bonscott

No problem for me in Firefox. I just tried in IE 8 as well and no problems either. I have U.S. Windows XP.

I had a similar feeling of "what the heck is this" but it really is marketing genius. I gets Elemental a lot more Diggs then it would have, spreads the word in Twitter and more. It really is a great idea and I'm surprised that nobody else has done anything similar before. I for one am checking daily now for new digg articles on the game and retweet what I can. Also it may spark me to get on the forums more. Good job!

Sounds good. You need any part time help checking this stuff I'll send my resume on over. :D

First off, pretty cool contest and a great way to get people to participate more. Now my question on forum posts, do you really want a quest submission for every single forum post? I'd think that will get a bit overwhelming to manually check. Or will you have a program in the background that will detect forum posts and automatically give credit for them? Thanks!

Stardock is well known for this with Gal Civ and especially GalCiv 2. They realease TONS of free new content (and did it long before "DLC" was thought of by the likes of EA and such) for a game. Not only as a thank you for buying the game but as an anti-piracy "DRM" so to speak. You make people want to buy the game by giving more and more cool and free content.

[quote who="Grove12345" reply="7" id="2634514"]the CE doesnt look to me to be worth the extra $$$. I hope the instruction booklet is thick and full of pics. [/quote] From the LE specs linked above: Extended print manual with additional information on the world of Elemental (i.e. 200+ pages) So I think you're set there. I paid extra for the LE for two main reasons: 1) Want to support Stardock and their way of making games/doing business 2) Th

[quote who="KickACrip" reply="363" id="2619455"] Wait - so you're saying people have copy/pasted the content from BTS and put it directly into the original? If so, that's pretty nice of Firaxis, I figured copying the leaderheads and all the art styles and code that went into released content would of been copyrighted. [/quote] Again, you don't understand how mods work for Civ do you? No need to directly copy and paste from BTS at all. Let me say this

[quote who="KickACrip" reply="353" id="2619131"] Again - mods based on direct content taken from a paid DLC release would probably be between the company that made it (ie, not valve/steam), and the modders. I mean, isn't this already common place? Or do people normally take direct content from a paid releases, and release it as is free to the community? [/quote] Pretty obvious that you don't know much about the Civ modding community. Right now I could

I love Firaxis too and they are one of my top game making companies. I love Civ so much I buy each one and their expansions on release day. But I just can't support Civ 5 with 2K making the decision to force Steam on me. Anyway, I used my saved money to upgrade Elemental and also to pre-order the Tropico 3 expansion. I want to support the game companies that don't try to rip me off or force me to use Steam for a single player game.

So I just upgraded to the Limited Edition of Elemental with some of the money I had set aside for Civ 5 which I will not be buying now due to the requirement of Steam being installed and running all the time, even for a single player game. Anybody else?

[quote who="KickACrip" reply="180" id="2614531"]Civ5 is not a Steam exclusive - other retailers are offering it (boxed) as well. It requiring steam is nothing new - stockdock requires Impulse in order to receive updates...[/quote] You just don't get it, do you? I have no problem with needing Steam to get patches for a game. Same as Impulse. I have no problem with needing Steam to play multiplayer. Same as Impulse. I DO have a problem with the

[quote who="Dale_" reply="81" id="2613030"] Quoting Frogboy, reply 15Well clearly I won't be modding or getting Civ V now. How is it any different to Elemental requiring Impulse to be installed and active to play? Impulse/Steam install an invasive client. Impulse/Steam is required to authenticate those two games. Impulse/Steam have "exclusives" with those games. Impulse/Steam are used as the DRM system. Impulse/Steam force you

[quote who="DeCypher00" reply="63" id="2612791"] Quoting bonscott, reply 61While I don't like digital distribution exclusives I can live with Civ 5 being sold digitally only thru Steam. My problem is that even if I buy a retail boxed copy at the local Best Buy I am *forced* to install and use Steam. WHY?!? No reason whatsover. Thus, for the first time in 20 years I will not be buying a Civ game. And if you buy Settlers 7 from Impul

[quote who="DeCypher00" reply="62" id="2612790"] Quoting joasoze, reply 59 Quoting DeCypher00, reply 54 you just have to eventually install Steam, well, there you have it. Regarding your post comparing impulse with steam. You forgot point 7. Steam will have to run for you to play even in offline mode. Impulse doesnt. Yes, but that completely negates your point of Steam being the "only" place you can buy it. How is it different from installing Windows Live?

While I don't like digital distribution exclusives I can live with Civ 5 being sold digitally only thru Steam (but I would of course like to get it via Impulse). My problem is that even if I buy a retail boxed copy at the local Best Buy I am *forced* to install and use Steam. WHY?!? No reason whatsover. Thus, for the first time in 20 years I will not be buying a Civ game. [e digicons]:'([/e]

[quote who="NuclearEngine" reply="17" id="2458072"] Taking a page from Dragon Age, it would be cool to assign leaders to unit groups and have them managed with preset tactics. Like making the archers leader target light infantry type or run when units get close. This would reduce micro-managment when you start to get huge armies, but would still have the option to issue direct orders to all groups if you perfer to. These leaders could also be tied in with the family trees and hero'

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="13" id="2427150"]Here's my beef with the current research mechanism: If I want to get to say horse back riding, I end up having to go through a bunch of largely unlreated techs first. The UI for the current system doesn't lend itself to rapid branching and as a result ends up being quite linear.[/quote] How about a Civ 4 type tech tree where I can click say Horseback Riding down the line and all the techs needed light up

[quote quoting="post"] I’m one of the developers on some of these games or am the product manager. [/quote] So you demoted yourself? [e digicons]8C[/e] [e digicons]:D[/e]

Can't wait!

[quote who="Ron Lugge" reply="24" id="2321904"] Well, at least you confirmed my gradually sinking suspicion that my graduation will not mark the end of my educational career. [/quote] In IT the learning never stops. If you stop you're dead. Probably why I do support now the past decade because I was tired of keeping up and continuing to take classes and studying. I can't study anymore nearly 20 years removed from college. [e digicons]8C[/e]

Longer beta sounds good to me. I don't really think an August release is that bad in terms of sales. In fact I don't think it really matters when it's released (in my opinion with no knowledge of such things). There just aren't many (any?) single player Civ/Gal Civ style games anymore so frankly, unless Civ 5 is coming out around the same time there really won't be a lot of competition for this *type* of game and I think it will sell well no matter when released.

[quote who="ChongLi" reply="12" id="2313093"]20-25 hours? Doesn't sound like a good tutorial. I think you should be able to learn the basics of a game in less than an hour before moving on to playing the real deal. It's not the place of a tutorial to introduce every single unit, tech, race, building and spell in the game. Just the basic concepts please, leave the rest to discovery.[/quote] It's not a true tutorial in a way. It's a true fully flesh

[quote who="Tridus" reply="5" id="2311745"] Yeah, it's true. When a game is really complicated, a tutorial is a huge help to get people into it. Just throwing them into the deep end is a good way to scare people off.[/quote] Yep. With Anno 1404 I could have done without the tutorial after about chapter 3 or so as by then I understood things like production chains and trade routes but it wasn't too annoying because they integrated the tutorial type hints into the story

[quote who="Tridus" reply="3" id="2311737"]At the same time, they can also look at it for an example of what *NOT* to do with DRM![/quote] I hear you there. I didn't know about the DRM until I played the demo and fell in love with the game. The 3 activation limit doesn't bother me too much since I don't rebuild my computer every 6 months or something and the fact that most publishers have caved so far and at least offered a way to deactivate an install so you don't run out

[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="2" id="2311732"]Sounds good. However, the question in my mind is: Should the campleighn double as a tutorial?[/quote] That is a good question. I've seen other games that would do the first couple chapters as a tutorial and then you're on your own. I would think it would be easy enough to have a setting to turn off "hints" or "tutorial mode" in a campaign. I just know that a lot of Stardock games get dinged sometimes for not having a tutor