly! But more importantly, it makes the game a game. It takes out random chance and replaces it with player choice. And that's the root of the cohesion problem. There are a lot of things you can do, but you don't have to make very many choices. When I build a city, what improvements I select should be a choice, not a no-brainer workshop-market-archive-lab, and that choice should ultimately affect my ability to win. As it stand

Have a good vacation ^^

[quote who="syneris" reply="9" id="2736523"]What you want is some sort of minimum damage dealt and reduced? Dice are needed in real world situations, but it's pointless for a computer to roll dice. Adding the sums of 6 random numbers between 1 and 6 is the same result as getting one random number between 6 and 36. 0 to max gives any unit a chance to deal damage and allows no unit to be invulnerable. [/quote] Except with 6d6 there is only a 1/46656

You know what I just realized? Why don't I have to build shops? I mean, I build a city, and then it automatically has all items available, anywhere in the empire. Why don't I have to improve my shops? Or at least level the city? That would tie character development into city building, and would make so much sense! Especially if Inns are added.

[quote who="db0" reply="1" id="2734051"] You have my Bow![/quote] And my axe! There's no reason to use 1dN unless: 1dN is your variance (STR + 1dN) You are using a result lookup table, like in a Hex-based Wargame (Str/Def = number of lookup table, table has 1dN possible outcomes) You are doing a to-pass roll, where the target value is static and beatable (1dN > Defense, where Defense You are p

It'd be fine if it was based on intelligence and the roll was more normalized, as discussed above, and there was more to the damage than raw intelligence. The problems are the actual damage has too much variance, and even if it didn't, with the way groups of soldiers work the caster's Int cannot be raised fast enough to compensate. The problem with a set base damage is that, since any spell-caster you control can cast any spell, with a high base damage all yo

[quote who="onefiercepuppy" reply="15" id="2735810"] I guess I'd just like to impress on the posters here that just because technique A works well early on doesn't mean it must or even should work well later. Magic stays very, very powerful throughout the game, so long as you're willing to adapt your playstyle to use it. If you're unwilling to adapt a strategy to a different puzzle, you shouldn't be too surprised if it's demonstrably less efficacious.[/quote] <p

Hey Stardock and any interested forumites, So I didn't really participate in the Alphas and Beta, despite pre-ordering expressly for the purpose, but here are my thoughts on the design of this game. Not the technical aspects, mind, but purely the design. The thing of it is, is that this game has a major, overarching problem that is plaguing it,s design: cohesion. There are a lot of features which, conceptually, are very good ideas. Bu

I hope they aren't against it. From a design perspective, having different books without making them different in any meaningful way is a bit ridiculous. It'd be okay if it were purely cosmetic, like they were all almost identical but had different graphics, but then there is no reason to allow selecting multiple books. If they want to have MoM style spell progression with different schools of magic and researching newer and better spells, they need to pay more attention to

Balance wise, just make a simple base damage multiplier for each level as a baseline, and then balance from there. For example, add half the Int value per level, or some-such. It's much easier to properly balance things across levels if you have an idea of what proportion the scale should follow. I was also really disappointed that global spells have such a short range. There's a point where my sovereign should be able to sit it out happily in their tower,