SolarBall

A lot of the same problems of "you randomly got a really great spell" do apply to other types of research as well, though. (Although, talking about problems with regular research does have some application to spells as well, so this thread seems somewhat useful for that part of the game as well.) Speaking of different types of research, what resources do both of these types of research require? It seems (at least theoretically) possible that spell vs. techno

I was able ot find something for about 50$ on newegg (thanks to the person who suggested it, I had looked before but had difficulty finding something for some reason.) @Ibgsloan: I have noticed how the card I got is at about the limit of where AGP cards can go. I do tend ot stick to games with lower system requirements, though, so hopefully this one will last a good amount of time (the main games I was focusing on for this card were elemental and demig

They use the same mysterious energy forces that allow galactic civilizations aliens to increase their population by billions in a few weeks, and somehow educating, training, etc. them as well. :)

for me, having a standard "pick research, make wya up tree" is certainly fine for the game, and I wouldn't mind coming back to it if a more fun but still balanced way was found. The "random extra techs show up depending on empire specialization" sounds like a good idea to try out (To provide extra advances ot specialize empires), I'd just make sure that the "random" advances were set up in a way that generalized empires could also get some stuff, plus

[Quote] A small note on Balance (not to get off topic), but, in these types of games there ARE going to be things that will be greatly unbalancing. Like Dragons. Not just Dragons either. What if you get lucky enough to have any kind of flying monster join your army early in the game? Your opponents won't even have the means to hit a flying creature unless you already have Bows or the creature goes up against a enemy Sovereign who shoots it with magic. I'm sure there are other,

(nvm, quote tags are acting funny.)

At least you guys have gotten into the game. (I'm one of those people who gets a lovely view of working main menu screen, with some excellently balanced gameplay option menus, before crashing at the "creating world" screen :) )

[Quote]No, it really doesn't. For one, fire resistance isn't going to save you if somebody shoots you with a blast of ice, or lightning (under the assumption that lightning is air magic, but that can be neither here nor there). So sure, you go ahead and give all your units fire resistance. I'll sit over here and focus on my air and water magic, then laugh at you when your fire resistances accomplish nothing. Your second faulty assumption is that imparting resistances to your regular,

[Quote]There are two kinds of people arguing against different types of magic resistances: some seem to be arguing against it because they don't want any more than a few basic unit stats. My response: if 5 or 6 magic resistance stats (among the simplest stats possible) are going to overwhelm you, get a new brain - you got cheated at birth.[/Quote] This is pretty insulting, actually, and it seems you've missed the points ot not making combat any more complex than necessary (that have b

[Quote] I think the logic of having elemental damage types is actually quite transparent. It's, hey, this old game that I liked used a system like that, so it must be a good idea, we should do it. The idea makes a degree of sense, it's got traction in plenty of other games, and it's an easy thing to do, so why not, right? But I do sort of think the arguments that are being put forth for how important it is are... well, based on some pretty tenuous assumptions.[/Quote]

[Quote]What a good game should have is exactly the opposite of this - a system that, to a newbie who is just seeing it for the first time, looks simple and intuitive, but to the veteran player has lots of tactical complexity and variations.[/Quote] That's what I'm/was arguing for, actually. (If a system is simple and intuitive, it's easier to start learning how everything works, go from there, as opposed ot a system with lots and lots of stats, where figuring this sort

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="184" id="2420824"] [Quote]I'd also add balance, and difficulty learning the game for newer people to this sort of thing, to the potential problems mentioned in the first paragraph.[/Quote] Catering a game so that its friendly enough so that someone new to the genre won't have any trouble figuring it all out in short order is a great way to guarantee that the people who would otherwise actually stick around and play the game for years to come will qui

[quote who="keithLamothe" reply="180" id="2420617"] Those of you worrying about complexity. Is it because you don't want to think, or because you're worried about how long it will take you to do the combat?Neither, concerned about costs in design time, logic/ui/ai development time, and testing time. Not so much concerned about the time costs themselves as about the consequences of features being implemented in less than adequate time such that the logic is buggy, the ui is in

[Quote]Physical dmg types are good to have, but I don't mind if they won't implement those. [Even tho I hope that we will be able to mod them in.] As for magical dmg types [ice/fire/shadow/etc] & resistances/immunities....they must be implemented or the combat system will be dumbed down/primitive....[/Quote] You, and most other people arguing for lots of damage types, do remember that there is quite a lot of game outside of combat, right (And that there's the r

[quote who="Tridus" reply="119" id="2417229"] The whole point of this extended beta period is to try things out, get feedback, and refine them. I don't doubt that we'll start with something like the simplified system we have now. If the playerbase stays as overwhelmingly against that as it is right now? I highly doubt we'll end up there a year from now. [/quote] I highly doubt we'll end up with as complex a combat system as many, many people are describing in this thread, no

I'm asking this question since my computer (As you may guess from the title) uses an AGP slot, which is pretty clearly old, but the computer itself functions well, and I'd rather not get a full new one, or mess around with new motherboards and such, until I really need to. However, there are some games coming out/that are already out that are a bit too much for the current card. (This s to explain the question, and avoid people arguing that I should just get a new computer. This o

Also ,for another point on the complex combat systems, keep in mind that there's still an economic system to figure out (which may or may not be quite complex), the family tree system (That could have different levels of complexity, and certainly is something a bit unusual for a 4X game), various quests and such, anything else we do with the pretender, and other mechanics I'm probably forgetting, and that all these systems influence each other, and the game could easily get quite daunting to

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="77" id="2416262"]Reading some of these posts, it looks like many of you basically want each individual unit to have as many or more stats than are typically found in actual RPGs... I want to be able to look at the infocard of a unit and be able to gauge its potential right from there (with the exception of special abilities and such, I suppose). If said infocard is packed with dozens of numbers and %s and god-knows-what, it will be a little overwhelming. If un

Am still crashing after the "map creation" screen (though it does flicker a map, as opposed ot before the patch.) Messing with the family tree file does not help at all, though.

I've heard it's because Poland has by far the most high quality bug checking industry in the world (It's one of their big planned revenue sources, I think), many game developers are starting to go there to make sure everything is in tip top shape. :)

Yea, October 1st does seem a short time with the various crashes and such. (But than again, I haven't done these sorts of beta tests before, so perhaps it is a typical amount of time.)

Is there a way to adjust some of the descriptions in crash reports after they are submitted. (I've sent a few in, but presumably goofed up by writing "Beta 1" instead of "version .22" in the version section.) Also, how specific do the software and computer sections need to be to be useful?

Thanks for the help here. (It turnedout the driver didn't work for the card, but I found one that has, and I've now gone from not being able ot load the game, to not being able to play the game thanks to the "creating map" crash bug. :) At least this seems on par with other people.)

Out of curiosity, will there be an announcement for when the CTD issues at the loading screen, map creation, etc. will be getting attempted changes, or should I all of us with these issues keep trying every day or so? (since it seems this is a somewhat common issue.)

My attempts to load the game so far have resulted in the elemental title screen, followed some music and a black screen with "version 0.22" in the lower right corner, and the game does not progress further in loading after that point. I did get a warning about the driver not being updated enough, so before submitting a full bug report, I'm planning ot update the driver, but have a few questions first. The dxdiag report for my computer says this about my card/drive