I think you need more than just a few days of testing. What makes this the 1.1 release, is the AI really that much better? Is there documentation or an updated manual to explain all of the changes from the initial release?
1. Research Options - When you complete a new tech research, there is no way to get the full details (Hiegamenon) on each of new Tech option before you select one! I would like to be able to click on each of the tech options and get the fully info before I make a selection. 2. City Detail Screen - doesn't show the number of buildings or housing capacity, I hate having to click on population and count how many Huts I have, then multiple times 25 just to figure out the housing capacity
New patches every day? It seems like new patches every 5 mins! Once again there seems to be a lack of any testing on Stardocks end!!
It seemed liked they fixed this in 1.09p but, it's back in 1.09s, end turn feels clinkly once again.
One would think if Stardock can design a game where space ships travel from planet to planet, they could make ships work, besides here are other ways to travel portals, underground( Age of wonder), etc. if the AI can't use one travel method, design another!
It's challenging now to get your first town up and running but, I've also had starts where your town is wiped out before you even finish your first building. Maybe limit the amount of creatures for the first 10-15 turns so the first town doesn't get wiped out by the first passing group of creatures. Playing on an island map, I've come across some small islands that are nothing but wall to wall creatures, I'm not sure I understand the point of spawning so many creatures when there are
[quote who="Cruxador" reply="18" id="2841365"] Quoting FatNonFree, reply 14There's boats in this game?There's one tech for them in the Civic tree (for kingdom, I don't know where for empire). They're just transports; this is very much not a naval game.[/quote] The issue here is the AI, it's not able to play on a map of islands because it doesn't use boats, something CIV games have been doing from the begining.
How close do you think you are to 1.1? Will the AI be able to use boats in 1.1?
There really should be more character interaction, I would like champions have more options for hire, help them rescue some one, promise to make them a magic user, help kill a specific monster or another champion, the current interactions are just too simplistic.
It's kind of a mistake to try to use just one resource as the grow limit, a balanced game should have players be limited by different resources throughout the game (people, material, gold, metal, land, etc.). In Elemental it seems you are only limited buy not researching something and not by the actual resource itself. Right now it's too easy to sit back and let (people, gold, mana, resources) build up, while just waiting for the next research to complete. <
Stardock may want to include some sort of guidelines for these Beta releases, such as saved game compatibility, use of mods, use of custom maps, clean install required, fresh restart etc.
Band of Agility is listed as (+strength), shouldn't that be (+agility)? There is already a Band of Might (+strength).
When you get the technology for houses, all of your huts automatically change to houses but, nowhere in the City Detail Screen does it show the capacity change 10 huts = 250 people now becomes 10 houses = 400 people. I would really like to see the number of buildings and the capacity shown in the City Detail Screen, where total population capacity is shown under Resources and number of buildings (1o Huts, 10 Houses, etc.) is shown under Buildings. City Detail Sc
Here is a complete list of SSI games. http://sites.google.com/site/ssihistory/Home Complete list of games for the TSR-80 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TRS-80_games
The AI in 1.09p is much improved but, I still don't see the AI making use of ships or ability to expand out a map of islands. Island Maps, in mid game there seems to be a lot of spawned creatures (packs wall to wall) on empty islands.
There seems to be a lot of stuff that has no value and can't be sold in shops. Some of the equipment carried by Champions just can't be sold, would like to see everything have a value and be able to be sold. I don't see why clothes becomes unequipped with wearing armor, it just make clothes useless.
Guard mode (Fortify) with a reaction range, so it's not too late when a group of monsters spawn close by.
[quote who="cfehunter" reply="1" id="2836911"]You need huts to increase the population cap of a settlment. You need as many as you need to reach the level you want the city to reach. It's based on alot of different factors so it's kind of hard to judge without knowing your exact research path.[/quote] That's what I thought but, I have settlements one with 80 people with only 3 huts ( 3 x 25 = 75) and another with 90 pepole and only 3 huts (3 x 25 = 75)?
A lot of info is outdated now, I'm not sure what huts do anymore. I see population grow even without adding more huts? 1. Do Huts help a settlement grow quicker? 2. How many do you really need?
I've seen this too, one thing that sometimes changes it, restating Elemental and reloading a saved game it sometimes seems to restart the monster spawning.
Settlement Details Screen 1. Show how many of each type of building a town/settlement has, this would be really useful during the improvement screen so you can see what buildings a town/settlement already has. 2. Show which buildings are generating income and which have an on going cost by putting +/- gold next to each building name.
Either that or allow the Heal spell be used outside of combat, I find it odd you can't use magic to heal outside of combat! You can make a medic (unit with medical backpack) and stock up on Nectar & Salt Pork from the shop.
This is the most stable beta version of Elemental I've seen, it's even challenging getting your first town up and running, good job!
Derek I was part of the beta process before Elemental was released and I'm seeing the same beta process of one broken buggy release after another and wonder will the 1.1 release will be any better, there never was a stable version before release! You can't comment or test features in a game until it's some what stable, so far all of the 1.1 beta's do little more than just crash. I'm suggesting that even a beta version should not be released until it is some what stable
Your Development process seems to lack any real QA process and the reason now seems clear, testing is never done, because the software is never finished just keeps changing every 5 minutes. Maybe you should finish the software development before releasing a different version every other week. What's the point of releasing another half-baked version, if the software isn't finished yet? The AI was not fully implemented (not finished) in 1.09n, what was the point of it's release? <p