asper said:So how does this shit compare to Dominions 3: The Awakening?
So here's a partial list of things that we think are big deals that we want to address this year in the Elemental universe in order to make it the classic PC fantasy strategy game of its time.
1. Core Engine Stuff. This means smarter memory management so that we can have larger maps, faster late game performance, etc.
2. Core Strategic AI stuff. This means an AI that plays the game strategically in an intelligent way.
3. Core Tactical AI stuff. This means that when you have a battle tactically, the AI units play as if they were being controlled by another human.
4. Core Diplomacy AI stuff. More interesting and intelligent diplomatic options available to players.
5. More overt AI differentiation. That is, each faction plays different to the point that players can see a difference. They're not predictable but rather they have different ways of achieving their objectives.
6. More faction differentiation. That is, each player is blatantly different across the board. Techs, improvements, weapons, racial attributes, etc.
7. More interesting tactical battles. Specifically, tactical battles that blend the best of strategy and RPG together. A complete rewrite of what we have today.
8. More interesting and important city differentation. That means, more explicit ways to specialize cities, more interesting ways to make different cities unique and strategic on their own.
9. Vastly more interesting world. We have this great world with great lore behind it but you don't see it in the game. This is going to change this year as the lore of Elemental comes into play both in terms of actual game mechanics and game play but in the general feel of the world.
10. Much more modding support than what we have today.
Start Monday, 3 new people join Stardock and are being added to the Elemental team. And two of them are pretty well known and the other is an amazing game developer that we've bee fortunate enough to find.
Stardock is looking to hire more people for the Elemental team (in particular, Kael and I are trying to recruit a seasoned lead game developer). Please contact myself of Derek if you know anyone who would fit that description. Stardock has some other game projects that start up this year as well and the publishing group is working on some new things as well. So it's going to be a pretty exciting year for Stardock gamers.
Stardock is looking to hire more people for the Elemental team (in particular, Kael and I are trying to recruit a seasoned lead game developer). Please contact myself of Derek if you know anyone who would fit that description.
Trash said:You know, I practically wrote this puppy off but now...
I guess this is a matter of opinion, but I think the game looks really good. The cloth map is pretty cool, and there are all kinds of nice details when you zoom in on cities. The buildings have animated citizens sawing lumber/trading/ect and it's even animated when the buildings are under construction. I'm a sucker for detail like that.Unimpressive visuals
20 Eyes said:Trash said:You know, I practically wrote this puppy off but now...
I don't understand why Stardock gets so much flak around here. GalCiv 2 was a good game, though boring, and sure they screwed up with the release of Elemental. But they're one of the few companies that actually seems to give a shit about their fans (ie, free expansions to people that bought Elemental at release, continuing to update the game when just about anyone else would cut their losses and move on).
20 Eyes said:Trash said:You know, I practically wrote this puppy off but now...
I don't understand why Stardock gets so much flak around here. GalCiv 2 was a good game, though boring, and sure they screwed up with the release of Elemental. But they're one of the few companies that actually seems to give a shit about their fans (ie, free expansions to people that bought Elemental at release, continuing to update the game when just about anyone else would cut their losses and move on).
cities are cool and shit, I agree, but the rest of the game world is just banal.shit.boring. I mean, I understand that it's supposed to be 'post-apocalyptic' in a way, but still, all is brown brown brown brown, plains and mountains are fucking ugly^infinity, forests' scale is ridiculous, and there's not much else.20 Eyes said:I guess this is a matter of opinion, but I think the game looks really good. The cloth map is pretty cool, and there are all kinds of nice details when you zoom in on cities. The buildings have animated citizens sawing lumber/trading/ect and it's even animated when the buildings are under construction. I'm a sucker for detail like that.Unimpressive visuals
ricolikesrice said:Zeus what is the "scale" of the typical elemental battles right now ?
from the videos i ve seen it seems like another of those games were a "major battle" is 5 guys and a bear fighting 4 skeletons and 2 demons ...
is that spot on or do mid/late-game battles involve enough units that its actually fair to call them "battle" and not just duels/skirmishes ?
ricolikesrice said:Zeus what is the "scale" of the typical elemental battles right now ?
from the videos i ve seen it seems like another of those games were a "major battle" is 5 guys and a bear fighting 4 skeletons and 2 demons ...
is that spot on or do mid/late-game battles involve enough units that its actually fair to call them "battle" and not just duels/skirmishes ?
Where? These cities looked like 150 population cities. If he would get brain it would be fairly nice low end, each person matters, game. Imagine city population similar to Tropico... ...just with spears and other stuff. The trouble is he can't decide on one design. He is shuffling several different designs around. Because he doesn't have focus, results often fall short of theirs goals.ricolikesrice said:seeing 8 guys (and the bear ! ) duke it out for a supposedly 10.000 pop city ... thats quite a turnoff even if we re talking about a fantasy game.
He screwed up with combat system. He simply multiplied the attack and the defense by number of troops, and he was done with. That was wrong approach of course. Increasing attack merely made armor insignificant, and the whole group became overpowered. Late in game, there ware large stacks of catapults attacking your units. It looked absurd.Zeus said:a single Scout troop, unlock the ability to band them together, and all of a sudden you're walking around with six scouts per square.
Raghar said:He screwed up with combat system. He simply multiplied the attack and the defense by number of troops, and he was done with. That was wrong approach of course. Increasing attack merely made armor insignificant, and the whole group became overpowered.