crystlshake

Reply to A request for naming help in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I look at it the same as the name of some other animal and dont read overly much into it. The ravenous part is descriptive enough of likely behavior that the name tells you to be carefull and avoid them. Im hoping that monsters will be able to have traits too (or be refined by such). It will give more application to the base monster models. Say you want to put Fenrir in the game- you could scale up a normal wolf (if possible) and give it an ability along the lines of

Reply to Feedback on v1.2c in War of Magic Elemental Forums

It seems like it would work. I kind of like the idea of the city leveling up- but I agree it would be prefferable to have the bonuses work as a building mostly since, as said, it currently puts you on the spot to remember what each city is best at. Could have it so instead its more of a notice as there are more build options available for that city. I'm hoping that the event system would enable a 'tales' events where you could have a random adjustment applied to a ci

Reply to Animondays: Adding Some Atmosphere (Literally and Figuratively) in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="BoogieBac" reply="19" id="2955245"] We played with ways to pinch the verts in such a way to give some sharpness to the mountains, but it ended up looking really cheap IIRC there are some new terrain types that will allow for sheer mountainsides, though, which could be used in conjunction with tiledesigns to make some cool looking mountain peaks. [/quote] Sounds like what I was thinking. :) You could make a 'peak

Reply to Thoughts on the 1.3 beta series so far in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

To encourage specialization and large cities you could have buildings that have an effect aura (perform based on what is nearby, or boost the performance of other buildings nearby). That would take more work to implement than some of the other great suggestions though. Having a limiter on the number of build lots based on city level would probably work well for controlling several issues at once tile limit and city sprawl most of all. If housing is an aesthetic piece th

Reply to Why the citizen system is completely redundant and should be scrapped. in War of Magic Elemental Forums

What about population growth via prestige? As it currently works you gain say 1 per season per city. The population growth could be a global for your faction where the city prestige decides the ratio of distribution. It would mean that building more cities doesn't increase your population gain rate. It would then become a choice of deciding if the gains in territory, build ques and such are worth slowing down your capital's advancement. I'm not really sure how mu

Reply to A request for naming help in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I can see your point on that- keeping them open ended like maligned or ailing does allow more means of interpretation (and thus a larger range of application for the same game effect).

Reply to Animondays: Adding Some Atmosphere (Literally and Figuratively) in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Looks nice. The props mentioned should be fun for creating all kinds of interesting effects (for weather, spells, or places of interest). Might be able to tie one into the spells the buff and debuff the cities. Could have patches of roiling mist too. There could also be some applications if they can be used on a tac map. The mountains look to be predominately of the rolling type. Will there also be soaring peaks or sharp drops- or is that somethi

Reply to Replayability in World of Magic in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I think the biggest thing for me is the blandness (lack of variation) in the world. Right now there are only a handfull of maps- I haven't played enough games to have them memorized but random map generation would help with making exloring interesting again. The random events and special locations should help with this. The wandering npcs dont seem to do much of anything unless confronted or when they decide to raid your town. Some kind of hierarchy or something so

Reply to Fallen Enchantress: Champions in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

It sounds cool. You could work the the 'attract' prestige bonuses of inns and similar buildings into the spawn rate. Perhaps when the city level (population) is high enough and an attract building are present there is a chance for an adventurer to become drawn to the city. Could work as an additional bonus to building certain types of structures (perhaps a war college increases the likely hood of seeing champions that are military officers) where they affect the type

Reply to A request for naming help in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="Alstein" reply="117" id="2953049"] My suggestion: go magical: Dralnort's Blight. A virulent and incurable disease accidentally created by the foul sorcerer Dralnort before the Cataclysm, Dralnort's Blight creates weakness and frailty in its subject if they have the potential to channel magic. [/quote] Something like this would be good as its flavorful and it would make sense that there would be strains of ailments original to

Reply to Fallen Enchantress–creating cut scenes in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I wonder if a given cut scene could be generated dynamicly? Such as having one of the layered backgrounds (potentially with moving or animated props to be used at different depths to fill in background where appropriate) as a backdrop and using the character models (scaled appropriately to the scene) of the involved characters and createing a basic scene where poses or emotes could be used to convey the 'action' or 'emotion' of the scene. A battle

Reply to 1.3 More Event types in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

Having some decision opportunity events for cities or even tile/structure types within your zone of control would be nice as well. I really liked the planet event things from galciv2. Though admitedly I usually dont care for good vs. evil decisions- as long as the results of the decision are mostly clear (the good evil thing worked for galciv since it related to the perception other races had of your policies). It could work well with say a different tech directed focus

Reply to 1.3 More Event types in WOM Ideas Elemental Forums

The random events such as those tied to natural disasters were one of the elements that most engaged me in civ4. It breated a little more life and variety into the world. I also support the idea that implementing them should be treated as non-skippable (but perhaps have a toggle to disable them in the menu if implemented in the unmodded game or frequency/impact slider) things that are happening in the world that you can respond to. Even the one that would have a random fores

Reply to War of Magic: v1.29 beta log in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

So would a 4 man unit with 8 def and 8 attk be 6/6 when it is down to 3 members (3 hit points of 4)? Where the number of soldiers in the unit work as a kind of force multiplier, or would it remain 8/8 when at 3 hp? The health gain translating into more of the total number of units being visable makes some sense if you think of it as them being too injured to continue fighting vs. dead until the total health hits 0- Im just wondering if their combat effectiveness will work on a sliding s

Reply to A request for naming help in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="Bingjack" reply="101" id="2947773"]The hell is a "clambercoil"?[/quote] A name derived from 'to clamber' (climb over) and coil evokes a snake like creature and is also a winding action. In effect its meant to have the imagery of a vine climbing over a tree- it takes a while but it can get to the point where it 'strangles' the tree by depriving it of resources (water and primarily sunlight) since it can grow faster than the tree and prevent it from get

Reply to War of Magic: v1.29 beta log in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Looks like lots of performance related enhancements with memory and such. Minor factions will probably come back at a latter time once they get some of the primary engines running how they want. It would be a waste of time to code the ai for how a faction works if it has to be redone each time there is a change to base game elements (like the population and improvement changes). They also probably want to work out something to make them have more relevance as the las

Reply to War of Magic: v1.3– City levels matter again in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

One thing Id forgotten to add to my last post is supporting the ability to build watch towers or some other destroyable structure to increase line of sight and or maintain surveilence of an area (such as trade routes or choke points). As someone else said sometimes cities or improvements are placed just to increase the area you can watch (they could also be set up so that a stationed unit can put up an alert for when they see a monster or other faction in their range (perhaps with a coo

Reply to War of Magic: v1.3– City levels matter again in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Anouther way to reduce the city footprint is to have the buildings allow you to assighn your population to working on different tasks. Say that the study allows you to set up to 100 population (or a given % of total city pop) to research at the rate of X per person. This makes the building of anouther study a loss of the building time/materials if the current one isnt fully used. The building level upgrade could then cost but increase the research rate and or the a

Reply to Fallen Enchantress: The World in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

For some reason when I saw Delin the Pyre of Man I imediately thought of Burning Man (or Wicker man anyway) [e digicons];)[/e] I like the idea that monster lairs can raid places within their territory (could also have cases of monsters fighting eachother when they are incompatible (like a dragon raiding a nearby ogre or darkling camp or ogres fighting darklings) or too close together. If they ignore eachother it kind of works as a combined defense of the area if they have simil

Reply to A request for naming help in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Aegrand Battleplate - magical armor w/ increased defense (a word evoking aegis and greatness for better protection) Veteran - unit starting at 2nd experience level Ashwake- red dragon name (an apt description into a name) Clambercoil- green dragon name (derived from the imagery of being overcome by vines/nature-overgrown) Looming Matriarch- Giant spider name (weaving mother- couldnt come up with a good spinster or widower combo/name and widowmaker is more

Reply to FE - Animation Mondays #1! in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Im also curious about how much time it takes to create the animation for each step. Can an existing animation be modified by giving a start and end point for key parts of the body (potentially making additional animations easier as you can cut out redoing some of the work)? How does skinning the model (such as with the cloak) interact with the base model? Does cloak movement such as from a breeze or unit movement get animated separately or in conjunction with this animation?

Reply to Design a Trait Contest in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

The selection wasn't bad, but I have to agree with the blandness. Maybe it was the implementation part that pruned some of the other entries, or they were aiming for more common or basic unit skills. I figured the assassin one was the most interesting as it encouraged a change in tactics (making a single unit viable vs. a group of units), and being a trait that could be on a champion or normal unit. Plus the stealthed till detected/engaging part is cool. <p

Reply to Design a Trait Contest in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

a second one i thought of for elemental class creatures only Like Clockwork- the unit can not have its movement reduced (from spells or effects- or optionaly from equipment as well)

Reply to Design a Trait Contest in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

My entry- The Devil's Luck The unit with this trait is said to have the devil's luck (or an Elemental analogue there of). This trait represents the unnatural ability to survive situations that would kill any mortal creature. Even supernatural luck runs out however, and the tragedy of the past still casst a long shadow. The unit with this ability is saved at the brink of death when reduced to 0 or less HP in battle. The unit is teleported to the nearest friendly

Reply to Creating creatures in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I like the flavor text stuff, could be set up in game as a reference where after encountering/killing one, it would have the flavor text and some general info about the creature. Such as if it poisons, or does elemental damage (but not any specific stats). I think the Ignys is pretty cool looking but I agree with one of the earlier posts that the slot of 'minor elemental' shouldnt be filled for each type by a reskinned snake. Especially for elementals, they should show as a