Beta 4 Impressions

from Elemental Forums

Beta 4 definitely is more of a game than previous Betas, but it seems far from being finished. Forgive me please for comparing it to Civilization, but I've never played any Stardock games before and the reason I bought Elemental is because it claimed to be a Master of Magic style game. And Master of Magic was basically a Civ clone with magic and tactical battles.

So as I play Elemental Beta 4 I look for its Civness. I want it to inform me, lead me to a certain extent, help me to grasp the complexities of play, but it does little of that. It doesn't tell me why I should built peasants. Will they be able to defend me? Will they level up? Will they be replaced by future units? It gives me a shop where I can buy things but who are they for? Are they for my sovereign? Are they automatically equipped on particular units? Do I manually equip them?

And then there's unit management. The left hand side of the screen shows my cities and my sovereign and that unit you get at the beginning, but that's it. How do I know who else needs to move during a turn? And yes, I know Stardock games always do it this way but as someone who has been involved in non-gaming software development for twenty years, I know that's never a good reason to stick with a particular way of doing things.

I did play with the mod tools a bit and while I was completely bewildered by the map editor, the tile editor seems really powerful and is very neat. The somewhat underwhelming graphics in the game and editors don't bother me, and to be honest, I just want the game to be more gamey. I don't want to wander around aimlessly, learning the systems by scanning through FAQs, forums, and spending hours and hours playing the game. I want it to be something deep and rewarding but fun even with a modest investment of my time.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I had the same feeling, and I've played GalCiv 2 quite a bit.  I think the big difference here is that we see a MoM-like game and expect certain behaviors out of it that aren't there.  It's missing a ton of noob-friendly things, but I'm hopeful this will come with the campaign.  As I recall, the GC2 campaign did a decent job of introducing you slowly to the core mechanics.  But if Elemental is similar, there will still be things that you won't readily grasp without looking at forums or a wiki page or something.

I definitely hope that Stardock can spend a lot of time making the game accessible, as its learning curve is a bit steep.

To answer at least one of your questions, peasants are indeed for defense (or offense, for that matter).  You need them to keep your towns safe, though I can't really say much beyond that, as I've had a tough time really getting into the game so far.

On the plus side, one thing you can't say about Brad is that he's unwilling to admit mistakes.  He said he currently hates the UI and wants it to be more user-friendly.  It may not happen by 1.0, but it will get a major fix for sure.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


So as I play Elemental Beta 4 I look for its Civness. I want it to inform me, lead me to a certain extent, help me to grasp the complexities of play, but it does little of that. It doesn't tell me why I should built peasants. Will they be able to defend me? Will they level up? Will they be replaced by future units? It gives me a shop where I can buy things but who are they for? Are they for my sovereign? Are they automatically equipped on particular units? Do I manually equip them?

 

I would guess that things like this will be taken care of in the release (the manual if nothing else). Of course, we don't have a manual during the beta process.

To answer your questions: Yes, they will be able to defend you - attack stuff (like creatures or bandits). They will be replaced eventually either by units you design (see the design option when training units?) or, now, eventually the game will make units for you as you progress in military tech.

The shop is items for Sovereign and Champions that are in the city (if you have more than one unit you can buy for, you'll be able to select at the bottom left the "active buyer" so to speak. Stuff isn't auto-equipped, so you'll have to equip things you buy/find. Non-champions/sovereigns are equipped via the design interface and you have to unlock certain gear before you can do so (via Military tech and choosing technologies that lead to weapons and armor).

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Well I gotta believe that Stardock will hold back some suprises for the actual release !

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

i dont get what its hard to understand

 

a peasant has some hp some attack some defense

 

what do you think it is for?

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I think you raise some very strong points. As a project continues it becomes much harder for all involved to be able to step back and see the big picture as though for the first time.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting ddd888, reply 4
i dont get what its hard to understand

 

a peasant has some hp some attack some defense

 

what do you think it is for?

 
Farming?

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Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 6

Quoting ddd888, reply 4i dont get what its hard to understand

 

a peasant has some hp some attack some defense

 

what do you think it is for?

 
Farming?

 

That's a reasonable thought actually.
Should be "Town Militia" or something.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 6

Quoting ddd888, reply 4i dont get what its hard to understand

 

a peasant has some hp some attack some defense

 

what do you think it is for?

 
Farming?

 

Thank you for the giggle. +1 karma !

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

There is a user manual that comes with the betas. If you double click from Impulse, one of the options is to open the manual.

Also, at the top right is the ? icon which gives links to various help topics (which will get a lot more attentions before release).

We absolutely agree that the game should lead the player more. But that is not the purpose of the beta program. Those are the kinds of finishing touches that are left to the end.