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[EuchreJack]

"By Draginol Posted April 8, 2010 12:56:32 AM
This likely won’t make the final cut into the game because it’s too much for new users. But for those of you interested in the lore of Elemental and how races, factions, and allegiances work under the covers:"

Then they mention a fairly easy-to-understand graph of human races, which honestly shouldn't even effect new players.

Mainly, I worry that they are cutting features to dumb-down the game, with this only being a minor example.

In essence, I worry this will become another Spore.

Sorry for my anger in this thread.  I really want to believe in Stardock.  I want this game to be good.  The dynasty and empire features alone could make it worth playing, IF they are properly implemented.  But as I read the descriptions of these features, they seem too gimicky.

[nenjin]

Ah, I see. Well, it's understandable. I don't have a great deal of attachment to Elemental (yet), and the features that interest me remain in the dark. But I can tell you that one of the first disconnects in development is between lore and game play features. The lore is always more expansive, especially the more it's written.

Anyways, modding will provide a lot of content to help fill in the gaps Stardock leaves.

[alway]

Not only fill in the gaps left by Stardock, but create entirely new gameplay styles. Litterally everything will be moddable, to the point where if you really wanted to you could turn it into an enhanced GalCiv clone. If you find it too dumbed down, find mods to enhance it or add complexity yourself.

In somewhat related news, since Beta 2 comes out this Thursday, some of the actual gameplay mechanics will finally be revealed (as opposed to the placeholders meant to debug their game engine currently in use).

The main thing which concerns me is music quality and quantity. GalCiv2 basicly had 1 tune which I think may have been remixxed a bit, but overall every tune had the same bit in it... That sort of Stargate SG-1 theme song feel which was repeated ad-nauseum. Browsing through the music files of GalCiv2, there is at most 1.5 hours of music, maybe less. Many of which are conditional musics (first contact music, finding anomolee music, first colony music, ect) which aren't even in the cycled music. As of now, the Elemental Beta files seem to be using a set of layered musical themes, the total length of which is still on par with GalCiv2 levels. As much as I love the Elemental theme song, I don't want to listen to it for an entire 30 hour game, let alone another game or two after that.

[inteuniso]

It looks better than APB, so I know what I'm going to be spending my money on.

[fenrif]

Not only fill in the gaps left by Stardock, but create entirely new gameplay styles. Litterally everything will be moddable, to the point where if you really wanted to you could turn it into an enhanced GalCiv clone. If you find it too dumbed down, find mods to enhance it or add complexity yourself.

In somewhat related news, since Beta 2 comes out this Thursday, some of the actual gameplay mechanics will finally be revealed (as opposed to the placeholders meant to debug their game engine currently in use).

The main thing which concerns me is music quality and quantity. GalCiv2 basicly had 1 tune which I think may have been remixxed a bit, but overall every tune had the same bit in it... That sort of Stargate SG-1 theme song feel which was repeated ad-nauseum. Browsing through the music files of GalCiv2, there is at most 1.5 hours of music, maybe less. Many of which are conditional musics (first contact music, finding anomolee music, first colony music, ect) which aren't even in the cycled music. As of now, the Elemental Beta files seem to be using a set of layered musical themes, the total length of which is still on par with GalCiv2 levels. As much as I love the Elemental theme song, I don't want to listen to it for an entire 30 hour game, let alone another game or two after that.

I hardly ever play PC games with their own music on anymore. Usually I'll mute it and put on my own stuff, especially for games like this.

[inteuniso]

Beta 2 started today. Also it's first intro into multiplayer. And I'm in. WHEE!

[TimA]

Beta 2 started today. Also it's first intro into multiplayer. And I'm in. WHEE!

Me too, WHEE!  Downloading now, can't wait.

[forsaken1111]

Its... weird. The world feels very empty.

I guess that's by design though. I only had time for about 45 minutes to test it for now, will do more in-depth later. Really not clear on what I should build in my city yet.

Edit: Also I thought it was cool that their forums have a DF succession fort. http://forums.elementalgame.com/383779

[inteuniso]

Which I'm up next in, coincidentally.

Also, Elemental is extremely... empty. Sure, there's the numerous ruins. But overall, the game feels empty. I really look forward to trying out their magic, because right now it feels like your sovereign is just weak.

Also, the AI has a tendency to declare war on you.

[Pathos]

Gonna pre-order, now.

[Pathos]

How long does it take to be confirmed?

[x2yzh9]

Instantly. Open up impulse, and to the North-west-ish of you're games listing there's a little light blue box. open it.

Click preferences, and check "Show pre-release versions".
And you're done. Install teh beta nao!

[Aklyon]

I'm pretty sure it is.

I noticed this game back in the summer of 2009 (Oh, how innocent was I) and thought it looked pretty cool. My favorite part is the fact that an armored knight is going to be a hard to make unit, because you need to mine the iron, then make the chain-mail, then make the plate-mail, have a horse ready, have a sword ready, and then you can have a knight. Going to be freaking sweet.

yep. I remember there being something in the dev journal saying something like "there isn't a knight unit. or any other default units, really. unless you get a horse, the guy, the armor, the sword & shield, and call your creation "Knight" there is no knight unit.

[Pathos]

Thanks ladies. I'm playing single player at the moment, and it really isn't too shabby. It's a bit empty, but it IS still in an early beta phase, and the map tool should allow people to set up very nice looking maps.

[lumin]

In one of the videos the guy mentioned that they decided to keep everything empty because it would be too cluttered.  I don't really buy that logic.  If clutter really was a problem, they could have built a "turn off detail" setting or something so you could see your units.

I honestly don't know why they are building their maps so sparse.  Maybe it's for for low-end computer optimization, or maybe it's just plain laziness and they're relying on the community for making great maps.