cardinaldirection

[quote who="DsRaider" reply="10" id="3236714"] Unfortunately transports actually take a lot of code and time in order to get the AI to use them at all. This is why transports weren't used by the AI in WoM. Frogboy has commented on this several times. Think about it. You need to build the transports before hand, move them to the units you want to transport, Load the units up, move to the drop point, unload, and then return the transport to where it is needed n

[quote who="GFireflyE" reply="1" id="3236657"] However, it would be nice if there was a 'stale' mechanic put in place, ie, if there is non-combat for 5 turns or something, you 'flee' from combat and get zero experaince from the encounter. The encounter could even reset as if you didn't defeat anyone, but you still take the losses (if any). [/quote] ^This, is an excellent idea! [e digicons]:yes:[/e]

[quote who="CogBurn" reply="28" id="3236649"] Brad, there needs to be dangers and challenges in the world that your soverign cannot handle without something that only the cities can provide. The game NEEDS them, desperately. You can tweak unit balance all you want, but until cities are just flatly indespensable and intrinsic to surviving and progressing in the world, you simply don't NEED them.[/quote] I believe the balance run in the next update will

[quote who="mqpiffle" reply="19" id="3236479"]I have a simple idea to fix the problem of not needing cities to complete the game: Advanced traits should require buildings, which should require tech unlocks. Want an assassin character? You need to build an Assassin's Redoubt. Want a wizard character? You need a Wizard Tower. And have more impressive traits require more building upgrades. Without these traits all that should be available ar

[quote who="NorsemanViking" reply="7" id="3236588"] Yep, but I'm very skeptical to a system where sea traveling is hugely magic based or/and mainly based on hero level ups.[/quote] Again it appears as if you didn't read the thread. Perhaps I did an extremely poor job of explaining the idea, but nowhere do I hint that these traits are limited to spells and/or champions. A boat is simply a unit with the water-walking, transport, and aquatic traits

[quote who="UmbralAngel" reply="31" id="3236536"]*snip[/quote] https://forums.elementalgame.com/432500

Nice catch! This issue is certainly related to the lack of management system for units on a tile. This could be achieved relatively simply with a UI grid similar to the trade and inventory screens, with options to choose which unit is leading each army.

Frogboy, under what conditions would the AI generate a unit that abused regeneration by kiting, and how would it be solved? This could very well be an extremely over-simplified perspective of mine, but this appears to be an issue related directly to initiative, and movement (as all kiting is). As Tuidjy pointed out, dodge also has a high probability of being comboed to the point of abuse. Would the AI ever notice these combinations mathematically and attempt to take advant

Of the options above, 3: regeneration taking longer than the few minutes simulated by a turn in battle.

[quote who="Tuidjy" reply="13" id="3236373"]There are quite a few completely different kinds of kiting. I see at least three types: Mage kiting with spells - mana costs should take care of that. Archer kiting with a bow - have limited ammo. Fighter/assassin dashing in and out - have an automatic attack against anyone breaking out of melee. And for everyone, have regeneration unable to heal more than N times your health per combat. Once i

[quote who="Jon Shafer" reply="46" id="3235524"] In case anyone is still waiting with bated breath for this, I just posted my latest article on game UI. - Jon[/quote] Any budding UI designer can shave years off their learning curve by reading this article, and your graphical support of the text is wonderful. Solid writeup. Oh and hot key customization in FE please.

Good catch.

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="8" id="3236335"]One thing I'd also ask is how much kiting is being used with these champions in battles? Leveling up with just champions means taking out some pretty nasty monsters. We had talked about having a turn limit on tactical battles so that if you hadn't "won" by N turns, it would be a draw. But that would require code changes and we're at the code feature lock down point.[/quote] A couple solutions to re

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="33" id="3236337"]I love this thread.[/quote] Me too. It truly captures the internal dialogues of my gameplay experiences as well, and what I believe to be one of the most enchanting features of the Elemental series: enticing the creative spark out of players. Thanks again folks, a million. [e digicons]:')[/e]

[quote who="vesa2" reply="69" id="3236334"]Minimized UI design is annoying and actually obstrusive. It works on some games, say space RTS-games like Homeworld or The Jupiter Incident. In fantasy setting hiding and making the UI to "tell" as little as possible is just annoying. In this kind of a game seeing UI adds to the immersion, not take away from it.[/quote] Personally hoping that this^ is just being treated as polish and reserved for a future update. In a gam

[quote who="sratner" reply="3" id="3236285"]Design template is global, yes, but what about the build queue? I am pretty sure I was seeing only the base stats when selecting a unit to build, without any city-level or empire-level (guild grocer etc) bonuses applied. Once the unit was completed, it suddenly had more HP than I was expecting based on the build menu selection. It would be good to be able to see these bonuses added up for us when selecting a unit to train, so we don't

[quote who="parrottmath" reply="6" id="3236317"]cardinal direction your link is broken. Can't wait for the balance changes.[/quote] Thanks mate, fixed. Me too.

[quote who="NorsemanViking" reply="5" id="3236279"]Not to sound too negative, but I find the idea of water walking rather boring. I think people wants the naval aspect of the game to be something else then just being equal to the land stuff. Only difference being walking on the sea instead of on land, to say it a bit simplyfied. I'd rather see a naval feature where we have ships of different types, and with champions filling the role as admirals. With sea walking the best

Extremely well composed argument, thank you. Perhaps the title of this topic should read "Cities +PLUS Champions". Another idea has been proposed to solve this issue by better linking champions and troops, with the creation of additional "general type traits" and mass buffs that affect the army; at the same time that rewards

[quote who="Gorshmak" reply="14" id="3236197"]Best way to change it would be an area around lair, where no outpost/city could be settled imo.[/quote] All lairs treated as "mini-wildlands" to some degree: an interesting notion.

Hahaha =]

[quote who="Bellack" reply="27" id="3236171"] I actully like that myself. Both the loading troops and the Troops turning into weak ships to cross water. Bring in another element into the game which I personally like.[/quote] Much more elegant solutions for FE have been proposed. [quote who="GFireflyE" reply="26" id="3236168"] I'd rather see east-west and north-south wrapworld imbeddded into the map generator.[/quote] </

Edited the following post into the OP: I have spent many hours pondering this conundrum, and feel that the most elegant solution for FE is the introduction of four new traits, as well as the specifics outlined in the OP. The first two are Water-Walking and Transport, both available in three levels. The different levels of Water-Walking determine what types of water tiles the unit may travel on; and those of Transport indicate how many other units may be in t

[quote who="Kongdej" reply="37" id="3236096"]although I would wish there would be more of an incentive to full squares with buildings.[/quote] ^This is a great counter-mechanic to balance snaking, removal not required! There are certainly others.

Looks like WebOS to me. [e digicons]x_x[/e]