pigeonpigeon

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="24" id="2244843"] The scenario I pointed to is just a basic example, obviously. I know that the bigger the system the more probabilities of problems... er... why does that sound like Demigod's...? Nevermind. I'm a casual so my experiences may be quite different. The only times I have stale situations were very much my fault for not enough blitzing and too much turtling. Examples in Settlers II and Spellforce (the 1, the best one... altough Elves had n

I don't think localized weather would be a problem... It wouldn't need to evolve realistically, but it shouldn't be too crazy on any given turn. For example, a random number shouldn't be rolled for every single tile - it should be generated as some sort of pattern, and that is actually not hard to do at all. There are plenty of very easy ways to generate patterns that could be used. Those could be easily adapted to account for things like terrain type and even season to generate static weathe

The scenario you pointed to, Wintersong, is appealing but it is only one scenario of many that would result. And in every game I've ever played with limited resources, I have always at some point experienced the "well, there are no more resources and no one is strong enough to do anything" problem. Age of Empires (while RTS, not TBS) is a perfect example. Resource depletion often leads to boring stalemates. And often even if it doesn't result in a stalemate, things get sort of boring when eve

I love the idea of different types of roads with significant costs associated with the best. At first, all roads should just be regular dirt paths. These could be upgraded to be wider, compacted better, etc. In the middle you could have cobblestone roads, and at the upper end you could have actual stone-paved roads. Stone-paved highways, while conferring very large bonuses to speed and possible defense, should be major undertakings. I like the idea of making roads a strategic as

[quote who="Climber" reply="20" id="2243865"]I agree this is ridiculous, but this is the impression I've got from Frogboy's Camp#3 . He said Similarly, if I build a town with multiples barracks it presumes I am trying to train soldiers which means that stuff should be shipped there This will means all sort of MRs will flow to the Barrack, stored in its warehouse without gamers’ input. Before gamer order the first soldier, both the Icy & Lightning Sword already

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="7" id="2244094"]I guess what I'm saying is I don't just want to have the same old opponent types (ie channelers or simply stripped down channelers.) Granted, I think it's fine if channeler opponents are the most powerful and are the ultimate opponents to overcome, but I'd like to see the world brimming over with exotic opponents with a broad array of strengths and weaknesses. Imagine the modding potentials if you could create your

I would also like the ability to re-fight an auto battle in tactical mode - even if you win . So many times I have pressed auto-combat when I outnumber my opponent 5:1 and have better quality troops to boot - and then I get the results screen and the AI lost as many of my own troops as my opponent's. Those are actually one of the reasons why I often fight even the most trivial battles, because I don't trust the AI to be competent. With a feature to fight tactically anyways after seein

[quote who="katabroc" reply="13" id="2244112"]If we have an abundance system, one player might have "better" mines around him and that would unbalance the game, wouldn´t? Like player 1 with 3 "abundant" mines and player 2 with only 2 "abundant" and one "poor". [/quote] It's no more unbalancing then the fact that one player might have 3 mines and another might have just 1. Resource distribution, unless constrained to put equal resources near every player's starting point, will al

[quote who="Tridus" reply="8" id="2244021"]Having a survey when there's something big to look at is a good idea. Having it weekly is going to lead to survey fatigue, and fewer people doing them I think.[/quote] Well, it depends. For example, over the past couple weeks there has been quite a lot of discussion going on about all sorts of things - plenty for weekly surveys. But you have a point, don't force a weekly survey - if there isn't really enough to survey, just wait until the nex

[quote who="Denryu" reply="4" id="2243744"]Maybe to spark your memory questions were about what you are doing while waiting for beta, muliplayer modes (LAN,PBEM, hotseat,Internet), tactical combat, what happens when channeler dies, essence finite, rechargeable etc, and what dev jounral topic would you be most interested in? I tried to copy paste it here and strip out the data, but it was being a major pain.[/quote] Oh, that worked! The part about what happens whe

I enjoyed the last survey a lot! It's often really hard to gauge how many people support which ideas around here, especially in the popular topics that attract lots of posts, many of which are very long (I'm guilty of both), and many different ideas. Whether or not they're helpful to Stardock, I like to see the results and see where I stand compared to others around here.

[quote who="Luckmann" reply="10" id="2243194"]That being said, I wouldn't actually mind gunpowder. I'm a bit torn. As I said, I'd like steampunk elements. It almost necessitates at the very least flintlocks, maybe even basic revolvers. On the other hand - if it in any way doesn't fit snugly into the universe at large, it simply shouldn't be there. End of story.[/quote] I'm pretty confident that Brad has stated somewhere on these forums (many months ago) that he is strongly opposed to

Taken, although I had some confusion with a couple questions (but I closed the survey page and now I can't look at the questions to remember what they were...)

Jeeze, making a list of 24 people would be tough. I don't think I could do it. That said, if you combine all the lists that have been made already I think you'd have a pretty exhaustive list of the biggest contributors so far. But I agree with Denryu: [quote who="Denryu" reply="3" id="2242276"]I just feel that NO ONE is entitled to alpha, including myself, so I think all rankings aside, we should all be prepared to just keep our chin up and not get

[quote who="Denryu" reply="5" id="2243630"]I don't get what is less anti climactic about sitting around and waiting ages for essence to recharge as opposed to just dealing with being out. Being out off essence does not make a channeler a non factor in the game. That said, as I have posted above, I am not against there being some limited ways to get more.[/quote] Well for one, it's unlikely that channelers will all run out of essence at the same time or even use it at the same rate. So

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="4" id="2239560"]I think that mines should be able to be depleted by the user. I don't think it should be easy but it would be good that slowly but steadily the mine runs out of "essence" and you have to close it. In smaller maps wouldn't be a problem (except that you could scalate the effect) but in bigger maps it would be quite interesting.[/quote] I am strongly opposed to mines/resource nodes being depleted unless an equilibrium is more or less m

[quote who="Denryu" reply="23" id="2243406"]For people that are afraid of running out of essence - don't run out! For every chicken little "what if" I haven't seen how a slow regen of essence helps, and often what is suggested trivializes it. I picture essence as your innermost self, and sometimes there just isn't enough of "you" to go around.[/quote] And pray tell, why does your 'innermost self' have to be hard-capped? Don't go citing some debatable p

[quote who="Climber" reply="15" id="2239469"] If my potion+2 ‘can be’ used to enhance a sword, a mount, eye glasses and 10 more MR that my factories can produce, does it meant my potion+2 need to be scattered over most of my cities? Eventually I just want to produce a sword +2 from the potion, then all those scattered potion is needed to ship back to the Blacksmith. This is also one of the problems of Camp#3. There is always resources wasted, or mirco/caravan need

[quote who="Climber" reply="22" id="2241654"]This all sounds good. More or less final version of this discussion: Units can carry a maximum of M units of food, currently hold Y units of food, consume X units of food per turn, and is able to forage Z units of food per turn. Each turn, Y unit of food is consumed. The turn after Y=0, they gain the status of “Exhausted”. Exhausted units will have ATT, DEF greatly reduced & movement speed halved.<b

If essence also determines a channeler's magical ability (either in mana or spell effectiveness), then running out of essence would mean no more magic for you (or possible just crappy magic). Either way, things are supposed to get more interesting as the game progresses, not go backwards. That is my fear with pre-determined finite essence. Regardless of what essence is or isn't used for, I can't imagine that the game becomes more fun when you run out of it.

[quote who="Luckmann" reply="18" id="2243161"]Yay! This helps me, since I can't keep my mouth shut. [/quote] But haven't you not pre-ordered? In which case you'd have no chance (unless they pre-select you)... And on a selfish note I have now migrated all my Stardock registrations to this account so maybe I have a chance :P

[quote who="Campaigner" reply="9" id="2243043"]I'm happy I didn't preorder as i need to see how this goes....[/quote] I love how people say that when the slightest thing appears that it might not go exactly as hoped. Seriously, if you're interested enough to be a regular on these forums, then whether or not heroes are important components of armies - you will still in all likelihood buy the game, and even enjoy it. I do agree with you, though, that armies should be able to fun

[quote who="Spartan" reply="8" id="2242795"]A nice update to be sure. Anyway, I think it would be nice to play against friends for this title however such a feature would surely be an x-pack thing in my mind.[/quote] Uhh... Spartan, multiplayer has been planned for Elemental from the get-go, and even with the Demigod fiasco they haven't threatened to remove it...

Ooo, I hope I get in! And that screenshot looks like it could spawn sooo much speculation if only we had more than a thumbnail! (Although it'll probably spawn enough as small as it is :P). For example, is that an ogre? And a swimming pool with a diving board?

[quote who="arstal" reply="1" id="2240585"]One other issue with multiplayer- that really was a big problem in Age of Wonders. How will Stardock balance out units that are much stronger in tactical combat then fast combat? This WILL happen, and might also be a concern for single player.[/quote] Well one possibility is that auto-combat actually simulates the full combat, all AI controlled and then reports the results. I recall this being mentioned