I’m on the plane on my way back from GDC and was thinking I hadn’t made a Demigod journal in awhile.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Brad Wardell, President & CEO of Stardock and the publisher of Gas Powered Games’ Demigod.

One of the big questions I get from Demigod players is – what’s next? 

Right now, there is no definitive answer to this. But what I can tell you is what we hope to do on Stardock’s side of things to help Demigod in the future. 

So what I am putting forth here is a vision of what we would like to see happen with Demigod.

Let me break this down into 2 parts:

1. Improving the game itself

2. Improving the Multiplayer experience

Improving the game itself

As modders are aware, Demigod can be heavily modded using LUA.  I have talked about the idea of letting the community have more input into Demigod’s “unofficial” evolution in the future with Chris Taylor (CEO of GPG) at various times and he has been enthusiastic to the idea. 

It is our intention to work with the modding community to incorporate many of the community improvements into the game.

I would like to see it where a future demo of Demigod allows people to play with users who have the full version (demo players would have fewer Demigods and fewer maps) so that the MP community could be greatly expanded.  However, to make that worthwhile IMO item #2 needs to be addressed.

Improving the multiplayer experience

It is no secret that I’ve been somewhat of a critic of Demigod’s online experience.  The sausage factory of game development sometimes results with non-ideal solutions.

However, in my opinion, Demigod represents a fundamental opportunity to demonstrate the upcoming Impulse::Reactor features that are making their showing in Elemental.

In Demigod, Impulse::Reactor is only used to display available games and accepts XML data uploaded from Demigod.  The actual connectivity (getting players connected in the lobby) is a custom solution we developed AFTER Demigod shipped to replace the licensed system that originally came with the game.  The lobby itself and such is provided via LUA scripts.

By contrast, Impulse::Reactor’s upcoming MP solution is designed to provide a lot more MP functionality for developers.  For instance, tournaments, match making, ladders, scoring, etc. are all handled by Impulse::Reactor itself instead of being implemented by the developer (the developer simply includes the DLL.

Now, Impulse::Reactor can’t magically address everything.  It still requires the developer to submit the stats to the server (an ongoing issue for hard core Demigod players)  but what it can do is greatly ease the implementation of a given game by eliminating the current lobby and allowing for a lot more MP options that are currently in the game.

When would all this happen? Honestly, not for awhile because right now, everyone is just tapped.  GPG is working on Kings and Castles and Stardock is working on Elemental.  But there’s a lot of things that can be done between now and this time with the first item.

Impulse::Reactor is designed to allow developers to implement advanced multiplayer features into their games with minimal effort.

I’m currently posting this article from a WiFi connection on my Delta flight back from San Francisco to Detroit Michigan.

I’m using GoGo InFlight which uses Satellites to provide reasonably decent (1Mbit) connectivity to the net.

To learn more: http://airborne.gogoinflight.com

Sometimes you get pictures from friends and family that really do justice to the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

Greetings! It’s that time again where I try to answer some of your questions regarding Elemental, the beta and more.

Q: When is BETA 2 scheduled to start?

A: Beta 2 is the Multiplayer beta of Elemental. We still have quite a bit of work to do in order to have it in a state where it can be provided to the external beta players.

It was originally scheduled for March 18th but has been pushed back to a new tentative date of April 1st.

Q: What sort of multiplayer will BETA 2 have?

A: The initial beta will be very focused on just 1 on 1 MP matches in order to test out the matchmaking. There won’t be custom games in the initial BETA 2.  Instead, a player will logon to the Metaverse, press “find game” and be matched with another player.  The objective will be to see how well the system works as well as kill off any connectivity issues early.

Q: Will BETA 2 be fun?

A: Actually, it should be reasonably fun by that point.  It will be the first update that actually attempts to have some basic balancing in it and enough gameplay elements enabled that the game should start to come together.

Q: What changes from the current public beta do you see (in terms of game play) in Beta 2?

A: We are working to implement the feedback being posted by the beta group. A LOT of that feedback comes in the following areas:

• Cleaned up economics. We want to eliminate the “black box” effect that users have discussed at length.  Hence, cities will no longer provide any innate money, research, or spell points. That will come from what you build.
• A lot more city improvements. Right now, early in the game, there isn’t enough to do. There will be a lot more choices on what to build in order to give players more strategic directions to go into.
• The Dynasty system will be updated such that players can negotiate whose family off-spring goes into rather than females going to the other family and males staying in your family.
• The game mechanics will be a lot clearer in game. By BETA 2, a player shouldn’t feel lost on what they’re doing. Thus a lot of UI changes are being worked on.

Q: Elemental’s economic system seems to change a lot. Why is that?

A: The biggest reason is to test modability. We expect Elemental to allow players to construct their own economic system in mods. The only way to make sure we’re not hard-coding things into the source is to try out different systems.  To put it in RTS terms, modders should be able to make mods that change the economic engine to be like Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander or like Warcraft/Starcraft. 

The other reason is that as we play the game and listen to players, we get ideas on how the game should be played or what is more fun.

Q: What about stability, crashes, memory?

A: This is another requirement prior to beta 2.  For Beta 2, basic memory usage and stability have to be taken care of.

Q: Are there any other blockers?

A: Yes. Beta 2 won’t go out until we feel it is not just technically solid but as a game it is starting to feel like a game and not a tech demo.  The beta 1 series is more like an “alpha”. That is, very very early in the game’s development. The objective has been to talk to players about game mechanics ideas with players having a point of reference.  And from that, we’ve been able to (as beta testers have undoubtedly noticed) make pretty dramatic changes based on that feedback.

Q: Will there be any other beta releases BEFORE Beta 2?

A: Maybe. We are considering having a build that implements more of the game mechanics and such and then have beta testers vote on whether they believe the game is ready for Beta 2.

Elemental: Limited Edition

Specifications:

• 18x26” Elemental Poster
• Extended print manual with additional information on the world of Elemental (i.e. 200+ pages)
• Elemental extended musical soundtrack CD
• 18x26” cloth map of the world of Elemental
• Pewter Elemental dragon
• Price: $69.95 (Beta testers will be able to upgrade for $20 + S/H)

The pewter piece dragon

New Users: Elemental: Limited Edition

Upgrade option for existing pre-order users: Soon

We’re not kidding about the “Limited” aspect of this. We’re currently only planning to authorize the production of 10,000 of these. But for those of you who, like me, miss the “old days” of Ultima IV and such when games came with big maps, cloth maps and other goodies, here you go.

Originally developed by Cavedog back in 1997, the rights eventually came into the hands of Atari who has given us permission to re-release it.

Stardock is handling the support for Total Annihilation directly and includes a new launcher that helps automatically configure the game for modern systems, streamlines getting multiplayer games going and includes easy access to tips and tricks for getting the most out of it.

As part of Stardock's support for the game, it will be releasing subsequent updates (with Atari's permission) to further streamline multiplayer, incorporate Impulse Reactor and work with fan sites to incorporate new content into the "official" release.  It will also be further enhancing the release to prepare it for eventual availability on other digital distributors.

In other words, we’re treating Total Annihilation similarly to a newly released title with ongoing updates wherever possible.

The package includes Total Annihilation + Core Contingency as a single integrated package.

What makes Total Annihilation particularly special is that (depending on your modern setup and trouble shooting skills) you can get the game playing at crazy high resolutions and the game runs fine. 

Total Annihilation at 2500x1600

Now, a word of warning – if you’re a PC novice, Total Annihilation won’t be for you.  It’s a serious RTS and, depending on your setup, we are talking about a game developed 14  years ago when DirectX 3 was state of the art.  Running it in a window has had good success for me on my Windows 7 64-bit desktop. 

If you try to run it full-screen at a very high resolution you can end up with a goofy color mess of it. Anything beyond 1024x768 in full screen can be a crap shoot but if you run it windowed, you can go nuts.  Back in 1997, anything beyond 1024x768 probably seemed like science fiction. The fact it will run at 2500x1600 is just…wow.

To get it, go here:

http://bit.ly/amPYVd

In Elemental, the player is a unit in the game (the sovereign).  Before the Cataclysm one presumes your character had a life.

What was it?

Each choice has a benefit to it.

Examples:

• Masons get buildings built faster.
• Merchants have more money coming in per turn
• Swindler get bonuses on trade treaties
• Thieves get more loot
• Hunters are able to get "wild game” tiles they can build on.

So what other types of professions would you like to see in and what would be their bonus?

Off the top of my head here’s my quickie list:

• Farmer. (Farms produce better)
• Minister. (Lower upkeep costs)
• Warrior. (Get better troops).

There’s really no limit to the number of professions here other than visual/UI.  So feel free to suggest what you’d like in the game.

If you can’t do something well. Don’t do it.

That’s been my philosophy on game development from the beginning. In Galactic Civilizations, it meant not having any multiplayer. We didn’t have the budget and resources to do multiplayer well. So we didn’t do it.

In Elemental, single-player is our focus. But we have decided to have multiplayer and that means we are going to do make sure it is done right.

Doing turn-based right

Real-Time strategy games do well in multiplayer  because the game continuously moves forward. Players don’t have to wait for other players.  In turn based, players inevitably have to wait and that makes them less ideal.

From a design perspective, having lots of different options for handling turns is going to be our focus.  From a sheer budget point of view, we cannot justify the resources required to do multiplayer if only hard-core grognards are playing it online.

So let’s look at the different options and then we can discuss your ideas on how we can make a turn-based strategy game fun in online multiplayer.

Elemental will be able to support multiple different turn options so we don’t have to pick one (though we will ultimately *default* to one).

Option #1: Traditional Turn-Base

This is where each player gets their turn. They hit the turn button and then the next person is able to move. There is typically a time limit on turns.

Option #2: Simultaneous turns.

This is where all players move at the same time. When done, they hit the turn button. There is typically a time limit involved on turns or a timer that starts when the first person hits the turn button.

Brain Storming..

So what are some things we can play around with here? What are some other OPTIONS we could have?

I like the idea of a time bank.  You get N seconds per turn.  If you finish your turn early, you get to add those seconds to your time bank.  If you run out of time, it starts to cost you gold. Like 10 gold per second. If you run out of gold, the turn goes automatically.

There could be city improvements that give players additional time to take turns.

Example:

The default time you get would be based on what “League” you were in.  5 seconds for the “gold” league. “10 seconds for the “silver” league and 15 seconds for the “bronze” league. We’ll talk about these leagues more at GDC.

Player could build a Time Bank improvement that adds 1 second to what they get.

Each second they don’t use, goes into their global time pool.  Players could “cash in” seconds at a rate of 5 gold per second they want to exchange for.

Obviously, the above would be for experienced online players of the game.  Players could choose a variety of options here but what we are looking for is a way to satisfy players who know the game and want to play online with other people and not have it be a long slog.

Time Outs

Certain things would need to stop the clock. Namely, battles.  We are inclined to have tactical battles turned OFF by default for online but players can turn it on depending on their setup. 

Tactical Battle Options would include:

• OFF
• Only human vs. Human Battles
• ON

We will also have a Tactical Battle Threshold for minimum battle rating necessary to turn it into a tactical battle (ranging from 0 to 1000).  You may not want a tactical battle of two soldiers but you might want a tactical battle when it’s two grand armies.

Now it’s your turn

A lot of you, like me, have tried to play turn-based games multiplayer. And a lot of you, like me, found them very tedious and not fun because of the pacing.

I like playing mulitplayer RTS games and FPS’s but multiplayer turn based just has never made the cut.  So, what do you think would make it something that would be compelling to a larger audience that you would enjoy?

The legend of the massive underground realm known as Calebethon survived the cataclysm. What we know comes to us from The Hiergamenon which remains our primary source of knowledge of life before the breaking of the world.

Roughly two thousand years before the Cataclysm…

As we already know, for a long while the mortals of Elemental held their own against the invading Titans thanks in large part to the power of the Magicians. These great sorcerers were able to go head to head with many of the Titans in battle.

The most famous of these magicians was known as Dirdoth. As the High Mage of his order, he set out to create a secret refuge for men who were rebelling against the Titans.

Dirdoth’s greatest achievement became Calebethon. This immense city existed throughout the underground mountain chain on the eastern side of the continent.

Dirdoth’s fate was sealed when Tar-Thela completed her quest to transfer the magic of Elemental into the scattered shards. Deprived of their source of power, Dirdoth and the Magicians were ruthlessly crushed.  For a long while, Calebethon was abandoned.

The rise of the cursed Morrigan

As told elsewhere, the heroic Hosten, first of the Channelers, was able to surprise the Titans and drive them from their capital.  Powerful as he was, Hosten, like all Channelers, was mortal and eventually passed on.

His son, Morrigan inherited his ability to channel the magic from the shards. Unlike his father, he used his power to enslave men. Envious of the Titans, Morrigan looked to order the world to his liking.  To achieve that objective, he studied both life and death magic.

Morrigan was the first Channeler to discover that life and death magic were mutually exclusive. The effects of his increasing reliance on death magic could be seen in himself and the lands around him.

The worst of his deeds, however, occurred in Calebethon. He and his creatures reoccupied it and began a series of dark experiments.

It is, with some irony, that the origin of the Fallen lies not with the Titans but rather with a mortal man.  The secret of twisting natural beings into unnatural ones, discovered by Morrigan and perfected by the Dred’nir Curgen would cause great suffering for men long after Morrigan had passed on.

The silver orb

Morrigan’s creations, sensitive beyond all mortal beings to the presence of magic, sensed something of unrivaled potency in the depths of Calebethon. They soon found the source of this power in a small piece of metal that seemed to be able to change shape based on the will of its holder.

Dutifully bringing the object to their master, Morrigan realized it was an object of great power but could not divine what its purpose was.

Morrigan spends much of the remainder of his life trying to unlock the secrets of the silver orb in the belief that it was the key to immortality.  He fails.  In his failing days, Morrigan had a special chamber constructed that hides the song of the silver orb so that others would not easily find it.

The War of Magic

During the War of Magic, a Channeler of great might discovered a piece of special glass that Morrigan constructed that led him to Morrigan’s vault of treasures. The subsequent looting resulted in the eventual discovery of the chamber by the Shadow titan who recognized it for what it was. Realizing the inherent danger of removing it from the chamber, the Shadow titan placed traps to ensure it could never be disturbed.

Naturally, it will again be disturbed…

Random House announced its new initiative (see this Wallstreet Journal article) today to collaborate with game developers to improve their in-game stories as well as present those stories in other mediums (books, movies, etc.).

The first result of this initiative comes from Elemental. The universe created through a collaboration of writers at Stardock and Random House is seeing itself presented first in the upcoming book, Elemental: Destiny's Embers (August release date) and then followed up by the PC strategy game, Elemental: War of Magic.

What does this mean to gamers and readers?

For gamers, it means that the quality of the writing in Elemental: War of Magic will be much stronger than it would have been otherwise. This manifests itself in terms of the backstory, the campain, the in-game quests and the general the cohesiveness of the game world.

For readers, it means that the book won’t just be the standard “book based on a video game” fare that often comes across as only vaguely connected to the same world that the game came from.

Elemental: Destiny's Embers is a story I’ve been working on for some years now. With help from Random House’s writing team, they’ve helped me take my early manuscripts and polish them and craft them into a story that I think readers of fantasy will enjoy.

More information:

The book: Elemental: Destiny's Embers

The game: Elemental: War of Magic

-Brad Wardell (aka Frogboy)