Aeon221

Reply to Fun at GDC in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="Gwenio1" reply="31" id="2902561"] However, per there statements they believe the market for MP for a game like Elemental is essecially non-existant. And they are likely right, if you are only counting the hardcore MP players. Most of it is 'causal' MP players who find is fun to do some times, but do not play enough to make a purchase just to have MP.[/quote] Which is why giving it away for free is the best idea. Those casuals who are only vaguely

Reply to Fun at GDC in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

You know how some people play SP and not MP? The reverse is true. And those players can be attracted with a low cost well built MP mode. Stardock already has experience building MP for this engine; with the netcode and infrastructure there, it shouldn't take as much time or expense to add in the game mode. A low cost high quality mp option in the tbs and rts genres could rake in some dough and raise the profile of the game around the web. There might be more SP people, but the MP ones tend to

Reply to Fun at GDC in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I'm of the opinion that if the game is to be split into single and multiplayer elements with a combined price of $30, the correct distribution is $25 for the single player game and $10 for the multiplayer game. Many more people will buy the single player stuff. That's pretty much guaranteed. So milk 'em. The multiplayer stuff won't be bought by nearly as many people, so the best idea is to price it into the impulse buy range in order to maximize the number of potential players.

Reply to Fun at GDC in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Yes! Sins! Rebellion! Enough of this "I smiteth thee with my +3 Schlong Replacement of Utter Boredom" and back to the cold harsh depths of space, where no one can hear you scream (in bed). I look forward to burning traitorous traitors of traitor-y-ness with my Advent drone hordes! edit: Speaking to the DLC business, it's been handled poorly by most of the places that currently do it -- Civ 5 anyone, or horse armo

Reply to The Fallen Enchantress Poll in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

No quests in MP gimps the modding community, who won't be able to make RPG style game modes for multiple players. Leave it as an option! Choice good, determinism bad!

Reply to War of Magic–Report Card in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Relative to Vicky 2, very poor. Relative to World in Conflict, very poor. Relative to Tropico 3, poor. Those are the newest games I've purchased of late. I've not played Elemental in a while due to lack of interest, and am slowly losing interest in even checking up on how it is doing.

Reply to The natives may not be friendly in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I've actually been working to convince the CEO of the startup I'm at to take a more proactive role on customer engagement. Even when done poorly or infrequently, it's an incredible marketing tool. Customers tend to understand how valuable CEO time is, and they react incredibly positively to even limited comment. Frankly, I think you (Brad) in particular do an excellent job of marketing your games and that part of the success comes from your willingness to dive right in. Now, t

Reply to This land is…clean in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Referring to the term reference in reference to a pointer's referencing of the memory address, whose contents can be read by dereferencing the pointer, without referring to the specific language element called reference. In other words, appropriately used loose language inflicted on us by others, don't sue me over it. I'm aware that pointers are faster in some circumstances, that's why I asked if speed was the desired attribute without reference to safety, or if the preference

Reply to This land is…clean in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Noticed that the Civ4 SDK also had pointers everywhere. Do you pros do it because it's cheaper (but less safe) to pass a reference, or is this a bad habit from C? Also grats on bug kill.

Reply to The Stardock Game Roadmap 2011 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Like I said, a C++ SDK is one thing (and something I've asked for before). The proper place for C++ is where the standard user doesn't have to deal with it -- c'mon man, basic rule of code is provide an idiot proof interface! Python is ok for the standard "interface", but Lua would be better. Lua is simple enough -- ok, I guess it's apparently not as simple as I thought, but you can pick it up fast -- and well known, which is an advantage not shared with other options than Pytho

Reply to The Stardock Game Roadmap 2011 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="Gwenio1" reply="52" id="2880381"] quoting postThe Mod Layer As some people may remember, I was planning to take a sabbatical last year. Clearly that didn’t happen. I am still planning to do this sometime early this year. With Kael and Jon Shafer here now, I am comfortable that the games unit won’t need me to intervene. This will let me create what I’ve creatively named “Mod Layer”. The idea is to create a piece of middlewar

Reply to How I beat 6 ridiculous AI with screenshots to prove it [wip] in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Why upgrade to 7 when it uses twice the ram? So that you can add more ram? Higher clock speed? Overrated! Bigger video card? Who uses 19x12 anyway? My machine is from 03-04 and still runs everything from Victoria 2 (processor hell) to Dragon Age (video card rapist), so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about personally, especially considering how simple, low maintenance and well designed XP is at this point. If you think you need a pimpwagon and you aren't a professional graphical des

Reply to The Stardock Game Roadmap 2011 in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Python? Damnit. I hate those whitespace fanatics with a burning passionfruit. Seriously, on what planet was whitespace considered an easier mechanism for ordering code than {}. Other than that element of OMGWTFBBQSAUCE, it's a nifty little language, and I'm excited to have a full engine to play with. You, uh, you wouldn't consider putting the Kumquat out there as open source, would you? I have a feeling you'd make a ton of easy money if you went the

Reply to EWOM v. FFH2 (and SMAC) in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Riposte: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hBV0ApIh_4 Moving away from the off topic garbage, game needs work. Adventure stuff not being limited or competitive or interesting is a big problem with the world.

Reply to Imagine Fear in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Can't see the edit button. Anyway the cartoony graphics aren't the problem, it's the lack of mechanical backing. I'd piss my pants if a horde of spiders snuck up on me and I had to wait to retreat. As is, nothing can fight me unless I let it

Reply to Imagine Fear in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu iPhone an forum ignored my formatting!

Imagine Fear in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Elemental is many things, but one thing it isn't is scary. Wandering the wilderness is never dangerous, unless you don't know that you can retreat before the enemy can get anywhere near you. You're always safe! The monsters aren't scary, they're comical. And the other factions aren't terrifying or awe inspiring, they're just goofy. Fear isn't about big numbers or autodeath. It's about mechanisms and atmosphere. A great example is Eternal Darkness, a game where surprise

Imagine the Wilderness in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

The go-to example is Fallout. People, even hundreds of years after the nuclear war, mostly live in small corners of the abandoned metropolises of the past. Or they create tiny settlements in the wilderness. Mostly they get by through scavenging, small scale trade and petty theft. Maybe a little herding or agriculture when they have the tools and training. I'd like to see Elemental move into a similar vein. For instance, I'd personally ditch the settler mechanic entirely, and have the

Reply to Why should I buy this product now? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I swear to sweet cheesy pizza Jesus, what is it with these threads? Every day, someone seems to post either a "Should I buy (I herd it bad)?" or a "Bought the game (it are bad)!" thread. Buy it or don't, it's your fricken money! And if you hate it or love it, great for you, why don't you take a picture and submit it for chicken feed or some such. Could we just sticky one of each and call it a day? It's the same stuff every single time, to the point that ha

Reply to My dynasty children aren't growing up? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Uh, how about this. They're fully grown because magick. People can make friggen mountains pop out of the ocean, pretty sure they can make ti... never mind. I've yet to have a game last long enough for one of the little buggers to pop, and I'm sick of them taking 200 turns to produce. It's a level 1 hero that can maybe cast, not a supergod of death or something.

Reply to My dynasty children aren't growing up? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I wonder how many people would prefer 25-50 turns for their chitluns to pop.

Reply to What is your starting strategies and why? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Whatever you do, don't spam cities. Only build them next to resources. If you just put them everywhere willy nilly and link them with a goldpump with caravans you WILL break the game and get bored. So don't do that! In terms of techs, Civilization and Warfare are the two mission critical research trees . Focus on them. Magic is fine for dabbling , but not a replacement for big ol weapons. Diplomacy has a bunch o

Reply to 92 Points to Spare - Breaking the Game in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Since most of the systems are broken, rewriting them is indeed the best option. That said, it wouldn't take much to limit the number of heroes by tying it to sov charisma (with offspring not included in the total), changing caravans to a fixed gold income based on distance (and making the caravan limit higher, but count both incoming and outgoing caravans) and, for units, increasing the value of dodge and making heavy armor or groups drastically reduce dodge. The biggest issue, obviou

Reply to Let's play: Elemental: War of Magic! (Image heavy thread.) in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Yeah, not much point in buying constitution for your heroes. It's a bit of a crap stat to be totally honest. Basically pick int if you want the hero/sov to spam arcane arrow, and strength if you want to spend less money on weapons. Charisma is fine if you want to pump up a city with a lot of huts rapidly -- stick a bunch of charisma on the farmer heroes and sit them in a city. I personally usually pick the gildar bonus for most cities, since you really don't need all th

Reply to First impressions/another rant: what is going on with this game? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP9--c-VAK8&feature=related That's how I feel about adventure techs right now. Things popping up and whatnot, and not being excited about it. If they were in from the beginning the quantity of stupid irritating huts of worthlessness would need to be reduced. Actually those stupid chests and whatnot need to be reduced now! If I'm in the mood for an adventurous