Elemental all-purpose thread

Charles · 2010-08-26T15:04:21.000Z

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

I loved that game, despite its problems.

ioticus · 2010-08-26T15:08:54.000Z

I have come to the conclusion that Stardock really sucks at game design. They should just stick with publishing other company’s games.

Argot · 2010-08-26T15:15:22.000Z

ioticus:

I have come to the conclusion that Stardock really sucks at game design. They should just stick with publishing other company’s games.

I think they should stick to distributing other people’s games. They certainly didn’t do Demigod any favors, although I have to admit Sins worked out well enough.

ioticus · 2010-08-26T15:17:07.000Z

Argot:

I think they should stick to distributing other people’s games. They certainly didn’t do Demigod any favors, although I have to admit Sins worked out well enough.

I agree Sins was a great game but wasn’t it designed by another company?

Cubit · 2010-08-26T15:21:09.000Z

Yeah, Stardock did not develop Sins.

Dan_Theman · 2010-08-26T15:21:14.000Z

ioticus:

I have come to the conclusion that Stardock really sucks at game design. They should just stick with publishing other company’s games.

Argot:

I think they should stick to distributing other people’s games. They certainly didn’t do Demigod any favors, although I have to admit Sins worked out well enough.

ioticus:

I agree Sins was a great game but wasn’t it designed by another company?

Actually, both Demigod and Sins were developed by different companies. Demigod was by GPG, and Sins was indeed by Ironclad.

ioticus · 2010-08-26T15:22:18.000Z

Cory:

Yeah, Stardock did not develop Sins.

Then no wonder it was so good!

Dan_Theman · 2010-08-26T15:25:39.000Z

ioticus:

Then no wonder it was so good!

Just curious if this is random hating or not -

I know reviews aren’t exactly a reliable barometer of a game’s quality, but most of their games have been pretty well-recieved. They really haven’t made a whole lot of them in recent history, so there’s not much of a sample size to go by. GalCiv II and its expansions are the last major foray before Elemental that I’m aware of.

Argot · 2010-08-26T15:39:27.000Z

Dan_Theman:

Actually, both Demigod and Sins were developed by different companies. Demigod was by GPG, and Sins was indeed by Ironclad.

Right, but they published/paid for both. Demigod was a disaster of a release, with matchmaking that took months to fix and online components that still don’t work (leaderboard etc). Both of those were Stardock’s responsibility.

All in all Sins seemed great. I’m just giving credit where it is due, because Stardock must have had something to do with Sins.

mkozlows · 2010-08-26T15:46:06.000Z

Question for people playing it: One of the things that Brad was insistent about was that Elemental wouldn’t commit GalCiv’s cardinal sin of having lifeless and dull techs/races/etc. And yet, those of you who are posting impressions are saying a lot of “+X%” things.

Leaving aside the level of polish and whether stuff works, do units and spells and things at least feel unique and interesting, or “Improved Spellcasting”-y?

JM1 · 2010-08-26T15:47:37.000Z

I can’t tell the difference between the nations.

kerzain · 2010-08-26T15:53:44.000Z

Boogiebac (producer) posted an update about upcoming changes in tonight’s patch:

Boogiebac:

Got a fancy new build coming your way tonight. The big fix we wanted to get out there was for the “white screen” that happened in tactical battles on certain setups (this should also fix memory issues those players may have encountered).

We’re testing this internally now and we’ll let you know when its public. In the meantime, here’s the changelong of various additions and bugfixes…

There is a lot more stuff covered in his post.

Jorn_Weines · 2010-08-26T16:01:59.000Z

Richard Holt:

A lot of people have compared it to Master of Magic games. Do these games still stand up? Should I give them a shot? Which one do people recommend starting with?

In case you haven’t dug them up already: There’s a couple of threads on MoM from when they were released on GOG that might interest you:

Master of Magic Rises Again

Master of Magic Challenge

Matt_Perkins · 2010-08-26T16:22:24.000Z

Playing Demigod on the LAN is a great idea. My son, and maybe my daughter, would love that game. Good call!

tomchick · 2010-08-26T16:22:54.000Z

JM:

I can’t tell the difference between the nations.

As best as I can tell, the differences among the actual nations are a bit like Civ. They differ by the bonuses and penalties they get. The real difference is between the tech trees of the good (Kingdom) and evil (Empire) factions. It looks like that’s where Stardock is pushing the asymmetry.

To answer your question, Mr Z-lows, the spell system – Arcane Lore, I guess you would call it – really needs another pass or two. But I really like how Elemental handles its non-arcane tech, which ties into nearly every single aspect of the game. I’d say it’s a huge improvement over GalCiv, which really didn’t come into its own until that expansion in GalCiv II that added racial tech trees. You can tell that Elemental is drawing from that.

So, yes, I’d say that when Elemental comes together, unique and interesting factions – and hopefully spells – will be a big selling point.

  -Tom

Dan_Theman · 2010-08-26T16:26:29.000Z

Matt Perkins:

Playing Demigod on the LAN is a great idea. My son, and maybe my daughter, would love that game. Good call!

Glad to help - as for that mod I mentioned before, it’s called “The Quite Insane Mod” (and is totally not balanced, but makes for a very entertaining battle if you’re all on the same side). Make sure you’ve got the same version of the mod enabled on everyone’s PC who is partaking.

Calelari · 2010-08-26T17:49:09.000Z

KieronGillen:

No, when you’ve got a name like “Kieron” you don’t stress about spelling that much. Almost everyone I’ve ever worked for has got it wrong first time. And often after that too.

I’m curious why you don’t just drop all pretense and reveal your true identity as Kieron the Conquerer.

Ben_Sones · 2010-08-26T17:58:00.000Z

TomChick:

To answer your question, Mr Z-lows, the spell system – Arcane Lore, I guess you would call it – really needs another pass or two. But I really like how Elemental handles its non-arcane tech, which ties into nearly every single aspect of the game.

One thing I really do like about the game is the research. It’s a clever system, and a nice change of pace from working your way through a static tech tree. I like that you sometimes get unexpected techs, and sometimes can’t be positive that you will discover the tech that you really want. And I like the escalating cost structure, which takes a page from the Rise of Legends research system and makes it very hard (perhaps impossible) to go deep in everything. It’s a slick system.

Damien_Neil · 2010-08-26T18:00:26.000Z

Calelari:

I’m curious why you don’t just drop all pretense and reveal your true identity as Kieron the Conquerer.

He’s still trying to wrangle an invitation to Castle Black so he can reveal his identity and challenge Aliera to a duel all in one shot.

rhinohelix · 2010-08-26T19:00:23.000Z

Argot:

Right, but they published/paid for both. Demigod was a disaster of a release, with matchmaking that took months to fix and online components that still don’t work (leaderboard etc). Both of those were Stardock’s responsibility.

Wasn’t it more like GPS shipped both of those in terrible shape, there was some contractual issue that got in the way of them fixing it and eventually Stardock came in and rewrote the stuff themselves in order to get it done?