I figure it would have to be an Impulse buy. :P
So can we run our own persistent servers a la Dominions/Pitboss?
Brad - will there be any way to quick-resolve combat? Playing out tactical combat is fun when the sides are at all matched, but it’s just a drag on my patience when you’re going to steamroll the other side or whatever. And sometimes you just want to get combat over with because you’re focusing on the bigger picture or a “technology win” or something.
I’m curious how that what looks like two types of maps interact. Is the parchment style the world map with the more ‘gamey’ style maps being for specific locations on the big map? Are both maps tile based?
Yes. The good guys get life magic. The bad guys use death magic.
It’s the strategic zoom in action. When you zoom all the way out, the map becomes the parchment. It’s a very seamless experience. You could, in theory, play the whole game that way almost (other than placing new tiles on cities and whether you wanted to have tactical battles).
Totally. There’s instant-resolve (i.e. two armies meet, one dies), there’s auto-resolve where the game zooms in and shows a tactical battle but it’s all handled by the AI (ala GalCiv II fleet battles) and then there’s full tactical battles where both sides play.
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’ve always thought this is the only way to resolve Tac battles in a computer game which would be the most balanced…both sides handled by the A.I. So many games where the players complain about lousy Tac AI (right or wrong.) The only way to balance it is to let the comp play it out using the same comp. routines but with your mix of troops, setup, area battle to/from, etc. Therefore, you really see how good you are strategically and not just winning because the AI can’t be as good a tactician as you can.
You said they were like X-Com, but you meant X-Com Apocalypse. I feel hurt and misled.
I’m sure it’ll be fun though.
I was going to buy Elemental game for sure as I’m very confident in the ability of your team, but this really makes me want to preorder and join the beta. Normally I don’t get into betas because I feel they spoil the experience and require a serious commitment, but I have fond memories of my afternoons with Master of Magic and Elemental has already some really fantastic features and ideas that could mean a real evolution over that formula.
Not that I expect to teach myself C# in 21 days and become a kick ass developer or anything like that, but you make the beta sound like is a worthy effort to take for someone who is an enthusiast of what you are trying to do. If I think I can add something productive to that process, I will probably join it.
Yeah, I was thinking the same. I’m sure it will be fun, but I was looking forward to the turn-based tactical combat with a large scale. Maybe the scale is to large to make it feasible.
The few available screenshots look great. Hopefully we’ll get a look at the spells soon.
It’ll come quicker than one thinks. By this Spring, the public beta will be out and it’ll all pass insanely quickly.
Really though, a huge chunk of the time was spent on the engine.
Here’s a funny irony – one that Tom Chick can appreciate if he’s reading this. Galactic Civilizations I, Galactic Civilizations II both share the same game engine as…(wait for it) Entrepreneur from 1999. It’s heavily modified of course but it’s basically the same engine under the covers.
By contrast, Elemental uses a new engine that was developed for Society which is explicity 32-bit and 64-bit and scales based onthe # of CPU and GPU cores. I almost think we should get into the 3D engine licensing business. ;)
It’s tactical but it can be made to play like Civ if you have instant-resolve enabled.
I will likely play with auto-resolve as I’m not a huge fan of playing out tactical battles but I enjoy seeing the carnage.
If anyone has ever seen Fellowship of the Ring where Sauron is whacking out tons of elves and men around, that’s the look we’re going for.
Though, in Elemental, the creatures are much more powerful than a lone Maiar up agonst a bunch of punks. Dragons in Elemental are incredibly powerful and each of the channelers are equivalent (by late game) to Valar. Enough Tolkien geedkom. ;)
How do you work this for multiplayer, or is it single player only?
Maybe it’s early for ideas (I’d really like to get in on that beta too), but one thing I thought was lacking in both MoM and AoW was the ability to play a non-magic leader. If you included the option for leaders with non-magical abilities (great diplomat, great hero recruiter, great general, great tax collector, whatever), then you could really encompass the full spectrum of fantasy empire building. It always bugged me that you couldn’t have a more traditional leader in those other games.
How do continuous-turn tactical battles play out in PvP? Isn’t that essentially an RTS-style fight?
Wooooooooooo
Will there be an industrious insectoid like race?
While I be able to create items for my heroes, or is it strictly a matter of personal investment in them a la channeling or whatever?
Will there be mystical conflict between wizards beyond hose that take place on the battlefield?
I signed up on the forums but I can’t login. When I created my account it brought me to stardock.net. That login data does not work. What gives?
It is turn-based, it’s just continuous turns. It’ll be easier to show when it gets closer. It’s not real-time tactical.