No beta this week. Between my trip to San Francisco last week to meet with the media and Memorial Day, the AI isn’t far enough along to be included for a public beta. But if it makes you feel better, we’re playing it a lot internally.
There’s been a ton of questions on the forums so let me go through them here:
Q: What is the release date?
A: August 24th is our official release date.
Q: Is that release date subject to change?
A: Yes. If we’re not happy with the game for some reason.
Q: I think Elemental should have <insert cool wizbang feature>, will you delay the game to put that in?
A: No.
Q: But I thought you said you wouldn’t release the game until it was what you wanted?
A: Yes. But we’re not going to delay the game to put in new features. We’re open to doing lots of things after release.
Q: I’ve heard there are no flying units in the game.
A: There are flying units in the game. However, there aren’t flying armies in the game (i.e. there are creatures and animals that fly, but we do not plan to have flying mounted units in – at least at release. We can discuss with players – after they have the game – what practical means they could envision flying around.
Q: I saw <screen shot X> and I didn’t like <insert aspect of screenshot>
A: Most screenshots floating around are, unfortunately, very old.
Here is a current screenshot:
Note the dynamic fog of war in the east. This is generated using an advanced multi-core algorithm.
Q: I like using my imagination when I play games, I am glad the game has its own lore but can I introduce my own?
A: Yes. In the “sand box” (normal games) mode. You can do whatever you want. It will be in the campaign where our lore takes over.
Q: In a screenshot, the land looked flat.
A: Geography of a given map changes from map to map. Some maps are hilly. There are some maps that are dead. There are some that are pleasant. Some are very mountainous. It just depends what kind of map you get.
Here is a map in an arctic world.
Q: Does the AI in Elemental cheat?
A: Not at its normal levels. I’ve been working very hard to make the game play the game just like a human being does. However, I will have higher difficulty levels where the AI gets “stuff” for those who end up better at the game than I am. We will, however, be continuing to enhance the AI long after release as we did with Galactic Civilizations.
Q: How animated are things in the world?
A: Here’s a link to a video: http://screencast.com/t/YWY5YWJk (it’s a big video so you’ll want to let it buffer).
Q: How much can modders do on the map?
A: Here’s me making my own map. These tools are part of the game btw. They’re designed to let general gamers use (non-technical).
Wrong we need a DOS emulator and DirectX12 to run this game.
Q: I still haven't seen anything on mounts, let alone variant mounts. Cuddlesome?
Frogboy just stated that there are flying units in the game; by which I would assume he means Dragons. However, there are no flying armies - i.e. no dragon mounts, flying unicorn mounts, hover boards etc etc for armies to be equipped with.
Oh, Froggie, I had another question, if you can ever get around to answering any. I'm about the worst alpha/beta participant there's been, but between being swamped in volunteer work and a computer that is more unstable than a russian tractor, I haven't really been able to playtest much and any feedback I could possibly come with in terms of stability would be null and void. I've even been trying to make an NPC, but haven't been able to actually get everything to work long enough for me to finish polishing one up.
My question is thus; The base manual, will it be exhaustive, and will there be a good tutorial in-game? Because whilst others have eased into it, I'm entirely confuddled by the game and I'm imagening it just getting worse.
By the way, awesome avatar.
I'm still a bit confused about this. As I understand it, we will be seeing flying creatures (e.g. dragons), but no mountable flying creatures (e.g. mountable pegasi)... does that sound right? If not, can someone please explain? I'm just confused because a group of dragons could be considered an army of dragons...? Or is the term "army" reserved solely for human units?
Also, will we be able to control flying creatures ourselves, or are they only A.I. controlled?
And will lone flying creatures, or armies consisting solely of flying creatures, be able to cross otherwise impassable terrain?
I already knew the beta wouldn't come out this week, so I'm not affected by that news.
As for all the extra tidbits... Thanks for the info.
Also I think I speak for everyone when I say that new screenshot shows some awesome dynamic shading and superb textures errr... Pixels.
Ha! That actually looks quite good compared to what I'm playing:
And no Beta 2? I don't care if all the AI does is hide in a corner and laugh maliciously, I want something to actually test!
Ah well, *goes off to play more dwarf fortress*
AI gets "stuff" for those better than you at the game. So you expect the AI to beat you 50%-50% at the level with full AI and zero extra "stuff"?
"Here is a current screenshot:" Watch out Crysis 2!
Dang no beta this week... but there's always next week... and the week after that.... and that....
OH NOES NOTHING FLYS WHAT!?!?! I could careless... (for now.)
I don't see why people still complain about graphics unless it causes your eyes to fall out yes that's bad but if there is only bleeding that's acceptable...
No. You'll need a DirectX 9c card that supports Shader 2, although be mindful that some of the video cards lie about what they actually support.
Lies and slander! Slanderous lies!
Aww.. I like them Ultima graphics.
Yeah if Elemental is as good as Ultima 3 I'll be happy. It had tactical combat and all!
Yeay, a map creator thingie for dummies. Now there is my chance .
Graphics looks really nice. I like cell shading look, but I do understant, that some do not.
Animations are great, last thing which I miss on that is, that trees should a little bit move in a wind.
Other then that very nice.
Also, on that flat terrain note. It was not really that the game world is flat, but more like, that the textures looks flat which is true, not that there are not hills.
One last thing on the graphics, it still seems a little bit sparse or barren. More miscellaneous items, like grass, stones, trees, muschrooms etc... would make look world a little bit more alive, and interesting to look at.
I guess nothing what can not be solved with user made maps, or campaign, but it seems that random generated maps are done this way.
I love all moding tools, and it is really great, that somebody with wild imagination can make so many interesting things with provided assets and tools.
Graphics exceeded my expectations, but I am still a little bit worried about sounds, and their quality and variety.
On fyling units, there will not be flying units which one can train or "build" but there will be some which player can get, from let say, quest, dungeon, etc...
August 24th is still too early to me... lets have a look. We still havent got:
Multiplayer (there can be problems witch connectivity)
3D engine (Again, hardware issues, performance)
Fallens
Diplomacy
Victory Conditions
Caravans and roads
Whole combat system + (Naval, morale, sieges)
Most of the spells
Editor Tools
AI
That is really alot of to do, I am sure, that most of those things are already in your beta build, but still if you want to gather some feedback, and make some changes, you might need more time.
And not only that, there can be loads of problems witch compatibility and hardware issues plus connectivity.
And after all this, you must work on balance, and AI.
It is not unreal, but the question is, if you can do everything right, and polished on time.
I agree, August 24 seems way too short, if they intend for us to have time to do some serious testing. I understand that the internal build is far ahead of ours, but it seems far too little time to tweak the game, and what if a major gameplay element has to be redone? I'm sure Stardock knows what they're doing, but it still doesn't seem like enough time.
I have to agree, October is the earliest I can see it.
I'm not too worried about SD rushing it, as they've proven that if it's broken, they'll fix it.
SD has enough goodwill with me that it would take a lot for them to lose it.
I take offence! As a European peasant I find the female peasants to have an accetable level of hair in all places. Now kindly leave our unshaven females alone.
Brad have said that our beta is very restricted compared to their internal one. They've also had graphics since Nov 2008(!) at least and have been testing tactical battles for atleast a week and most possibly a bit longer.
Keep in mind that Brad dedicated a developer journal to tell us "not to get angry" when beta 2 comes since there is SO much stuff we haven't gotten to see which they've had for quite a while.
So in essence, the game is alot further along then what we play with and most of the base mechanics are in place now. Only one main (plus one medium) mechanic - Tactical Battles (and morale) - is still up in the ai (AFAIK.)
If Frog say August, I believe in August. Most of the game is done, given what I have heard about beta 1, and I'm guessing that any changes to gameplay will be very easy to implement with the way they have been creating this game.
Be Hopeful.
I think some of you are thinking that we are using the public beta as the primary bug testing/compatibility testing system. That is not the case. While feedback and bug reports are very helpful, the primary purpose of beta 2 is to get feedback on gameplay (as well as see if there are edge cases in performance and compatibility).
All of which are in our build and for the most part will be in the initial beta 2 (we'll probably disable diplomacy and the Imperial factions because of AI reasons).
The editor tools, for instance, we've had since 2008. The 3D engine we've had since 2008. Obviously, these get refined and improved over time but they're not "new" features they are just new to the public.
The expensive/time consuming part of game development is producing the assets and the engine which were done before beta 1.
Beta 1 was about defining what type of game we wanted to make (by we, I mean us and our fellow gamers). That's why beta 1 was so lengthy - so that we could try out different game mechanics and such. Then, we took this and incorporated it into beta 2.
The only time consuming part left is the AI since it has to play "the game".
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