Fenhiro

While yes i'll agree my title "science of magic" is a complete oxymoron. But magic as a plot device needs restrictions or otherwise any problem could be easily resolved with a snap of the fingers (which ironically would be a challenge for me since i can't snap my fingers). these are just common laws in most fantasy novels that i have read, albiet not said so bluntly. [quote]Magic is magic. There is no reconciling it with science. You can create rules to artificially restrict magic, bu

Here's a few basic laws of magic 1.) Energy is energy, whether it comes a mundane or magical source. 2.) With time and neglect even the most powerful of spells degrades into nothingness. 3.) If your outgoing exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. 4.) Energy and matter can be transfered, never destroyed. 5.) No two objects can be in the same exact place at the exact time. 6.) One really big spell is the equivalent

[quote]a wizard and a priest in a fantasy setting aren't too far apart.[/quote] You're right there...the only real difference between wizards and priests (if you exclude morality) are that wizards for the most part learn, study magic in general with their magical source being either within themselves or in an artifact like a staff. Priests on the other hand are granted magical power by their deity. Considering that all magic users (as in non-channelers) will have been imbued by their

[quote]If you add 300 varities of swords, some developer has to sit there and create 300 varities of swords.[/quote] I agree with Tamren, this ain't a problem. I myself could make 300 sword varieties using Paint program. all i need to do is to make pre-made components like cross guards, hilts, pommels and blade types. heck i could make several different varients of Rapiers alone.

[quote]A bladed rapier might not be able to cut very well, but it could still say... sever a bowstring.[/quote] or a vital artery [e digicons]}:)[/e] On zweihanders. From my understanding, Zweihanders were supposedly used as an anti-pike weapon on account its weight/mass ratio gave it the blungeoning power of an axe and thus could in theory smash through said pikemen ranks (Note: i'll admit that my sources claim there is little, if any, documented proof zweihan

heh, heh. anyone ever head of Tamren's "mechanics of warfare: Weapons"? great forum. And You're right Scoutdog, GC2 was more like rock-rock-rock except you had certain defenses that could reduce damage from a particular rock. red paper stops red rock, blue paper stops blue rock, etc etc (sorry for the ultra simplified rendition of game mechanics). Personally, I think weapons shouldn't be just aesthetics...otherwise a unit of swordsmen could be just as effective in fight

Okay considering that stardock is going to add a simple battle mode ( from what i interpret from the latest journal entry) and elemental is already designed to be mod friendly i was thinking that it make our own battlefield scenarios. think about it. you've already built your glorious army but sadly you never got the opportunity to see them in action. simple enough, just click battle mode from Main Menu, pick a field, conditions, factions and armies...(very similar to Total War series) and th

Xthetenth...i think you may have slightly misinterpreted as to what i mean by Elites, Versatiles and Fodder. Now you are right about the Mongols being a formidable force of horse archers and lancers but there is a good reason why they were called the Golden Horde. The total size of their entire army consisted of about 13,000 to maybe 20,000 men...and about three horses per man (i think). Now compared to the armies of Xerxes (250,000) and Alexander the Great (40,000 to 50,000), the Mongols und

well, nothing is set in stone, but Denryu is right as to what i'm implying. Take this historical fact, Xerxes the emperor of the persia had an army of roughly about 250,000 of poorly trained and poorly equiped troops who for the bulk carried spears and wicker shields. The Spartans at their hight of glory had about 10,000 fighting men armed to the teeth. Two totally different armies; One professionally trained, well equiped and men whose bravery went a tad beyond impetus and on other s

taking into consideration that in Elemental we will be able to create our own armies from the ground up, i can see these armies broken into three varients. now i'm not talking about whether these armies levels of balance between troop types but rather the overall tactical style of these armies. I'll, more or less, break these into three types: the Elites, the Versatiles, and the Fodder. To help in illustrating my point i'll use the Starcraft's most basic units (the Protoss Zealot, the

Frogboy did something along the line that a channeler's essence was needed in order to rejuvenate the land to make habitable once again...the logic being to keep players from commiting to the Civ series strategim of "first come, first serve" (ie; one who builds the most colonies over a broad strip of land, more or less, is the winner)

"sigh" sad that a lot of gaming companies have forgotten the telltale quote of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". of course in this case EA is thinking if it ain't broke then lets make it even better by putting a bunch of unnecessary junk just to get a bigger buck.

It could be possible for a channeler to be, pur-say, completely ignorant to the fact that S/He is a channeler and be totally anti-magic.... Anyone ever watched Dave Chappelles skit about a black man (who was blind) and also a white supremicist who was ignorant to his true ethnicity. it was totally funny, used the N-word in just about every other sentence but it did show how silly and redundent racism. Anyway, back to what i'm saying, i can see a channeler who is a religious ze

you're right landi, where is Tamren? haven't seen him around for a while.

Just so you guys know, on a scale of 1-100 of machiavellianism i'm a 75; i actually took a voluntary test. if you want to take the test as well the address is: http://www.salon.com/books/it/1999/09/13/machtest/ My sister got a 62...i just took it again and got a 77 anyway the five you should ask yourself if you are a true machiavellian is; why? what do i or my party get out of this? what does the other party get out of this? what is the best case scenari

Time, Money, Resources (TMR) Amazing in how many games actually use this factor as natural banlancer, not to mention a fact of life. Case in point: Say you want to build a bird house for your backyard. First you have to go to the store and buy the wood, nails, paint and tools (if you don't have them) needed to do so. Then you build the bird house, paint it and nail it to a tall pole. And finally you have to put it somewhere in your backyard. TMR

traditional speaking, most game Arms and Armor (A&A) enchantments tend to be simple in that they provide either defensive or offensive bonuses (some with elemental effects as well). Now what i'm suggesting is not more variety or more complexity but something more practical (or impractical depending on your interpritation). first have any of you guys heard of "journey to the west". basically, it is about a mystical chinese monkey named Sun Wukong (i think... it's one of his names)

i'm with you guys, i'm quite curious as to how the battle time system will work out. will it be: 1.) similar to Worms 3D where it is turn based/real time combat where you a set amount of time to make your move. 2.) Similar to the Total war series in that the combat is in real time but you can pause to make quick and complex battle manuevers. 3.) an over glorified game of chess (Purely turn base). 4.) Purely real time but pausing wont allow you to issue out comm

Okay, to give you a premise: I read a few novel from this fantasy series about a dragon footsoldier (shock trooper for tactical usage) named Broketail for the obvious fact that he has a deformed tail. Broketail was a member of a specials unit on the side of the good guys. anyway, the soldiers on the good side had this formation called the Legion Formation (more or less) that consisted of three seperate groups. the first rank(s) was of heavy swordsmen carrying towershields. The next rank(s) we

Sorry if something like this was already posted Anyone who's ever read a fantasy book or played a fantasy themed game can agree with me that certain races have access or use only certain types of technology. For instance, dwarves, as we know, are naturally industrial minded and thus they have better mining facilities, forges, etc; where as elves, especially wood elves, tend to be more rustic nature oriented. What i'm suggesting here is to have race/culture specific tech trees to make

to be blunt, i really don't like resource depletion mechanics. The following reasons; 1.) Bad timing (you tend to run of a key resource at the most inopportune of times, especially if you only have access to one node of that type). 2.) The level of importance (if a particular resource is needed to do, literally, ANYTHING then you're SOL if it just plain runs out. Take lumber for instance, you'll need it for constructing buildin

I have three letters, LOL. personally, i don't care either way.

The best Star Trek series that showed A LOT about ferengi-ness was DS9, mostly their just sneaky, manipulative capitalists to the extreme. and technically this is not really based on something from Star Trek...that i know of. I choose the title as a way to get peoples' attention. Really, to be honest, this post is more on International Trade and Open Marketing (two things that ironically coincide with Ferengi way of life).

Thanks Szadowz. [quote]Stardock suggested they are not going to have the classic tech tree. I wonder if there really is any room for alternate pre-reqs the way you might in Civ 4. I know they said there was not going to be a direct line the way you have the dagger > -short sword > long sword laid out. Frogboy almost specifically said there were not going to be in that fashion. From his words, I can't imagine dagger research would be in any way required fo

Ferengi Effect (it's just a catchy title, so just ignore it) Open Market- first off what I would enjoy seeing in Elemental is an option to decide whether you want to sell a given product on the open market and a % quantity of said product. Say I have a 100 units of swords but want to sell 50 units and make a hefty profit. I could do this one of two ways. One, go to the warehouse (holding the swords) and specify how many swords i want to sell and how many i want