stax77

38 here. Started with Sinclair ZX spectrum. Good times :)

[quote]Second game and another faction sent a caravan to my capital first, when my caravans all showed up they just stopped and sat outside the city center. If I selected them when I moved the cursor over the city center the ... for conversation showed up, and the merchant from the other faction is in my city center, it says in his text box he's traveling back to his capital but he never leaves. I tried moving them in with the keyboard, but they won't enter that square to establish the

The game is like a box of lego pieces. There is a basic house built from it that uses maybe 5% of the total pieces in it. It is playable, but so obviously bare-bones right now. I wouldn't worry about how brad's views influenced it as it is in a state of constant build-up right now. Lots of things are going to change, and lots of them based on player feedback, not some obscure 'design decisions', brad's or otherwise. As for opening the box, that is up to you of course, but i can tell y

The sovereign is you, the character you created(or selected pre-made one). The first guy that offers to help for free is just a normal champion. He's special in that he joins for free(others want payment) and in that he offers advice in the form of pop-up windows throughout the game. One of the first he offers is that the sovereign(you) can only make a single city(found the kingdom) and all others need to be built using pioneers that first city trains.

Click the diplomacy button, then the particular empire. The window on the right will list all modifiers to your diplomatic relations. If the negative ones outweight the positive ones, your relations will deteriorate over time. The most significant negative modifier is "My army is stronger than yours". This gives a -2, -4 or -8 depending on how big the difference is. If you want a peaceful coexistence with your neighbors, make sure your armies at least match theirs

Dungeons, yes. Master of magic did that. They work well. Realtime in tactical battles, no. No, no, NO. I'm fed up with real time. It's been pushed down my throat all the time since MoM came out. With the notable exception of Age of Wonders. NO. (Sorry for the emphasis, but this is a life-and-death question for me :p)

[quote]I'm having the same problem. I'm at level 2 for quests and can see a number of quest locations but when I move onto them (all level 2) I don't get any quest information. Do I need to keep researching that tech to be able to complete more than 2 quests?[/quote] From what i was able to figure out: When you research a questing level, many quest huts of that level appear all over the map - more than there are actual quests, so some of them refer to the same quest. I

[quote who="thisisretarded" reply="2" id="2759986"]i set amount based around your already established cities? that i can live with. where did you get that info? [/quote] I got it from playing the game a lot :) First resource tech(kingdom) gives exactly one gold mine, second exactly two food resources, etc. every single time i researched it. Makes sense researching them early, while you only have one city, that way you can hit all the resources with one enhan

[quote][quote]See? You need to focus on what is there, get absorbed by the game, not constantly nitpick on stuff that does not work.[/quote] Yes lets not think critically about games at all.... lets just buy and play anything game designers throw at us, like the mindless peons that we are..... Seriously? No..... actually let him nitpick. If there is a demand for great video games, companies will be forced to supply that demand. If we settle for whatever they thro

[quote]I should not cripple myself that way for the game to fun.[/quote] You asked what it is that makes elemental so fun for us who enjoy it. This is my answer. Take it or leave it.

[quote]At the end of combat, the 4 squad may have 29/30 health, but then it gains a level or two, now the new health is 29/46. Since the units now are 'missing' 17 health, the game determines that at least one whole unit got destroyed in the last battle[/quote] Just put them into a city. The health bar will regen to 46/46 and the unit will 'regrow' the lost figures. There was a problem that when you saved the game in the unit's 'damaged' state and reloaded it would never regen, but i

[quote]If the long run is predetermined, then it makes very little difference how I play this particular turn[/quote] But that is only because you assume the AI won't be a challenge. Don't assume that. Just play the game to enjoy it. Maybe the AI is toothless, but that won't become an issue until much later. Eventually the point in game will come where you for all practical purposes already won it, but that point will come no matter how good the AI is. In games like MOO2, it wil

[quote]The threat of scraping by like that is only in your mind, in the long run you will easily steamroll the AI, monsters and all.[/quote] But i am playing the game for the 'now', not for the 'in the long run'. If there is a problem in the game by turn 30 that challenges my strategic skills, i don't really care that by turn 350 i will steamroll the AI, i'm enjoying the moment. You say i'm playing the game 'in my mind'. I say that is the right way to play games! :)

[quote]@Rune - What it doesn't do is getting in the way of what it does. For example, and as stated elsewhere, it's bit difficult for me to analyze the multiplayer at the moment. But that aside, even the things I can try to evaluate seem horribly broken or simply too confusing to be any fun. Why should I get a more expensive healing potion over salted pork? Why can I equip an entire army of adventurers with legendary armor, but not a single 'normal' troop without elementium? How can I ef

[quote]However, there's something about this game that just gets me excited, something unique, and something I don't feel very often with games. Even with all of the bugs and problems this game has, it has something special that I can't quite explain. With Stardock's commitment to improve things, I am giddy with anticipation as to where we will be led in the next few months and years. It's expecting the unexpected with Elemental that is holding my interest. It's hoping that perhaps one da

You get a bonus to diplomatic relations when dealing with other kingdoms(as a kingdom). However it's just one point. For instance, him having a stronger army than you is minus two points(minus four or minus eight as he gets stronger and stronger than you). Make sure your army is at least as strong as his, otherwise your diplomatic relations will deteriorate until he eventually declares war.

Ah, now i get it! You have a sovereign with the 'thief' background. The 'ability bonus' is the extra amount of gildar you get from the fight thanks to having that trait. There is no choice, its just an info how much more you got than a non-thief sovereign.

Straight from the end user license agreement(it's in your elemental directory): " 1. You may: a. Install and use a single registered copy of the Software on one hard disk or other storage device for one personal computer, and you may access and use the Software at that location so long as only one copy of the Software is in operation.. b. Install and use a s

[quote]And sure i could train an army of peasants at my capital first before sending the pioneer, but thats the FIRST pioneer i sent.. I aint gonna spend 4 population in my capital for something as trivial as that, not to mention the 12 turns it would take to wait for the peasants to be trained.[/quote] Then why don't you just train/send one peasant with a staff with the pioneer instead of four. Only takes three turns. When inside the outpost, the peasant will have 10 hitpoints, givin

[quote]Sorry, what I meant was, when you are victorious in battle and you get to the loot screen, you can choose straight Gildar, or a lesser amount of Gildar/Ability bonus. I can't quite figure out what the ability bonus is supposed to do, or be for.[/quote] Really? heck, i never noticed :p Ill let you know if i figure it out :) [EDIT] Ok i checked, but i don't see any choice on the victory screen. There are two tabs, the default results and the details, and a button you can

[quote]2) Empires and Kingdoms should not disappear when their sovereign is killed.[/quote] At the very least, they should not disappear while the sovereign has a son/daughter with the "first in line for the throne of... " tag attached to it :)

Best way to fight these is squads of troops with a couple levels. An unit of 4 will have 20 hitpoints initially, but level it a couple times and their hp's are in the 60's. But if you don't have those yet and need help fast, use decoys. Simply take one weak guy out of your army and use him to attack the enemy stack. The vigilant minion will blow his arcane doom to kill a single peasant. After you 'lose' the battle, attack with main stack, the minion will be out of mana by then.

Agree that this issue needs top priority. I can compensate for the bad AI by imposing rules on myself which can result in an epic game, but i'm powerless when the enemy sovereign simply decides to suicide :( Heck, even making the AI sovereigns glued to their first city so they never leave would be preferable to this(i could compensate by never moving my own sovereign either :p)

I can only speak for myself, but the money i paid for this game was well-spent. If i spent it on movies for instance i'd get far fewer hours of entertainment out of it. The game keeps me occupied several hours a day ever since it came out. That's not to say its flawless of course, i'm looking forward to many improvements, but what's already there is enough to keep me entertained.

[quote]Does anyone know how to change the caravan bonus from a food multiplier (which doesn't make any sense) to a gold multiplier.[/quote] I don't think you can. However why does the food multiplier make no sense to you? It can be very important. In one game it was all that kept my kingdom ticking, as i did not find any other food sources besides the initial 1+2 from adventuring tree. The bonus can be huge, far better than say an irrigation improvement. It is susceptible to a