1821

I take it pre-ordering now is too late to take advantage of that. Heh, bummer. I’m itching for a new game (well new to me). By the time Elemental releases I may already have something else. Heh.

1822

This screenshot is full of win. The beta group pushed hard for special abilities for units and they got their way (the fire giant has 3 actually). This is something we plan to expand on over the next few months a lot (don’t worry, these things will be free updates).

=D

We hope to start pre-loading Elemental onto machines early to mid next week to reduce strain.

=D =D

1823

Congrats on gold, Brad et al!

Now to go update so I’m all caught up …

1824

Stardock had a release date set for Demigod on the Tuesday after the Easter weekend, with the intention of beta testers getting it a day early, Monday. For whatever reason, Gamestop put the game on store shelves the Friday before. The problem? You had to install and do some kind of one time login with Impulse servers for authentication. Well, the servers weren’t set to go live until Monday. So alot of people bought their copies on Friday, thinking they were going to spend the weekend, Easter weekend, playing the game. Stardock employees, thinking they were going to have a nice three day weekend to relax after getting things set up, ended up working throughout the weekend to get authentication servers and a day 0 patch set up.

This is unrelated to the Demigod multiplayer p2p connectivity issues that Stardock ended up fixing by rewiting the netcode and setting up proxy servers.

And Demigod wasn’t even there game, it was Gas Powered Games’. Stardock was just the publisher.

I have complete faith in Stardock

Jorune

ps. I believe I got the launch story correct, 90% sure.

1825

You did, Jorune.

As for the possible early access to the Gold version… damn I am torn! I intentionally didn’t get too deep in any phase, because I want to see the game in it’s Release (I won’t say “finished”) state. I know Brad described the changes between Gold version and Day0 as equal to the differences between Beta 2 and 3… which were massive. So I’d want to wait till the 24th to actually play the game…

But if I had Elemental on my desktop just waiting to be played? Oh man, I don’t know if I could resist the temptation.

1826

I know the game is not a FPS nor is Stardock a big developer house but paint me as less than impressed by the games map and unit graphics fro what I have seen. I just fired up Age of Wonders Shadow Magic and it still looks to have better visuals than Elemental. I hope I am wrong but the graphics in game look really cartoony and very indie-ish.

1827

Wow, Galaril, you went 3 years without a post? :)

There’s a tradeoff for those graphics. Every single unit in the game is completely customizable graphically. That is, if you custom design a unit with an iron breastplate and a pike, that’s exactly how they appear on the map. Because of this, you can just glance at an army and see exactly what they are on how they are configured.

While the artistic style is definitely a matter of taste, I like it quite a bit. They intentionally went for an illustrated storybook look.

As for AOW:SM specifically, while I loved the game, I didn’t care for the unit artwork. The units are so small, lack detail, and can be difficult to distinguish visually (Of course the more fantastical creatures are an exception).

1828

Yeah I forgot I had a account:)…Good info with the aim being more storybook art style that explains it now. I am sure I will get the game since I like stardock and what they are about. I also agree with some of your points on AOWSM

1829

I have the limited edition pre-ordered but I’m still worried that this is a product of a Microsoft-ian school of design where it’s developed from re-iterations based on feedback from focus groups and committees being passed back and forth rather than inspired design choices from someone with a clear vision and the game being developed from that seed.

This is my impression from forum reports, dev diaries and seeing the process of how tactical battles is being implemented a couple of weeks ago…my views could be wholly unfounded and I hope I’m wrong.

Also, does the blue corner border thing hanging off the “L” in the game’s logo bother anyone else. It’s an attempt to brute-force symmetry, I think, but it doesn’t work for me.

1830

As a guy that’s built software for close to two decades, lots of iterations with feedback is EXACTLY how anything any good typically gets made. There’s also a world of difference between getting feedback as an architect and decisions by committee. I can’t say what happened with Elemental, but the concept of one guy locking himself in a closet and coming out with a masterpiece is far away from the reality of building good software.

I can quote Frederick Brooks and others about the importance of conceptual integrity and it’s all true, but good software isn’t built in a feedback vacuum.

1831

Can’t wait for the game, has there been any word on what shipping they’re going to use for those that pre ordered it? I haven’t played much of the beta to be honest due to being hit with the blunt of show stopping bugs so hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised when I get the full version

1832

I think Stardock does shipping via Fedex, at least in the US.

1833

Okay, now that’s cool. According to Brad’s latest update, Stardock will make archival DVDs available for customers who worry about “but how will I patch my game if they go out of business?”. While its never been a concern of mine, I have seen the worry voiced several times by people who are hesitant about digital distribution. I think its pretty cool.

1834

Ok, I fired it up (beta 4, I think?). Between the sovereign-specific touches (your land being in your colors, your dudes wearing your colors, designing your own units from scratch) and the quests, it’s definitely got the “one more turn” appeal.

However, I can’t figure out how to upgrade my cities. Looks like it NEEDS to be on a square adjacent to a farm, otherwise you’re SOL? So things you put down next to remote iron or nodes are always going to be outposts? Or am I missing something obvious.

Also holy cats, I think this game’s hard. I just barely got some units with axes and a cloak (no real armor) and I see 24/10/10 lizards and bands of 10+ brigands roving the area. I might have to play it on “wuss”. :)

1835

Previously, you couldn’t build on sites until you “crept” your buildings outward from your city to the sites, since you could build only adjacent to previous buildings. They removed that mechanic and replaced it with the requirement that the site only needs to be within your city’s influence (similar to Civ IV’s cultural borders) before you’re able to build on it. So, if you want to build on a site quickly, build a city close to it. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the city to grow in population via prestige.

1836

Looks like for multiplayer over Lan, each player will need their own serial key in order to play. Kind of a shame that Stardock changed that since I enjoyed playing Demigod and Sins of a Solar Empire with my friend over my home network.

1837

I could probably find the answer over at the Elemental forums, but no matter. Does anyone know whether the beta 4 will simply upgrade to the retail version by way of update, or, will the whole game have to be re-downloaded and reinstalled when it is unleashed upon the masses?

1838

I’m not 100 procent sure, but I think you’ll need a completely new build for launchday.

1839

Right right, but I mean is a farm square (placed randomly by map gen) the only way to grow your city beyond outpost? It doesn’t appear as if you can just create a food producing building.

I’m not 100 procent sure, but I think you’ll need a completely new build for launchday.

Ah bummer. Ah well, I’ll keep chugging along with B4 until then. :)

1840

As far as I know you need access to a tile that can produce food (there are some variations) in order to grow your cities, there is no food production building that doesn’t require a special resource tile.

Resources are shared on an empire level, so I think you can use food produced in one city to build houses in another.