Mistwraithe

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

[quote who="NetNomad" reply="34" id="2948566"] Quoting Alfdaur, reply 31 quoting post + Trained unit groups that survive a battle will heal to full strength (i.e. If your group of 4 survives the battle with 1 guy left, it will be replenished to 4 over time). Hat tip to Konan. Konan! God I love that game (Konan 1 + Ahriman's gift). Just that you know, you need to have them in your zone of supply! So... Does this mean that the sqaud members only return in your ow

Reply to Epic City Thread - My Schwartz is Bigger than Yours in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="19" id="2922961"]Haha, yea, love how healing doesn't work in this game. [/quote] You've made a mistake, here I'll fix it for you [e digicons]:grin:[/e]

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

[e digicons]k1[/e] My cynical side is trying hard to resist but you are saying all the right things to make FE into an instant classic if you can pull it off. Bravo!

Reply to Elemental just isn't a fun game in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="owl208" reply="11" id="2914568"]Sure, I can figure out how to play WOM-that's not the issue, but I'm not having fun doing it, so what am I missing? Why does it suck?[/quote] Unfortunately I think the answer is likely that you aren't missing anything. IMO there just isn't all that much game in WoM. I always liked the engine and its always been pretty solid for me, some of the ideas have potential (even great potential) but the interplay betwe

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

Derek, you make a lot of sense. Disturbingly so. Please be careful that you keep your super powers of reasoning and common sense hidden most of the time in future lest one of the evil empires (eg EA) seeks to strike down your beacon of light in the darkness.

Reply to Was E:WoM ever truly finished? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

EWoM is a much more functional piece of software now than when first released, by which I mean it is less buggy. It is also a better game. It is according to Frogboy the game he wanted it to be. However it is not the game I wanted it to be. I don't think it ever will be, although I would be happy to be surprised. Simply put there isn't enough strategic depth or enough exciting fluff for it to be that game. A great game would have both, a decent game would have one or the other

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

At Release Elemental: F (I was really, really disappointed) Civilization 5: B- (I played one game and enjoyed it, but it was too shallow to tempt me back for a second game at the time) Now Elemental: D (Improving but still few meaningful choices, mostly no brainers or not important, weak AI and uninteresting or very sparse fluff) Civilization 5: B (A few fixes and can still be fun but an expansion will be required to fl

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

Maybe they should use handles? [e digicons]XD[/e]

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

+1 for original poster. Elemental has moved forward a bit since release but it is still the same piece of software, just a bit more robust and tweaked. What is needed is a major shift, a huge amount of extra fun and strategic choices added to the game. I think Stardock are trying to get there. I also think they now have a team to get there. However I think there is still a long road to go.

Reply to 1.09n: Reduction to just 5 stats... a step backwards IMHO in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I think a hybrid system for mana is the answer. All spellcasters should have a stat governing their mana, lets call it Essence simply because it is similar to the old system. All spellcasters should have their own local mana pool which maxs at the Essence level and replenishes over time (ie like old system). All spellcasters use their local mana pool JUST for casting spells in combat and when they cast spells in combat those spells are initially fueled by their local m

Reply to Four days into the new job in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

When I heard that Kael had been hired by Stardock to do project management for Elemental that gave me my first real hope post release that Elemental would become the great game it could be. That is exactly the role they need filled by someone and it is hard to have better credentials for the role than Kael. However it will take time. I said back when Elemental was released that it needed a full revisit and re-imagining of the game and that would take at least 3 months. I still

Reply to Begatting resources in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I think Stardock really need to know what sort of game they are making before this question even has any meaning. If they are making a MoM style game then it becomes pretty obvious that the economic model is just one component of the game with magic, city building, troop selection, tactical combat, hero development being some other components. If it is just one component then it is also self evident that it can't be 'too' complex because it is only a portion of the game and pl

Reply to Begatting resources in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="psychoak" reply="112" id="2813954"]Kohan has a wonderful, simple system. Simple unit selection, simple character designs, simple combat, simple resources, simple city development, simple supply systems. Everything is simple, and it all goes together.[/quote] Exactly (oh and Kohan? Best RTS game ever. Bar none). I wouldn't say Elemental is currently too complex but it IS too disjointed and shallow. Maybe a more complex economic system with more r

Reply to A List of ‘Positives’ in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

[quote who="cephalo" reply="6" id="2810583"]As much as you guys talked about 'teething problems' with your new game engine, I would say that its a darn good engine. I think the engine and the art style were always very good. (could use some more color though) There's nothing engine-wise that would prevent a true classic fantasy game being made. The only problem was that you took the game design portion of the project for granted, when really it's the hard part. Brad even said game produc

Reply to The little light bulb just lit! in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote quoting="post"]four hours later I realalized I was having fun[/quote] Are you sure? Maybe you just "thought" you were having fun? Perhaps the game did irreparable damage to your fun circuits, causing you to black out for 4 hours and wake up assuming, incorrectly, that you had fun? [e digicons]|-)[/e]

Reply to temple of essence in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I said MAX mana would never be a problem again, as in you can easily get to the point were pretty much all your imbued heroes can theoretically cast spells requiring 30 mana. Actually having the mana to cast those spells is a different problem all together! The building which Gene1966 mentioned which increases mana regen from 1 to 3 is the only really helpful thing in this area that I know of.

Reply to temple of essence in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Temples of Essence stack. Get enough of them and max mana won't ever be a problem again.

Reply to Economic Rebalancing Has Sucked the Fun Out of the Game in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Balance is good. Poorly thought through changes are bad. I'm still on 1.07 because 1.08 sounds a bit dodgy but going on what people have said they have dropped the gold received from monster hunting. That's fine, I wanted that change BUT at the same time they needed to make monsters start to drop items. So instead of killing monsters to get gold to buy horrendously overpriced items, you instead kill monsters to find cool items. Doing one change without the other is bad

Reply to The AI in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="cpl_rk" reply="10" id="2783656"]I have seen mountains appear in an AI kingdom, but I'm not sure if it was the AI or a bug.[/quote] Why would you want to put a mountain in your own kingdom? Even if it was done by the spell sounds like a bug! Unless one AI did it to another AI in which case that would be pretty cool... but doubtful, becuase if the AI was doing that to its enemies then surely it would do it to the human player at times.

Reply to Let's talk about Master of Magic in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Addage" reply="105" id="2783388"]Probably the best term that somes it up (although maybe not helpful to Frogboy) is "a cohesive experience", the whole game design held together remarkably well no matter which functional way you picked it up (aka: I pick these 3 books and decide to work on this goal to winetc).[/quote] I dunno, I think that should be extraordinarily helpful to Frogboy. I think the biggest singe problem with Elemental is a lack of cohesive design. All the go

Reply to The Elemental all-purpose mega thread in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Agreed Belmont35. What I really can't believe is that they locked that thread by the Gorgon! Ok he was a little down on them but I agreed with so many things said in that thread (not just Gorgon's original post). I really feel that taking a big picture redesign of the game mechanics for a decent period of time is the only way to turn Elemental into a masterpiece. By locking threads like hithe impression I get (hopefully incorrectly) is that they have no interest in this messag

Reply to IGN review is UP in War of Magic Elemental Forums

The logic is a bit bamboozling you have to admit. To paraphrase: "I didn't like Civ 4 which got a 9.4, therefore I wouldn't like Civ 5 which got a 9, so it is great that instead I bought Elemental which got a 6." Either he cares about the IGN scores in which case he should clearly be playing Civ 4 (or 5) instead of Elemental, or he doesn't give a hoot about the IGN scores in which case why is he criticising Civ 5 for getting (marginally) less than Civ 4? Not that I rea

Reply to "Oh, you mean walk through the forest?" in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Agreed. Please fix the optimum path algorithm Stardock. Equally bad things happen around settlements where my troops will often walk multiple squares in the open beside the city when they could just step into the city and step out the otherside for way less movement. Please also fix all forest squares so that it is clearer that they are forest, some only have a few stumps which doesn't look like it would slow anyone.

Reply to The Elemental all-purpose mega thread in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="JSJ101" reply="101" id="2779572"]Basically, it comes down to this: I played Civ4 for the first time the other day, and I was just stunning at the amount of strategic depth it has relative to this game. What makes strategy games fun for me is planning and succeeding at pulling off those plans (or not!). But, in Elemental, I've found that my basic strategy is exactly the same for every game of Elemental that I play. [/quote] Exactly. I've said this before but ha

Reply to The Elemental all-purpose mega thread in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Personally I like the city building. I don't like the way most cities end up with the same buildings in them and the lack of distinctive feel, etc, but the actual mechanics of building cities I think is quite cool. Which pretty much proves the point. Everyone will have opinions and conflicting ideas. What is needed is someone with a strong vision at Stardock (someone very clever with an excellent understanding of what makes other fun/challenging TBS games great) to put together a cohe