LNQ

Reply to Elemental: AI difficulty levels in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Frogboy, have you considered making it possible for a difficulty level to give penalties to the human player instead of bonuses to the AI player? I would rather give penalties to myself than make the AI cheat, because there's a big gameplay difference between the AI getting for example more gold per turn from a building compared to normal and you getting less gold per turn than normal. Usually, I want to feel like the AI is playing the normal game and there are just additional hurd

Reply to Scratch Civ V off my buy list. in PC Gaming Elemental Forums

To be honest, I don't understand TBS and Civ enthusiasts claiming that they won't by Civ V. Actually, I don't believe the claim either - I'd bet most of you will in the end buy Civ V anyway. To me it feels stupid to skip a great came (if it turns out to be one, that is) just because of a move by 2K that is bad from their producer point of view. To recap, I understand and agree with 1) Brad thinking the move by 2K is stupid 2) Brad not going to

Reply to Explaining what Elemental is to people in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

During Beta 1 the game hasn't felt remotely like what you described there. You're putting a lot of expectations to Beta 2 now. :) The concept is spot on though, the game you describe in this post sounds wonderful. In the betas so far however it has felt exactly like the 'generic build cities and grow an empire' game you described. Fingers crossed.

Reply to Elemental – coding coding coding in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

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Reply to My ignorance embarrasses me in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

It's weird to see how even the head guy whose ultimate work this game is is able to not know the whole game (and the tools it uses) inside out. I would be embarrassed too. It's cool that you go as far as to let it out and give the particle editor its due credit. Sounds like a pretty massive thing with regards to modding, since custom spells would be extremely limited without one.

Reply to I’m on Skynet’s side in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="55" id="2618219"] Quoting strager, reply 54 "Can I quote that to your investors?" If we had any, sure. [/quote] Hahah, "oops." :D

Reply to Research revamp in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

I agree that it is a bit of an annoyance that if you pick the rare techs, researching something like Basic Farming can take ages later on. So far during beta games the system has felt like even though you're given four choices each time, you really have only one sensible path to go through each field. I do not have a good solution to improving the current system, other than using the tried and true research point system.

Reply to [Economy] Markets, Plazas, and Districts in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

This kind of a system is hell to balance and it would be ripe all sorts of creative abuse. I'd prefer not to have to micromanage my cities to be honest.

Reply to [SUGGESTION/GAMEPLAY] starting stats and goodie huts in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

There's a reason we aren't talking about balance yet. There isn't that much content in the game, and content includes events from goodie huts. The reason you're getting those super items that often is that there are only probably like 10 different things you can get from goodie huts, while in release the count is closer to a hundred. There's no point in making such balancing algorithms until you see how the game plays out when the content is in. All in all those are very good points i

Reply to Let’s try this again… in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

TheProgress, Frogboy has stated that with Elemental he will actually have a team (of some 4-5 people) doing the AI. On GalCiv he did it by his own.

Reply to Let’s try this again… in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I thought about this for quite a bit. The first reaction was "customization of course!" But I changed my mind after really thinking about it. I will enjoy the game more if you have the 10 factions and good amount of lore and art for each. I vote focus on the 10 factions. Let's focus on the customization later on.

Reply to More discussion of Factions and Races (long) in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

As you Frogboy stated, you get to do the built-in races only once but you can add customization options with expansions. I would love having both. However, even with the new customizable stuff, I would prefer having some sort of a backstory tied in to the lore. This backs up your idea of releasing the added customization options later on with expansions, giving you time to write additional lore for them. Some criticism on the lore of the game though. To describe myself, I'm not

Reply to [Suggestion] Rename 'Town' and 'Metropolis' + new names for waterfront settlements. in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

In my opinion 'City' sounds pretty massive for a medieval settlement, so I think it's quite alright for the top level name. If I have understood correct, settlements aren't supposed to be as massive in their scope as in Civilization for example, so it's nice for the names not get out of hand. The only other choice would be to have some sort of an adjective before 'City' if you ask me. Grand City didn't get much support but there are other choices. How about Royal City

Reply to Buildings Should Cost People (maybe?) in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="BoogieBac" reply="2" id="2597910"]To a lesser extent, one of the faction bonuses makes use of this with 'Sacrifical Altars'. The actual improvements haven't been checked in yet, but it a fun way to play as an evil sovereign. [/quote] I'm sure there's also room for Gladiator Arenas that give prestige but reduce the population of the settlement by 1 every X turns due to deaths during spectacles. Oh, and labor camps giving production but killing off some weak workers. W

Reply to [Suggestion] Rename 'Town' and 'Metropolis' + new names for waterfront settlements. in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="Magicke" reply="9" id="2601766"] Not a fan of metropolis either. Yes were nitpicky it appears. I agree with John_Hughes for the most part and this small detail can be fixed/altered later and is not a part of debuggin atm. Even if its only something you will see or read about in the manual. [/quote] Actually on the contrary. This is the exact time when gameplay terms should be looked at. As more and more content is brought in, it'll be harder and har

Reply to [Suggestion] Rename 'Town' and 'Metropolis' + new names for waterfront settlements. in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Cool Frogboy, that sounds better than what I proposed. I just didn't like metropolis to be honest. The other points came as an afterthought, didn't matter that much. The reason I originally thought about changing Town was that I (as a non-native English speaker) have some difficulty seeing the difference between Village and Town. To me, Township sounds distinctly bigger than either of those two, but smaller than a City. But I do agree that it might sound a bit out of place.

Reply to [Suggestion] Rename 'Town' and 'Metropolis' + new names for waterfront settlements. in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Hehe, I'm just weird I guess. ;)

[Suggestion] Rename 'Town' and 'Metropolis' + new names for waterfront settlements. in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

I don't like the names 'Town' and 'Metropolis' for the settlement levels. Especially 'Metropolis' doesn't feel to fit the theme of Elemental. Instead of Outpost Village Town City Metropolis I'd go with Outpost Village Township City Grand City The original meaning of metropolis ('mothercity' from greek) is of a capital or the city of origin of

Reply to Elemental Beta 1-Z3 Changelog in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I don't like the names 'Town' and 'Metropolis' for the settlement levels. Especially 'Metropolis' doesn't feel to fit the theme of Elemental. Instead of Outpost Village Town City Metropolis I'd go with Outpost Village Township City Grand City The original meaning of metropolis ('mothercity' from greek) is of a capital or the city of origin of a

Reply to Forum Update - April 21, 2010 - Timezones, 24 hour clocks, quick options, and more in Forum Issues Elemental Forums

There's some sort of a bug with the timezones / 24h clock. I set my options to 24h clock and GMT +2. It is at the moment 00:50 on April 22nd. On all forums, it displays Apr 21st posts as "Today " and posts made during the last 50 minutes as "Apr 22nd ". In other words, it somehow doesn't understand that the day has already changed for me.

Reply to Great game intros of all time in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I don't share the same taste in game intros, apparently. Frogboy seems to love tiny characters running around the menu screen quite a bit, I prefer more cinematic intros. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrp_vOSLkXE ( The Settlers II: Veni Vidi Vici ) This sort of stuff is more of my thing.

Reply to Sorry guys, there will be a beta 1z3 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I like perfectionists, or at least ambitious people. So bring on the next Z!

Reply to Elemental: Why it’s important to get it right in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Forgboy, man, you're the hero and messiah of PC TBS enthusiasts around the world. And PC gamers in terms of proper publishing too, for that matter. I can't believe even the development of Elemental is getting that much flak from people wanting it to be released early. I know I don't really have to write this as you aren't really upset about the complaints at all, but I want to write at least one post showing my appreciation for everything you do. I think it's really cool you address the compl

Reply to [Suggestion] Have recruiting trigger on attack instead of a map command + other recruiting ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

For people not sure if it was implemented: The button should show up *always* on NPC stacks. It is grayed out if you don't have enough charisma, and mousing over shows you the charisma requirement. One more thing about recruiting is I don't know if there is a range check at all on recruiting. Since all you need to do is click on an unit and press the recruit button, can you have your Sovereign at one end of the map and recruit a NPC stack from the other end as long as the stack is vis

[Suggestion] Have recruiting trigger on attack instead of a map command + other recruiting ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

It would be much more logical for recruiting to be an option when you try to attack a NPC unit. You would have a 'Declare War', 'Cancel', and 'Recruit' buttons if you're not at war with the NPCs. Also, recruiting should cost gold if you ask me. Or a mix of gold / items / materials. It would be cool if there were some special NPCs that you would be able to recruit but only if you bribe them to join you for some cool swag. For example a priestess that you can only recruit if you trade h