Elemental - Now Fallen Enchantress

[Baldric]

Funny, the latest patch has introduced a bug that I can't reload any saved games (not just the old beta saves, new ones) and I've been crashing a lot more. End result: I'm starting a lot of new games but not getting anywhere.

I was having the bad saves issue in beta 3 and deleting the auto saves then starting a new game helped.  Also, I read on the Elemental forums that turning off the sound cured some crash issues.

Overall it is hard to say how the game will turn out at this point because the beta builds are very incomplete.  Beta 4 (two weeks out?) should give a good indication.

[Baldric]

Are there hero units?  I'd keep summoning champions until I could get Warrax.  Allora was another of my favorites.

Sure Warrax had a silly name, but he'd melt your face if you told him that.

Yes, there are the sovereign, his/her heirs, and champions.  Honestly, I don't know if I could explain the difference between the types at this point.

[Sky]

It also really lacks the flavor of MoM, with each faction being a generic human one.  No Dark Elves, Orcs, Barbarians, Draconians, Halflings.. hell they don't even tell you the differences between the factions at select, which means they must be pretty minimal.

What is with these companies, anyway? Kael pwns you all. If you can't make a strategy game as good as his FFH2 mod, go fuckin' home.

I imagine Fans of SMAC will love the unit building options. I've seen some folks on the official forum complain "It's lame, everyone will just have a spear guy, a bow guy, a settler unit and a guy with a mace and some armor."   I haven't played it long enough to see if it plays out that way, but I do think you're limited on the # of unit types you can have at once.  That's a strike against the system vs MoM's list of ~60+ prebuilt units.

I hope they are smart enough to ignore the LCD that will min/max even if it means not having fun designing units.

Unit limitations sounds like poop. Was there some kind of mental disorder introduced a few years back that made everything have to be streamlined so a fucking retard can understand it?

[Ingmar]

If this is fantasy SMAC, then I might love it even more than a new MoM honestly.

[Murgos]

FYI, there are a bunch of Elemental Beta videos on youtube, most of them with voice overs from Stardock personnel.  I'd link but I am at work without access to youtube but just search for Elemental Beta.

[Morat20]

Outgoing longer-range missiles? :)

(haven't played the game, just poking fun)

Honor Harrington Missile Swarms?

Also, if this is fantasy SMAC, I'd get it. I loved SMAC. I loved Master of Magic. Hopefully their bastard love child would be just as fun.

[Paelos]

I too loved SMAC and regretted that they never developed Civilization games with more of those elements. In fact, why the hell don't they do an updated SMAC already?

Either way put me down for fantasy SMAC anyday.

[Morat20]

I too loved SMAC and regretted that they never developed Civilization games with more of those elements. In fact, why the hell don't they do an updated SMAC already?

Either way put me down for fantasy SMAC anyday.

Hmm. Space Elevator + Colony Drop Pod colonization swarms. :) It's amazing how much my territory would instantly expand.

[Typhon]

I don't know why they compared this game to MoM, because I'm not feeling that at all.  This feels more like a successor to Warlords.  Not that this is a bad game, I think it's going to be fun.  The only things really it shares with MoM are random maps and spell research (and ultimate spell victory condition).

I'm having less problems with the new build.  More resources are spawning, and close to the starting point.  The tech tree has been improved, I like it.  Teching up is harder, I like it.  You really need to decide early on what type of kingdom/empire that you want (last iteration you could learn everytyhing, this time it's more important to make choices).

Edit: I forgot about the tactical map, which IS like MoM.  It still doesn't seem to be in this beta build, haven't had a chance to kick those tires yet.

[Modern Angel]

I too loved SMAC and regretted that they never developed Civilization games with more of those elements. In fact, why the hell don't they do an updated SMAC already?

EA holds the rights and refuses to transfer them to 2K and Firaxis.

[Paelos]

I too loved SMAC and regretted that they never developed Civilization games with more of those elements. In fact, why the hell don't they do an updated SMAC already?

EA holds the rights and refuses to transfer them to 2K and Firaxis.

Well then shit or get off the pot EA!

[WayAbvPar]

They already shit. All over the gaming industry and their customers. Repeatedly.

[Sky]

They need to pull a bioware and realize people are playing the game because it's made by the firaxis team, not because of the alpha centauri name. Call it Sid Meier's Civilization: Space or some shit. Mass Effect said "What KotOR?" Firaxis could easily do that.

I'd really like an updated simgolf, though. I'm just not sure that Firaxis can make good games anymore.

[Musashi]

updated simgolf

Yes.

[Soulflame]

Updated Warlords?  That would be completely awesome.

[Lum]

The last time they tried that it didn't work out well.

[Ingmar]

Someone needs to make the original Warlords play in a browser like that guy did with Ultima IV.

Also I think technically the most recent updated Warlords is Puzzle Kingdoms.

[Soulflame]

I found a copy of Warlords... somewhere.  It even ran on Vista, although I may have had to run it in compatibility mode.  The gameplay itself is still fun, but the interface is totally .

As for Warlords IV, bad Lum!  Let me have my dreams.

[sinij]

I am playing it right now, new build they just pushed out has a lot more polished feel... but it still crashes a lot unless you turn everything off.

[Merusk]

Hmm.. an update? I guess I'll try again.

Oh, bit of advice.. don't play on small single continents with beginner AI, even if you're a beginner and trying to figure things out.  The AI is too stupid to expand so you wind-up rolling over them with just your lord and 3 starter units.  "Whoops, that game went too fast."

Ed: Oh, for those wondering Tactical combat was patched in this release, so if you'd put it aside after your preorder you might want to check it out again.

[sinij]

If you wander what Elemental is and never played Master of Might and Magic, think WarCraft3 mixed with Alpha Centauri.

[Murgos]

If you wander what Elemental is and never played Master of Might and Magic, think WarCraft3 mixed with Alpha Centauri.

Except, you know, not an RTS.

[Ingmar]

I'm not in the beta, but I hope that Warcraft 3 comparison is just sinij being retarded. I mean, I liked Warcraft 3, but that is so not what I wanted out of this.

[Murgos]

I'm not in the beta, but I hope that Warcraft 3 comparison is just sinij being retarded. I mean, I liked Warcraft 3, but that is so not what I wanted out of this.

Like I said earlier, go to youtube and look up Elemental Beta 3B.  Someone posted about 30 mins worth of game play, bugs and all (its very buggy).

[sinij]

WC3 comparison is very applicable, a lot of Elemental gameplay is sovereign(hero)-driven. Similarities with WC3 go down to leveling up your sovereign on roaming monsters, doing simple quests and getting equipment upgrades. Mix this with Alpha Centauri turn-based, city-building, custom-units gameplay and you have Elemental.

[Merusk]

See, that's not WC3.. that's MoM.  The only difference being that you get a hero that is you from the beginning instead of having to hire them as they show up.

I still long for some MoM's depth of factions, but the game is still fun.  Oh, and I was wrong about the units thing. You can design as many as you want, using whatever combination of upgrades you own, like SMAC.  It was apparently just a UI glitch that I was only seeing 4 on the build screen.

[Typhon]

I think he (frogboy) wanted to borrow more heavily from SMAC (or FFH2) in regard to how factions play out (versus MoM, where factions differ largely only in regards to units).  So we have the civilized researchers (Kingdom) and the warrior adventurers (Empire) and that's probably all he had thought he had time for.  If the game is successful I would hope for an xpac that included more factions with differing play strategies (diplomatic spy faction jumps immediately to mind, which is odd because I don't really enjoy playing diplomatic spy races).

I think he made the right choice - I'd rather have fewer "races" that play very differently then more races that have flavor differences.  For example the difference between FFH2 Belseraph and the Eolhim, versus the difference between the dwarves and the gnomes.

I think keeping the game to a manageable size so that it actually gets released is a fantastic idea.

[Sky]

One things that I've found I like about the civ/smac/ffh line of games is the exploration and city/empire building, laying out roads and adapting to the terrain and other civs. Nice to see something else coming out with that kind of basis. Always enjoyed the HoMaM style games but felt they lacked depth from the empire building angle.

And agree with Typhon about faction individuality. That's what Kael brought to the table (and yeah, SMAC, too) that pretty much ruined vanilla civ for me. I don't think that, once the precedent for a better way has been set, you should come out with anything less. Stand on the shoulders and whatnot, something Sid's crew seems to struggle with, oddly enough.

[sinij]

See, that's not WC3.. that's MoM.

If you wander what Elemental is and never played Master of Might and Magic, think WarCraft3 mixed with Alpha Centauri.

I finally understood source of your confusion, I wrote "Master of Might and Magic" instead of "Master of Magic".

I find these days you can't assume people know what you are talking about when you mention games that are more than 15 years old, hence more 'recent' analogy.

[JWIV]

This SMAC talks needs to stop unless they include the damn cutscenes and voiceovers.  I'm hot in the pants for this game as is, but unless I get to hear the crazy treehugging hippies spouting coffee-shop philosophy, it's not SMAC.   I need my  Lady Deirdre Skye fix.  =( 

[Morat20]

This SMAC talks needs to stop unless they include the damn cutscenes and voiceovers.  I'm hot in the pants for this game as is, but unless I get to hear the crazy treehugging hippies spouting coffee-shop philosophy, it's not SMAC.   I need my  Lady Deirdre Skye fix.  =( 

"He held his arm too stiffly, and so was thrown back repeatedly, until at last I seized his forearm and snapped it back against itself. His training suffered while the arm healed, of course, but I felt this was a lesson he must learn early, and well."

I think that accompanies Doctrine: Flexibility.

I think I'll go play some tonight. Love that game.

[Ghambit]

This comes out in a few days.  So what's the word?  Yay or nay?
I didnt pre-order but now I'm regretting it, should've just layed down 5 bucks at Gamestop... so I've not had the priveledge of testing.

[Reg]

i'll be getting this when it comes out. Stardock games are usually very solid on release without gamestopping bugs. GalCiv and Sins of a Solar Empire were anyway.

[TheDreamr]

This comes out in a few days.  So what's the word?  Yay or nay?

Plays pretty nicely as a turn-based 4X game, the last two updates have really improved the overall stability and I think it's pretty much feature complete at the moment - on the content side all the place holders are gone and the tech/arcane trees seem fully fleshed out.  The only things they seem to be missing are the editors / customisation tools which were present in the early beta but have been moved into their own section to streamline the new game process - from what I've seen looks extremely modable, but at the moment that means getting your hands dirty with XML.

Latest beta release still had a couple of issues with memory leaks / crashes in the later stages of games but based on Stardock's history and wanting to use Elemental as the flagship product for their own "steamworks" service (friends + ingame overlay, but not tied to a client) they'll be focused on polishing it until it shines.

[Sir T]

Just pre-ordered. Thanks for the heads up guys.