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Stardock's new game "Elemental: War of Magic"

Kingston

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Jan 13, 2007
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I lack the wit to put something hilarious here
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55726


A turn-based 4X strategy game focused on exploration, expansion, exploitation and extermination, Elemental sees players cast as the "only person in your kingdom with the ability to channel magic," allowing them to engage in traditional kingdom management, such as crafting new cities and spells, political negotiations, or exploring dungeons.

A variety of "ground-breaking" multiplayer modes will be included, such as a persistent universe mode in addition to the traditional skirmish modes.

Similar to EA Maxis' Spore (PC), Elemental includes integrated modding support, seamlessly delivering new maps, creatures, items, spells, and so forth to other players when they start the game and connect online.

Like all Stardock releases, Elemental: War of Magic will include no on-disc DRM when it arrives in Q1 2010 at $49.95, with a public beta beginning in spring 2009.


:cool:

Master of Magic comes to mind somewhat.
 
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
372
Recently saw this posted somewhere else myself. The cel-shaded graphics were an interesting choice. I think I like it, and seems to work well with the premise. One thing that doesn't seem available (or I haven't seen mentioned) is the ability to generate random maps. While the project seems to support extensive modding, I really like having that capability for these types of games.
 

Alfgart

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Divinity: Original Sin 2
Sounds kind of like Age of Wonders: Shadow magic, which is a good thing.
 

Saint_Proverbius

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Yup, I love a decent fantasy setting civilization-like game. It's probably one of the few game types where I don't get a little sick of fantasy settings.
 

ricolikesrice

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May 11, 2007
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try out the fall from heaven 2 mod for civ4 BTS. besides the current build being named 0.34 it feels like a really complete mod, heck like a complete game most of the time (seriously, the only glaring prob with the game is the enemy AI, which is really pretty stupid and hopefully improved in further builds).

as for this elemental game. made up my mind on the graphics. they look flatout shit. not a graphicswhore here when it comes to strategy games, i still occasionally play final liberation for example .... but stardocks problem seems to be they have zero talent for art design.
gal civ 2 already looked utter shit and so does this game. not because they dont have "next gen" engines backing them up but because those games look also worse than 10y older titles with such lacklustre art design.

age of wonders: shadow magic > this game. Fall from Heaven mod > this game. graphicswise at least, gameplay - wise i have high hopes but that there s apparently only 2 different factions (men and the "fallen") doesnt bode well imho.

EDIT: luckily i was wrong on the just 2 different factions part, the following sounds good:

While Elemental comes with two races -- Men and Fallen, each of these races are split into 6 factions each (12 total). Each of these factions has its own technology tree and own spell book to make each faction play very very differently.

The thing to remember here, these are groups that have been split off from each other for a long time now and they have evolved in very different directions.



cant someone simply remake MoM 1:1 with civ4-like graphics, good art design, better AI & interface ? :(
 

ricolikesrice

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brad wardell just posted this on the Fall from Heaven 2 Forums (apparently he s a big fan of this mod, bodes well for elemental ^^):

Hi guys, Brad from Stardock here.

A few things:

There are 12 factions in the game, not 2. There are two races. Civilization has one race (humans).

Each of the 12 factions gets their own spell book and their own technology tree so they will play very very differently.

The screenshots are nothing near as good as what the final game will look like. Remember what the first screenshots of Civ IV looked like. As the engine develops, the lighting will continue to improve and the graphics will continue to improve.

Regarding Galactic Civilizations II -- you should check out Twilight of the Arnor. The AI was heavily improved, each race gets its own unique tech tree, weapons, improvements, etc. and super ability. They play very differently.

Over the coming months, I think you'll find there's a lot in Elemental that Civ fans in particular will like. It's not GalCiv with magic. It's a very different game.

link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=297964&page=2
 

trystero

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Jun 9, 2004
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72
Wow...

Looking forward to this one. Guess I will pre-order for the June 09 beta.

Will have to fire up AoWII, been too long.
 
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One thing I should mention about the tactical battles that isn't clear in the screenshots is that they're continuous turns. They're not like HOMM. The player tells where they want their units and uses the space bar to pause the action to give new directions. That way, we can get much more interesting battles.
I'm not so sure about this. Sounds kind of like real-time with pause to me. Maybe it will work, maybe not. I'd prefer full turn-based myself.
 

Seboss

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Flux_Capacitor said:
I'm not so sure about this. Sounds kind of like real-time with pause to me. Maybe it will work, maybe not. I'd prefer full turn-based myself.
This works pretty good in the Total War series. Note that the game will have auto-resolution and instant resolution.
If the two modes are properly balanced (i.e not like TW where you can achieve victory without any casualties in real-time while the auto-resolve kills half of your army in the same battle), I guess you won't have to use RT battles if you don't feel like it.

I suppose RT battles will always give you a slight edge over auto-resolve though. If not, what's the point in playing the battles in realtime huh?
 

Annonchinil

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I always liked WEGO in CM games, not sure if it will work in a magic/fantasy setting...
 

Spectacle

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Flux_Capacitor said:
One thing I should mention about the tactical battles that isn't clear in the screenshots is that they're continuous turns. They're not like HOMM. The player tells where they want their units and uses the space bar to pause the action to give new directions. That way, we can get much more interesting battles.
I'm not so sure about this. Sounds kind of like real-time with pause to me. Maybe it will work, maybe not. I'd prefer full turn-based myself.

Sounds exactly like RTwP to me. My interest in this game just dropped by 60%. They better reveal the combat system to be close to the Total War series if they want it to be good.
 

Suicidal

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Spectacle said:
Flux_Capacitor said:
One thing I should mention about the tactical battles that isn't clear in the screenshots is that they're continuous turns. They're not like HOMM. The player tells where they want their units and uses the space bar to pause the action to give new directions. That way, we can get much more interesting battles.
I'm not so sure about this. Sounds kind of like real-time with pause to me. Maybe it will work, maybe not. I'd prefer full turn-based myself.

Sounds exactly like RTwP to me. My interest in this game just dropped by 60%.

Mine dropped by 80%. I hate RTwP. Aw, come one! Was a game with MoM/Age of Wonders type combat too much to ask for!
 

CrimsonAngel

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Oct 2, 2007
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Still this is stardock they are pretty good at making games so i will give it a chance no matter what...

I am such a bitch.
 

Seboss

Liturgist
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Jan 27, 2006
Messages
947
Gamespot first look

About battles, here's an excerpt:
Gamespot said:
Battles play out similar to those in the Total War series. You'll move armies across the overworld map and then zoom into a 3D battle map. Battles do not play out in real time per se but are continually turn-based. You could pause the game to queue up various attacks or let the battles play out, issuing orders on the fly and playing the battles out as if they were in real time. Stardock is hoping the battles are as large as those in Total War as well. Company president Brad Wardell envisions thousands of units onscreen at once, ranging from infantry to archers, with dragons soaring overhead. If your channeler has sufficient magic and weapons, he will be able to cut through the opposing armies like a knife through butter, knocking dozens of foot soldiers to their doom with a single blow. The inspiration for these battles is none other than the prologue in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring when Sauron dons the One Ring then attacks the armies of elves and men. If that's too hectic for you and you prefer to manage your kingdom from afar, you could also choose to auto-resolve your conflicts.
I would be perfectly all right with TW-style battles. I had my share of TB battles with King's Bounty and the pre-scripted battle system of Dominions never really catched my fancy.
 

Deacdo

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Oct 24, 2004
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Seboss said:
Flux_Capacitor said:
I'm not so sure about this. Sounds kind of like real-time with pause to me. Maybe it will work, maybe not. I'd prefer full turn-based myself.
This works pretty good in the Total War series. Note that the game will have auto-resolution and instant resolution.
If the two modes are properly balanced (i.e not like TW where you can achieve victory without any casualties in real-time while the auto-resolve kills half of your army in the same battle), I guess you won't have to use RT battles if you don't feel like it.

I suppose RT battles will always give you a slight edge over auto-resolve though. If not, what's the point in playing the battles in realtime huh?
To me that won't cut it. I'll only buy this game if the tactical combat is excellent. Grand strategy games are pretty common and not really my cup of tea. They only interest me when it ties in really well to the combat system (ala Age of Wonders).
 

MetalCraze

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I was hoping for it too. That and also poor art direction (I don't find monotonic cartoon style to be any good) are that I don't like.
I hoped the battles would be more tactical than in AOW/MOM but... Well I hope that at least they will make a better and less linear economics/city building system than the pretty boring linear one in MoM/AoW.
 

Seboss

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Jan 27, 2006
Messages
947
Hmm well, I'd be happy with both systems as long as it's done right.

There's a lot of discussion going on in the Elemental forums and Stardock is well known for listening to its community. The game is slated for Feb 2010, so I guess there are a lot of decisions that are not set in stone yet.
 

PorkaMorka

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Feb 19, 2008
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hahaha this game has been amazingly disappointing so far, and I was really excited for it too.

It's not really turn based, they pretty much lied.

Only two races with 6 factions each. So we'll be missing a lot of cool races from MOM.

And the mechanic where you start off super powerful and grow weaker as you build cities sounds pretty annoying.

Also the art style is bad.

I see MOM clones are doomed to the same fate as X-com clones. Devs try to be original, mess up the formula and lose whatever made the first game so great.
 

YourConscience

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Feb 9, 2006
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In your head, obviously
hahaha this game has been amazingly disappointing so far ...

Amazing, so many conclusions about a game in pre-alpha stage that's two years off of release. I wish I would know so well how my software projects turn out to be two years in advance. That would make me a rich man really quickly!
 

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