marlowwe

Just a few questions: How are you guys going to reconcile these special abilities with custom sovereigns? Will we be able to choose from a pool of special abilities when we create our own sovereign? I am worried about balance between the premades themselves and the balance between the premades and custom sovereigns. I don't want to be in a situation where I never pick a certain sovereign because he or she has "that crappy ability no one uses" or on the flip side I never want to feel l

[quote who="Onionfighter" reply="39" id="2811606"] Quoting blitz1024, reply 15So does 1.1 count as an expansion? or is it just a major patch for the game.This is what I'm wondering. It seems really to early to be talking about an expansion. [/quote] 1.1 is a free patch and not an expansion.

Creating new cities is a fundamental part of Elemental's gameplay. At first glance it seems like you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by expanding: New cities allow you to expand your borders, tap into previously unavailable resources and bolster your population which will allow you to make larger armies. This looks great from the game designer's point of view. For the player however, it is a different story. Lately I've noticed that the motivation for expanding outward int

[quote who="nOObonian" reply="4" id="2807602"]So what are the write limits? 1,000 times?[/quote] Any modern SSD (second generation and over) is no longer plagued by "write limits". I've had my Intel X25-M 80GB for just under a year now and it simply blows any mechanical HD out of the water in terms of speed.

Personally, I've never felt that there had ever been an attitude problem on this forum. Every forum has its trolls and flamers - it's simply the nature of the internet. What worries me, however, is that a lot of regular posters as well as newcomers who had criticized the game have either stopped posting or left the forums entirely. I think these people, including those who are truly passionate about the game (like myself), are simply burnt out. I hate to be "that guy" but I must admit that th

[quote] Balance, schmalance. From the gitgo, Elemental was supposed to be first and foremost a single-player game with 'deliberately unbalancing' magic as a big part of late game experiences. This balance thing is for folks who favor multi-player and/or want to 'win' versus an AI instead of just wanting AIs to make the Nth game you play seem new and interesting. [/quote] Balance is not a discrete and tangible element that one can temporarily suspend or take out. It

[quote]How much more fun/surprising would it be as an example if you could choose to study from a book but the spell you researched was random. 'Damn, didn't get my Fire Giant.' When you research all the spells of one level within the book you chose you then start learning the next level.[/quote] I agree with everything you said except for the above part. I feel that above all else, Elemental needs to keep to a structured and concrete path as much as possible. This means every mec

[quote]After Elemental: War of Magic, we’ll be able to reevaluate what the engine can support.[/quote] Can you clarify this? Are you guys going to overhaul the UI in the expansions or are we stuck with the current UI (barring small changes) for at least a couple of years?

I can't say I share the same opinion as the OP. I understand that some Civ 5 players are having compatibility problems but I don't think it's on the same scale as Elemental. Players who purchased Elemental not only had to deal with performance issues but also an incomplete gameplay experience. Civ 5 at least had clearly defined design goals which, as far as I can tell, have been reached. Anyway, I'm seeing a thinly veiled attempt at equivalence in the OP's post. Maybe he's trying

[quote who="SwerydAss" reply="2" id="2786170"]Just took a break from it to check out the forums here actually.....Damn terrazine level is impossible on brutal....Beat all the other ones on that difficulty though.[/quote] If you're being overwhelmed, try suiciding hellions to kill the probes harvesting terrazine. This worked very well for me.

[quote who="econundrum1" reply="3" id="2785603"] Quoting marlowwe, reply 2Is this a joke post? Civ 5 has nowhere near the same number of crash issues that Elemental had. I can't believe you actually think otherwise. Do you not understand that whitewashing Elemental's release problems actually hurts this game? I have no idea how many crash issues CIV 5 has had and I doubt you do either frankly, except maybe on your system. The fact is modern games&nb

Is this a joke post? Civ 5 has nowhere near the same number of crash issues that Elemental had. I can't believe you actually think otherwise. Do you not understand that whitewashing Elemental's release problems actually [i]hurts[/i] this game?

I can't believe some of you are shredding the OP for asking a perfectly legitimate question. I found out about Elemental after reading a RPS article on it which had a picture of a huge dragon, lightning all over the place and hundreds of soldiers moving in to attack. I even pre-ordered the game because of that screenshot. Let me repeat: SCREENSHOT. I can take the flopped launch. I can take the half-finished state of the game. What is REALLY miffing me is how, apparentl

[quote] FORGET BALANCE! It's Highly Overated! I said it elsewhere on this board. Why does the game have to be one size fits all? I have played other games that allow the single player to set the playing variables in the starting options...Please let Elemental players do the same. Allow the players to choose the factors they want in their games with pre-game slide bars: Lots of resources or few, cheap mana spells or expensive, lots of mino

The same merits? Can you explain what you mean?

[quote who="Rebell44" reply="658" id="2780909"] 2. unless you are blind you can see Civ5 on D2D so its clear that Civ5 isnt Steam exclusive.[/quote] D2D gives you a Steam activation code. Civ 5 is indeed Steam exclusive.

Dude you read my mind. I was actually going to make exactly the same post. Indeed, there have been dozens of well written, excellent posts (especially during the time of Frogboy's vacation shortly after release) that I honestly think haven't even been read. I think I can say this because Brad's recent posts give the impression that he hasn't been reading the forums. For example, a few weeks ago there was a post with dozens of replies on how to change the 1 D damage system. There wer

[quote who="greggbert" reply="4" id="2775951"]I disagree I like that when things get quiet I can create a new wave of mobs. Very useful and unusual but ingenious game mechanic. Don't kill it. You had the option to not spaw mobs, I have the option to do so. I think that speaks to leaving it in.[/quote] "When things get quiet"? Why should the game allow you to wait until you are ready to deal with new challenges? From a game designer's point of view, how am I sup

Wow this is great news. I am really excited about the online ranking system.

Why is Janusk even a hero/champion? Why can't SD just turn him into an interactive pop-up? It's not like he's used for anything in-game and removing him would eliminate all of the balance concerns.

[quote] DLC is DLC. One civilization isn't really a "key component" of the game. It isn't like they're making you pay extra for MP, or the ability to research techs. [/quote] [quote] Well, I hate the idea of buyable extra content too. With that being said, I'm not sure if the ability to play Babylon is really a "key component of the game". The game has plenty of empires already, far more then you can have in any single game. I don't belie

I just found out that one of the civilizations (Babylon) will be sold as an 'extra' if you pay more money. Charging for a key component of the game? What a joke. I hope Civ 5 crashes and burns [e digicons]

No one got "upset" that Brad likes Avatar. The thread in question had nothing to do with Avatar specifically; it was the content of Brad's dev journals that some posters took an issue with. This whole business is driving me crazy. Valid, constructive criticism is being drowned out by frothing at the mouth forum members. With the amount of emotion going around this place feels more like a Tupperware party for middle-aged-women than a forum for gamers.

You take a gamble by pre-ordering any video game, Elemental is no different. The fact that it did not turn out the way you wanted is no one's problem but your own. Next time don't pre-order unless you can take the loss. You should be old enough to understand that this is applies to anything you buy.

Awesome mod Raven. It's been a while since I've read any DL books but I was wondering if you will make the Dark Knights of Takhisis a faction in your mod. Please say yes :)