Derek, you make a lot of sense. Disturbingly so. Please be careful that you keep your super powers of reasoning and common sense hidden most of the time in future lest one of the evil empires (eg EA) seeks to strike down your beacon of light in the darkness.
EWoM is a much more functional piece of software now than when first released, by which I mean it is less buggy. It is also a better game. It is according to Frogboy the game he wanted it to be. However it is not the game I wanted it to be. I don't think it ever will be, although I would be happy to be surprised. Simply put there isn't enough strategic depth or enough exciting fluff for it to be that game. A great game would have both, a decent game would have one or the other
At Release Elemental: F (I was really, really disappointed) Civilization 5: B- (I played one game and enjoyed it, but it was too shallow to tempt me back for a second game at the time) Now Elemental: D (Improving but still few meaningful choices, mostly no brainers or not important, weak AI and uninteresting or very sparse fluff) Civilization 5: B (A few fixes and can still be fun but an expansion will be required to fl
Maybe they should use handles? [e digicons]XD[/e]
+1 for original poster. Elemental has moved forward a bit since release but it is still the same piece of software, just a bit more robust and tweaked. What is needed is a major shift, a huge amount of extra fun and strategic choices added to the game. I think Stardock are trying to get there. I also think they now have a team to get there. However I think there is still a long road to go.
I think a hybrid system for mana is the answer. All spellcasters should have a stat governing their mana, lets call it Essence simply because it is similar to the old system. All spellcasters should have their own local mana pool which maxs at the Essence level and replenishes over time (ie like old system). All spellcasters use their local mana pool JUST for casting spells in combat and when they cast spells in combat those spells are initially fueled by their local m
When I heard that Kael had been hired by Stardock to do project management for Elemental that gave me my first real hope post release that Elemental would become the great game it could be. That is exactly the role they need filled by someone and it is hard to have better credentials for the role than Kael. However it will take time. I said back when Elemental was released that it needed a full revisit and re-imagining of the game and that would take at least 3 months. I still
I think Stardock really need to know what sort of game they are making before this question even has any meaning. If they are making a MoM style game then it becomes pretty obvious that the economic model is just one component of the game with magic, city building, troop selection, tactical combat, hero development being some other components. If it is just one component then it is also self evident that it can't be 'too' complex because it is only a portion of the game and pl
[quote who="psychoak" reply="112" id="2813954"]Kohan has a wonderful, simple system. Simple unit selection, simple character designs, simple combat, simple resources, simple city development, simple supply systems. Everything is simple, and it all goes together.[/quote] Exactly (oh and Kohan? Best RTS game ever. Bar none). I wouldn't say Elemental is currently too complex but it IS too disjointed and shallow. Maybe a more complex economic system with more r
[quote who="cephalo" reply="6" id="2810583"]As much as you guys talked about 'teething problems' with your new game engine, I would say that its a darn good engine. I think the engine and the art style were always very good. (could use some more color though) There's nothing engine-wise that would prevent a true classic fantasy game being made. The only problem was that you took the game design portion of the project for granted, when really it's the hard part. Brad even said game produc
[quote quoting="post"]four hours later I realalized I was having fun[/quote] Are you sure? Maybe you just "thought" you were having fun? Perhaps the game did irreparable damage to your fun circuits, causing you to black out for 4 hours and wake up assuming, incorrectly, that you had fun? [e digicons]|-)[/e]
I said MAX mana would never be a problem again, as in you can easily get to the point were pretty much all your imbued heroes can theoretically cast spells requiring 30 mana. Actually having the mana to cast those spells is a different problem all together! The building which Gene1966 mentioned which increases mana regen from 1 to 3 is the only really helpful thing in this area that I know of.
Temples of Essence stack. Get enough of them and max mana won't ever be a problem again.
Balance is good. Poorly thought through changes are bad. I'm still on 1.07 because 1.08 sounds a bit dodgy but going on what people have said they have dropped the gold received from monster hunting. That's fine, I wanted that change BUT at the same time they needed to make monsters start to drop items. So instead of killing monsters to get gold to buy horrendously overpriced items, you instead kill monsters to find cool items. Doing one change without the other is bad
[quote who="cpl_rk" reply="10" id="2783656"]I have seen mountains appear in an AI kingdom, but I'm not sure if it was the AI or a bug.[/quote] Why would you want to put a mountain in your own kingdom? Even if it was done by the spell sounds like a bug! Unless one AI did it to another AI in which case that would be pretty cool... but doubtful, becuase if the AI was doing that to its enemies then surely it would do it to the human player at times.
[quote who="Addage" reply="105" id="2783388"]Probably the best term that somes it up (although maybe not helpful to Frogboy) is "a cohesive experience", the whole game design held together remarkably well no matter which functional way you picked it up (aka: I pick these 3 books and decide to work on this goal to winetc).[/quote] I dunno, I think that should be extraordinarily helpful to Frogboy. I think the biggest singe problem with Elemental is a lack of cohesive design. All the go
Agreed Belmont35. What I really can't believe is that they locked that thread by the Gorgon! Ok he was a little down on them but I agreed with so many things said in that thread (not just Gorgon's original post). I really feel that taking a big picture redesign of the game mechanics for a decent period of time is the only way to turn Elemental into a masterpiece. By locking threads like hithe impression I get (hopefully incorrectly) is that they have no interest in this messag
The logic is a bit bamboozling you have to admit. To paraphrase: "I didn't like Civ 4 which got a 9.4, therefore I wouldn't like Civ 5 which got a 9, so it is great that instead I bought Elemental which got a 6." Either he cares about the IGN scores in which case he should clearly be playing Civ 4 (or 5) instead of Elemental, or he doesn't give a hoot about the IGN scores in which case why is he criticising Civ 5 for getting (marginally) less than Civ 4? Not that I rea
Agreed. Please fix the optimum path algorithm Stardock. Equally bad things happen around settlements where my troops will often walk multiple squares in the open beside the city when they could just step into the city and step out the otherside for way less movement. Please also fix all forest squares so that it is clearer that they are forest, some only have a few stumps which doesn't look like it would slow anyone.
[quote who="JSJ101" reply="101" id="2779572"]Basically, it comes down to this: I played Civ4 for the first time the other day, and I was just stunning at the amount of strategic depth it has relative to this game. What makes strategy games fun for me is planning and succeeding at pulling off those plans (or not!). But, in Elemental, I've found that my basic strategy is exactly the same for every game of Elemental that I play. [/quote] Exactly. I've said this before but ha
Personally I like the city building. I don't like the way most cities end up with the same buildings in them and the lack of distinctive feel, etc, but the actual mechanics of building cities I think is quite cool. Which pretty much proves the point. Everyone will have opinions and conflicting ideas. What is needed is someone with a strong vision at Stardock (someone very clever with an excellent understanding of what makes other fun/challenging TBS games great) to put together a cohe
Everything I want to say has been paraphrased by Gorgon in this thread: https://forums.elementalgame.com/396951 Basically, we don't need more ideas, we need a very smart person at Stardock with an understanding of what makes MoM fun and what makes Civ4 balanced and challenging to draw up a masterplan for how all the facets of Elemental should interact to make a great game. <st
I agree almost entirely with the OP. Stardock have access to a huge number of good ideas already from beta and the many posts since release. The problems have all been pointed out multiple times along with many suggestions for solutions. What is require now is NOT more ideas. What is needed now is for all the facets of the game to be moulded into a coherant, balanced and fun game. This is not something that the forum can do, in fact I don't think it is somethin
I am surprised and somewhat dismayed to hear that they have buffed Stone Giant and Fire Giant. Stone Giant in particular is very easy to get and cast and was already overpowered. It worries me because it suggests that Stardock have no idea whatsoever how to balance things sensibly.
[quote who="Droghar" reply="4" id="2772415"]One could perhaps put some tech prerequisites from alternate branches, especially for really powerful techs. For instance certain metal weapons might require a Mining advancement in the Civ branch, powerful magic weapons may need advancement in the war branch and some of the more powerful Civ techs could have diplomacy pre-reqs. Tech can be kept organic and still have connectivity between the branches[/quote] I think this would be a goo