Haldur

Reply to Why is city spamming bad? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Sythion" reply="65" id="2770504"] No need to have a toggle/slider. Just make the cities have a cost (1 food). No need to figure out some convoluted solution when a natural one is available. [/quote] I agree. I was going to say, essentially, the same thing (but you said it first). You either add a cost of 1 food per settler (and refund that food if the setttler dies), or you have each city (after the first) cost one food even at level 1, and have popul

Reply to Game too hard on easiest level in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I was in Beta, and have played 4x games for years. One thing that I found to help me learn the game was that I would not be obsessed with completing a game. When I first started, I simply played around, set the number of AI opponents down to 2 or 3, etc. I asked lots of questions and tried lots of different things, and when I figured out a mistake that I had made, I chalked it up to experience, and started a new game. You have to learn from your mistakes. One t

Reply to Know a great RPG? in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

I'm not a big fan of BG and those types of rpgs (most of the D&D games), but I have to agree that Planescape: Torment was an excellent exception. I played and loved all of the TES games, as well as Fallout 1-3. Fallout's precursor, "Wasteland", was also really good, but that's so long ago that I only have the vaguest of memories of it. I also liked a couple of the Ultima games (Ultima 3 and 4 I think, and Ultima Underworld).

Reply to How to load a downloaded Map ? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I had a similar problem, but it went away when I exited and reloaded the game.

Reply to What is...? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

1. If you are talking about Crystals from mining crystal crags, then they are used to build some of the later troops. 2. Good question -- someone else? 3. Are you looking under the Diplomacy category (that is, for in the Kingdom tech tree? Or Cooperation for the Empire tech tree). I didn't think that it could be possible to skip that tech. But I'm doing an experiment right now to see if I see the same thing. If so, it's most likely

Reply to Empire: A chronic shortage of food no matter what? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I don't play Empire a lot either. Generally speaking, it varies. One thing you have to do is to be careful about when and where you build the population-increasing improvements (huts, etc.). If you don't find alternative food sources, you could be in trouble. I USUALLY do, but then again, playing kingdom, you can get those fairly easily.

Reply to Kingdoms vs Empires in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I always thought that much of traditional fantasy (not all of it) has racist overtones -- not that Fantasy in general, is or holds a racist stance, but that it uses a mindset that in any other context but fantasy, would be considered racist. Some Science Fiction does the same thing. I strongly recommend "The Iron Dream" by Norman Spinrad for a satire of this common trope (aka "Lord of the Swastika" by 'Adolph Hitler'). Sometimes 'race' and 'species' are used

Reply to Transports in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Actually, I tried that -- It did not work.

Transports in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I don't know if this is a new bug or what, but I cannot unload units from a transport. I ended up having to destroying the transport (leaving my units in the middle of the water) and then raising land under/next to me so i could walk to shore.

Reply to Poll: What do you play when you need a break from elemental? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I pretty much have stopped playing Elemental until the next patch comes out, and started playing Fallout 1 again (haven't played that in eons). I recently got into the Lego Universe closed beta, so I've been playing that a bit. On a side note, I was bored, so I purchased a copy of King's bounty through Impulse when it came on sale, and I can't get it to run for more than a few seconds to a minute at a time, so I'm NOT playing that now 8(. In that regard, I am not a ha

Question regarding summoned critters with mana in War of Magic Stardock Forums

In a previous version of the game, I could summon a familiar who could then cast one fire dart spell. That no longer seems to work even if I have the spell researched. Since the change, creatures with mana seem to be unable to cast spells (with the notable exceptions of creatures natural abilities, like those of fire and stone giants). Is this a bug? Or is there something I'm missing?

Reply to Why wouldn't you pick all the spellbooks? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

MoM was very far from a perfect game, but one of the better ideas in it was that you could take multiple instances of a school of magic in order to allow you to cast more powerful spells from that school. I'm not saying that Elemental ought to do the exact same thing, but the basic idea of concentrating on a school is sound (you just have to better balance those schools than they are now).

Reply to Why is everyone upset the game came out "early"?!? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

To the OP: Releasing a game too early is bad for everyone except in the very short term and a very narrow sense. Here's why: The only advantage is that, yes, the game company makes a quick buck, and the fanboys, as you say, get an early shot at it. BUT... An early game damages the company's reputation. It makes consumers less likely to stick with the game until it is fixed. It makes consumers not want to purchase from the same company again.&n

Reply to Master of Nostalgia in War of Magic Stardock Forums

He's totally correct about MoM -- it was incredibly fun to play, but it was also buggy as all hell. I haven't played it in years because I eventually got tired of restoring old save games because of the frequent late-game crashes. And there was no game balance to speak of. I still have fond memories of playing all night, but I also have not forgotten the times I felt like smashing my computer because of the bugs and crashes. Elemental is its own game. I'm

Reply to Elemental Review in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I think the bugs are a bit exaggerated, least based on my experience. I don't know how many people remember just how bad MoM was when it was first released -- and the frequent crashes never actually got repaired for that game. I know that some people have had really bad experiences as far as crashing is concerned, with the day 0 patch. But already, the game seems to be far more stable than MoM EVER was. I do agree with you, though, that we s

Reply to Should I buy this game right now? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Stardock has a phenomenal record of fixing, tweaking, and tinkering with their games long after they have been released. That said, I think the game is fun and addictive right now. It certainly isn't perfect, and needs (and will get) improvement. But it is very playable and very fun right now, at least as far as I'm concerned. At this point I'm finding the game almost too addictive. Biggest problem for some people is the learning curve. But if y

Reply to Patch 1.05 suggestions Thread - Feel free to add your own! in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I'd like to see auto-explore work better. I'm playing on a large map, and realized after a couple of hundred turns that my map was still mostly unexplored, and was disappointed to find out that my plan to send out a few random scouts was dead before it got out the door. I'd like to have a more detailed accounting screen showing where all my resources are coming from and going to, so I can better understand where any problems I'm having with money/food/resources&

Reply to Lack of Tutorial in War of Magic Stardock Forums

The video tutorials are pretty good -- they don't cover everything yet, but I'm sure that new ones will be released as time goes on. Here's a link to the first one, and the others are listed on the same page. Anything the videos don't cover, just ask about here. http://www.screencast.com/users/draginol/folders/Default/media/f0f0207e-c9bf-4464-82a1-20ef87d179c2 <

Reply to Strategic (overland) spells question in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Really? Because I tried casting it even from within the city, and the spell does not show up for me -- most strategic spells don't show up for me at all (only a small subgroup of spells I know show up, plus raise land, and teleport).

Strategic (overland) spells question in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I can't figure out how to cast certain spells outside of combat. Are there some spells in the spell book that just have not been implemented yet? For example, there's a spell (can't recall the name) to increase a city's food supply, but I can't figure out how to cast it. Anyway, I'm enjoying trying to figure this game out -- I can't tell you how many times I've started a game then realized that I made critical mistakes and restarted (believe it or not, I only just figured

Reply to Shortlist simple easy 1.035 suggestions (or 1.04 ;/) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I have a couple of quality of life requests: 1. One thing that I'd like to see is an in-game reference chart listing all my colonies/planets, and a list of whats there, including logistics (current/max), population upgrades, etc. There's no problem now when playing on smaller maps, but in very long games on very large maps, it's far too easy to lose track of what you've upgraded, etc. It may be realistic (hey, the bigger your empire, the bigger the bureaucracy, the harder to manage th

Reply to Backstory Unimportant? I Don't Think So! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I think the original poster was talking about the relative importance of backstory and gameplay in games in general, as well as in Sins. Look at historical games: when people play historical games, there are those who just want to replay the historical battles, and those who want to play 'what if' scenarios. One of the more popular books of alternate history, [U]The Guns of the South[/U], is about what if time travellers bring modern weaponry into the civil war. Maybe that's blasphemy

Reply to Where are the peaceful victories? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]You bought an RTS, not a 4X game. If you were hoping for something with the depth of a 4X game you have my sympathies, I made the same mistake.[/quote] They aren't talking about what the game IS, just what they want it to be. Who says that the 4X aspects can't be improved on/modified in the future? I'm a 4X gamer myself, and bought it because all the reviews I read implied that Sins a 4X game in real time. It really does have most of the 'basic' aspects of a 4X game, j

Reply to Changing font size doesn't actually change anything in ObjectDock WinCustomize Forums

The only thing this setting changes is the font for the text that appears if you hover over the icon. All other font settings (eg tabs, icons etc) are not configurable - although it's been much requested. Maybe it'll happen in a future update. Thanks! I was adding some of my most used URLs, and shortcuts to related programs and frequently used d

Reply to Why do people hate the Mac so much? in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

I have to admit that I have a bias against Mac users and the Mac itself, but I didn't start out that way. My experiences changed that, though (I mean no offense to any current Mac users, but back in the day, the Mac caused me endless nightmares in my professional life). We had to convert all of our company's secretaries to use the Mac because when we got a new CEO, he brought along his old, long-time executive assistant when we recruited him from ano