Greetings!
I'm pretty far from a good net connection so I'll keep this brief
Let me say that I'm glad that most people seem to like the game. This message, however, is for those who are disappointed with Elemental so far.
Stardock is not just a game studio but it is also a publisher. What does this mean? Well, historically, the way it works is a game is released and if people don't like it, they're supposed to buy some expansion pack for it that "fixes" things that people thought should be in the original version.
We don't have to do that because we're both the studio and the publisher.
That means we can release free "expansion packs" for Elemental until such a high percentage of players love the game that only then can we discuss sequels or paid expansions.
Having had the opportunity to finally get out of the office for the first time in months has let me look at the game (and ahem, play the game for crazy amounts) of time from a new perspective.
I should also say that regardless of sales or reviews, our commitment to Elemental will not be affected. As some of you know, most of our company's revenue doesn't come from developing games. Even if the game didn't sell another copy, we would still continue our update schedule.
So what will be the concrete results of this?
1. In September we will release v1.1 which will be the first major revision to the game that takes into account the feedback we're getting from players. This will be a pretty substantial change. In particular, character creation, magic (think, shared mana pools),
2. We are going to go ahead and make a more traditional tutorial. I'm not a fan of tutorials but some of my grognard friends have had trouble figuring out the mechanics which means to me that we have to do something about that.
3. We are going to move Book 2: Magesa out of a future expansion pack and into the base game in a future "mega" update, likely late Fall.
4. As mentioned on the forums back in July-ish, we plan to make a new DVD gold master available to those with limited Internet connections later this Fall.
5. As discussed (I think) last Winter, I will be taking a sabbatical this Fall specifically so I can dedicate time to AI and modding so that others, long after me, can use the Elemental engine to create other things (you will need to know Python to really go crazy with it).
6. I will NOT be ceasing my postings on other forums. The guys on Qt3 and Octopus Overlords and elsewhere are my friends. I'm no more going to stop posting there then I would stop going out with my friends to movies and other "public places" where, heaven forbid, someone datamining my comments might find a "gotcha moment". Those people are my friends both on the forums and outside the forums. Interacting with you guys is a major reason I like making games in the first place.
7. To those reviewing the game: I would urge you to review the game prior to v1.1. I say this because v1.05 (the release day version) is the version of the game that was originally released and if that version of the game is considered flawed then my view is that Stardock should suffer the consequences for that. We appreciate the kindness and patience many people have shown. I just think game studios, including Stardock, need to be conscious of what they release and not expect to "patch themselves out of trouble". I do believe Elemental is, by far, the best game we've ever made but I also agree with most of the criticisms I've read too. The state of PC entertainment has changed since 2006 (when we released GalCiv II) and it is our responsibility to stay with the times.
In short, we love this game. And we love this community. We're not going to be leaving this game to work on some other game. We're with it and you guys for the long haul.
I won't be around to answer questions until next week so I hope this answers some questions.
It depends. Sometimes an expansion pack improves a game significantly enough that it's worth giving the game a second look even if you didn't like it the first time around. Expansion packs are also used to add features that the fan community has been requesting, or to make balance changes. I don't know how many realize that the primary impetus behind StarCraft: Brood War was to address some arguably significant imbalances that couldn't easily be resolved without adding new units. Same thing with WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne. Instead of offering these fixes for free, Blizzard put them in a box and charged you $40.
Another thing to consider is how many times have you seen the feature list of an expansion pack and realized that many of the changes should have been in the game from the beginning and could be easily added with a patch? I remember in Age of Empire 2, fans were complaining about the fact that you couldn't cue up farm production and had to manually return to your village and replant the farms yourself, which was a real pain in the neck when you were off fighting a battle only to realize that you couldn't create reinforcements because all of your farms stopped producing food while your attention was elsewhere. I'll give you three guesses what feature was available exclusively in the first expansion pack.
Personally, I approve of Stardock's way of doing business.
''Dragon age as you mentioned it has few monsters and creatures cause it is multiplatform. However there are a lot more creatures in that multiplatform game than in elemental. (spiders are nearly 60% of nasty creatures in elemental)''
in this regard i see more problem for dragon age(that is based on the campaign and only in the campaign) that elemental,where you can add more variety in sandbox mode,my opinion.
Not just elemental but all this type of strategy games
well, again and for the last time.....what are we talking about? we have a finished game, a sandbox one with an evident lack of variety.
Now you are saying that this is a bigger matter for games like dragon age than elemental or 4x in general.
Are you trying to recall other games just to hide a big fault of elemental? I repeat that we are talking of elemental not comparing ot to games that perhaps, aren't n the same genre.....
Mods will address this problem?? maybe but NOW the game lacks of variety.
I absolutely agree Raven....in fact I thought that cities/walls will be displayed on the tactical map in the v1.0 release. This is a must have feature for the first expansion.
you say that brad was lying when he said that they dont have to dumbed down elemental because is not multiplatform.
I have said that is the engine and the potential that they/modder can use to add how much variety they want. We was speaking about the engine and what brad said about mulltiplatform limit.
I have take some example because i think that the variety lack now cause they put more effort to make the base of the game.
said that,the game need work and is basic in many features but i didnt speak about this,just the engine and the argoument about multiplatform limit.
Oh and just for information,how do wall interact with combat values ?
Its always nice to get developer communication but this post does not take ownership of the legions of issues with the current version of the game or the fact that so many people were dissatisfied with the release.
https://www.elementalgame.com/journals
The poll on the official site shows 44% of people 'disappointed' with the game. That is a lot of disappointed customers.
Also, the release version was *not* 1.05. That is not the shipping version and anyone that sat down to play on release day could not play 1.05 until like 23:45 EDT.
by the way mister szeratuls,i have to go to buy english dictionary
Yes sure, in fact i didn't reply cause it was very difficult to traduce your post from the babylonian language you used to english.
Talking dead languages shouldn't be admitted in this forum
Thank you for this post, hairrorist. It's much easier to pile on than to "potentially" have a change of heart. I think you are starting to see some of the things that many of us saw early on. This is probably why there were two strong factions as to the state of Elemental. Once people take a deep breath and really start looking at what Elemental has to offer, they really start realizing its true potential. I am glad that you didn't return the game and decided to take a second look. I am even more glad that you decided to post your most recent thoughts.
Difference of opinion, wow, good stuff nonetheless.
Because I know nothing: of programming, business, and public relations; I don't judge too harshly.
Anonymity, entitlement, and the ability to always be right makes for entertaining comedy. More right morer righter mostest correct omnisciently righteous
Frogboy, stop looking at the internets while on vacation, you cwazy!8P Not to mention leaving your material alone for a while for a fresh perspective. With writers it's six weeks. With programmers it's what, eleven minutes?
Here I will digress
Anyone remember Dungeon Lords;)
This all makes me think of the Diablo2 release(for instance)and how the forums were ablaze with the usual troop of posters going on about this crash and that bug and the injustice. I got my copy at lunch(launch heehee) and had to go back to work, and proceeded to read these posts filling my head with gloom and doom.
Such is the case with Elemental. A day one purchase turned into 'I don't know when'. Any other company, it would have turned me into 'Forget about it'. Anyway I got my copy on the 26th after v.1.05. By the time I got home and installed v.1.06 was out. Coolness.
I installed Diablo2 and expected the worst, I was even running WindowsME at the time(i was a tech and trying it out for my job)but D2 was fine on my system. I installed Elemental and expected the same, it runs mostly fine on my system. With such disparate configurations of various hardware and drivers, I cannot imagine trying to release a PC title.
So far Elemental is playable, has some quirks, as the enemy and I build our cities, my performance seems to drop. After about 90+ turns the drop becomes noticeable(10-15fps guestimate). That is continuous play. I should load them up again and see if it was just the memory thing.
I am having some issues with combat, like killing a few enemies in Tactical, then killing the last retreating enemy with Auto Resolve, and only getting credit for that last kill. Is that an intended penalty?
I don't like Auto Resolve using all my mana either. Since AR is used(by me at least)against a no brainer type fight it should be resolved with melee, not strongest attack(hurl boulder)first. But I know nothing of programming;)
Now I have really digressed
Like Diablo2, I think Elemental will still be enjoyed in ten years, or at the very least well remembered in ten years. Maybe more because the game also reminds me of Lords of the Realm2 which I still enjoy. Unlike Dungeon Lords.
Just a quick reply about how the city are growing,i think that building are kind of too small if you zoom out dto fully understand the game,and cause of this i kinda never see what building is where(not that it import much).For me the cities just look like a big mass of build put next to another without real differenciation.
*sigh*
Just take a bit of your own advice and ignore it, Rune.
Editor's notes, particularly in this fashion, are nothing more than a Cover Your Ass technique used by writers that were too lazy to do the job correctly (if at all) the first time. It is completely evident that the author did not play Elemental for any length of time, if at all. He didn't even use original screen shots, he took them all from the official screen shots from the Elemental site.
Oh and btw about the walls, why shouldn't they be broken prior to a city capture, this would make archers interesting.
Knowledge is power. Well played.
That might be a reliable depiction of people who have actually come to the website, but if you'll notice it is only just over 1000 people, which is pretty tiny for a poll. Maybe that is all Stardock has to go on or maybe they also have emails from folks who aren't willing to wade into these heated forums. I don't know, but 1000 people isn't really accurate of everyone who bought the game if indeed they broke even (as was said at some point prior to release).
Nevertheless, simply going by the poll, that is sizable chunk of people.
According to the almighty Wikipedia, the term digital rights management "is used to describe any technology that inhibits uses of digital content not desired or intended by the content provider. The term does not generally refer to other forms of copy protection which can be circumvented without modifying the file or device, such as serial numbers or keyfiles." Emphasis mine.Sure, you need to register to get the patches, just like you need to register in order to post on these forums, but once you've downloaded a patch, there is no mechanism in place to prevent you from copying the install directory and transferring it to another computer. For that matter, you can go to anywhere.impulsedriven.com and download an up-to-date standalone version of the game that can be installed without restriction on any computer you want.In short, Elemental is not protected by DRM.
I'm going to back you up on this. Forcing people to register for patches isn't DRM. It's bandwidth management. The patch servers are for customers. There's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing stopping me from downloading a full patched copy of the game and installing it on an offline computer from a USB key. In fact, Stardock provides a web site to help me do that exact thing! That's the opposite of what DRM is meant to do.
This.
Yep, yep!
I can't believe people actually quote 1up on purpose, they're some of the worst reviewers on the internets.
I have to say this is a great post. I've usually enjoyed the Stardock games I've played in the past. While I've been weary of checking out Elemental due to what I've heard this makes me more likely to take a chance on it. I'm a fantasy fan and a fan of strategy games so a mix is always welcome. Next week I'll most likely buy it as this week the gaming budget has gone to Metroid Other M and The Witcher (via Impulse).
Edit: Didn't get Metroid in the end so I might end up with Elemental sooner rather then later.
Good explanation, and now I agree with you.
Thanks for the concise definition of DRM.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
