As I write this in February, we are working on Beta 1G of Elemental. The last two betas (beta 1E and beta 1F) have been released only internally making this the first public beta since December.
Beta 1G marks the end of Beta 1. Right now, we’re trying to decide whether we need to polish beta 1G further prior to releasing it to the public or whether to release it and then do subsequent public updates to beta 1G as we clean things up as we head into Beta 2 which begins the multiplayer testing phase of the game.
So where do things stand?
Dynasties
Players get married, have children and those children will grow up. Those children can then be put into arranged marriages with the children of other sovereigns. When negotiating the marriage, one of the elements is whose family does the couple belong to. If they enter your family, you end up with a champion which is quite powerful. If they end up in their family, you have an heir which means that if that player quits (MP) or surrenders (AI) the player with the best claim to the throne of that kingdom inherits the remaining cities.
The Children
One of the more challenging (visually) issues we’ve had to deal with is the off-spring of your children. They inherit traits from the parents and this has had some interesting visual effects.
You can can up with some pretty ugly grand-children and later great-grand-children. This is an area that will likely continue to be enhanced as we get further along. Of course, the benefit of children is that they grow up to be powerful champions.
Champions
Most units are mundane. You cannot breed an army of wizards or priests or unicorns or what have you. Magicians are rare, powerful, and important. You can recruit lots of different champions into your armies as well as powerful magical creatures (like dragons).
Beta 1G includes non-player-characters who roam the world doing their own thing. You (and AI players) can try to recruit these champions onto your side.
Magic
The initial spell book is in beta 1G. Each faction will have its own spells. There will be some common spells (healing for instance) but there will be plenty of unique spells as well based on the history and legends of each faction. For beta 1G, only the global spells are in since tactical battles aren’t scheduled until Beta 4 (Spring).
Be forwarned: Since beta 1 and 2 only take place on the cloth map, magical spells are boring. Casting a raise mountain simply creates a mountain on the cloth map. Ironically, behind the scenes, the full 3D transformation does take place but beta testers can’t see i.
Speaking of ugly
I realize there is a temptation to simply turn on the 3D engine. We just want to focus on the game being as ugly as humanly possible for as long as we can so that we can focus on making the game fun without relying on its graphics as a crutch. The 3D engine should enhance the fun but not be the ultimate source of it.
Quests
The basic quest system is in. There aren’t many quests in yet. Quests of various complexities will get added throughout the development process.
Will it be fun?
Before we call it a day and move to Beta 2, we do want the game to be a game and not simply a series of unconnected features.
We’ll be deciding tomorrow whether the build we have constitutes what we are willing to call beta 1G as there is a certain amount of polish and even basic balancing that is necessary for it to be playable imo.
So that’s where we’re at. Stay tuned!
