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[Tormy]

Elemental: War of Magic

Official Website: http://www.elementalgame.com/

Planned release date: Mid-February 2010.

[wallish]

I believe they've actually described it as the spiritual successor to Master of Magic.  Which is, in a word, awesome.

[Mephansteras]

Considering how much I like Galactic Civ 2...I'm looking forward to this.

It's been too damn long since anything like Master of Magic came out. Although Age of Wonder was pretty fun.

[Areyar]

Ooooo!

Always nice to hear a developer is into the same stuff as you are.
Another site to keep an eye on.

I didn't like galciv2 at al...
liked the ship editing (to a point), but the gameplay of the exploration and territory claiming and the flagship didn't appeal to me.
What did you find especially fun about it?
(a serious question, not trying to invite flame or anything)

[Mephansteras]

Well, I guess the exploration and territory claiming, for one. Although the flagship gets boring, so I always end up automating it. But the whole territory thing is fun, especially when you get all of the cultural domination techs. The diplomacy is decent, if not amazing, and there is enough interesting random stuff that happens to keep the games interesting.

There are things that I wish they'd added in that the Master of Orion series had, like conquered planets keeping their original races whose abilities you can use. But over all I found it to be a satisfying 4x game. Especially the fact that you have a number of very viable ways of winning that don't rely on combat.

[Soulwynd]

Am I the only one who hates Stardock and GalCiv2 to death?

[a1s]

I'm sure you're just confusing them with Starforce

What did you hate about GalCiv, and are you into 4x at all?

[Drakale]

I really like stardock buisness model, however their game are, in my taste, lacking in depth. Its hard to explain but after a while you notice that the core gameplay is not that exciting, like there is something lacking there...

Still bought some of their games, if only to support their philosophy. And the online delivery system work well, a good competitor for steam imo.

[yamo]

i kinda know what you mean...galciv ...i admire galciv... i bought galciv...i just don't play galciv...it feels drab and lifeless...laser I is not in a gameplay sense any different from laser X...all that research and design but the game play does not reflect it...it's not enough to say i'm a donkey...i need to be a donkey...you could argue that it is a limitation of 4x games...but that is exactly the limitation that desperately needs to be overcome..transcended...personality, immersion, bemused awe...."WTF?!" moments...

[Tilla]

Sounds good to me - they describe it as Master of Magic + X-Com + Populous in one interview.

[Mephansteras]

i kinda know what you mean...galciv ...i admire galciv... i bought galciv...i just don't play galciv...it feels drab and lifeless...laser I is not in a gameplay sense any different from laser X...all that research and design but the game play does not reflect it...it's not enough to say i'm a donkey...i need to be a donkey...you could argue that it is a limitation of 4x games...but that is exactly the limitation that desperately needs to be overcome..transcended...personality, immersion, bemused awe...."WTF?!" moments...

Well, in galactic civ 2, at least, the difference between Laser I and Lazer X is the size of the component. You can fit a lot more of them on the ship. Later types of energy weapons do more damage. If your argument is that there isn't enough interesting and different stuff in the tech tree, that I'll concede that. Stuff like graviton beams should actually do more then simply "more damage" I'd like to see ship parts ripped off, stuff like that.

But, it all comes down to abstraction. Damage is abstracted out, planetary life is more or less abstracted out, etc. I'd like less abstraction, but it does make the game a little less complex.

For me, I like it and have played hours upon hours of it. And still occasionally go back and play it again. Is it the best game ever? No. But it's a good solid 4x game. I don't expect their new fantasy game to be the best turn-based fantasy civ game ever, but I expect that it'll be a good solid game that'll be well worth the money spent on it.

[Tormy]

Lads, I think that this game will be EPIC, if I think about it a bit more. Now we all know that Stardock has the best game support, they keep upgrading their games for decades. So what do we know about the game so far?


- The game is being developed by a company what cares about its customers, and always listening to the fans. They keep adding in content what has been suggested by players.
- The game will be turn based fantasy strategy, they are "borrowing ideas" from Civilization & Master of Magic for example.
- Modability will be very good
- User created content can be uploaded to a master server, and from there others can download it and use it in their games
- Probably awesome magic system [Maybe customized spells even?]
- Tactical, turn based battles
- The game will be released in 2009. Since they plan to start the open beta in Q2 probably, I guess the game will be released in Q3 more than likely [~august/september], or maybe in Q4.

Now I am really wondering...it will be so easy to create content? Do not forget, they will even host a master server for it. So basically we can design new creatures/items/spells/whatever easily, and upload them? Sounds incredible..

[wallish]

Am I the only one who hates Stardock and GalCiv2 to death?

I can understand the hate for GalCiv2, it's not for everybody.  But hating Stardock?  Who the hell hates Stardock!? They're the one retail company in all of game development that has not only said that they care about what their customers (i.e. gamers) think, but have actually put their money where their mouth is.  I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I've never seen someone who has said they hate Stardock.  So out of curiosity, why do you hate them so much?

[Okenido]

Stardock is a good company in my opinion. But is vastly overrated.

[lumin]

I bought Galciv 2 on ebay a while ago....bad idea.  I couldn't download any patches because the game had already been registered to the original owner.

I didn't like galciv 2 that much either.  I mostly didn't like that it was  space game on a 2D plane.  It sort of felt cheap to me that way.  Also, I asked myself why I wanted to play it when I could be playing any of the Civ games which are better overall.

Also, the AI was pretty good, but insanely difficult, even on the lowest setting.