NTJedi

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="24" id="2086732"] But my point is that I don't think it's possible to balance teleportation costs if teleportation is used for foreign trade and you want unrestricted and unlimited trade from early on. Let's say I send a quick flying unit to explore early on and discover a distant nation. To be able to really trade with that player, especially so early in the game, the costs of teleporting resources across the map would have to be very manageable. A

Reply to How do we know to pre-order? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Hello MichaelCook ... I recommend trying the Dominions_3 demo while you're waiting: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwinter/DOM3/DOM3_page.html I recommend your first game be played on a large map with only a few p

Reply to Elemental too Revolutionary? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I think we can all agree that we'll have a more clear picture on the game once the full beta arrives. Someone may be worried the game will be too complex now, but once you play the full beta you may feel the game is too shallow. One area which has me slightly surprised was hearing the technology trees were relatively small, but being optomistic I'm thinking gamers can expand on the technology trees and other areas using the Integrated Modding Environment mentio

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="17" id="2083344"] Oh there should definitely be teleportation, hopefully several methods of it. However, if they'll be cheap enough to be used for large amounts of trade, and available to everyone from the very beginning of the game, then teleportation would not only be cheapened but way too cheap! It means from very early on I'd be able to teleport troops and all huge distances for small mana costs. I'd much rather teleportation of anything more than a l

Reply to Unit Types in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="10" id="2083222"] Do you expect someone to actually edit all the living units and provide each of them an attribute for one spell ? no, we expect them to edit all undead so that they are not healed by that spell. [/quote] That could eventually be 100+ undead units... and three spells of this type would triple the effort. Much easier for assigning a single tag when a unit is created and then once the spel

Reply to Unit Types in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="Netaddict45" reply="8" id="2082990"]Types.. Types.. Types.. I don't see it. You've got a man, you give him stuff, you train him to use it, what would a "type" have to do with it? It would just be some kind of sub-classification of this. There's more variety without limiting units like that. Any special feature of a certain kind of troop would then be some kind of attribute. [/quote] Without Tag Types... how would someone create

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="15" id="2082804"] Quote from pigeonpigeon: I'll say it again that the possibility that an exploit may or may not be discovered after release is a terrible reason to not even bother developing a feature. Seriously, worst reason ever. And I'll also say again that for me, the ability to have instant foreign trade across arbitrary distances, and yet having to wait 3 turns for my swords t

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="11" id="2082035"] I already covered the bit about bad starting locations - nice of you to completely ignore reasonable arguments just because you can't find a flaws in them. And quite frankly, a sophisticated system needn't have more bugs, exploits or cheating involved than a simpler one - it would only have more of such problems if it weren't tested and developed sufficiently. [/quote] I didn't ignore your comments on bad starting loca

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="9" id="2081389"] I said there should be as few options as possible in the beta. .... ... The final product should have lots of options (but I think keystone features that are at all fundamental to gameplay should remain set in stone). [/quote] Well if the beta will only be having as few options as possible than we should stick with the simple, secure, stable traditional trading system... details later. [qu

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="7" id="2080541"] I don't see why any experimental new feature that Stardock might want to try out should be made optional in the beta. The point of the beta is for Stardock to get players to test what Stardock wants us to test. Really if you want my opinion there should be as few options in the beta as possible (while there should be lots in final release), that way Stardock can keep the feedback as focused as possible to the major things they'

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="5" id="2080183"] This game will have a beta test, and if a feature they try out fails, no biggy. Either they fix it or remove it and no one dies. The finished product should never be used to test out or trial run features - that's why betas exist. If Stardock implements a trade system like the one I've been proposing, and in the beta process it becomes clear that it isn't going to really work, it can still be fixed or removed. [/quote]<b

Reply to Building a fantasy world in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="5" id="2079272"] Oops, guess we should take out channelers. And essence. And individual units capable of wasting entire armies. And a rethought 4X economy model. And fully customizable units. And a physics engine. Wow the list just goes on of brand new untested features and mechanics planned for this game. They should just drop them all and replace them with the same old tried and true stale ideas. So set it up so that you are

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="3" id="2079251"] Um, airplanes are designed with brand new engine designs all the time (well, not all the time - new planes aren't designed all the time). If no one ever built a new plane with a new engine, we'd be stuck with WWI era planes. The point is they are tested until they are determined to be good and safe and efficient. Yes, have a major feature of a game be revolutionary, something that's never been done before, is like making a new

Reply to Building a fantasy world in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="25" id="2079037"] And secondly, the trade system I'd like to see is a sort of fusion between NTJedi's 2 and 3. A caravan-based foreign trade system controlled by a 3rd party merchant's guild. [/quote] I'm strongly against the idea of having all trade between players exist within caravans moving on the map due to the following problems: 1) There's way too many possibilities for exploits, bugs, abuses, cheats, etc

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="1" id="2078996"] Not doing something because people might find exploits or cheats is THE WORST reason ever. Seriously. The trick is to find potential exploits and address them, and not to put in cheats that can be used if cheats are disabled. If you scrap every idea that could be exploited, don't try to make a game - you'll end up with a blank screen. [/quote] Having something completely new for a critical piece of any game such as trad

Reply to Building a fantasy world in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="lwarmonger" reply="20" id="2078884"]I am (and I'd say it is reasonable to say that others are as well) curious about foriegn trade. How will that be handled? Will it be done primarily using the same caravan system that characterizes internal trade, or will it be exclusively bilateral party to party trade through negotiation (a la Dominions 3)? Just curious, because while much has been made of domestic trade and how that will be handled, next to nothing has b

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="24" id="2078588"] Also, perhaps more importantly, you are chronically ignoring that all my suggestions have included some mechanism to make disrupting other people's trade have severe consequences. Blocking/stealing someone else's trade should be a very major decision, one that you will have to pay for in some way. [/quote] As I wrote earlier the disrupting of trade can be done indirectly via independents. And people are b

Reply to Building a fantasy world in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I hope some internal testing is done on large maps even before the beta arrives. Problems can be easier to identify on the XL maps during late game as compared with TINY maps. I hope the game will also include some fun optional features where we can adjust the percentage of activity such as:</spa

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="pigeonpigeon" reply="20" id="2077562"] I guess it does, at that. I hated corruption in Civ 4. But there is one major difference - in my proposal you can actually compensate for the 'penalty' if you want. It'll cost you, but in the end what you gain by spending to make your lands safe for trade might more than make up for it. [/quote] I recall CIV_4 had options for changing your government for removing and reducing corruption, but there was a cost here too.

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="lwarmonger" reply="19" id="2077525"]Personally I don't see having a player surrounded by another player only being able to trade through that territory as a problem. That is what happens in such situations, today just as much as in the past. And insofar as trade, I was recommending a situation where trade largely happens on its own between centers of production and population. As a ruler of an empire your contribution to anything other than specific intersta

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="18" id="2077484"] NTJEDI QUOTE:Nearby themselves because they're large?? The more space someone takes on a map the more likely they will be next to multiple players. ah, you're looking at the boarder of the nation. I'm just talking on a per-city basis. Only the boarders of the nation would be next to another nation, and likely it would only be one or two. &nbs

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="Nights Edge" reply="15" id="2077329"]"Sometimes a player finds an item which is beyond his capability to utilize its power yet" I may have misunderstood, but if you are suggesting a MMORPG-style level requirement for items then I have to say I don't think I'd like that in this sort of game. I don't like the arbitrariness of such restrictions anyway. Other parts of the suggestion look very interesting though. [/quote] Not a MMORPG... fo

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

PidgeonX2... The internal banditry you mention sounds like another type of corruption as we saw from the corruption within CIV_4. The foreign trade could be introduced and work... hopefully the game will have that many types of resources available for trading and the ability to create new resources. I see lots of players i

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="landisaurus" reply="12" id="2077234"]I agree with Iwarmonger, depending on how you set it up, the larger empire won't have anybody nearby to trade because they will be nearby to themselves. So a town surrounded on all sides by other nations will get better trade than a town surrounded on all sides by the same nation. Also a larger country that has 1 side of its boarder blockaded (or whatever will stop a trade route) something like 5 cities will be prevented&n

Reply to Trading Ideas in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

[quote who="lwarmonger" reply="10" id="2077088"] I disagree. A larger empire would be proportionately more difficult to protect than a weaker empire (thus making commerce raiding and banditry a way to catch up for smaller nations), while at the same time the larger nation steals large amounts of trade from itself (by building up infrastructure and businesses in one area it steals away trade from neighboring locales... who also happen to be a part of the large empir