Philocthetes

[quote who="Denryu" reply="1" id="2242156"]... Just hope those that do get into alpha post TONS of info for those who don't! ...[/quote] I've not followed a Stardock dev project from this early a stage, so I'm curious about how the NDAs will affect info flow from the volunteers. If anyone was around for early GC2 or even GC1, can you let us know whether the alpha volunteers will be able to type much about their experience? (That is if they can even tear themselves away from the build

[quote who="Darkodinplus" reply="19" id="2241162"]... I agree essence should be based on a stat but I lack sufficient information to decided wether it should affect total mana comparable to intelligence or wisdom in most games. I could see the essence stat having some sort of passive bonus on mana spells where it increases their damage or duration though. [/quote] It's the word "channeler" itself that's driving my speculation here, perhaps in combination with thinking about how J

[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="14" id="2240646"]Indeed Now that I do some digging, the devs never actually SAY that any spells will cost essance: that was purely a community assumption.[/quote] Scott's journal from May 18 opened with some spell sketches that included essence as part of the cost. When some folks balked a bit at that, he indicated that the current plan has mana+essence spells for 'creating' or 'imbuing' something. I guess part of my impulse for start

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="9" id="2240544"]...In any case, I forgot to add the layer 0 to it. To be complete, it needs to have a system like Gal Civ II's TotA in which you have some sliders to decide how much to spend in general spying on your enemies. So even if you didn't buy any spies, you could still get some information from them. ...[/quote] Nice. Nicer still if we can separate spy unit production from the ongoing espionage budget. In addition to the basic business of buying

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="6" id="2240168"]As I said also in that same sentence, SoaSE is also a RPG for some stores. Don't ask me why. The seriousness of my statement in that post is up to you..[/quote] Beg pardon, I thought GameSpot was a review site and your "some" about SoaSE was "some people" and not "some stores."

[quote]Like the giant god hand holding the ship in space?[/quote] I thought you didn't care for lengthy Trek canon talk? This seems like baiting for a real Trekker, which I'm not, but will attempt to play one on TV. Yes, that episode was some truly excellent science fiction. The underlying premise was that an ancient, very hi-tech culture had used some of their toys to play with pre-classical Greeks and at least one of those aliens had come away with some durable version of ha

[quote who="Colonel_Jessep" reply="22" id="2233480"]... Maybe I'll try a clean installation on my other PC.[/quote] Please post anything you learn from the experiment. I've had the problem across multiple updates to Opera for which I chose the Upgrade option. Maybe a truly fresh install will do the job, but I really hate restoring my bookmarks & settings & whatnot. I'm awfully lazy...

[quote]... And no problems having E:WoM being listed as RTS ...[/quote] Isn't that Stardock's call to make, and haven't they already been clear that Elemental is *not* an RTS game? And if the answer to that question is "no," I can think of one other problem: the misinformation will (has already?) generate forum noise from people who think it is an RTS or hope to browbeat the devs into making it so.

[quote]Case in point, the fact that NO ONE responded negatively to everything being treated as a resource, while either treating only NR or MR as a resource both received strongly negative reactions - I think that is good solid non-squishy data.[/quote] I more or less agree with you, although I'm probably too conservative to call it data. A point worth considering, no doubt. Here's hoping we can see more people self-select and give some input. Your project is the most useful broad-bas

What Scoutdog and pigeonpigeon said.

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="5" id="2237624"]I suspect that there will be a "font" folder somewhere that would allow people to add a fonts. I figure they'd have to be modded in like anything else.[/quote] That makes some sense, but so does the idea that all you could change was font families, not font sizes. Some UI designers are very picky about how text appears. I've got some sympathy there because I'm one of those readers who will brandish a book at friends and rave about

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="25" id="2238864"]Yeah, I know that even if channelers run out of essence they'll still have mana and their regular spells...[/quote] What, you've got a mind-reading spell going already? The devs have said almost nothing about essence in general, and absolutely nothing about how it might relate to a channeler's ability to use mana. It seems very plausible to consider that your ability to channel mana is directly dependent on your essence 'stat.' That wo

[quote who="NTJedi" reply="15" id="2239369"]I was under the impression the Essence is finite, however magic shards spread across the realm can be found to provide new Essence. ...[/quote] I'm pretty sure that the shards are essentially 'mana wells,' not essence sources. [quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="14" id="2238645"]... Essence not coming back doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility of gaining new essence. ...[/quote] Good point. In MoM, mana didn't

If the game calendar will span many decades or (preferably) centuries for an 'average' game, it would be good detailing to have any non-renewable resource modeled as such. But I would also want to have a method for discovering new (replacement) resource supplies for bulk-use things like iron. If the game calendar is closer to the level of abstraction in GC2, it will probably feel weird to have mines play out with any frequency (the common longer games in GC2 only run around 30 years). <p

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="5" id="2238464"]... With this 3 ways, one player can spy his enemies in the way he prefers and/or he has to. Hopefully, if a good spying system could be done, it should serve one main purpose: control. Control your enemy by knowing all about him, being able to disrupt supply lines or by simply turning his populacy against him (to the point of being overthrown?). ...[/quote] I think your three-mode breakdown is a very good general idea, especially because

For the super-low severity/priority list: The link to this thread that's in the announcement pop-up is invisible in updated FireFox when viewed from Elemental. I could click it, but I can't see it even after having followed it (no color change for followed links in that control?)

I'm hoping for an interesting set of scrying/clairvoyance spells, but I'd like them to be a complement or alternative to building a spy network. Spying might be nearly as old as the oldest profession and has been an important element in many fantasy stories. As for spies as units on the map, I'd be a little surprised if something like that isn't already in the works given the Elemental engine's intended role as the starting point for the eventual GC3 engine. I really like the latest s

[quote who="psychoak" reply="15" id="2236563"]Yeah, severe plothole on the drill platform. Not bad to have a movie with only one ridiculously retarded part though. That's really good shit these days...[/quote] I was dragged reluctantly into that theatre and remarkably surprised overall. But I'd worked hard on ignoring my basic hatred of retconning and young Mr. Pine is not hard at all on man-fan eyes. Really, though, there are at least two ridiculously retarded par

[quote who="Denryu" reply="20" id="2236208"]... It is weird that I see some people wanting essence recouped after someone takes over your land though - what is the point to taking land if it then requires essence from "the winner" and returns essence to "the loser". ... There needs to be the ability to make poor choices and the ability to lose - as I am understanding it this whole concept is to protect players from consequences of unwise choices, and I am not seeing the attraction. Is there s

[quote who="Denryu" reply="14" id="2236030"]... Actually I think there should be a balance between hoarding and early investment - the ideal would be if both could be viable strategies. It is silly to worry that hoarders will be at the advantage though, since that aspect of the game is still in the design phase, and as Luckmann points out, it is just as likely that hoarders could be gimped by having no armies, no followers, and no infrastructure. How can you research those late world changing

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="2" id="2235357"]... I'd much rather see all essence spent as a sunk cost that can never be recovered, no exceptions whatsoever (could still gain essence in the ways you mentioned, but no spent essence should ever be returned to you).[/quote] That's exactly the sort of discussion I'm looking for. At some unconcsious level, I was about 1/3 in agreement with you on "no spent essence should ever be returned to you" while I drafted the OP. but you and Scout

I've really enjoyed seeing the pre-beta chatter pick up recently, but amidst the interesting new ideas and arguments are a bunch of things that remind me just how little we've heard from the devs so far about how essence will work. I vacillate wildly between finding that fact very frustrating because I have nothing substantial to chew on while brainstorming and being very hopeful that the devs are still working with a wide range of possibilities and there's a chance I might actually s

Denryu, I apologize if I sounded severe. A big part of my typing around here is justified as 'exercise' for my paid editorial work, and I'm on a "be more concise" binge. I should have preceded my griping about the fundamental flaws of opinion research with a direct compliment about you doing a very interesting, and possibly dev-useful, thing for the beta. That sincere compliment aside, I'm still very committed to taking the polling business down three or nine pegs. Your point about "u

[quote]Let's not go overboard here. [/quote] I used shudder quotes and a "might." It was just a casual example, and maybe some passive-aggresive hangover from old dispersion-vs-parallel invention arguments. Inca string-coding sold me on the parallel side. Back on topic, I want to see some economic modeling as rich as some of the ideas we've seen floating around here, but the more I read this and similar arguments, the smaller I want the actual 'tech' (Craft) tree in Elemental

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="1" id="2234899"]... Perhaps if they REALLY like you, they might even join your kingdom.[/quote] The lack of any way for this to happen is my only serious gripe about the minors in GC2. I can get how they shouldn't just influence-flip like majors do on account of them having no chance for serious influence. But really, both the majors and the minors should be able to consider deferentially joining a greater power under the right diplomatic and military c