The purpose of this ongoing thread is to provide new players with a basic guideline to the most frequently asked questions when playing the game for the first time. If you have a question, just ask it in here so that the community can collect and compile crucial, quick to look up information at one place. Every help is appreciated, I will add new suggestions to the first post.
1. Researching Technology & Spells
1.1 Why can't I research any technology or spells in the campaign?
1.2 How do I start/increase to research new technology and spells in the sandbox mode?
1.3 How are spellbooks working exactly and how do I research spells?
1.4 What are the goals of the different technology trees?
2. City/Resource/World Management & Improvement
2.1 How can I use resource tiles found on the world map (i.e. fertile land, lost library)?
2.2 Is there a way to find more resource tiles other than by exploring the map?
2.3 What effect has the sphere of influence and how to propagate it?
2.4 What is the difference between Influence, Diplomatic Capital, Prestige and Reputation?
2.5 Why can't I build new city improvements even though I seem to have the appropriate resources?
2.6 How can I get more free tiles / increase the level of a city?
2.7 How can I get more food to build houses and gain population?
2.8 How can I use caravans and what is their benefit (Food, Roads)?
2.9 Why is my conquered city not advancing to the second level?
2.10 How can I raze my own or conquered cities?
2.11 How can I cast city spells?
2.12 Where can I find the resource Elementium?
3. Sovereign/Champion/Unit Management & World Interaction
3.1 What is the difference between Movement (Moves) and Combat Speed (Action Points)?
3.2 How can I form and control a stack of units and single out specific units?
3.3 How can I improve my troops and design better units?
3.4 Why can't I go to tactical combat sometimes?
3.5 How can I retreat from combat?
3.6 How can I equip my sovereign/champions with items and where to get them?
3.7 Is there any way to increase the amount and regeneration rate of Essence, Health and Mana for my troops?
3.8 How can I increase the quest and notable locations level of my sovereign?
3.9 What are the benefits for each tech in the Adventure (Kingdom) and Domination (Empire) technology tree?
3.10 Why is it sometimes I cannot talk to other champions to hire them?
3.11 How can I get other champions to cast spells like my sovereign?
3.12 How do I get married and conceive offspring?
3.13 How can I trade with other factions and make treaties (Foreign Relations)?
4. Miscellaneous
- Researching is disabled in the campaign. The player will gain new technology by progressing through the campaign and completing specific goals. If the player is presented with new technology, a message will pop up accordingly.
- Elemental distinguishes between two types of research: Arcane Knowledge for spells and Tech Knowledge for technology. The main provider for Arcane knowledge are Ancient Temples, whereas Lost Libraries provide for tech knowledge. Both can be found as resource tiles on the map. There are also champions that roam the lands and provide either knowledge if hired for a certain price. In addition, arcane and tech knowledge can be increased by advancing in the respective technology trees, Civilization (Kingdom faction) or Imperium (Empire faction) for tech knowledge and Magic (Kingdom faction) or Sorcery (Empire faction) for arcane knowledge. Advancing in those trees will unlock appropriate city improvements and techs.
- The first crucial stage is as early as the sovereign creation screen. As of now, you can choose between Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Enchantment at character creation. You also have to consider the allegiance your faction belongs to as well as the race of your sovereign, because only the Kingdom factions will get the Life spellbook and only the Empire factions will get the Death spellbook. If you play the game by advancing in the Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree and completing quests, you will obtain more spellbooks like Summoning, Restoration, Ruin, Combat, Mastery etc. You must also consider the fact that certain spells require a combination of spellbooks to become available for research. You are, for example, only able to research the Summon Fire Giant spell if you are in possession of both the Fire AND the Summoning spellbook. If you advance enough to obtain the Mastery spellbook, all other spellbooks suitable for your faction should be unlocked including the elemental ones.
- Once you acquire Arcane Knowledge, you can add the spells you want to research to the research list. You will automatically research the spells in the order you have put them in the research list. If you want to access higher level spells, you have to increase your knowledge by researching the next level in your spellbook.
(thanks to user: fivecoins)
- There are 5 different technology trees you can focus your research on, if you acquire any Tech Knowledge. Instead of picking the tech you want to research, you can only set the research goal to one of the 5 technology trees. After each breakthru you will be able to pick the actual tech you want to receive in that technology tree. The different techs are color coded which indicates the likeliness of them to appear after a breakthru. Even though both allegiances (Kingdom and Empire) in Elemental have different names and sometimes slightly different benefits in their technology trees, they basically have the same focus:
1) Civilization (Kingdom) and Imperium (Empire) focus on the betterment of your city growth, economy, production and tech research.
2) Warfare (Kingdom) and Conquest (Empire) focus on the betterment of your troops and unlock more powerful weapons, armor and items.
3) Magic (Kingdom) and Sorcery (Empire) focus on the betterment of your magical abilites and provide magical items and new spellbooks.
4) Adventure (Kingdom) and Domination (Empire) provide you with more quests and notable locations and more resource tiles in the world. In addition, the monsters that are roaming the world become stronger and spawn faster. (see question 3.9 for more details)
5) Diplomacy (Kingdom) and Cooperation (Empire) provide you with more options in dealing with other factions and allow you to train monsters units and caravans.
- Resources have to be in the sphere of influence of a city (colored borderline around the city) in order to use them. Contrary to regular city improvements like workshops/slave pits that are build in the city construction mode, the player has to click on the resource tile itself to build an improvement on it. A hammer icon will appear on the lower left side of the screen and the player will learn the price/requirements by hovering the cursor over it. After the construction is completed, the given amount of the resource will flow continually into the global pool with every turn.
- Since resource tiles are not necessarily close to your city, they might be easily and constantly destroyed by neutral and foreign factions. Apart from sending units to protect them, there is another way to make sure your resource tiles are safe: As soon as you build city improvements next to any resource tile, they are incorporated into the actual city and can't be singled out for destruction. There is an important downside to it though: The more resource tiles you incorporate into your city, the less free tiles are available for building new city improvements (see questions 2.5 and 2.6 for more details).
- In combination with looking for additional resource tiles in other parts of the world, there is another option to get a hold of valuable resources. Some techs in the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree will make additional resource tiles appear close to your cities. See question 3.9 for a detailed overview over the type of resources that will appear for each tech.
!!! Beware that all of the additional resource tiles unlocked by these techs will only appear within your sphere of influence (colored borderline around your cities) and will not appear in any other part of the world. !!!
- The sphere of influence is basically all the space that is under your control because it has been civilized by your faction. Every faction has its own sphere of influence, indicated by the space within the colored borderline. Knowing about these spheres is important, because they determine the accessibility of many abilities that you might or might not have and monsters will only spawn within the sphere that is uncontested.
- The most basic means to increase Influence is by building new cities via pioneers. The Influence is growing continually from these cities every couple of turns. There are several city improvements that the player can build to increase the rate for each city. They can be researched in the Civilization (Kingdom) or the Imperium (Empire) technology tree.
- Apart from the most obvious benefit of enabling the player to use resource tiles and open space to build improvements, the sphere of influence is also the only space in which the sovereign/champions can access the item shop, use specific spells like Teleport and it's the only space where you and your troops regenerate hitpoints. Last but not least, any sovereign killed off in a foreign sphere of influence is dead forever and the entire faction is destroyed.
!!! Beware that you lose the game if your sovereign is killed in a foreign sphere of influence. If you die in neutral or domestic space, you will respawn in the first city you built with the penalty of losing one point of essence permanently. !!!
- As mentioned in question 2.3, the sphere of influence describes the land mass that belongs to your faction as opposed to neutral and foreign territory. The more Influence a city produces the quicker and larger the sphere of influence will grow.
- Diplomatic Capital comes into play when dealing with other factions. It is a resource that only effects diplomacy and can be traded for money, resources, treaties and other things when you are in negotiations. It is represented by a quill and ink icon. There are city improvements that will increase the amount of Diplomatic Capital you receive each turn, they have to be unlocked in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree. In addition, you can find the resource tile Scenic View to boost the amount of Diplomatic Capital you receive each turn. A large amount of Diplomatic Capital in your stock will make other factions think better of you and make them go down with their perceived value for trades/treaties.
- Prestige, represented by a goblet icon, indicates the amount of people that stream to the city each turn. It is the rate of city growth and leads to increasing city levels if all housing conditions are met.
- Reputation is a vague concept that applies only to your sovereign and comes into play if he/she wants to propose to another champion. Sometimes the candidate is not willing to commit to a marriage because your Reputation is too low. You increase your Reputation by slaying monsters and leveling up with your sovereign.
- There might be two reasons why the player cannot build the desired improvement:
1) The city does not match the appropriate level. Every city can reach up to 5 levels and most of the better improvements require a certain city level to be build. The level of the city can be seen in the Resources tab at the lower left section of the screen. The required city level for an improvement is listed next to the name of it, represented by a black castle tower icon.
2) There are no free tiles left. Every city level provides a fixed amount of free tiles that can be used to build city improvements. The required amount of free tiles for any improvement are represented by a grey tower icon in the list for the improvement cost. The player can learn about the total amount of available free tiles for a city from the white resource indicator that is hovering over the city on the map or by clicking on the city detail screen (big circle at the lower mid section of the screen).
!!! Beware that forests, hills, beaches or any resource tile that is connected to the city will block free city tiles! In addition, the closer two cities are located to each other the less free tiles will be available to both of them. If you want to be able to raise cities to a high city level and build many improvements, you must provide for enough free space that surrounds them. !!!
See this thread for more detailed information on city tiles, city improvement and influence:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/393849
(thanks to user: sagittary)
- In order to increase the amount of free tiles for new improvements the player has two options:
1) Increasing the level of the city by building enough houses for the population to grow. The level bar at the lower left section of the screen shows the amount of people currently living in the city. The house icon in that bar is the population cap. Prestige, indicated by the goblet icon in the Resources tab, indicates the rate in which new people stream to the city. In order to raise the population cap the player has to build more huts/houses (Kingdom) or shanties (Empire), which costs food.
2) Destroying built improvements to free up used city tiles. This option appears radical and counterproductive at first glance, but can be the only method in certain situations when there is no more room or food left to build new houses. Once the city reaches the next level and gains more free tiles, the razed improvements can be built again.
- Always contemplate the fact that it is a big effort room- and food-wise to raise a city to the maximum level and to be able to build a lot of city improvements there. Sometimes it makes more sense to specialize and prioritize, not every city has to reach high levels and has to house every single improvement to be of use. For example, it's perfectly valuable to build one city that incorporates a lot of resource tiles sacrificing building space but keeping them safe in return. Or to build mostly gildar related improvements in a city that has many gold mines in its vicinity, etc. Consider building military, economic, food cities if it appears sensible and there is not much room for city improvements.
- The first and best means to gather more food is by finding and cultivating food resource tiles on the map (fertile land, wheat, pumpkin, etc.). Always remember that new resource tiles may appear if you advance the right tech in the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree (see question 3.9 for more details). Apart from that, you can build city improvements that raise food production or research better farming and housing tech in the Civilization (Kingdom) or Imperium (Empire) technology tree. Another option is to research the Trading tech in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree that enables the player to train caravans. If the player sends a caravan to another city, it will automatically establish a trade route for food and connects the two cities with a road increasing the movement speed for every unit that walks on it.
!!! Beware that food is different from other resources in that it is not stored and that it can't be utilized at a later time. The amount of food listed at the top of your screen is an indicator of how many additional houses you can build at the moment. !!!
- You can unlock caravans by researching the Trading tech in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree. Once unlocked, they can be trained like regular units with the Train Unit option in a city. After completion, you can send the caravan to any of your cities or the cities of friendly/neutral factions. After their arrivial, they will automatically establish a trade route between the city of origin and the city they travelled to, and they will create a road that will increase the movement speed of any unit that walks on it. Every turn you will see a trader wander back and forth between both cities to indicate to you that they are connected and profiting from each other. You can click on traders to see about the specific bonus on food production for both connected cities in the Vitals tab on the lower left side of the screen and to learn about the amount of turns it will take before higher level roads will appear. You can establish a two-way connection between cities to increase the bonus on food production even further.
- Be adviced that you can increase the maximum amount of caravans for each city when playing an Empire faction by researching the repeatable tech Advanced Trade Routes in the Cooperation (Empire) technology tree. Kingdoms on the other hand may research the tech Merchant Guilds in the Civilization (Kingdom) technology tree to increase the amount of gildar a city with a trade route produces each turn.
!!! Beware that the caravans/traders can be attacked and destroyed by enemies. Even though the roads will remain, you are forced to train a new caravan if you want to re-establish the trade route. !!!
- The benefit of caravans is not only the construction of a road network, but also the trading of food between the connected cities. The more trading routes you establish, the higher percentage on food production in those cities and the more food in your global resource pool to build houses, raising the population cap in your cities. The effect is more prominent if you establish routes between cities that are far away from each other and between cities that are both high on food resources.
- If you are sure that the city has enough housing to support a growing population but the city simply won't pass the threshold, you most likely captured the city of a minor faction. Minor factions don't appear in the Foreign Relations screen and it is by design that their cities don't advance to the second level, regardless of the provided housing. The benefit of these cities lies in the monster camp that is located nearby, which can be used like a resource tile to train new monster units if you have the appropriate faction alignment. Furthermore, most minor faction cities provide valuable resources like crystals.
- Hit x while a city is activated.
- The sovereign/caster musn't reside inside the city to cast a city spell, but has to stand next to it in close proximity within 3 tiles. Open the spellbook and choose the desired spell, then click on any city tile if the cursor turns green.
- Elementium is a rare resource that is needed for the construction of the best magical items. It is represented by an icon that looks like a black sketch of a shield. There is no resource tile that will provide you with a regular amount each turn. You can only find Elementium by increasing your Quest and Notable Locations level through the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree (see question 3.9 for more details) and by exploring the world. The completion of higher level quests and the exploration of better notable locations will sometimes provide you with a small amount.
- The amount of Movement (Moves), indicated by a little-green-figure-and-a-red-cross icon, determines the speed in which a unit can travel over map tiles. A Movement of 2 corresponds to a distance of 2 tiles that a unit can cross in one turn. You can see the remaining Moves of a unit in the Vitals tab at the lower left side of the screen.
!!! Beware that certain map tiles like forests and hills will cost more Moves to cross. Also be adviced that a stack of units will only be able to travel with the Movement speed of the slowest unit. You can pick the Organized talent at sovereign creation to make an entire stack move at the speed of the sovereign regardless of the other unit's Movement speed. !!!
- Combat Speed, indicated by a swinging sword icon, determines the amount of Action Points a unit has in combat. Every move and combative action will consume a certain amount of Action Points. You can see the remaining Action Points of a unit at the lower left side of the screen while in combat. There are several items to be found and researched that will provide units with more Movement and Combat Speed.
- Stacks of units are automatically formed when one unit/stack of units walks on the same tile of another unit/stack of units. The maximum stack size is 12. Each unit can be singled out by clicking on its corresponding icon on the lower right side of the screen. To separate one or several units from an entire stack, shift-click on the units you want to move away to highlight their icon and right click on the tile they should move to. Alternatively, you can click on the little arrow on the top of a unit icon to make it walk to an adjacent tile. You can activate the entire stack by clicking on the shield symbol next to the unit icons.
- The lower shield symbol with the number scribbled on it represents the round about combat strength of the activated stack of units based on the cumulative attack, defence and combat speed rating. With it you can compare your stack strength with the strength of another stack.
!!! Beware that the number is a rough appraisal and no guarantee for a victory/loss when engaging in combat !!!
- Click on the Train Unit button on the lower right side of the screen when activating a city and you will not only see the Train button to train units, but also a Design button that will open the screen to create your own units. The options in the early game are very limited and will increase when you research tech in the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) tree. While the tech in those trees will provide you with more "regular" items and more elaborate actions for your troops, advancing in the Magic (Kingdom) and Sorcery (Empire) technology tree will unlock more magical items to choose from.
!!! Beware that contrary to regular items that mainly require materials and iron to supply your troops with, magical items require crystals and elementium to furnish (see question 2.12 on how to get Elementium). Also consider the fact that even though regular units will increase in their level when fighting, a regular unit can not be improved or upgraded with better items or techs that you have unlocked and that they cannot be merged together to form a bigger Quantity after they are already trained. !!!
- The training screen provides you with the option to create formations from the units that are available to train, indicated by Quantity. Better Quantity units have better statistics on damage and defence than singular units, but cost more money. In order to unlock better Quantities, you have to research the tech for it in the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) technology tree. Kingdoms start by unlocking a Party (3 units) with the Logistics tech, Empires have to unlock a Group (3 units) with the Armies tech. Going from there you can follow down the technology tree to unlock even bigger Quantities (9 and 12). Be adviced once again that you cannot merge singular units into bigger Quantities once they have been trained.
- Apart from the Quantity of troops you can also increase their Quality, which translate to higher hitpoints at the expense of longer training time. Kingdoms start by unlocking Experienced with the Training tech, while Empires unlock Experts with the Warrior Castes tech. Like with the Quantity of troops, you will be able to research even better Qualities further down the tech tree.
!!! Beware that each unit you train not only costs the initial price in money and materials, but demands a regular Wage each turn as upkeep, indicated by a coin icon in the Training screen. Troops with better equipment and higher Quantity will demand higher Wages. If you should run out of gildar to pay these Wages, the most expensive troops will desert and leave from their services. !!!
- Hit Esc to open the options screen. There you will find the Tact-Combat Threshold, which determines at what stack strength combat should be resolved automatically without asking you. Set this option to 0 if you want to be asked all the time.
- You have to run into the fog tiles that are shimmering in a bluish light to escape from battle. The bluish fog tiles may not just appear at the left or right side, but also at the corners or upper and lower side of the battlefield depending on its layout.
- Open the equipment screen of your sovereign or champion (indicated by a sword & shield icon on the lower right) and click on the item you want to equip. You can transfer items between your sovereign and champions by clicking on the Trade button in the Actions tab (lower left side of the screen) or by simply dragging the item from your Vitals tab to the icon of the receiver on the lower right. Besides spending points in the sovereign creation screen to start off with items, you can find new items by completing quests or buying them in the item shop. You can open the item shop in the Actions tab whenever you are located in your sphere of influence (colored borderline around your cities). Newer and better items will be available in the item shop once you unlocked them via the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) and Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree.
- Essence is an important stat for your troops and determines the maximum amount of mana a unit has. You can increase the essence of your sovereign and champions by leveling up and spending points on their essence attribute. In addition, you can increase the essence for all of your troops by researching tech in the Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree and building city improvements.
- The health of your troops is only restored each turn if they are within your sphere of influence. The rate is the highest if they are stationed inside your cities. You have two costly options to make sure that your troops can regenerate even in neutral or foreign territory. Both options are available at the item shop for your sovereign/champions and at the Design screen for your regular troops once you have researched the appropriate technology in the Warfare (Kingdom) or Conquest (Empire) technology tree:
1) You can buy Salted Pork that will instantly replenish 5 health. You can use it on the map screen or during a tactical battle.
2) You can buy Medical Packs once you have researched the Superior Equipment (Kingdom) or Superior Tools (Empire) tech and equip your troops with it. Medical Packs not only raise the maximum health by 5, but also increase the health regeneration rate by 1 even in neutral and foreign space.
- In contrast to health, the mana regeneration rate of your troops is generally capped at 1 regardless of where they are located at the moment. There is only one option to increase mana regeneration for the Kingdom factions by researching the Arcane Mastery tech and building the Tower of Ereog. Once completed, it will raise the mana regeneration rate by 2 globally for all of your troops. There are some fantastic creatures you can summon/train that not only regenerate faster, but even regenerate mana during combat. There is also a high chance that your children will develop the ability of mana regeneration during combat.
- You can increase your quest and notable locations level by researching tech in the Adventure (Kingdom) or Domination (Empire) technology tree. There you will find several techs that increase not only your quest and notable locations level, but also provide you with additional resource tiles in the world (see question 3.9 for more details).
!!! Beware that the more your are advancing in this tree the stronger and more numerous the monsters become that roam the world. Also mind the fact that the research of all the other factions will contribute to the amount of quests, notable locations and the amount/strength of roaming monsters in the entire world !!!
The techs in both trees have a huge impact on the interactivity of your sovereign with the world and the allocation of resource tiles. You can find a detailed and constantly updated overview over the exact benefits here:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/393211
(thanks to user: Dereliction)
- The talk option is automatically deactivated if you don't have enough money to hire that champion. You can see the money he/she is requesting from you if you click on the champion and hover over the hire button on the lower left side of the screen.
- The only option to let other champions utilize magic is to imbue them with your essence or to get children with your spouse that will inherit your and your spouse's magical abilities (see question 3.12 for more details). Essence describes the amount of mana for your heroes. In order to imbue other champions, you first have to learn the spell Imbue Champion. Once learned, you can stand next to the champion and click on him/her after choosing the spell from your spellbook. You can increase the essence of you and your champions by leveling up, researching new tech in the Magic (Kingdom) or Sorcery (Empire) technology tree and building appropriate city improvements.
!!! Beware that each imbuement costs 3 essence and therefore lowers your own magical abilities. !!!
- Hire a champion of the opposite sex, select him or her and click on the Actions tab (lower left side of the screen). From there click propose. You might need to raise your reputation level though if you try this early on in the game. Reputation increases when fighting monsters and enemies. After the marriage you simply have to keep playing until the children are born so you can name them. Continue to play and your children will reach maturity and appear as champions in the first city you founded. They inherit your sovereign's and spouse's magical abilities. During the entire process your sovereign and spouse don't have to "be" together or need to stay in a city to give birth to them.
!!! Beware that if your spouse is killed off in a fight, you won't be able to marry another champion. Always ponder the fact whether you are willing to risk his/her life and the future of your offspring by leading your loved one into combative situations. !!!
(thanks to user: tlvs)
- Click on an empty tile to deactivate anything you might have highlighted on the map. Now you can see all the global options you have on the lower left side of the screen. The handshaking icon represents the Foreign Relations screen. By clicking it you will get an overview over all your relations with other factions you have met so far. Click on any portrait to deal with that faction/sovereign.
- Most of the trade and treaty options must be researched before you can utilize them when talking to other sovereigns. You can research them in the Diplomacy (Kingdom) or Cooperation (Empire) technology tree.
- You may notice the term Perceived Value appearing on either side of the screen. Put anything on the table in the middle that you want to trade/propose. For treaties, a detailed explanation of the benefit will appear for both factions. The Perceived Value on the other sovereign's side will indicate what their faction expects in return for the trade/proposal. You have to match their Perceived Value by putting enough money, resources or Diplomatic Capital from your side on the table before they agree.
- You can increase the relationship with other factions by training a larger army than your opponents, gathering a large amount of Diplomatic Capital and by marrying off your children to their children. All those options will make them go down with their Perceived Value when you are proposing trades/treaties.
Ok, I want to ask several things about how some tactical spells work in this game, as i notice some weird things about spells. Some spells seems bugged, i mean they don't work as intended or maybe they are completely broken.
First, it is about confusion spells, the description said it lower target attack by half, but it just made target attack value to become negative value, which results in 100% miss for that target. So, is this a bug or the description is wrong?
Second, about haste spell, i notice that haste can be stacked many times, as long as the caster has mana and action points, making the one buffed with many hastes have insane amount of action points (i mean combat speed). Once again, does the spell supposed to work like this or this is another bugged spell?
In my opinion, that haste and confusion spell are completely broken if they work like that.
I tried a very long game last night, got Sarog at turn 104, then i waited until most AIs have very powerful armies, then i tried stacking haste to Sarog with 400+ atk, and she annihilates AI's 8 stacks of unit with 600 hit points and about 80 defence in just 2 turns, my Sarog has about 40 action points thanks to stacked hastes, my army are just my soveign and 4 of her children + 1 Sarog the dragon.
In another scenario, i can just cast confusion to each stack of AI's armies and they'll 100% miss while my Sarog and casters wipe them.
Those two spells seems completely broken to me if they work like that, especially with random chance to move first and the behaviour of the AI (they're very dumb in their choice of spells and armies), this also makes tactical attack spells seems too underpowered in this game compared to buff and debuff spells, especially in late game, when most armies have very high hit points and defense, unless you have 4 or more elemental shards of the same type, which is impossible to happen.
And i notice that some buffs and debuffs spells don't do anything.
The current magic system is kind of a placeholder for the actual system that is promised for 1.1.
Right now there aren't buff / debuff stacking rules at all so everything can stack infinitely.
I see, i hope they add a dispel spell too, so we can remove buff or debuff.
Btw, what about the current confusion spell ?
It seems weird to me, the description says that it halved target atk, but what that spell do is making target atk value to become negative value ( i mean 100 atk become -100).
About point 3.11 (if it was already said excuse but tl;dr) there are two other ways to create casters:
1. use two potions of essence to raise the essence stat to 1 (or higher) or
2. sometimes you find a Ring of Essence then you can equip it to a hero
After a Level-up (and using points for increasing essence) your hero should be able to cast at least fire-dart or how it was called.
The ring (encountered in V1.08) is especially bugged since its possible to make every hero you encounter into a caster by moving the ring after a level up to the next hero.
Both ways guarantee that your children will be natural casters.
ok, So I'm playing the Campaign Game and I have the mission to mine 25 crystals. I have over 100 crystals mined and can't finish this mission. I have went back and talked to the NPC Corrigan (I think his name was) but the campaign will not let me continue on the map until i do something with these crystals? why can't i continue?
There's a problem in the 1.09 patch that make the crystal trigger un-triggerable. They know about it and it's already been fixed. You just have to wait until the patch comes out.
You only need one potion of essence in fact. 0.5 essence is enough to enable the champion to increase his essence stat on level-up.
new player here,some questions:
*ive lost the ability to equip items on my soveriegn,bug ?
*how do transport ships work ?Do they have a limit on how many units they can carry ?-K figured this one out.
Does multiplayer feature work yet? I've seen some post about people playing multiplayer but for some reason when I tried clicking on multiplayer it just tells me to go to impulse for pre-release update. I've checked the show pre-release (alpha/beta) update but nothing is happening. There is also nothing else to update because I'm at version 1.09 already.
Anyone knows how to enable multiplayer?
Help is appreciated thanks.
There was a multiplayer beta released with 1.08 but 1.09 took multiplayer out again (not sure why). This thread has information on the current state of multiplayer.
At the risk of making a HUGE error, I ask here in the newbie section. Is it safe to purchase this game now? I've been a long time, background supporter of Stardock, since early desktop program days, and have always been proud of the dedication and integrity that the studio stood with. Obviously, things have faltered with Elem. It "looks" promising. I WANT to support them with another game purchase. But I DON'T want to buy a piece of drek. Is this game finally at the point that you recommend it to a friend? And if not, is it going to be? I want to try it. But after some of the diapers I've picked up in the past, I'm wary. Thoughts?
This is my personal opinion you understand, you may disagree if you decide to pick up the game. Personally I'm having a lot of fun with the game. I've started on the lowset difficulty setting, and played each victory condition at least once for the first two difficulty setting, and I've just moved on to the third difficulty setting. I'm a casual player, not a hardcore TBS player, so understand that even the lamest AI has a chance of more than kicking my butt in a game. So I can't comment on the state of the AI, other to say that even I have noticed that it has made some stupid decisions at times.
For me the game at 1.09 is a lot of fun. I'd tried playing it at early patches, and always had give up in frustration for one reason or another. But as of 1.09 I'm really getting into the game, and I would say that it is worth picking up. Having said that, you need to keep in mind that the game is continually improving. Some aspects of the interface is confusing, and from what I've read from hardcore TBS players, the AI is nowhere near a challenge at even the hardest levels for them. The game still has bugs, the occasional CTD and memory leak errors still exist. Multiplayer is limited in functionality. But like I said earlier, every patch the game gets better and better. It's addictive, and a lot of fun despite it's problems. Anyway those are my throughts on the current state of the game, feel free to take from them what you will.
Possibly newb questions, but I can't find answers in the game:
1. What exactly is the formula for melee (i) chance to hit and (ii) damage (as a function of atk, def, armor, etc)? How are we supposed to know if to invest heroes as casters or fighters without raw data? .
2. I can see on my city info screen that caravans give bonus to food. But i've also heard they give gold? If this is true, where is this documented? Exactly how much do you get, where and when, and what affects it?
3. Most spells give a bonus to controlling the appropriate shard. I noticed many summoning style spells don't talk about this - like summon fire giant etc. Does it make any difference to have a shard for these? Going along with the theme of shard control, I think it should, maybe the summon should appear with +1 level per shard controlled or something.
4. I heard researching the Kingdom lost resources tree spawns resources somewhere in your territory. If you do this later with more territory do you have a chance of getting more than one resource spawning, or do you always get a fixed amount of new resources but randomly in your empire?
5. Does it matter for your kids if you marry a casting hero vs a muggle?
Thanks!
Unfortunately none of this stuff is covered in the manual like it should. The only answer I can give is to number two, "where is it documented?"
... it ain't documented .... that's the problem.
1. Formula to hit/damage = Attacker rolls a value between 0 and Attack score and Defender rolls a value between 0 and Defense score; if the Attacker's number is lower than the Defender's then it is a miss, if it is higher then the difference is applied in damage. Or at least this is how it has worked, it will change / may have changed slightly already.
2. Caravans only affect food as of version 1.09. Starting in 1.1 they will affect gold, but not yet.
3. I totally agree, but at present shards do not affect summons as far as I can tell.
4. You always get a fixed amount, and yep they appear randomly "near" your territory (within 5 or so tiles of an existing city but not necessarily within your influence is my current guess).
5. No, not as far as their Essence is concerned. At present your kids will inherit 50-100% of the stronger parent's essence, so if the spouse is a muggle then they are going to inherit 50-100% of your essence.
These are some great questions which made me realize I have not put some of this stuff I know from obsessively reading the boards into my guide yet, so thanks! And please check out my guide at http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/954860-elemental-war-of-magic/faqs/61009 I think you may find it helpful!
edit: grammar
Thanks for the help guys... A couple more questions:
1. I like to role-play a magic-focused game with casting sovereign and heroes. You can make them go faster with boots & cloaks etc. But then the summons or armies they need as tanks slow them down to 2 moves/turn. Does anyone have ideas for ways around this?
2. There are loads of summon spells [Fire, Stone, whatever] Giant, [Fire, air, water, earth] elemental, demons, "lord of the deep" etc. Is there a list of their stats somewhere so I know which to prefer? Or at least a general ordering of better-worst?
3. How do attack rolls work for units trained in groups? If you have squad of 4 units with 5 attack does it roll a 0-20 attack against the enemy's armor or a 0-5 attack 4 times? Similarly how does it work for group defense?
There used to be a talent called "Organised" that let everyone in a group move at the sovereign's speed, but this has been removed in later versions of the game.
It was overpowered, you could move kill stacks 6 squares a turn & win the game by turn 50 on a large map.
1. As mentioned the "Organized" trait has been removed for custom Sovereigns, but you can still get it from the pre-generated Sovereigns (Mirkann, Kul-al-Kulan, Kraxis, etc.), at least at present.
2. There is no list I know of... yet. You've given me yet another project.
3. We don't know exactly... yet. But as individual units in a group die the group does get weaker.
Thanks for the guide. A quick question. I'm playing as Tarth; suddenly, one of my cities changes its name and its color from blue to yellow (for Gilden). If I move one of the garrison out one square, the name and color revert to what they were originally. What's going on here? It's really annoying to have to check each city every turn to make sure it's still mine.
That's a bug, I've seen a few people mention it but it has never happened to me; if you can, post it on the Support forum along with whatever supporting information you can (the debug log, save game file, etc. - there are instructions on how to do that stuff on the Support forum).
I probably should read this whole thread to see if someone has mentioned this before, but if they had I expect this entry into the FAQ would have been changed:
I as a matter of routine nowadays only ever use the imbue spell on my very first hero/queen that I marry. All other magically upwardly mobile heroes do not get imbued, which would lower my sovereign's essence, but are rather given one of those "gain 0.5 essence" potions. (I always get a boatload of those from the second level quest huts.) There is not much one can do with 0.5 essence, except that with a hero having that much essence, they can now spend XP on increasing their essence beyond that. A couple of levels and they are firing off the big spells.
Edit: Doh! And now reading some of this page 11 of the thread, I see that others have indeed mentioned this.
The problem is when your sovereign has a cap of 1000 mana at level 14 because you never imbue, you're only sitting on 20 essence every turn because you'll never be able to regenerate even a small portion of that big huge mana pool that' s perpetially empty. I'll take 30 imbued champs that are leveled up to 24 mana over one huge hulking guy with 1000 mana but only 20 essence (because he never regenerates it) anyday. 30 guys = 30 mana regeneration per turn, 1 big hulk = 1 mana regeneration per turn.
I hardly ever find any of those essence huts. Typically I find 2 or 3 of those essence huts on a large map, ridiculous setting, and max # AI.
How does a sovereign cast tactical spells? When I enter tactical combat, the spell casting icon at the bottom left of the screen disappears even though my sovereign has learned the tactical spells, has lots of mana and action points and meets the level requirements.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
