Elemental all-purpose thread

Coreander · 2010-09-21T05:57:02.000Z

Strato:

Goddamn. I have to wonder if someone is sitting in a little bunker somewhere, smirking to themselves as they repeatedly push the big red button flashing on a desk to enables a microchip inserted into the general populace’s brains to type

“Why didn’t Stardock push the release date back?”

Crazy thinking I know! It’s all well and good to say that retrospectively, but it don’t change diddly squat besides more speculation and reasoning of what’s broken because of the release date. Shit happens, move on. Stardock are doing their best to do so, why can’t QT3. The release date is done, get over it.

No. With luck, for the next couple years or so, when other companies consider a choice of release windows, they might say to themselves: “If we release early, we might end up like Stardock.” And then their game will be released later and in better condition. And everybody will be happier for it.

Making them into a memorably horrible example is a Good Thing.

(Yes, I know, Wardell says they were so blind to the problems waiting wouldn’t have fixed anything. I don’t believe that. In six months they could have caught more technical issues, or added bells and whistles just for fun and alleviated some of the boringness, all in their pre-existing confidence that the game was good and they were just making it better. That would’ve made the difference between a mediocre release and the utter bomb that it actually was.)

TheTrunkDr · 2010-09-21T07:42:10.000Z

Coreander:

No. With luck, for the next couple years or so, when other companies consider a choice of release windows, they might say to themselves: “If we release early, we might end up like Stardock.” And then their game will be released later and in better condition. And everybody will be happier for it.

Making them into a memorably horrible example is a Good Thing.

Because the hundreds of other examples of the exact same thing worked so well at teaching companies it’s not a great idea?

Coreander · 2010-09-21T17:07:40.000Z

Is it just me, or does trying to view page 186 always redirect to 185?

Black_Isis · 2010-09-21T17:09:07.000Z

Coreander:

Is it just me, or does trying to view page 186 always redirect to 185?

No, I’ve had that problem a couple times with this thread. I think it’s because page 186 doesn’t actually exist yet (not sure why the link is showing up)…

kerzain · 2010-09-21T17:12:28.000Z

I think someone created a post and deleted it. The post created page 186, but the page didn’t disappear when the post was zapped.

JM1 · 2010-09-21T17:17:58.000Z

I’ve had that happen on a few threads now.

Anaxagoras · 2010-09-21T18:44:52.000Z

olaf:

With Civ5 today, Elemental is dead to me. If they offered a general refund, they would lose over half of their sales. Its been a month now, the game is still so full of problems. I dont know how long its going to take them to make it good, much less great. And I am not sure they will get to good or great.

“Elemental… Lord knows I’ve tried to be understanding, and give you space to figure out who you want to be, but I can’t do it anymore. You’ve hurt me one too many times. I want you out of my life. You are dead to me.”

Morberis · 2010-09-21T19:23:42.000Z

I just got my copies of the limited edition in… they sent me two. Both dated the same.

Raife · 2010-09-21T19:24:19.000Z

Tom Chick will be releasing a patch to fix page 186. It’s will start QA tomorrow, thankfully a QA slot opened up.

Jarmo · 2010-09-21T22:49:15.000Z

Elemental: Post-Release Update Schedule, September 21, 2010 19:04

Here’s our schedule for updates to Elemental for the remainder of 2010. This schedule is subject to change and will be refreshed as we near the end of the year to detail updates for 1Q2011.

v1.09

* Memory Optimizations
* AI Updates
* Bug fixes
* Performance improvements
* Minor balance tweaks
* Due: September 30, 2010

v1.1

* New Magic System based on a shared mana pool.
* Refresh of all magical spells
* Major AI Update
* New global resource: Specialist Slots (allows more choices between guns and butter for players)
* Refreshed User Interface
* Due: October

v1.A (Expansion 1)

* New Combat System (To Hit stat with damage being rolled separately, lots of other changes)
* New Tactical Battle System (removal of action points, combat speed determines initiative and how many times a unit gets to perform an action in a given tactical turn)
* Tutorial
* Visual Overhaul
* Lots of other goodies which we'll discuss later
* Due: End of November
* Free to everyone who buys Elemental: War of Magic

V1.B (Expansion 2)

* Due: 1Q2011
* Free to everyone who buys Elemental: War of Magic by October 31

Beyond v1.B:

* Regular updates are scheduled (budgeted) for v1.x of Elemental for calendar year 2011.

This is by no means a complete schedule as minor updates may occur in-between these milestone builds.

Chris_Nahr · 2010-09-21T23:24:45.000Z

Coreander:

Is it just me, or does trying to view page 186 always redirect to 185?

Quarter To Three Forums – 17 Sep 10

Last page of thread inaccessible?

Has anyone else seen this strange bug on Qt3? I’m reading a thread and trying to get to the last page, but clicking on it just sends me back to the current, next-to-last page. For example, right now in this thread: Trying to click on “43” or...

salwon · 2010-09-22T04:35:43.000Z

Jarmo:

Elemental: Post-Release Update Schedule, September 21, 2010 19:04

So they expect to have two full expansions done within six months? Sure.

JM1 · 2010-09-22T04:38:11.000Z

Well, they’ll release them. Whether they’ll be ‘done’ or not is another question… :p

kerzain · 2010-09-22T04:43:40.000Z

Based on the expected schedule of changes I’m penciling in the “End of November” as the time frame for my next attempt at playing the game.

It irks me these are still being called expansions rather than patches.

TurinTur · 2010-09-22T04:49:50.000Z

salwon:

So they expect to have two full expansions done within six months? Sure.

Surely they will be mini-expansion or a “big update” than a full retail, traditional, expansion.

Dan_Theman · 2010-09-22T04:59:47.000Z

Yeah, I’m thinking micro expansions along the lines of Sins of a Solar Empire with Entrenchment and Diplomacy. Worthwhile and making the game significantly better, but not sequel-length.

salwon · 2010-09-22T09:19:25.000Z

There was a year in between Sins and each expansion. Also, Sins worked correctly in the first place.

James_Johnson · 2010-09-22T13:04:28.000Z

What a fancy way of weaseling out of the “First two expansions free since you made the mistake of buying our game” promise. Name a free, mandatory patch and what can only be a $15 DLC pack (what else can happen in six months) “expansions” and bam, promise fulfilled.

KevinC · 2010-09-22T13:06:26.000Z

Perhaps we should wait and see what the expansions/patches/whatever actually deliver before heaping praise or condemnation on them.

Tyjenks · 2010-09-22T13:07:53.000Z

KevinC:

Perhaps we should wait and see what the expansions/patches/whatever actually deliver before heaping praise or condemnation on them.

Crazy talk.