I have been reading a lot of reviews of this game and Brad's amazing response/apology to the gaming community. I would like to add my two cents. I don't think it is all Stardock's fault for releasing this game as it is. I was involved in the beta process because I am a huge fan on Master of Magic. This game was supposed to "spiritually" follow MOM's footsteps. I think it would have. In the beginning the game sounded great. There were no global resources (It was so fun in MOM to try to find some adamantum and build a city that could utilize it with good troops before you got mashed by the AI), but a lot of the more outspoken beta testers complained that it was to much micro-management. Over and over the whining beta testers changed the game until every race is generic, every spell is generic, and every resource is magically automatically available globally. Stardock, thank you for trying to include us beta testers in the whole process, but sometimes you really need to ignore the whiners and just develop a good game.
Also since your looking to start over in a way MOM's combat mechanics were awesome (each shield or sword or resistace gave a 30% chance to hit or block an attack). Simple yet awesome.
My 2 cents.
It took Stardock 1 expansion to nail down Galactic Civilizations 2. The second expansion gave it a nice shine and made is that much better. The additional patches/updates made it a complete game. The Ultimate edition of the game is practically flawless. I expect the same from Elemental, but on a shorter time scale because Stardock and Brad have something to prove to the gaming community. The first expansions being free (promised) will bring this game to proper form (if they don't manage to do it with these patches prior to it's release). I for one haven't given up on them, and I expect great things from this game. I am already enjoying myself with 1.07.
Please keep the change.
I seem to recall most comments on gameplay being largely ignored (as well as the pleads to postpone release). Sorry but I dont think the beta testers are in any way to blame for this.
The beta started to get rushed about half a year ago when whole parts where suddenly skipped or done in a feature reduced way (like testing the MP code with a 1vs1 against the AI ...). All that "We are far further internally" does not really make sense with a beta which mainly consisted of people who already paid for the game. The result now is that we have a semi polished part that was tested for a long time, mainly city building (which in part was there since the beginning) and a part which is blunt like the magic system or tactical combat. They came far too late to get them into the big context.
Along with that is a real lack of content (like only very few different goodie hut results and quests despite that that is not that hard to implement). I don't want to escort noble daughters so often at the start of the game.
You can't really blame the beta testers for all those big promises and plans turning out broken or blunt in the end. Most of us who preordered a year ago on the basis of the plans back then are probably disappointed and split up between those who think the promise to improve the game over the next months will be kept and those who fear it will end up like Demigod (and yes, I know that was a different developer). My hope is on the modding community but the question is if it will be big enough after a start like this.
Certainly. We have apologized numerous times on our forums, on YouTube, on RPGCodex, et cetera. We did our best to inform people in any place where the game popped up in a forum on the status of the game, where we're heading, and what would and what would not be in 1.0.0.0; obviously we cannot be everywhere but I did my best to inform people pre-release of what the game was and was not in the release version.
We are fully aware that the game did not ship in the state that we would have liked it to and it shipped only because it was either ship the product as-is and patch as fast and as hard as we can until we run out of money or kill the project entirely. We were a two-man development studio with 0 funding, encountering desertion after desertion of our modelers and texturers, and I couldn't call in any more favors to pay the rent; I thought a year and a half ago that I had enough funds that I could keep going for more than enough time -- I was proven wrong by several emergency and costly expenses that were unavoidable. As such, we hold ourselves wholly responsible for what was in and, more importantly, what was not in at 1.0.0.0. That said:
We will get the game to where it was supposed to be, not just because we're obligated to now by law, but because we've always wanted it to be what it was supposed to. Star Ruler is a game that both me and ThyReaper have wanted to play for a very long time. We're not going to give up unless it's a decision between being unable to eat for a month and being able to work on Star Ruler.
If you haven't grabbed the latest patches, do so. They do not simply resolve bugs, they expand the gameplay, upgrade the interface, and get some of the mechanics that we wanted to get into the game. We have released 4 patches since Release and we're now at 1.0.0.8 with 1.0.1.0 on the way. Our commitment to this title (and the value behind your purchase) is solid: If we can get the game to where it was supposed to be, we will do so by any means available to us.
Please, bear with us. We are working as fast as humanly possible to get the game to where it should have been.
This is some bullshit.
I won't deny that beta testers favoured a global resource system. I still do. It's not one of the largest problems with the game. Not by far.
In the beta, we consistently reported bugs, crashes and feedback on gameplay. Very little got fixed, and we were told that beta4 was "so different" from the release candidate that almost all of our reports were nearly pointless.
And then the retail release comes, and two thirds of the bugs are still in there, the game still crashes after half an hour, and the AI has only gotten a very small facelift (and a one-hour campaign).
If you want to blame the beta testers, then I will simply say that we were told the release candidate was miles ahead. And it wasn't.
You may have a point that in SOME cases regarding game direction, too much feedback was listened to. But when it comes to bugs and issues, way too little was paid attention to. And those were the REAL issues of the release. Not that the resource system was slightly different than an old game.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
