https://forums.elementalgame.com/376517/#2545911 My thoughts on all the ideas being posted on the matter of city building and expansion. I agree with the idea of tapping resources without having to be directly connected to a city, but I worry about adding a system that deviates from how cities are currently interacted with (colonies acting being one upgradable tile with cities being multiple placable tiles). <
Note: Units that are set as a city's 'governor' would still be able to explrore and adventure. The difference is that hero units more inclided for domestic use (with a higher 'Governing' stat) would also have inherent traits that give bonuses to the city they're stationed in (boost o production, training times, etc). So cities that don't have their governor present will not be producing at their max ability.
Of all the aspects of Elemental, none seem to strike a nerve quite like the handling of cities. Automation, size, uniqueness, too many in the world or too few...everyone has their take on how cities should feel. I believe, above all else, the worlds and nations of Elemental need to grow in a manner parallel to how RPS maps feel...in other words, elimination city spam without eliminating the joys of city building. To that end, we're doing something that (
Got some ideas on this, but I want to think them over and write something up in the morning. Just to recap, here are the things I beleive we ALL want... + a fun citybuilding system where you never feel like your instantly hitting a glass ceiling (like the current 8 tile limit on outposts) + a system for quelling city-spam (we thought forcing construction on your environment type would cure this, but it already seems that it's a system that can be 'gamed' for massiv
My fault...I actually took that vid and didn' realize how low the recording volume was :(
[quote]We'll see in 1G .. but .. don't you like my idea of a possibly ever-growing city ?[/quote] Yes :) We've talked before about connecting cities to reach such an end, but I really fear the cheese at that point.
[quote]I really liked the "1 per planet", "1 per civilization", and "1 per galaxy" improvements in GalCiv II. They added flavor and a nice strategic element to things.[/quote] Us too...there's something inherently exciting about having something special that can only be used once and deciding where it goes. Those improvements (and the planets they were built on) provided soemthing memorable, and we hope that utilizing them more in Elemental will result in cities that aren't just large, b
[quote] Those cities aren't really that big then[/quote] You'd be suprised...the cloth map makes everything feel smaller. That screenshot in the OP is only using 14 tiles, so the largest citiy would be almost 200% larger. If we're finding end game Cities to be too lacking, there's no reason we can't play with those numbers . But I'd much rather decide that and tweak several difinitive, tangable values than have to adjust data and algorithims to get the result we're looking f
8 tiles is 8 'quarter tiles'. Resources use 4 tiles, and most of the improvements with an upgrade path take just 1 tile.
[quote]Population explosion leads to population migration. [/quote] I beleive that's part of the plan for the next phase of citybuilding. risinglegend and the rest: Seriously, I think you should just wait until 1G to see this all in practice. I assure the following things... -you will NOT have mansions in every city just by reaching top level -huts don't just become houses without some sinificant effort on the player's part -there wil
[quote]The unfeasibility comes from spending a butt-load of production to build your pretty new scolar's retreat and watch it produce...... .00625 research.[/quote] See, I would get frustrated with soemthing like this. If I'm used to X building producing Y, I don't want to have to figure out "now why am I now getting Z instead of Y from X"...mostly where Z is a MUCH lower number than Y. Perhaps that's just me though :(
We'll be tweaking things up until gold to ensure the systems in place don't feel 'gamey' (read: artificial) yet can't be 'gamed' (read: manipulated for easy gains). We've talked internally about the idea of 'equation-driven buildable tiles' but we always came to the conclusion that... 1. No matter how much balancing goes into it, a system like that would get 'gamed'. and... 2. If we DID balance it, it'd be to the point where the players get around X sub-tiles per t
[quote]So what about different kind of housing ? Between a house with more room or a house with more influence gained, how the computer will choose ?[/quote] Those would be two different types of housing. Huts->houses hold more but don't provied prestige. Estates->Mansions hold less citizens but raise the prestige of your city.
[quote]And will there be enough variety in buildings, and/or maybe other city features, that all of our full-grown cities won't be just variations on a theme?[/quote] The current system has the 5 tiers of 'main' building types (Houses, Mundane Research, Arcane Research, Economy, Training), resource harvesting buildings, then countless other 1-time 'special' buildings (1 per Faction or 1 per World) to make each city as unique as possible.
[quote]Heh. I don't think so. It'll just be slightly less painful. [/quote] You just haven't seen the branching quest system...a few extra days with that new technology and we'll have some awesome quests on our hands. Er..I meen..nothing to see here people, just 1G. Move along :)
[quote] Aside from man power maybe being an issue, what would one thing coming out have to do with the other?[/quote] It's a marketing thing, and since Sins:Diplomacy is already out, its updates take priority. This first month up updates is vital for a new game...if we can keep players happy and playing, it ensures a positive experience and fond memories. We drop the ball at this stage and they stop playing AND hate us. Never a good combination. On the bright-side, we get
For whatever reason, almost all artists I've ever met have bad spelling. Must be conflicting sides of the brain being used or something. [e digicons];P[/e]
The current solution for this is to actually have tiers of Quests, which are unlocked via the Adventuring research path. This way, Questing (with all it's powerful loot and other experience bonuses) becomes a stategic choice you get to make as your nation expands.
[quote]I know, it's probably just because I'm an English teacher, but still. Six? In three sentences?[/quote] The artist that made that mockup also suffered a heart attack when he saw it posted on Gamespot ;)
[quote]Still waiting for the 10 faction retcon confirmation? The quality is always better than the quantity but I feel curious.[/quote] Yeah, in looking over the backstory we found two races that weren't really being mentoned, so we decided to trim the master list to a nice even 10. This gives us time to really polish the experience with those 10 AND put extra time into the 'customize your race' features, since I can see a lot of players going that path rather than play our creati
What's funny is that the main question "What have you learned from GalCiv2?" is answered by listing things that GalCiv2 DIDN'T have (according to it's critics) so we're focusing on making sure Elemental makes up for said shortcomings. OK, so it may be an issue of miscommunication. I meen, I know of the differences between MoM and EWoM, but I way it has (er..it WILL have) more in common with that 4x game than GC2.
A few comments on there menton Elemental being 'more influenced by GalCiv than Master of Magic'...and I really wonder what specifically they're talking about. We've been trying to make Elemental it's own unique IP in the 4x realm, I don't really see much GC2 influence in there, but perhaps I'm too close to the project :) Anybody here feel the same and want to extrapolate on those comments?
[quote] Are you saying the whole API of DesktopX 3 is going to be addressable in Elemental?[/quote] No, just the placement information is really used, but graphically it gives you an amazing amount of power to change to feel of the game.
Don't forget 'Christmas Elves'!
With Elemental mashing mechanics from both RPGs and empire builders, we also had to be aware of the HUGE difference in visual scope between the two (RPS tend to be up-close and personal with a party, Empire Builders have you managing thousands of units and dozens of colonies/cities). Having built with extreme zoom levels in mind, our engine allows the game to feel like an empire builder when zoomed out, then feel more RPG-ish when zoomed in close. With several feat