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Elemental: A Preview of Magic & Sorcery

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Elemental: A Preview of Magic & Sorcery

from JoeUser Forums

In Elemental BETA 2, the strategic objectives are strictly limited because the player does not have access to magic. The goal is to see what the strategic strengths and weaknesses of Elemental’s mechanics are when magic has been restricted.  Elemental Beta 2 is Elemental: Mundania.

In Elemental: Mundania, food is the critical resource. Materials are fairly easy to come by and metal can be found. But ultimately, food is the key strategic element. Food allows for larger populations which in turn allows for more city specialization which allows for larger armies and so forth.

But Magic changes everything.

The Power of Sorcery

A few points to consider:

  • Magic is already needed to revive the land enough to build on. With an even greater essence sacrifice Sorcerers can revive the land to become fertile.
  • Citizens default to only 5 hit points. Far too few points to bother spending money equipping such fragile beings. Spells, Shards, and Essence sacrifices can vastly change this. In The Silmarillion, Morgoth sacrificed much of his inherent strength into his minions. Players can choose to do this as well via Sorcery.
  • Potential Champions wander the world. What makes them special? What makes an Adventurer or Loremaster worthy to stand out from the average peasant? The difference is that they have the rare gift of being potential Sorcerers. You can imbue them with some of your essence and then they too can start to contribute to your Kingdom of Magic.

The Strategic Elements

Food is important in a mundane world. The shards, however, are the most important resource in a magical world.

These things and more you will see during the Beta 3 series. Stay tuned!

294,407 views 89 replies
Reply #76 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Shirley, reply 43

In The Silmarillion, Morgoth sacrificed much of his inherent strength into his minions.


That's decided it, my player name will be Gothmog.

Bleh! That is supposed to be the name of my Sov. *stares at his avatar*. }:)

Reply #77 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting jackswift85, reply 40



Quoting Hound,
reply 34
Could there be a way to focus entirely on magical power and spell research and stay competitive in the game?

Minimal expansion, minimal armies but superior magical power and knowledge to secure and seal some shards for yourself. And a way to hide or forcefield your stronghold while you go for the Spell of Mastery. A high risk / high reward approach where once exposed, even a small army would destroy you. Would be fun I think.



I really like that idea, but it would have to be implemented in a way where magic evolves independently from city size. Last I saw, you still need to build arcane labs, etc. to research spells and studies/libraries to research spell techs. Someone without expanded cities would not be able to keep up 'spell tech' wise with bigger nations (if this was changed somewhere along the line, please let me know, haven't got much chance to browse the forums).

As a suggestion, what would happen if we made spell research and spell techs independent from research buildings and instead had everything focus on your sovereign? More intelligence means a faster rate of teching up spell research? Maybe sacrificing essence to get certain techs quickly (like demon summoning, that always requires a sacrifice, right? )? That way small nations could focus compeltely on leveling their sovereign and teching up the magic tree without mega-research academy nations teching up magic faster than you in 5 turns.

You could have an "Archmage" feat available at Sovereign creation that would give a massive boost to Spell Research and Power but also massive penalties to production/construction/tax.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #78 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Tormy-, reply 77



Quoting Shirley ,
reply 43

In The Silmarillion, Morgoth sacrificed much of his inherent strength into his minions.


That's decided it, my player name will be Gothmog.



Bleh! That is supposed to be the name of my Sov. *stares at his avatar*.

Also Durin's Bane. Gothmog was also another guy at the dark gate i believe. A few people have carried that name.

Reply #79 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 56



EVERYTHING in Elemental is overpowered.

You start out with a shard in your area but maybe no food. Or maybe you have food but no metal in your area. Or maybe you have metal but no horses. Or maybe you have a shard and horses but you have no crystal. Or maybe you have a shard and crystal but no good NPCs.  

EVERY game of Elemental should be a roller coaster ride of imbalance. But Fun.

Though, NOT until release dammit. If you are having fun during the betas, I'll find you!

This is great to hear. The last thing I want is another TBS that provides a formulaic path to victory, and once you have learned that formula it just becomes a matter of how well you can implement that formula.

I want a game that every game makes me say "Oh, crap!" and not only that I want it to make me say it for a multitude of different reasons and again with no pre-set solutions. Something that at least from time to time forces me to be creative.

That was what I loved about Master of Magic. OK there was a formula to win, but there were so many meaningful and game changing options that the game was still fresh after 30, 50 even 100 games.

Reply #80 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Hawawaa, reply 65
It was still fun though John! WAIT I DIDN'T SAY THAT! (FROGS!)

And I tried the Ctrl-Tab thing yet again. At least I think it was Ctrl-Tab. It was dark.

Can I ask where in hell did you get that 150pt. Attack dude?

P.S. I'll be BAAAACK!

Reply #81 from Elemental Forums Top

Wait? What!?!?!  o_O 150pt attack? uhhh... I first hired any unit or group with attack rating. I killed off the useless units for power leveling. 150pts? I thought I had like in the ball park of 50? I only put points into strength or dexterity if it really helped the unit. I always put points into combat speed. Also I made sure everyone could at least walk 3 tiles a turn. My battle party did level a lot, I think my highest was like 7 or 8...

Reply #82 from Elemental Forums Top

OH! Battle Rating! Now I know what you mean. :grin: Ya just level up a lot and put your points in the right area. I had a group of like 4-6 guys depending on who I found or if I had enough money.

 

I got a question does logistics help battle rating?

Reply #83 from Elemental Forums Top

EVERYTHING in Elemental is overpowered.

Overpowered peasants... well that'll teach those pesky dragons. :thumbsup:

Shards should change the availability to teach non-sovereigns the spellbooks. Say for instance that my Sov has the firebook and doesn't find fire shards, he'd still have all the fire spells, but if he finds an earth shard he can give that to a champion or to himself, sacrificing essence in the process. This means that the books you choose at sovcreation is a safeguard for the specific spellschool. It also means that expanding nations can claim extra shards to help support the casters needed to hold many small or another large nation at bay. Plus it would mean a caster sov could bunker up and suck their thumbs until they get to summon killer rabbits, dragons, or whatever hey dream of.

Reply #84 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 56
Though, NOT until release dammit. If you are having fun during the betas, I'll find you!

 

Guilty. Dx

Reply #85 from Elemental Forums Top

i would like to get a preview on the differences of the spellbooks...

moreover, i kinda liked the system in mom where you could spend points to buy "more" of the same spell books and get access to higher level spells - therefore there was a tradeoff between pure specialization and jack of all trades...like to see that too in elemental

Reply #86 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Nemesis7884, reply 86
i would like to get a preview on the differences of the spellbooks...

moreover, i kinda liked the system in mom where you could spend points to buy "more" of the same spell books and get access to higher level spells - therefore there was a tradeoff between pure specialization and jack of all trades...like to see that too in elemental

Even more critical to my way of thinking was the impact your spellbook choices had on your ability to enchant items. Buying 6 books of Nature magic was very expensive, but being able to give your heros items of regeneration was a game changing ability.

Will Elemental also have enchantment ala MoM I wonder?

Reply #87 from Elemental Forums Top

I was hoping to see a few spells in action. I've already seen the fire shard in game :P

Reply #88 from Elemental Forums Top

i wouldnt like if you get access to all spells by just choosing one spellbook...maybe you will also have to research for it...but i would definitely appreciate if there was always some kind of tradeoff, something like if you choose that spell you cant choose that one or you are limited to a certain spell choices from the whole deck or like the mentioned mom system