Elemental all-purpose thread

Robert_Sharp · 2011-01-04T18:45:44.000Z

John Reynolds:

Or those who went with the $70 collector’s edition.

We feel stupid. But there it sits on my shelf, full of broken dreams and misplaced hopes for the future.

Or maybe not misplaced…we’ll see!

Morberis · 2011-01-04T18:49:05.000Z

Robert Sharp:

We feel stupid. But there it sits on my shelf, full of broken dreams and misplaced hopes for the future.

Or maybe not misplaced…we’ll see!

We do indeed, only I have 2 because of a shipping error.

Coreander · 2011-01-04T19:20:33.000Z

I wonder if, when the time comes and the game has reached the state it should have been in, they will do a re-release - a gold edition type thing. I would hope so. I might actually get it, then. The whole “download massive patch before playing” thing has always bugged me.

rhinohelix · 2011-01-04T19:47:48.000Z

Coreander:

I wonder if, when the time comes and the game has reached the state it should have been in, they will do a re-release - a gold edition type thing. I would hope so. I might actually get it, then. The whole “download massive patch before playing” thing has always bugged me.

You can take it to the bank there will be a second launch at some point in the future, if nothing else to attempt to erase some of the ill will from this launch. “See it again, for the first time, with [X-PACK/PATCH X.x/ETC]”

Robert_Sharp · 2011-01-04T19:49:59.000Z

I’m installing the patch right now (never installed the game, despite buying at launch). It’s unpacking over 3k files!

karnisov · 2011-01-04T21:59:01.000Z

John Reynolds:

Or those who went with the $70 collector’s edition.

thank god for being old and cynical enough to not preorder/buy at release.

Acosta · 2011-01-05T06:13:30.000Z

TomChick:

Mr. Woo, it looks like Schafer is also working on a new IP.

As for Elemental, I think Stardock is trying to do the right thing by salvaging it rather than writing it off and moving on. I, for one, still want the bitchin’ fantasy 4X that Elemental should have been. And I’m fortunate enough that I didn’t have to pay $50 for it. Think of how people who paid $50 feel.
 -Tom

I put 70$ on the CE, I don’t regret it. As a company you can make mistakes and Stardock certainly did, but what they are doing now and the improvements I’m seeing in 1.1 makes me think that they can still do something special with this (and the dragon figurine is cute.)

Not my ideal outcome when I preordered it, but I appreciate and respect their fighting to solve this. Of course, if they had moved away I would be really pissed, but I can see it’s not going to be the case.

Kael · 2011-01-05T12:22:25.000Z

I need a lead programmer for current and future projects if anyone is interested: http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=24706&accountno=101556. You must be willing to relocate to Michigan (which has the longest freshwater shoreline of any political subdivision in the world).

Dan_Theman · 2011-01-05T12:57:09.000Z

Kael:

I need a lead programmer for current and future projects if anyone is interested: http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=24706&accountno=101556. You must be willing to relocate to Michigan (which has the longest freshwater shoreline of any political subdivision in the world).

Don’t forget to mention Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream in your pitch!* ;)

- some family of mine live in your neck of the woods

Otagan · 2011-01-05T14:21:00.000Z

Acosta:

I put 70$ on the CE, I don’t regret it. As a company you can make mistakes and Stardock certainly did, but what they are doing now and the improvements I’m seeing in 1.1 makes me think that they can still do something special with this (and the dragon figurine is cute.)

Not my ideal outcome when I preordered it, but I appreciate and respect their fighting to solve this. Of course, if they had moved away I would be really pissed, but I can see it’s not going to be the case.

Pretty much this. I may not have been so approving if they’d packed up and went on to GalCiv3, but seeing new patches popping up every few days for months on end was a very reassuring sign that they are trying to make things right. So long as “mistakes” like Elemental are isolated incidents (and they put forth effort to make the game as good as it was originally intended), I’m glad to forgive and forget.

RepoMan · 2011-01-05T15:30:14.000Z

I’ll certainly be happy if my preorder is made good, but I will certainly never preorder anything from Stardock again; I’m not willing to be that forgiving. (Buying after release, if reviews are good, sure.)

I expected my preorder money to yield dividends in getting to meaningfully contribute to real gameplay improvements during the original “beta” period, but that just isn’t what happened at all.

olaf · 2011-01-05T20:32:48.000Z

RepoMan:

I’ll certainly be happy if my preorder is made good, but I will certainly never preorder anything from Stardock again; I’m not willing to be that forgiving. (Buying after release, if reviews are good, sure.)

I expected my preorder money to yield dividends in getting to meaningfully contribute to real gameplay improvements during the original “beta” period, but that just isn’t what happened at all.

Yeah. I definitely feel like I got fucked on pre-order CE from Amazon. It was the worst gaming purchase of 2010, easily, for me in terms of time/money.

lordkosc · 2011-01-05T20:42:30.000Z

olaf:

Yeah. I definitely feel like I got fucked on pre-order CE from Amazon. It was the worst gaming purchase of 2010, easily, for me in terms of time/money.

At least you didn’t have to pay 10$ extra for it to be shipped from Stardock.

My copy shipped to me was $80 total. At least the CE contents were decent.

abrandt · 2011-01-05T21:05:30.000Z

Kael:

I need a lead programmer for current and future projects if anyone is interested: http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=24706&accountno=101556. You must be willing to relocate to Michigan (which has the longest freshwater shoreline of any political subdivision in the world).

Are you sure you didn’t mean to post some regular programmer job postings while you were at it?

I kid of course. I really am excited to see how these big hires at Stardock turn out in the coming months and years.

triggercut · 2011-01-05T23:41:43.000Z

My Elemental experience this fall involved starting the game, feeling totally lost without a tutorial, heading online to find out what folks were doing to get started in the game…and finding out everything was broken. Got discouraged and shelved it; too many other things to play.

Now we’ve got some patches in, and things are looking better and better for Elemental.

My question: is there some sort of guidance or tutorial in the game now to ease new players in?

Razgon · 2011-01-05T23:54:40.000Z

triggercut:

My Elemental experience this fall involved starting the game, feeling totally lost without a tutorial, heading online to find out what folks were doing to get started in the game…and finding out everything was broken. Got discouraged and shelved it; too many other things to play.

Now we’ve got some patches in, and things are looking better and better for Elemental.

My question: is there some sort of guidance or tutorial in the game now to ease new players in?

The campaign is the tutorial, for some reason…

How updated it is, I don’t know - I know there was a game-stopping bug in it not long ago, making it impossible to move forward in the game, since you lacked a technology.

I really hope the expansion comes out soon, since the game appearently will be much much updated and changed by it, and hopefully making it totally awesome.

So much untapped potential in the gameengine it hurts me to look at it!

Strato · 2011-01-06T00:09:40.000Z

I had a random thought today with Elemental. Where are the rivers in the world.

lordkosc · 2011-01-06T00:15:41.000Z

Rivers were removed as they didn’t work with the map editor / spell terrain deformations.

I hope they are eventually added back in, as they did look nice when they worked.

Strato · 2011-01-06T00:34:36.000Z

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. It really sucks. I do hope they work out a way to get it in though

Raife · 2011-01-06T00:40:50.000Z

No water for you!