mastroego

While "once great" companies like Bioware are steadily going down in the blind pursuit of quick money, Stardock can only go up from this, and it will.

CNN : Do you think humanity really has a future among the stars? Iain M. Banks: Well, it's there or nowhere. I think it's insane to have the capacity to get off the planet and not use it. It's still the case that we've got no real defense against meteors or comets or anything else hitting the planet. You've got all your eggs in one basket, all six, seven billion of us in the one place, and all potentially vulnerable to strike b

[quote who="Malsqueek" reply="7" id="3113372"] There were also abilities could be bought. The number of spellbooks chosen determined not only the totall number of spells you had access to during the game, but the number of spells you would get PER LEVEL (randomly selected). Thus There were three levels of mutual exclusivity in sovereign creation alone. * Skills that impacted a specific aspect of the game, and were powerful and VERY rare to find during game play. <br

I've been following the events with that game. Some of the things the developers are starting to consider "acceptable enough" in order to meet a deadline are just plain unbelievable. I mean there's this alien girl with a masked face. Fans are waiting to see what she looks like. What do they do? They pull a stock photo from Google, and poorly photoshop a few "elvish" features on her face. Note that her hands are supposed to be 3-fingered and very differently shaped tha

The modding community did pretty amazing things to BG1 and BG2 back then. So while if I find it interesting (it might spark all kinds of hopes if it's a success...) I fear without the most essential mods it won't be the thing for me. Anyway, speaking of classics, here's an idea.... what about a MoM remale? [e digicons]:grin:[/e] *hides*

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="14" id="3107880"]It is possible that this just isn't the game for you. I hate saying that but some of the comments here tell me that some people just are looking for a different game.[/quote] I know, it IS possible. Maybe even probable. Yet there are not many games of this kind being produced, and Stardock has decided to try and fill the vacuum (and for that, I salute the company). Also there was the famous "MoM's successor" thing that gave

I've said it many times and I'll say it again. A tech tree which works as a progression of "unlocking steps" (of things that shouldn't need to be unlocked to begin with) is a BAD idea. Boring, lifeless, senseless. "Unlocking" creation of teams of more than x number of people? "Unlocking" heroes' speech capability, so you can ask for their services? "Unlocking" lairs, so that you become able to venture beyond the entrance?

Yeah I was an AD&D player too. I actually purchased something of the Planescape setting, but it was too weird and I couldn't imagine how to play a campaign with it. It got shelved. Not that I had the chance too continue playing for long anyway, real life took that kind of gaming away. Anyways, years later Torment was released and it blew me away.

Anything from Alpha Centauri can only be a good idea. I like it. And of course, that game is a great example of faction differentiation. It played VERY differently depending on the factions you chose and/or met. And they were all human factions. Another unforgettable masterpiece. It had a magnificent tech tree, too.

hmm, I'm reading some more user reviews and it does seem like they rushed this one too. Less characters, less dialogue, less options, less polish. I trust users more than the obligatory string of 90+ of paid reviewers. They don't even bother to pretend anymore. If you want to know about a game's flaws, you have to ask the users (a decent number of them is enough to form a fair idea). I don't know what kind of high level strategy Bioware is attempting. What I can

You don't sit at a table and plan "let's do a weird game like PT!" I still don't understand how a game like that was even conceived. But I'm glad it did. One of the few true, uncompromising masterpieces of the gaming era. Must play it again, someday.

I don't have it, but it is probably a good game. I think trolls are trolling because of Dragon Age 2, still. Yet that would be their right. I've never played DA2 but the evidence is enough to claim that Bioware went too far with that one and deserves the fallout, at least as far as consumers' trust goes.

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="68" id="3102343"] Which weren't a tactical battle feature but rather a strategic feature that made its way into tactical battles. That's why I think when people request features for tactical battles they should be thinking of strategic elements and how they manifest in tactical battles.[/quote] That would work for me. Also, I do follow your reasoning that "nowadays variety is harder" because of 3D models and such. It really

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="57" id="3101852"]I've seen this elsewhere but I'll say it again because it's fun: People like MOM except when they don't like MOM. Classic games work because they achieve that rarest of delicate balances. What made MOM's tactical battles fun is that they achieved that balance. That is what we're going for as well.[/quote] No, wait. I can actually agree with your main goal (no game-defining tactical battles)

[quote]A: No, it has no impact what so ever. Pick the spot with the best values. Don't worry much about nearby special terrain items (shards, gold etc) as you can capture those through outposts, instead concentrate on getting the absolute best values you can for food and materials. Keep in mind you will need a minimum of seven grain (get some through nearby outposts!) to achieve a L5 city. [/quote] This summarizes one of my main problems with the current city system. Just

A thoughtful and transparent post. Appreciate it. Seeing City Management on the list gives me back hope. :)

City building was entirely pointless in .76 and they haven't touched it since. The building placement mechanic doesn't even have a real reason to exist. Yet, the whole issue has been added to the poll as an afterthought which tells me we aren't going to see a lot of improvement no matter what we say. Also the tech trees would need some serious work, imho, and everything else. I'm afraid I can't pick one. They're all necessary or the game will feel

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="139" id="3093701"] Our point of view on this hasn't changed. We're not taking out tech trees, we're not going to be removing factions. I think the challenge sometimes is that non-game designers don't realize how trivial some things are to implement and how hard other things are. For example, giving custom equipment and such to each faction: trivial. Giving champions special abilities: Trivial. And in

[quote who="Bingjack" reply="104" id="3093125"] Brad acknowledged lack of faction/Champion differentiation as a problem in this very thread. I don't think it's fair to accuse them of not listening, as if they are unaware. [/quote] I'm not accusing: let me just point out that when we were debating things like these, a couple of weeks ago, we were rather bluntly told that suggestions that felt too disruptive WEREN'T basically being considered. Now

[quote who="Aharaza" reply="77" id="3092552"]I want to vote excellent so bad. But whenever I load up the game it just does very little to me. The factions all feel so much the same. Teching up in games is so boring that I do not want to play this game many more times then 4 or 5. The spells all have the general "meh" feeling. Pls make the factions different. I don't want to choose between 8 humans with different starting techs. 1. I

[quote who="seanw3" reply="74" id="3084803"] Were you here several years ago when Elemental was being thought up? As I recall, the game did start out as MoM and the community, most of whom have since left, wanted the game to be significantly different. [/quote] I read about WoM maybe a couple of months before its release. Regardless of what you just said, at that time it was still advertised as MoM's spiritual successor. Which is the one and only reason I preordered it (well,

[quote who="seanw3" reply="56" id="3084207"] This beta is alot healthier. There was a moment there last month where the testers started throwing out extreme ideas with the delusion of changing the game, but that has died down. [/quote] It has died down because the devs stated that those ideas were basically redirected to the garbage bin. That means one who thinks some of the issues are truly deep and can't be solved with just a touch of balancing here and the

[quote who="Lord Cobol" reply="24" id="3082429"]Quoting stevty2889, reply 22Not entirely true about the MOM tactical battles. The bumps/hills would slow down non-flying units moving across them. Roads in the tactical battle would also allow for extra movement(cost 1/2 movemement point on roads), plus city walls, that force non-flying units to have to fight their way in to the city, or use spells/specific units to take out the walls. Wall of Darkness could also be used, to prevent ranged

Chill down guys. I wrote this as soon as it begun to surface that despite the many, many improvements, there are still a few but deep enough issues with the game. Since I realized that re-thinking from scratch even just a few areas of the game would be MAJOR work at this point, I thought that if Stardock were ready to go as far as to do it anyway, a honest, comparable response from the audience would have been fitting. Anyway, I admit that since it has been clearly state

[quote who="Anglophile" reply="68" id="3078498"] Units are the same: each race in MoM had units with unique/powerful/interesting traits. FE allows me to give units traits - which convert units from vanilla all the way to french vanilla. MoM units go from vanilla to rocky road (or whatever): first strike, magic immunity, etc. MoM gave you a chess set to play with; WoM and FE give you a set of pawns with graded capabilities to play with. But MoM gave the other wizards chess sets as well (w