So launch week has come and gone. It’s certainly been...exciting? Anxiety producing? Wonderful? Crazy exausting? All the above?
Brad is currently taking some much deserved time off with his family, and, with v1.06 out the door, the team is about to do the same. We’ll be back Monday, but before then, I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what we’re working on....
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1. The Mega Feedback ListWe love feedback . Good, bad, ugly, whatever...this is as much your game as it is ours, so it’s with great excitement that we visit countless forums, lurking in the shadows as Elemental is discussed. Hear a muffled cough as you discuss the magic system on forums.penny-arcade.com? Just us No reason to be afraid.
As suggestions/complaints/bugs are posted, anywhere, they get cobbled into a master feedback spreadsheet with a column called “Count”. The more an Issue is complained or talked about about, the higher it climb on the list, giving a better view on how the entire WORLD feels about the game..it makes me feel very Adrian Veidt.
Current major issues being addressed internally...- Magic System Numbers (currently rolling 0-x, meaning high level spells missing)- City management screen- Cursor/Selection Funkiness in Tactical Battles- More informative UI across the board- More Maps- Overall balance (overpowered late game units, overpowered peasants, etc)
2. Performance IssuesPeople with awesome rigs are getting crummy performance. This is the next major ‘bug’ on our list, and we’ve made some major headway. Most of the issue lies with the LOD on zoom technology that fades things out as a zoom percentage is reached. As overall zoom range, specific LOD levels, and new tile diesigns are tweaked and added, the game seems to be displaying many objects, in general, when zoomed out. Code is being tweaked to make batching faster and tile designs are being tweaked to simplify better as the user zooms out...
Debug Message: *** TD Details: F_Town_02 ***Closest:0Closer:0Close:19Mid:44Far:14Farther:3Farthest:17Total Objects:97
The fallen Town, for instance, clocks in at 97 objects, many of these being dupes that get batched together. Unfortunately, we don’t start fading out objects until the ‘Mid’ zoom level...right before the cloth map is enabled (at its default value), so even zoomed out pretty far we’re still displaying all 97 objects when we could probably get away with 40-50.
So while there’s no ‘silver bullet’, improvements across these areas of the LOD system should help performance issues considerably.
Oh, wait, Jesse just fixed some code and is now seeing a 10-20 fps boost...so apparently there WAS a silver bullet...and apparently he’s saving the details for his own change log But good news, regardless! (jesse: so hovering over a city that used to give me 25fps now gives me 42-43)
3. AI PrepBrad may be off the grid, but I can only imagine the AI plans he’ll come back with. To that end, we’re going to be cleaning code to make it easier for him to access specific circumstances that the AI can intelligently react to (how many times have you gone back on peace treaties, how many wars have you started, how many wars have you successfully fought back against, etc).
4. Playing the Game and Brainstorming for the FutureThis is what I’m most looking forward to. We’ve been in 100% ‘make the game’ mode, giving us no time to enjoy our creation (I’ve snuck in a few hours, but always feel guilty about it). Now that we have time to play, we also have time to brainstorm what WE want to put into the game. Many times this will synch up with what you guys want, but it’s amazing what the team will do, even in their free-time, to make the game better (my ‘wouldn’t it be cool’ feature is a spell that locks escape routes, making a given T.Battle a fight to the finish).
So that’s where we are, three days after release. There are other issues being addressed - we’re on the lookout for future Win7 64bit ATI issues, and balance/pacing will remain high on our priority lists, but more than anything, we look forward to hearing what you guys have to say about the game....for good or ill...in the weeks and months to come!
Now, seriously, time for bed.
Great! Glad to hear and much appreciated.
The main thing I want changed right now is the way tactical battles are handled, especially with Parties and Attack / Defense. Modders can handle balance and will, but this issue is a fairly major flaw in the core gameplay. This isn't a matter of peasants being overpowered, it is a flaw with the system as it stands. If I could have one thing fixed, right now, this would be it, and I think most people agree, and are already asking for this as well, so you are hopefully already planning on it:
- Parties that make sense...current combat system is not intuitive and doesn't make any sense. Adding the attack and defense together doesn't work and really breaks tactical combat in my opinion. A 20 / 20 Party of 4 guys should not be 20 / 20 when I have killed 3 guys out of the 4. It should be a 5 / 5 Party, or some other mechanism to make things make more sense.
Since there was some brainstorming about stacks, I'll add my oppinion.
Healing stacks in friendly territory should reduce city population, to replenish lost troops, if any. What is nearest town, should be calculated in same way as with disband code.
Get some well earned rest Devs and then come back with replenished stamina and continue the bug squasching!
The you probably don't have the same issue as the rest of us. I've had the FPS loss over cities from 1.0 and it hasn't changed by 1.06. Others are reporting the same and some beta testers have also reported that this issue existed in the beta as well.
Seriously, if this was some issue that creeped in during the last beta changes, it should have been fairly easy to see. Simply playing a beta build would show if the FPS situation was better.
I doubt that. Looks like its going to be some kind of quick fix to increase the min damage. I doubt it is an over-haul of the system such that results in more bell-shaped frequencies.
This is EWOM = Galciv in fantasy, so those of you hoping to get anything close to MOM combat mechanics, variety of spells, spell abilities, global enchantments etc stop dreaming...
I can't wait for the future expansion packs, I have no doubt there will give us more spells.. and abilities such as flying...
Emm..u should stop to sell the game. U sell a beta game and it needs at least 3more moths of work. This is not a flame, u should really wait christmast and use that selling window. All actual Player base will help to test this game.
What we want?
Fix all crashing bugs (i've played 1 hour the 1.00 then stops to run with all other versions.)
Fix all balance problems
All non working quest/tiles?
Better IA
GIVE US A TRUE CAMPAIGN!!!
I've read that this one is just a tutorial, we want a true single player expirience (with story ecc ecc, not the sandbox). Like 10 Books...
I hope that next chapters will free...
The game is good, but his beta status ruins the experience
At this point it may be a good idea to approach the rest of Elemental's development as a mod project. Acknowledge that the game is a mess and write a design document for a mod using the engine that includes a campaign, fundamental changes to the current systems to make them cohesive and attention to modding tools and multiplayer. You are going to be spend quite a bit of time getting this game to where it should be for a release anyway, might as well abandon the "Fly by the seat of our pants" design method and move to a more conventional design style.
The current design system generated some brilliant ideas such as the diplomacy capital (I love this), but there reaches a point (That point should have been day 1) where you need to follow an outline towards getting the game completed, with only minor changes to the overall design document. You have months of patches ahead of you and a capable engine in which the bugs are getting squashed every day. Spend a few days (Maybe weeks) on planning how you want the various components of this game to mesh together and then FOLLOW that plan with little to no variation to completion and Elemental WILL live up to all the promises and be a game to remember for years to come thanks to the niche genre it is designed for.
I have tried to ignore the Warfare and Magic tech trees and i choosed the Civilization and Diplomacy tech trees with a bit of the Adventuring tech tree.
The game was not fun, because Diplomacy has not enough options (espionage, sabotage) and the diplomacy capital has not enough value to prevent the AI from attacking the player or persuade the AI to attack another AI.
The magical creatrures should be moved from the Diplomacy tree to the Magic tree, because instead of waiting for the ability to drive the AI against each other i have waited only to get magical creatures and that feels wrong at the Diplomacy tree.
Thank you. I look forward to this fix.
You all get on with fixing the crashes, and absurd page file use, and I'll be happy. It's as simple as that. ALL ELSE IS SECONDARY. Nothing else matters. You can't go around throwing balance changes when the wretched thing can't do a complete game without shutting down or becoming hideously unresponsive.
This is all I care about. It's what you should be only caring about, too. Afterwards can wait.
I hate to be a hater but really not feeling the love here. I have become almost as interested in the forums as the game. Some very interesting dynamics here. A plumber comes to your house that you pay $100 to fix something. When they leave the house floods. The plumber starts telling you how over worked they are, never rest, need to take a week vacation, we really love you but, etc. BUT MY HOUSE IS FLOODING, and it is directly related to something you did. You are using the money I paid you to fix my house on your vacation, while my house is flooding.
From my perspective the patches can never fix the frustration each player has independently gone through at home trying to play this game. They paid to have fun and instead received a lot of frustration. How can you patch that? The game was released too soon, you knew it was too soon, and you did it anyways. If this was an intentional strategy to control piracy just say so. That is something most of the users would understand and agree with. That means you did it to protect their interest.
But to continue with this sheepish, look at us we are working everyday to help you, I need a week vacation, my wife is upset with me, there are so many different types of computes, etc., is wearing thin, at least for me. You can't possibly compare that to the 1000's of combined hours players have sat frustrated and disappointed trying to play this game pre patch.
It should pass off through dynasties. If the Sovereign (AI or player) dies and has no heirs -- game over. If the Sovereign dies and has heirs, the Heir becomes the sovereign. I don't know if it does this, but it seems like it doesn't as I kill a sovereign that has 6 kids of age and they implode.
The logic should be there for it, especially since it says "X in line for the throne" down below. Maybe it's there but not working?
Oh please, what a drama queen. Why don't you sit back and relax and take things into perspective. Comparing a video game to a plumber who floods your house is not relative okay? This was not an intentional strategy to control piracy, what a ridiculous statement. The pirates have pirated EVERY version to come out so far. Show a little compassion as well, your comments are childish. I agree the game needs more work but don't dismiss the fact that the devs know that and have expressed concern and feel bad about it. They want to make things right so give em a chance or just move on to another game. Is there really a reason for a post like this?
- More Maps
Duh.
You cannot provide enough map seeds to give variability and replayability. Even with 100 seeds for 1 map size (and land/water configuration ideally), a player will play the same map again within 12 games, which is too little.
You must provide a good random map generator, and the easiest and cheapest way to do this would be to expose map scripting to python (or any other language), so we could port map scripts from Civ IV or write them ourselves.
Anytime someone starts a post/statement with any variation of "Not to offend, but. . ." I immediately disregard everything else they're saying, because they basically just said "I am going to say something very offensive."
I suspect I am not the only person with this reaction.
And the plumber example didn't help your argument.
Besides being a replayability issue, everybody wants to know that this world belongs to them only, and the story they are writing with the gameplay is uniquely theirs.
You know, I don't plan on buying this game, as soon as I see tiles, I'm out. And Dawn of Discovery, a very different game, had graphic's that put this game to shame. ( those are cities) That said I agree with this poster that maybe going on vacation immediately after launch, no matter how deserved is not a great idea.
You know after posting in another thread I've decided that I needed to comment on this. Your assessment of the stats is misguided I think, based on how you are approaching the game.
1. Str and Dex are good for attack/defense, yes, but that's equivocal with CON, because with CON you can absorb a couple more retaliations, plus you can eat a couple of spells from an enemy caster.
2. Int is balanced once Magic is brought up to par. The problem isn't that INT is unbalance, the problem is Magic is generally weak and narrow, this will get fixed.
3. Essence/Wisdom is huge. It is absolutely huge, but people don't recognize it because they aren't making use of its greatest function: "Imbue Champion". Imbuing your Champions can make for some major strength. Sure, you'll end up limiting a lot of your casters (besides your sovereign) to only casting one or two spells, but when you add the Unit Essence Bonus techs in the Magic tree (which people think is useless, because again they're not using Essence/Wis to its utmost) they stack up to be powerful casters. Hire more champions. Imbue them with some casting ability. Split your armies. Don't just have your Sovereign be your only real force. You have so much capability with a high Wisdom to spread your spellcasting out to more than just your Sovereign it's almost a pity no one ever seems to use it.
4. CHA is a lot more powerful than people think. They think it's not powerful because of the issues with #3. If you take into account that you can splash your Essence around and make a score of armies led by some moderately-powerful casters that can adjust the tactical floor (which makes the Tac battles a lot more Tactical) then you will begin to see the real value of CHA when you move to hire the higher level adventurers that, with a CHA of 8-10 cost over 200gildar, but with a CHA of, say, 13-16 cost a mere 160ish gildar.
Remember "Imbue Champion" and "Make Caster" are there. Remember that. That is the single-most powerful spell in the entire game, and I really think no one realizes that.
I find those being so anxious to stand up for the developers, to use another bad anology, like a hostage not wanting to piss off there captor. If we piss them off they might stop trying to develop patches. We will never really know what was in their minds when they released this game. "Maybe they really did believe it was ready for release". Close your eyes, say that three times, and click your heels.
I am actually liking the post patched game, having played about twenty hours with very few problems. I am just commenting on the process following the release problems.
To be fair, just about every 4X game has you pretty much building the same building on every single city or planet...
1. I think in the current version and even if the combat mechanic will be changed the HP are too low to protect your character in the late game where a single hit can inflict 20 or more points of damage.2. You are probably right, but my comment was aimed at the current version.3. and 4. Yes i forgot that you can give your Essence to other Champions, but i think WIS and CHA should be not used only for Imbuing Champions.
I'll definitely grant you #1. I think 5:1 is too big of an exchange though. 3:1 would be a lot better balanced. 5:1 would make sov's way OP. 2, yeah, but thankfully they are fully aware of it and have pledged to get that resolved.
Well, Essence will also become more powerful once the magic system is fixed, in all honesty, but I do agree with CHA. It is not underpowered by any stretch, but it could have a wider range of function. I think that was my primary meaning and I just did not convey it well.
Oh, i meant that your character gets 1 HP per level after the first for every 5 points of CON (CON 10: 10 HP at level 1 and 2 HP per level after the first).
I think the Enchantment book should be moved from the character creation to the Magic tech tree and the Elemental books should cost 2 points per maximum spell level.
This would bring the character creation closer to MoM and gives the player more options to customize his character.
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