Philocthetes

[quote who="EmersonPF" reply="3" id="2656782"]...Maybe there's a middle ground? After researching caravans, for example, maybe you can then send items across the map, taking X number of turns to get there based on distance. Don't show a unit or a hero carrying the item, just transport it silently and in the background, as if you got some lowly peon messenger to do it, only without the micromanagement. ...[/quote] I don't know if that's really on middle ground so much as ju

[quote who="Winnihym" reply="6" id="2654474"]... Like all good 4x games, your cities should be something you have to tend to, just like your armies, and your strategy. Balancing your attention is the key. [/quote] Indeed. And that also sort of loops back to reinforce the goal (not universally endorsed on these boards) of preventing city spam. I very much want cities to be the opposite of 'fire and forget,' but I'd love to have a really good, long game on a the bigge

[quote who="Denryu" reply="18" id="2654511"]I came for a feast and got a light snack at best! Not that I am not grateful for the light snack, but I guess magic is going to be kept pretty tightly under wraps until Beta 3 at least.[/quote] Snack? That's naught but crumbs on the hors d'ouvres tray. Someone's getting a nosh, but not us...

[quote who="Tridus" reply="12" id="2652518"]... I still don't think this problem requires a morality system per-se, just some intelligence in how other NPCs react to your murderous ways.[/quote] You say "potato" and I say "potato" and we can't tell the difference because I'm typing, not speaking. Like I tried to say earlier, I'm not hung up on what the Consequences Mechanics are called, I just want them in place and I want them to have at least two substantially different fram

[quote who="Mandelik" reply="50" id="2652072"]... I don't know if it fits your objectives but I would appreciate an annex about "How to do..." Less informative but more practical, it would explain some useful (but not obvious) mechanisms for beta-testers. ... [/quote] An addition like this would be very handy, especially for the new folks coming in with Beta 2. Even some 'negative' info would be helpful for us all, e.g. "Q: How do I transfer a magic item from o

[quote who="Xtropy" reply="52" id="2652187"] Quoting segallion, reply 51I thought at one point there were talks of a governor stat. That the cities wouldn't grow past a certain point unless you had a governor that would allow it. I believe the example was do you use Ranger man as part of your army, or use him to take this city to L3 as he has a governor rank of 3. Did that disappear? Yes I remember this too...... in fact here is the developer journal on it! <

[quote who="Yestin" reply="7" id="2652452"]... I think most people understand this, it is the relative size of cities in comparison to movement that could be a concern. I've sort of made my peace with this, but I still feel that it is indeed odd that your children can grow up in the time you walk across your kingdom...[/quote] At least suspending disbelief is easier now that a turn is a turn and not some horrible abuse of a time-word like day or week. The more I think ab

[quote who="Sushikawa" reply="5" id="2652471"]Aww thread title got my hopes up [/quote] Me too. Still hoping for things like invisibility magic and skill-based stealth for champions and elite regulars.

[quote who="Denryu" reply="10" id="2652444"]The ethics of elemental: 1. Might makes Right 2. Survival of the Fittest 3. Do unto others before they do unto you. 4. A friend in need is an opportunity for betrayal. 5. To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. [/quote] That's the 'ethics' of GC2, something I really hope to see this game grow past. GC2 was and is a marvel in terms of

[quote]... your kingdom isn't that one that just popped up in this convenient location, it's the one founded by escaped slaves, destitute farmers, a ruined merchant guild looking for a new start and an old warlord that wants a new cause to fight for. It adds a bit of flavour and meaning to your faction and the world in general.[/quote] That's the kind of sandbox flavour text I'm looking for also. I don't want the main game to be a campaign/puzzle thing, but I do want it to beat the c

My main concern is Num Pad for unit moves: 1,3,7, and 9 seem to work for diagonal movement only until I build or acquire a second unit. When I have more than my sov on the board, they either don't do anything or they 'randomly' act like a neighboring non-diagonal move key. I'm beginning to suspect that the dual nature of the Num Pad keys is part of the problem. The 'normal' HOME and END keys are not working like they did in earlier builds. HOME seems to do nothing now and END doesn't

[quote who="Sythvipers" reply="3" id="2651995"]I figured out it usually will load if you set it to cloth map only, then after it loads, you can disable cloth map only, and it will be 3D again.[/quote] I had a save failing to load after only 25 turns, but this workaround worked for me. Thanks!

Even if 'balance' requires a kludge like limiting sovereigns to four offspring no matter how long a game runs, it is ludicrous to have eligible widows and widowers running kingdoms and empires. Hopefully, it's just a matter of the diplomacy code not being in the build and sovereigns who pass their reproductive limit and lose their spouse can still remarry as part of a diplomatic deal.

[quote]It's very hard for any game to create a convincing morality game element, most of it usually turns into a DnD style min-max setup, where your moral choices are picked to give you the biggest advantage, not because they're good or bad. This is said on the assumption there would be game changing mechanics for being good or bad. If there is no reward to play good or bad, then there's no reason to pick either. ... [/quote] Some of us who got into RPGs before IBM's first PC hit th

I remain stumped about this matter. I've seen the dev aversion to the subject that Wintersong mentions, but I strongly agree with gapper4's basic point about an 'RPG dimension' needing some sort of functional ethics framework. I had expected that Life and Death magic would serve as the focus of that system for Elemental, but I've seen no sign of if that will eventually be so, much less what it might mean in terms of game mechanics. And then there's the confusing presence of temples in

[quote who="SpartanFry" reply="9" id="2649403"] Quoting kryo, reply 8 I accidentally kill champions by simply left clicking on them and it still kind of happens. Left clicking selects them. Right click issues a move/attack order to your current selection. I'm not sure how that could be a problem unless you've got your mouse set to left-handed and not everything is respecting that setting. I think what he means is that right clicking on a person shou

[quote who="GunslingerBara" reply="12" id="2648054"]...You might want it removed, but I'd probably get a hundred people telling me to put it back The karma system works, it's just that the number calculations are wrong. Once those are fixed, all of the karma people have received will be reflected accurately, so there's no reason to turn it off. Also, I meant as far as seeing your karma, not getting a count. Does the count really matter? I may as well remove

[quote]... Of course the problem with pioneers is that when they claim a resource they only produce at half efficiency...[/quote] Given the apparent decision to have buckets of mundane research, perhaps the plan includes ways to improve outposts, perhaps by enabling us to send a second pioneer to install upgrades or somesuch.

[quote who="4Nana" reply="9" id="2647155"]People care about karma? Wait... can I get stuff for having karma? I would totally care more if you get a free t-shirt after a certain amount of karma or something lol[/quote] My Nana would have objected to the karma thing on religious grounds because my grandfather was a Presbyterian minister, but she died well before modems became consumer products. Me, I mostly want that forum clutter to go away, but I'm human, hence at lea

[quote who="GunslingerBara" reply="6" id="2643669"]Karma can fluctuate wildly depending on the forum you visit, the amount of karma you've received, and when you receive karma. I will eventually take the time to revamp the karma system and make it... better... but for now, you can always rely on your individual karma page to be accurate.[/quote] Two quibbles: 1) You can't "rely on your individual karma page" because it does not provide totals that reflect the listed entr

[quote who="Tormy-" reply="16" id="2647010"]No magery 'til Beta3. "In nearly all cases, things are disabled because we’re in the process of hooking the AI up to them which introduces stability issues that would complicate the public beta." -> Understandable. [/quote] Whining to get them in builds is whining. I admit that even if I can't quite stop my share of the whining and tend to encourage others. But the lack of *info* is very frustrating at best, and o

[quote who="astrath" reply="7" id="2633980"]I'm a mathematician. We are known for using the same symbol to mean three different things in the same equation [/quote] I can't follow serious math at all any more, although I was once almost ready to learn calculus. But my favorite writing form is prose fiction, so the idea of 'context-sensitive' symbols in an art like math makes some sense to me. [quote]Hey, good developers love clear terminology! It's the buzzword-complian

Thanks for the timely OP, Denryu. I suspect you are speaking for more than a few lurkers, infrequent posters, very deferential folks, etc. I certainly agree that it seems very odd to have a game with "magic" in the title have so little magic this 'late' in the beta. [quote who="Tridus" reply="14" id="2646840"]... Well, some of the magic system simply doesn't apply yet. Any magic related to tactical combat doesn't apply without tactical combat, and really it seems like not all of the c

[quote who="astrath" reply="5" id="2633959"]Meh, just terminology. Point is that there will be standard games a la Civ[/quote] Meh yourself. Clear, consistent terminology is damned handy. Just sadly unpopular amongst jargon-addled IT folks... [e classic]:P[/e]

I believe that "skirmish" is going to be a multiplayer option; at least that's how it was described back in late 2008. Something about quick matching for short games on relatively simple maps.