Greetings!

It’s my day off so I’m not working on AI today.  But I have a new, better game anyway. It’s called Elemental modding and it’s taken over my life.

Let me walk you through this so you can see what I mean:

 

 

 

 

So you could imagine scenarios where someone might make a Warlords mod or a Master of Magic mod or what have you with just the included editors and some XML. 

So that’s what I’m playing with today.

Having spent the day “play testing” the pre-beta 3 build I’ve had some thoughts on gameplay that I’d be interested in y’alls opinions.

In no particular order:

 

• Interesting Choices.  Being forced to spend essence to build a city is not a choice interesting or not.  I’m inclined to find some other use to revive land rather than forcing users to use it to effectively build a town. That is, we’d let the player build cities on the foresaken land. That’s a pretty big game change but when you add the new game behavior that the sovereign can only found their kingdom (after that, only pioneers can build cities) it makes things a lot more fun.  I’d rather see essence used to generate fertile land or something (as an example).
• NPCs. Playing as a Trog today makes me uncertain why an NPC from the race of men would want to sign on board.  Should they just cost more? Or should they be hostile? Or what?
• Quests. I’m inclined to have quests have an Allegiance tag. That is, Empires would get different quests than Kingdoms. Right now, they share them. Relias, the do-gooder might escort some princeling to his estate. Verga, however, would use his bones as a paste.
• Spells. Need a LOT more default spells that you can learn.
• Spells #2. Need some way to queue up spell learning.
• City Improvements. I’d rather see fewer general improvements and more 1 per faction (Imperial Achievement) and 1 per world (World Achievement) buildings so that specializing cities is more fun.
• Empires are more polished. Ironically, the Empires feel “better” than the kingdoms in terms of balance. Probably because they’ve gotten more love (polish wise) with the notable and obvious exception of graphics.

I’ll be going into much greater detail of Beta 3 as we get closer. It’s scheduled for next week.

Let me first assure you that Beta 3 will NOT be very fun. I keep trying to warn people that there is a reason why Stardock betas are outlawed by the Geneva conventions. Survivors of previous Stardock betas can attest to this. The reason why our final games end up doing so well is because the beta process forces us to jettison weak and bad ideas prior to the game being unleashed on the public.

But if it makes you feel better, WE at Stardock are having a lot of fun. When the modding beta comes out, you guys will get to see why. Frankly, the modding tools in Elemental are dangerous, evil, and simply put, should be illegal.

But here are some highlights of what we plan to have in the public build of beta 3:

• The Empires. The Empires will finally be in. That’s 5 new factions, 4 of which are made up of other races (non-men).  As one person observed, it’s not so much Kindoms vs. Empires but rather Men vs. Fantasy races.
• All tech trees enabled. That means Diplomacy, Magic, Warfare, Civilization, Adventure, Imperium, Conquest, Sorcery, Domination, and Cooperation.
• The HUD will be in. This is something we’ve been playing around with for awhile but didn’t want to put it in the public builds lest beta testers let us off the hook. We don’t want to use the HUD as a crutch to get us out of having to make the game visually intuitive.
• Lots of new content will be in.
• NPC AI will start to go in.
• Monster AI will start to go in. 
• Neutral Cities will be in.
• Game Mechanic Changes. The Sovereign will be able to found a kingdom (1 city) but after that, only pioneers can build new cities. We definitely did not like the idea of your most powerful unit (sovereign) who can also scout also being able to found cities. It cheapens it and takes away the strategic danger of it. In short, we hated it.

Player suggested ideas going in:

We’re reading the forums and already some cool ideas have come up including Enchantment slots, Champion ability trees, Equipping UIs, etc.  How many of these will make it into Beta 3 versus Beta 3-A remain to be seen.

Regarding performance

One thing we are keeping an eye on is performance and memory. I.e. the more “stuff” we put in, the more CPU it’ll use and the more memory it’ll use. Thus, it is important for people to follow THE BETA GUIDE for reporting so we can get an idea of what thresholds we’re hitting.

BETA 4 not far behind

The only difference between beta 3 and beta 4 is opening up the modding tools and we are very anxious to do that sooner rather than later. So expect Beta 3 to be short and Beta 4 to be longer as a result.

We may (key word: may) allow users to create quests and submit them to be included with the game. Some of you may have noticed that user suggested NPCs are now in Beta 2-B.

STANDARD WARNING

Elemental is probably the first game we’ve had a beta of that was well known before the game was released. With Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations the beta testers were more “hard core” and I remember how those betas went (my team of therapists keep trying to get me to “move on”). Suffice to say, by the time we close the beta, MOST users will NOT be happy with it.  With Sins and GalCiv, terms like “broken”, “flop”, “suck”, “pink pony refuse” (I have no idea what that means but it sounded bad), “fail” were used.

In the first Galactic Civilizations beta (2003), the starbases were suggested by beta testers and didn’t make it into the public beta (imagine GalCiv without starbases). We ended up loving the idea so much we put a picture of a starbase on the box and implemented them after the public beta closed.

My point is, these betas aren’t here as demos or early access to “the game”. The betas exist to help make sure the final game is really good.

For a lot of users, Beta 2-B is going to feel like several steps backwards in terms of playability and fun. We apologize in advance for that.

I myself have found the pre-beta 2b builds to be really painful and unfun so you have been warned.

The beta should be up tonight for those users already in the beta group.

Here are some of the things we’re looking for from the beta group:

1. Suggestions and ideas on how you would like to manage spells. We’re working on this internally but we’ve love to hear your ideas.
2. Suggestions and ideas on how you would like magical spells that stay in effect (do you want to require a mana cost or just have it be free? I’d rather see it be free otherwise players will have to run around dispelling things and that’s just tedious).
3. Requests for types of quests you would like to see.
4. Any other feedback you’d like to provide is welcome, particularly on things that make Magic and Adventuring a viable alternative to “mundane” strategies.

 

---------------------------------------------------

----------------- Beta 2B Change Log  -------------

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****************

* Gameplay Tweaks *

+ Changed all improvements to start with a sensor range of 1, to be updated on completion to whatever value the improvement type uses

+ New map for beta 2B
+ Beta 2A map renamed Dragon
+ New spells added
+ New resource: Wild Garden
+ More balance to units

+ Added a player ability A_SpellPointCapBonus that gives a bonus to the max spell point cap of a faction

+ Added Administrative bonus to the city cost (primarily for the Civilized bonus)
+ Implemented the "StartingCity" tech for civilized (will cast the ground spell and create a city)

+ Added the "StartingCity" tech for Civilized

+ Changed RestoreGarden to place a wild garden instead of a fertile land resource hoard

+ Automatically unlocking resource hoard types is now data-driven, instead of listing resource types in CWorld::CreatePlayer to get them to be available off the bat 
+ New Realm descriptions for Empires/Kingdoms from the Hiergamenon
+ Fixed references to Telescope in Wild Goose Chase quest
+ Changed IceSpellbook to WaterSpellbook for consistency

- in NewCity(), commented out the code that was giving cities a starting population of 10.  The city hub changes its tile design based  on certain population thresholds, and by setting it to 10 right from the get-go, some of them were getting skipped
+ Created new Magic Resources
+ Hooked up Temples to Technologies 
+ Uncommented Basic Garden, renamed Display name to Basic Garden
+ Can now put defending unit game modifiers in tile design xmls, and if that tile design is used for a world prop, when a unit is on top of that world prop they will get the stat bonuses specified in the modifier

+ NPC's ability stats more properly balanced.

+ Lots of new goodie huts and question destinations
+ Lots of new quests
+ Several new monster units
+ New Spell: Summon Imp
+ New Spell: Summon Familiar
+ New Spell: Summon Wilding
+ New Spell: Summon Minor Elemental (earth, air, fire, water)
+ New Spell: Summon flowers (cosmetic spell)
+ New Spell: Summon mushrooms (cosmetic)
+ New Spell: Summon meadow (cosmetic)
+ New Spell: Beautify Land (cosmetic)
+ New Spell Book: Book of Restoration
+ New Spell Book: Book of Summoning
+ New Tech: Spell Control
+ New Tech: Technologies can give player access to spell books
+ Several new magical items players can get during higher level quests

+ Beta map is now sprinkled with bits of revived land
+ Normal size on units is now slightly smaller
+ Wolf is nerfed
+ New Spell: Brilliance. +1 to all research buildings and is part of the base spellbook
+ New Spell: Productive. +1 to all material producing buildings and is part of the base spellbook

+ Added UnlockAchievement(pPlayer->GetPlayerID(), ELEMENTAL_ACHIEVEMENT_ID_CAPTURED_A_CITY);
+ Added UnlockAchievement(ulKillerPlayerID, ELEMENTAL_ACHIEVEMENT_ID_MONSTER_KILLER);
+ Added UnlockAchievement(ulKillerPlayerID, ELEMENTAL_ACHIEVEMENT_ID_DEFEATED_ARMY);

+ Changed Iron(WeaponName) internal names to just (WeaponName) for consistency

+ Hooked up new Icons to Ancient Ruin Quest Tiles
+ Created Experienced Unit Quality Type
+ Fixed some NPC Backstory/Quote spelling errors

+ Spawn System Changed. There are now spawn levels for:
- The world's monster spawn level.
- The world's goodie hut spawn level.
- The world's NPC spawn level.
- The world's quest spawn level.
- The player's individual goodie hut level
- The player's individual NPC recruiting ability
- The player's individual quest level
+ When a player researches a technology that increases goodie hut or quest spawn level, it now checks to see if their level is equal to the world's. If it isn't, then it doesn't increment the world's spawn level.
+ Several new quests added
+ Adventure technologies updated to support the new spawn rating system.

+  Fixed the hedge wall, fort wall and fortress wall to provide +2, +4 and +8 defense respectively.

+ Created Stronger versions of existing potions
+ Renamed InternalNames for Book Of Experience for consistency
+ Created Archivist unit unlocked through Archiving technology

+ Moved all the improvement tiles that were in the core tiles directory into the improvements sub-directory
+ Moved all the quest tiles that were in core tiles to the quests sub-directory
+ Updated the beta map to have a lot more resources and goodie huts. WIP.
+ New resources added:
- Old Growth Forest. Build a lumber mill on this and you can get lots of materials. WIP.
- Pumpkin Patch. Build a farm on this to get food out of it. WIP.
- Enriched Land. Build a farm on this to get 500% more food.
+ AI updated to be more effective at building cities.
+ Familiar now uses bandit animation
+ Core Tiles loading now takes place in the XMLData load thread to speed up initial loading.

+ Added environment type short name to the terrain and environment draggable info card in the main game wnd

**********

* Bug Fixes *

+ Fixed bug where if game was saved while unit was playing an attack animation, it would play attack animation when game was loaded even though attack wasn't happening

+ Added call to UpdateFOW in StartConstruction
+ Added code to update sensor range to be same as improvement type's sensor range upon completion, with a min of 1

+ Fixed bug where Improvement was not updating FOW after being placed
+ Added check in DestroyImprovement which prevents the walls from being re-calculated unless the destruction leaves a tile completely empty
+ Added code in DestroyImprovemetn to mark the ZOC as dirty

+ Fixed GetBuildTownHallEssenceCost to actually get the essence cost from the spells instead of just setting it to 1

+ Fixed bug where IsActionAvailableToUnit would never let the negotiate action be available, because it would skip the logic for it

+ If no death flyback animations, units will play a regular death animation

+ In ApplyGameModifier_Map, fixed a crash if a CreateResourceHoard was given a non-existent resource type for a resource hoard, from a missing null pointer check

+ Fixed bug from the forums where experience books would not give experience points, but would instead adjust the experience stat of the unit that used them
+ Checked in elite catapult that Paul gave me before with the basic catapult, but that I didn't add at the same time

+  Found the inconsistency between how loaded improvements were built and how loaded "under construction" improvements were built.  The under construction ones would upgrade correctly but the built ones would not. Changed the code in City.cpp::LoadImprovementAndCreate() to fix the problem. Also updated the savegame version to 135 in Elemental.cpp.

+ BuildAllowedSubtileList() function wasn't taking into account the fact that resource hoards can now be created with spells and thus wasn't allowing improvements to be built on them.  Fixed.

+ Made IsTileEmpty more efficient

+  If an improvement requires a resource hoard, we no longer test for correct terrain after finding the hoard since the terrain is irrelevant.  
+  If an improvement requires that another improvement already be built we do not list it in the improvement list since we've no way to express to the user why it's greyed out.  (Example, the granary, which you can only build after building a farm, wheat farm, apiary or orchard.)

+ Fixed FindPath bug where the server wouldn't send the path if it was already calculated

+ Fixed bug where path tiles were not being saved in CEventData_UnitBuildTownHall

+ Fixed bug where resources would remain hidden if you uncovered them while in cloth map

+ Fixed bug where the riders on mounted units would always use their idle animation in a unit cutscene, no matter what the unit's animation was set/changed to

+  Made the city radius system check the actual XML to determine the build radius and made it more flexible. 

+ Improved the EndTurn function so that it does not iterate through the player list multiple times
- Combined similar code for calculating the population changes
+  Restored improvements showing up greyed out if the city is not of the appropriate level yet.
+  Fixed a case where a pointer to an improvement might be null before it is used, causig a crash.

+ Added     CImprovement* GetImprovementUnderConstructionByID( ULONG ulID );
+ Fixes to DestroyImprovement
    + Added call to apCopiedImprovements.reserve to optimize allocation time
    + Changed calls to apCopiedImprovements.insert to insert at end instead of beginning, which will use less copying
    + Changed loop that was adding other improvements not in same list as pImprovementToDestroy to use a call to std::find_if to find the improvement, and then used iterator arithmetic to do inserts, thus eliminating the need to do another find
    + Eliminated extra loop to search for improvement that we've already found

+  Found the inconsistency between how loaded improvements were built and how
   loaded "under construction" improvements were built.  The under construction
   ones would upgrade correctly but the built ones would not.

+ Missing Horse quest will now give a mounted unit that can be equipped (i.e. horse riding).

*****

* UI *

+ Flags in city and city wall gfx now display the correct team color
+ Fixed bug where if you equip/unequip items on champions in an army, the army's gfx wouldn't update
+ Improved the path and position of the "arrow" effect when using archers or other ranged units

+ Edge scroll speed now goes from 0 - 400, with 5 notches.  Max value + num notches are stored in prefs so that users can knock themselves out

+ Fixed color of flags (they were using the smart colors)
+ Added "No Scaling" unit scale option

+ Added call in SetOwner to update stats that go on the subwnd and tooltips (otherwise you have to end the turn to take effect
+ Added some new text for the spellbook
+ Added an entry on the page for the spell type

+ Added code to SetOwner to update EmpireTree
+ Added code in UpdateStats to update FOW if current sensor range has changed
+ Fixed bug where city wasn't updating empire tree if it wasn't the capital

+ Updated ImpulseReactor and overlay binaries, including new achievements screen
+ Checked in changes to catapult, adding annotations so elite catapults and both fallen catapults can launch projectiles when attacking
+ Added cooldown time and range to the spell info card

+ Made the "Mana:" text disappear when Mana is 0
+ Changed the "Cost" icon to the Spellbook (as is used elsewhere). Changed "Spellbook" icon to the wisdom icon to avoid confusion
+ Updated intro lore book text
+  A few changes to the build list - improvements will no longer show up if the city is not of the appropriate level.  They also won't show up in the list if the improvement requires a previous improvement that isn't built yet.

+ World prop bonuses will show up in the terrain info box, below any terrain bonuses

+ Added ability to set faction config metal color with <UnitMetalColor> tag, and added a metal color entry to the customize faction wnd
+ In the create sovereign wnd, the color swatch lets you set the metal color instead of the clothing colors
+ Removed metal color overrides from base sovereign and soldier unit types so that new units made during the game will be affected by the metal color of the faction

+ Updated Research Wnd

- Updated the OnBreakthroughSelected function to handle the new page format
- Updated the MSG_CUSTOM_LISTBOX_ENTRY_HIGHLIGHTED Callback to deal with now having 2 listbox's with highlighting
- Removed functions FillTechUnlockIconList and FillTechLeadsToIconList for FillTechPossibleList responsible for everything+ Gave new unit types in the create sovereign screen a default metal color of light grey, instead of black

+ Fixed bug where when you cast the create garden spell, the garden would not show up until FOW update
+ Overlay Fixes
- When in windowed mode having an overlay dialog open no longer stops you using the titlebar buttons or moving the window using the titlebar.
- The achievements option is back in the main menu (now that we have achievements)
- The achievements which have yet to be achieved now have grey text to better match the greyed out icons
- The mouse wheel is working again in the achievements window. 

+  Changed citybuilding so that you can no longer destroy an improvement that would
   make your city non-contiguous.  This shoud fix all of our city weirdness,
   including broken walls.
   +  Improvement.h/.cpp - removed the internal check for contiguity since this needed
      to be done at the city level.
   +  Added a new function CheckImprovementContiguityList() that takes a list of improvement
      pointers and checks to see if the defined city is contiguous.
   +  Changed DestroyImprovement() to build a improvement list without the improvement to
      be destroyed and to check if the city would still be contiguous.  If not, a message
      box pops up telling the user that they cannot destroy the improvement.
   +  Elemental.str - added strings for the new messagebox popup.

* MISC *

+ Added a spawn rating to CGoodieHutType, which defaults to -1. Currently, there is no spawn rating data set for any of the
  goodie huts.

+ Can now place random goodie huts in the map editor. As with NPCs, creatures and quests, you can specify if these random goodie
  huts are spawned at the start of the game, or when the goodie hut spawn rating level hits the appropriate value. A Spawn
  rating between 1 and 10 must be selected. When the map is loaded into a new game, it randomly selected which huts are placed
  at those locations. Only a goodie hut with a corresponding spawn rating will be placed; if one cannot be found, nothing will
  appear at that tile.

  The random selection is weighted using the rarity value  in the goodie hut type; a value between 0 and 100, it determines how
  likely it is that any given goodie hut will be chosen. A higher value makes a goodie hut more likely to be selected, while a
  rarity of 0 means it will never been selected.

  Goodie huts with the “spawn on level reached” option set get placed on the map when the goodie hut spawn rating reaches that
  level. As with the NPC, creature and quest spawn rating, this value is incremented with an “update spawn rating” game modifier
  is applied. These modifiers are identical to the NPC, creature and quest update spawn rating modifiers, only with the StrVal
  set to GOODIEHUT. Currently, there are no update spawn rating modifiers for goodie huts in any of the XML data.

- Cities start with population of 2 instead of 10.

+ Added game modifier for placing a world prop at a given tile (and here's an example):
    <GameModifier InternalName="Fortify">
              <ModType>Map</ModType>
              <Attribute>CreateWorldProp</Attribute>
              <StrVal>P_Fortify_01</StrVal>
        </GameModifier>

+ Automatically unlocking resource hoard types is now data-driven, instead of listing resource types in CWorld::CreatePlayer to get them to be available off the bat
    + Setting <NeedsToBeUnlocked> to 0 in the resource type xml will make it show up at the start of the game without needing a tech or anything to see it
    + To keep the same behavior as before, resource types default to TRUE for NeedsToBeUnlocked, so put <NeedsToBeUnlocked>0</NeedsToBeUnlocked> in any new resource hoard that you don't want the player to need a tech to see.

+ Can now permanently block off tiles from movement in the map editor using the “Blocked Tile” tool. Tiles blocked off appear
  with a red ‘X’ graphic. Once blocked off, no units will be able to enter that tile for the duration of the game.

+ Added the ability to specify a wander radius for NPCs and creatures in the map editor. When set to the default value, NPCs and
  creatures behave normally, but when overridden with a wander radius, that NPC/creature will patrol around their tile of origin
  within that radius. If set to 0, the NPC/creature will not move from their spawn tile.

+ If you turn down a quest after being offered one from a quest location, it removes it from the map.

 

NEXT WEEK

Next week begins the Beta 3 series!

With that all the technology trees get enabled, the Imperial factions get enabled, the minor factions get enabled, tactical battles will get enabled (beta 3A), and tons of other stuff get enabled.

We’re getting close

Elemental will be released on August 24th. Our “gold” date is August 4th. Our goal is to have the "game” basically done by July 16th.  The remaining time will be spent polishing, balancing, tweaking and adding player suggested feedback.  We’ll categorize that feedback on things that we think are fun or interesting enough to get into the “gold” version (the version that comes in the box) and then things we’ll make available on release date (the August 24th edition).

A game vs. a piece of software

What makes a game different from a piece of software is of course, the fun factor. So when I talk about things being “done” I am speaking of the software program known as Elemental. But that doesn’t make it a game. That just makes it a piece of software capable of performing the features of the game. Turning it into a game requires a lot of balancing, usability tweaking, polish and the injection of fun. 

Our beta programs have focused largely on deciding what features and directions we need to take on the software so that the final game will be “fun”.

The transition from software to a game

Of course, beta testers, particularly ones who haven’t been involved in Stardock betas previously, are stuck in the situation of not knowing whether we “realize” the areas of the software that need to be changed in order to make it a “good game”. So this post is a partial tour of just some of the big issues that have to be addressed for the software to be a good game.

Below are some of the things on our list:

ITEM #1: Making the sovereigns distinct from one another

Making it so that each sovereign is very distinct in how they play is very important.  The way we are going to do this is to make the Professions available and the Talents have far reaching (i.e. not simply “stat boosts”) effects. Thus far, we’ve struggled over which professions to have in the first place.

For instance, the Warlord starts the player off with 2 sentinels.  But right now, the Bard only starts you with a stat boost to hero cost. Boring. The Adventurer gives you an extra move. A okay start but still boooring. This will be an area that we will be spending time on after the public beta endsd.

ITEM #2: Making the factions distinct

In a nutshell, The Kingdoms and The Empires are fighting over how the world should be organized. The Kingdoms are (by default) all races of MEN. The Empires are mostly Races of FALLEN. The Fallen are made up of many distinct races.

However, we must make sure each of these races plays differently enough and looks different enough that it is meaningful.  This is an area we’re going to spend a lot of time on.

ITEM #3: Usability

There are all kinds of annoying UI issues that get in the way or make the game less intuitive than it should be. 

For instance…

Clicking outside the book should close it. There’s a ton of stuff like that.  Beta 2-B users will get to see a LOT more stuff that is extremely annoying such as the way spells are managed in beta 2-B. The spell management will get overhauled during the public beta. It’s incredibly obnoxious.

 

ITEM #4: The Environment is Boring

Based on the plot, the world is decimated. Thus, the lands are barren. However, we are finding this to be oppressive. 

Instead, what we are going to be moving towards is a system where the land is spotted with bits of grassland and Fallen land that players can build on without having to sacrifice essence.

In addition, building cities is going to require a Pioneer pack. The player will start with one and it is consumed on building a city. Additional cities will require building pioneers (who can only  build on non-forsaken ground) or champions can buy pioneer packs in the shops (giving another early benefit to recruited NPCs).

This makes city building require a little more thought than presently and allows us to address the issue of why can only sovereigns found cities?

Moreover, the art and development teams are both working on a significant increase in the number of environments for the world (we haven’t enabled rivers  in the public builds yet because they are cosmetically ugly still). The goal is to make sure the world is an interesting and exciting place.

ITEM #5 DETAILS AND EQUIPPING

In the public beta, the details and equipment screens are combined into a single horrible, usability nightmare.

“The best shareware game UI of 1997!”

During the polish phase, the equipping screen and the details screen will be different (you’ll be able to easily switch between them).  This way, equipping units will be straight forward and efficient and the history of the unit and their details can be more easily handled. Plus, it’ll be a lot more intuitive to play.

 

ITEM #6: Battle Animations and effects

In the beta, all the battle stuff is really basic and dull.  During the polish phase, we’ll be adding many many different combat animations, effects, etc. to make battles a lot more interesting.

ITEM #7: NOTIFICATIONS AND UI

This is going to be a big issue in Beta 2-B now that magic is enabled. Players can lose a lot of time because they filled up their spell points inventory and weren’t prompted to do anything about it.

ITEM #8: WHAT IS GOING ON?

This covers a whole lot of areas of the game. But basically there’s a huge lack of UI-driven explanation of what is happening or why something is the way it is. This is an area we will be concentrating a great deal on during the polish phase.

ITEMS #9: COSTS AND BENEFITS ARE CRAZY

How much an item should cost or how tough a monster should be or how hard a certain tech should be to get and so on, these are things that we are aware of and will be focusing a great deal on. Right now, a lot of the values in the “software” were put in by programmers. During the polish stage, the designers (myself included) get to take a crack at it.

Beta 2-A, for instance, changed the game from Beta 2 quite a bit by simply allowing a designer (me in this case) an afternoon to tweak the values.

ITEM #10: TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH UI

The research mechanism is so crummy that it deserves its own item. It’s something we’re very aware of and it’s on our list. I did ask it to be improved some during the public beta phase so that beta testers could at least have a decent idea of what’s going on.

Look at all these screens that tell you nothing about what you picked. HORRIBLE.

ITEM #11: QUESTS

The quests in the game will get better and better during the polish portion.

ITEM #12: Other Player interaction

The AI players still don’t do much. Without the challenge of other players, the game loses much of its potency in the beta. With the Imperial factions disabled, you only have 5 default players and we haven’t enabled creation your own factions yet the worlds tend to be relatively devoid of action.

ITEM #13: Diplomacy

Diplomacy is going to be a major element in the game. It shows up in Beta 3 but it’ll be pretty basic since the AI isn’t particularly intelligent yet.

ITEM #14: NPC and MONSTER AI

The monsters and NPCs just kind of randomly move around right now. This is an area we are going to be heavily polishing to make them be a lot more “alive” than they currently are.

The team has hooked in the ability for me to have these creatures (at least the sentient ones) pop up conversations with the players. This is something that we can have a lot of fun with.

 

BETA TESTER IMPACT

We very much welcome constructive feedback from players. We can’t promise that every idea will make it into the retail gold or even the day 0 release but if we like it, we can put it on our post-release update schedule.  So definitely keep posting your ideas or suggestions.

The Limited Edition of Elemental comes with a lot of cool stuff including a big canvas map, a poster, a fairly good sized dragon pewter piece. But it also comes with something particularly special: The Hiergamenon. This is a kind of encyclopedia to the world but told from the point of view of a collection of historical figures from Elemental’s past.

To get an idea of what it is like, here are some pictures of the pages. The paperback book comes with the Limited Edition and is around 160 pages.

If you’re already in the beta, you can upgrade to this from the link above.  Because of how expensive the Limited Edition is to produce, we will only guarantee enough units to provide to users who pre-order it.

(4 random pages from The Hiergamenon)

 

 

Elemental is the most expensive game Stardock’s made. Which isn’t saying much since Galactic Civilizations II had a budget of around $800,000. 

Elemental’s total budget is probably less than Civ V’s cutscene budget (which based on what I’ve seen was well spent). 

So how does Stardock make a game like Elemental with so few resources? How do we hope to have a successful game in what is considered a “niche” genre?

The answer is in two parts: First, you guys. Seriously. Word of mouth is the only realistic way that independent game studios can still release games like this. 

Second: The tools  Beta 4 will go into great detail on this but since this week has involved us spending a lot of time cranking out content for the Magic and Adventure categories we’ve had a lot of time to spend with the bundled tools.

This is what you see when you click workshop

 

So if I want to make, say, a goodie hut, the first thing I need to do is go to the tile editor.

Let’s say I want to make a tomb. I’m no artist but I know how to play with legos…

Now, let’s add some “stuff”

Then some effects (these need icons still)

Then save it:

 

Then with Impulse::Reactor,  share it with the world if you want and they can choose to add it all within the game:

 

Other things you would then do is give users an item that already exists in the game or go to the item editor and make your own items.

Over the next several months, we’ll be enhancing these further in free updates to keep making it easier and easier to make and share cool stuff with other players. 

I must admit, it’s pretty darn fun.

But this is how we can make a game like Elemental. It’s so easy for us to add “stuff” to the game to make each experience fun and different. 

Then wait till you’re able to add your creations to your own maps complete with their own quests:

(the above is the beta 2-B map btw, after the beta 2 series, we move to the random maps).

In Beta 2 and Beta 2-A, we disabled the Adventure, Diplomacy, and Magic technology trees and enabled Civilization and Warfare.

In Beta 2-B, we are disabling Civilization and Warfare and enabling Adventure and magic.

But wait! How will wars be conducted? It is just going to be a mob of NPC recruits? How do we get food? How do we design better units? How do we better equip our sovereign and our champions?

The answer: Magic and Adventuring.  Summon units. Get rare items. Enchant the land. Enchant your cities. Go on better quests to get much better stuff. Get access to far more powerful heroes.

I don’t even have a city and I am already summoning units such as this Imp.

 

Update:

Another instance: