Elemental - War of Magic

[crazy canuck]

the beta will be closed to new preorders once it goes out so decide soon.

I've already decided.  I don't beta test when I'm paid to do it, so I certainly don't want to do it for free.

But this isnt like Beta testing in the normal sense.  If you dont like what you see, just put it on shelf and come back to it later.  I like having the option to peek in and see how they are doing every now and then.

[DisturbedPervert]

If I preorder this I'm not going to really be testing anything.  Just playing and checking up on a game I want anyway before it's officially released.

[Syt]

To say we were pleased with the reaction Elemental got at the Penny Arcade Expo would be an understatement.  Despite the game only being in alpha, users seemed to really like the direction we're heading.

Some of the features that really got people going included:

Family Trees and Succession.  That is, one of the strategies for victory is to quietly arrange marriages so that your family is in the path of succession when sovereigns start getting killed.  In Galactic Civilizations, succession often seemed random (it wasn't but it came across that way). So the Arceans would "surrender" to the Thalan even though you had been helping the Arceans.  In Elemental, if a sovereign surrenders (goes into exile) his kingdom might be divided up amongst heirs belonging to the various houses.



The planned number of players allowed in a game being 32. We only plan to have 12 "canon" factions just like in Galactic Civilizations.  But we also plan on letting people create their own (which we think will be typical).  If you've ever played Master of Magic or Master of Orion, you probably have an inkling of the kind of race customization we have in mind.



The consequences of magic on strategy. Because of the engine, we plan on letting people alter the world a great deal. Later in the game, the arms race on magic will become increasingly apparent.



Modding. People at PAX were able to see the modding tools first hand. Hearing us talking about modding is one thing, seeing highly polished, functional modding tools built into the game long before the game is released lets people see just how serious we are about letting people create their own worlds and share their creations with others.



Now, all that said, the beta, which is due out in the next 2 weeks, is NOT going to be fun.  Let me reiterate that: IT WILL NOT BE FUN. IT WILL BE HORRIBLE. WE ARE TURNING OFF THE MAIN GRAPHICS ENGINE.



BELOW ARE THINGS YOU WILL NOT SEE IN BETA 1 OF ELEMENTAL:


This is the built in modding tool. You take these, classify it, and then share it on the Internet within the game. Then, players can optionally have these mods inserted into their games.


BETA 1 will not have the magic system in it. At least, not until November.


The graphics engine in Elemental will not be enabled until January.  Why? Because if the game is good it should be able to be fun without super good graphics.

[Darth Wagtaros]

This looks liike it will be super duper amazing.  I will eagerly await your reports.

[DisturbedPervert]

Now, all that said, the beta, which is due out in the next 2 weeks, is NOT going to be fun.  Let me reiterate that: IT WILL NOT BE FUN. IT WILL BE HORRIBLE. WE ARE TURNING OFF THE MAIN GRAPHICS ENGINE.

Maybe I won't preorder then.  Don't really wanna play Dwarf Fortress.   

[KRonn]

This looks liike it will be super duper amazing.  I will eagerly await your reports.

[Habbaku]

Syt, where is that post from?

Anyway, I'm sold on that alone.  This looks great.

[ulmont]

Now, all that said, the beta, which is due out in the next 2 weeks, is NOT going to be fun.  Let me reiterate that: IT WILL NOT BE FUN. IT WILL BE HORRIBLE. WE ARE TURNING OFF THE MAIN GRAPHICS ENGINE.

Maybe I won't preorder then.  Don't really wanna play Dwarf Fortress.   

The Cloth Map is 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000* times better than the Dwarf Fortress interface, from the previous screenshots.

*Possibly an exaggeration.

[Syt]

Now, all that said, the beta, which is due out in the next 2 weeks, is NOT going to be fun.  Let me reiterate that: IT WILL NOT BE FUN. IT WILL BE HORRIBLE. WE ARE TURNING OFF THE MAIN GRAPHICS ENGINE.

Maybe I won't preorder then.  Don't really wanna play Dwarf Fortress.   

Originally, I had argued internally that BETA 1 would be only X's and O's played at CGA resolution with 4 colors but the team made the case that we'd end up having to throw out that code so we settled on the strategic map (cloth map) since at least, if we did that, a player could actually play the game on a netbook or some really ancient laptop in pure cloth map mode.

[DisturbedPervert]

The Cloth Map is 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000* times better than the Dwarf Fortress interface, from the previous screenshots.

*Possibly an exaggeration.

Is that last screen shot is the beta map?  That's fine for me, thought it was the graphics engine.

[Syt]

The Cloth Map is 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000* times better than the Dwarf Fortress interface, from the previous screenshots.

*Possibly an exaggeration.

Is that last screen shot is the beta map?  That's fine for me, thought it was the graphics engine.

No, this will be the cloth map:

[ulmont]

Is that last screen shot is the beta map?  That's fine for me, thought it was the graphics engine.

Nah, I meant weeks earlier.  See Syt's post; I'm ok with that.

[DisturbedPervert]

The cloth map looks good.  It'll be nice if this will run on even very old, basic equipment.

[Syt]

The cloth map looks good.  It'll be nice if this will run on even very old, basic equipment.

Here's a better screenshot of it:

[Scipio]

That looks dead sexy.