ScottTykoski

Looks like the Texture Atlas isn't playing nice with your system. We have code in place that will creature textures for the UI that best work with your video card (taking max texture size, etc into account). This is why the initial run hangs for half a minute on that first splash screen. We're going to look into including the UI textures in each build from now on, then having the autmation process be an option for advanced users.

Yeah, this is something I wanted to do but got overwhelmed with making the game ;) Email [email protected] or visit us on IRC if you have any specific questions.

Yeah, we're trying to nail the in-game restarting bug for the next update. It was something we knew about but really wanted to get the beta to you guys ;) You'll find the same thing will probably/definatly happen when saved games are loaded from within a game :(

[quote]Anyways, thanks for your help - you guys rock![/quote] Thanks, but we definatly need to figure out why some systems aren't getting the fonts. Asking every user it manually install them is pretty amature hour. ;) Oh, and Thrawn! Thanks for posting a 'Let's Play...' vid of Elemental....totally made my night yesterday!!! :)

Can we get a screenshot and specs from the top of your "my games/elemental/debug.err" file please :) The more info the better ;)

Mostly bi-bweekly or weekly...though sometimes twice a week, and sometimes hourly if a dev needs instant feedback and posts a quick-build. All depends on the situation, I suppose. In general, though, it takes a good chunk of a day to get a release build pruned, tested, and ready for public consumption. We tend to do them on Thursdays, with Friday available in case something catastrphic happens :)

Some versions of windows will auto-update the fonts, and others require a restart. Try rebooting your machine and see if the fonts show up then. Yeah, it pains me to see screenshots with that generic 'Arial' throughout :(

Lots of guarded loot is definatly part of the overall plan :)

Haha Thanks SnailTrippin for trying to keep our spirits up :) This beefy list of issues was more than expected, but we certainly love to hear what people do like about the beta ;)

No, it's cool :) The more feedback, the better ;) Much of this is planned, and you'll be seeing some of them trickling in for Beta 1a.

Wow, thats a mess :( Please post your debug.err to see if we can catch any clues. Also, when you play after restarting, do you keep the Arial font, or does it use the proper fonts? Also #2...make sure you have the up-to-date drivers. Thanks! :)

In Impulse, under Community, there's a Chat button on the bottom bar. Select that, go to the impulse channel, and type in... /join #elemental And you'll join the room! Enjoy!

I'm both overjoyed and perplexed by the excitement for the beta, but we put some extra love into it yesterday so hopefully it's got some fun in there. Whats really exciting is the beta update schedule we have planned. You guys should be getting 2-4 new builds a month, so you'll really get to see the game transform right before your eyes :) <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ShmpzIiCWqo/Sa1CdHjwENI/AAAAAAAAAL0/LCDhIwu4EWc/s320/tobias-funke.jpg" alt="Tobias!!

NO...and Servius, that was mean, cruel, and uncalled for...which I imagine was your intent [e digicons]}:)[/e] I'm actually out of the office today due to a bad illness that swpet through the fam and we're still recovering. Hopefully none of the other teammembers got it. As for the build we still have 1/2 of our 'to-do for beta' list to go, so I wouldn't expect any news today or tomorrow.

[quote]Is this the cloth map only beta,[/quote] The current plan is to make the game cloth map only through Beta 2. This way we can truly focus on the gameplay for a few months :)

;) Yes, we're shooting for next week....no promises, but it's looking good.

[quote]But, if you have 32 races, and then say 10 minor races, 20-25 cities is obviously too small[/quote] Oh, I'm not saying this is a realistic goal, I'm just trying to keep the 'RPG world' feeling going strong. Most RPGs have a handful of cities that can be visited...not a city every 10 tiles. The above is just my personal preference, not a 'set-in-stone' part of the design-doc ;)

[quote]Thanks for the heads up! [/quote] No prob...I want everyone to know when I get to play Batman. I'll be sure to keep you posted [e digicons]^_^[/e] Seriosuly though, the beta's looking great...any alpha users should be getting a pre-Beta to test a few days prior to the official release, so if you're in that group keep an ear open.

[quote]For instance, why don't you write anything that could be moddable in Python first, rather than adding in that function with something else and backporting the feature in?[/quote] Because the Elemental engine was techniciall started way back with GalCiv1, so think of our engine development as iterative, not 'clean slate'. All python functionality at the engine level has to be back ported, which is a huge pain. Using python for the AI and Questing is our first step, then we i

[quote]Can't wait 'till next week![/quote] Uh...completely out of context. Next week I get my XBox back and can finally play Batman:AA. [e digicons]:rolleyes:[/e]

[quote]100 cities / turn[/quote] We're hoping to keep empires from reaching such insane sizes...I personally hope a HUGE, sprawling, glorious empire never grows larger than 20-25 settlements. But that's just me :)

Map Generation is not currently hooked up through Python, but I'm sure it could be at some point :) I need to bring this up from time to time, but remember that most of the 'python moddability' of Civ4 came for free with the Gamebryo engine. Any time we spend hooking up and testing python compatability with a feature is time not spent on somethign else, so we want to pick and choose the best areas for intergration when developing the main game. Other features, both in the gamepla

[quote]If Beta 1 doesn't have the magic system, how will we be able to create fertile land or whatever other basic functions are needed to play the game? By "magic system" do you mean just the sleek interface will be cut out, or that there simply won't be magic in the game? [/quote] The 1st beta "Beta 1" will lack magic completly, but we'll be updating Beta 1 on the road to Beta 2. You'll probably see magic around Beta 1c. edit: There will be the 're-seeding of the world

[quote]Yet, you go on to say that the reason you wont include graphics in the first few beta builds is because it should be fun without them.[/quote] The cloth map allows us to implement new features quickly and easilly (read: without making the 3d assets for them). If a new feature sucks, we can remove it without having wasted time on the assets. It's 1 step up from developing as ascii version...you get the gameplay fun, then add in the visual pizazz. :)

[quote]Iirc, neither MoM or MoO1 had race customization at all ... but I know what you meant, cool [/quote] Seriously, I can't wait to get the faction customization in. The plan ATM is to give the player X 'customization points' that can be spend on the 3 major parts of your faction: the sovereign's stats, the civilizations stats, and your magical preferences. You can imagine the HUGE range of possibilities with such a system...it's going to be nuts :)