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As Flexible a Setup as Possible in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

There are any number of things I find greatly annoying in Civilization IV. One of the things I found Firaxis succeeded in doing, however, was making the Game Setup screens simple, easy and flexible. I think this can and should be optimized in Elemental. I would like to mention some of the things that I mean here NOW, because it would be a shame if some of the variables were hard-coded, requiring a mod to change them. I would like to see as much of the flexibility in-game be adjustable

Reply to A Postulate on TBS fun: Easy to Learn, Hard to Master in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="RisingLegend" reply="15" id="2524895"] In both the above examples, it was the terrain that enabled those soft counters. It's like what austin said above, but this gives in game examples of it working. I think the devs seriously need to consider this, because I think it's possibly one of the most important decision to be made. If this makes it in I'll be 10x more excited for this game [/quote] I agree. Counters of these types are "factors"

Reply to On Research and Technology in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Hmn, doesn't seem to be going this direction after all. Is this because most testers are not interested in it, or because the designers aren't, or simply because there are too many ideas out there after all? I feel linearity creeping in on me....

Reply to Road Building…Your thoughts? in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Counter-Question: Is the problem that road building appears to be tedious, or the problem that you do not want an additional worker unit? Here is a another counter-question: What choices should be involved? In other words, a terrible aspect of Civ is that there was a point at which your workers had nothing to do. There were no real strategic choices to be made, since there was no reason not to build roads and railroads everywhere. Do you require a Carpenter unit to build

Reply to Elemental Beta 1G Preview in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Great! Summer also seems a bit optimistic, unless September is also considered summer. The only thing I am still majorily skeptical about is tactical battles, combat mechanics, and unit statistics. I am sure everything else will work out. [quote quoting="post"] The base amount of money, research, spell learning and prestige is based on the city level. Outpost: 0 Hamlet: 2 Village: 4 Town: 8 City: 16 Money is spent on upkeep based

Reply to Elemental: Citybuilding in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Thank you. Yes, that all makes sense, and I am for it -- under three conditions. These being 1. that there be no *disadvantage* to a suboptimally organized city other than or in addition to its own suboptimality 2. that there be various ways that a city might be optimized; there should be no "exclusively one single correct optimal" plan. (Of course that doesnt mean that some choices are just not as good as others, but there should not be only ONE way of (at least always)

Reply to Elemental: Citybuilding in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I like the general tone of your posts and the general gist of what you are saying. I think you are headed in the right direction. If I may, I would like to offer constructive criticism and questions on 2 things you mention: [quote quoting="post"] we created a system where building a smaller number of larger, older cities is rewarded. [/quote] Good. Smaller numbers of cities means more personality to each. Yet how will the rewards be done exactly? <

Reply to The Elemental Box in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

While I agree with most posters above and like it, I also think that it will not be terribly important; I think people will end up purchasing the game because of things they hear about it, not on an "impulse" (no pun intented) pick-up in a store. ... yet having said that, there is a conspicuous lack of large firm scantily-clad breasts, hypertrophied muscles, and flashy colors; I believe those things are normally what people put on boxes to sell ... other

Reply to On Research and Technology in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

This isnt exactly an example for multi-branch research, the main point of this thread, but here is an additional suggestion for other ways to "mix" research with other world entities / events: Unlock Action: "Shield Wall". Any squad (a squad is a group of units with similar abilities on the tactical battle screen) can choose the "Shield Wall" action if - the units posses a shield item - the untis have been trained with the technology "Advanced Shields", in the Warfare

Reply to Mass Effect 2: Questions in PC Gaming Elemental Forums

Thanks, WS. Could you compare it to Deus Ex?

Mass Effect 2: Questions in PC Gaming Elemental Forums

Hello all, I have recently become smitten with Dragon Age:Origins, primarily because I enjoy a good RPG with good characters. I have heard Mass Effect 2 mentioned as being similar in that regard. Since both are made by Bioware, I am wondering if I am missing something by not trying it out. First, the questions: 1. If my machine can play DA:O, will it be able to play ME:2? If not, the rest of the questions become superflous. I have a non-gaming rig, which does, however, play DA

Reply to Elemental February Status Report in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="BoogieBac" reply="35" id="2526933"] You cannot claim to restrict us to the cloth map to ensure we judge the fun of the game on its unaesthetic merits alone and yet deprive us of fun. Which is why we've been saying 'don't expect the game to be fun until Beta 3....not because that's we'll turn on the 'pretty gfx', but because we'll only move past Beta2 when the game is enjoyable on the cloth map. It's less a contradicition and more a 'sad truth'. <

Reply to Elemental February Status Report in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

One commonly recurring element in many of Brad's posts I see as self-contradictory. Let me explain. (Please take this as constructive criticism. I believe that the team at Stardock will benefit much more from constructive criticism than permanent servile flattery.) In reference to fun and beauty, Brad claims he wants to keep the 3D engine offline so as to play on the cloth map only, because -- quite correctly, I think -- he wants the game to be fun without flashy graphics. He wan

Reply to A Postulate on TBS fun: Easy to Learn, Hard to Master in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Very good examples, Campaigner. Soft counters are the way to go. Star Chamber worked in exactly this way, and this is the principle behind Chess as well -- a pawn will beat a queen just as easily as a more powerful piece will, given the right circumstances. [quote who="vieuxchat" reply="13" id="2524477"]And why not some kind of decreasing cost when you build a building that already exists ? Or synergy bonuses ? (you have 2 forge AND 3 barracks ? Then your warriors here will

Reply to Elemental: It's Fun to Charm Stuff... in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I suggested elsewhere on numerous occasions that every unit in the game have attribute statistics much like those an RPG-Sovereign would have, and at least one of these attributes (which I called Charisma so far) also reflected Mental Magic resistance. I would give the Charm spell the flag: "Is_Mental_Magic", and modifiers such as mental magic resistance would help deflect this. The game would go through a series of checks: First, it checks if the target has a mind. (Undead, for examp

what is anti-aliasing? in PC Gaming Elemental Forums

I recently got Dragon Age Origins and am loving it. It runs like a charm on my mediocre laptop. I have settings on max except for "Anti-Aliasing". But what does it do? Is it a big power-drain? Does it require a lot of juice? I think I have the settings at 2x anti aliasing, but that was just a guess since I am clueless as to what turning it up or down will give me in terms of risks and boni. Thank you.

Reply to A Postulate on TBS fun: Easy to Learn, Hard to Master in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="RisingLegend" reply="9" id="2523134"] Because you see, thats what I always ended up doing in CivIV: going to war for no reason just to give me something to do. [/quote] Me too. I didnt realize how boring that was until after the third playthrough. I do not see huge potential, however, for "builder"-like challenges; CivIV really shot themselves in the knee, however, by only allowing 1 building per type per city (e.g. one temple, one forge, ...); maybe Elemental ca

This game has soul, has love in PC Gaming Elemental Forums

This surprised me. I just got my disk about a week ago and I am smitten. I have played 10% of this game so far, according to the in-game documentary, and I have spent 24 hours of non-stop enjoyment so far on it. I am talking about the RPG Dragon Age: Origins. You should understand that I am not a Bioware fanboy, although I DID really enjoy Baldur's Gate 2. I despised Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale and have not played a Bioware game since. Boy am I glad I changed my mind a

Reply to A Postulate on TBS fun: Easy to Learn, Hard to Master in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Great, thank you. Some of the things I was thinking of I had elaborated in a post in which special maneuvers for units could be unlocked if the right techs and preconditions were researched, and it would be the maneuvers which added additional layers of countering. Still, I think chess is is not totally irrelevant, because some pieces in chess are better than others (usually) precisely because they are different; in chess, all attack and defense values are identical. In other

A Postulate on TBS fun: Easy to Learn, Hard to Master in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

INTRODUCTION In a recent post, a person on these forums complained th

Reply to Elemental: The MUST HAVE 2010 TBS requirements in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

An excellent list, nothing terribly important "left out", although I would have mentioned unit building in your shoes, but points 5, 6, and 9 were, at least to me, if I may say so, either underspecific or suboptimally worded. 5. Tactical Battles. I think that you should make clear that you want to ensure that it is not the generation and visualization of tactical combat which is the priority, but a deep and rich combat system which will enable and/or require a player to think an

Reply to Elemental: Revisiting the Great Cities of (my) RPG Gaming in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

From C-RPGs, perhaps the most memorable city I enjoyed was Sigil from Planescape: Torment. I liked Tarant in Arcanum as well. also I liked the way Tokyo (?) was presented in Deus Ex; in fact, I liked the way most cities felt in that game, even though it wasn't truly necessary; I'll never forget the cyborg dealer you can meet in the subway saying "I'm never goin back to prison, BITCH!" in that wonderful voice acting. That felt so alive, so tangible. A city in which NPCs mill about aimlessly, i

Reply to On Research and Technology in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="GW Swicord" reply="18" id="2505757"] I want a strong variety of strategic choices also, but I believe I'll be happier if the majority of them involve the magic system and not the differences between a Mongol composite horsebow and an English longbow. [/quote] Exactly. Yet if I may: When I said *strategic choices*, I meant strategic choices! In other words, not choices which give incremental advantages, or superficial differences,

Reply to Regions/areas and victory conditions in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Dr. Frankenfurter, are you thinking of Dominions3 scales? I see many parallels.

Reply to A new idea for Research and Technology in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

The Civilization series tried to do at least something along this road, the CivIV iteration was perhaps "best" in that respect (although I still was not enthralled by CivIV as most were), in that breakthroughs were reached by the fastest researchers (scientists), but the implementation of the inventions could have been hampered or enhanced by suboptimal / optimal "government" (e.g. windmills are great if your "society" is an "ecological" one, watermills or something odd seemed to be grea