I have no doubt on that.

Have a nice (and relaxed) weekend!

That's gotta be a spell called Thunderdome

It's good to see that the team is constantly working on making this better; because to be honest, it needs a lot of work (i.e. game breaking bugs that are still affecting me). I think it's good you're putting bugs and such first on your list, but with the constant overarching complaints about fundamental game issues, this should never be far from your minds. There's key issues in the magic, tactical battles, overall fun factor in the game that need to be addressed. But I have faith that with time you guys will make this a solid game worthy of being on every strategy fan's list of games to play.

Also I think it's pretty amazing that THIS much work has already been put into this game in 3 days; that's pretty outstanding for support after release.

Is multi-player going to be available next week?

Thanks for the update.

There is one thing that I hope you guys keep in mind while making changes to the game (this was brought up by a poster in a thread about unit customization being 'toothless'). There needs to be an overarching game plan to Elemental. Right now the game is simply a collection of neat features that don't really interact with one another.

What I suggest you do is take a sheet of paper and just write about the game. Write a guide on how a player is supposed to 'win' a match. Define the early game, middle game and late game. List and describe what kind of things a player should be doing at each stage. What technologies should a player focus on in the early game? What about a bit later? What should prompt a player to switch from researching the civilization techs to adventure /military/magic/diplomacy techs? When should a player start making forward observers instead of regular observers? When does a player need to build a harbor? When should a player be making their second city? What strategic opportunities is the player presented with by taking a second/third/etc... city earlier than his opponent? When should the player research the military armour and weapon techs as opposed to the magic weapon techs?

When you are thinking of and answering these questions try to have a vision, or direction for the game. Do not make it 'open-ended', it just makes it harder for you to balance things and defeats the whole purpose of this exercise.

Good luck.

@ marlowwe

If I had to take a guess (and my psyche won't let me go without making one), I would say those questions will get asked and answered naturally as the AI starts to come "alive" in the post release updates.

You know, I was dead set on not buying the game considering how much I've read on various problems. Gamespot today just announced that they're going the "Wait and see" approach before delving into a full review. That worried me. But, what I've noticed here is the transparency to design and customer support. You keep us well informed on the changes happening now and you release patches very quickly to get the game up to speed. It's nice seeing a company so involved with the customers and are actually listening to them! That means a lot to me and I'm sure many other as well. I'll be getting this game soon, now that I know this game is in very capable hands.

Dear Stardock,

The game is already good and is getting better with each update. One thing that frustrates me though, is the ultra slow and unchangeable mana regeneration rate, sigh.

I think post like this help everyone feel more confident... how about next week different devs post on different days a quick done list/to-do list just so we can see how different areas are going? maybe have jessie explain the fps trick?

also hope that "Magic System Numbers" is followed closely by other combat numbers... general to-hit rolls, defence rolls, action points, individuals vs groups, low health and such... I like the MoM mechanics although I look forward to something even better than that in time. (some mom mechanics here figures 20+ in the strategy guide)

Enjoy your weekend off.

Agreed that "to-do" lists are very encouraging, reassures us that you're aware of and working on the things we keep complaining about Which is especially important for the new customers I imagine, who may not share the confidence us longterm fans have, considering that most companies don't listen to feedback and actively support games post-release like Stardock does.