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[Smitehappy]

I just realised how amazing the city building mechanism is. Want pictures to demonstrate? =p

I shall save you the time good sir. (Don't mind the building placement bug)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

City building at the moment is still pretty meh. Only three resource you have to worry about (Food, Labor, and Gold) and all cities share the same resources. It's all kinda mindless. I don't think I've spent more than 5 seconds deciding what building to place next.

Then again that's what this beta is all about and I'm sure by the end of this phase of the beta there will be major improvements. Besides, a big chunk of gameplay isn't even in this beta build. Those chunks being the War and the Magic.

[Pathos]

Food, materials and metal, actually. =p I think it's going to expand quite a bit when magic / adventuring comes into it.

Labour's per individual town.

It's not THAT mindless. The layout set up is quite clever.

[Smitehappy]

Food, materials and metal, actually. =p I think it's going to expand quite a bit when magic / adventuring comes into it.

Labour's per individual town.

It's not THAT mindless. The layout set up is quite clever.

Fine; Food, Materials, Gold AND metal.

Metal is kinda bugged map placement wise though. I am playing on the largest map you can make and there isn't a single ore deposit around. I found out they had the opposite problem in the last build and the devs nerfed metal spawn a little too much.

While a little fun, layout doesn't have much bearing on anything. You can place buildings willy nilly and the biggest negative effect you receive is a potential eyesore from an ugly town.

[Pathos]

Fine; Food, Materials, Gold AND metal.

Metal is kinda bugged map placement wise though. I am playing on the largest map you can make and there isn't a single ore deposit around. I found out they had the opposite problem in the last build and the devs nerfed metal spawn a little too much.

While a little fun, layout doesn't have much bearing on anything. You can place buildings willy nilly and the biggest negative effect you receive is a potential eyesore from an ugly town.

The metal thing really annoys me, too. =( I'm having to survive on a combination on spearmen and bowmen. =p

Layout on one of my cities:

Spoiler: Southgate (click to show/hide)

The right side is a bit buggy, but otherwise it's fine. I've blockaded a major entrance into my part of the continent (south peninsula) through creative city layout. There's also a metric shit tonne of units sitting there in case Capitar (all those troops you see either sitting outside my border or stuck in it) in case they try to attack. It's VERY useful.

EDIT: I have to admit, though, there isn't really any need to specialise cities, etc. We REALLY need that.

[forsaken1111]

And once again, they don't look much like cities at all. Just a ramshackle collection of buildings surrounded by a wall.

[Pathos]

And once again, they don't look much like cities at all. Just a ramshackle collection of buildings surrounded by a wall.

That's certainly true. I'm really hoping they figure a way to sort it out. How would you manage that? Frogboy claimed they were putting roads inside of cities to link all the buildings up, but I don't think that'd sort the problem out completely.

[forsaken1111]

And once again, they don't look much like cities at all. Just a ramshackle collection of buildings surrounded by a wall.

That's certainly true. I'm really hoping they figure a way to sort it out. How would you manage that? Frogboy claimed they were putting roads inside of cities to link all the buildings up, but I don't think that'd sort the problem out completely.

How would I do it? I would have the city expand in certain ways as it reached new levels, with building 'sites' becoming available. Then you would have to carefully choose what to build in each city, and specialize them to some extent.

[Pathos]

How would I do it? I would have the city expand in certain ways as it reached new levels, with building 'sites' becoming available. Then you would have to carefully choose what to build in each city, and specialize them to some extent.

Make a suggestion on their forums, then. Most people will agree with you.

[forsaken1111]

I thought they were pretty well feature locked at this point.

[nenjin]

The tone of the journal entries on beta participation would seem to indicate that, yes. But they seem open to shopping for ideas for later, too.

[forsaken1111]

Meh, if you want you can make the suggestion. If they want my advice on the game I want to see some cash from it. If all these people being paid to develop games can't make a city look like a fucking city, what good are they?

[Pathos]

Meh, if you want you can make the suggestion. If they want my advice on the game I want to see some cash from it. If all these people being paid to develop games can't make a city look like a fucking city, what good are they?

It's pretty hard to make places look like cities. Hell, I think the only one I know that did it well was the Anno games. Dwarf Fortress doesn't count because it relies far too much on user input. =p

I thought they were pretty well feature locked at this point.

The tone of the journal entries on beta participation would seem to indicate that, yes. But they seem open to shopping for ideas for later, too.

It's probably true, but at the very least it could confirm / alleviate your worries. I posted a suggestion before, and one of the lead developers replied with, "This is a feature that's in, just disabled for beta."

[forsaken1111]

I'm not worried per say, just think it looks really bad as it is.

Another thing they could try is making the buildings smaller, making the whole thing look a bit more to scale. You place a workshop, it places a city block of buildings with a few workshops and tiny people.

[Pathos]

I'm not worried per say, just think it looks really bad as it is.

Another thing they could try is making the buildings smaller, making the whole thing look a bit more to scale. You place a workshop, it places a city block of buildings with a few workshops and tiny people.

That's probably a good concept.

I'm not stressing out too much, though. At the very least, it appears to be heavily moddable.

[Heavenfall]

Mods are fun and all, but it's not an excuse for a poor design concept. I know you know this, I'm just saying this because if I visit the elemental forum, I almost always find someone who excuses some lack of design with "it can be modded later". More than any game I've seen before, pre-release.

I'm in the beta, which means I already preordered elemental. But if I hadn't, I would probably be thinking - from what people are saying - "wtf, is this a barebone game? all I hear are people planning on modding basic things into the game"

The graphics are intentionally turned down, and major parts of the game isn't in beta. They know how to design cities, and they've already outlined several ways to make them look better (roads, people, merging the "blocks" between buildings). My experience is that stardock games tend to be shite right up until retail, which is why I'm not playing much of the elemental beta. However, if you have doubt now, I can only recommend to check back at retail. Some people do beta like a demo. Stardock aren't one of those people.