Here is my personal take on this game after a bit of time with it and the beta that came before, and what I think Stardock is trying to accomplish with it. I am certainly not a professional reviewer, nor am I an over the top Stardock fanboy. I'm just a gamer who in addition to playing games, loves to tinker with them. And this last is what has moved me to make this rather longish post as I've not seen as much discussion on this as I'd like to see. If you want to know what I'm talking about, then read on.
To begin with, there are many who wanted to believe that this game was along the lines of either a remake of MoM, or it's successor and thus expected it to be similar to that great game or others like it. I know I did when I first saw the Impulse preview of the game. It is not though, it has been said many times over the past months that it is not only different from MoM, but also from other 4x games that are currently known or popular. However despite the statements regarding how different this game is to those games in the genre that came before, there still remains quite a perception among many who bought the game that it is or should be somewhat like MoM, or Age of Wonders, HoMM, Civ, what have you. I don't necessarily believe that this is the fault of the players however. Many of them bought into this game from back in it's early days. And at that time, the game was conceptually different from the final product; it was to be more grand strategic in nature with huge armies, was to have real time battles, and early screenshots seemed to indicate that it would have an off map city development screen similar to MoM or Civ.
But the changes made to the system by the developers via both their own desires as well as feedback from the community changed the scope and scale of the game to a smaller strategic and tactical scale. But many never saw or knew about that unless they followed these forums over the time of development of the game. Clearly many people did not do so, and thus were still expecting the game to fit into one of the molds that came before it, and thus being rather disappointed with how the final game turned out. I say all this because I believe that this underlying feeling has colored a lot of peoples perceptions of the game, and have done so in a negative way.
Of course what then adds to all this is the fact that the game feels unfinished or rushed to many. I have to admit that it does to me as well, and if this was pretty much any other company than Stardock, I would be probably be very concerned. The bugs and tech issues are also unfortunate, however I have been through worse product launches, though that certainly doesn't absolve Stardock from blame on that. Nobody likes to feel like they are buying a game just to be a late beta tester. But I know how Stardock supports their games, and how they will in fact hammer, fine tune, and continue to polish this product over the months to come until it really shines. Of course, many early reviewers are going to pan and gripe about these issues. I fully expect the initial bouts of reviews will likely be mediocre due to many of these issues. It's sad, but I do expect it. Unless of course these reviewers are able to see past the initial launch problems to see the great potential this game has, and by that I refer to it as a modding platform.
And that last is where I feel this game will really take off, and something I would like more people to consider. Personally, I have no problem with the scale and play of the game out of the box. The bugs are irritating, and the lack of polish is annoying, but I know these things will get cleaned up in time. I've been a PC gamer, and gamer in general, for far too long to expect a crystal clean release of anything. There does persist the feeling that much of this may have been avoided by waiting for a Spring 2011 release instead, and I feel this too. But that's irrelevant now, and thus not a point to worry about. The game is out here and now, and all things considered will probably be a stronger game in Spring of 2011 after months of continued work and polish by Stardock along with the support of the people playing the game, than it would be via internal polishing and testing over the same time period. Not saying that I necessarily agree with that mindset of doing things, but that does seem likely how things will turn out if Stardock's past performance with the GalCiv series is any indication.
But as I've said before on these forums and will say again in this post, what really has me excited about this game is the platform they have created for future modding and tinkering by both the public as well as internally at Stardock. This is almost more than just a game, it is a toolset that can allow one to build all kinds of different fantasy or other type settings and games, particularly for those with skill in using the Python language. But even without that knowledge, little tools have already been provided for making maps, buildings, and factions, and there will be many more along the way over the coming months to give even the casual modder the ability to change things to his or her liking.
This value and aspect of the game is not something that can easily be quantified in the early stages of the release as after all, there isn't much available yet from Stardock or the community, but it is a value that should not be overlooked. Of course, it will take some time before any big mods show up, but just go over to the Elemental Mods forum and take a look at some of the projects people are already starting to work on to get an idea of some of the directions this potentially amazing product can start to be taken. And this will only get better and better as time goes on, especially as Stardock continues to support and expand the mod-ability of this game. This is what has me excited about this product, and this is why I see this game becoming over time so very much more than just another 4x strategy type of thing. It is unfortunately something that as I stated will take time to develop. And there are those out there who don't care about the modding ability of the game, but rather just want a 4x game that works right and is fun. To those people I can only say have some patience; believe those who have said many times that Stardock does support their products, and just wait and see what comes down the road in a few months. I think some of the results will be very cool.
One thing I have learned over the years as a game player and as a small-time modder myself, is the tremendous talent that's out there among fellow gamers, some of whom go on to careers within the gaming community from their starts as modders. And I can only hope that there are others out there, particularly among the reviewers but also those here on these forums and elsewhere, who can see beyond what they have in their hands along with it's initial problems, and can see instead what this game can, and will become.
I'm also looking forward to trying out the creations the modding community comes up with. Some of the total conversion projects planned like Lord of the Rings should be a blast once they are ready.
Agreed, the LoTR one looks great, as does the Song of Ice and Fire, Dragonlance, Dying Sun, the Expanded Edition, just to name a few. And those are just the total conversion mods. There is also a race mod started up, several game mechanics mods, as well as several graphic and texture mods. And this is still early on. As more tools become available, and more is revealed about how things work in the game...well, as I said, the potential is huge.
And I think because of that, there will be mods that if done right, will bring people into or back into the game who were turned off by the initial offering. Like the one mechanics mod Grand Ambitions by MagicwillNZ who, like many I've seen on the boards, wanted a more epic feel to the game. And the great thing is that he and other modders will actually get support from Stardock, unlike some companies that seem to actively hinder the modding community to, from my view, their detriment. Anyway, things are looking really good right now and will keep me interested over the coming months as I play, tinker, and try out some of the mods as they develop.
Nice post. I agree 100%
I feel the same way, i made a suggestion that the dev directions for updates and expansions be all about modding, not to worry about content (campaigns) because that will be provided by the modders. Im more interested in seeing things like more tactical battle variables, more modding tools like large tile packs, creature editors, etc...
My post with expansion suggestions:
As i play this game, i have a feeling more and more that although the software is a game, its also like an RPG book with a ruleset, monster tables and various locales. Youre playing a game, but you also have "in your hands" the tools to make your own adventure and story. Sorta like getting a campain book boxed in with the toolset.
I dont know how others feel, but to me this is the game's strong point and i would like the devs to edge toward that by helping players with even more tools to nurture the modding community.
So instead of a new campain for the expansion in a year, more like:
- a load of new tiles (and tile parts/objects) to make world maps/tactical maps with, a monster expansion pack with tools for easily changing the size, stats and color palette of enemies so players can easily do stuff like "Greater Ice wolf", "brown wolf pup"and Unique boss mobs (or recruitable heroes) that you equip from head to toe (Ex: Undead skeleton sorcerer, with own loot table. Made from basic skeleton model sized up and blood red tinge, dressed up with custom clothes).
Another example is say a player wants to create a new school of magic like necromancy, using a mod crystal node, if there are enough tools available the player could touch up a bunch of creatures slightly and create undead forms of bears, spiders and wolves without too much work. One of the skills of necromancy would be a passive skill that lets him resurrect a % of mobs after each battle. Thats the sort of thing that could spring up if the tools available are good enough and easily lets people create content. I know you guys just released a toolset, not saying its news to you but im egging you on
- Tools to help players expand the spell book
Sorry if some of those tools exist already, these are first impressions.
- New tactical maps variables, traps even maybe, using whats on the tactical map to your advantage (top off my head, tar patch on floor and flaming arrow).
Im also thinking of larger tactical maps, with more tiles (if it doesnt require starting coding from scratch and not too much work).
Some way for us to link "rooms" say like you enter a cavern and it leads to a new world map (exactly like heroes of might and magic III did with underground, again if its not too much coding).
What im trying to say is id like the expansion and coming patches to have more of a boxed set expansion for a RPG bookgame feel than a strictly classic PC game expansion with a new campain, new factions and new monsters. Theres load of modding talent out there and they will probably take care of creating tons of content that makes the game worth replaying, the focus should be on facilitating this and giving tools that exponentially augments the amount of content possible i think.
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