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[hemmingjay]

I can understand disappointment with the game. I can also understand a small dev team not putting up with the whole "promised back in 2008" thing since there have been many public statements about changes in direction. It frustrating for both sides really and it's unfortunate. I have high hopes for the game in 2-3 months as long as cooler heads prevail amongst it's users. Too much grief and the dev team will not be passionate about patching. Lackluster dev performance: sales ratio will result in management reassigning the team to new projects leaving a potentially good game in the lurch.

So......be critical but reasonable about the game's current state and if possible suggest ways to correct the problems. Be supportive and grateful and you will likely find that YOUR concerns are addressed sooner rather than later. I can see that your post was honest and fair but I can also see how an exhausted dev might read it differently.

[Viken]

I'm finally getting a copy of the game, although with the current download speeds it'll take about 20 hours to complete. 

But once I get it up and running, I'll add my own two cents into how I enjoy it and whatnot. Everyone can have their own opinions. 

[pilgrimboy]

I had hoped that we had learned a lesson from Spore, about touting ground-breaking features and then not delivering it. 

I think that is the problem.  Spore sold well.  People did learn from Fable, from Spore, from many other games.  Make big promises, don't deliver, but people will still buy the dream.

[nenjin]

All that being said, I am pretty sure I am really going to enjoy the game. People who are complaining about the campaign... come on, what Strategy game in the last 8 years has had a good campaign? It is almost always about the sandbox. Even in HOMM or AOW I only played the scenarios (sandboxes) and even then, I preferred random maps (when possible, neither of those games had that option).

I've played more than my fair of strategy games, I know how they generally roll out. And this one is like a hamfisted attempt at doing what all other strategy games have done. If it were breaking the mold, I'd give them credit for wading into uncharted territory. But it's not doing anything unique, and the best it's offering up is average. At worst, it's offering up beta quality.

Why do I even care? Because Brad talked up the campaign as being worth playing. That's the only reason I even bothered to start it. Between his mouth, and the total over emphasis on the crappy story and setting, the campaign only aggravates the other short comings with the game.

[Heavenfall]

I'm going to put some comments in a spoiler tag here. Inside, you will find approximately how long the single player campaign is, and other comments regarding it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's short to the point of retardation. I mean <500 turns. Maybe 3-5 hours. I expected it to span across several maps, even as I saw that the first map was HUGE. But only half that map is used, and it's the only map in the campaign. There is no AI enemy - it's all custom spawns you can wither down. HUGE disappointment.

So it really seems like Elemental is all about sandbox.

[nenjin]

Well that pretty much killed the last vestige of interest I had in the campaign.

[GaelicVigil]

So it really seems like Elemental is all about sandbox.

Except without a real random map generator, it isn't a sandbox either.  Sigh...I'm going to go reinstall Fall From Heaven.

[Taniec]

I always wanted to try this game since I would LOVE basically a clone of Master of Magic without the bugs and a few gameplay improvements. This looks to have failed miserably.

Perhaps I will just have to AAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! this game 

[nenjin]

Extra map seeds come tomorrow with the Day zero patch.

[Nilocy]

I dunno, this games slowing turning into a dissapointment.

Wheres my epic battles... all I've done so far is autoresolve with a stupidly huge force because the combat in the manual battle thing is so darned boring I cba with it.

Game _really_ needs a tutorial, like deperately needs one. Also I'm highly disapointed in them getting rid of genuinely constructive critisms on their boards.

[Tilla]

No sympathy for Stardock for this failure. Their own 'Gamers Bill of Rights' has been violated by this games release,

Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

The two in italics apply here as being violated.

[Nilocy]

In all seriousness, stardock have never really released a game in its best form yet. SoaSE was kinda shitty in the vanilla form, so was Gal Civ 2.

I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt here, and just hold out for a bit.

[Tilla]

In all seriousness, stardock have never really released a game in its best form yet. SoaSE was kinda shitty in the vanilla form, so was Gal Civ 2.

I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt here, and just hold out for a bit.

Except it goes against principals for the industry that /they/ proposed. It is their fault for releasing too early, nobody else's. As is, maybe in 2 years with a bunch of patches and a HUGE drop in price I may consider getting this.

[nenjin]

Stardock was hoping this game would launch them out of the indie sphere and into the mind of the public.

As it is, they have a lot of work to do just to reclaim some of the credibility they've lost in the indie sphere. They're getting their 6 months, or whatever they need, from me since I've already bought the game. But I pirated Gal Civ 2, that's how I got into Stardock games, and right now I'm wishing I had pirated this first.

[Viken]

Technically we'll never know if they released the game in an unfinished state.  Retailers messed up by breaking their street date, forcing Stardock to turn their attention to that instead of their Day 0 patch was was supposed to impliment and improve the gameplay with polish and unlocked features.  I'm not exactly sure who to point the blame at around here.    Not that I'd even try.

As for the non-random maps, that's something that has had major discussion lately.  Stardock turned over map generation from a sequence-based system (think DF), to the AI system they implimented to make sure the maps are balanced.  I think that dropped the creativity of the maps greatly, but come on, if you want to make a map, just use the mod tools to make your own 'custom' map. From what I've heard, alot of people enjoy that over playing the game!