Of course I see your point and agree. All the customization ability in the world won't matter if the Game-Play and Core Mechanics suck. When you have a awesome game though that you already know you love and you'll play for a long Long time, having the ability to add your own personal touches to a game extend the life of the game and just add so much replayability and endearment. It's hard to explain the feeling to someone who's never gamed that way though. The closest thing that comes to mind is the attachment you get to your hand made D&D character you've been playing for years, or the feeling of attachment you get to your online character in your favorite MMO. Being able to customize things makes the game feel more like it's Your game. That's a big draw of Stardock games to me because they always couple that functionality with awesome game-play and core mechanics. I love that in Elemental I'll be able to personalize every building in my Empire with the building editor. That I can personalize the look of my armed forces and my civilians. That I can personalize the aspects of my Sovereign. It will also make identification online easier to other players. There won't be any mistaking who the player is that's crushing your empire into the ground. Those are the forces of Raven Xavier...

I Love that. You are right though. Without a good game to begin with, none of those other things matter at all.

Raven-

I do see your side of it, I too have enjoyed that kind of connection in gaming.

However, for me it does not usually happen in computer games, mostly because when I want to play a computer game I don't want 'waste' my time on 'trivial' details.  Actually that's not totally true, but I find that my interest in performing those actions wanes rather quickly, and what matters ultimately are the mechanics of the game.

My favorite game of all time is probably Angband (or one of it's variants) and I *never* play it with a graphical tile set.  If you know of it (which I assume you do) then you know that it is a triumph of gameplay over 'glitz'.

Anyway, I'm probably just a bit overwrought about the place that Elemental currently is in its beta, because the 'fun' isn't in yet, so all there is, isn't particularly important to me, because I really don't care how some of these elements are designed, I only care about how the entire package works, and that part hasn't arrived yet.

Consider my 'gripes' just me blowing of steam

Hey Luckman, when are you going to announce your Bear Calvary mod?

Oh come on, don't act surprised. You know you're going to do one. I know you're going to do one. Hell, we all know you're going to do one.

Go ahead and announce it already

yes because the only way to have a successful game are to have pretty LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME graphics...i mean that did wonders for age of conan

I might prefer my sorceresses not to have pants

I thought the whole point was options--pants and skirts are a matter of taste and context, not internal vs. external genitals. I'd prefer my Extremely Serious Wizards not to have pants as well. Pants imply strong physicality at minimum and are pretty easily associated with aggression on account of how handy they are for cross-country hikes and riding horses.

I'll second that...who cares about coverage.  Just stun your enemies and blast em with a fireball at your liesure.

-Twilight Storm | My life for the Dahkri

Actually, your wrong. The armour quality is determined by how sexually attractive the female is. Make up can add over 25% of a female's armour!

For males the system works a bit differently. Specifically males gain armour based on the size of their muscles (they don't have to be visable - I.e. look at the human mage in World of Warcraft). However the main portion of male armour comes from mascilinity, i.e. the more RAAAGHH!!! agression you have the higher your armour class. Thats why girly mages who wear dresses have little armour and big manly fighters have the most.

My favourite way to get a female to her highest armour rating is to use a full body suit with strips cut out of the sides all the way down combined with 6 inch heels that tie around the ankel. It is very effective at maximising and enlarging the... umm armour rating...

Conversly my favourite way to get a male to survive is to get him wearing a kilt (NOT IN ANY WAY GIRLY!) with not much else and weild a very very large weapon (to signify the emense size of his manhood of course, not to overcompensate). The more blood of his enemies he has on him - the more armour he gets!

You should really get the Equipment tab out of the appearance tab. it does not belong there because swords cost points and have a gameplay effect, and people who don't want to customize their appearance but have a sword won't find them.

You might also want to add more polygons on the heads of your characters. Right now, they are too low-poly to be likeable.

No nude mod yet? Weak sauce.

That girl looks way too much like my grandma

Wow this thread is old

Frogy: If you want the sov to look sharp, then take her shopping.  If she isn't available, i will happily go in her place.