I've written three posts ever. Not 3 Elemental Posts, but 3 Posts ever on the internet. I don't waste your time often, but if you have gotten this far please read on.
My first post about Elemental talked about my parents getting divorced. Possibly not a big issue for you, but the single biggest issue in my life. I compared the early squabbling between the development team (Brad) and fans of the game to my parents fighting. I saw both sides but realized I was going to lose no matter how it worked out. I wanted Ice Cream... in fact I told both sides I was willing to go for Ice Cream when the were ready to take me.
Now if you have gotten this far and you are just realizing this is boring, don't forget I warned you, I've only written three posts (that works both ways) but I'll try to get to a point here shortly.
Elemental will be the the best PC game ever. It will. The very best PC game of all time is sitting before you. The number 1 game ever made.. in fact the number 1 game on any format ever. It will be the best game ever.
Elemental currently stinks. 1.1 stinks. Elemental 1.1 is a bad game. If you told your friends to buy Elemental, if you told your family to buy Elemental, if you purchased Elemental yourself you just might stink. If you think Elemental is good in its current form, take a sniff test. Yep, you stink.
You Sir are Stinky. Stunk. Ripe Cheese. You Reek. You have an Elemental Stank about you.
Don't fret... do not worry... do not hang your head.. Many are chosen, few are called.. Tomorrow has not come... yet.. it is coming... Elemental is 2011.. Elemental is not 2010.. If you are living in 2010, if you are posting about 2010, if you can feel 2010, tomorrow is on the horizon...
If you make a living telling others how or where to game, then warn them of Elemental. But if you game, if you dare to explore, if you dare to be hurt then adventure on. Elemental is not easy. Elemental suffers few fools. Elemental doesn't want you. Elemental doesn't need you. Elemental brokers no peace. Elemental is not your friend, yet it might be your only friend.
Elemental is awakening. Can you handle that?
R.
Indeed. With the all star team of talent that Stardock has assembled to improve Elemental, I am very optimistic for the future.
[quote who="Cruxador" reply="24" id="2861318"]
Civ IV has randomness in resource placement. And yet, it doesn't have a system that
-either partially destroys randomness (if the techs spawn the resources in your territory directly)
-either gives you techs that can hurt you if you discover them. (if the techs can spawn resources outside of your territory). I mean, seriously, how can that even be good design, having techs that will spawn resources for your opponents to use !
More choices are only good when 1) they do not break the rest of the game and 2) they are meaningful. They can be bad because they clutter the game unnecessarily, because they force the designers to take them into account for the rest of the game, etc. And I've yet to use a pants-only armor. The complete mess that the game balance currently is is mostly due to that nonsensical armor parts system. Does it really add anything meaningful to the game, seriously ?
First hand kills might be your definition of fun, not mine. Mind over Matter (and lots of other cards, like Tolarian Academy) destroyed any aspects of Magic I'd call interesting. Then again, I only play in sealed formats.
Surprisingly enough, most choices don't. Armor doesn't inherently break the game.
A choice that isn't meaningful is better than no choice at all.
I've done something like that, actually. Pants, gauntlets, cape. Why? Because it looks cool, and I can.
Nope. It's due to numbers not being what they should be. But here's the thing - the balance isn't really that bad at this point, at least with regards to equipment and units. So this point is kind of poorly chosen.
That doesn't mean that changing the rules of the game is not a fun thing when divorced from such concerns. If you never play just for fun, chances are you and/or your opponents are always the manchildren who focus on winning above all else, however, and thus you will never see most of the fun cards as anything other than shitty, overcosted, and worthless (if they don't factor into any overarching strategy which allows winning outside of the normal framework) or horribly overpowered and broken (if they do).
Clearly you've never played Chrono Trigger.
Eh. I'd have said Fallout 1/2. Or Alpha Centauri.
Chrono Trigger or Alpha Centauri? It's hard to compare the two, but they're both excellent, excellent games. Both #1 in their categories, as far as I'm concerned. Secret of Mana wasn't that bad, either. I still get Glenn's Theme stuck in my head sometimes.
*sigh* I miss high-quality games like that.
Then why not just leave and take all this drivel you spout with you. Negativity like this crap you keep posting in every thread you can find is getting old....so get lost.
Great games, to be sure. Especially SMAX.
The numbers are not what they should be because you need to give +1 to each armor part at every tech change. When armor quickly becomes bigger than hit points, you have a real problem.
And while the balance is not as bad as it used to be, I know there are at least quite a few people on this forum who agree that it's still far from good.
According to Mark Rosewater, who's one of the best game designers ever (WotC owe him a lot), those cards were among his biggest mistakes. And the lesson he got from it was: don't make cards that mess with the very core mechanics of the game. No amount of balancing can do anything with such a card, because it fundamentaly destroys the foundation on which Magic is built. And when the basics of a game break down, the whole game ends up failing.
But the whole point of magic was to bend the rules a bit - its difficult to know how far you can bend the rules without breaking them (MTG veteran - STOPPED playing around weatherlight and still remembers timetwister and plague rats with affection)
That's entirely true, and that's what magic does. So with experience, the R&D team learned what could and couldn't be done. But they found out that a card that allows you to entirely bypass a rule is bound to create a new Urza's Legacy-like environment, where the tournament world becomes uninteresting.
But it does tell how hard good game design can be.
I don't agree that it stinks... I actually enjoy the game; however, it still needs a lot of fine tuning. For all that the devs have tried to do and accomplish, it still is not a game of MAGIC (Elemental or any other).
Not sure what I mean? I will tell you.
Here's how you win:
Research:
- Heavy Armor
- Slicing Weapons (Broadsword and Battle Axe)
- Squads
- Horses (Optional)
(Note the lack of the need for spells??)
Create 2-3 Squads of Heavily Armored Soldiers and stick your sovereign with them. Attack any enemy. Win and don't worry about losses -- you won't have any.
Magic makes the game more interesting and definitely makes it easier, but when I can use 2x 4-man squad with Heavy Armor and battle axes, spell blast and teleport; I can beat the computer AI, hands down, any time. Want to make the win even easier? Level up your children to 25 intelligence and put 2 or 3 of them with you. That's 3-4 spell blasts at about 8-11 damage per mob per cast.
On a side Note: I got dragons in my game last night; the fire breath animation won't stop once you cast it.
Still, as I said, love the game, very interesting concept and it still needs some work (Not that I can do any better myself).
If you don't have any losses, then squads are unnecessary (and they are).
IMHO: I appreciate anyone's attempt to communicate what seems to be a heartfelt opinion about the possible / probable future of Elemental. He is right. I keep downloading the updates. But I haven't played Elemental at all for over a month. I do read about the updates... but I will bide my time and wait for the tac battles to be updated. I really hope its not turn based, and the user has only limited control over what his /her units do. But Froggy and co will decide that.
No one knows, right now, how Elemental will finally turn out. However, if the new 'mod man' can do his magic on the game, with out dumbing it down for ** all ** players, I'll be happy. This IS possible via a customization input screen, allowing more advanced playing to be automated, allowing some players to play 'dumbed down' and others to embrace the full game environment. Take a look at what they did with Distant Worlds. I remain very hopeful that we will be rewarded for our patience.
BTW, having an excellent tool for modding almost any aspect of the Elemental game will extend its lifespan greatly. Just look at how active TES4 (Oblivion) players are - even as the game gets older and older - because the game environment is so modifiable via player mods. So, those are my two greatest hopes for the direction Elemental goes: extensive modding tools accessible to players, and a tac combat system that is unit based, rather than side based, and that allows conditional orders to be given to units.
And if SD feels an easier to play version is necessary for marketing reasons, as MIGHT be indicated by the new team lineup, than do it via player customization, but allowing the player to automate some functions / tasks. One button or two?
Yes, i want ice cream, too! And I am happy that the originator of this forum felt comfortable enough here to post his concern.
We all SCREAM for Icecream!!!!
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