Philocthetes

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="5" id="1975920"]I started to think... I wonder how hard it would be to randomly generate an established civilization of a certain strength, as if it had been playing since the start of the game, expanding, fighting, researching, deploying troops, etc. Having the map expand upon victory seems like it would be an easy thing to do. But having the civs in the expanded world being generated well... It might require more time and effort than the feature is worth (an

I also tried the Warlord thing in MoM a bit, and ditched it in favor of focusing on magic. But that was in no small part because of "my dear troops," who needed support from summoned units, strong hero units to lead them, and strong magic items for those hero units. [quote who="Nights Edge" reply="7" id="1975399"]Basically I'm saying that permanent character features that give long term special benefits need to be kept separate, and they need to be rationed out carefully and fairly. M

[quote who="PsiSoldier2000" reply="23" id="1974995"]Your forgeting Fairy Trod for Nature mage's , Cloud Trapeezing for Air mage's , Astral Gateways for mage's to take others with them, Shortcuts through the lands of the Dead for Death mage's emerging back in the land of the living at their destination nearly instantly. Earth Mage's could meld with the land and re-emerge at their destination, Fire mage's could do some crap like in Hary potter with the fireplace's hehe. Blah blah blah.&nb

[quote who="Darkodinplus" reply="9" id="1975797"]I like this idea although balance might be a little hard. I think the easiest way to handle this would be to put the curse on some kind of timer 3 – 5 minutes would suffice I think that is long enough were you would definitely feel the effects of the curse but not so long that you would be crippled for the rest of the game. [/quote] Depending on the curse, a duration could be a very good balancing detail. But '3 - 5 minutes' sound

[quote who="Bodyless" reply="8" id="1975569"]Does it spy at you like their search mashine does?[/quote] They've got more than their search engine at work on your dossier. The Google Analytics stuff is just creepy, and getting darned near as ubiquitous as doubleclick.net tracking cookies. We really need a Digital Millenium User Rights Act that makes privacy the default and requires explicit, well-informed opt-in when organizations want to store user info and track their behavior. We mo

I definitely agree that this subject deserves its own thread. But I wonder if we're making too many assumptions that maps will work more or less like they do in Civ or GalCiv. The channeler (player) using personal essence to make territory available for use is a *major* innovation. I've wondered elsewhere whether there might be some sort of cap on the number of cities to help keep 'busy work' under control for the largest maps. But maybe the 'imbued lands' thing will function as an ef

[quote who="Spartan" reply="7" id="1975301"]I'm all for a dynamic and complex revolution system. [/quote] Me too, as long as you can turn it off if the final implementation is no fun for you.

[quote who="ChaosReigns08" reply="7" id="1975000"]...The only reason why I would prefer official non-human races over modded ones is for quality control purposes. Most great mods take a great deal of time to make and oftentimes they are plagued by internal issues (fights, team members disappearing etc.) such that they are never released.[/quote] I've mostly only spectated mods in the games I've played, but from that POV, I couldn't agree more. I'm *really* hoping that there wi

[quote who="Rhishisikk" reply="4" id="1974708"]...It would also be nice if there were rituals to attune to a specific element, at the cost of my ability (or part of) to channel all the others. Naturally, I shouldn't be able to cast while re-aligning my aura. So, I could easily adjust myself to fire spells, like those listed above, but at the cost of not being able to magically produce bumper crops, domesticate my bears, or raise the fallen as Pyroskull Skeletons. M

[quote who="MagicwillNZ" reply="4" id="1974563"]Age of Mythology had a pretty interesting way of doing things. Heroes were really good at fighting monsters, but merely average against other humans. This kind of makes sense from a mythic standpoint because many heroes found their end in some pretty domestic situations (read: Jason). I'm in favor of Heroes being in a support role rather than a Rambo-esque fighting armies role... or at least make them have weaknesses.[/quote] When I read

[quote who="Rhishisikk" reply="21" id="1974724"]...Oh My. Just an idle thought - what if certain advantages are ONLY acquired in combat? For example, only units confronted with Fear become truly Fearless instead of Brave (which can be trained). Only units that fight undead become Deathslayers, skilled at dispatching the mindless minions of your annoying Lich neighbor. I can see several BANE skills, each one gained ONLY by actually going out and killing. And it en

Maybe a general training facility along with a range of dedicated ones--the Academy vs. the War College, Mages' Guild, etc.? The general idea is interesting to me, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy the constant toggle decisions on the stupidly large maps I hope to play. But then I still have no idea if towns and cities will be as numerous as colonies can be in GC2. I almost hope they're not, and if that's so, a toggle plan like this could add fun choices. I also think that the 'hero generati

[quote quoting="post"]... To put my question/concern simply assuming the player has enough time and resources can he choose to invest them in one area such as a weapon with super powered results or would the player need to invest in a broad range of areas to make a "super unit". [/quote] Right now, my guess (preference?) would be that both strategies could work. The paths to creating a 'super weapon' that you describe seem almost like an analog to the basic channeler choice of i

[quote who="Nights Edge" reply="22" id="1974522"]I liked the blind research in Alpha Centauri. I do think though, that it is particularly suited to that game because a lot of the game is about exploration and discovery, and because you are being told a story. Much of that story is revealed through the technology tree. So, it's great for flavour reasons. It could work well for flavour reasons in Elemental too. However, I know that often with this sort of game many people aren't inte

OK, I see plenty of folks ready to describe or complain about different types of complexity, but I still want to see some really smart talk about how to *layer* complexity and progressively reveal it based on player tastes and behavior. I'm barely smart enough to have my question, and I'm pretty sure some folks working this forum should be able to answer even if I might not be able to follow the reply very well. To try getting back to the OP via this sub-theme, if the core game mechan

[quote who="Nights Edge" reply="2" id="1974506"]I also am keen to hear about the customization for the channeller. I would hope that there are some things that you can choose at the start, and then some choices to make as you gain experience / essence. I also think that some of these choices should be permanent trade-offs - perhaps something like a perk-feat system. I always thought it was a cop-out that you could get extra spell books and traits from the magic nodes in M

ckessel, is it a fair guess that you've not played Galactic Civilizations II? The campaigns in that game strike me as an unfortunately fine example of what drives pigeonpigen "nuts." One of the things I'm very interested in seeing develop through Elemental is the campaign format. The engine built for Elemental will be the starting point for GC3, so if internal hopes for GC3 include a richer campaign side, then you've raised a very good set of points. But even in games with campaign/sc

If you come from anywhere near a Creative Commons or GNU Public License POV, Stardock's business model will never fully satisfy you because Mr. Wardell et al firmly support copyright as we currently practice it. And on the cranky side of the debate, I formally reject copyright except in terms of rights of attribution and I loathe the fact that modern PCs assume I should have a persistent, high-speed net connection that they can use at will. That said, Stardock are *much* closer than t

[quote who="ckessel" reply="23" id="1973632"]... I really like the idea of portable and non-portable resources. If you're on a large map, it'd create a lot of regional flavor if certain special units can only be made in certain areas. You'd tend not to shift them to other battle lines because it would just take too long to bring that force to bear or you spend significant magic to teleport them around.[/quote] Me too. But first I want to mutter a moment about the portable kind. <

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="16" id="1974162"]Unless he is a freelance archer hero that comes from another land. Then, why couldn't you hire him? Yeah, he could be a waste as he would be the only ranged guy in your whole army.. but he might as well teach you the secrets of archery, right?[/quote] Now there's a neat idea for 'the hero market.' Some heros might have more modest stats or skill ratings but can teach things to your channeler or your people, so you have more to consider w

[quote]Arbitrary teleportion would be more difficult for the AI, since that's a link that exists for one unit for one turn. [/quote] I don't code at all (puttering with XML and HTML don't count, IMO), so I just have more questions. This sounded on first read like a reasonable cause of death for my interest in some teleport spells. But could it be a category mistake to even consider pathing along with point-to-point teleport functionality, at least if the teleport has no range

[quote who="Tamren" reply="3" id="1973731"]...This is magic power that you store in yourself and so can't use for anything else so you would have to give it a lot of thought beforehand.[/quote] I knew the balance question would be important for a trick like this, which is mainly why I made the OP. I'm sort of a skeptic of "balance" in game design, mainly because I've never done mutiplayer and have a strong role-playing streak, so I'm not very good at thinking through this sort of prob

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you? For this reader, you did a swell job of painting an ambivalent picture. From some angles, it looks like you're already worried to death about all the options and complexity talk. From others, it looks like you're worried that the game will turn you into one of the South Park kids in Make Love, Not Warcraft.

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="21" id="1973263"]I am sad the irc client in my copy of impulse does not seem to work. not only does in not have #elemental, but when I join anything it is empty [/quote] I've been having the same trouble recently when I try to use Chat in SDC, which worked fine for me for a couple years. I kind of suspect I did something sloppy with my firewall and I'm too lazy to try learning another IRC app just yet.

Dilbert and Doonesbury are the only strips I read daily any more. Dilbert regularly loses me also, but I did some time on the frontiers of cubicle-land and now I sub-sub-contract for decision makers who have meetings about meetings about meetings, so very often Mr. Adams makes me howl out loud (a laugh can sometimes seem really close to a cry of pain...). Some days, I really want to have a telepresence version of the triangle-hair chick's Fist of Death.