Questions to Developers - Getting back to Elemental

Well, Spore is highly successful.  I'd give "magic spore" a chance, though I want MoM 2 much MUCH more.  (I'd say... infinatly more.   I don't care about spore, I do care about master of magic.  I just would give magic spore a chance)

I wouldn't be worried about "simplification" resulting in shallow single player sandbox epierience.  I mean MoM had pretty simple economy mechanics.   If you recall, around the time Elemental was announced, Frogboy announced they would be making some dramatic changes to the classic 4X strategy game economy mechanics.   It sounds like to me, they are taking a step back and moving in a more classic or simple direction.  (you wouldn't want to alienate all your Civ and MoM fans by having some crazy outlandish economy model that is counter intuitive to the way they've played 4X strategy games since the 80's)

it just occured to me that by not even on the user's box means no Hotseat games?   T_T << is crying

Demigod's multiplayer must have really upset Stardock.    Sins of a Solar Empire wasn't that bad was it?  It is peer to peer right?

Well, hotseat is local multiplayer as compared to online multiplayer. I would assume that they are only referring to the online multiplayer as there wouldn't be a reason for them to host non-online games.

What I am wondering is if the save files for the (online) multiplayer games will still be stored on your own machines, or if they will also be stored on SD's servers.

It's pretty easy to have an economy model more complex than MoM/AoW/Dominions (Dominions in particular is as simple as you can get). So I wouldn't worry much there honestly.

Good question.  I'm going to assume they will store it.  It would make it easier to play from different machines also.  Save game could be linked to your Impulse account.  Login and see your saved games.

   I am also praying we are given   PBEM  and  HOTSEAT...  I hope we're provided a more detailed answer.   Please allow  PBEM and HOTSEAT.   PLEASE.

   I'm not sure the details behind their plans for simplifying the economy, but I hope the modding capabilities will allow us to  add/change/remove  resources as well as adjust the pricing.  Gamers could then adjust the game to be very simple or more complex. 

I can't convey how this absolutely killed E:WoM for me, just now. Completely.
I no longer harbor any hope whatsoever for this game.

I still have hope but it's a huge kick in the arse. I'm defnitely not as excited as I was. I feel like Im being punished for liking multiplayer

To me, it's much more of a matter of principle. I -may- actually like multiplayer in E:WoM, and if I do, I sure as hell don't want to play on servers I have no control over.

I believe we should wait for frogboy to make a post about multiplayer that isn't freash out of working on Demigod before we get upset about it.     

Even so, why would you be punished for liking multiplayer?   I don't think Demigod is going to let this game be released without solid multiplyer.  However they just want to create a very high quality single player experiance. 

Personally, I hope to shape that into a good multiplayer experiance.   Depending on the single player works, I'd like to see an elaborate multiplayer story mode if possible.   Things like good AI and all that from single player, will only help the multiplayer experiance.

I'm excited about the user-custimaztion options and such.   The multiplayer option is just a nessessity to me.  I want it, this game I think needs it, but I don't think its the best feature by any means.  If the content creation features were cut or lessened, then I would be upset.   (I'd say I have more love the 2nd and 3rd plane of existance, even though it hasn't been announced nor has SD given any suggestion that they exist.  But I'll be more sad if SD announces there are no alternate planes or underground options, over the fact that multiplayer games will be hosted by SD)

Hotseat and PBEM will not be possible, if they are using the turn system like in Corporate Machine. Unless they are saying only tactical battles will use that turn system. Then hotseat and PBEM should be in, which is the only way I play multiplayer with 4x games.

I don't know Corporate Machine, so how does its turn system differ from a normal 'this person goes, and then this person goes'?

Corporate Machine is turned based, but with no end turn button. Think of it as being simultaneous turns with out the end turn button, but you can pause it at anytime.

So essentially both people take a turn at the same time? I find it hard to see how a turn-based game could even possibly work if you take turns at the same time, with Unit 1 on Tile A moving to attack Unit 2 on Tile B, but Unit B trying to move to Tile C. Or does it detect an end of a turn? Or is it timed? Super confused here.

I think that the way it works is similar to chess, but with "memory":

You move a unit, then the other guy does, then you do, and so on. When all of the units are moved, the turn ends, at which point you get money, population, etc.

If that is the case, couldn't it just swap the current player when it auto-detects the end of the turn to make hotseat work fine?

Well I have no idea how it will work in Elemental, but in Corporate Machine your salesman can move at the same time as the enemy salesman. I played a game yesterday to refresh my memory, it plays alot like a real-time game. As long there is a pause button I am good.

I just found the answer to tactical combat, so hotseat and PBEM are out atleast for tactical combat. See the thread titled Design elements of Elemental in dev journals forum.

Design elements of Elemental discussed

Brad - will there be any way to quick-resolve combat? Playing out tactical combat is fun when the sides are at all matched, but it's just a drag on my patience when you're going to steamroll the other side or whatever. And sometimes you just want to get combat over with because you're focusing on the bigger picture or a "technology win" or something.

Totally. There's instant-resolve (i.e. two armies meet, one dies), there's auto-resolve where the game zooms in and shows a tactical battle but it's all handled by the AI (ala GalCiv II fleet battles) and then there's full tactical battles where both sides play.

One thing I should mention about the tactical battles that isn't clear in the screenshots is that they're continuous turns. They're not like HOMM. The player tells where they want their units and uses the space bar to pause the action to give new directions. That way, we can get much more interesting battles.

Normally I don't like ANYTHING real-time, but that system would actually work quite nicely.

What about LAN games? I know I sold probably three or four copies of Demigod by installing it on friends' computers for a game night (after which they bought it, of course).

So it will be like Neverwinter Nights where the 'turns' just go by with time, and you can pause it? That seems fair. Perhaps people could just mod in a hotseat mode where you can use only instant-resolve and auto-resolve when fighting against players. Sure, it doesn't match up to LAN, but it would be a nice option for those with only one computer. At least I think =P Well, I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out Thanks for the info, Hadberz!

Don't worry there will still be lots of bears in it

Continous turns... What happens if my opponent uses all his turns before I had time to choose mine... I loose my turn and he can move again? IS that how it works?

No, by my understanding there is no timer, and it works like this:

You move your guy. The oppionent moves his. Then you move another of yours. Then he moves another of his and so on. When neither of you have any moving pieces left, the turn ends and it all resets.

I'm in the same boat...  still worrying and the extremely limited multiplayer was very painful.  I'm praying that  PBEM and HOTSEAT are still being considered, but LAN would be important in my book too.   At the moment it looks like the multiplayer of Demigod has damaged the multiplayer options for Elemental:WOM.  I've frequently heard the programming for multiplayer is one of the more difficult aspects when developing a game, but the more frequently a specific monster is killed the more experienced the adventurer(developer) becomes for killing that type of monster(multiplayer).  

I've always been thinking that since the Stardock developers love playing games like  Worms:Armageddon and Civilization:IV then there would be an interest to provide the same type of multiplayer options for the games Stardock themselves develop.