Philocthetes

I didn't assume a pop-up, just used the example from GC2 as a way to point out that the potential audience will probably include folks who like to complain about Too Much Information--folks who don't want the UI to draw their attention actively unless there's something for them to do right then. I'm *not* that kind of player. And the more I think about it, the more it seems like a rich calendar system could do a lot towards building the immersion factor that I agree will be essential

[quote]Being good should be tough, but it should also be rewarding. It's easy to be evil, but that comes at a high cost (even if the evil person doesn't realize it).[/quote] This is how most folks seem to describe alignment in GC2. For me, it has too much cultural baggage. I'd prefer to see alignment as a single scale, with a central range that is neutral. The effects of alignment choices would move you along this one scale, and the results would be determined by your distance from 0

[quote who="Ron Lugge" reply="13" id="1927681"]I'm really looking forward to seeing it 'in motion'[/quote] Now there's a tasty idea. BoogieBac, any chance of a vid-cap soon? Maybe just units in the breeze (if there is a breeze)?

[quote who="Zamul" reply="4" id="1927227"]It would be plain awesome if your population celebrated the birthdays of your heroes. Especially the dead ones, if they killed a lot of enemies.[/quote] I'd love a calendar I could view to look for dates like this (a pretty version of GC2's Events tab), but there's a lot of griping about "unimportant" pop-ups from the GC2 forums. I can imagine a similar response from the "more 4X" side of this game's audience. Now if you're talking abo

[quote]Ok dose any one else on the west coast get upset that they don’t even wait for our vote to get counted before they decide who won???[/quote] I'm a Florida boy who finds that bothersome, but I'm a lapsed civics teacher and support the idea of changing over to a 5-member executive council instead of this king-for-a-while crap. We only need a solitary exec if *Congress* declares war. Y'all should have your own regional rep on the council, no questions about New Yorkers or Te

[quote who="Zamul" reply="2" id="1927164"]Well, my idea isn't really about bonuses to the city, but the creation of artifacts. Dissolving a hero into a city wouldn't accomplish that.[/quote] Then maybe Great Artisans is the name you're looking for. I really like the idea of fusing major item creation with a need to go fetch some rare or dangerous thing. Having a Great Artisan arise could be an enabling event for a city, with no need to add another mobile hero unit to the map.

[quote]There is a link on the TGN site for games you can order that are on Impulse only and I'm pretty sure I saw the Elemental pre-order in the list.[/quote] Can anyone share a URL? I only got 3 hits for "impulse" at totalgaming.stardock.com, and none of them led to a way to pre-order Elemental.

It wouldn't be good art if it didn't annoy some while it appealed to others. The drab stuff is just unremarkable design. Even though I agree that the art is completely second place to game play, I like the look. (This site skin is also much easier on the eyes than dear old GC2, and I like not having all that wasted space on the left side of thread pages.)

[quote]But you throw away the character choice. And the fact that you can change. If you're evil because of your kind you're pretty struck with it (unless you're some kind of Drizzt do urden or Viconia-__-). And having a bad attitude has always a meaning. You just don't act bad "because".[/quote] I was mostly just listing common narrative themes that answer the question, to show a game could have short explanations that might work for most players. Re bad attitude "just bec

I'm not sure I'll mess with any of the multiplayer stuff, but PBEM definitely sounds like it fits with the idea of a game that can take 3 years to finish. But if the multiplayer stuff is going to be centered on "the cloud" (curse that stupid term), PBEM might be kind of a dirty, primitive thing to ask for.

I don't have any real picture of the "persistent universe" mode yet either, but I'm pretty sure that the "Spore-like" stuff is about publishing (hopefully with manual options) stuff that you create to a server and being able to download stuff (also hopefully with manual options) from that repository. Kind of like if us GC2 players could all share our ship designs from inside the game interface.

I thought this thread was about spells like Protection from Evil, 10' Radius, but now I see y'all are talking more about an ability for hero units. For things with specific areas-of-effect that we'd need to manage on the tactical map, I'd prefer to see that left to spells & magic items. But it seems like the basic stats for a hero could easily include things like morale bonuses for the unit/stack that it commands.

I'm realizing that we need to hear a lot more about how the boundary between the cloth map and the tactical map works. It could be something like the difference between staying at icon level in GC2 and not using the combat viewer vs. using the combat viewer &/or zooming down to 3D. If it's anything like that, then getting complex terrain within a given combat zone might be too high a map burden. But then, I'm typing from a box that has far more basic storage and processing power t

On point 8, I think some of the thing here might be more about quality than it is about category. If a randomizing system is sufficiently complex and has a large enough source dataset, it should be able to provide both items and heros that reflect *the exact game you're playing* and not just Elemental in general. I really have no idea how tall a dev-time order it would be to get to "sufficiencly complex." But I have little doubt that the fan base could help fill the source dataset, an

I quite like the idea of experienced units as a possible source for heroes. But I don't like the idea that the heroes will all be from a fixed set no matter how many games I play. I hope for a richly randomized "hero shop" that creates characters who are basically unique to each game. Recurring characters should be an option, not the only way to play. Plus, a hero shop code chunk could also be used for a high-level Create Hero spell that lets a player de-randomize the process

[quote]After all, why would someone be evil otherwise?[/quote] Well, in a fantasy setting, being evil could be a result of your species being designed by an evil being, who or what you worship, some mistake or bad choice during magical work, or just plain ole bad attitude.

I'd like to see something like this as an option during avatar creation. Perhaps an avatar could begin with a set of shards that determine the types and levels of spells you can learn. I think someone else around here already praised that aspect of MoM, and specifically called out how neat it was that you weren't guaranteed access to the same spells every game even if you chose the same books. Methodical variety yields greater replayability, IMO.

I'll be a little surprised if there are *not* multiple win types. If there are, I really, really hope that any scoring system will not echo GC2's deep bias twoards total conquest. I know war is right in the subtitle of the game, but it's the subtitle, and for many fantasy fans, one of the first associations the word elemental brings is "balance."

[quote who="Mentora" reply="6" id="1926384"]I think all would be in agreement if I was to say that games from Stardock is truly 'By gamers for gamers'. [/quote] Wow. I used that line just recently over at GC2, only I was whining about the demise of decent game review sites. I'm so used to how Stardock works that I completely took this for granted. Although it might be slightly more accurate to say, "By working gamers, for paying gamers." Not as fun a line, but devs gotta eat too. (Wis

I like the idea of weather as "atmosphere" in the vibe sense, and as a factor in the economic layers, but not so much as a combat variable. At least not without a really good "fog of war" function that meant you had to have a fantasic info network or some serious weather magic to know what's coming down the pike. If there is a weather system, I trust it will be scalable for the big maps so there are places where blizzards are impossible and others where droughts are unheard of. <

Quite cool, IMO. If we get some neutrality in the ethics layer, maybe something like slaying a top-ranked dragon could create a Place of Power, where avatars can get a boost for casting global spells.

[quote]One question I have, though: Will we actually be able to build *new* towns, or can we only improve existing ones? [/quote] I'm pretty sure I read somwhere that founding is a player option. But I'm not sure whether it is free placement or if there are a limited number of possible city sites.

Re 1, I'd almost bet that the sandbox mode will be the "normal" way to play, or at least the one that most people end up preferring. GC2 works that way, and IIRC the underlying architecture work on this game is basically also work on the plumbing for GC3. Re 2, I surely hope that there will be no required RTS clickety-clickety. I also hope that there is some (optional at least) way to display movement limits--a ring like you see around constructors in GC2 if free movement is available

[quote]Is the idea that the "Life" school should handle the more spiritual or mental aspects of magic in Elemental? If this is inspired by The Silmarillion, then what do the various mental powers (mind's eye, and even allusions of reading thoughts) come in?[/quote] Swell question. Maybe there will be a subset of spells (or at least spell types) that are available in most or all schools, perhaps with differing special effects. Kind of similar to the way the different civ tech trees in

[quote who="kryo" reply="3" id="1925782"]TBS.[/quote] The description text that comes with a web shortcut for the forum page had the word "real-time" when I made my bookmark. Maybe it needs an edit, or we need to understand that the tactical might be real-time?