Elemental all-purpose thread

[arctangent]

The sentiment is good, but you’re obviously new. It should be a picture involving a dinosaur in some way.

Preferably involving a dead dinosaur, in Sir Digby’s case.

[Matt_Perkins]

Just an fyi in case you haven’t played it in quite some time -
Make sure you log into the MP servers at least once. Doing so unlocks two extra demigods which you can then *forever more use in MP or SP.

• • defined as “however long that install lasts on your hard drive”

See, that’s the problem with Demigod and the user base being killed out of the gate…the only True Way™ to play it is multiplayer.

[TurinTur]

I bought Demigod. I even played a dozen of hours… but i never played Multiplayer. :(

[Dan_Theman]

See, that’s the problem with Demigod and the user base being killed out of the gate…the only True Way™ to play it is multiplayer.

I bought Demigod. I even played a dozen of hours… but i never played Multiplayer. :(

I play LAN with my kid, and it’s great fun. There’s also some decent mods out there including one that basically amps up everything (more grunts and what not) which is quite fun to play SP with. I don’t recall the name and I’m not on one of my gaming pc’s at the moment, but I’ll post it here later if you guys are interested in checking it out. edit - rather, I’ll post it in the Demigod thread.

[peacedog]

I play LAN with my kid, and it’s great fun. There’s also some decent mods out there including one that basically amps up everything (more grunts and what not) which is quite fun to play SP with. I don’t recall the name and I’m not on one of my gaming pc’s at the moment, but I’ll post it here later if you guys are interested in checking it out. edit - rather, I’ll post it in the Demigod thread.

Please do.

[Squee]

I think this bears repeating.

[Sebmojo]

This thread has made do the following:

1. Love RPS even more. They not only posted very news worthy stuff, with reasons and links as to why, they then backed it up and stood by it.

Agreed.

3. Realize that Tom wants QT3 to exist in some fantasy world where developers can post idiotic things and not be called on it. I’m not sure why.

Seeing Maxximum Swear-O-Tom was like seeing your favourite uncle all drunk on furniture polish and slobbering over a $2 prostitute. Not attractive.

[mtkafka]

I like many of the ideas in the game, but I’m disappointed in the tactical combat- it plays out too slowly, and there isn’t enough diversity of troops/attacks and so not enough decisions. In contrast, MoM had flying units, invisible units, undead, etc with attacks and spells good against each type. The crashes and inconsistent interface can and probably will eventually be fixed, long term I’m more worried about the combat.

yeah the tactical combat, while not bad, is very plain. it has potential to have the depth of an HoMM/Kings Bounty with the right mix of units and abilties. instead it feels like an AoW lite tactical combat without all the units.

also hope they can add a cloth map tactical combat view option. the 3d is nice, but really its all about squares and unit pieces.

[TurinTur]

Hey, AoW had not only more unit variety and abilities variety, also had bigger battle landscapes, better sieges, much better interface, a more decent tactical ai (actually was a very decent ai, the problem in AoW was the strategic AI), battles with various sides and “strategic flanking” (armies from the 6 hexes that sorrounded the conflicting hex also participate in the battle), less abstract mechanics (differences between attack/accuracy and damage, magic resistance, etc), more explicit interaction between types of damage and protection/weakness/inmunnity, range and height difference affecting projectiles, better particle f/x, friendly fire, bonus from morale standings, etc.

In the other hand, i never expected of Elemental to have a polished combat like in King’s Bounty, it’s clear Elemental is more a strategic game and KB a pure tactical game. I would even say HoMM was also more a tactical game, as the strategic part was kind of simple.

[mtkafka]

i agree. the tactical combat should be second to the overall 4x strategic layer. if anything i’d love the strategic ai of the last Warlords (iv?).

[kerzain]

Naeblis beat me to it. I was about to rattle off a dozen of things that AoW did better with regards to tactical battles.

[Therlun]

Hey, AoW had not only more unit variety and abilities variety, also had bigger battle landscapes, better sieges, much better interface, a more decent tactical ai (actually was a very decent ai, the problem in AoW was the strategic AI), battles with various sides and “strategic flanking” (armies from the 6 hexes that sorrounded the conflicting hex also participate in the battle), less abstract mechanics (differences between attack/accuracy and damage, magic resistance, etc), more explicit interaction between types of damage and protection/weakness/inmunnity, range and height difference affecting projectiles, better particle f/x, friendly fire, bonus from morale standings, etc.

Wow, this actually convinced me now. I join the Elemental sucks camp.

[mtkafka]

Wow, this actually convinced me now. I join the Elemental sucks camp.

dont go that far. AoW wasn’t really a 4x game. theres no tech or quest gameplay on par with Elemental. elemental borrows elements from AoW and other fantasy strategy game… but really the gameplay predecessor of Elemental is still GalCiv.

[Therlun]

dont go that far. AoW wasn’t really a 4x game. theres no tech or quest gameplay on par with Elemental. elemental borrows elements from AoW and other fantasy strategy game… but really the gameplay predecessor of Elemental is still GalCiv.

Actually AoW 2 had quests, from shrines you built.
Taking then into account that I consider the tech system in Elemental to be one of its greatest weaknesses…

[Jason_Cross]

You know, I think part of the gamer outrage over Elemental has to do with Demigod.

That was a game that was just brilliant is a lot of ways, but was released in such a rough state (especially with regard to the all-important - for that genre - multiplayer) that it all but killed it. Here was a game that we loved, and really relied on its mulitplayer play, but was broken enough to kill any chance it had of a community being formed to make it a long-lasting staple. It also negatively impacted reviews, which means not enough people would give it a shot.

Sure, they eventually fixed it. By then it was too late.

So here’s another game…a game of a general design and subject matter we want to see more of and want to be great. We were probably hoping Stardock would have learned about the momentum-killing effect of an unpolished release from Demigod, but here we go again.

Maybe there are other mitigating circumstances. Either way, it’s another release that so many of us just really want to be great, and popular, and it’s going to lose all momentum and get the rug pulled out from under it because of a rough release. :(

[kerzain]

AoW quests were brutal too, The Shrine of War says “Hey, go wipe out that city over there you are completely unprepared to handle, and if you don’t do it in five turns I will fuck your shit up homeboy”.

[Squee]

On the bright side, it looks like the Age of Wonders series is coming to Steam and/or GoG soonish.
http://www.triumphstudios.com/ageofwonders/images/aowportal.jpg

[KevinC]

Tactical battles in Elemental are a component of the game, a relatively minor one at that. Age of Wonders, on the other hand, was a (brilliant) tactical battle game with a lite strategy layer to tie it all together and give the battles context.

I don’t think Elemental’s tactical battles will ever compare with AoW, but since that’s not the focus of the game I think that’s fair enough. Doesn’t meant that they can’t see some drastic improvement, though. All the building blocks are there, it just needs to be put together right.

[mtkafka]

Actually AoW 2 had quests, from shrines you built.
Taking then into account that I consider the tech system in Elemental to be one of its greatest weaknesses…

I really meant that AoW doesn’t have the questing 4x tech gameplay like elemental (actually not many games have this). the closest game i can remember that had this was probably SW Rebellion, but even then it was scripted and not a part of the 4x tech up gameplay.

[McBain]

Unbelievable graphics; fantastic sound; addictive and ever-changing gameplay. Windows slows it down, and there isn’t enough info in the manual to get you started on your first colony. Might be hard for first-timers. If you’re a strategy fan, you must own Elemental. Period.

93/100