Elemental: War of Magic - Day 0 Preview

I'd highly suggest to play the campaign later when more patches did come and stay with the random generated worlds for now.

Originally Posted by petardo
But that can work with preview demos not the released version. It is a shame that you can't play with your preordered game because so many bugs, very disapointing IMO.

Sad to hear indeed that game is to buggy. otherwise it would be a rather good strategy.

I bought the game via download Monday night, but havent been able to play because of work. Is it really that much of a dog? Did I waste my money?

From my experience I found the Day 0 release playable, the 1.01 patch caused a lot of problems with my environment and the 1.05 patch has been fine so far.

The unit/building balancing is very different from what was in some of the Betas, taking that under consideration it's a fun game and can only get better.

This is a very complex game, there's a lot of macro-management required and the help system required improvement.

My overall impression that it is a fun game and very complex but I would not recommend it to Casual Gamers who have not played older Civ. style games.

The campaign is woeful. It is treated like a tutorial, but it is very poor in the way it introduces you to the game. I got frustrated after half an hour and went to a sandbox game.

Overall I would have to say I'm not too impressed yet. I traditionally lean to fantasy environments, but Elemental just makes me want to play Gal Civ 2 instead.

Sandbox is infinitely better than the campaign.

Still, MoM is vastly superior…

Originally Posted by spiraling69
I bought the game via download Monday night, but havent been able to play because of work. Is it really that much of a dog? Did I waste my money?

I've had no performance problems or bugs yet. Of course I only played for an hour or so.

Really fun game this far, though the spells seem a bit too generic. Will try it some more tomorrow and see how it is a bit futher in.

I did not even bother with the campaign, jumped straight into the random maps.

Honestly, the game is flawed beyond belief.

You can win the game without building a single city, with just your Hero and the option of having two starting units. You can go conquer the AI's cities - even on hard difficulty - without any kind of penalty.

There are so many oversights, and nothing seems tested or finished.

I have no idea how Brad Wardell can consider this game release-ready, but as he doesn't seem overtly greedy - I'm guessing he's simply incompetent and delusional.

I'm losing respect for Stardock

I'm not sure I particularly like the whole idea of having identical base units that you just build up yourself . . . one of the best things about Master of Magic was that each race had some different troups so there was a real incentive to play all of them to experiment.

Not really got far though so don't know what else there is.

My only other advice would be that they really should have just left the campaign out of it. Sandbox is way more enjoyable, the campaigns could have come with subsequent DLC.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I have no idea how Brad Wardell can consider this game release-ready, but as he doesn't seem overtly greedy - I'm guessing he's simply incompetent and delusional.

A bit harsh, but I agree that it felt like the game was rushed. In my opinion they could've waited till Q1 2011 and their next possible retail date. Especially since they supposedly have money.

On the other hand I consider the improvements made since the end of beta pretty massive and if it continues to improve it will be pretty awesome in a few months.

Originally Posted by SveNitoR
A bit harsh, but I agree that it felt like the game was rushed. In my opinion they could've waited till Q1 2011 and their next possible retail date. Especially since they supposedly have money.

On the other hand I consider the improvements made since the end of beta pretty massive and if it continues to improve it will be pretty awesome in a few months.

True, I'm a very harsh critic. Then again, I sing high praises when something works and is great

I'm extra harsh here, because Brad has been particularly vocal about certain things, and I simply don't believe it's "ok" to sell a product in this condition. Let alone insist in public that it's definitely ready for release, and yet not being anywhere near a game that was released almost 20 years ago. In fact, I think that's downright pathetic.

I'm sure it wil be pretty good a few months down the road, but that's really no excuse for the release state.

I actually trusted Brad about the state of the "day 0 patch" - so I caved, and bought the game.

I don't really care about the money, but on principle - I like to hold people accountable when they fuck up so royally - and based on his reactions around the 'net - he's in denial.

He shouldn't be.

Perhaps all their financial security and past success has taken the hunger out of them. That drive that allowed them to succeed so well with their early titles.

I think I'll wait a few weeks/months until it gets patched up. I've got a few games to play yet anyway and working with GG is taking up all my free time right now anyway.

Originally Posted by LuckyCarbon
Perhaps all their financial security and past success has taken the hunger out of them. That drive that allowed them to succeed so well with their early titles.

I think I'll wait a few weeks/months until it gets patched up. I've got a few games to play yet anyway and working with GG is taking up all my free time right now anyway.

No idea, really.

The only game of theirs I consider good is Sins of a Solar Empire, and I'm unclear as to who exactly developed it. I can't imagine it being the same team, but I don't know.

GalCiv (both of them) was always totally inferior to MoO. Demigod never appealed to me in the least, so…

I think Brad should stick to his WindowBlinds and hire someone who understands game design. Perhaps some ex-SimTex guys? Damn, they were good.

Right up there with the Gollop brothers or Looking Glass.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Sandbox is infinitely better than the campaign.

Still, MoM is vastly superior…

Sadly, true. I get excited every time I see someone making a game claiming to be the next MoM. They never quite manage it. And I am definitely not one to be stuck on thinking what came before is always better. *sigh*

Ironclad Games made Sins and Gas Powered Games made Demigod. Stardock was the publisher, though they gave more direct support than the big publishers.

I agree GalCiv2 was inferior to MoO2, though still a very good game. One thing it did better was having a decent AI. The AI in MoO2, even on impossible, was pretty easy.

Originally Posted by irtehyar
Sadly, true. I get excited every time I see someone making a game claiming to be the next MoM. They never quite manage it. And I am definitely not one to be stuck on thinking what came before is always better. *sigh*

Nope, I'm open towards changes and genre evolution. Some genres have evolved, like the RTS genre.

Master of Orion 2 and Master of Magic, in my mind, still CLEARLY dominate their respective subgenres.

Then again, I think of Simtex as one the best design teams in the world. That is, they used to be.

Today, though, most designers are businessmen - or they think too much about the business or behave like rockstars because they're in the entertainment industry. I don't give a shit who you are or what you do, because if you're not good at your job - you shouldn't be there.

They simply don't understand the games they're trying to emulate. I swear, every single feature in Elemental seems to be implemented with zero understanding of what it should be.

Ok, not ALL of them, but MOST of them.

The best part is probably the city development aspect, which I think they managed to make reasonably interesting and meaningful - but that's about it.

Originally Posted by SveNitoR
Ironclad Games made Sins and Gas Powered Games made Demigod. Stardock was the publisher, though they gave more direct support than the big publishers.

I agree GalCiv2 was inferior to MoO2, though still a very good game. One thing it did better was having a decent AI. The AI in MoO2, even on impossible, was pretty easy.

I concede that the AI in MoO2 wasn't very good.

Then again, I'm all about multiplayer.

Defeating AIs can never be the kind of challenge that interests me. It's like figuring out a puzzle. I prefer dynamic gameplay, myself.

Originally Posted by SveNitoR
A bit harsh, but I agree that it felt like the game was rushed. In my opinion they could've waited till Q1 2011 and their next possible retail date. Especially since they supposedly have money.

On the other hand I consider the improvements made since the end of beta pretty massive and if it continues to improve it will be pretty awesome in a few months.

They do seem pretty committed to supporting and improving it for a while to come. There seem to be quite a few mods out already as well list, I'd always imagined that most of the time I'd spend with the game would be on mods so hopefully there's decent enough quality.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Nope, I'm open towards changes and genre evolution. Some genres have evolved, like the RTS genre.

Agreed! In fact, I was excited about StarCraft 2, it being one of my old favs. When I played it, I was at first happy the gameplay was like the first. Then, I was surprised to find myself wishing I could interact with it the way DoW2 does, and it just felt so shallow in comparison - so I went back to DoW2. When DoW2 first came out, I was offended by how they changed it from the first. Now, I discover on my steam profile that I have donated 255 hours to it and it's expac. (!!) And I've only played the multiplayer about 4 hours!

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Master of Orion 2 and Master of Magic, in my mind, still CLEARLY dominate their respective subgenres.

Nothing has beaten MoM. They keep trying to shift it toward the HoMM genre and away from the Civ genre. Boo!

I used to love moo (and esp moo2), but I find that this is an area where there actually are some great and fun successors. Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain, Space Empires 4 is a big one, and at least one other I'm forgetting that I've wasted a lot of hours on. GalCiv2 wasn't too bad. And I'm now trying out Distant Worlds. Seems ok so far… huge learning curve, of course. :-) Even the mediocre ones, as long as they're sufficiently complex, and entertaining for a while.