I really liked all of the previous Stardock games, and I really want to like Elemental too. I'm not a really hardcore strategy gamer. I play lots of simply games like Civilization but not more complicated ones.
But I'm finding it really hard to play this game, mainly because I don't understand what's going on. I wish there was a more comprehensive tutorial since this is a rather complex game. I tried playing the campaign with the updated v1.05, but especially in tactical battles I still find myself clicking around the screen randomly, wondering "why on earth is nothing happening when I click? What are my units doing? How come I'm not moving?"
I found it difficult to even understand simple things like how many moves my units have on the main map.
I think there are many UI issues as well, despite the effort that went into developing it. The icons are really small and hard to figure out. It is not intuitive when a turn ends or when a unit should move, or even what the "Actions" do.
One UI issue: I go to a store to buy stuff for my group of heroes, but I can't see what's in their inventory when I'm in the store page. Maybe there's a function that enables me to do that, but I'm missing it.
My other disappointment is that the graphical and production quality of the game isn't really up to 2010 standards. For instance, the terrain on the main map looks really quite amateurish. The mountains look like blobs of melting ice cream. The unit and hero graphics, especially when seen close up, are blocky and unattractive.
The problem may be because Stardock is trying to make the game requirements quite low, for more computers to be able to use it. That's good, but unfortunately, the graphics really are quite poor in comparison to other similar games.
Another graphical problem is the overall art direction. The world of Elemental looks dull and empty. I understand it's post-Cataclysm and all, but landscape is really plain and uninteresting. Even the landscape in Civ 4 looked more vibrant. I don't particularly like the washed out water-colour art that Elemental uses. It looks very lifeless in comparison to the bright and exciting colour palettes used in games like Warcraft, Starcraft, Tropico 3 and Anno 1404. The picture used as the background for this forum is a good example of the uninspired art direction-- it's completely faded and dark. For a fantasy game, it was not a good idea to take such a conservative approach to the artwork.
I know that these issues probably can't be addressed at this stage-- the game is as it is. Still, I can't help but feel disappointed with these areas. I havne't played enough to say whether the actual gameplay is good, but the lack of a good tutorial, the poor UI and graphics make me feel reluctant to play the game.
Bright colours don't make the game but i agree with one thing completely, give us a decent tutorial, it was quite difficult to figure out the game and you're only hurting yourselves by not makeing it accessible.
I don't think you're going to enjoy this game if you can't figure out how to move your units on the map, no offense ^^
The end of turn stuff is confusing because by default auto end turn is enabled, which means there never is a break in turns. You'll have hiccups where spells/research/etc advance but it mostly feels continuous. You can disable this in options but IMO the game feels better with auto end turn enabled - which is odd for a turn-based game to be sure.
I agree on the store thing. It's a hassle and a half, especially if you wanna swap out gear. You have to look at what you have, memorize what you want to replace, go buy it, exit, equip the new, re-enter the store, find and sell the old. Something like that. It's utterly brutal compared to most RPG type merchant interactions in game these days.
I do think the game has some learning curve, part of which has to do with new gameplay mechanics, new lore, etc. But a lot of it has to do with the UI or descriptive text in the game just lacking at times. The game isn't very helpful and lacks the slick design you encounter in many games these days that help ease a player in without the need for a manual, hours of tutorials, and without diluting the games. At worst, some tutorials would be great. The videos posted recently are about the best info you can find and even they don't go into much detail. The thing is, there often IS a lot of info available in the UI but it's either microscopic or otherwise difficult to get to reilably. There is a lot of inconsistency in how information is dealt with in the UI.
I happen to like the art style in the game. I don't think all games need to be glitzy and graphically bloated. For the type of game the graphics are fit pretty well.
What I don't like about the graphics is that they seem to require a lot of horsepower and/or have a lot of clunkiness even though they aren't that complicated.
I feel the same way as the OP. I loved GCiv and when this game was discussed 3 years ago I dreamed of this day. I follwed the progress, I finished all my household projects to free up time for this week. Sadly the game simply isn't any fun at this point. Maybe some day it will be but I'm so disappointed.
I really want to like this game, but it's way too easy since the AI isn't functioning. At all.
Sorry you dont like the game much. As for me? Ive been blown awya by how fun it is.
Jus tstick with it, its got a learning curve (;
Says who ? Works perfectly for me. Don't forget that you have to manually set the opponents Ai when you choose which factions will be in the game. It has nothing to do with world difficulty. Hard and above AI is pretty solid.
My experience has been, if a game has a high learning curve then the better.
Pretty much all games I have sat down with and managed to play within a few minutes, end up boring the crap out of me.
But now a day with the consoles ruling the gaming market, everyone wants a "dumbed down" game that you can pick up and play like a pro after 2 minutes.
Says me. Yeah, I know you have to set the difficulty individualy. played 3 games till now, from "challenging" to "extreme". In all of them I won in about 200 turns, and the AI was simply a walking joke. Didn't expand, didn't develop armies, his sov is always wandering aimlessly and undefended throughout the map... a disgrace really.
I'm not complaining that the game is too complex or strategically deep.Like i said, i haven't played enough to have an opinion on the game mechanics.
I *am* complaining that the presentation is tacky and poorly conceived though. I'm sure that there are many experienced players weaned on even more brutally user unfriendly hardcore strategy games than I am who would find playing Elemental a piece of cake, but I'm finding it hard to enjoy being confounded at every turn.
As for the artwork, yes I agree it's a matter of taste. I happen to like colourful games, but I can imagine someone who likes muted palettes.
Another criticism I have is that the various factions are not clearly delineated. In the GalCivs, you could tell at a glance which factions had which characteristics and attributes (roughly) jsut by looking at their portraits. A robotic race would have various cybernetic benefits but be unemotional for instance. In Elemental everyone looks more or less the same. Possibly in gameplay terms the factions all play extremely differently, but again, to someone who has just picked up the game, all the Men races look the same, while all the Fallen races look the same.
I understand that it is creative to try and break free from fantasy sterotypes (elf, dwarf, etc), but those sterotypes can sometimes help in giving the new player a quick guide to what he can expect. So for instance, in the Civ 4 mod Fall from Heaven, despite there being loads of different races, I feel that i'm making a more educated choice between which faction to play, in contrast with Elemental where my choice is pretty much random. Of course i could create a custom faction, but it doesnt solve the problem that my enemies ingame are all difficult to distinguish without extensive knowledge of the highly elaborate lore.
A final quibble I ahve is that all the names of the characters and the cities in the game (faction names, city suggested names) are basically complete gibberish. They are so wildly fantastical as to be unpronounceable and unmemorable. Of course I can name them myself, but all this goes to polish and professionalism. The city names in aprticular don't contirbute to the overall feel of each faction, which they should. They all sound like garbled nonsense. This would ahve been fine in a teenager's first attempt at fantasy writing ("Queen Xarfizazarchigut of the Drithatuenieun Empire") but is not accpetable in an established game developer's product. I know it's not easy to come up with unique, yet evocative and memorable fantasy names, but the best in the business-- Tolkien, Jack Vance, even Forgotten Realms etc, can be sources of inspiration.
Well, I just came to the board to find a good thread to relate a very different experience with the AI. Looks like this is the right one...
I had been playing for a little while, long enough to have just unlocked level 3 spells and to have 2 size 2 cities, when the one AI opponent I had run into so far (large map) built a city just south of my second city. Then about a dozen turns later the AI declared war on me. I immediately queued up two groups of 4 forward observers and killed a lone champion that happened to be near my avatar (it was trapped by my territory ownership and the terrain). Then I gathered all my forces and marched south towards the AI city. As I neared the city I saw the AI queen was approaching with a large force that was a bit stronger than mine. Not wanting to let the lone unit in the city meet up with that group I attacked and killed it, taking over the city. I then pulled back to my nearest level 2 city and waited for the forward observer group to complete (it had only 3 turns to go). Then I marched out and destroyed her army and defeated her kingdom permanently.
In combat terms the AI made some errors. It should have retaken the city I had taken, and then should have marched on me before I could build more forces. The only reason I think it didn't was because our combat rating was about equal. However, a test battle I had run earlier had already shown me she had superior magic to me and would likely have won easily unless I got lucky with my spells landing on the queen. I needed the observer group to guarantee the win with little or no losses on my side. Also during the actual combat she should have thrown more spells, technically she could kill my avatar with one hit if she got lucky.
However, from a strategic perspective she made all the right calls...
When I sent my avatar to scout where she had come from it turned out it was a peninsula that she had fully exploited with 2 cities, and based on the nature of the terrain with the 3 cities she had, and me not giving her permission to pass through my territory, she was completely boxed in already and had nowhere to expand. At the time she declared war she was leading me in every respect and had the military might to take at least one of my cities for certain, possibly both. The one thing she should have done differently was to wait until her army was on my doorstep to declare war instead of giving me 7 turns to build the observer group before she was even in visual range of my cities.
Overall though I was impressed with the AI's clear ability to identify it was being boxed into a corner and its choice to do whatever was necessary to break out of the corner. If it was a bit smarter on the timing or willing to take more risks when choosing to enter into battle it would have had me.
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