Elemental: War of Magic

[Worthington]

EDIT: Anyone know how to destroy one of your cities? While I was trying to build a city to take advantage of the gold mines, an enemy kept spawning cities on the mines. I took the cities as they were spawned, but now there are 4 cities in a very small area. I would like to destroy the one in the middle, so they have more room to grow.

You need to research... Mmmm, Warfare I believe. I don't remember exactly which skill in the tree, but it's very early on and if you look at the ablities that skill provides you'll see Raze. That allows you to burn down towns and such.

Edit: yes, it's Warfare and the exact name is Fortifications. Allows for both the unit action Fortify, and the Settlement action of Raze.

 

[zinfamous]

looks like v1.1 is scheduled for early weeks of November.

another thing that I find annoying...whenever I advance in war tech and have new units available (not ones that I have designed), they are clones of previous units. In fact, the previous game, I finished with about 4 units, all of them the exact same stats and equipment--scouts, observers, whatever. The only difference is the character model.

this has to be some sort of bug. Not sure why they would just spam cloned units, change their names and models.

Also, I find that when training experienced vs veteran units, the lower-ranked units (experienced) display a larger HP pool than do the more expensive veterans, which also have longer train times. odd.

...guess I should be posting these things over in their forums, though. lol.

 

[Rhezuss]

Just a quick survey:

What note out of 10 would you give Elemental at launch and right now?

 

[zinfamous]

You need to research... Mmmm, Warfare I believe. I don't remember exactly which skill in the tree, but it's very early on and if you look at the ablities that skill provides you'll see Raze. That allows you to burn down towns and such.

Edit: yes, it's Warfare and the exact name is Fortifications. Allows for both the unit action Fortify, and the Settlement action of Raze.

I think it is now his own town, so he probably just wants to demolish it.

I read somewhere that tapping "x" when you have the city highlited will bring up that option. not sure if it needs to be researched, though...

 

[zinfamous]

Just a quick survey:

What note out of 10 would you give Elemental at launch and right now?

couldn't tell you launch, as I only know the game from the current (1.09e) version, where most of the offending bugs have been fixed. I also have avoided mounted units, as it appears there is a horrible animation bug that makes their use rather frustrating.


anyway, with shitty AI and balance issues, still a few obvious bugs (lots of broken quests), I still give it a 7/10. ...mainly because it really seems to have a HUGE upside.

The concept is indeed massive, and may be too much in the end--do I want to consider this a questing, RPG type game, or a an empire/warfare game? Is it actually going to work that these two concepts can work together and not feel too divisive?

Right now, one aspect seems to distract form the other. ...but that could be b/c the empire AI (always the aggressors), really like to come after me and suicide themselves in the process. I recently discovered that this is actually an on-going complaint. it makes my games super short, haha.

 

[tedrodai]

I broke down and gave it a short whirl this past weekend while watching some football. Here's my subjective ratings:

release: 3/10 (or less lol) +3 for potential, but don't play this yet unless you're desperate for this title to interest you.
current: 6/10; it's playable, can be fun, but still needs plenty of AI work, balancing, and other glitch or improvement fixes.

My not-thorough review ratings mean thus: At 6, it appears to have more good than bad (over 5), but still under the threshold of a game I'd sit down and play if I was bored or in a quirky mood (7), a game that would make me want to sit down to play it (8), etc.

It's getting better pretty quick, but it started pretty far down the pole. It won't jump several points like that again, but it'll probably improve steadily. I could see it getting to 7 this year or early next year--still has the potential to be a pretty good game. I'd have to agree with Zinfamous's comment that the RPGish elements and the empire/warfare elements seem to distract from each other.

 

[zinfamous]

well, I started a game on Hard, large map (the largest size), fast pace, with all of the empires and Kingdoms as opponents. This is about the perfect speed so far, though I will definitely keep bumping the difficulty.

One of the empire factions actually toyed with the idea of making treaties, trade rights with me! I mostly ignored him, it seems he was wiped by another empire, though--they are "supposed" to be allies. Another empire to the south of me actually waited into the ~200 turn range to threaten me with war, and actually did so with 2x+ army strength! That makes much more sense. The cool thing is, this has given me time to spit out 4 kids and marry them off to two other kingdoms. It looks like I've wiped out 2, maybe 3 of the enemy Sovereign's kids, killed her once (but she escaped), and her previous 2x+ military "power" advantage is all but gone.

There are 2 greater difficulty levels, but it's still mostly AI--enemy keeps sending undefended pioneers (settlers) next to my towns, where I can quickly send out a wee peasant to fart on them if I wish.

Almost finished the dragon quest this time--got the egg back, dragon claims it will join me! ....then, nothing. no dragon. motherfucker. Really hope a lot of these questing bugs get fixed in the next update.

 

[paperfist]

Just a quick survey:

What note out of 10 would you give Elemental at launch and right now?

I didn't play launch but at it's current patch level I'd go with:

7/10

Graphics when turned up are very appealing. The animated models look a little goofy though.

Sound is good, not stellar and not horrible.

Music is good, some of it's great and fits the mood perfectly. Other times I don't know it's there.

Gameplay is really good, there's a lot of depth to everything, options galore, and it gives me that 'just one more turn feeling'

AI needs work, sometimes it will catch me off guard and send me to the brink other times it does silly things like sending its leader into my territory unguarded yet a square away it has a huge army.

Bugs I haven't encountered any system issues. When fighting on tactical maps with 6 or 7 units per side it only lets me finish 5-6 moves before stopping. I have to end the battle with the auto resolve option. Sometimes my casted fighters don't return to me after a battle, but just moving my leader to his square fixes the problem.

I should note that I'm playing on normal difficulty so higher ones may have better AI....

 

[Worthington]

Yeah, that dragon quest bug is wicked annoying. All that work for nothing.

 

[paperfist]

looks like v1.1 is scheduled for early weeks of November.

another thing that I find annoying...whenever I advance in war tech and have new units available (not ones that I have designed), they are clones of previous units. In fact, the previous game, I finished with about 4 units, all of them the exact same stats and equipment--scouts, observers, whatever. The only difference is the character model.

this has to be some sort of bug. Not sure why they would just spam cloned units, change their names and models.

Also, I find that when training experienced vs veteran units, the lower-ranked units (experienced) display a larger HP pool than do the more expensive veterans, which also have longer train times. odd.

...guess I should be posting these things over in their forums, though. lol.

That's why I always make custom units.

Though I've been behind on warfare a lot to the point that my troops always suck in combat compared to the AI. There's just a lot of stuff you can research that I get lost in which I should pick. It seems actually smart vrs Civ where you can actually specialize in certain techs and be weak in others. In Civ everyone gets the same tech tree and unless someone is blowing you away in research it's pretty even match up.

I usually just heal my sovereign by garrisoning in town. the only way to heal units, other than the occasional potion, is to garrison them. Some super special units have their own heal per turn, which also works during battles (one or two of the golems, and one champion unit that I found had that ability)

Garrison seems slow on recovery; of course healing potions are expensive

As for adventurers, I've never had them comment on my town, other than the occasional "this place is ripe for plucking"--but I think these are regular NPCs that want to attack me, anyway. The leveled champions that you can hire can be had for between 35g-200g (well, that's the highest I've seen). I always click on their tile to check their special kingdom abilities, and potential unit abilities.

I find that the most important tech seems to be the adventure column, actually. This opens up more resources (normal and advanced types), more quests & higher-level quests, and more adventurers (also higher level). If you spend more time on these--hunting down goody bags and quests, you can supplement lax resources for the most part during early game.

I noticed the AIs have (recruited) all those champions with special kingdom abilities you mention, I've yet to encounter one I can recruit. Maybe my level is too small... I still can't seem to recruit adventurers even when in my land and using my SOV, again maybe it's level related.

When you level up, you can increase your essense (same as any other stat). I found that I only increase Essense and HP. Those two stats seem to be the most important (Combat speed is the other I find extremely useful). I believe that each level, you can add 6 essense.

Thanks, I've been focused so much on melee combat that I've overlooked magic stats. That's the thing with this game, there's a LOT of stuff to keep your eye on to be successful!

One more question, is it worthwhile to specialize a city? Like if I have a city with a library artifact thing is it better to place one of those tech specialist people in my city as well or do points accumulate across the whole kingdom?

 

[Martimus]

One more question, is it worthwhile to specialize a city? Like if I have a city with a library artifact thing is it better to place one of those tech specialist people in my city as well or do points accumulate across the whole kingdom?

The points accumulate throughout the kingdom, but since leveling up gives specific bonuses (that you pick), it is still best to specialize a city to maximize those bonuses. Strangely, the towns aren't as easily speciallized as the planets in their other game (Galactic Civilization), which makes the strategies completely different between the two games.

 

[zinfamous]

I noticed the AIs have (recruited) all those champions with special kingdom abilities you mention, I've yet to encounter one I can recruit. Maybe my level is too small... I still can't seem to recruit adventurers even when in my land and using my SOV, again maybe it's level related.

the only thing I notice that they care about is money. as long as you can talk to them, a little chat bubble will appear over their tile if you have your Sov selected. If there is a red slash across the chat bubble--they won't talk to you, meaning--too poor for their liking.

Supposedly, this is what your Sov's charisma stat is for. i've found one adventurer who has a "cheaper to recruit adventurers" bonus, though I haven't really compared this when he is selected vs another sov or champion. I'm not sure, but it could be that kingdom's prestige is also a factor in their willingness to chat.

If I find one wandering around that I really want, I'll just wait for the money to pile up and that red slash to disappear. some higher level heroes with nice abilities ask for ~200 or more gold to recruit them.

make sure you are researching the proper category in the Adventure tech tree so that they actually appear, too. I've found that focusing on this tree early in the game is essential--unlocking quests, heroes, and resources, then collecting the goods, seems to be a faster way to stockpile cash, resources and all sorts of goodies than is waiting for your towns to produce them.

 

[zinfamous]

One more question, is it worthwhile to specialize a city? Like if I have a city with a library artifact thing is it better to place one of those tech specialist people in my city as well or do points accumulate across the whole kingdom?

I'm not really sure. those specialists do improve that city's category, but in the end, they become universal pools, afaik. Then again, some city improvements add % increases to the city's tech, so it probably is more advantageous to keep them in the proper city to gain the greatest benefit.

One thing is certain--finding a lost library early is HUGE. Probably the most valuable resource to seek out asap. I'm starting to create a settler or two and found 2 extra cities before I even create my first gold mine, heh.

 

[Worthington]

^^
This

If you have a city with things like a lost library make sure you build the +% tech buildings in that city. Even more so with the Unique buildings. Getting a city with a few goldmines and then the 1-per faction monuments in there is a huge boost to income (same with the tech currency, etc).

I've even started naming my cities something that references their purpose if they do something really well. Like a city that has access to two lost libraries I call something like "Academy", just so I can pick it out easier when sorting through all the towns.

 

[paperfist]

^^
This

If you have a city with things like a lost library make sure you build the +% tech buildings in that city. Even more so with the Unique buildings. Getting a city with a few goldmines and then the 1-per faction monuments in there is a huge boost to income (same with the tech currency, etc).

I've even started naming my cities something that references their purpose if they do something really well. Like a city that has access to two lost libraries I call something like "Academy", just so I can pick it out easier when sorting through all the towns.

I should name cities like that because when the specialization window pops up after a city achieves growth it's really unpleasant that said window blocks the view of the city in question

Another annoying thing is those game tip windows you get during a new game or load from a save file. The last one I got mentioned something about city specialization but I couldn't read it as usual since they go so fast.

Anyway, looks like the AI gets worked on after the next patch is done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er3LJ0gUsDM

 

[zinfamous]

I should name cities like that because when the specialization window pops up after a city achieves growth it's really unpleasant that said window blocks the view of the city in question

Another annoying thing is those game tip windows you get during a new game or load from a save file. The last one I got mentioned something about city specialization but I couldn't read it as usual since they go so fast.

Anyway, looks like the AI gets worked on after the next patch is done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er3LJ0gUsDM

most of the time, the city data window along the bottom opens up for me, and shows the levels in each city when it gains level, but it is blocked sometimes when you're trying to do something else and that bastard auto-turn kicks in--really annoying, by the way. I should look, as I suppose I can turn it off, but I'd really like this to not kick into the AI turn until I hit the button. lost several cities b/c I wasn't able to move garrisoned units around before the auto turn. gah.

One thing that I'd like to see improved: building functions. After the first level of buildings, everything just becomes really generic. each research area has about 4 buildings that you gain through the tech tree, each of them giving you the same 25% increased bonus to x research. very lame. Needs more diverse mechanics, I think.

Probably a bug, but I discovered that after capturing one of the empire towns (just before wiping them out), they had an operating demon gate (structure had been built on it). As Kingdom faction, I'm not allowed to use those resources, but since it was already there (I think), I was able to create demons. It has happened with other special unit resources (the evil wolf things), where I can or can't build those structures (Seems random), and my own Kingdom-specific resource units that once discovered, and improved--I can't make them? wtf.

yeah, still buggy. but those demons are bad ass. they take up half the screen. 900 gildar per unit, haha.

 

[Martimus]

most of the time, the city data window along the bottom opens up for me, and shows the levels in each city when it gains level, but it is blocked sometimes when you're trying to do something else and that bastard auto-turn kicks in--really annoying, by the way. I should look, as I suppose I can turn it off, but I'd really like this to not kick into the AI turn until I hit the button. lost several cities b/c I wasn't able to move garrisoned units around before the auto turn. gah.

One thing that I'd like to see improved: building functions. After the first level of buildings, everything just becomes really generic. each research area has about 4 buildings that you gain through the tech tree, each of them giving you the same 25% increased bonus to x research. very lame. Needs more diverse mechanics, I think.

Probably a bug, but I discovered that after capturing one of the empire towns (just before wiping them out), they had an operating demon gate (structure had been built on it). As Kingdom faction, I'm not allowed to use those resources, but since it was already there (I think), I was able to create demons. It has happened with other special unit resources (the evil wolf things), where I can or can't build those structures (Seems random), and my own Kingdom-specific resource units that once discovered, and improved--I can't make them? wtf.

yeah, still buggy. but those demons are bad ass. they take up half the screen. 900 gildar per unit, haha.

The Auto-turn is an option in the menu. I believe near the bottom of the left column of options. Turning off that "feature" is nearly a must to maintain control of the game.

 

[paperfist]

One thing that I'd like to see improved: building functions. After the first level of buildings, everything just becomes really generic. each research area has about 4 buildings that you gain through the tech tree, each of them giving you the same 25% increased bonus to x research. very lame. Needs more diverse mechanics, I think.

I'd like to see that too, for some reason last night I kept clicking each individual building hoping I could upgrade them to something else

yeah, still buggy. but those demons are bad ass. they take up half the screen. 900 gildar per unit, haha.

lol I got to check those out.

----

How do you guys keep tabs on the AI? I've got a sizable gap between my last two cities as they approach enemy territory and the AI keeps 'sneaking' around my field of view and building cities in between my last two despite there not being any resources there. I'd love to wipe him out completely but because I'm building smaller/higher quality armies I can't compete with his army spam button and keep having to chase him down all over the place.

 

[zinfamous]

I'd like to see that too, for some reason last night I kept clicking each individual building hoping I could upgrade them to something else



lol I got to check those out.

----

How do you guys keep tabs on the AI? I've got a sizable gap between my last two cities as they approach enemy territory and the AI keeps 'sneaking' around my field of view and building cities in between my last two despite there not being any resources there. I'd love to wipe him out completely but because I'm building smaller/higher quality armies I can't compete with his army spam button and keep having to chase him down all over the place.

Build some mountains and create choke points?

station some summoned critters there to slow them down, or well...likely wipe out their armies as they to pass, haha.

 

[zinfamous]

bump!

This is a few days late, I guess, but just noticed that developers are now planning to give away the first 2 expansions of the game to those who purchase by the end of October.

For those still sitting on the fence, this might be a good time to jump. major AI and game play update (1.1) looks like ~1 month for full release, beta testing should begin in a week for that--anyone can get in on that, I think.

The game is currently quite playable, still a few play bugs, and balance issues, but I still find it enjoyable.

http://forums.elementalgame.com/399482

 

[JEDI]

bump!

This is a few days late, I guess, but just noticed that developers are now planning to give away the first 2 expansions of the game to those who purchase by the end of October.

For those still sitting on the fence, this might be a good time to jump. major AI and game play update (1.1) looks like ~1 month for full release, beta testing should begin in a week for that--anyone can get in on that, I think.

The game is currently quite playable, still a few play bugs, and balance issues, but I still find it enjoyable.

http://forums.elementalgame.com/399482

cheapest price to buy is where?

 

[paperfist]

cheapest price to buy is where?

Walmart has it for $40.

bump!

This is a few days late, I guess, but just noticed that developers are now planning to give away the first 2 expansions of the game to those who purchase by the end of October.

I don't know for sure, but those expansions from what I read are going to be content patches. Do you know anything different? I'm just thinking has Stardock ever put out more then two expansions for their game?

Build some mountains and create choke points?

station some summoned critters there to slow them down, or well...likely wipe out their armies as they to pass, haha.

Yeah the mountain thing seems like a cheat to me so I've held off on that. I ended up just taking one of his biggest cities that wasn't far from mine, it's the beginning of the end for the AI

It's really amazing, it's not a solid 2 weeks, but I've been playing my first game for that long and I don't think I've seen 1/4 of what the game has to offer.

 

[zinfamous]

Walmart has it for $40.



I don't know for sure, but those expansions from what I read are going to be content patches. Do you know anything different? I'm just thinking has Stardock ever put out more then two expansions for their game?



Yeah the mountain thing seems like a cheat to me so I've held off on that. I ended up just taking one of his biggest cities that wasn't far from mine, it's the beginning of the end for the AI

It's really amazing, it's not a solid 2 weeks, but I've been playing my first game for that long and I don't think I've seen 1/4 of what the game has to offer.

from what I've read, the expansions will at least include extra books to the campaign mode. I kind of like how the campaign is organized and paced. But, what is available now is quite short

 

[Rhezuss]

Any new updates or changes since last month?
Is it "safer" to buy now?

 

[Martimus]

Walmart has it for $40.



I don't know for sure, but those expansions from what I read are going to be content patches. Do you know anything different? I'm just thinking has Stardock ever put out more then two expansions for their game?



Yeah the mountain thing seems like a cheat to me so I've held off on that. I ended up just taking one of his biggest cities that wasn't far from mine, it's the beginning of the end for the AI

It's really amazing, it's not a solid 2 weeks, but I've been playing my first game for that long and I don't think I've seen 1/4 of what the game has to offer.

I know that Galactic Civilizations 2 had 2 expansions. They include the new campaigns, and new content. Past expansions always added new features that change the gameplay.

The expansions here will be no different. They will expand the campaign and add new features that modify the gameplay. At least that is the plan as you can read in their developer journals.