Ynglaur

Reply to Random Elemental journal: December 2009 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Frogboy - After Demigod, I seriously think you should do PurplePaladin's suggestion. Don't do it at release, but add a "public" patch a few weeks later. :p

Reply to Explorer.exe consuming 80% of one CPU in Stardock Support General Stardock Forums

Already tried that. It just shows the main explorer.exe thread. None of the .dlls are causing it. I tried the "bad AVI" registry fix, which seems to have worked so far.

Reply to Explorer.exe consuming 80% of one CPU in Stardock Support General Stardock Forums

Thanks Rosco. Will do.

Explorer.exe consuming 80% of one CPU in Stardock Support General Stardock Forums

My Explorer.exe process is consistently consuming around 80% of one CPU, even when I'm not actively using it, searching, etc. I don't have Windows Search 4.0, Google Desktop, or other file indexing tasks running. Has anyone ever seen a Stardock app cause this? Fences, WB, or Multiplicity perhaps? I'm running WinXP Pro SP3. If not a Stardock app, does anyone know a good way to turn off Explorer.exe hooks, context menus, etc. other apps put in?

Reply to Incredibuild is incredible in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

I like how Stardock gets their developers nice machines: 4 cores and up from the picture.

Reply to Elemental: Data-Driving the Unit Stats in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

Finding a value in a list of n size is a logarithmic algorithm, so long as the list is sorted. Not going to cause a real performance problem. <img id="myFxSearchImg" style="border: medium none; position: absolute; z-index: 2147483647; opacity: 0.6; display: none;" src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABgAAAAYCAYAAADgdz34AAADsElEQVR4nK2VTW9VVRSGn33OPgWpYLARbKWhQlCHTogoSkjEkQwclEQcNJEwlfgD/AM6NBo1xjhx5LyJ0cYEDHGkJqhtBGKUpm3SFii3vb2956wPB/t+9raEgSs52fuus89613rftdcNH8/

Reply to Random Elemental journal: December 2009 in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

If only we didn't have so many pirates in the beta, we'd have a better game. :p Btw, I know the focus is on land battles, but we really should pirates into the game as some sort of anti-DRM easter egg or something. It'd be hilarious. Have them show up on your coasts frothing and foaming (so to speak) at the mouth, only to enter your Library and University locations, copy everything down, and then leave.

Reply to Elemental: Data-Driving the Unit Stats in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Yeah, the Total War series has replicated the morale effect very effectively since Shogun. I'll never forget this one battle I had in Shogun: a very large enemy army was advancing up the hill towards me. I basically had archers and heavy cavalry. the archers were causing some casualties, but were going to get hit. So I dispersed them, and then moved my heavy cav through their ranks. The enemy line wavered visually, and as the heavy cavalry got about half way to t

Reply to It is time to talk about QUESTS! in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I knew that "Trollish Heritage" pick would come in handy someday...

Reply to Tough love for Object Desktop in Personal Computing Elemental Forums

LOL I'm going to steal this line if you don't mind.

Reply to Random Elemental journal: December 2009 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

It looks like the punch-counterpunch will be, in terms of "damage types" at least, a function of tactics rather than of strategy. This makes sense to me. At least then you have a fighting chance. How often in GalCiv2 do you not even both with defensive tech because you only have 33% chance of guessing "right"? Fire/Ice/Lightning/Earth/Blunt/Pierce/Chop would be even worse.

Reply to Roads: A possibly interesting idea for them in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Lore-wise, I don't think population centers can spring up without help from a Channeler, at least initially. It might be interesting if, as life returns to the land, and if space is available, independent cities did spring up. It may also be an interesting event to have independent "strongholds" found from time to time, full of scrappy survivors who fend off the dangers of the wastes.

Reply to Dowries in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

I think trying to work out "loyalty by character" would be very interesting, but tricky to implement, and very tricky to guess. We couldn't expect the player to remember all of the various permutations, and would need to develop a system to show that City A is loyal to Character X, and City B hates Character Y, and so forth. Cool concept, but it wouldn't scale well if we suddently have dozens of characters per Faction. That said, I think having Cities have likes/dislikes f

Reply to Elemental: Data-Driving the Unit Stats in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Historically, armies didn't always break at the same time, but parts of armies usually did. I like the idea of a "Discipline" stat, too, but it's probably redundant with Morale. Basically, I don't want untrained peasants able to form close ranks and march in formation quickly. Well-trained troops should have advantages in speed, reaction time, and maneuverability. Boogie - How do you see that type of thing being reflected? Are unit formations, etc. goi

Reply to It is time to talk about QUESTS! in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

The people of say a is terrorizing them. You can: Ignore their pleas for help. After all, your troops haven't seen this mysterious monster. Send a hero to investigate. Everyone knows one bumbling young hero can find a monster faster than an armyof horsemen. Increase the garrison by of troops. Tax a "Wasting My Time" surcharge of of gold. Tell them they're lu

Reply to Some thoughts on succession in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Coding the AI would be the easy part. The hard--and frustrating--part would be for the player to keep track of it all. With too many actions/counter-actions, the game becomes a crapshoot.

Reply to It is time to talk about QUESTS! in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

The populace is demanding that your release the prisoner , who they claim is jailed unjustly. You can: Leave him in prison Leave him in prison, and use your spies to find and imprison the most vocal of the pleaders (effectiveness based on oppression, size of army, morale, and other factors) Send a Hero to recover evidence of his guilt or innocence at Let him free

Reply to Stardock building in Blogging Stardock Forums

Nice. It looks different for some reason than the one posted here. https://www.stardock.com/about/ <img id="myFxSearchImg" style="border: medium none; position: absolute; z-index: 2147483647; opacity: 0.6; display: none;" src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABgAAAAYCAYAAADgdz34AAADsElEQVR4nK2VTW9VVRSGn33OPgWpYLARbKWhQlCHTogoSkjEkQwclEQcNJEwlfgD/AM6NBo1xjhx5LyJ0cYEDHGkJqhtBGKUpm3SFii3vb2956wPB/t+9raEgSs52fuus89613rftdcNH8/c9q9++oe/Vzb5P+3McyNcfm

Reply to Channeler Customization: Part 3 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="Denryu" reply="50" id="2470429"]A channeller with the "impotent" trait should get "alchemical potion d'viagra" in their research tree. [/quote] This would be a really interesting trait, actually, and possibly add some real strategic decision-making. "Do I send my heroes on a quest to retrieve the Elixir of Vitality, or spend the next few months researching my own concoction, or just keep my sorry hide out of danger for the foreseeable future?"

Reply to Some thoughts on succession in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote who="GW Swicord" reply="55" id="2471913"] Quoting Ynglaur, reply 54I don't think the "un-PC" nature of a male-driven succession will hurt the game. Medieval: Total War allowed you to get a +1 Dread attribute by putting fathers/brothers on top of princess units, for goodness' sake. Medieval II got rid of that, but still had princesses as diplomats on a timer: get 'em married off for the diplomatic benefit, or see them retire to a nunnery. Fair enough

Reply to Random Elemental journal: December 2009 in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

It's possible that attack spells won't just cause damage. Fire could reduce morale, Frost could reduce speed, etc.

Reply to Random Elemental journal: December 2009 in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

That makes sense. I think the idea that shards influence the amount of mana required, rather than being a hard go/no go for casting is interesting. You could even combine it. For most spells, having more shards makes them easier to cast. For the big, earth-shattering types, you just need the raw power of x number of shards. Complex spells may require x shards of various types.

Reply to Some thoughts on succession in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

I don't think the "un-PC" nature of a male-driven succession will hurt the game. Medieval: Total War allowed you to get a +1 Dread attribute by putting fathers/brothers on top of princess units, for goodness' sake. Medieval II got rid of that, but still had princesses as diplomats on a timer: get 'em married off for the diplomatic benefit, or see them retire to a nunnery.

Dowries in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Since we'll be able to marry off our female progeny, I think it would be cool if each princess had a dowry associated with her. It'd add a touch of realism, and I think we could introduce a fun game mechanic at the same time. Each princess has an associated dowry, which can be most anything: gold, land, cities, shards, armies, heroes, whatever. (Dragon's probably wouldn't assent, of course). Once married off, the receiving faction receives the dowry in full. If m

Reply to Random Elemental journal: December 2009 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

If control of Shards gives "shard power" (for lack of a better term at the moment), perhaps a Sovereign special abiilty will be skill in different elemental paths, to which "shard power" gets added. Sovereign.Base Fire Power = 4 Fire Shards Controlled = 3 Sovereign.Effective Fire Power = 7 In terms of how easy/hard it is to change a UI. Lessee, for our J2EE-based "thin client"...a few days. For our Flex-based self-service UIs, slightl