So yeah, for all my bitching, holy crap. Like 3 patches in a week. They're coming so fast I can't even finish a game, because I don't trust updating a save game through all that...and I want to experience it fresh.
So1.09s. Too gamed out to rattle it all off, but Elemental has officially broken the fun barrier for me. Still got bugs, still got crashes, but it's starting to feel like a game! For real! Not just throwing darts at game play elements, but something that's actually cohesive.
YMMV, of course, but finally I've played 12 hours and haven't found anything so broken or wrong it ruins the game for me anymore.
The AI is even shaping up. A quick vignette.
So reading the power scale, the 2nd place player is Umbar. I decided I want to take him down a little, so I convince him to make war on Tarth, who is much weaker.
Turns out, he gets stronger by conquering a big fat Tarth city. And then I notice he's built a city at the mouth of a bay, right next to an Umberdoth pack....and I see his power level slowly creeping up every few seasons as he starts cranking them out.
This town also happens to cut me off from the entire rest of the world, without being in a state of war with Umbar.
To top it all off he's built a city in front of my wall o' cities, on a crystal deposit I didn't need. Still. Irritating.
So I line up a 4 part attack. One of the crystal city. One on the Tarth city he captured, one of the coastal Umberdoth city, and one for another big, but ultimately useless, city in his main zone.
As my sovereign marches up the coast toward the Umberdoth city, I notice...an Umbar unit in the FoW....not just a unit...a small army that's been lurking at the edges of the continent, ready to pounce one exceptionally juicy city of mine. The unit proceeds to follow my sovereign, in lock-step, all the way to the Umberdoth city limits, where I then kill it and initiate the war.
And I walk away with 2 brand new cities, an umberdoth pack, and my dick literally in the face of his capital city. Then I go to the negotiating table, throw a little diplomatic capital at him, and he's like "Fine...." Considering in one stroke I chopped 25% of power out from under him, when we were neck 'n neck, he was pretty happy to negotiate on almost any terms. He wasn't begging me for peace by any means, but I'm hoping it was a subtle way of bowing out gracefully, and not just some stupid miscalculation on diplomatic capital.
Now, how's that for AI? I'm almost completely certain, prior to my act of war, he was on the verge of extorting me, and it seems like he was ready to target a very vulnerable, and highly opportune city (1 ancient temple, 1 warg pack, 2 twliight bees food resource, and a diplomatic view and field just north of the city.)
Did I mention he had a big army of Umberdoth's lurking in the FoW near the Umberdoth city, which I'm pretty sure was head to go nomnom on cities?
It could have gone differently had I not stuck it to him in the one place that was giving him a real competitive edge: the Umberdoths. Once I had that and a few punitive city stealing/razings for good measure, they're back in their place.
This is all at normal (which I've found pretty easy once you know how the building scheme works and hold out for a really good starting set up. In this case, my Arabian inspired Empire happened to land in the bread basket for the whole goddamn world, so life is good.) I could have steam rolled the AI ages ago, but I find it more fun to toy with them and see how Brad's AI is coming along. I rushed into army tech quickly, and since I'm the only player fielding 3 or more-sized squads, most stuff is piddly. Dumping a ton into magic has been helpful too, as you can still execute most piddly creatures with simple spells.)
It's pretty easy since I've kept playing, but I imagine some might find it really tough starting out. It's now possible to totally fuck yourself over in your scheme, not conserving when you need to for emergencies, not prioritizing the stuff that makes your life vastly easier, like mounts and teleportation...You know, the quality of development aside, Elemental does have a lot of good stuff going for it. The best changes have only really come in the last month or so.
Game is pretty damn addictive when it's properly balanced and not fucking up all the time.