To try out DeskScapes for yourself visit https://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes

If you have a decent video card and Windows Vista or Windows 7, definitely try this.  What makes DeskScapes so special is not just that it lets you have animated wallpaper but that it does it without slowing down your computer and it can do really cool effects to your existing static wallpaper.

Version 0.51: Last Updated November 11, 2009.

 

The Map

The Rules

 

I.                    The Sovereign

a.       Default Power of 5.

b.      Default Essence of 15.

                                                               i.      Essence determines the max amount of mana the player can store.

                                                             ii.      Mana is collected by controlling a shard or through technologies that allows the sovereign to generate it on his own.

II.                  The Map

a.       Fertile Land

                                                               i.      Denoted by “F” on the map.

                                                             ii.      Provides 5 food if a farm is built on it.

b.      Metal

                                                               i.      Denoted by “M” on the map.

                                                             ii.      Will support 1 knight if mine is built.

c.       Shards

                                                               i.      Denoted by A, B, C, D, E on the map.

                                                             ii.      Provide mana for spells.

d.      Dragons

                                                               i.      Denoted by (X) on the map.

                                                             ii.      Provides a dragon to the player who can win him over.

e.      Ruins

                                                               i.      Denoted by a (*) on the map.

                                                             ii.      Draws an event card.

III.                Cities

a.       Drains 3 essence from sovereign to create.

b.      Default Power is 1.

c.       Can have 4 improvements built.

d.      Improvements

                                                               i.      Farm  (on fertile land)

                                                             ii.      Mine (on metal resource)

                                                            iii.      Mana Collector (on shard)

                                                           iv.      Barracks

1.       Required to produce units.

                                                             v.      Tower of Sorcery

1.       Provides 1 point of spell research per turn

                                                           vi.      University

1.       Provides 1 point of technology research per turn

                                                          vii.      Bazaar

1.       Provides 1 gold per turn.

                                                        viii.      Palace

1.       Provides 1 prestige point per turn.

e.      Units

                                                               i.      Soldier

1.       Default power of 1.

2.       Costs 1 gold per turn.

3.       Takes 1 turn to build.

4.       Consumes 1 food resource per turn.

                                                             ii.      Knight

1.       Default power of 3

2.       Costs 1 gold per turn.

3.       Requires 1 dedicated metal resource

4.       Takes 1 turn to build.

5.       Consumes 1 food resource per turn.

                                                            iii.      Dragon

1.       Default power of 10

2.       Can only be obtained by a player that has collected 20 prestige points.

f.        Technologies

                                                               i.      Warfare

1.       10 research points

2.       Adds 1 power to all units.

                                                             ii.      Civilization

1.       10 research points

2.       All cities give 1 gold to player

                                                            iii.      Adventure

1.       10 research points

2.       Required to communicate with dragons

                                                           iv.      Magic

1.       10 research points

2.       Gives player 1 generic mana per turn.

g.       Spells (all cost 10 spell points to research)

                                                               i.      Improve Power

1.       Permanently boosts power of an army by 1 point per use.

2.       Consumes 8 mana of any kind

                                                             ii.      Destroy City

1.       Eliminates a city

2.       Requires control of 4 different shards plus 8 mana of any kind.

                                                            iii.      Combat

1.       Improves power of any army by 2 points for 1 turn.

2.       Requires control of 1 shard plus 5 mana.

                                                           iv.      Appear Prestigious

1.       Adds 10 prestige to your current total for 1 turn.

2.       Requires control of 2 shards plus 8 mana.

                                                             v.      Spell of Mastery

1.       Win the game

2.       Requires control of 5 shards plus 9 mana.

                                                           vi.      Haste

1.       Permanently Increases the speed of an army by 1

2.       Requires control of 2 shards and 6 mana

h.      How combat works

                                                               i.      Two armies meet, the one with higher power wins.

                                                             ii.      If both armies have the same power, the attacker wins.

 

From this, we will begin playing out a stripped down version of Elemental together in real-time. 

The 5 players are:

• MagicwillNZ
• Climber
• Raven X
• Rishkith
• porternielsen

 

Once all 5 players comment, we shall begin.

You too can do this.

Here’s how:

1. Go to http://www.jingproject.com and download Jing made by TechSmith (the other software company in Michigan..)

2. Once installed click on its settings (looks like gears) and you will see “Customize Jing buttons”.

3. Click on “new”

4. Label “Embed”

5. On clipboard contents choose embed code.

Voila.

When you take a screenshot or a video, you can click on the HTML button in the editor and paste in the embed code Jing gives.

Then, just run Elemental in a window and highlight the parts you want.

Here’s a quickie example of the kinds of bug reports I submit to the team:

 

It also works for just screenshots:

 

Eventually, we’ll have Live Writer support on all our forums and you’ll be able to make posts with that but that’s a topic for another day.

Demigod v1.2 has passed what we call our tech QA and is now in consumer QA (i.e. compatibility and such).

Here’s a partial list of what’s in this build:

Notable Bug Fixes:

· Fixes a serious desync that could potentially resolve a number of problem cases in MP.

Citadel Upgrades

• Graveyard Citadel Upgrade: Increased bonus from 10/20/40% to 15/30/50%

Favor Item Changes:

• Samm-El’s Cloak: Buffed cap from 25% to 15%
• Dark Crimson Vial: Reduced cast time from 2 to 1 seconds
• Staff of the Warmage: Increased mana from 700 to 800
• Magical Coin Pouch: Buffed cost reduction from 10% to 15%
• Horn of Battle: Increased health regen from 10 to 25

New favor items:

                Spirit of the Fallen: Assassin only

                5000 Favor Points

                1000 Health

                8 Health Per Second

                Haste Anklet: Assassin only

                5000 Favor Points

                17% Increased Movement Speed

                Pendant of Prescience: Generals only

                5000 Favor Points

                15% Dodge

                20% Minion Dodge

                Tome of Champions: Generals Only

                5000 Favor Points

                800 Health

                5 Health Per Second

                150 Minion Health

Items:

• Hex Scroll: Reduced cost from 500 to 250
• Capture Lock: Increased cast time from 1 to 2 seconds
• Combat Health and Mana Potions unchanged – we were afraid to tweak this one
• Duelist Cuirass: Reduced cost from 3000 to 2500
• Theurgist’s Cap: Reduced cost from 3000 to 2000
• Hungarling’s Crown: Reduced cost from 6500 to 5500
• Ironwalkers: Reduced cost from 3750 to 2750
• Desperate Treads: Reduced cost from 5000 to 4000
• Gauntlet’s of Despair: Increased mana drain from 200 to 300
• Doomspite Grips: Increased weapon damage from 30 to 40
• Forest Band: Increased minion armor from 200 to 300
• Warlord’s Punisher: Unchanged
• Ring of the Ancients: Reduced cost from 3500 to 2500
• Parasite Egg: Reduced cost from 4000 to 3000

Game Mechanics:

• Dodge Cap increased from 30% to 40%

Queen of Thorns:

• Summon Shambler: Summon Shambler now increases health and damage of Shamblers as you gain new ranks. The values are 5/10/15 damage and 125/250/375 health.
• Entourage: Shamber buff decreased to compensate for Summon Shambler’s boost. Damage reduced from 10/20/30 to 6/12/18 damage and 250/500/750 health to 165/330/495.

I’ll have a more complete list shortly.

Commenting is enabled to allow people to complain about the balancing since you can blame me for it. I read through the comments and various threads and compiled a list of requested changes along with my own experiences from playing.  So you can see a lot of things have been made less expensive. The new favor items are largely just “upgrades” (requiring a lot more favor points) to the existing ones. I tried to request items that could be realistically added.  So in other words, don’t flame GPG. Flame Brad (me).

The modding is going to become a big deal I believe as I am hoping we will be able to have our own mods that players will be able to distribute here on the game site or that we’ll eventually bundle with the game if they’re popular enough.

Demigod isn't perfect of course. No game is.  I have a laundry list of things I want to see changed and with the upcoming modding, I am hoping to see those changes happen.

That said, let me tell you why I think Demigod is the best new strategy game of 2009.

1. It has the best game mechanics of any RTS of 2009.  The balance between citadel upgrades, flags, and personal items are just wonderful.

2. The fact that it is really easy to learn how to play but that a well coordinated team can own 3 experts who don't play well together.

3. The multiple ways that most of the Demigods can play.

4. It's beautiful. I can zoom out and see the whole arena or I can zoom in and see stunning graphics. Demigod is that rare game that looks terrific but whose engine is highly practical too.

5. Sheer polish.  If you have a moderate system that plays fine today, fear not, the game looks incredible at 2500x1600 thus it won't get dated soon.

6. It's continuing to get better.  If you read the forum posts, you sometimes forget that the game has only been out about 6 months and has received continual updates throughout its life with more updates in the works. It ain't going anywhere.

 

Just some quick thoughts on the matter.

With any luck, this weekend I'll have games up that you guys will be able to join and see the new demigods in action.

 

Look for "Frogboy 3 vs. 3" on the game list starting this weekend (or possibly Thursday depending on my schedule).