Hexes would be awesome. WoM suffers because of lack of zones of control for movement and it would be much easier to use with hexes than tiles. (With hexes each other hex has a definite border where tiles have borders and corners to consider).
Agree with the others that balance and Tactical Combat are the 'big' issues. Glad to hear that a bell curve is to be used for calculating attack/damage rolls.This is a great move as long as the specific means and variances are adaptable. Will modders have the ability to specify the mean and variance for specific weapons. Would be really really cool to be able to have weapons have different bell curve means and variances against different armour types etc. That would ma
Thanks for the update, Brad. :) Second the call for a better beta bug system for FE. The current ad-hoc post to the forums is not really 2011 - more like 2001. Although Derek's pre-bug list posts were great. I am looking forward to trying Fallen Enchantress but there is also an equal measure of trepidation. Please let us experience the whole game this time in beta rather than just focusing on isolated elements. I think that if the beta testers for WoM had been able to tria
No, War of Magic is playable in the opposite way Dwarf Fortress is. Dwarf Fortress is a fully engaging game with an unbelievable map generator where lots of different aspects lead to different games every time you play it - but it just looks like crap until you get used to it. On the other hand, E-WoM is not engaging, has a very shallow random map generator, and no matter what the world generates it plays the same way every single time - but the graphics do look good which doe
The game is not as bad as it sounds. It is playable and I find it fairly stable. It has some interesting aspects but overall it is much less than the sum of its parts. It is a game that is fun to play the first time around but then after that it is pretty much the same time after time. At this stage I'd say it isn't really worth the $$$ but Fallen Enchantress shows some promise so perhaps best to wait for that release and see how it is received.
[quote who="Mtn_Man" reply="4" id="2977817"]Because livening up a forum is an excellent reason to rush a game through development. [/quote] [e digicons]:grin:[/e]
I'm in 100% agreement with the various comments about the problems other than engine limitations. The game mechanics are flawed no matter what the problems with the engine brings. As has been said, there is no real strategic choice and there is no differentiation. This is really what underlies the concerns for FE if they haven't been solved in WoM.
[quote who="BlackRainZ" reply="34" id="2976233"]... In my opinion, having the ability to customize units obviously killed that idea of having thousands of units but it also killed the individuality of factions. If you had several unit types for each faction rather than customizing units, each faction could have been more unique and you could have kept in those thousands of units running around. I think people would have been much happier that way.[/quote] I think this is an important
Thank you for addressing the concerns, Brad. :) I understand all too well the issues of developing new software and invariably it takes a heap more effort than anyone ever anticipates. As such, for me at least, the bugs and crashes are to be expected and I'm not really worried about these. My issues were really regarding the balance and mechanics. It sounds funny, but I'm heartened that WoM is not being given much priority and that changes are only being implemented th
I want Stardock to do well and I want Elemental to be a great game but where things currently are I am really concerned about the various decisions and releases over the last 12 months. If past history is a good indicator of what to expect in the future, what are the most likely outcomes: 1. FE will be a little different than WoM but still suffer from the same game-breaking choices regarding the underlying game mechanics. 2. Decisions will be made affecting FE without
[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="2" id="2973994"]... What is the point of beta if you do not pay attention and fix the problems we report?...[/quote] This has been giving me the shits as well. But the damned potential of the game keep sucking me back in. Like watching a blind-fold darts game. Most of the throws don't even hit the board but there is still a chance of hitting a bulls-eye.
Thanks for the update. I like most of the changes but am concerned about a couple of things: Terra-forming spells just seem like dev-wank to show off what an engine can do with deformation. It changes the underlying game too much. Really wish these were dropped. The combat numbers still look very small. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but the small damage number examples lead me to think that tactical combat in FE is not going to be a hell of a lot different than WoM. 1
FE is sounding a lot more realistic in its objectives. WoM basically started where most games finish up - full of features. The only trouble with adding features without the benefit of game evolution is that you run the risk of not getting it all right. That's what happened with WoM. I think the approach of simplifying some of the dog areas in WoM for FE is a good call. I'm looking forward to it but don't want to get overly excited yet until we can see how the game handles tactica
I thought Stars! was a better game than MOO in its day. And Distant Worlds sits right on the top of the tree for me now as the best space-based 4X game ever made.
We're arguing for pretty much the same result but via different methods. You guys are wanting individuals and monsters to be brought up to match parties while I want parties to be nerfed to match individuals and monsters. When I read your reasoning it makes sense if the game can control scales and equipment - but it doesn't! In WoM party size goes up 4, 8, 12 and 16. A size 16 party is really worth a hell of a lot more than 4 x size 4 units. And exactly the same equipment can
I never played MoM but are we really comparing apples with apples? In MoM could you: Design your own units (armour and weaponry)? Use the same equipment across various unit types (as in, heroes in WoM share the same equipment tree as all other units and races)? Decide on the number of units in a party? Have parties regenerate (heal)? If the answer to all these is 'Yes' then perhaps WoM could be balanced (WoM does all of the
But you still end up with a single board unit getting multiple hits at full strength. As soon as you start thinking of the stacks as single units (which is in reality what they are) the multi-hit approach means you can kiss goodbye to balance - it really is that simple. As I said, there should be 'some' benefits in battle but the real value is survivability. Imagine we never had parties in the first place. How much simpler would it have been to get Tactical Combat balanced. I
[quote who="Sethai" reply="24" id="2966775"] It is indeed very tricky to balance units with multiple attacks (ie parties/regiments/whatever) when everything else in the game only has one attack roll. But I'd argue a better solution would be to make the monsters and heroes MORE like the groups rather than less. Ie, reduce their Damage stats but give them multiple attack rolls at once, as if they were small but very well equipped groups. Reasons why? 1 - It keeps the fundame
[quote who="Sethai" reply="22" id="2966619"] ... I dispute this. It's certainly not as valuable as better weapons, but this is because of the problems with weapon damage values starting to low and finishing too high, which is the real problem here. I know you're trying to work within the sytem, but I really dislike it when people start throwing round these "+10% bonus" ideas. Why 10? Why not 11? or 12.519? An extra attack makes intuitive sense because you have one more gu
I was wrong in the specifics about attack/damage values in my opening post but in reality you still end up with multiple hits delivered by a single game unit. I would much rather each game unit (stacks or individuals) gets a single attack/damage roll and that the size of the unit helps more with survivability. As a guide I think the most powerful individual should still need about two hits to kill the weakest individual and equal individuals requiring about 6 hits to get a kill. If th
Elemental Forums
I just ignore them when they do that. Is a big problem if they decide to attack though.
The races are a massive problem but are not easy to fix. I'm currently playing a game where I'm at war against both Kraxis and Magmar (or what-ever they are called). My armies march through the fallen lands and I don't know which of the two I'm fighting because they are both exactly the same. None of the battles have been memorable. None of the interaction with them has had any flavour. The game is still currently more about 'process' than 'immersion' and that
[quote who="Teal_Blue" reply="6" id="2963826"]I play and enjoy Elemental War of Magic, and there is much improvement from where we were last year, however, if hit points and weapon damage numbers are out of line, can these not be corrected in a mod? I come from the Sins forums and have modded SoaSE for some time, though my expertise is only at a tweaking level. Swapping numbers high or low, speed or numbers of units and various ability durations or strengths or cooldowns can all be
[quote who="Gwenio1" reply="33" id="2963648"] On the other hand nothing is hurt if the people working on E:WoM are still waiting for other parts of E:FE to be finished before they can work on it (which is the case with AI).[/quote] In the Stardock studios there is the main studio area - but in the corner is a fort made out of cardboard boxes, office chairs, books and other stationery items. A flag (a piece of paper stuck on a broom handle) has the words emblazoned "War of Magic"
Here is the recipe to the best fantasy game experience there is: 1. Purchase Age of Wonders Shadow Magic (yeah, its nearly 10 years old) 2. Go to Age of Wonders II Heaven and download patches 1.3, 1.4, and the new 1.5 MP Evolution (makes the game perform better on high end systems) 3. Install these patches. Remove the official Shadow Magic icon from the desktop - you'll only be playing MP Evolution anyway.<