5661

Wardell explains how they utilise player ideas and feedback. An extract:

Elemental’s game mechanics fail due to the interworkings between the unit system, the combat system, and the magic system. They don’t need to be redone as much as integrated into a cohesive whole.

We have our own ideas how to address this but I will go through the forums and look at people’s ideas and other observations to see if there might be a better way.

For instance, there was a discussion in one of the threads on tactical battles and how magic should work. From that, we came up with a new design that has a casting time for spells. The player will be able to see what units and actions are coming up in a kind of “film strip” at the top of the screen. Thus, if a player is casting “Rock Slide” on them, they will likely have time to react.

Giving spells a casting time changes a lot of game mechanics and by looking at feedback from the forums, we can refine things further by hearing other players with their experiences. We don’t develop our games by “community consensus” but we do listen to ideas to see if there’s something we like better than what we came up with.

The same with combat. Splitting the “To Hit” and “Damage” rolls allows us to make a much more satisfying system.

5662

Except that those same suggestions were made during beta. Gotta love the comment too about you getting a whole new game for the price of one.

I would have liked one functioning game for my $70 on release. Stardock’s never going to let me see that money again, so as far as I’m concerned these mindless posts about how this time they’re really listening to the customers and forum posters is pretty funny.

5663

He covers that issue in the linked post.

5664

Yeah, that would have been the desired outcome, for sure.

these mindless posts about how this time they’re really listening to the customers and forum posters is pretty funny.

He’s not saying that. He’s saying “this is how we have always approached feedback”. They exercise their judgement on what to incorporate and what not to. Now, they’ve freely and at length admitted they were mistaken in their judgement the first time around so they probably give more weight to customer feedback this time. They still make the calls, though. That’s how it reads to me, anyway.

5665

While I like the fact that they want to listen to player/beta feedback, it really doesnt seem like they have a plan.

Well, maybe they have a plan, but its like the plan the cylons have. i.e. not really after all.

5666

Sounds to me like they should just shift gears slightly and turn it into a Fantasy Turn-Based Strategy Construction Set, since they apparently have no clue how to make a cohesive, interesting game design.

5667

I know it’s his game and all, but I just simply cannot understand the logic behind just staying with these boring human factions. This is supposed to be a fantasy game with fantastical creatures and magic, right? So, sticking with just humans instead of branching out to various races just seems like shooting yourself in the foot.

5668

Can you imagine how disjointed the game would have been on release if they had thrown a ton of non-human races into the mix too?

5669

Budgetary reasons.

5670

I can just about guarantee one of the expansions they make us pay for will have the fantasy races in them. Or maybe they’ll dole them out piece by piece, like horse armor in Oblivion…

5671

That hasn’t been Stardock’s way in the past.

I can see them making us pay for a 3rd XP that’s TA-like though.

5672

Wardell addresses the issue of more epic-feeling fights like the dragon screenshot on the box.

5673

Actually, that’s a great idea. If they could just make the tools available, I guarantee some talented mod people out there would turn it into something interesting. Kael created a great game out of the Civ4 base. There would be similar efforts, I’m sure. Then, Stardock should hire some of the best of these for their next game, and have a real design team. The biggest mistake they’ve made here is in trying to satisfy all their customers and add features based on feedback. They need LESS of that, not more. However, having mods created would be like having tons of design teams out there. Sift through them and make a Stardock website similar to the Oblivion one, and I think a lot of customers would get great value from their purchase.

5674

The problem I think with modding for Elemental now is the crossover with Civ 5. Neither game has released their full promised modding tools yet, but I get the feeling we’ll get the full Civ 5 suite before they get back to adding more modding functionality to Elemental.

5675

Heh, well… Civ 5 had the advantage of being a playable game out of the box and not a 50 dollar beta.

5676

sizzle!

5677

Wardell on AI non-aggression and some new conditional content:

So right now the team is working on getting v1.09 of Elemental out this week. I’ve been working on the AI which continues to generate a considerable amount of pain for me but it’s getting better but as I’ve gotten better at the game I’ve found it very problematic at certain things.
…
So v1.09 is still mostly about bug fixing, memory optimization, etc. A broken API got fixed that made the AI considerably better but it’s still way way too unaggressive. Having a non-cheating AI kind of stinks sometimes because the AI doesn’t usually know how weak your cities are. In GalCiv, the AI could come up near your planets and see how poorly defended. But the same technique fails in Elemental because they don’t get close enough to your cities to see how weak they are and then coordinate. So it’s something I’m still trying to deal with. But if anyone wondered why the AI wasn’t “aggressive” enough now you know. It’s something I’m painfully aware of.
…
v1.09 will also coincide with the special content for people who bought the game as Best Buy or Walmart. They get their own special quests. That said, we will be providing this content for free to all users 90 days after their availability to those users (they paid for them so don’t feel like you missed out).

Similarly, if you bought the book Elemental: Destiny’s Embers, the full map of Anthys, will be released this week for those who bought the book.

Technical elaboration:

Unfortunately, in v1.08 and before the pUnit->GetCombatRating() function wasn’t returning the value of the army it is in IF it is in a city. Hence, the AI would go after a city thinking it could take it because it was only looking at one unit in the city. This is what I mean about new engines and such. In GalCiv II, the various APIs that I had available to me were mature and robust. In Elemental, they’re still babies. It’s one of the reasons why sequels tend to be better than the original game. You end up with tons of mature APIs to work with for all kinds of things.

5678

v1.09 will also coincide with the special content for people who bought the game as Best Buy or Walmart. They get their own special quests. That said, we will be providing this content for free to all users 90 days after their availability to those users (they paid for them so don’t feel like you missed out).

Ooh, a set of “special quests.” I am struggling to contain the snark.

5679

I wonder whether those extra quests go into the general random quest pool or if they’re forced to appear? Otherwise it might take quite a while for the storefront shopper to even see their specials.

5680

Apparently they required such to get retail space. I do believe Stardock on that. It’s not that easy to get retail space if you’re not one of the super big guys.