I am very excited to see this news, and look forward to the future.  Congratulations to all involved parties.

Congrats and Welcome

I'm only minorly disappointed as this makes FFH mod for Civ V extremely unlikely. However, I'm super excited about this~

Well, this is nice. It seems to indicate that Elemental will soon have much more engaging fluff, at the very least. That's something that I was a bit worried about.

I'm surprised that Kael hasn't posted in this thread. Does he know it exists?

I for one welcome our new overlord. 

This is great news for Elemental's future, having another member on the team who is particularly known for his work in fantasy turn-based strategy games will be a great asset for Stardock. It can only get better from here on.

Is it just me, or is Mr. Paxton looking like a younger version of Brad Wardell.

Thats creepy.

Welcome Mr. Paxton.

Welcomed news Froggy hopefully can have more time to prepare the killer AI and don't struggle all the time with project tasks. And Kael hopefully brings in some visions to bring EWoM to the next level

I only hope that Kael will - and is allowed - to share ideas about plans / changes / implementation like Frogboy shared with us And hopefully, we will have more a mod-driven style of updates to the game compared to the 'super-big' patches other companies do. I would really like to see updates / changes in the same line like it happened with 1.00 to 1.09

Congratulations for your new job, Derek!

Could you and Brad please tell us who will be responsible for the game design of Elemental: War of Magic from now on? You? Brad? Someone else? Split duties? Split how? The press release does not make this clear.

I don't know what exactly Kael has done for the Fall From Heaven mods so I don't feel much excitement.

But if he truly is that great designer that you people seem to believe, then great!   We really need one!

well if you are here and have elemental you might like FFH2, check out what a copy of Civ IV complete would cost - (its about the equivalent of $10 on amazon UK) then go download FFH2 and you can check out the results.

Alternatively  if you question is what makes him so good going through http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=190 would give you some idea of his input to the modding process.

He also co wrote the Civ V modders guide with Dale see http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=385009  We could do with one of these for Elemental  soon - I'm sure Raven X, Heavenfall and others would appreciate it.

(as well as a FFH 3 mod later)

This is really great news! Thanks for the effort (and money!) you put into the further development of Elemental.

Considering the number of people on the Civfanatics forum that have decided to buy Elemental on the news that Kael has joined the team, I think the confidence is pretty unanimous

Excellent point - this move should hopefully pull in a larger player base for the game. 

I can't believe the criticisms of piracy regarding FfH! In no way could the use of those assets have harmed the creators interests. If FfH were being sold for money, then they would be entitled their fair share but that was not the case. To make such a critism, the burden is on you to cite an example of assets used in spite of permission being explicitely denied. It's a non-issue. It's as if you expect that he will continue to use copyrighted material while making games for stardock! Get real.

If anything, the art and assets used in FfH simply shows that Kael has a talent for recognizing quality game assets. Big plus for prospecive Elemental fans.

Well, maybe the acquisition of these customers was the reason behind the hiring? *gd&r*

Eh, I'm supposedly the biggest cynic I know, but that would probably be stretching it.  The Frog has basically dismissed modding as a mover of sales repeatedly, considering it a wasted investment fiscally.  A sales boost from a modder's fans is more likely to come as a shock than be the reason for the hire.

Kael is efficient and keeps perspective.  While reinventing the wheel with FFH2 and making an engine do all kinds of things it wasn't designed for, he still junked numerous features over the course of development because they couldn't get them to work well in the end.  It's perfect management credentials even without his day job.

Kael wrote the whole backstory of Fall from Heaven, he was also the "lead desginer" and basicly driving force behind the mod. I so hoped he would do a FFH mod for elemental and this is even better. I am sure Elemental will stick with it's current backstory but will become more of a MoM style game as FFH was the closest I have ever seen another game come to it. I forone also hope to see the races get thier due under him.

Congratulations Kael.   

The promised degree of modability (which is still entirely in the "promise" stage) sold 100% of the copies I personally know about.

Welcome Kael.

Modding can definately move sales of expansions, but modders first and foremost require an audience, or else they won't mod. If Kael can put together a functional game out this, its likely the community will grow to a point where the mods are a big part of the value.

Actually given RavenX's Undead Rising, and the community Elf Race Mods, I'd say mods are already a big part of the value of Elemental.  At least for me they are .

Anyway just want to add my welcome to Kael.

  Thanks for all the good wishes, I am very excited to work on Elemental.  I made over 16,000 posts at CivFanatics while working on Fall from Heaven so it's safe to say you will all be hearing a lot from me (and that I hope to hear a lot from all of you).

  The sad truth is I spent way to much time looking for a non-dorky picture of me and that's the best I could come up with.  If it helps, Im not wearing any pants in that picture.