Elemental - War of Magic

[Kardiophylax]

I've been following this one off and on for awhile now. It's been on the last few editions of my personal "PC Games to Watch" list because I respect their philosophies and their company.

I've not played a 4x style game in quite awhile, but I used to love these types of games (Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Civilization, etc). Stardock seems like a great studio as well. Their focus on PC games is commendable, and they've gone a similar route to Crate in that they are allow pre-purchasers to beta test the game. Not only are they letting them beta test the game, but they have a laundry list of huge features that they have changed based on player feedback. They are just finishing up Beta 1 now which actually had almost the entire graphical engine stripped for its duration. They wanted players to focus on the fundamentals and comment on that, rather than the pretty pictures. What? A company that realizes sophisticated gamers want substance and not just eye candy? Bravo.

It's a huge plus in my book that they are really trying to deliver a game that the fans will enjoy, rather than having too much pride and simply pushing out what they think is best. The world needs more companies designing great PC games like Stardock and Crate in my opinion. I've not pre-ordered Elemental yet, but I do believe I will soon.

Is anyone here in the beta or also following this title?

[ZZSmufa]

Not in the beta, however I've had my eyes on the game for a while now. Stardock is one of the best studios still in business, and Galactic Civilizations 2 is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest 4X game of all time. As history has shown, Stardock really does listen to their players, and keeps updating their games for years after release.

I'm also thinking of pre-ordering, now that I have some time and money again in the summer. Good thing you posted about it, as I'd forgotten to check about the game for some time. Too bad there doesn't seem to be a feed for the journal entries to subscribe to, or maybe I'm just blind.

[sevrun]

Looks like a good premise, really depends on how they put it together. Not so sure GC2 was the greatest, I'm more a fan of Masters of Orion 1 an 2 personally.

[Renevent]

It's one of my most anticipated games of the year...looks really great.

[Kardiophylax]

Just bit the bullet and put my limited edition pre-order in for this one. I am getting into a bad habit of investing money in games I can't play yet. Hmmm.. :D

The more I see of the game the more I want it. It will fulfill the slower paced/strategy itch I need scratched once I've gotten my action filled GD fix. Plus I wanted a cloth map to remind me of the old days. Nostalgia strikes my wallet again. I'm also a sucker for quality mod systems, which it appears this game will have.

[Kardiophylax]

Lots of goodies coming out about this game this week:

New Video of early game (tactical combat will be used, but isn't in this demo video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqZLLuBbd6w (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqZLLuBbd6w)

Initial IGN impressions:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/109/1093898p1.html

Gamespot Spotlight on Elemental:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6264408.html?tag=siteblogs%3Btitle%3B1

New Dev Journals on their forums:
http://forums.elementalgame.com/forum/513


This game is screaming out to me to use its mod tools as well. Looking like it is going to be an awesome 4X turn based title. I should be in the next beta that goes live now, I think.

[Kardiophylax]

I've spent a few hours playing, or perhaps I should say attempting to play, Elemental Beta 3 now.

The latest version has a lot of added features compared to the prior one, but unfortunately frequent CTD and game lockups make experiencing them quite difficult. This is beta though, so I have faith that they will resolve these bugs quickly.

Overall, the game looks like it will be a lot of fun to play once they fix the bugs and make some UI changes to make things more intuitive/easy to do.

I'll report back further when the next beta releases and I can hopefully play a bit longer. My latest autosave locks up when loading, and the prior turn autosave crashes to the desktop upon loading.

Release is set for August 24th I believe. Should be enough time for them to get the kinks worked out and make these types of changes.

[Kardiophylax]

Passing mid July now and my understanding is the game is set to go gold soon to be ready in time for the August 24th release. I'm really worried at this point...

As of now, the general concepts are pretty good but the game itself is lacking compared to other similar turn-based games I've played in the past. The beta has had brief moments of entertainment, but primarily it is an exercise in frustration for me still. The biggest issue I'm facing with the game is that nothing feels intuitive or user-friendly. There are of course multiple CTD scenarios and in game bugs as well, but the biggest issue I'm facing is a complete lack of immersion due to a very poor GUI in my opinion.

I really hope some things change in the next month or so.

[Void(null)]

I just want to put in my $0.02 and say that Brad and Stardock are awesome, they make great games, they have great support and they believe in the PC Gaming Community.

I strongly support Stardock and their Gamer Bill of Rights:



Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

[Renevent]

Passing mid July now and my understanding is the game is set to go gold soon to be ready in time for the August 24th release. I'm really worried at this point...

As of now, the general concepts are pretty good but the game itself is lacking compared to other similar turn-based games I've played in the past. The beta has had brief moments of entertainment, but primarily it is an exercise in frustration for me still. The biggest issue I'm facing with the game is that nothing feels intuitive or user-friendly. There are of course multiple CTD scenarios and in game bugs as well, but the biggest issue I'm facing is a complete lack of immersion due to a very poor GUI in my opinion.

I really hope some things change in the next month or so.

I have read their betas are like that...really rough and they get it together in the last couple of weeks. Brad Wardell made a few posts discussing this and how every beta there are those who scream at him to postpone release, and by the time the game is gold it's awesome and the release game is great.

No personal experience with this, though. Just what I have read :D

[Kardiophylax]

I just want to put in my $0.02 and say that Brad and Stardock are awesome, they make great games, they have great support and they believe in the PC Gaming Community.

I strongly support Stardock and their Gamer Bill of Rights:

I have seen their community interaction and support in action and certainly agree that they are a cut above the rest. I mean they stayed at work for over twelve hours on Friday to get the latest beta released in time for the weekend. I also like the fact that they concentrate on PC exclusive titles and I'm not looking at another console port. If I didn't feel the need to strongly support them, I wouldn't have plopped down $70 + shipping for the limited edition version of Elemental.

With all that said, it does not change the fact the game right now is more frustration than fun. I do realize its a beta and I'm not giving up any hope though.


I have read their betas are like that...really rough and they get it together in the last couple of weeks. Brad Wardell made a few posts discussing this and how every beta there are those who scream at him to postpone release, and by the time the game is gold it's awesome and the release game is great.

No personal experience with this, though. Just what I have read :D


I've read the same thing and heard they've made some incredible changes in the last month pre-release for some of their other titles. I really hope that is the case here.


Long story short, I just wanted to give my current impression of the game based on the beta. Brad has said in the past that the version we have in several versions behind the release candidate version, so I have no reason to believe that is not the case yet. The concept behind the game is wonderful and I can see brief glimmers of excellence within it. I am still hopeful that in the end I will be happy I placed my preorder a few months back.

[Kardiophylax]

Some new videos are up. I will forewarn you that I didn't find them overly exciting, but then again I've played the beta and seen the gameplay already.

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/elemental-war-of-magic/12076

The forums and journals comments have taken a turn for the worse. A lot of people seem to still be very focal about their opinions (primarily negative) about the game and you can tell the devs (primarily Frogboy aka Brad Wardell) are getting tired of it. I suspect it won't be long before he stops responding in the forums at all if things continue the way they are.

Overall, my verdict is still out until I see it in action. It is a very ambitious title that is attempting to cater to a mostly older and stubborn crowd (i.e. hard to please). I have to admit that in some ways Master of Magic appears to still be the better title, although Elemental has many other advantages over it. If they can make battles a bit more exciting (and I believe they will be when creature abilities are implemented), I think the game will be a winner. Right now the tactical battles I've been in during the beta haven't been very thrilling.


EDIT: I should add the mod system looks pretty good so far at a first glance. I haven't decided if I will work on a full scale mod for the game or not yet, but the tile building options are quite impressive. So long as the particle effects and such aren't too system intensive, I could imagine that with enough time a very unique and wonderful game world could be created.

[getter77]

I'm also optimistic that the game will "get there", but I still can't help but think the release date position they got forced into, of either in a few weeks or Feb(?) 2011, is going to be detrimental. I can believe that they've got internal wranglings a good clip ahead of the last beta, but in only so few weeks? Gonna be a rough slog and likely much patching needed directly following release.

[An7hraX]

The last game I played by stardock was Sins of a Solar Empire, it was a hell of a lot of fun. I just noticed they made a game called demigod, which looks like a worthy of mentioning DOTA clone and now this?

Seriously these guys make some great games but they need to fire the senior marketing executive because he's clearly a moron.

[getter77]

They just did publishing and some help with er..."cleanup" on Demigod---that one was developed by GasPoweredGames if memory serves. Supposed to now be a decent game, but was utterly marred and charred by a disasterous initial release on the multiplayer side at least.

[Renevent]

I really like Stardock's games. It has nothing to do with their marketing though...they make niche games. And I've read quite a few interviews from their CEO (I think) Brad Wardell, he says their games are very profitable due to low development costs. Their strategy is to make deep games but with lower production costs that appeal to a more sophisticated demographic. According to him, they have been very successful with this model.

[Kardiophylax]

I really like Stardock's games. It has nothing to do with their marketing though...they make niche games. And I've read quite a few interviews from their CEO (I think) Brad Wardell, he says their games are very profitable due to low development costs. Their strategy is to make deep games but with lower production costs that appeal to a more sophisticated demographic. According to him, they have been very successful with this model.

They also support themselves through the Impulse download service, much like Valve does with Steam.

I can't quote word for word, but I know Brad mentioned that whether or not anyone liked Elemental or if it was profitable, they would be continuing development anyway. Apparently Impulse makes enough money that the game's success doesn't really matter all that much financially.

[Renevent]

They also support themselves through the Impulse download service, much like Valve does with Steam.

I can't quote word for word, but I know Brad mentioned that whether or not anyone liked Elemental or if it was profitable, they would be continuing development anyway. Apparently Impulse makes enough money that the game's success doesn't really matter all that much financially.

Yeah I remember reading that too. Elemental is really a labor of love for Brad...he said he's wanted to make this game for a really long time. Basically he stands behind it 100% and is committed to making it the best game he can regardless of if it becomes a commercial success.

[growler]

I'm waiting for the game too.

[Kardiophylax]

Elemental has gone gold and there are some screenshots of the updated UI on worthplaying as well...

http://worthplaying.com/article/2010/8/13/news/76198/

It appears they fixed nearly all the UI issues I had with the beta releases. Really promising!