Sycraft

Reply to Retail Availability in War of Magic Elemental Forums

If you are a PC gamer, avoid Gamestop. There is actually one in town here that doesn't sell PC games andy more, and those that do have a tiny section. Best Buy is a much better choice, they've got a whole isle of them (about the same amount of shelf space as any given console). Wal-Mart is also a decent choice. Target also has a reasonable number of games, but since they don't do a whole lot of shelf space for any system, including PC, their selection is a bit limited. Online gets you

Reply to [Bug/Graphics] Radeon 5870 has texture problems ***FIXED*** in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

So I’ve found the actual culprit: It is an interaction between Elemental and Adaptive Multi-sample AA. This is a mode that can be turned on in the Catalyst Control Center and causes the card to perform antialising on transparent textures. However, when enabled, as it was on my system, is causes the map problems shown in my post. The solution/workaround is to either disable AA in Elemental, or to disable Adaptive AA in the CCC. I am unsure if this is a game bug or driver bu

Reply to [Bug/Graphics] Radeon 5870 has texture problems ***FIXED*** in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Thus far, this is universal for me. Happens every time I run the game, right from the start. I can then run some other game, and have no troubles. My guess would be a bug in the 5870 drivers, but I'm not sure.

[Bug/Graphics] Radeon 5870 has texture problems ***FIXED*** in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

When I got my 5870 I found Elemental having texture problems it didn't on the GTX 280. With the latest (0.262) build, they still persist. As you can see in the picture, massive parts are missing. http://sycraft.org/elemental/debug03122009.err

Reply to Monday Morning Speedtest.net in Personal Computing Stardock Forums

Depends on the server used. Speedtest servers have trouble accurately testing our Internet at work.

Reply to ETA to the next build? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Tormy-" reply="13" id="2449312"]Well huh, I've mentioned it because it's a really annoying crash [Like I've said I cannot complete a game at all because of it], which wasn't fixed in the last 2 patches. [/quote] Welcome to game testing. You have to remember that priorities are very different in a test stage, especially a very early test like Elemental. While the issue is major to you, because you can't play, that doesn't mean it is major to them yet. They've got a lot of t

Reply to Join Beta in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I would note that they haven't confirmed that people will be let in after Beta 2. It would seem logical this will be allowed, but Stardock hasn't offically announced it. However they have offically said if you preorder the game now, when Beta 2 hits you'll be allowed in.

Odd bug with Deskscapes and a 5870 in DeskScapes Stardock Forums

I just got a 5870 and have been toying with it and there is an odd problem that it seems to have with Deskscapes. As with most modern video cards, it adjusts its clocks to several levels depending on demand. No surprise, Deskscapes causes it to clock up from it's lowest 150/300 state to a 400/900 state. Ok all well and good, however when you run a 3D game, it doens't clock up further. It stays at 400/900. Games work on, of course, card has power to spare, but they don't work as well as they s

Reply to A Battle system: Archer vs Dragon in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="13" id="2424706"]His arrow won't pierce the armor of the dragon and thus no matter how many of them you have, they will die. [/quote] I like this system. I think it makes sense, both in real terms and in game terms, to have powerful units that are unstoppable by weak units. For one it prevents the classic Civilization "tank killed by spearman" situation that we all hate. Sure it is just a game but that really seems to jolt the realism and

Reply to What are the plans for the game's music? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

For those wondering one of the things that makes the music neat in Elemental it is that it is broken down in to sub tracks. In most games these days music is just a bunch of songs. The engine picks which song it wants played when. Works kinda like you do with an MP3 player. Ok, fair enough. However there is the possibility for more flexibility with greater storage. When you compose music, it is done in many seperate tracks. Each instrument, or at least kind of instrument, is on a sepe

[Bug/Gameplay] Starting position a little too good in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

In this game it started me next to TWO fertile lands, a wild wheat, and a mine. Nice, but I am guessing it wasn't intended. Also the Soverign started right on a pickup, which prevents building a city until you move off and back on to it. http://sycraft.org/elemental/debug22102009.err

Reply to [0.25] [BSOD] On Training Soldier on First Turn in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

If you got a BSOD, it is driver or hardware related, not Elemental. While Elemental might have been the proximate cause, a user mode app can't crash the system like that. For that sort of thing you need to figure out which driver crashed (the BSOD will often say) and then report it to that manufacturer.

Reply to …It is time to discuss….DEATH!!!! (or at least combat) in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Damage types I'd give a miss to over all. In any game I've played they either seem to be trivial, or annoying. What I mean is they are either something that makes little difference, and thus you can just ignore and use what you like, or they are a pain in the butt, but make no real difference in gameplay over all. As for experience in additon to being better at attack/defense I think there are a few things you could consider: 1) Better odds of survival if defeated. Part of a v

Reply to Keeping your sovereign alive: The Sequel! in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Well, perhaps offer three levels of Soverign combat as a choice when you make the game: 1) Sandbox mode. Your soverign can't die no matter what. That was for the people who really truly don't want it, they can have it. As the name implies, it makes it real easy. Some people like that though so ok. 2) Standard mode. Your soverign can die, but cen be protected as you've talked about by hiding it in cities and so on. I'd say more or less the system should be one that balances ris

[SUGGESTION] Have the updater clear out all user data files in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

When I first updated to 0.24, it crashed same as the previous versions had. However removing all data files from program data and my games fixed the problem. It could lessen the amount of problems you get from people if the updater automatically cleared these out, at least for the duration of the first beta where stability testing is a principal objective.

[CRASH] Game crashes on opening screen in windowed mode in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Testing 0.24 on my work system which crashed previously on the opening screen in all cases. 0.24 works in fullscreen mode, but crashes when it is windowed. Debug.err is attached.

Reply to How about a beta documentation wiki? What does Stardock think? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Well I can remove beta from the name on the page. The wikidot URL was chosen in part because there is already an elemental.wikidot.com that has nothing ot do with the game, so I couldn't have that domain. I suppose I could buy a dedicated domain for it or something. We'll see what happens after the beta in the long term. I don't know if I'm interested in being a wiki administrator for something like this for the life of the game (which in the case of this game could be a decade or mor

Reply to Reminder on Elemental horror in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Also, what the people who can't run the game and so on need to remember is that this is what testing is. Stuff is broken, you find out what is broken, let the coders know, and then sit back and wait for them to try and fix it. The idea behind testing is to find out what is wrong, and make that known. When does it get fixed? When there's time. In a testing phase, you aren't supposed to get good support. Their interest isn't in fixing your problem, in trying to make things work on your

Reply to [Seems OK] Running on XP-64 in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I don't recommend using XP-64. We have it at work, as we are a VLSC site, and we do make use of it for some things like HFSS that need tons of RAM. However, driver support is not good. Workstations usually have drivers, though new ones aren't so much, but desktops often don't. If you want 64-bit, I highly recommend Windows 7 64-bit. We have that too (it is out for volume customers) and it is great. Driver support is extremely good at this point, and compatiblity is high. Other

Reply to The lazy AI developer in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I have to agree that great computer AI is key. Multiplayer is fun and all, but I don't really care for it in turn based strategy. I like the big epic games that take weeks to play and that is hard to arrange with other people. A good AI is really important to me. Another reason a good AI is important is I want it to be challenging without cheating. I've never liked games where the AI has to cheat badly (higher production, better trade with other AIs, etc) to be hard. I want one that c

Reply to Sad Panda: NO Virtualization (Mac/Linux can't get a break) in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I should note that a card with Shader Model 3 can be had for as little as $25. For less than half the cost of a game, you can get a SM3 card. For that matter, for $100 you can get a Radeon 4850, which has SM4 and is fast as hell. Quality graphics are not expensive these days, and thus gamers really don't have room to complain and not get them. As for market share, according to Steam, who has some of the best numbers on things (since they take data form actual systems and they are syst

[SUGGESTION] Improve map movement in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Rather than having movement as it is currently, where a right click results in instant movement, consider changing it so that a right click draws out the path of movement your character will take, and then a second right click on the same square confirms and commits the movement. I would have it work something like this: Here the cross shows the target destination. The blue l

Just want to say thanks for 256k MP3s in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I really hope that is how you'll keep them for the release, or if you can't make it an optional download pack. For me, music is more than half the experience. I've got a nice sound system attached to my computer, and I really dislike when games take the time to have a good soundtrack made, but then store it in low quality 96k compressed files or the like. A high quality soundtrack is an awesome thing, IMO.

Reply to Ignorant question: Is there a manual of any sort yet? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

So while it is very far from being complete, I've got a wiki up that is going to sort of be like a manual. Obviously with a beta changing all the time there'll not be a definitive manual, but I (and hopefully others) will be adding info to it as we go. http://elementalbeta.wikidot.com/

Reply to How about a beta documentation wiki? What does Stardock think? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Well all I'm committing to doing is setting up a site [e digicons]:grin:[/e] . We'll see how much use it gets, and how much help I get. If it is all left up to me, it is likley to be somewhat basic. If we get community contributions, it will probably be fairly good. At any rate, I'll give it a spin since in a couple other betas I've done, such a thing ended up being really helpful.