Subtle hint about independent powers and/or wild spaces?

from Elemental Forums

In Brad's journal asking what folks think about extending the beta schedule generously, he inlcuded this picture:

The filename is SwampLordPaintingFinal. The big thing in the painting looks to me like a very plausible candidate for Geoff the Slug's (single?) parent.

The beta schedule post also includes a (deceptively?) simple question about the number of players in a game, and already there are renewed posts about how 'empty' a 64-bit map would be without tens and tens of major factions.

I'm still firmly in the Big Maps Should Stay Mostly 'Undeveloped' camp, because I very strongly believe that enabling 'traditional city tesselation' (TBS urban sprawl) will be both boring for long games and remove a major chance that Elemental has to break new ground in the larger TBS genre. If you weren't reading around here back in late February and are interested in the older discussion, check out garysax's Will there be wild space in Elemental thread and ckessel's Independent Kingdoms thread.

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12,749 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Most likely, this is one of the "beasts" you can recruit to your side. I want to take it into my math class and see how long it takes for the text-iobsessed girl in the back to notice something's up. }:)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Maybe Geoff and the swamp lord are bitter enemies ;)

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

perhaps you'll kill him to recieve lesser mounts of similar nature.

except more like the creature above.

I wonder how long it took to make.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

In Brad's journal asking what folks think about extending the beta schedule generously, he inlcuded this picture:



The filename is SwampLordPaintingFinal. The big thing in the painting looks to me like a very plausible candidate for Geoff the Slug's (single?) parent.


Haha. I thought the same exact thing when I saw that picture!!! Let's hope you're right! Great minds think alike! k1

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting KellenDunk, reply 2
Maybe Geoff and the swamp lord are bitter enemies

Fine idea, but they could still be parent and child a-la Chronos and Zeus or Zeus and Athena.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Geoff and the Swamp Lord are vying for players to do their bidding and commint patricide/(Killing your full grown son)icide?

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting CapnWinky, reply 4
Haha. I thought the same exact thing when I saw that picture!!! Let's hope you're right! Great minds think alike!

Haha, I thought the same thing, too :)

And I would love or this guy to be the guardian/protector of a swamp somewhere - functioning on a level compared to player channelers. Again, no schemes for world domination or for achieving any of the victory conditions (and no ability for it, anyways) - just self preservation maybe modified by some sense of ethics or values. For example if you border this guy's swamp, but drain lots of swamp lands (even if they aren't his swamp lands) - he will probably not like you very much. And so he will not help you and he might even actively harm you. And killing creatures like him should be as tough to accomplish as taking out full-blown players, IMO. And if you befriend him, he will help you in all sorts of ways. He could provide some swamp creatures for your army, he could give your troops free passage through his swamp and remove any movement penalties... In extreme cases he might even go to war himself for you - for example if your death will likely lead to his own demise. That would be awesome: fighting a battle and all of a sudden a giant Swamp Lord bursts into the fray in your defense...

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting pigeonpigeon, reply 7
... And I would love or this guy to be the guardian/protector of a swamp somewhere - functioning on a level compared to player channelers. ...

Sometimes filenames are not much indication of what an artist or dev is thinking, but that word "Lord" in there did leave me thinking exactly along these lines.

The combo of the art and that word in the filename makes it very hard for me to see the thing as a 'recruitable' entity. A possible ally on the other hand, that could be really cool, especially if we will be able to have more than two factions in a tactical fight.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Oooow oooow, I just read this thread :D I think I'm about a month behind everyone else :s

The swamplord pictured does look fantastic, and the name itself makes me hopeful that he might act as an independent diplomatic entity much as I'd like Geoff to... incidentally I've always kinda pictured Geoff looking a bit like the Slurm Queen from Futurama:

Slurm Queen