Das123

Reply to [Beta 4 Feedback] 20 more thoughts on Beta state in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Thanks for this info Brad. :) Couple of points/questions: 13. Video performance is where it is going to be on release. You're talking FPS rather than stability, right? I tested FPS yesterday btw. Was getting around 40 in the tactical battles, between 9 and 30 in the world, and around 150 in the start screen. 19. Spellcasters will only be able to cast 1 spell per turn. Please also apply some limit to archers. I think both spell casters and archers should

Reply to What are shards for? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I think the shards should be THE most important aspect of the game. After all, the game is basically named after them! The spells should rely heavily on shard ownership for their spell power and/or ability to cast. I would also love to see other things within the game make use of shard ownership such as the ability to forge certain weaponry and armour.

Reply to Liking it more and more in War of Magic Elemental Forums

By tying retreating with dexterity it will hopefully lead to assassin type units that specialise in attacking, a quick kill, then retreating. [quote who="Keemossi" reply="1" id="2699871"] I'd love to see system similar to Dominions 3's here. That is, most tactical map spells (except the more powerful ones) can be cast for 'free', but strategic map spells could cost shards. Like, small-scale spells don't cost shards, raising a mountain and the likes does. That bei

Reply to How long until Elemental is "finished" in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="22" id="2699857"]Here's the public Sins of a Solar Empire mod area: https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/sins_maps Mod handling in Elemental will mostly be done in game. But we plan to have a public version on WinCustomize as well.[/quote] That would be good. :) This is just for maps, would the Elemental setup cater for separate mod classifications?

Liking it more and more in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I've been playing now for a couple of hours without any real issues (I windowed the game and this seemed to help with stability). Anyhow, I'm really starting to enjoy the game. I'm being drawn into the game world which wasn't happening before this version. So thank you and well done to all the team at Stardock. :) These are some short notes on what is working and not working for me: Tactical Battles I'm enjoying these now more and mor

Reply to How long until Elemental is "finished" in War of Magic Elemental Forums

It's interesting hearing about different experiences and perspectives with games and impact those experiences have on expectations. I loved the GalCiv experience all the way through. Each version and expansion built on what was there but made it sooooo much better. I could never go back to anything other than the latest version now but I do remember how much I enjoyed GalCiv1 after the bitter disappointment of MOO3. Your point about sifting the mod gold from the mod slurry is a vital

Reply to Hmm, that's it? Really? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I agree with what you are saying as the game currently stands but balancing the magic system shouldn't be a major issue at all. (Just simple XML files by the looks). Also, with each beta certain aspects are nerfed and others buffed so we focus in the specific areas the devs want us focussed on. Eg, in this current beta all the heroes seem to have all spell books activated. Agree that the tactical battle engine is currently a problem as this would be part of the core I think. B

Reply to Sigh... you had me in War of Magic Elemental Forums

It seriously is worth registering your product with Impulse just for the patches. Elemental will just get better and better - especially in the moths after release - and having access to the patches will be very beneficial. ---EDIT--- I actually used to share the same concerns as you. If I didn't have hard-copies then I wasn't happy. What swung me around with Stardock and Impulse is that you can essentially archive the game install. So basically you can update via Impulse then

Reply to Some Beta 4 first impressions/suggestions in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

These are all good points. From the short time I've been able to play Beta 4 before crashes I do think the game-play is improving a lot. While the instability is causing me frustrations I can see I will 'enjoy' playing the game - but not sure yet whether I will 'love' playing it. I'm finding that the game is lacking personality at this stage. I'm hoping that sound will make a dramatic improvement but at this stage the factions are all pretty much the same. My greatest fear for

Reply to [.98][performance][bug] performance better but still below par in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I have also had issues reloading save games but it was only when reading your post that I realised the save-game was a turn or two further than when it should have saved. My characters where in their spots but the NPCs had moved a lot within the save-game.

Reply to Beta 4 Impressions in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I think you raise some very strong points. As a project continues it becomes much harder for all involved to be able to step back and see the big picture as though for the first time.

[.98][System hang] System hangs on reload after crash in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Groan. Not this one again - please! Had the game crash very early on. Restarted game and tried loading the autosave. Game went into endless loop on startup screen but with music playing. No way to Ctrl-Alt-Del out so eventually had to cold boot the computer. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9163563/debug.98.b.zip Sorry to say but I don't think this version is anywhere close to the stable 'fun' version it has been flag

Reply to Okay, second update is up in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Should we be able to test that we have the new version by trying to load a map? Impulse is saying I have all the updated yet when I try to load a map the list is blank. I loaded the initial update first, tried the tile editor, then quit. Later I loaded the smaller second update and tried playing the game. The lack of maps in the load list has me a little worried and you said in one of my bug posts that the issue I was experiencing was corrected in the second update - which is

Reply to [Crash][0.98] - Game still crashes on Alt/Tab (damn bug reporting always gets me! :p ) in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Lol. :D

Reply to [.98][Bugs and Crash] Tactical Battle Issues and a crash. in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I actually had. I just checked again and Impulse is saying all is good to go. But I had tried to load a map and nothing was listed. Before downloading the smaller patch I had started the game after the intial larger patch. Wonder if that changed a setting somewhere.

Reply to [Crash][0.98] - Game still crashes on Alt/Tab (damn bug reporting always gets me! :p ) in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I had a similar problem alt-tabbing before starting the game. Wanted to disable the second monitor and remove ObjectDock before playing. After coming back into the game it was frozen. But at least I could still alt-tab back out again and Ctrl-Alt-Del instead of the old annoying freeze the whole system bug.

[.98][Bugs and Crash] Tactical Battle Issues and a crash. in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

In the very early game I entered a battle to destroy some brigands from a quest. My sovereign was not powerful enough so I decided to try out the retreat within Tactical Battles. When the battle ended my sovereign was in the same location as the brigands. (Save game in link below is the turn before entering the location). Battled again but this time played it

Reply to The Modding Guide in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Thanks Brad. :) Another question. The primer doesn't touch on races, yet in another post it mentioned that races would be considered mod items in the future. Would you mind elaborating a bit on the likely process for us to look at building a race. (I'm guessing it will be very involved on a number of levels). Second question. Python hasn't been mentioned in the primer. Will we ultimately be able to access the games API and manipulate classes etc via Python?

Reply to Can't wait for the release - a contra thread for those being concerned :-) in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Regarding Python, from memory the most difficult thing for me was simply getting started. There are a number of development environments you can choose from along with a number of UI packages. I chose Boa to do the editing based on initial research and while it was a bit 'lumpy' it was ultimately a reasonable production tool. I'm sure we won't be needing to interface with Windows so we won't need to bother with UI packages. Stardock will most likely give us some sample templates to reverse en

Reply to Can't wait for the release - a contra thread for those being concerned :-) in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Raven X" reply="4" id="2696955"] ...but when it comes to scripting in Python I know nothing, nothing at all. I hear it shares some similarities with C# and C+ though so at least I won't be "totally lost" as many of the functions should be similar. [/quote] By all accounts Python is considered one of the simpler languages to use. I've done limited work with it a couple of years ago (wrote a backup utility for the game Dominions) and while it took me a bit of time

Reply to Hate to encourage: Release via steam in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Wintersong" reply="75" id="2694826"] ...This is not web browser wars... [/quote] I'm not so sure about this. I use both Impulse and Steam a lot. If there is a single-player game available on both at the same price I buy from Impulse. Not because Impulse is better, but rather because I believe in what Stardock stands for with its refreshing policy of openness and transparency. I love that they share their insights and research with us. If the

Reply to Hate to encourage: Release via steam in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Matrix Games also have expressed that there isn't a great benefit for them to distribute via Steam for their game Distant Worlds - which is much more main-stream than most of the other Matrix hard-core strategy games. They said that the numbers of sales are actually less than we would imagine and that the profitability margin is heaps less. And Matrix don't have anything like the sophistication of Stardock's Impulse. I'll admit I'm surprised that Steam isn't considered the ultimate marketing

Reply to Fire and Death in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Are the foot soldiers skeleton-undead in the small image. (Geez I wish those teaser images expanded up to nice full screen images). :)

Reply to [Feedback] 15 thoughts on Beta state in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Great post. :) The only point I don't really agree with is the housing. I think that the use of housing to stem growth by linking it to food is a positive move. Taking that limit out would mean cities all over the place again. Interestingly, your point about sovereigns giving bonuses when stationery in cities so that we are more inclined to use our second tier heroes and armies is exactly where the Age of Wonders series evolved to. Started off with the sovereign running rampan

Reply to An insider’s look at PC game publishing in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

While I bow to the first hand knowledge Stardock would have via their Impulse sales and retail sales figure, it seems to me that digital purchasing of games is on the increase. I'm a member of TOG (The Older Gamers) and even a year ago most of the members seemed to be pre-purchasing their games as hard copy. But in the last twelve months the TOG membership through steam games in particular has really spiked. Keep in mind though that TOG members are more inclined to play FPS, MMO, RTS,