vputz

To Brad and the SD team: I was excited by the leadup to (and disappointed by the initial release of) Elemental. When Stardock made the promise for two free followons for initial buyers, I discounted it. I simply didn't believe you would do it. Too many companies do not. But you all persevered, and you kept your promise, in an era where increasingly corporations and individuals devalue their own word to the point where promises tend to mean

++ on ritual magic (long casting time, big effects), but that is highly nontrivial because you would want all the AIs to know at the beginning of casting so they can try to stop you (and then what "stops" the ritual? Just engaging in combat? Landing a hit on the sovereign, who must stay immobile in combat? Killing the sovereign?). There are a lot of things in here which would have to be addressed in a mod. While I know this isn't Master of Magic, one thing in M

/signed in a big huge way. PARTICULARLY for aggregate units, a NdM model isn't just more fun gamewise, but even more thematically accurate.

[quote]how do those of us who already have a pre-order change to this edition? i know its gonna cost a bit more posting to UK, but now its got all these bonuses its actually worth getting a physical copy (well i think so anyhoo)[/quote] Agreed; I was expecting the boxed edition to be the digital download edition on a CD. I totally miss the manual-and-map days and would love the upgrade (although concidentally, I'm moving FROM the UK in Sep 2010, so getting it to the right place

I don't like the "personality test", because it just is a flash of what your character "is"; my favorite quick character building mechanism is probably from the pen-and-paper "Spirit of the Century" game, which incorporates what your character [i]was[/i] and why they have certain abilities. So rather than just a tickbox for "past profession", I'd like to generate a "past", maybe with thee stages 1) Background/childhood: Choose perks for broad sweeping things: bonuses a

Replay due to combinatorial effects from character generation and race. I liked other things too, like the theme and the turn-based tactical combat, but what kept me coming back was trying different combinations for effect (hmm, how about [i]undead[/i] halflings with death magic? What about just making high-end magic items for my heroes? What if...). No other game has done that, because it's impossible to do that (have hundreds of combinations) and really balance i

(about "serially give orders, then simultaneously resolve them") [quote] about five posts ago I pointed out one of the biggest problems with it: resolving conflicts. If I'm trying to reinforce a town and you're trying to attack the town at the same time, is the town attacked before or after my reinforcements get there? Both orders were given the same turn, but the order will drastically alter the outcome (namely if the town survives or not).[/quote] Not a p

(sorry for double-post; errors in browser)

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri had, if I recall, simultaneous turn-based orders. It worked very well, for the most part, but could result in some turns taking much too long if a player really just sat there and thought. Or spent loads of time designing new units. Which I did. Much to my wife's chagrin. So some sort of time resolution mechanic is probably necessary. I like the idea of giving orders at the start of a turn and having the orders ex