Sethai

Reply to Tactical Battle Evolution in War of Magic Elemental Forums

the current oversimplification of tactical battles reminds me distinctly of the oversimplification of battles in GC2. brad likes to think of his games as glorified board games in which all the numbers can be traced by the player almost as quickly as the computer comes up with them. this is a noble purpose, but it leads to some ridiculous situations. anyone could look at the GalCiv battles and notice that it didn't have any mechanics at all to demonstrate big ships being outmaneuvered by small

Reply to My opinion on the state of the game and suggestions in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="22" id="2690501"] BTW anyone who thinks the TW games are fast because they are province based is dead wrong: they haven't been province based since 2004. Uh, given that Empire: Total War and Napoleon (just a reskinned Empire) are province based, what's your definition of that? [/quote] there are technically provinces, but movement is by a high res grid, rather than risk style province hopping. you control cities and (in the new

Reply to My opinion on the state of the game and suggestions in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I loved different aspects of the galactic civilizations, total war and age of empires games, but i definately agree with the OP. if the pacing of the game is like the galciv games then all my games will go the same: colony rush while i research and wait for my population to grow enough to build anything worthwhile, only to find, by the time that i can that i am a second tier power and that the game has largely already been decided, leaving my tactical decisions redundant, and despite my huge&

Reply to Magic system criticism in War of Magic Elemental Forums

perhaps a compromise situation is desirable? such as shards making certain spells easier to learn but not essential, especially in the mid game. then even a player who has intended to specialize has time to adapt and the player's hand is guided but not forced.

Reply to Rethinking factions… in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

i think it's a great idea to allow greater customization of races and factions, but i'd just to say this: if it will be so easy for players to create their own races to play as and against, why can't that functionality also be used to put more races in the game from the get go?

Reply to Designing units in Elemental discussion in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Instead of time, why not simply make the unit more expensive at the time of ordering? (simulating that resources need to be imported at greater costs). this btw, is also the system i advocate for galactic civilizations 3 if anyone's taking notes.

Reply to Tuesday night thoughts in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

i loved neverwinter (even the sequel). the mods i made probably touched more people than anything else i will ever hope to do with my life, but i honestly don't see anyone rushing off to emulate the format. i love modding, but i don't believe it pays and we need to accept that. *loads up toolset*

Reply to Is there a single good trailer for this game? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

even still, how hard would it be to get the trailer (intro?) from the gameplay section up on youtube? you don't have anything on ign, eurogamer or gamespot either? sometimes it's like you're not even trying.

Reply to Is there a single good trailer for this game? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

* double post

Reply to What do you want from the first official expansion? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I want to see the kingdoms/empire schism healed and have alignment determined as you play and develop the tech tree. Right now the empire side of the game seems really limited imho. Also add options for other societies like barbarian clans. Real time tactical battles seems like more of a sequel request imho, but i could be wrong. Beyond that i'm waiting to play the thing before I ask.

Reply to Interview with Brad Wardell about Elemental War of Magic and more.. in War of Magic Elemental Forums

How's that rumoured fully fledged RPG coming along? When you mentioned Planescape: Torment way back when i became pleasantly moist. Bioware are great because they have both freedom and money. Bethesda games are okay if you like sandbox games, but they've never come up with a decent setting or story of their own. Obsidian are great but chronically under resourced and bullied by awfull publishers. I think that leaves a big gap in the market for a good, unconsolised western RPG. I've als

Is there a single good trailer for this game? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

i'm a long time gal civ fan, but until today i had almost completely forgotten about this game due to it's non coverage in the gaming media. that's to be expected given that it's an indie game in a niche genre, but now that i know how cool it's going to be i want to show it to my friends. only problem is, there doesn't seem to be a single good trailer up. the trailer in the gameplay section doesn't seem to work for me: at least, it only seems to show the top left corner of the video,

Reply to The Kingdoms vs. The Empires in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Reading the initial post and Raven X's comment, i still find myself agreeing with the latter. It seems like many of the dynamics on which the game was sold have been chopped out for the empires. Adventuring? Gone. Resource development? Gone, build a pig farm instead. Are guardians, enforcers and sions designed or are they more like Supreme Commander Experimentals? IN that case, does the unit design part of the game dissappear? I appreciate the desire to creat a LoTR sty

Reply to The Kingdoms vs. The Empires in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Reading the initial post and Raven X's comment, i still find myself agreeing with the latter. It seems like many of the dynamics on which the game was sold have been chopped out for the empires. Adventuring? Gone. Resource development? Gone, build a pig farm instead. Are guardians, enforcers and sions designed or are they more like Supreme Commander Experimentals? IN that case, does the unit design part of the game dissappear? I appreciate the desire to creat a LoTR sty

Reply to What would you like to see in Galactic Civilizations 3? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

PRODUCTION MUST DIE! So much newb confusion, bad economic management and bad AI comes from the existence of the production mechanic for social and military development. it is a totally superfluous level of complication. everyone ultimately (often painfully) finds out that the production slider must be at 100% for an efficient economy. this effectively makes maintenance and construction costs the same thing. the balance between building manufacturing generators and buildings that apply

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 1: ships, art and fleet battles in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote who="BigJKU" reply="22" id="2328243"] Sorry but any game that has fighters able to just fly with impunity around capital ships is basically making an artificial distinction. If you limit the weapons to just a handful of super-heavy weapons it would make sense but there is no logical reason why a large ship could not also carry anti-fighter weapons. All men of war built since the 1920's have had some level of anti-aircraft weaponry. It is illogical to think

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 2: The Economy in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

i think people misunderstand me. i only meant to remove building maintenance, not ship maintenance.....?

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 2: The Economy in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="7" id="2328136"]Well, it all looks good, except for the thing about elminating mainenance: I fear that that would make the rich-get-richer problem worse by removing one of the diminishing-return factors. Mainenance costs are one of the few ways currently in existance to keep the steamroller effect in some sort of check.[/quote] I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this, but I'd like to hear you elaborate on it. As far as i can see, maintenance:pro

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 2: The Economy in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Mascrinthus; I have been reading your posts, and they largely inspired a lot of this topic. I like to think of it this way: What happens if you expand too quickly and your production costs you more than you can afford? You lower your production slider, of course. This is exactly what happens in my system, if you remove the idea of paying for production. The only difference is that, instead of the player stopping paying for production, they simply stop paying for ships and buildings in

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 2: The Economy in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

One could argue that these costs are included in the cost of the colony module. Or perhaps the player may initially have to set negative taxes on some colonies to encourage growth - ie, paying people to go there. If we can stay away from absolute building maintenance, i think that is a good thing for everyone. While that might honestly be the best way of modelling it, I think it would be an unwelcome compromise, having worked otherwise arranged a maintenance-free system. Thanks for mentioning

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 1: ships, art and fleet battles in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote who="BigJKU" reply="16" id="2325245"] The problem with giving fighters an inherent advantage over smaller craft is that it is something that is totally artificial. If a medium hulled ship can carry anti-figther weapons then so could a large ship. It may not be the most efficient way to do things but it could be done if one felt so compelled.[/quote] I don't intend these advantages to be artificial. If you've ever played EVE online you'll know that a sm

GC3 indepth Part 2: The Economy in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

This is a continuation of the analysis I started in my previous post. In this topic I'm going to talk about more fundamental areas of the game. Like I said before, I believe that GC2 is one of the best strategy games ever made, but it has some fundamental problems that prevent it from satisfying it's players or from reaching out to new players. The two biggest problems I see in these area

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 1: ships, art and fleet battles in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Thanks Mascrinthus! The answer to your question is simple: If this is to be a truly great game, we should have both. I've read the topic you've linked with great interest and it has greatly influences my next topic, in which I have outlined my favourite way of modelling the economy. I'm about to post part two right now!

Reply to GC3 indepth Part 1: ships, art and fleet battles in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

BigJKU, you have touched upon fleets on a level I had not considered. Currently, I definately find that it is far too easy to outwit the AI with a massed focused assualt on a planet, especially if you time your naval assault for the same turn as launching your ground invasion, and if logistics limits were higher this would be even easier. The AI does not seem to understand the doctrine of fighting concentrated a

Reply to What would you like to see in Galactic Civilizations 3? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

agh, wrong topic.