Mistwraithe

It is threads like this showcase just how cool Elemental could be made. If we are able to treat the release version as mainly a proof of concept for the game engine and idea of the game, and now focus on actually turning it into a really good game with good depth, interesting characters/items/buildings/spells/etc then it could turn out awesome. (Of course it still wouldn't be nearly as successful as it would be if Stardock had made it awesome and THEN released it, but as other

[quote who="Dale_" reply="163" id="2754098"]I did the full run-around of Stardock domains to be able to post in this thread, to completely agree with you. As one who was banned from elementalgame.com for being honest, I am appalled at the treatment the beta testers received. They were let in to provide feedback and suggestion for the game, and then they were literally ignored, some were banned, some were talked down, and worst of all, some are being refused full refunds. &nbs

[quote who="Winnihym" reply="160" id="2752050"]Hunh. Mistwraithe, I can't think of any reason for you to dig this up from 2 months ago that doesn't begin with "neener, neener". It's not helpful at all. It implies you knew better than the industry veterans, and they just didn't listen to you. If that's the case, I'm eager to play your mod. When do you think you'll be releasing it?[/quote] I found this thread because Nick-Danger linked to it from another re

[quote who="Istari" reply="98" id="2663656"]Brad's pretty used to it. Once he sees people posting "game won't make date" he just starts ignoring all their posts and focusing on people with useful feedback. [/quote] This single quote from a Stardock employee pretty much sums up what went so very wrong with the initial release of Elemental. People made some very well reasoned arguments late beta about why Elemental wasn't ready for release and seeme

Very cool! And yet a huge LOL as it seems rather appropriate that there are even bugs in the printed poster! [e digicons]:D[/e]

[quote who="Sythion" reply="159" id="2746830"]Elemental is perfectly playable as a piece of software, but not as a game.[/quote] I see what you did there! Well spotted and well put!

Good post Brad and nice to at least partially own up. I'm still not sure that you guys have quite got your head around what needs to be done, in that I don't think it is the bugs that are the real problem (the bugs are important sure but really just a smokescreen), the real problem is lack of depth and gameplay balance. But there are enough people around who are going to harp on about that same point that hopefully this will become your number one focus.

[quote who="Ellestar" reply="117" id="2747637"]Birthright: Gorgon's Alliance is an old fantasy TBS with some optional RPG elements. It's a computer version of the Birthright setting for Dungeons and Dragons TRPG.[/quote] I had the impression that Birthright was very buggy and unbalanced (rather like Elemental) and never really got fixed (hopefully not like Elemental). A cursory play of something (a demo?) reinforced this conclusion so I never played it further. Am I wron

Master of Magic was legendary. As many have said, yes it started out very buggy and ended up only moderately buggy but it was a great game with many fun and interesting choices and that is why it is so popular still. I don't really care much if Elemental is very buggy, bugs can be fixed and are in fact relatively easy to fix given a few weeks of solid bug fixing (to a moderate level of quality, getting near bug free is another whole ball game). But the real problem isn't the b

The crash bugs don't worry me, they will get fixed. The gameplay balance and making the many choices in the game all meaningful is where the real challenge is going to be because there is a lot of work to be done here.

[quote who="rossanderson48" reply="2" id="2742950"]Yeah that's usually the way with trolls. They come in on every new game and when people start ignorning them it's no fun to troll anymore so they leave and then you have the best of the fans left again. Looks like quite a crowd too. )[/quote] Here I'll help you with that statement: Yeah that's usually the way with "disgruntled customers" . They come in on every new game and when people start ignorning them it'

[quote who="psychoravin" reply="39" id="2745463"]Look kids it's Capt Troll who always adds nothing to a thread when he posts but trollish remarks about someone else. Haven't the moderators already told you about this once? Why do you persist are you trying to get banned? Also memory leak confirmed or not those that don't have it obviously show meaning for something. Their systems work and yours doesn't hahahahaha So, quit trolling Tridus I'm watching you.[/quote] Um, right. There is o

[quote who="Jharii" reply="179" id="2745096"]I most certainly have not seen incidents of your last two examples.[/quote] You haven't been looking then. From my point of view what I am really looking for is Stardock to front up and admit that the gameplay needs rebalancing from scratch. My concern with the people who are strong fans of Stardock (one could use the label fanboy, but I see you object to that) is that their stance is often "it is fine, everything will be great in t

[quote who="VermillionChaos" reply="127" id="2743458"]Ok... here is a little idea... when you are deliberately breaking the game... it may feel a little easy. Kinda like using the Contra code then complaining that it is too easy.[/quote] Ah I see. So the AI is fine so long as you don't actually try to beat it? Will have to try that! [e digicons]:D[/e] Sorry, I shouldn't be so sarcastic, we all know that the AI is weak to non-existant and obviously Stardoc

[quote who="Nenjin" reply="158" id="2744623"]I honestly believe some open tester feedback would have convinced SD to push back the release. [/quote] I think the problem was that the beta testers (and I was one, although I didn't comment much which I regret) didn't know for sure, we had to extrapolate based on the information we had. We were playing very cut down limited versions of the game and it was completely obvious that it wasn't ready for release... but then Brad tells us what a

[quote who="Raven X" reply="119" id="2744177"]In Elemental's case Stardock really should have bit the bullet and pushed it back until Feb until all these bugs and balance issues were squashed. I honestly don't think any pre-planning was done at all in regards to balance and that can pretty much be proven by seeing Brad's views as a game developer. Brad is concerned with getting engine mechanics working properly, he doesn't care how much damage a Fireball does or how much Strength a Demon has

All of the above are good fantasy games. Which you would most prefer depends on individual taste. I personally think Kohan (ideally Ahriman's Gift, but the others are OK) is great. As HozzMidnight says it is a RTS - Real Time Strategy game so it doesn't entirely fit with the rest but it has real strategy and isn't purely dominated by micro which makes it stand apart from the crowd of so called RTS games which are really Real Time Tactices games (ie battle micro trumps).

[quote who="dragoaskani" reply="11" id="2742801"]So deal with it. btw you are still an idiot.[/quote] Actually sir, the evidence suggests that it is you who is the idiot. "thisisretarded" appears to have quite a valid point, if the 1.06 HOTFIX prevents loading of the original 1.06 games (which were in theory the same version since the hotfix was simply to stop loading 1.05 and early games) then that is a huge mistake on Stardock's part. Furthermore I take issue with yo

+ 1 million to the origional poster and pretty much everyone else who agreed and added to his argument. This is just one of many areas in Elemental where there aren't meaningful choices to be made but it is a big one. Strategy games are about interesting choices. If one choice is always the best one in all situations OR it doesn't matter which one you choose then that is a complete fail, D-, in terms of making a strategy game. This is the thing that Stardock seem to have compl

[quote who="charon2112" reply="83" id="2742568"]I probably would like it less if I was having all the trouble some folks seem to, but apparently I lucked out.[/quote] No, you haven't lucked out. You just haven't noticed or don't care about all the mechanics in the game which are not working at all or properly and the fact that there is very little balance between the paths and few meaningful choices to make in the game. My issue isn't with the crash bugs and it sounds like man

[quote who="Corbeaubm" reply="50" id="2742576"]It's still name-calling to label someone a "fanboy". Attack the ridiculous ideas, not the person spouting them.[/quote] Fanboy is a label which describes a particular stereotypical person. If they fit the stereotype then it is perfectly normal to call them by that label! And the person in question certainly fits the label, we are meant to ignore the fact that the game mechanics are broken and unbalanced and

[quote who="charon2112" reply="66" id="2742024"] Ahh, but it is ready to play...I've been playing constantly and loving it as much as Civ or GalCiv. No, it's not perfect yet (what is?), but it is most definitely "ready to play"...[/quote] We have a difference of opinion then. Which is fine, people often have differences of opinion. What is more relevant is what large numbers of people think and it seems to me that a sufficient number of people are disappointe

[quote who="Mistwraithe" reply="32" id="2116857"]My biggest fear is that they will release the game too early. This is a huge undertaking for them. An epic game like this with such big expectations needs to be carefully put together and balanced. Then it probably needs to be ripped apart again, refined, put together again and rebalanced. And then probably all that again. And then when the game mechanics finally work smoothly it needs to be polished and fine tuned. Blizza

I voted that I like it, recommend it, simply because it seems I needed to vote to see the results. Having now played it I really wish I had voted disappointed instead (or even hate it, only reason not to is optimism for the future). The game isn't finished, and I don't mean the stability bugs - they will presumably be fixed fairly quickly, in a matter of weeks I imagine. Way more concerning is that there just isn't a strategy game in there right now. Strategy games are about multitude

[quote who="charon2112" reply="55" id="2741202"] Allow me to pose this question...would you rather they had not released the game, and waited 3 months while they work on it? Or, pay and have the game now and at least be able to play it while they work on it and release patches...? [/quote] Wait 3 months. No question. Games are meant to be ready to play when they are released, Stardock's "Gamers Bill of Rights" says as much: 2. Gamers shall have the right that