I am a fan of Stardock strategy games, having said that I have read the most horrendous reviews of Elemental that I could imagine. I would suspect that there is something to them since they all virtually come to the same conclusion, that the game was essentially unfinished at introduction and had numerous bugs and failings. (4.0 from gamespot, give me a break, complete failures rate a 5, but the user ratings averaged out 6)
Now if we got rid of all the game companies that release a title before its out of Beta there wouldn't be any game companies left. Having said that I would like to know that the company is working hard to correct the problems. I did read one review of the game now that revision 1.11 is available and its conclusion was to wait until the first add-on was released before purchasing the game. It did say that 1.11 made some progress in correcting the faults. I have listened to Bruce Wardell talk about his vision for the game and I found it both inspiring and perhaps overly ambitious, which is not a bad thing as long as he and Stardock are commited to continue to work on the game to make those ambitions a reality.
I would love to love this game. Why should I buy it now?
Then again it takes me just 1min to write this reply, so I don't mind these threads. I wouldn't buy until the first expansion or later.
You have got to be kidding.
In its current state, any of the Age of Wonders games and the later Heroes of Might and Magic V measure up very positively when compared to Elemental - and that's just taking 4X Fantasy Games from this last decade. Arguably the Disciples' games as well.
And, of course, there's the die-hard strategy fan's eternal favourite in this sort of discussions, Dominions III, that puts every single other 4X fantasy game to shame in terms of strategic depth, tactical options, magical variety... and micromanagement. To be fair, it is a game that plays best in MP as it comes with an AI that performs worse than Elemental's, which is rather impressive given that Elemental's AI has real trouble playing the game.
Don't blind yourself with wishful thinking: If Elemental had been released now, in the state it is in nearly half a year after official release, it would still have been a failure and deemed as such in reviews by all but the most star-struck (or those playing it just for a few hours to review), just not the utterly dismal failure it was upon release. Do yourself a favour and wait another half year for the features to be locked down, the game balanced, and the crashbugs and memorybugs introduced with each new beta to be ironed out.
It might be a great game in time - it certainly has the potential and the developers are clearly working their hearts out - but it most definitely isn't one now.
I bought both games and shelved them both. Was a very very disapointing month in Aug/Sept timeframe last year
Just tried Elemenatl after a long break, very much improved and I enjoyed in quite a bit more. Its still not MOM like fun but it is unique.
As far as buy or dont buy: if you think you are going to buy it no reason not to now, unless the 50 bucks is truly a big deal. The company has committed to chnages and will provide continuing investment. I treat my purchase like a sunk cost, anything I get now is bonus and I have been pleasantly suprised with the changes.
Still havent tried Civ 5 again, too much emotional disappointment with that one (played them all since Civ 2) as its incredible how far that design has strayed from what I liked about the franchise.
Because it is fun. I bought it wondering the same thing, and have almost gotten my money's worth. Just working up through the AI difficulty is fun enough.
No, because it is not (yet, maybe) fun. And maybe never will be. I believe they picked a real loser of a concept: an empty bland world inhabited by essentially completely interchangeable races. Indistinguishable sovereigns, indistinguished heroes, MoM it is not and never will be if it remains true to its ethos. Play MoM, that is fun. That said, the game has huge potential and Stardock deserves credit for attempting to save it. It is possible that the expansion will be the answer, as long as it deviates far enough the original game which is probably too self-handicapped to ever be great, or even much fun.
I agree with that post ^
Yeah I agree completely with Anglophile as well. I just hope that in Fallen Enchantress they ditch the lore straight jacket they put themselves into, and just adopt standard fantasy style races to give the factions some interesting gameplay elements to them.
Also, a land "devastated by magic" will by its very nature be boring to look at, *unless* you do two things:
1) Show the devastation. Eg destroyed cities, magic torn canyons ripped through the ground, shattered mountain ranges etc.
2) Make spells interesting enough to radically transform and improve the game map.
One of the coolest things about the original Dungeon Keeper was the game map that became gradually corrupted as you won each mission. Dropping that from DK2 immediately made me realise the new development team were idiots.
I agree with this. I'd love to see the standard fantasy races or at the very least, make the made up races more like them.
Also, I agree with the devastated landscape thing. If you are going to have that story arc them go full out on it. Make it realistic.
Honestly if I were you I would wait for FE to come out. This game although not as bad as when it came out is still not very fun and the graphics are bland and ugly (unfortunatly I don't see this changing.) Gameplay is sub-par but improving.
Tactical Combat is well not nearly as fun as AOW:SM or MOM but they are working on it.
AI - Well it ain't very good at the moment but Brad is working on this.
Mods- It is very moddable although I have yet to download a mod.
From what I have read Fallen Enchantress is going to be much better (and hopefull does not have the same look) as War of Magic. New combat system, better AI etc. I think SD has learned the lessons (I hope) of WOM and will create a good game (the Game that WOM should have been)
They will still support and add to WOM but to tell you the truth I doubt many will be playing WOM after FE comes out I know I won't.
I suppose then that you have not played many 4x Fantasy Strategy games.
What makes you guys think FE is going to be any better than EWOM? Remember we were just as excited about EWOM from "what we've read" that it was going to be the best game ever. Six months ago I said that EWOM was released six months too early... well it's been six months now and EWOM is still not solid. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be dragging my expectations in on the floor for FE.
I am somebody who bought EWOM last October. I have kept playing the game while patiently waiting for updates that would fix or at least reduce the "Out of memory" crashes. I do not play that many games and when I find one that I really like I tend to stick to playing it repeatedly until it finally boors me into looking for the next game. EWOM is the first game I really liked that has failed to keep me. The crashes from running out of memory just keep repeating, no matter how you play, and the update mentioned in this thread saw an increase of these crashes rather than a reduction. I have just given up on a game that was only 200 turns long because the "Out of Memory" box is coming up way too often. It feels like I play for three hours but only end up with about an hours worth of game time. I cannot express sufficiently how frustrating it has been to play EWOM!!! And the dismal performance by Stardock in addressing the problems has driven my desire away from playing it anymore.
Agree.
Let's see- new talent brought in to help in the areas Brad thought Stardock needed improvement in.
Stardock's track record on their developed games has been generally good until EWOM.
They will be working with an engine that has gotten most of the bugs/memory leaks (hopefully) out of it by FE, enabling them to concentrate on the gameplay.
It's a download-only title (I believe) so no need to Crunch like crazy like SD did for EWOM. Crunch tends to decrease the quality of a product.
like that YO GABBA GABBA kid show says.
Try it! You'll Like it!
true
I have faith that FE will be amazing. I really do...
I have faith in Stardock as a lot is riding on the line for them including their reputation. They'll make good.
I have faith in the FE team. Derek will whip them into shape and his creativity will make for a drastically better product.
I have faith that Jon will make EWOM/FE much more mod friendly.
I have faith that Toby will continue to be the real power behind the throne.
I have faith in the community that they will continue to give great ideas that will inspire the development team.
Well I guess it would be nice If I could play your EWOMI know not everybody Has got a game like you But I've got to think twice Before I give my heart away And I know all the games you play Because I play them too Oh but I Need some time off from that emotion Time to pick my heart up off the floor And when that love comes down Without devotion Well it takes a strong man baby But I'm showing you some more 'Cause I gotta have faith... Baby I know you're asking me to stay Say please, please, please, don't go away You say I'm giving you the blues Maybe You mean every word you say Can't help but think of yesterday And another who tied me down to gamer's right rules Before this river Becomes an ocean Before you throw my heart back on the floor Oh baby I reconsider My foolish notion Well I need someone to hold me But I'll wait for something more Yes I've gotta have faith...
Sorry...
I suffered with the out of memory errors, but annoying as they are, im usually willing to put up with stuff like that if the game is playable enough. Im basing any optimism on FE on the fact that Kael was added to the team. It was impressive what he and his team were able to achieve while working on a mod, and im hoping a finished product with him leading a professional development team will be great.
As another point, I hate the sovereign models in War of magic, they look awful. Im really hoping for a revamp for those in FE.
Why should you buy it now? Because it's a fun game with a very bright future.
elemental is not bad but for 50$ you can buy alot better games
for example i tried 1 month ago fall from heaven 2 and i spend more time with it then with elemental
and second game similar to elemental age of wonders just feels more complet then elelemtal i played it over lan too with 2 friends , its simple very stable and complet game you can enjoy
in elemental you can fight against a AI that has the brain power of a vegetable , the only thing that can kill you are hostile monsters that walk the earth
stuff is not balanced right you can cast 10x vulkanos and finish the game in like 1 min
but if you want to suport the game like i did then buy it i would do it again i suport the game from beta 1 becouse i like thoso kinds of game and i trust Stardock
that they will make us more happy with the first expansion
No!
I mean: all what you say is true except the reasoning behind the first part is flawed: it was not "a real loser of a concept".
Those of us who were here during the whole alpha beta know that the CONCEPT was awesome:- We were talked about a living world with spawning monsters who multiply and grow more bold, with independant nations able to be more than cannon fodder, with different terrains and places providing different encounters.
- We were talked about a game without the usual fantasy races but with human/sub-human races who will play differently, something akin to Dom3 were the human races all have their weaknesses and forces (some with/without archers, some with war chariots, some with strong infantry, some without cavalry, some with war elephants,...) that make them distincts. Frogboy even gave the exemple of a race having exclusively cavalry-based units like the Mongols of Genghis Khan.
- We were talked about a fully customisable sovereign who could be played very differently based on which use would be made of essence: spend it to have more cities/powerful heroes/bonuses or keep it and increase the sovereign's magic power.
- and for all these we were repeatedly asked for feedback and ideas, which we gave. There are enough walls of text in these forums to make at least three different 4X-Fantasy games if someone so wishes.
The concept was awesome, still is. It's the realisation that has been miserable...
Should I remind you of some memorable quotes of yours like "The game will be ready in August and I shall stop reading the posts of people telling otherwise" or "If you don't like this game, don't buy it!" ? (quoted from memory)
Why is Anglophile here? Like many of us. Just read, he's told it: That said, the game has huge potential and Stardock deserves credit for attempting to save it. It is possible that the expansion will be the answer, as long as it deviates far enough the original game which is probably too self-handicapped to ever be great, or even much fun
He's (we are) waiting to see the game he bought become the game he was promised. The game YOU promised us (you know: "epic battles ala Total War", "Sauron in the opening of LotR", things like that...)
Let Derek and the new team handle the forum and the criticism here if you can't!
Beacuse The Dude who created Fall From Heaven is now working on it.
Seconding Mandelik's response to "a real loser of a concept." The early concepts were indeed rich and varied enough to perhaps build three different games. Unfortunately, the release version somehow never lived up to the plans and ideas kicked around during the very long pre-beta and beta days.
The hope thing is still there, though, at least until FE starts nearing feature lock. My #1 wish: Bring Back (and Finish) the Essence Mechanics.
I still strongly maintain that this game should have simply been as close to a MoM clone as possible using the new engine.
Instead we got them trying to break the mold, and apparently trying to do too much, then realizing they couldn't do it all, and so the scraping of systems began, the 'dumbing down' of systems began, and the end result was... well no need to rehash that.
Everyone (and yes, literally EVERYONE) would have been ecstatic with a MoM clone, and for the 1st fantasy title using this engine from Stardock, it would have sufficed.
Then... start working up the new concepts, start building on the engine to add all the goodies it is capeable of.
Hell, I still wish they'd just make a MoM clone, I'm assuming there will be a MoMish mod out eventually, but until then...
Just because the engine can do all those nifty things doesn't mean it has to, if the mechanics behind the systems don't make any sense, or simply are not fun.
i dont know iam now very sceptic with clones after seeing dungeons i cant imagine the abonimation elemental would look like
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
