[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="1" id="2855462"]You do realize the entirety of the game can be summed up there right?[/quote] Faugh. There's no mention of quests, the dynasty system, or diplomacy. They all still need serious attention as well.
[quote who="UmbralAngel" reply="16" id="2854581"]i disagree that this game needs lore... MoM had no backstory at all (besides whatever stories you make up about Merlin, Rajak, etc)... and that game was great! So Elemental should focus on making the game fun to play before worrying about stupid crap like story. At the end of the day the most popular games in the world have no story, story is not a necessary feature for games, if you want story read a book or watch a movie. If y
[quote who="Supreme Shogun" reply="6" id="2853371"]They're still working on it. More or less. 1.1 was a major overhaul. You're asking for more gravy/sugar on top. It'll get there eventually.[/quote] That's just back to the "what is content and how important is it?" question. I'm not asking for gravy or icing at all; I'm asking for more nutritional value in whatever gets tarted up by graphics and combat math.
Sometimes a real mess needs some drastic first steps to clean up. I'd make magical research the only research and have all the mundane warfare, questing, and diplo 'techs' linked to objects like buildings with dependencies on each other, champions, quests, and a diplo system that had at least rudimentary logging built into it so that major past actions were an important part of the choices available for current actions. Cross connections (like having quests that required interacting w
[quote who="ElanaAhova" reply="1" id="2853265"]^ agreed about lack of depth of the backstory, etc. Sounds like a lovely opportunity for the modders among us to take on a new challenge![/quote] This mod mania is maddening. Supporting mods with the under-the-hood part of the game design is a fine thing. Expecting them to cover vast tracts of content wasteland is just wrong. Especially with a frakking cross-marketing book deal. Gah.
[quote who="Tickker" reply="4" id="2849801"]Just for information tho i was reading the info from the PDF manual which states that its for version 1.1 which was why I was curious was wondering if the game had an old description left in it that had not been updated propperly yet. Have read other posts in this forum that mention out of date tool tips etc within the game currently.[/quote] Well, that's not very surprising to hear. Documentation, in-game or outside, has never
[quote who="tjashen" reply="43" id="2849500"]... I like your rationale about a production bonus, but with reduced growth for Egalitarian! It makes sense, and has concrete game mechanisms that are easy to implement. Also, on Death Worship, again reducing the pop growth makes sense. ...[/quote] I'd completely agree, if it weren't for the fact that Elemental (and its predecessors, GC1 and GC2) have bluntly rejected trying to include 'realistic' pop growth and decline in
The game is undergoing extensive rework since the print manual got locked down. I've seen some dev posts that suggest the PDF version will be at least semi-synced with changes since RTM. Hopefully the PDF versions of the manual will more or less keep up with changes to the game.
[quote who="Wintersong" reply="9" id="2849120"]... Would be best if we could have an alternate option (and free) that goes with "Patriarchal, Matriarchal, Egalitarian" and have some differences based on that (who goes with who in a diplo wedding and stuff). I'm, sadly, not holding my breath for this to happen though.[/quote] Oi, but I can't remember how long we've been agreeing on this general point. It's especially valid given the minimalism of the canon faction information. I need s
[quote who="TarlSS" reply="33" id="2849328"]... Playing with mods has made me realize how astoundingly well programmed this game is. Stardock has EXCELLENT EXCELLENT programmers on the team. It's just a shame they haven't invested as much in content creators! I guess that's what comes of having business software making the majority of your revenue... [/quote] The problem is horribly ironic for me, given my general love of open, accessible software systems. And it's not even that
[quote who="luketan" reply="25" id="2848863"]... Okay so I'm wrong. I always felt while GC2 is infinitely more polished than EWOM, GC2 game mechanics are very close to EWOM. [/quote] I don't think you're wrong, just coming from a different POV than mine. To a large extent, it's the similarities that have me frustrated. I wanted a new game from the team that brought me a space game I love. Instead, I feel like Elemental is more or less GC2.5 tarted up with nice fantasy artwork.
[quote]... I assume you are a big fan of Master of Magic. But did they have a consistent "Game cosmology" ? Playing devil's advocate here..[/quote] Yes, I played far too much MoM back in the day. And yes, the game has at least the rudiments of a cosmology: the spell books have distinctive themes, as do the node flavors. What I'd been hoping to see in MoM's 'spiritual successor' was more of that sort of thing, not less. My main reason for harping on the lack of a minim
[quote who="Ratatosk7" reply="6" id="2847327"]Maybe even vampires that sparkle! [/quote] Gah! Vampires that sparkle would be just an excessive version of what we have now, which is magic that lacks flair, style, logical cohesion, or whatever other term you might use to describe a basic milieu for a PC game that aimed to be a TBS-RPG hybrid 'spiritual successor' to Master of Magic. The OP's core complaint is utterly valid: Elemental lacks a baseline metaphysi
[quote who="Napean" reply="44" id="2842458"]Stardock, y'alls/y'all's/yall's (not...sure where to put the apostrophe! Thisis why y'all is not a word!) continued energy on this project is inspiring. God bless y'all (or, to the more humanistic leaning, thank you a million)... [/quote] "You all" is functional English for millions of us 'native speakers.' Contractions are indeed a hassle, but I mostly put that down to a long term, low intensity war on apostrophes. There's also the fa
A proper random map generator would certainly do a lot for long-term replayability. Random resource placement on canned maps is OK, but it never feels like a new game when the terrain is familiar.
[quote who="Tempestwrath" reply="11" id="2843001"]... I believe he was making a joke. About, you know, what two people do when they love each other very much... And such. So, chill out a bit.[/quote] Ah, well, I did confess knowing that my humour systems were failing. I'm second generation counterculture, so I tend to think of sex as a wholesome and ordinary thing unless some drama crap is obviously at work. Plus, I've got all those other 'i
[quote who="seanw3" reply="7" id="2842983"]Well I have been playing TBS games for decades and I still haven't found a very good one. My problem is with uncontrolled environments. I do not enjoy random placement that sometimes is strategically valid. I took the time to reply with my ethos and a solution to random maps in general. Why have a computer build something when it might be crafted by human hands?[/quote] It's a matter of taste. You appear to value repeated approache
[quote who="Winnihym" reply="9" id="2842913"]I'm sorry, I just can't leave this one alone. "Imbue"? Is that what you kids are calling it now?[/quote] I can't leave this one alone? If you're trying to joke, my humour systems are offline again. If you're serious, I want to know what you think is being mistaken for imbuing champions. My current obsession with the demise of essence makes me want to think you're objecting to that dev decision, but I still mostly fe
7, 9, 11, and 12 don't seem like simple details. They're substantial design problems, and it's good to see an 'old hand' listing them (as well as the real details that are out of sorts). You know I'm irrationally hung up about the way the magic's been working so far, but the lack of a random map generator that can build out some real gaming space is a close second in my top frustrations with the game so far. Probably tied with my impression that the dynasty system is a vestigial organ
[quote who="Kardiophylax" reply="41" id="2842080"]Anyone who has ever done programming has some basic idea of how fun bug hunting, and squashing, can be. Good luck, I wish you guys the best. Looking forward to 1.1, but go ahead and take your time getting the kinks ironed out first.[/quote] Holy ironclad ironies, Batman! The hunting and squashing (and regressing and closing) can be fun, but the Evil Deadline Monster can sometimes be much more un-fun. I haven't worke
[quote who="Andrew Meronek" reply="8" id="2841732"]One 'fix' would be to have it cost what it does now - 4 permanent essence points, but award only 2 to the receiving character. That makes it very impractical to spam. ...[/quote] That would be great, if the devs hadn't made the wacky decision to ditch essence entirely. If they've offered a detailed explanation of that decision, I missed it. But I thank you for pointing out yet another plausible argument in defense of retaining a
[quote who="Wintersong" reply="9" id="2841139"]... You complain about game mechanics, which the thread is not about (that was the point). So what can I say? Be back after the second expansion is released, suffered some patches and Elemental is considered unsupported?* [/quote] That's half a fair cop, or better. You're a Very Visual guy, and I've always meant my mockery of your stream-of-avatars as ironic respect. That made it impossible for me avoid responding given your
Seeing that the art team is part of the ongoing completion/update/whatever is a good thing, but no, I still can't "feel the magic," at least not anything remotely like what I'd hoped to feel during many years of anticipating and 'beta testing' this title. Eye (or ear) candy is no substitute for the lack of a structurally meaningful cosmology for the game. The devs ditched essence, which held so much wonderful potential to make the game both distinctive and innovative. The elements hav
[quote who="cfehunter" reply="41" id="2839044"]... /rant on The main gripe i have with magic right now though is that I feel that I just can't have a sov that's completely focused on magic instead of combat. I want to play an all powerful caster that's thrown out all pretence of the art of the sword in favor of more power and understanding through wielding the full force of the elements against his foes. And i just can't do that, low level magic is horribly under powered
[quote who="Jafo" reply="111" id="2829990"]... It's a bit that way, but also longevity and frequency of interaction...[/quote] That just reminds me how weird it feels that I did OK in AP calculus and ended up in the 'social sciences.' I know enough math and philosophy to know that many statistical arguments are delusional or deceitful, but the only thing I'm really certain about is that I shouldn't be certain...