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[Jehdin]

First expansion was just announced.

.Fallen Enchantress includes significant changes to the existing game as well as massive new content additions, including spells, magical equipment, quests, locations and creatures. Additionally, the company confirmed that the expansion pack will be free for all fans that purchased the original game in 2010. Fallen Enchantress is scheduled for Q2 of 2011.

Glad I bought it in December.

[hemmingjay]

I've been waiting for this announcement ever since I read that they plan on losing money on Elemental by March due to fixing the current game to resolve customer confidence. It only takes rudimentary business acumen to know that no CEO could make such a statement publicly without soon following up with the details of how they would return to making money. Also they are currently running a "design a quest" contest.

[nenjin]

So the Elemental expansion basically just adds all the stuff that they barely got in at release?

Figures. I was hoping for some new features, but I should have known that was wishful thinking. At least I'm getting it for free. Still, as the months of bug-bashing have rolled by, I've been wondering if they'd ever release new content for the core game. Guess signs are pointing to no.

[hemmingjay]

I'm pretty sure it will be a substantial addon. This isn't a company that can risk offending it's customers twice in one fiscal year. They are a small niche market and they know it. Despite a serious blunder I believe the ceo is aware of the situation and am confident that he is, at the very least, attempting to make good in multiple ways.

[hemmingjay]

oh yeah, and it's free to those of us who already bought it, and a "substantial discount" for those who buy before the release.

[Fishbreath]

I've been following Elemental's development very closely (*very* closely, ahem) since well before release, and I gave up on it around August of last year. I'm giving it another try now, and I have to say I'm actually cautiously optimistic about the future. It's risen from being actively bad to mediocre and sometimes entertaining, although I don't like the AI's propensity to declare war the moment it sees your military just an iota weaker than its own. I ended up at war with most of the map in my last game, and lost because of it; I'm hoping it has to do with the nearness of my borders to everyone else's. I might try drawing myself an archipelago map and seeing if that makes things any easier on me.

[forsaken1111]

I'm pretty sure it will be a substantial addon. This isn't a company that can risk offending it's customers twice in one fiscal year. They are a small niche market and they know it. Despite a serious blunder I believe the ceo is aware of the situation and am confident that he is, at the very least, attempting to make good in multiple ways.

Yes they can. They came out and blatantly said that the money from game sales is only a small part of their income.

[lastofthelight]

Where else do they get money from then?

[forsaken1111]

Where else do they get money from then?

They sell other software products or other people's games.

The profits from their own in-house games are a small part of their total income.

[LoSboccacc]

Where else do they get money from then?

They sell other software products or other people's games.

The profits from their own in-house games are a small part of their total income.

not only from third party games (both as a publisher and as a distributor, I think they own impulse). they have a also wide range of enterprise solutions and desktop products (of dubious utility to me):
http://www.stardock.com/products/
http://www.stardock.com/corporate/

the point was that they would like to expand their game development team enough to have one group expanding on the elemental engine for creating expansions and other game while the other should have continued their work on galciv engine.

the creation of an upfront engine for elemental somewhat delayed the expansion, but they're strong enough to keep up with a single games team

[Deon]

Yeah they still need more money to make a good gamemaking team, but they won't earn too much on Elemental anyway after all the problems which happened, so I can't blame them for trying to earn at least SOMETHING, maybe not in a very nice way (I hoped to see more content to the core game too) but still. It's their work after all.

I've been following Elemental's development very closely (*very* closely, ahem) since well before release, and I gave up on it around August of last year. I'm giving it another try now, and I have to say I'm actually cautiously optimistic about the future. It's risen from being actively bad to mediocre and sometimes entertaining, although I don't like the AI's propensity to declare war the moment it sees your military just an iota weaker than its own. I ended up at war with most of the map in my last game, and lost because of it; I'm hoping it has to do with the nearness of my borders to everyone else's. I might try drawing myself an archipelago map and seeing if that makes things any easier on me.

Yeah, I think I will like it after 2-3 more expansions . In such 4x TBS games I like details, lore and variety of AI/playthroughs. Something Elemental lacks (yet) in comparison to old good TBS games. It becomes quite playable though (but AI is still not interesting to "singleplay" with).

[Sergius]

oh yeah, and it's free to those of us who already bought it, and a "substantial discount" for those who buy before the release.

It is a bit cheeky to ask people to invest blindly in the "future improvements" when they've already been burned once by the same product...

[Fikes]

I have already been burned twice by Stardock (Demigod, Elemental). I'd like to see them pull off a cult classic here, but I doubt it will happen. I have to wonder if they will even make back the costs of the game.

The fact is, the game's core mechanics were strange and frustrating enough that I don't really have a desire to go back to it. Things like "You use food to build houses". Or the way your cities grow. It is all just very strange.

It is also terribly bothersome that they so blatantly ignored good practices. There are some gold standard 4x games out there, learn from them.

I personally won't buy any more of their games, no matter how good Elemental turns out to be, but I think that is pretty clear from this thread allready.

[Urist McDepravity]

Well, making world less bland is good idea, so that expansion wouldn't be too bad, I guess.

I have to wonder if they will even make back the costs of the game.

Brad said they had profit even at preorder step, and are still in profit zone, expecting hit negative only in 2Q2011, if sales will be low.

[Farseer]

It is also terribly bothersome that they so blatantly ignored good practices. There are some gold standard 4x games out there, learn from them.

It disappointed me that they didn't learn from Master of Magic, the game they were supposedly basing the game off.

Also, never mention that game on the forums, or you'll have swarms of fanboys running over you and crying about how the game isn't meant to be Master of Magic and was never meant to be Master of Magic.