Some of the concepts we're talking about will be hard to envision without actually having the game but one of the real innovations we're trying to introduce with Elemental is the concept of unlimited expansion.

The key to this is not hard coding civilization capabilities but rather leaving them open-ended.

So let me start at the beginning:

When someone first gets into Elemental, the relationships will be simple between things. A player who wants to design a horse mounted knight will need to have researched animal husbandry which lets them train horses. They will need to have a city that has used one of its tiles to make use of a herd of wild horses on the map. They will need a mine on a metal deposit to create the armor.  And once they have all those things, it'll be a matter of training and equipping the knight.

The above example is one of the more complicated relationships one will see initially in Elemental...

But what about users who want to keep making more and more sophisticated relationships?

Maybe I want to have knights equipped with sunfire dread chain mail riding tamed Demon steeds and the knights have a secondary power of carrying tomes of unmaking which vastly increase their damage in battle?

Well, there would be a host of technologies one would have to have researched. There would have to be spells researched as well and new city buildings that produce these tomes and then have been enchanted to make these tomes magical. The demon steeds would require various technologies and the finding of demons to be tamed in the first place and so on and so on.

How do you control the level of sophistication here so that it doesn't become too complicated?  The answer is with a new series of game options that are practically games unto themselves.

Because, did I mention, that all the things mentioned in the second example were things produced not by us but by players and broadcast to all other players so that you have access to them automatically? No expansion packs needed. No paying for mini-content needed. It's just thousands of players creating cool stuff and broadcasting it to one another.

So here's how players control it.  They have a screen called the Bestiary where they can control what types of creatures are in game. When someone broadcasts content, Stardock moderators rate and define it more closely. From this screen, players can decide what types of creatures they want, the quality of the submission desired (we will rate the broadcasts in terms of production values as well), etc. These creatures will have associated technologies that are attached to them that are required.

There will be additional screens for managing resources, techs, etc.

So for most players, they will probably stick with what we include or maybe a handful of expansions that Stardock provides. Others will insert some content made by other players. And still others will go for a truly huge scope experience.  But the point is that players control this.

Now someone might say that a lot of this sounds too ambitious. But Stardock already does a lot of this, today, right now, on WinCustomize.com with its non-game stuff. 

Now what is the gameplay result of this? One of the cooler things that will result is that the units that players make use of will really be different from game to game. And there will be a real pay off in the battles for players who have managed to assemble the necessary components to create some of the truly sophisticated units.

In multiplayer, the default it going to be the least common denominator settings. We will probably have other options but we won't know until we've had a chance to play it online with you guys to see what other settings are the most fun.

I've seen the argument that we should have the federal government raise taxes back to where they were in the Clinton years.  Such an argument ignores the bigger picture because when the federal government lowered taxes, a lot of states, including Michigan where I live, raised theirs.

Let's look at Mr. Rich guy who makes $1M a year (after deductions) and owns a $1M home and lives in Michigan.

About $300,000 of his income will go to federal income taxes.

Another $40,000 will go to the state of Michigan.

He will have about $20,000 in property taxes on his house.

So this person, with 1 vote who is using the same roads, schools, and other services as everyone else is paying $360,000 right off the bat.

When he goes to buy something, another 6% is taken for sales tax.

Often times, I'll read about someone not understanding why many people who aren't rich are so adamantly opposed to such taxation even though they're not affected. The reason is principle. There is something inherently corrupt about the idea that one person with one vote is having $360k taken from them purely based on the argument that "he can afford it".

This becomes especially true when one looks at how Mr. Rich would have spent that $360k versus how the government spends it. Because that wealth is going to be spread either way. It's merely a question of who spends it better.

We can all talk about social contracts and what not until the cows come home but at the end of the day, there is something just plain wrong about the government taking so much more from some people than others in an age where increasing amounts of that money are simply being given to others based on "need" where "need" is defined in narrow political terms.

If I were building a machine for best long-term value and short term performance, this is what I would currently put it together with:

CPU: Intel Core i7

Graphics Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4870X2

Memory: 12 Gigabytes

OS: Windows Vista 64-bit (moving to Windows 7 with the first beta)

Hard Drive: Intel X-25E Extreme SSD for the boot drive, A 1 Terrabyte drive for secondary.

Monitor: Good 24 inch LCD.

Must-Have Software:

• Object Desktop Ultimate
• Multiplicity
• Windows Live Mesh
• Impulse
• Microsoft Office
• Steam
• Corel Draw
• TechSmith Jing

Must-Have Games to install immediately

• Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate
• Sins of a Solar Empire
• Left4Dead

Must-Have Games to prepare for in 2009

• Demigod
• Dawn of War 2
• The Sims 3 (yea, I admit it)

Ironclad's Blair Fraiser has put up a terrific development diary on a topic that affects many multiplayer strategy games - the anatomy of desyncing in multiplayer. It's well worth checking out.

Also, I have written a little piece on living with Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1.

View: Sync Woes!

View: Living in Sins..v1.1

Sins of a Solar Empire is a real-time space strategy game that incorporates a lot of the strategic depth normally reserved for traditional turn-based 4X strategy games. A lot of this magic comes from the innovative user interface concepts developed by Vancouver-based Ironclad Games.

Published by Stardock in February of 2008, Sins of a Solar Empire has become a tremendous success both critically (average review of 4.5 out of 5) and commercially (half a million copies sold and counting).

When the game first came out, Stardock and Ironclad rolled out several updates to improve balancing based on player feedback, add new features and even improve graphics.

Then, Ironclad did something truly remarkable, they went and developed a v1.1 that was, in many respects a mini expansion pack unto itself.  Version 1.1 includes an ambitious new multiplayer system called Alloy. In effect, it largely eliminates the need to mess with router ports. It "just works".  I can attest to the effectiveness of Alloy as someone who had a heck of a time getting multiplayer games going, v1.1 made this a joy.

In addition, the AI was dramatically updated, the graphics overhauled, and hundreds of other enhancements and tweaks made to the game.  In short, the game, already good, is now dramatically better.

Below is just a little diary of some of my experiences with Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1.

My home planet from which I start.

One of the nice touches of v1.1 is that I can, by default, buy and sell resources right from the main screen. Same is true for handling of pirates.

The left side of the screen continues to show the empire tree.

Of course, what really makes Sins of a Solar Empire stand out is the sheer scale of things.

Players can set up a game with one star and a dozen or so planets. But they can also go crazy and have several star systems with many planets -- and play multiplayer with these settings where players can save games and continue them later. 

Zooming out...

So you get an idea of the level of scale that is possible if you really want.

Now, I have my own wish list of things I'd like to see in a future v1.2 such as a "Faster" speed available in on-line multiplayer in terms of how fast resources are mined and how fast ships travel between phase lanes and I'd like to see more splash damage improvements for TEC but in many respects, Sins is a remarkable strategy game for being able to deliver significant depth and also good old fashion very pretty battles.

Ironclad has a couple of expansion packs in development. The first one is called Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment which lets users build starbases and a host of other structures that let players truly lay claim to territory.  Another expansion for next year (tentative of course) is designed to expand the diplomatic scope of the game. 

If you don't have Sins of a Solar Empire, you can get it directly at https://www.sinsofasolarempire.com. It's also available at most retailers worldwide.

Cheers!

We released Galactic Civilizations II v2.01 today which adds some improved computer AI updates, economic balancing improvements and fixes some crashes we introduced in v2.0.

You can download thew new version from Impulse.

Download: GalCiv II: Twilight of the Arnor v2.01

I don't have a specific change log in front of me but I can tell you a few of the things that went into v2.01 over 2.0.

First, the AI is better. I made changes to how the AI decides which planets to colonize and improved how they pick their research projects.  The overall "Feel" of 2.01 in terms of pacing and general fun is just much improved really in my opinion.

Second, the team fixed some crashes that we had noticed.  I'm not sure what caused them but I know that they're gone now. We're not sure how they crept in there but it was certainly something that got introduced in v2.0.

Another cool feature is really a set of changes to research costs and tourism that just make the game feel a bit better. It's hard to really define but long time players I think will appreciate the general maturing of the play balance.

Lastly,I updated more of the game images to get rid of older images. I'll bee doing this more and more as I play so expect a v2.02 at some point in the near future.  I play at very high resolution so when I see a low resolution planetary improvement, it drives me crazy.

Here are some screenshots:

 

Now, as part of my job, I have to play-test these games for hours and hours at a time.  It's a true sacrifice. What can I say, I'm a real hero.

 

This is truly why things like Twilight of the Arnor and v2.0 are so important. You really can future-proof a game by just enhancing the graphics and such without having to rewrite the entire game. 

I never get tired of that.

I read on-line how some people don't even look at the battles. I must say, even after 2 years since the original release of GalCiv II, I still watch them.

Things are moving forward quickly. Seeing a drake, in battle, up close and personal is really cool.

One thing that I believe is going to make a huge gulf between Elemental and what we've seen before is that Elemental is a 4X strategy game designed and engineered in an age where decent 3D acceleration is the norm which means we can do a lot of cool stuff in terms of UI, game mechanics, and game play. 

In the meantime, here are some new medallions:

 

Hi guys, just a note where we're at.  It doesn't look like we're going to have the beta ready in time for Thanksgiving.  It's pretty close but even if we made it by Wednesday, with so many people off for Thanksgiving, it's just not one of those things we would feel good about putting up and leaving.  We hopefully will have it the following week.

Now, that said, let's talk about some of the stuff the team at Gas Powered Games is working on as well as things we're contemplating.

First, there's a lot of new purchasable items in the game.  That said, one type of item we're contemplating are a series of rings that players can purchase that are particularly effective against specific Demigods.

For instance, let's say there's a Demigod who does a lot of stun-based spells. There would be rings that players can purchase that can greatly diminish that effect. Similarly, there are rings that do specific damage against particular Demigods.  This way, players who are somewhat skilled can equip their Demigods up to go against their specific opponents.

We're still mulling this over but we'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Another concept we're contemplating on implementing are active flags. That is, if you capture a flag, that flag may give you a power you can make use of that would mostly take the form of building a special type of tower that would further magnify the effect of that flag.  Other flags with different powers may make their way in based on time/budget but the idea here is that capturing flags wouldn't just give you a passive bonus to your team but also an active power you can make use of on the map tactically.

The GUI Championships is a contest held every other year in which different aspects of the Windows GUI are customized by contestants.

The contest has over $15,000 in cash and prizes available to those who win.  The way it works is that the entries are judged by a panel of experienced UI designers (including myself). The finalists are then voted on by users.

This year, a new category was added -- animated wallpaper.  Animated wallpaper is a tricky thing to do because you want something that is nice to look at but isn't distracting.

Each judge has their own criteria for what makes a good animated wallpaper.

My criteria are:

• How good does it look
• How usable is it (is it distracting)
• How much CPU does it use

With that said, here are the finalists:

Above the Stream

Original:  5

It's reasonably original but water flowing down the stream is something we've seen a lot of.

Usable: 8

Very good. It's a video dream but i don't see any looping while running it, the quality is good and it uses little in terms of CPU for me. I could definitely run this all day.

Overall: 7

A good animated wallpaper.

 

ALF

Original: 4

It's a ball of energy. Not a bad effort.

Usable: 4

It uses quite a bit of CPU on my system and the animation is a bit distracting. No noticeable looping.

Overall: 5

A nice effort, just not my style.

 

Alien Queen (v2)

Original: 8. Very original creation.

Usable: 5. Not too distracting but it uses quite a bit of CPU. Great looping. Seamless.

Overall: 7. Better than the sum of its parts really. It's a good work.

 

Alternate Reality

Original: 5.

Usable: 4. Central ball rotates with dots moving around. It's quite distracting, uses a lot of CPU.

Overall: 3. Woudl actually have been better off without the ball in the center. The background has a subtle flow effect that is pretty decent.

 

Autumn Leaves

Original: 9. While leaves aren't that origianl, the quality of this is really outstanding. This is better than most of the video-based dreams included with Windows DreamScenes.

Usable: 8. Averages about 5% of my CPU. Very low CPU requirement. It's also extremely pretty.

Overall: 8. Oustanding work.

 

Brahmand

Original: 10. Fantastically original. Wow.

Usable: 7. It's actually quite usable. At 138 megs, it's not surprising that it has a very long loop. Uses very little CPU.

Overall: 8. This is one of my favorites in the contest.

 

Calm Seas

Original: 3. There's actually quite a few dreams like this one. I like it but it's not terribly original.

Usable: 7. Extremely usable in my opinion. Low CPU, smooth flowing. Some may find it quite distracting.

Overall: 4. I like this one quite a bit but it reminds me much of others I've seen. I also think that other people may not like it because the motion could be seen as quite distracting for some people (it doesn't bother me).

Original: 5. It's a lot like other water-based dreams except the designer made the decision to have it be very dark which was a clever choice because it makes it much more usable and original.

Usable: 10. This is about as usable as it gets. It's more usable than any of the Stardock Design dreams that came with Windows DreamScenes (except for maybe Aurora).

Overall: 9. I would say that this dream represents what animated wallpaper can be. It's very usable but simple. Some may feel it's too simple. I suspect it wasn't terribly difficult to make but effort to create isn't one of my criteria. Those reading this later may want to keep that in mind.

 

 

Color Array

Original: 5. A cool rotating image

Usable: 2. It is not smooth on my machine at all. Low CPU but the looping is not seamless and is very distracting.

Overall: 4. A decent effort.

 

ColorClouds

Original: 8. This is one where a screenshot doesn't do it justice. It's really quite a neat Dream.

Usable: 3. Low CPU but it's just way too distracting for daily use.

Overall: 3. I like it but it's not something I would keep on my desktop.

 

cubic

Original: 6. Cool objects dancing

Usable: 5. Somewhat distracting, fairly high CPU use.

Overall: 5. Nice work ovearll.

 

Dead Planet

Original: 3. Not a bad concept but the execution needs work. Feels rushed. It's mostly static other than the rotating planet. That's fine except that the static part isn't strong enough on its own. I'm all on board with animated wallpapers that are extremely subtle but it also means that the overall quality of the wallpaper has to be higher. I.e. looking at the above screenshot, how good is it on its own compared to other static wallpapers? Then imagine the planet in the background orbiting fairly quickly.

Usable: 6. It's quite usable except that the planet can actually be distracting because it moves relatively fast. It's also 120MB in size which isn't uncommon but there's not enough going on to justify that size.

Overall: 4. I would personally use this on occasion but it doesn't really stand out.

 

 

Distant Moon

Original: 10. This is outstanding.

Usable: 10. Subtle, uses virtually no CPU (3% here).  Only downside is that it is big. It trades size for CPU use.

Overall: 10. One of the best animated wallpapers I've ever seen.

 

Fluttering Nature

Original: 8. This is a really good animated wallpaper.

Usable: 9. Extremely usable. Very low CPU usage (my CPU spiked in the screenshot because of Incredibuild). Higher quality than what comes with Windows DreamScenes in terms of video.

Overall: 9. If you like realistic wallpaper, this is about as good as it gets.

 

Galaxius (v2)

Original: 8. Very original. The art quality could be better but it's still first rate.

Usable: 6 Quite usable though oriincally if it didn't have the planets that slowly come into view and move around it would be more usable. Also, the star bursts from the light sources are somewhat distracting.

Overall: 6. It's a good effort.

Gargoyle

Original: 10. A scene of a scale from day to night. It's very clever. The gargoyle statue turns into a demonic thing during night and during the day it's just a statue. It's really quite cool.

Usable: 2. The changing in color, sometimes rapid, can be very distracting.

Overall: 6. High quality work. I probably wouldn't run it very often because the concept requires the wallpaper rapidly changing from darkness to lightness which is too distracting.

Hypnotic Flower

Original: 7. It's a good animated pattern.

Usability: 8. Very usable. Low CPU.  There's a couple moments where light colored ribbons twirl quickly across the screen which is distracting.

Overall: 8. This is an animated wallpaper I will likely use.

Life on Europa

Original: 8. I love the concept here. It's a near-perfect blend of something that looks good even when paused with something that really shines when animated.

Usable: 8. Low CPU,  easy on the eyes. Looks good when paused.

Overall: 8. One of the best submissions.

Metal Milk.

Original: 10. This is my favorite entry. It's one of the few that looks incredible just from its screenshot and it looks even more incredible in action.

Usable: 10. Low CPU, looks great paused, consistent motion makes it low distraction.

Overall: 10. This is the best entry this year in my opinion.

 

MiG 17

Original: 8. Very original but it's not clear how this isn't just a rendered scene as opposed to something made to be an animated wallpaper.

Usable: 3. Very distracting because of the jerky camera.

Overall: 4. Very high quality work but I'm not sure if it's been made to be an animated wallpaper or not.

 

Motion

Original: 8. While energy/light effects aren't generally original. It's the execution that really makes this special.

Usable: 10. This is something that shows off what animated wallpapers are all about.

Overall: 9. One of the best entries this year.

Ocean Clouds

Original: 4. Water and clouds with clouds passing over.

Usable: 5. The clouds moving is pretty cool and I think it's a great scene but I find it a bit distracting.

Overall: 6. A case where it is greater than the sum of its parts.

OGA Processor

Original: 7 It's pretty original

Usable: 3 Low CPU use but I just don't like this one.

Overall: 3. It could be a matter of taste but this one isn't my style.

Plaktonic

Original: 10. This is a scene that was clearly designed to be an animated wallpaper.

Usable: 9. Some may find the movement distracting but I don't think most would. It's really oustanding. Uses virtually no CPU.

Overall: 10. One of the best animated wallpapers in the contest. If this won, I wouldn't be surprised.

Rainy Flower

Original: 8. Similar to some of the other ones I've seen but it's really good.

Usable: 8. It's a tough call on this one because on the one hand,it's very pretty but on the other hand, would someone use this if it weren't animated? The colors are a little muted (since it was taken when it was overcast) and the camera is so tight that it's a little jerky.  Low CPU use.

Overall: 8. A very good entry.

Springtime in the Alps

Original: 8. This is a good scene for an animated wallpaper because the execution is so good that one could imagine taking a moment to just look at it and relax.

Usable: 7. It's a little distracting but it's a nice distraction.

Overall: 8. This is one that people need to download and try for themselves as the screenshot shows you very little about it. This one will be very hard for people to judge because it is so dependent on the person viewing it.

The Abyss

Original: 4. Energy pattern that looks somewhat low resolution.

Usable: 5 Somewhat high CPU use (WMV base?). Somewhat distracting.

Overall: 5. If you like energy patterns, and many do, this is one to check out.

The Depths

Original: 7. I'm not sure how to describe it. The energy ribbons move around on a watery/motlen background.

Usabilty: 5 High CPU, the ribbons are a bit distracting.

Overall: 5. A nice entry though I'm not sure if the energy ribbons add or distract from it.

Dream Machine

Original: 10. Good gravy this thing is cool. Whatever the designer is having, I want some of that!

Usable: 10. Low CPU, easy on the eyes, makes a good still wallpaper. Just insanely good.

Overall: 10. One of the best entries of the contest. A definite contender for best overall.

Tidal Forces

Original: 9. Very clever concept.

Usable: 8. Low CPU usage, easy on the eyes, makes a good wallpaper on its own. Clearly designed as an animated wallpaper.

Overall: 8. One of the better entries to the contest. I like it a lot.

Venus

Original: 6. Not a bad effort here. It's a water scene with a cool sky effect.

Usable: 8. Quite usable. Avoids any distracting effects. The animation is a bit too fast overall and it uses quite a bit of CPU.

Overall: 7. It's a good effort but its animation is a bit too fast and its CPU use a bit too high. (15% on my monster rig).

Warp

Original: 9. If aliens had an acid trip, this is what it would look like I bet. Very well done.

Usable: 9. Near perfect pacing, low CPU, great work.

Overall: 8. An excellent entry, if I had to say anything about it negative it would be that it overall is missing "something" to make it to the very top artistically. But it's still outstanding.