Gyb

I like the tech tree, both how it changes for each allegiance and how your order of research affects game play. Now you need to balance the depth of each branch (e.g. Kingdom Diplomacy has 12 techs while Warfare has 28) and add even more diversity between allegiances. Ideally it should be near-impossible to research every single tech (not counting 'Refined ____') in the average-paced game. Maxing out even two trees should be hard; this forces the player to pursue a tech goal and then replay t

Also: Currently Kingdom 'Heavy Armor' unlocks 5 techs: Expert Armor, Expert Cutting Weapons, Expert Blunt Weapons, Refined Defense, and Refined Weaponry. Refined Defense should unlock under Expert Armor, and Refined Weaponry should unlock under Expert Cutting + Expert Blunt. This is to make the branch consistent with all other tech branches. The Karrazan doesn't become available for Kingdom troops upon researching Expert Cutting Weapons, and the Elemental Karrazan doesn't beco

Here are some items I've come across that I think should be easy to fix and include in 1.1 Currently you can research 'Fortresses' (castle) before you research 'Forts' (wooden walls) in the Kingdom Warfare tree. This is because Fortresses unlocks after 'Catapults'. Proposed solution is to move Fortresses to unlock after Forts instead of Catapults, which makes more sense. 'Pariden's Demise' in the Empire Cooperation tree does not spawn a Drota Citadel. 'Propag

You can marry your daughters to the neutral factions (if you have them enabled and one makes it into your game); then at least your daughter will not actively be competing against you. But still, meh. The best outcome I've had with grandchildren was marrying my daughter to Kul-al-Kulan's son, then having their son defect to me, which gave me a leader with the Organized trait (since the pre-gen Sovs still have Organized). That would also work with Kraxix or Markinn. Likewise I've goten

I will reassess charisma, the bard talent, and the road warriors faction ability. Thank you very much for the feedback!

Just updated to V0.84: 10/21/10 v.84 - Updates to Influence, Technology, Tactical Combat, Neutral Factions, Tips & Tricks, Adventure Tech rewards, Food, UI, Diplomacy, Champion Abilities; Finished Empire Tech rewards list; Added Empire Equipment lists, Maps, ; more Empire buildings At my current pace I should have the entire game documented just in time for it all to change in 1.

My opinion is that you've already made up your mind; you've been lurking, you are now posting - you want the game so go get it! You could also go read this: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/954860-elemental-war-of-magic/faqs/61009 there is enough information in there to give you a feel for whether Elemental is the kind of game you want to play in its current state. And yes I'm always looking for excuse

When your global food is negative all of your cities go into "rationing." You can see this if you to the city detail screen and then click on one of the resources it produces (in the upper right of the detail screen, click on Gildar: 4.2 or whatever it says for example). In the sub-screen for that resource it will list a "Rationing" penalty of -50%. This -50% penalty applies to ALL resources, except Prestige which gets -100%. The penalty will remain until your global food becomes positive aga

[quote who="Gizmet" reply="277" id="2806785"]Ok...I am sure this has been asked, but my searchfu is down today...bad day...Anyway, WHen I get a champion with a bonus, lets say +1 Reasearch point a turn, OR any other for that matter you think of it, does he/she have to be in a city in order to contribute that bonus? Or do they just give it as a whole to the pool from anywhere? -Gizmet[/quote] The +1 type bonuses give it to the pool from anywhere; the percentage type bonuses

Not sure if this is what you need, but on the options screen (press ESC while in the game, or Options from the main menu) there is a drop down window in the bottom right-hand corner for screen shot format.

[quote]How does a sovereign cast tactical spells? When I enter tactical combat, the spell casting icon at the bottom left of the screen disappears even though my sovereign has lots of mana and action points and meets the level requirements.[/quote] In tactical combat look for the 'open spellbook' icon while your Sovereign is selected in the lower right part of the HUD, next to where it displays your current mana. If it is greyed out you do not know any tactical spells yet.

[quote who="Dhraconus" reply="23" id="2804315"]So I ended up reading further anyway: +[/quote] You rock, I will give you a 15% editor's cut of my not-for-profit guide ;)

[quote who="Dhraconus" reply="22" id="2804296"]@Gyb I looked it over and it looks great, a few things I noticed that were incorrect/in need of elaboration are: [/quote] You just blew my mind on a couple of those, especially the neutral factions; GalCiv behaved the same way, why didn't I think to look for that? Thank you SO much for the feedback! Some of the things you mention ARE in the document, just not in the areas you bring them up, which means I need to add th

[quote who="Anglophile" reply="8" id="2804208"]Question for the all-knowing Gyb; so maps are not really random, are the starting points (assumed yes)? You have already explained resource distribution, which brings up question 2: are the number and/or type of resources fixed? Are they 'pemanently fixed' wrt map size and distribution level or are they sedmi-randomly generated? Thanks. [/quote] Thank you for the ego boost but I'm hardly all-knowing. Just played way too much fo

[quote who="walter61939" reply="271" id="2804031"]Thanks for the guide. A quick question. I'm playing as Tarth; suddenly, one of my cities changes its name and its color from blue to yellow (for Gilden). If I move one of the garrison out one square, the name and color revert to what they were originally. What's going on here? It's really annoying to have to check each city every turn to make sure it's still mine.[/quote] That's a bug, I've seen a few people mention it but it has never

Another update today - now includes a 3% chance that the guide will Stun you for 3 turns! I welcome suggestions for additional content! 10/15/10 v.83 - Reformat into more thematic sections; added info in Cities; changed the way I talk about Kingdom/Empire ideology; split Glossary into Game vs. Lore; added start of Keyboard map, unit commands, Caravans, common "how do I..." questions, Kingdom

[quote who="tmh31" reply="267" id="2803765"]Thanks for the help guys... A couple more questions: 1. I like to role-play a magic-focused game with casting sovereign and heroes. You can make them go faster with boots & cloaks etc. But then the summons or armies they need as tanks slow them down to 2 moves/turn. Does anyone have ideas for ways around this? 2. There are loads of summon spells [Fire, Stone, whatever] Giant, [Fire, air, water, earth] elemental, demons, "lo

1. Formula to hit/damage = Attacker rolls a value between 0 and Attack score and Defender rolls a value between 0 and Defense score; if the Attacker's number is lower than the Defender's then it is a miss, if it is higher then the difference is applied in damage. Or at least this is how it has worked, it will change / may have changed slightly already. 2. Caravans only affect food as of version 1.09. Starting in 1.1 they will affect gold, but not yet. 3. I totally agree,

Agreed, it has been brought up in a few other threads as well, the Empire tech "Pariden's Demise" does not cause a Drota Citadel to spawn.

SPOILERS!! Finally read the book, like others said once I started it was an engaging read. My main critique is that at several points I found the topographical changes hard to visualize; OK they are in a huge underground cavern, that has a keep on top of it, and it is all connected somehow, and the cave has a river, which flows outside, through the burning forest, now hey look a mountain with cave! I'm not saying it is a realism question, it is a magic world after all, just that it ja

Typing something into the upper right search box and clicking search (or pressing Enter) does nothing from the main Elemental General forum page. If you try searching the same way after having drilled into a post it works (and still searches the entire board). I'm using Firefox.

We are waiting for 1.1, most likely to be released late October/early November but no promises have been made. There is the possibility of sporadic patches or hot-fixes before 1.1 but not on any schedule, only if something major/easy pops up. That is my summary of what I think we know from following the forums. I reserve the right to be wrong :)

While it will change in 1.1, in the meantime you can use the spell "Nature's Bounty" to benefit from your caravan % increases. By casting Nature's Bounty on a city it will produce 1 food, and then that food will get multiplied. Not much for a city that has no other food resources I know, but it adds up across your kingdom/empire. Nature's Bounty is a 1st level spell found in the Enchantment spell book.

[quote who="Derek Paxton" reply="15" id="2802111"] Great job on this FAQ Gyb! I especially like that it's more than just a listing of all the mechanics and actually includes a lot of helpful player advice.[/quote] Thank you very much, I hope it helps people combat the learning curve and see all the potential Elemental has. And congrats to you!

The secret is (it isn't really a secret) they are not random maps. Play enough games and you will start to recognize them. edit: that said, the distribution of resources IS random