One of the things people like about our office is the hallway-long whiteboard wall that the games team uses for a variety of purposes. Right now there are several to-do lists for 1.1 and beyond, a rundown of sales for our various titles, and a HUGE ‘wish list’ of Elemental features/tweaks players and press have requested. In fact, we’ve switched from writing the suggestions down and now simply print out feedback lists and tape them to the wall.
My request today is in a similar vein, but with focus turned on the parts of Elemental that you LIKE. With Derek and Toby joining the team to be our ‘eyes in the sky’, various areas of the design are going to be heavily scrutinized, and I want to make sure we focus on the real problem areas and simply polish any features that you guys are already enjoying. I foresee several spots where the baby could easily be thrown out with the bathwater, and to combat this I’d like to print a healthy list of ‘what you like’.
So, if you could make a note of any feature/gameplay situation/etc that you truly enjoy, along with one suggestion on how to polish that up, we’d be most grateful!
And here’s a sassy, preemtive ‘zerbert’ emoticon for anyone that wants to post “I like nothing about the game redo it ALLLLL!1!!1!!”
Thanks! The floor is yours!
I'm really enjoying the terrain modification spells, more and more as I go.
I kind of wish tactical battle (terrain) had more variation than:
this is a tree
this is a hill
this is flat-land
...
but instead had either various hill types (for various heights) and various tree types (for various plant thickness) ...
OR ... have Elevation scores (z scores) etc ... just from the lowest point in the battlefield.
So This is a mound 5 feet off the ground, or this is a mound 10 feet off the ground, or this is a hill 50 feet off the ground ... something like that.
Now ... obviously this would be easier (Without) tiles ... but I think its still do-able with tiles, just more abstracted.
(aka you can't have a 50 foot hill surrounded by 0 foot plains ... you need at least a 10 foot mount surrounding it on all sides ... unless you wanted an "impassable cliff")
IE elevation changes more than 40 feet in difference become an impassable cliff, and you have to find smoother terrain jumps to proceed.
Terrain will effect Archer's Range, and (effective damage) range will increase or decrease based upon terrain.
Also, some terrain (like forest) will get MORE anti-ranged defense than anti-melee defense.
(relative)Elevation will also play a part in RANGED DEFENSE (but not damage)
If the Target's RELATIVE elevation is lower ... and within Effective range ... Target's defense is slightly reduced for the ranged attack.
If the Target's Relative elevation is higher ... Target's defense is slightly increased within effective range, and greatly increased beyond effective range.
Basically, all (or most) ranged weapons have a max range ... and then a smaller ring of Effective range.
Damage within Effective range is normal (and can make a critical hit) ... Damage outside of Effective range is lowered (as little as half damage) and cannot make a critical hit.
Also ... characters that take PRECISION skills will get a Bonus to Attack within the Effective Range.
Characters that take MARKSMAN skill will not have a penalty when targeting an enemy locked in melee with an Ally.
Edit: Each elevation tile needs at least one Adjacent tile (at lower elevation) that has access to it. (so higher elevation tiles with access doesn't count). Unless the tile is at 0 elevation .... it can be accessed by other 0 elevation tiles. (doesn't need a lower elevation)
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic does it with hexes (though there are not impassible cliffs, and if it did then they would be a special terrain rather than height based). With this and its cover system (ranged attacks can hit objects other than the target a long the flight path, with each unit/obstical having its own cover values) results is terrain being very important to doing well in tactical combat.
"The Art of Elemental"
Now that the UI has been subtly modified, wanted to post this and the thread seemed to fit the subject
I like the visual style of elemental (along with many posters in this thread), and I wondered if the artist was still working on the project, cause the added buttons in the UI dont seem to blend in..
I like the leveling up of the settlements, and thought that when a defensive wall has been built (hedge wall, fortification, etc) then there should be a building for sentry tower, and without a siege weapon, it should be almost impossible for a melee unit to overcome the settlement. I recall that Age of Empire games had arrow towers initally, which leveled up to cannon towers. Hopefully these can be included in future expansions.
Not sure if this has been covered somewhere in here. But Frogboy was saying he was looking for a way to liven up the land in Elemental. I would like to see more done with influence. I love the way as our influence expands it brings life or death back to the land. But right now there are only those two options depending on if you chose empire or kingdom... I feel it should instead be part of the faction creation screen that we can customise. For example it would be nice to be able to choose what effect our influence has on the land... examples could include.
Turning the land to a sandy desert.
into heavy woods and forests.
fill the land with lakes and rivers
cover the land in frost and snow
fill it with volcanos and lava
murky swamps
fields of wheat
It would even be nice to have an array of colours to choose from that suit each change. I for one would like my land to have red trees or perhaps pink blossom.
The land type we choose for our faction could then make for interesting stat choices and gameplay options. If we choose to have our lands covered in forests then it would suit our faction to choose traits that allow for better movement through woods... or perhaps just give our enemys a movement penalty.
How about attracting animals that are native to the land that is spreading. Kingdom would attract bears, wolfs and such. Empire will attract darker things like spiders and darklings. These could have a preference to attack units of opposite alignment. In this way an army of the Kingdom will be attacked by empire animals while travelling through Empire land. Would spice up things a bit
Sounds really cool. Then if they like the idea of adding more land types you could take this monster idea even further. Sand monsters and scorpions in the desert, Ice giants in snowy lands. Would really make travelling the maps interesting.
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