Hi everyone! So I've been working on a FAQ/Strategy guide and version 0.8 is up on GameFAQS.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/954860-elemental-war-of-magic/faqs/61009
While there is a healthy amount of subjective opinion, the main point is to gather the raw data and get it into a place where fellow gamers can reference it (skip towards the end and look at the "Data" section, I have drawn out the tech trees in ASCII for example). I will also have comprehensive building lists for Kingdom/Empire (so you can compare), spell lists, so on and so forth. It is still very much a work in progress so please bear with me as it evolves. Version 0.8 hadn't been spell-checked so my apologies in advance. Take a drink every time I misspelled "Kingdom" as Kindom, Kingom, etc.
I realize full well the futility of cataloging much of this data since it will change come 1.1, but oh well. Gives me something to do
Feedback and suggestions for content are appreciated! I will not copy or borrow any original content from these forums without consent from the poster.
The Gfaqs community, of once I ws apart, hates this game. I looked at the boards awhile back and it was filled with hate. I can't stand that place any more.
Thats GFaqs in general - the community is pretty horrific nowadays.
They have message boards?
In 10+ years of reading FAQs I had never once even looked at one of their message boards until two days ago., so I'll reserve any opinions on the community. But GameFAQs has always been my go-to place for FAQs. When I need a community fix I'll get it here
A lot of generic video game communities (GameFAQs, IGN, etc) are just filled with trolls, morons, or worse.
You have to go into really niche places to avoid it in my experience. I visit a lot of video game music message boards, where it's people who really care about video games (so much so they listen to it's music on it's own!). I once stumbled upon a board for people who are huge fans of mecha-video games and anime, and they often discussed other genre's of games and had good conversations.
I love the FFshrine and OCremix's boards, lots of good discussions. Also, the /v/ board, where at least the trolling is in good fun.
Very nice FAQ Great info (Didnt know Kingdom was good and Empire was Evil, lol), and REF means continual increase (10%) each time.. read that during the game but only understood it now..
Dont know about the hate cause used to go to Gamefaq only to specific faq pages (like FF-X)
Many thanks for the useful guide and for all the work you put into it.
It's amazing that a player can create a basic text manual that's 90% better than the manual that actually comes with the game. I liked the tech trees, functional & to the point. This is something very basic that most 4x games companies even create nice charts for (in fact, they even used to make posters of these in the good old days when the manuals that came with PC games were actually useful).
Sadly these days you have to pay extra for that kind of stuff. The official Fallout 3 guide was a great book and had a HUGE fold out map, but 10 years ago you would have gotten that map in the game box. Also candy only cost a nickel, and we all wore onions on our belts because that was the style at the time. I love getting older and rewriting history.
Updated version (0.82) just became available:
10/12/10 v.82 - numerous spelling fixes, added more information in most of "The Basics" sections, added Basic sections Quests, Shards, The Store & Equipment, UI; in "In Depth" added Champion abilities, custom faction creation; a few more tips and tricks
Absolutely everything went downhill from there.
It's still a good source of Walkthroughs and FAQs, though - especially for older games.
So tragic when Gamespot took over. So tragic.
Should I be posting my FAQ somewhere else then? It isn't like I can dump 12,000 words (and counting) into a post here
No, it's still a good place to find a good Faq, but the message boards are often vile.
Gamefaqs is my go-to place for faqs/walkthroughs/etc... but like others have said the message boards are.... well... bad. I'll try to take a look at your faq some time soon (stupid university and midterms ).
Edit: And glad to hear somebody is doing it. Faqs have helped me stick with a game I would've dropped otherwise. Maybe I'm old fashioned but something about an FAQ is just better than a wiki, especially for new players that don't really know what to search for, though wikis have their place.
Great job on this FAQ Gyb! I especially like that it's more than just a listing of all the mechanics and actually includes a lot of helpful player advice.
Hey Derek, Welcome to the community
Glad to have you on board.
Thanks, I'm very glad to be here (though I don't actually start until next month).
It's a GREAT library. Just a HORRIBLE café.
Thank you very much, I hope it helps people combat the learning curve and see all the potential Elemental has. And congrats to you!
Another update today - now includes a 3% chance that the guide will Stun you for 3 turns!
I welcome suggestions for additional content!
10/15/10 v.83 - Reformat into more thematic sections; added info in Cities; changed the way I talk about Kingdom/Empire ideology; split Glossary into Game vs. Lore; added start of Keyboard map, unit commands, Caravans, common "how do I..." questions, Kingdom Tech rewards list, Diplomacyhttp://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/954860-elemental-war-of-magic/faqs/61009
Thanks for this; very interesting. learned several things. Excellent contribution, looking forward to future additions (certainly Stardock isn't going to provide detailed information on anything).
Sadly, some of what I learned was that some of the things that really frustrate me about this potentially great game were active design decisions. Given the abysmal state the game was released in, one has to wonder if anyone from Stardock actually ever played the game pre-release. And if they did, why wasn't 'fun' a design goal for the game?
@Gyb I looked it over and it looks great, a few things I noticed that were incorrect/in need of elaboration are:
02.01.02 Champions
Janusk is not free, he's just really really cheap. Price is of course affected by charisma. I think at 10 charisma he costs 27 gilder. It's worth noting he's a +1 gilder champion generally so he pays for himself quickly, but even if he's a +1 tech instead you may not get the gilder back exactly but early tech research is great (and you can just research adventuring for a free gold mine).
+ 02.01.05 Influence +
Influence also alters the terrain to your ideologies type (grassland or whatever empires is called). When your units fight on your own land type they get bonuses to attack and defense, neutral land they get nothing, and penalties on the opposing ideologies land type.
+ 02.01.10 Technology +
The cost of researching techs in a particular tree increase the more you research that tree. So sometimes it's a lot better to spend 1 turn on a magic tech than 8 turns on a adventure tech. (or whatever you want to write)
+ 02.01.14 Combat, Tactical +
As long as you have at least 0.1 action points remaining you can perform any action. So if you have 1.1 and want to attack and cast a spell you can attack first then cast the spell (1.1 - 1 = 0.1 - 2 = 0) but you can't cast the spell then attack (1.1 - 2 = 0).
+ 02.01.15 Neutral Factions +
You can talk to neutral factions by initiating diplomacy with another faction and then clicking the 'left' and 'right' arrows beside the faction name at the top of the diplomacy screen. Just cycle through until the neutral faction appears. Note: you must have made contact first.
+ 02.01.16 The Store & Equipment +
Traveler's boots are restricted to the race of 'Men' (Altar or a custom faction) and Wayfarer's cloak is restricted to male 'Men'. No idea why, but that's the way it is.
+ 02.01.17 Quests +
You can tell if a quest location is available or if it's one that is still there even though you did it by zooming out to the cloth map. If it's brown you have been there and received the quest if it's gray (may vary for levels, can't remember) then you've never visited it before. Brown quest locations may also indicate a location you still have an active quest for.
I will read through the "In depth" section another day, but so far it all looks really good. I said already, but I'm really glad someone is doing this... lord knows I'm too lazy to actually compile everything into an faq/walkthrough like that.
So I ended up reading further anyway:
+ 03.01 Sovereign Creation +
Ugly is currently broken, you still get 4 children. Hopefully this will be fixed soon though.
Regarding equipment, if you have a sovereign who is from the race 'Men' curing creation is the only time you can get Longstrider Boots that I am aware of, they give +1 move and +0.25 action points and cost 10 points to take. Otherwise all other equipment is available later.
+ 03.04 City Placement +
8 spaces apart (from city hubs) is generally a good rule of thumb to avoid cramped cities that can't build but still have solid influence coverage relatively quickly. Also there are special buildings that can act as influence hubs and when placed several squares away from the city hub this can give extra influence coverage, useful for area control and resource grabbing.
Resources that are inside your city walls also take away from the max tile limit of a city (50) and each one takes 4. This post has lots of info most of which you've included.
+ 03.05 Resource Tile Output +
You can get wargs for kingdom and horses for empire but only by taking over a city of the opposing faction producing these, or by pushing their influence back with your own. Probably temporary bug though.
+ 04.02 Tips and Tricks +
Some additions for you:
Slave Trading: Hiring champions and trading them to AI factions can be extremely profitable, no work required to level them (not sure it even makes a difference). When in the diplomacy screen the "perceived value" listed on the left side for your champions is always missing a 0. So a perceived value of 20 is actually 200 this will be reflected when you add them to trade. With the extra 0 the AI will almost always perceive champions as more valuable than what you paid for them. (e.g. hire champion for 200 gilder and the perceived value by at least one AI is probably 1000+)
Different AIs perceive resources at different values, you can profit from this sometimes. For example suppose you want gilder from faction X and all you have is a champion you don't want but they won't give you much. Trade the champion to the AI that perceives it as having the most value for a bunch of crystal (or whatever) and trade that crystal to faction X that perceives it as more valuable than they did the champion and possibly than the other AI did when you got it for your champion. Now you have the gilder you wanted. Always be careful doing this and make sure you know how each faction perceives the value of things before you start your trading (or save and reload).
That's it for tonight, really this time. But again, looks great!
You just blew my mind on a couple of those, especially the neutral factions; GalCiv behaved the same way, why didn't I think to look for that? Thank you SO much for the feedback! Some of the things you mention ARE in the document, just not in the areas you bring them up, which means I need to add them there as well. That is why feedback is so valuable, in my mind I know I address certain topics at some point in the guide, but I can't make sure that the information is where a reader would expect it to be.
I will argue you on Janusk: Janusk IS free, now (1.09e.049), start a game and verify. I just did it myself with Markinn, who has 6 CHR, and there was no gold decline after hiring Janusk.
I never thought about a racial restriction for those darn boots; even though it still makes no logical sense at least now I know why!
I will take your word on this, I've haven't played a game with 1.09e yet. After a solid game in 1.09 I decided to wait for 1.1. Good to know he's free now though, always seemed like he should be.
I did notice some of the things were listed later, like the influence terrain bonuses. I wrote all that while reading through the FAQ and just suggested what struck me as 'missing' from the section. The influence thing just seemed important there since you were talking about the advantages of influence and that is a big one. Although it's not specific to 'your influence' since you do get the bonuses in other factions influence if they are of the same ideology.
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