Idea: Pay Attention to the Ideas Forum

from Elemental Forums

I know it's a revolutionary and perhaps impractical idea, but I think it's worth suggesting anyway. There are a lot of great ideas for how to improve this boring game and so far modders have done a lot more to make the game fun than Stardock has, so here's my idea.

Hey Stardock, pay attention to the ideas suggested here, stop relying on modders to make the game worth playing and do it yourselves. Relying entirely on modders to make the game fun just ends in a complicated mess of mods not all of which are compatible with eachother or changes to the latest version. Relying on modders to make the game fun makes it less accessible to everyone else, modders are great to have but mods aren't always kept up to date and can be a hassle to find, download, and install which can put people off. It's also a hassle for the modders who can put a lot of work into something only to have to go back and redo it because of a patch, and a lot of the time mods just aren't able to do what people are suggesting, and some mods can have unintended and unforseen consequences on how the game operates.

You shouldn't expect your customers to be programmers, you guys are the ones who promised us a revolutionary strategy game, plenty of people have great ideas for how to improve it, so listen to them. This game should be fun as a core game, still moddable but not some dull shell of a game to install mods onto.

15,892 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't think this is a very productive post. Stardock is very involved in the community. I'd love it if they would get more involved in the 'idea' forum more, but they are way more involved, in a good way, than most other companies.

 

Go read up on Fallen Enchantress. It is including many things that the community has asked for. I'm keeping my hopes up that it willl be better than WoM.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

The game is open to modding on a level that is only paralleled by Civilization 5. That has nothing to do with the quality of the core game. The modding community was able to take a poorly executed core game and add the things they wanted in the game that weren't there. There was no reliance on them to make the game better. FE is what Stardock is relying on to fix the game. They added a dedicated staff of video game developers that work full time on Elemental. FE is taking Elemental into a more focused direction. I think this is a strong strategic choice by Stardock and hope that it allows for higher quality products in the future. 

That said, the only ideas Stardock should be listening to are mine.  :P

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

But if they aren't paying attention to the ideas forum how will they know about your idea that they should pay attention to the ideas forum?o_O

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

We pay attention to the ideas forum.

But there's not really a scenario where War of Magic is going to be re-designed at this point. It's just updates from here on out. Fallen Enchantress, by contrast, is a very radical departure.

In some respects, WOM was a bit like a GalCiv but for land (the terrain was rather meaningless).  FE is like MOM where the terrain matters. And as a result, the two games become difficult to even compare. Hence, a lot of the ideas don't apply to FE because the game mechanics are more MOM-like than WOM-like.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 4
In some respects, WOM was a bit like a GalCiv but for land (the terrain was rather meaningless).  FE is like MOM where the terrain matters. And as a result, the two games become difficult to even compare. Hence, a lot of the ideas don't apply to FE because the game mechanics are more MOM-like than WOM-like.

 

Yep - exactly the way many of us feel about Elemental.

 

But...

 

How exactly is it changing? I know there are going to be certain special areas, as show in one of the design journals. What about everywhere else, ie: what I assume will be the majority of the game map? Will it all still be useless space with a few new special areas?

 

I honestly don't know for certain how best to 'fix' this issue. Maybe I'm just an old Civ guy, but I still think that the simple system there of different terrain types providing simple bonuses is good, with some  limitations. It never did a good job of allowing for mega cities to develop, since every city had to use local food (I think Civ II had food caravans or something), so in some ways Elemental has a superior model.

 

The bottom line is that whatever system is implemented should create interesting gameplay. I should have to think about where I put cities. Right now, it is all about the very rare resources...this is ok with the whole post-apoc theme, but the rest of the terrain should also be taken into account. This will force more difficult, interesting decisions.

 

I think we need a new journal on this topic!

https://forums.elementalgame.com/411155/page/1/#2981483

 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

The most obvious change I've noticed is that terrain is much more Civ/MOM like in terms of utilization. in WOM, all terrain was largely cosmetic with special spots.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

That is good news about terrain. Thanks for this unofficial tidbit on FE. Maybe if we knew more about the new design concepts, we could offer more useful ideas.

Also, a little journal about modding capabilities would go a long way towards soothing my unease about spells.   O:)

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 6
The most obvious change I've noticed is that terrain is much more Civ/MOM like in terms of utilization. in WOM, all terrain was largely cosmetic with special spots.

 

Really? Wow...that would be a huge change, if I understand you correctly.

 

So...does terrain now provide some kind of food / production / whatever bonus, per type? How does this work in FE?

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Goontrooper, reply 8

Quoting Frogboy, reply 6The most obvious change I've noticed is that terrain is much more Civ/MOM like in terms of utilization. in WOM, all terrain was largely cosmetic with special spots.

 

Really? Wow...that would be a huge change, if I understand you correctly.

 

So...does terrain now provide some kind of food / production / whatever bonus, per type? How does this work in FE?

 

Like stealing the way Civilization does it?

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Like how each tile on the map has food/production/resources assigned to it, through terrain type and such.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Oh, yes please steal that. 

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Please don't. Horrible micro if you want it efficient, and the map ends up looking all civilized.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't think it will use workers and improvements. I though he was merely saying the concept itself was theft, in which case every TBS fantasy game should steal it. 

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Emperor_Nero, reply 9

Like stealing the way Civilization does it?

 

Can my eyes roll more than this? How would using a system similar to Civs be 'stealing.' Do they have a patent on it? In that case, Civ stole from the guy that invented chess. Bastards, Sid should have come up with his own ideas instead of making a game turn-based. Only chess can do that, damnit!

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

i realize that there won't be any changes to the game other than patches here on out but is it possible to open up essence and action points for modding ?

edit: i'm hoping to mod a version taht uses some of the earlier systems in the game, i thought thoise were more fun :(