I too agree with lswallie on most of his points. While, there's no doubt, fixes for actual bugs or anyway very strange behaviours should have the priority in the immediate, what really is lacking for me is content, and how it is amalgamated. Right now many game elements dont' really live up to the expectations or appear to be a bit chaotic. 

SPELL SYSTEM: While we need more, differentiated spells and effects (more spells, yes, but elemental resistances and more effects related to a certain element would be a good and quick starting point to make them feel really different, not just a choice based on which shards you control), we also need to be GREATLY limited. Having access to all the elemental books from the beginning, plus very soon all the others, is overkill, and makes every game feel the same. Expanding each spellbook making it more self sufficient while making it so it is impossible to "own" every book will help a lot on that department and would let us customize our kingdom/empire-sovereign combo to something with lore. I would love, for instance, to use Tarth with a Summoning spellbook that would preclude access to common elemental books. Wanna play as a druid/summoner bringing forth armies of the forest? Ok, but no fireballs for you.

With some fantasy each single spellbook could be made to be as said partially self sufficient (simple example to give the idea: fire book, spell Cauterize --> heals tot HP and stops a bleeding effect, but will cost the target unit 1 permanent HP on his max HP value), letting us specialize and give some character to our realm and dinasty. 
Access to other spellbooks could be binded to actual dinasty interactions, thus making 'em hero linked rather than realm linked: my dinasty has access only to the fire spellbook, but if my son marries the daughter of a dinasty which uses the air spellbook, my grandchild will have a chance of inheriting access to BOTH. 

CITY BUILDING: This was already well explained by lswallie. While at growing population we can sort of specialize cities, which is nice, there could be a lot to be improved on that department. I would actually make most improvements resource dependant: cities already are used as a node point to "distribute" resources they have in their zone of influence. Just make it so if they have no direct access to metals (and maybe to a minimum quantity of metal), for instance, they can not build mining guilds, blacksmiths, etc. Then, also link certain improvements with units you can train there: a city without metal, and as such without blacksmiths, will not be able to train units in metal armors. If the city, however, has access to the old forest resource, then it could train archers with special bows.
Seems actually a rather obvious thing to implement.

TECH TREES: Same basic concept issue here: there are quite some techs (though there could be much more, especially weapon related), but in the end you research quite everything. You actually have to. Again, expanding those trees while making it harder to research more fields will do a lot to make each game feel different offering different approaches. 
You want to concentrate a lot on civic research? You'll get the upper hand in population, but that should actually give you other uses rather than just rushing to the top level buildings. Like, militia units: very cheap and rather weak units, unable to compete against real military ones, yet trainable quickly in large numbers munching at your wide population.  
You want instead to concentrate on magic? Make it so that would preclude you most of the more advanced military techs. No great armies of knights in shining armor then, we are a magical kingdom... with magic techs... which let us train golems, undeads, spirits... you got the idea.
A huge step forward this would be at making the game feel varied.

ITEMS:  Yep, we need many more with many more new related effects. Both for actually having a reason to design troops: for building specialized units and also just for the looks, how we did in Galciv wasting time just to recreate that pretty spaceship from that pretty tv series. Naturally, the new combat effects should be related to the expansion of tech trees, spellbooks, and available buildings in a certain city, making them intertwine with relevant counter spells, specialized techs and so on. 

PACING: Definitely, I beg for a marathon gamespeed. And overall for a rebalance on how the games goes on. Right now once you are done with the very first phase of the game, exploring a bit for your surroundings, then you can just turtle for a while in your cities, and zap through the tech trees at an alarming speed even on epic, practically bypassing most of the supposed mid game content.
A whole lot of new effects, resistances, spells, however, would already help themselves a bit on this department: once it's not just brute force what matters in a battle, but actual tactics related to certain special abilities, then you are not anymore so pressed on just quickly researching "the best armor and the best weapon". 

DIPLOMACY: Needs a major overhaul. More things to exchange and trade for (maps, contact with other realms, units... just for starters), and definitely, please, a bit more variety in text. I always hate when in 4x games diplomacy feels just a lifeless mechanic. When I play these games I try to feel involved, to "roleplay" a story... a small bunch of generic lines, always the same, which don't adapt to the current situation is seriously hindering for that goal.
Also, the Dynasty system could be expanded on a bit. Some events related to it, that could bring forth real diplomatic consequences (not just an anonymous + on a diplomacy chart) would be welcomed. 

UNITS: More different creatures are definitely needed. Not just a dozen or so, sometimes multiplied x 4 elements/texture color to make it seem there are more. And they should serve more than just as a danger for your assets and as an XP farm. Enable actual drops from battles. If I can find magic items inside abandoned bandit camps, why not in the hands of actually living - and kicking - ones?
Champions too need an overhaul to actually feel useful. Right now you just take 'em for their bonuses in the early game, then park 'em in cities. Forever. Experience should make it so they can actually grow up to be better than the late game common units you can train, as long as you made them fight and learn a lot. Again, here too several additional special skills/effects only accessible to champions on leveling up would do wonders (age of wonders, actually, if you get what I mean ) at making 'em more useful and meaningful.

THE FRICKIN' SEA, CAPTAIN! : Bring life to the seas. Life was born there. Let life return to her cradle, hmm?

EVENTS: As well as quests, but the scaffolding for those is already in so it's natural to expect an expansion on that department. What would be a welcome addition are random events like we had in Galciv. Earthquakes, vulcanoes, plagues, sudden diplomatic incidents, rebellions, monster infestations, to mention some obvious "bad" random events. Discovery of healing herbs that raise HP regen, to mention the first idea for a "good" event that springs to mind.

MAP INTERACTIVITY: Sometimes related to events, sometimes to spell, but anyway some more visual life to the map (both world and tactical maps) could do wonders at making the game have that little more charm. Like, you know, in a tactical battle actually render the city walls when you are assaulting a city? Is it a too groundbreaking idea? Maybe even make it so walls actually serve as a defensive obstacle against enemy arrows, instead of just adding a global passive bonus to the HP of units stationed in cities? With bonus instead for archers standing on higher ground, in this case because of a "city wall" object/tile? Revolutionary?

Yes.  Creature designer please!!!!

I played for a few hours last night, and I would say that the biggest lack is role play content !

I mean the sandbox mode is not bad to see what the game has to offer, but it feels quite purpose less. There is really a great need for big campaigns, especially considering the impressive size of the maps, with good scenarios. The current campaign is just a big tutorial though, it's just a start...

I know adding the content will be very time consuming. Maybe some users will be able to create nice campaigns to help you here, but it will certainly not be easy, they will have to be very motivated for that ! Anyway that's the biggest need, when I remember all the excitement playing the early heroes of might and magic serie you can't have this kind of excitement here with just the sandbox, you badly need real campaigns for this !

Now to add to the big spreadsheet of most wanted features/fixes, I would add :

 - maybe some kind of optional less demanding gfx engine. The current one is ok for me, but the computer gets very hot while playing the game as if playing a big 3d action game. Here it's a turn based game, it should not waste so much energy on it !

 - A linux client for the game ? Not sure it would be that hard to do, depends if you used opengl... and I really prefer playing in linux but oh well, I'll be able to play without it if you don't create it !

 - maybe also another way to see tactical battles. Because currently if you don't manually zoom, you get very tiny units fighting each other, and some fights should be more impressive than that. That's also a problem in the 3d homm : the size of the units became really too small and the ceased to be impressive. I am not even sure on how to do this one though. Maybe a 1st person view with a 2d map of the surroundings ? A 1st person view should certainly be impressive !

Yesterday I didn't want to believe some of the posts on the forum where users said they would buy the game in 2 or 3 months when it would really become more interesting, but now I also believe it might take that long. All these features will take very long to be added, I just hope you'll be able to do it, it would really be a pity to waste such a potential !

I agree.

Best regards,
Steven. 

The more I play, the more I think we are so close to pure awesomeness. And so...

...I'am very angry at the press. I don't understand the bashing I saw in it, it can only be explained by sheer arrogance IMHO. Like writing a page of text was equivalent to years of work and an achievement like Elemental already is!!!

I'am enjoying myself more than in SC2 (which is just shortcuts, big selection box, drag & drop on enemy base: win/loose => quit:rinse and repeat). I had almost as much fun as with MoM. It beats Dominions and Age of Wonder.

And I would like to say : Spore was an highly anticipated game for me. But after 1 game, I just dropped it because it had lost all its potential. It's not the case with Elemental: we are very close to the goal here. So, before I give my opinion, thank you again for all the work I see in the game. I also apologize because I posted it elsewhere.

My priorities:

- BALANCE: But I think after my game of yesterday, that it is not as bad as I thought. In normal difficulty, I had some troubles which I expect from that difficulty. I think I don't exactly understand how stats and combat work and what are exactly my choices to work on it. I see how Strenght gives a multiplier to attack (which is a sum of base attack and weapons). Can work, but I don't envy you at the task of balancing that. I definitely think MoM's system (4 swords with 30% hit rate, you can improve by equipment and spells on both account) was more understandable, more balanced, more elegant (I'm french speaking but you had to consider 'esperance' for a value, not a value between min and max, it made for a more... yeah... balanceed system ). In fact in Mom, lots of spells were only adding a +1to hit, +3 swords, but you could stack stoneskin, with armor. Then you had instadeath spells, abilities, priority (first strike, cancel first strike, poison acting on resistance instead of defense, fire breath,...). You shouldn't have Magic against defense if it's the case. Defense would be overpowered then. All spells could be explained in terms of the basic mecanisms. I could choose how to improve units efficiently. It's the case also in Elemental, but randomness of the tech tree hamper this a bit. Only 'Giant Strength' and 'Stone Skin' allow me to influence it).

- IA part of the challenge : suicide AI kings is not that fun, but would be UTTERLY FUN if children could take over. I would like say in diplomacy: ('They are worst things than the troll that ate your father ' ).

- DYNASTY/RPG: I want no 'game over' when my sovereign (or AI sovereigns) dies (and I think my sovereign should be able to die easier if I take stupid risks). I want children to take over! I want them to have traits, I want them to be able to marry heroes. A few examples of success in that field : 'Crusader Kings', 'Sims' (yeah I'm ashamed to say that), 'Guild 2', 'Total War' series. Anything in the likes makes Elemental a killer game for me instantly.

- QUESTS: Combat every time. Allow me to fail quests. Give a meaning to scouting by learning how difficult the fight would be. And don't link it to the tech tree (Heroes should be attracted on prestige as well).

The rest is minor:

-  Egalitarian, just let us choose gender already . As it stands it is nice, but I have to click New a few times randomly to get the gender I want.

- BUGS:

 + Sometimes labels from other  cities are applied to other cities . It's an UI bug, it still is my city.

 + Spell effects are fixed for me (thank you ! ), but sound also disappears after a while

SPELLS:

All essence figures should learn spells/spell levels personally  from the start (against the list you uncovered from Arcane knowledge). The longer he lives, the more powerful he gets. And if it works so, he will have to make choices about what he learns because he won't be able to just learn everything the faction knows.

- What I LIKE:

How you research spells, the limited enchantements.

Get some rest too, I can't believe you are still working on it right now. You should get a week vacation or something and get back at it with a fresh mind to do what you said : sit down and play your game.

I think the different tech trees could be better balanced, too. In my opinion Warfare and Civilization are the most powerful trees, because they give you many different upgrades. Magic, Adventuring and Diplomacy are good at the lower levels, but have not enough interesting upgrades at the higher levels.

- The magic tech tree should unlock magical creatures and the ability to change existing magic items.

- The adventuring tech tree should be the only way to get magic items.

- The diplomacy tech tree should unlock espionage options.

The character stats could be better balanced. In my opinion STR and DEX are the most poerful stats, because they increase the Attack and Defense. CON, INT, WIS and esp. CHA are not as powerful.

- CON: Base Hit Points and CON / 5 Hit Points per level beyond the first

- STR: Is balanced

- DEX: Is balanced

- INT: Spell base true damage x (Intelligence x 10 %) and every shard increases the Intelligence by 5 for that type of spell

- WIS: Base Mana and WIS / 5 Mana Regeneration per turn

- CHA: Should change the gildar cost of all units (100 % +/- 5 % per point CHA below or above 10)

The Weapons could have special abilities as in D&D 4.0:

- Blunt: The targets AP are reduced by 50 % for 1 turn.

- Slashing: The targets HP are reduced in the next turn by 50 % of the damage, that penetrates the Defense.

- Piercing: The Defense of the target is reduced by 50 % for that attack.

- Melee attack from behind: The Defense of the target is reduced by 50 % for that attack.

- Melee attack from a mount: The Defense of the target is reduced by 10 % per square the unit moves before the attack.

There are escape routes?? I've tried moving my units to and past those bright areas on the four sides of the T.battle map, but it never results in a retreat. Though I only tried it once, and maybe there are some battles you can't run from. Either way, I suppose it's worth another shot. Thanks for the heads up, and you guys have done a great job! This game has caused me to lose many hours of sleep over the past week!

I think first priority should be given to makeing the game fast and stable.

I have a very powerful system and i get at most 15 fps even on the cloth map and i get out of memory errors after 200 turns without fail. Balancing can come later i just want to be able to play it without predictable crashes

Quoting Island Dog,

reply 13

 

Seconded!

You know, that's a rather dangerous thing to state...

Anyway, something I'd personally like to see a lot of improvement in is the magic system; for instance I'd like to see more and more varied spells. Currently it feels like most of the spells are summons or re-skinned attacks. "Global enchantments" (as in MoM) would be nice...

Agreed. There should be a way to make a magic-focused sovereign that should be able to do something every round other than a) using a melee weapon, using a bow, c) twiddling their thumbs.

It wouldn't necessarily have to be 0-cost spells though (though I like that idea). You could for instance also add "Wands" as a new weapon type, and have them do magical attacks (damage modified by Int instead of Str).

I think you've put your finger on the sore spot there. If I'm some demigodling a wolf or a bandit shouldn't kick my ass, even when I'm unarmed at level one.

Also it should matter which kingdom/empire I play, get some unique units or techs or weapons or SOMETHING in there so I experience at least some difference. + 10% or + 10% tech just isn't enough. I found this a lack in GC too, it doesn't really matter what type of alien you pick, you're all going to end up with the same lasers and shields and shit.

There's a lot to love about elemental, I still think the idea (and the graphics, I love the graphics style) is awesome, but adressing these issues could make it even better!

Great job and good luck squashing those bugs.

One of the other major performaceboosters might be looking into the mousecursor. Using the hardware windows cursor surely improves speed drastically for me but it's not as pretty and intuitive as the ingame cursor. The ingame cursor is killing my scrollspeed so I hope you can fix that too.