Nick-Danger

One thing to try is to think about the game differently than many others -- Elemental is a strategy game that deserves to be played for years, like Civ4. With that in mind, play for awhile while in 'learning mode', not 'playing for real' mode. Experiment, test, play with things, hit buttons or objects on the UI, try out possible hot key combinations, try different game settings, and see what happens. Visit the forums often and see what others have discovered. There's a

[quote who="Xan" reply="22" id="2744188"]Nick, do you ever get tired of being a dick? Seriously? Every post by you screams "sad sack". Shame on you for constantly wasting our time having to read your drivelings. Go away.[/quote]Exactly what have I said you disagree with? The part where I said "Elemental has great potential, unfortunately it was released a few months too early."? Where I said the game was released a few months too early and 1.05 wasn't release-ready by reason

Back in April Frogboy posted in the thread Elemental Beta Testers: Your characters in now : "As promised, we are going to start putting in Beta tester NPCs into the game. If you want your NPC in the game here is what you need to do:...". I haven't seen any obvious beta tester NPCs (yet), no RavenX or the like. Has anyone seen their or any other beta tester's NPC? I didn't look in the game

[quote quoting="post"]...I would urge you to review the game prior to v1.1. I say this because v1.05 (the release day version) is the version of the game that was originally released and if that version of the game is considered flawed...[/quote]"...if..."?!?! Are you saying you think 1.05 is in an acceptable state for release and isn't flawed? [quote]I just think game studios, including Stardock, need to be conscious of what they release and not expect to "patch themselves ou

Nicely done! [e digicons]k1[/e] Your great effort here is appreciated!

[quote quoting="post"]...I'm tired of people complaining that this game was released 'unfinished' because this game will never be finished until we, the gaming community, get tired of it and move on....[/quote]Strawman. Reasonable people are complaining about how Elemental was released before it was ready, not because it's 'unfinished' in the modability sense. You're confusing modding in new features with basic stability (greatly improved with 1.06), balanced gameplay (still a l

[quote who="Cryptomancer" reply="71" id="2741898"]...I wonder why a February 2011 release would have been "too late". Like you, I "don't have enough info on why they ruled out Feb". [/quote]For me Feb was "too late" because I think the game will be 'release-ready' in Nov (I reckon a few weeks for stability + a month for balancing + a few weeks for 'testing' said balancing + a few weeks rebalancing ~= 2.5 months = mid Nov.). As you say, why SD figured Feb is too late is unknown as I ha

[quote who="Mtn_Man" reply="31" id="2740808"] I mentioned this elsewhere, but I think Stardock's problem at the moment is that they're now a rookie player in the big leagues (thanks to Sins of Solar Empire's widespread popularity) but they're still operating like they're an unknown indie developer with a small but fanatically loyal fan base. They'll need to step up their game (figuratively and literally) if they want to continue competing at this level.[/quote]I respectfully disagr

[quote who="charon2112" reply="5" id="2739834"]...That's true, but those exploits exist in any game, in Civ IV you can rush build axemen and take over the world very quickly...[/quote]Not even remotely the same. Civ4s rushes are balanced and require some luck (there has to be enemies in a decent range, without many archers/chariots/protective trait, map type, etc.) and some skill (balancing how many cities to keep, knowing when to continue and when to switch to building infrastructure

I had this problem with my 4th progeny (1st 3 were fine) -- my 4th kid didn't show in the family tree (just the 3 previous, my Sov's portrait was of a kid, and my Sovs' info page only listed the 3 previous kids names, if I clicked on my spouses pic I got the 4th kids info associated with the sov-kid portrait, and if I then clicked on the Sov-kid portrait I got the Sov info). I went to a previous, pre-4th progeny save, and continued on from there, and when I got a 4th kid again t

The good news: the last few days have seen significant improvements, and 1.06 shows how great Elemental will someday be. The not-good not-bad news: lots of balancing is still needed (gameplay, UI, making essential Elemental features like essence and shards truly shine, showing why Elemental isn't just a rehash of MoM/etc. but is a significant step beyond). I won't list specifics as we've been doing that during beta and there's tons of threads/posts/good ideas already suggested.<

I looked but didn't see mention of the FFH2 modmod Rise of Erebus in this thread. If you like FFH2 you'll likely like RoE. Some of the 'larger' RoE games (in terms of # of foes, map size, etc.) sometimes (but not always) take a relatively long time while waiting for the AIs to move, but other than that it's really a great modmod. It has some changes that are really nice (like you can build a

[quote quoting="post"] Some aspects of ships seem broken for me--I have had several different times when creating a transport that when exiting the city it pops up in the middle of town instead at of at the harbor. Now I have a useless land-locked ship!! Just something on my machine or are others having this issue too?...[/quote]This issue was reported in beta, it's not just your machine. The only 'solution' I ever found was the old 'save-just-before-ship-comp

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="69" id="2730622"]Liked your posting better when you put some thought into them, Tridus. Been going closer and closer to just trolling lately [/quote]Tridus is one of the reliable cooler heads here -- compliments SD on many many things, and criticizes a few things which he does in an even-tempered, light-hearted, and constructive way. If you think he's approaching troll-status perhaps it's time for a self-check (as Socrates said "an unexamined life is not

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="50" id="2732579"]My 2 cents on ANY game I'm on the fence for: Wait for a demo. $50 is a lot of money and if you're not sure about something, wait for a demo. [/quote]The sad truth is that waiting isn't just for games we're on the fence for, but for all games. Too many games are released with the knowledge they're not release-ready, with the idea that they'll fix/patch them at or soon after release. Companies do that because w

[quote who="Tridus" reply="40" id="2731908"]Ironically I was alt+tabbing out to tell a friend about how things were a lot more stable when I got the alt+tab crash bug. C'est la vie. There's a known issue with ATI hardware there. [/quote]It's not just ATI hardware as I've had the ALT-TAB crashes in every beta since they began (beta 2?) and I have an Nvidia 260. Haven't seen that crash in release (yet?) but that's because I haven't played for more than an hour and haven't tried ALT-TABbin

[quote who="Tridus" reply="8" id="2731425"]Multiplayer will be up next week. The patch yesterday fixed a lot of the crash problems. Some ATI hardware on Windows 7 64 bit still might be having some issues, but there's a lot fewer problems today then yesterday. I'd say that if you're concerned about the hardware issue, wait for a demo. If you want a perfect game right now, I'd say wait a couple months. If you're willing to deal with some spots being rough around the edges,

[quote who="mastroego" reply="74" id="2730894"] ...Simply by following the forums (I have not been involved in the BETA) I did perceive some amount of overconfidence. I mean, BETA testers testing only parts of the game is fine, but at some point they should have tested the whole package TOO, precisely to avoid the kind of panic reactions we're witnessing right now.... [/quote]By the traditional definition of 'beta testing' Elemental had a [pre-release] alpha (where they solicited and imp

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="88" id="2730939"] That was an unfair quote most definately, but everything else in the article is a valid complaint. As a matter of fact, the article was downright generous. Out of the box, Elemental is a game with severe problems and the columnist brings like to this. If a game has such brutal issues out of the box, it's perfectly moral to suggest that people stay away from it. But Mr. Francis in fact cut you some slac

[quote]zubaz said: Provide good feedback and not "WOE IS US!" and you'll be fine.[/quote]What Istari said is "Once he [brad] sees people posting "game won't make date" he just starts ignoring all their posts and focusing on people with useful feedback." There's little comparison between that quote and your 'explanation'. I've posted that I don't see how the game will be sufficiently polished by the anticipated date. So, all my posts from then on are ignored.

[quote who="Istari" reply="98" id="2663656"]Yes, every beta program ends up the same way. Brad's pretty used to it. Once he sees people posting "game won't make date" he just starts ignoring all their posts and focusing on people with useful feedback.[/quote]That's a really crappy thing to say and it's offensive. Apparently one can't voice their concern regarding the intended release date and profer useful feedback at the same time. I've been putting a lot of work into

[quote who="Tridus" reply="71" id="2663576"]"Having no way to display it" isn't a reason to not display it. It's a reason to fix the UI defeciency known as "having no way to display it." People are left to guess right now just what is required and why they can't build something. I find it confusing, and I've had the game since beta 1. How is some newbie coming in at release going to feel?...[/quote]Exactly. A related example of current deficiencies -- I was just playing 2B and when go

Correction -- the game freezes even if I don't move onto the Humble Inn. It freezes if I just hit 'next turn'. I tried a few things (stopped building construction, etc.) and it still froze. Editing original post and subject line to reflect this.

EDITED IN CORRECTION: CORRECTED REPORT: The game freezes even if I don't move onto the Inn. Just hitting 'next turn' causes the freeze. I tried a few things like moving the party elsewhere, stopping building construction, etc. and the freeze still occurred. Have to CTL-ALT-DEL to get to task manager to shut down Elemental. No memory dump or standard windows error message. <a href="http://dl.dropbox

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="7" id="2662871"]Nice thread. But I'm a little bit terrified of your stated goal of the game being finished in 3 weeks, with another 2 1/2 weeks for minor little tweaks... The game does not seem that complete to me. Not to mention we haven't even seen tactical combat yet, and there is essentially no AI in the game... And it still crashes enough (for me) to be really annoying. Is that really enough time?[/quote]Agreed. Frogboy I understand your enthusias