I haven't figured this out yet either. I wanted to summon a fire giant, and I can't do it in battle, but when I try to do it on the map nothing happens. I get a cursor that gives no feedback.
[quote who="Mtn_Man" reply="90" id="2730948"] Quoting Cryptomancer, reply 82 If what was posted on the forum is true, delaying the release of the game for another 6 months would have deprived Stardock of non-Impulse, retail revenues. Worse than that, retailers would have refused to stock the game if it was released on Impulse first. [/quote] Nothing can be worse than ruining your reputation among your customers. I can't believe they di
Like every job that is unfinished, there is still work to be done. Stardocks reputation for making games is really on the line here. This is an emergency. Forget about Elemental being profitable, every penny coming in needs to be thrown back in so that in 6 months you have the game that was promised to us and more. If Elemental is less than we expected, it had better be alot more than we expected within the next year, or Elemental's inflated budget is going to be the least of your pro
[quote who="cwg009" reply="49" id="2730764"]It's because the big studios are the ones buying all the advertising which is where the magazines and sites make all their money. As a result game magazines are very hesitant to publish an overly critical review of their flagship games (particularly the ones with big advertising budgets) for fear of the ads being pulled and losing all that revenue. Stardock, on the other hand, is an indie studio with a small advertising budget, so consequently they
The reason we are having these discussions after release is because the beta was basically unusable throughout the process and had almost no content. In the beginning of beta there was no game at all, or even a concept of a game. At the end of beta it was only possible to muddle through a few turns before a crash, and there were very few spells and quests and items for designing units. The result is that beta testers went on and on about the pie in the sky that they want
[quote who="luketan" reply="15" id="2730072"]The problem here is Master of Magic really set the bar too high. But then again they focused IMHO only on the fun part - MAGIC. Perhaps EWOM is trying to hard to do so many things.. in the end they ended up neglecting the magic system (perhaps they think they can easily fix this later), A odd choice for a game with magic in the title as pointed out by many. [/quote] Exactly. The technology tree and tech research
Ouch re: gamecats GF. What a crushing review. I didn't even allow myself to think such things. I want to have hope...
Good review in my opinion. Welcome to beta 1.
I came home from work last night kinda worn out and didn't really feel like playing, but I felt kinda obligated since I preordered. I have to say that the campaign kept me from going to bed at a reasonable hour! That's a good sign! Judging from the beta I thought the game would be terrible. I still say it's a year away from completion, but it has finally entered into 'fun' territory. That said there's still a ton of information I'm not getting from the UI. During the campaign I can't
I think that the tech tree does alot of things that spells might do. When you look at the functionality of the tech tree, there's not alot of room left for useful spells. The two paths are incompatible. It would have been nicer and more flavorful if 'spells' and 'tech' were together in one mechanic. As it is the game doesn't know if it should be MoM or Civ.
The graphics style has always been great in my opinion. It's quite unique for this genre.
Challenging AI has never been a priority to me as long as it's not compensated for by rediculous cheating. I think AoW:SM was great at capturing the imagination and atmosphere. I loved the underground and extra-demensional maps! The campaign was alot of fun but a bit short. It is a game that like MoM, I have dug out of the closet several times over the years. I have to reserve judgement on whether Elemental will stand up to that. I hope that the finished product will inspire me t
Ok, ok! I'm just nervous. You guys are the good guys in the PC game industry and I want you to do well.
[quote who="Frogboy" reply="28" id="2710518"] but they would also be very untested. Well, untested by you anyway. This is the way we've always done our betas. We have gotten a lot of crucial information out of the beta program. I guess only the release version will tell the tale of whether we got it right. [/quote] If you guys can make me look like a fool, I would be immensly satisfied. If you've done well enough hopefully the community
[quote who="Annatar11" reply="26" id="2710509"] The thing is, though, we did do all that. The difference is there wasn't a "phase" where it was like: "Okay, let's everyone talk about gameplay". It just kept evolving as time went on and they picked up bits of discussions all along the way to incorporate into the game. My biggest worry is that because the game was never set for any length of time, and we never got anything really near-final, it was impossible to judge how the la
I pre-ordered this game as soon as it was possible to do so, but I haven't seen anything in beta that would make me want to spend more time on it. I suppose I will give it a go when I get the day 0 version, but I do not share Brad's opinion that the beta was a success. In my opinion, the day 0 version, which iI presume is the actual game that Stardock wanted to make, should have been the start of the beta process. I was a bit shocked to learn at the beginning
[quote who="VR_IronMana" reply="106" id="2706852"] Quoting Nesrie, reply 98 All I am saying is I understand the fear because I've encountered the problem. I look at some of my old games that i throw into my machine and realize that if these companies did what the companies do today, none of my games woudl work because they are all gone, and that sucks. I've loaded up a game and got unplayable lag because even though the company is still in existence all the s
[quote who="Jarenko" reply="7" id="2706619"]Getting excited and nervous. Anxious? Is that a word? Yeah. I'm anxious. I feel like I'm watching my little boy go up to bat for the first time and I'm nervous that I didn't teach him how to hold the bat properly. I've had the beta since late last year. I want this baby to be a star. [/quote] Lol, that's exactly how I feel. I want this game to pull me away from Civ 5 but... I don't know if that's gonna happen.
Yeah, I was one of those who couldn't play 30 turns. I haven't seen anything! grrrrr.
Good post Jalicos. I'm not sure these fears apply to Stardock, but I do worry that game publishers these days really don't care about what people are playing 20 years from now. If you are ok with your game being unplayable in 10 years, then your heart is not in it. I'm surprised that people who work so hard to make games would allow this to happen. Sometimes it's not clear immediately which games will stand the test of time but the one's that do are very important. It would be a real sha
Will we have any access to the random map generation? The fact that we can set a mountains altitude could be interesting.
It's unfortunate that you must release so early. I hesitate to judge the game too harshly, because I've not really been able to play past turn 20 or so due to crashes, and thus there's alot about it that I do not know. However, I get the feeling that you guys have only ever had only the most general idea of what 'kind' of game you wanted to make. So far it feels like an 'outline' for a game. As far as making an actual game, this process has been so full of gamestopper bugs that it's been
A map from within a map???? Holy moly that's what we've all been talking about with the multiple maps! How big can this map be????? can it be another plane? another planet? More details please!
Vermithrax rocked. The main character stank big time, enough to ruin the movie, but the dragon was believable and scary. I'm hoping that Smaug will be even better.
For map generation, here are some tools you want in your toolbox: 1.) The diamond-square algorithm is excellent for generating coastlines and altitudes. Do not underestimate the usefullness of knowing a tiles altitude! Even if altitude plays no part in the game, you can use it for eye candy and for running a realistic river network. In my latest project, I've been working with Perlin noise and I may be liking that better than diamond square for its controllability. You can c