…and so it begins…

These are screenshots of yesterday’s internal release candidate for v1.19 which includes replays and other new features. 

One of the things the Replay system has done for me is really appreciate the craftsmanship GPG’s art and developers put into this game.  The rook, self shadowing itself. Individual arrows firing out.  Being able to watch these battles at –10 speed is just amazing.

Starting with v1.19 of Demigod there won't be a "skirmish" option anymore.  Few people used it. Fewer people liked it. And it had the effect of splitting the MP community.

The focus going forward is going to be on Pantheon and Custom games.

In Epoch 2, custom games weren't really counted for anything since the stat system was still premised on only skirmish and pantheon games.  We are in the process of changing this for the remainder of Epoch 2.  It probably won't be retroactively applied though (except for me - so don't worry about me, I'll be taken care of, I'll just be boarding my plane to planet win but I'll come back for the rest of you...).

The remainder of Epoch 2 on Stardock's end will be to make custom games better.  With the Elemental beta going out, I've asked some of our key developers to take a look at what we can do for Demigod's overlay so that people in custom games can get user data within custom games.

My inclination on what data I would like to see include:

• Games Played (% win)
• Teammate Familiarity (% played together last 25 games with any player on their side)
• Player notes. 

With the beta scheduled to go out TODAY I thought we should go over some of the game concepts here.

Now, as has been mentioned, the graphics for beta 1 are stripped far far down in order to focus on the core game play.

Now when you start out the game, it is just your sovereign. The world is largely covered up. As seen in this screenshot, you see the outline of land but not much else.

Eventually, you will come into contact with other players as you can see here.

Designing units (with weapons) revolves around 3 factors: How often they can attack, how much damage each attack can cause, and how much training time the selected weapon adds.

Welcome to the Elemental beta.  First, let me say that if you haven't ever been part of a Stardock beta program, you're in for quite a ride.

Our betas are real betas. Some would even say they're not even that as the games send to start out very very rough and before your eyes, you will see your ideas and suggestions come together to make a great game.

CREATING THE TITLE OF YOUR REPORT

There are 4 basic types of reports. When you create a post, prefece the title with one of the 4 tags:

[BUG]

[CRASH]

[PERFORMANCE]

[SUGGESTION]

Example: [BUG] Kingdom of Altar mining bonus not working

THE BODY OF YOUR REPORT

Once you have created the title of your post we will want to get specific.

Screenshots are very helpful. My program of choice is called Jing. http://www.jingproject.com.  It will take screenshots and host your screenshots.

If your report involves a bug, telling us how to reproduce it is important.

Each time you run the game it will generate a file named debug.err in My Documents\My Games\Elemental; you can open it with notepad and post it as with the dxdiag report. Note that it will be replaced each time you run the game, so make sure to grab it right after a crash or major problem without running the game again.

If your report involves a crash or some hardware compatibility issue you think then make sure you run dxdiag.exe (just go to the start menu and run it) and make sure you post the data on pastebin.com or a similar site and link it in your report (please don't post them inline as it makes threads unreadable very quickly).

If it's a suggestion, please keep scope in mind. If it's something that is going to take months to do in order for your idea or request to be done, it's probably not going to happen.

Good luck and have fun!

Example of using Jing and its build in screencast to take an easy screenshot.

(Edited by kryo for extra reporting details.)

Greetings!

Below is the status of where we are on the development of Elemental.

BETA 1: Game Mechanic Exploration (Fall 2009)

1. Initial Build: Basic Compatibility
2. Beta 1A: Initial Gameplay Skeleton
3. Beta 1B: Initial Economic system Implemented
4. Beta 1C: Initial AI system Implemented
5. Beta 1D: Initial Diplomacy system Implemented
6. Beta 1E: Initial Dynasty system implemented
7. Beta 1F: Initial Magic system implemented
8. Beta 1G: Initial Quest system implemented
9. Beta 1Z: Finalizing Stability

1. Initial:    Caravans enabled, 3D Engine enabled, Multiplayer enabled, shops enabled, sieges enabled, visual battles enabled.
2. Beta 2A: Beta Fixes. Gameplay updates. Naval transports enabled. Naval warfare enabled.  MP: Wars of Magic.
   
   

BETA 3: War & Peace Beta. (Summer 2010)

1. Initial:    Finalized Diplomacy enabled. .Master Quest enabled. All Tech Trees enabled. Empires enabled.
2. Beta 3A: Combat Magic enabled. The Hiergamenon enabled.  Tactical Battles options enabled. Morale and Tactical Battle AI enabled. Spell of Making enabled.
3. Beta 3B. Tactical Combat enabled.

BETA 4: Beyond Elemental Beta (Ongoing)

1. Map Editor, Item Editor, Tile Editor, Effect Editor.
2. Brad's Guide to Elemental Modding. Elemental Cloud Modding.
3. The Hiergamenon in-game.

Release: Elemental publicly available (August 24th)

1. Single Player: Beta Tester Content (spells, quests, characters released based on player feedback).
2. Single Player: Modding Tools: Race Construction Set.
3. Single Player: Quest Pack (a thank you for buyers).
4. Single Player: Monster Pack (a thank you for buyers).
5. Single Player: Notable Locations enabled.
6. Multiplayer: Custom Games.

Version 1.1: First major free update (30 days after release)

1. Usual performance, bug fixes, and other optimizations.
2. More optimizations for better Netbook support.
3. Single Player: New Content and Features based on player requests
4. Single Player: AI Wars

Version 1.2 (Second free major update (60 days after release)

1. Usual performance, bug fixes, and other optimizations.
2. New Features based on player feedback.
3. Brad's first serious mod example (Mini RPG).
4. Art Package for Modders to use (content for use by modders).
5. Multiplayer: Arena Mode

Copy Protection:

• Retail Edition will have no copy protection on it whatsoever.
• Digital version and updates will require Impulse to Download updates and install (but otherwise can be removed if the user chooses).
• Users who do not have good internet access at home can use http://anywhere.impulsedriven.com to download Elemental and bring it home to install on their machines.
• Multiplayer will require a valid customer ID to logon.

Notes:

All is subject to change based on player feedback and our own determination on where the game is at. 

This week Elemental Beta is to begin.  It will go out to all users who have pre-ordered it.  For the rest of September, new users will be able to pre-order and join in as well and then it will be closed (people can still pre-order but they won’t get access until we roll out Beta 2.

ALL REPORTS can go here: Elemental BETA forum.

BETA OBJECTIVES

BETA 1

1. Initial Build: Basic Compatibility
2. Beta 1A: Initial Gameplay Skeleton
3. Beta 1B: Initial Economic system Implemented
4. Beta 1C: Initial AI system Implemented
5. Beta 1D: Initial Diplomacy system Implemented
6. Beta 1E: Initial Dynasty system implemented
7. Beta 1F: Initial Magic system implemented
8. Beta 1G: Initial Quest system implemented

BETA 2

1. Initial build provides basic multiplayer (player hosted – client/server)
2. Beta 2A: Persistent stat tracking
3. Beta 2B: Stardock hosted option.
4. Beta 2C: Stardock hosted persistent games
5. Beta 2D: Stardock hosted persistent universe game (persistent dynasties)

BETA 3

1. Initial Kumquat3D engine build of Elemental.
2. Beta 3A: Introduction to Dungeons
3. Beta 3B: Introduction to Magical Spells

BETA 4

1. Introduction to tactical battles
2. Beta 4A: New multiplayer mode: Arena
3. Beta 4B: Customized tactical battle options
4. Beta 4C: Super-Duper AI Update to tactical battles
5. Beta 4D: Polish Beta (extensive and ongoing)

BETA 5

1. Introduction to integrated modding
2. Beta 5A: Persistent universe mods
3. Beta 5B: Third-party Maya/3D Studio importing beta
4. Beta 5C: Modding group testing

GAMMA

1. Private Build (only very active beta testers get access to this under NDA)
2. Single Player Campaign Testing

RELEASE

1. When the consensus is that this is the best turn-based strategy game of its kind available.

Betas will also include additions and enhancements to previously released milestones (i.e. additional game modes, additions to multiplayer options, additional single player quests, more single player game options, etc.).

Objectives of BETA 1 in detail:

1. We want to know if it runs okay on your computers. If it doesn’t, tell us what operating system you’re running, video card (dxdiag is a useful tool), CPU, etc. The more hardware info, the better.
2. As has been mentioned, beta 1 will NOT be fun in any way. We are not kidding about this. Our objective with this first build is to get the parameters on which the game runs, how well it runs.

On October 1st, we will have BETA 1A which will implement some of the “game” features that we took out of beta 1 along with a lot of features that we’ve been focusing on since PAX (computer AI, economic AI, research tree stuff, etc.).

The entire BETA 1 (and BETA 2) series will only play on the cloth map (seen above). The cloth map mode will remain the standard game experience for the Elemental beta until the Beta testers (AND Stardock) decide the game is sufficiently fun without having to rely on next-generation graphics. This will take as long as it takes. 

Good luck!

For starters, there are two types of mods we have in mind initially.

The first type of mod can be classified as mods that you would like to see implemented into the base game. I.e. feature changes and such that you would like us to propose to GPG for inclusion into a future update.

Mods of that type should be classified with as much detail as possible (specific code changes, which file, etc.). 

The second type of mod can be classified as an alternative mod, that is a mod a user would load from the v1.2+ mod manager UI that changes the game from the default.

For those of you new to modding, welcome.  Demigod offers an unprecedented opportunity thanks to much of it being developed using LUA for maximum flexibility.  Through this means, Demigod can continue to evolve and grow through the future in ways most games can only dream.

Have fun!

The game’s graphics engine (i.e. the MAIN graphics) won’t go into beta until January 2010.  But to give you an idea of how far things have gone already let’s take a look:

   
2006: Society rendering engine.

2007: First Engine port from Society .

 
October 2008: Mock Up of Elemental

November 2008: Engine Test

Elemental in March 2009

June 2009

August 2009

From PAX 2009

Next on the plate: Consistent shadowing. Look closely at the above screenshot and you’ll note that some things have shadows and some things don’t.  While the engine has improved greatly in the past year, it still has a ways to go.

Okay, I've been playing a lot more online and I'm curious what the thinking is between items that increase armor vs. items that increase HP vs. items that increase RATE of HP recovery.