Nick-Danger

Just sell a pint or 2 of blood, and you can afford the other games too ;)

WEGO is the latest buzz phrase, updated from 'simultaneous turns' in TBS. Frog, I understand you've redone tac battles and eaten the time/resources/expenses to do so, but something like simultaneous turns is pretty huge, and I would argue worth further delay to get it into release. It's a big change and has a big effect, not just on MP but SP too. Heck, I'd kick in another $5 for simultaneous turn TBS at release. [e digicons]:beer:[/e] This is a good example wh

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="15" id="2619691"]...Personally, I think essence should be used in a completely different fashion. Imbuing heroes and such is a great idea, but instead of essence being used to directly improve land, I think it should be used to create unique city improvements that would not otherwise be buildable without essence (with expendable mana being used to restore land). For instance: Well of Life... Monument of Industry... Altar of W

[quote who="John_Hughes" reply="150" id="2630565"] I am old, "dirt" old. I grew up in Mechs that had Heat, they were a nightmare to learn to drive, maintain and simply pointing and shooting every chance you got was a Death sentence. God that was so much FUN![/quote] [quote who="John_Hughes" reply="176" id="2630710"]Damn there is more "dirt" around here than I originally thought, thankfully. [/quote]If you're "dirt" old I might be "older-than-dirt" old :) <p

[quote who="John_Hughes" reply="160" id="2630616"]And I feel that with the Beta 2 +3 combo... [/quote]I think Raven's post will stir some debates/considerations that are good to have. His point regarding player control is beneficial and needs to be raised, because as he points out we're seeing some things lean towards less control (WTA, pre-made maps unreflective of chosen terrain, time limits on battles, etc.), and unnecessary(?) simplicity (splitting movement speed and attack sp

[quote]Winner Take All -- No. A small force, well-led, using terrain, hit&run, etc. being effective is impossible with WTA as it'd be wiped out in the first skirmish. Many historic/fantasy battles involved such small forces taking on larger but poorly led forces.[/quote]More reasons for No to WTA: -Knowing the loser loses all, players will be hesitant to engage unless they have an obviously overwhelming force. This will tend to slow down the game as each side wai

First thoughts: Morale -- Great! Very important. And let Champions have a trainable 'morale' skill to raise their troops morale and to allow routing units a chance to rally. Terrain affects battles -- Great! Defending behind a river, etc. all are necessary for Strategy&Tactics. Winner Take All -- No. A small force, well-led, using terrain, hit&run, etc. being effective is impossible with WTA as it'd be wiped out in the first skirmish.&nb

[quote who="John_Hughes" reply="148" id="2629364"]So I guess in the interest of diplomacy, instead of chastising, he could simply have clarified.[/quote]Agreed.

Squad Leader's semi-simultaneous system was designed back in the pre-computer boardgame days, it's a bit on the complex side, and I doubt the general Elemental player base would be interested, but it's still a good system and those who question the excitement/strategy/tactics of TBS should give Squad Leader's system a try, as it might open their eyes. A WEGO variant of it would be interesting as it would maintain

I don't always want a unit to be only one troop type. I might want to make a unit of different troop types and have them arrange themselves not only in various formations but also various configurations (spearmen to the fore, swordsmen behind them and archers to the rear). IIRC the old AoE2 did this. It's a lot simpler to control one unit of this type than 3 units of individual types and can be more logical. Configurations could change during battle -- for example th

[quote who="Romothecus" reply="6" id="2628124"]Yeah, but when was that? I don't think the beta is currently open, so recent pre-orders won't get access in an email like that.[/quote]The email was in response to my pre-order, 30 Sept '09. Your pre-order confirmation email makes no mention of this? That's strange, if there's no serial number in that email I'd expect there to be some mention along the line of "we'll send you another email when beta opens up with your Serial Number

[quote who="taltamir" reply="444" id="2628495"]...I think the best way to explain it would be that steamwork does not provide a functioned that is required to run the game, it is just forced to as a DRM scheme...[/quote]To add to this, my Advanced Degrees from the School of Hard Knocks tells me there's more to it than DRM, and I think that that is information gathering. I think that's the future -- selling us stuff (like games) in ways that allow information gathering. The informa

[quote who="dionisus1122" reply="89" id="2628538"] I know some people will have different experiences, but I can't think of one memorable TBS battle... not one. Conversely, I have hoards of memorable battles from the RTS battle system in Total War. [/quote]You're right, some people have different experiences. I have many memorable memories of TBS battles. The old Avalon Hill games like Squad Leader, for example, or Guadalcanal or Tactics II or any of more than a score o

[quote who="Silicor" reply="57" id="2628116"]My dream is to have a simultaneous action combat in a fantasy game. [/quote]I'm also hoping for simultaneous turns in tactical battles. I understand it's harder than me-go-you-go but it avoids a lot of problems (like the 'enemy cavalry blows past your lines and you can only watch' problem) and adds 'fog of war' to what the enemy is doing that turn. If it's not in release hopefully it'll make it eventually, even if it has to be m

[quote who="John_Hughes" reply="146" id="2628760"] [quote who="Tasunke"]... it would be late growth which would require to COMPLETELY ignore the lair for 100 plus turns.[/quote]...And if you expect any game of Elemental, to be in the late growth stage after 100+ turns, then we are expecting very differing gameplay.[/quote]I interpret Tasunke's remarks to mean that during the late growth phase, ignoring a problem for 100+ turns could have that result -- ie the late growth period

When I pre-ordered Elemental I got a "Thank you for shopping with Stardock" email with summary of the order (order number, who it was billed to, payment method, cost, what was purchased, etc.). Scrolling down a bit there is "Below you will find information on your purchase" and under that is "Products Ordered:" with Product Name, User Name, Email, Serial Number (for the Elemental game), Download (url), and Download2 (instructions to dl). Below this is a

[quote who="Aractain" reply="122" id="2627328"]These ecollogy systems I always think miss the point of the game. They fit in well in an ecollogy simulator where thats what your focusing on but when your focus is elsewhere they seem to be an extra layer of obfustification to the player. By all means have systems which govern the flow of the wildlife but they need to be simple and easy to understand for a player with a LOT more things on his mind.[/quote]I don't think most are talking about an

I'm still thinking on the 'rat quest' thing in my previous post. [quote]For the rat quest, maybe rats desire grain, as do farmers. Rat population increases because its grain desire is met, reducing farmer's grain. Farmer now has unmet desire, so now has new desire to have this impediment removed. Farmer seeks adventurers to fulfill this new desire, and if successful, farmer loses new desire and rewards adventurers. Rat population has been reduced and

[quote who="Demiansky" reply="113" id="2626921"] ...From the start I've never suggested giving mobs anything more than very limited AI algorithms. To be honest, I don't care about monster backstories or backgrounds at all. Rather, I care about monster objectives. That's what I mean by giving monster's "motives." Give them objectives that they are trying to fullfill and allow the player under certain circumstances to see those goals so that they can come

[quote who="Shurdus" reply="3" id="2624229"]EDIT: I really should get a new avatar, my cat was put to sleep today. [/quote]I'm sorry to hear that Shurdus. No matter how old a pet gets, it's always too soon to say good-bye, never long enough time together. [e digicons]

[quote who="WIllythemailboy" reply="56" id="2625380"] Copyright laws were made to promote knowledge and progress not to ensure writter's profit much less to ensure distributor's profit. You are an idiot. Copyright laws promote knowledge and progress by insuring writers can profit from their work. The ability to make a living at it is what gives the writer the ability to continue writing...[/quote]Tastes Great! Less Filling! You're both right. Copyright exi

I want the living world to operate under consistent and logical rules. Doesn't matter if it's fantasy rules, or 'realistic' rules, or whatever. For example, many of the early D&D modules would have a room of goblins next to a room of umber hulks next to a room of skeletons, etc. What did the goblins eat? How did they survive the umber hulks? etc. Such inconsistencies/impossibilities/unrealities strain my credulity and takes me 'out' of that world -- t

I was a big Mac fan, and got a SE30 in '89 when it came out. My next computer was a PC and have been since then. I really liked apple's OS and all -- I didn't care how computers worked, just what you could do with them -- but it failed in the most important aspect of computers -- games! Mac games were crap then and things haven't much improved. So my question to the iPad backers -- how's it for games? How will Elemental run on it? Don't matter how fast

[quote who="RAWRRRR" reply="13" id="2622692"]pfft who's word should we take this time, another random guy linking another very accurate news article, or the insistence of a CEO?[/quote]You're calling a PR release a "...news article..."? Given the state of news today where speed too oft' trumps accuracy, where balance too oft' consists of presenting obviously false claims from both sides, and where journalism too oft' is replaced by stenography, it's not surprising. However, even

[quote who="cephalo" reply="34" id="2622441"]Forced updates will destroy the Civ 5 modding community. There's gotta be some workaround there.[/quote]My guess is if steam is in offline mode it won't know if there's an update available so will assume the game it's up-to-date and let it run. This would allow playing with a mod that hasn't been updated to the latest civ5 version. However, if you happen to put steam in online mode for any reason, then it'll check and may flag the gam