Sycraft

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

So I see a lot of posts with people asking how to make various things in the game work, Reasonable enough. So my though is, let's have a little wiki that is a repository of community knowledge. Obviously the actual Stardock writers are busy working on the game and there's no reason to write a manual for something that'll change radically. However we tester types can maintain a wiki. So, I've set one up. It is intended to be a living document that we update, as the beta changes so that when we

[SUGGESTION] Change the Skirmish text to Custom Game in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

That, or somethng else like it. Skirmish carries the connotation of a fast, impromptu game, which of course is not what that option is for in Elemental since you could well create a massive game lasting months. Custom Game, or something like that, offers a more accurate explination of what the button does as opposed to the Campaign mode.

Reply to Things you LIKE (Just so they dont get too depressed) in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I somewhat doubt they'll be depressed by bug reports. That is the point of a beta. You know your software isn't ready to go so you have it tested.

[BUG] Rivers spill over in to the ocean in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

When the game creates a river, it continues rendering it, even on ocean tiles as in the following picture:

[CRASH] Game lockup when completing two Water Shard improvements in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

Two cities constructed imrpovements to their respective water shards at the same time. After this, the game would no longer respond. Music continued playing, and the mouse would move properly, however the notification windows could not be closed, and the game woudln't respond to any commands, including alt-f4. Debug follows: Normal 0 <w:PunctuationK

[BUG] Title screen is stretched on widescreen monitors in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

As the title implies, the title screen is stretched when you run the game in a widescreen mode. Either a widescreen title should be generated, or the existing screen should be zoomed in on in the verticle dimension to keep the aspect ratio correct.

[SUGGESTION] Shader/detail texture for the cloth map in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

While I realize that a major point for the cloth map is lower end systems, it is still a useful tactical view on higher end systems. As it might be nice to add some additonal effects that can be turned on, if the video card supports it. I would suggest a detail texture and shader to give it an apperance more like real cloth, especally when zoomed in close.

[BUG] Crash/lockup with third party firewalls in WOM BETA Builds Elemental Forums

I run ESET Smart Security on my system and upon first run, Elemental tries to communicate with the Internet. It appears to be unable to continue loading until it establishes a connection. This requires switching out to the dialog box ESET pops up. After that, the game crashes. Once a rule has been added, the game runs properly.

Reply to Elemental: BETA OBJECTIVES AND SCHEDULE in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

You have to remember that isn't when something will be developed by, that is when it'll be introduced to the public beta. Interally, they are probalby already testing it. The thing is that while public testing is useful, it doesn't get you the same kind of information that dedicated testers do. With paid testers they can be given instructions such as "Do this 100 times, document the results each time." A player woudl get bored and not want to do that, but the tester will do it as it is

Reply to Impulse Momentum Grows in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

I have to say Impulse's download speed is one of the things that really sells me on it. I have Steam too, since some games are Steam only (like all Valve's stuff of course) but it is real pokey. At best it tends to go 600-700k/sec and that is usually only late at night. Often it goes 300k/sec or less, and during peak times (like a free game weekend) it'll go below 100. Impulse? 1.2mb/sec solid, which is the limitation of my Internet connection. This really starts to matter when you are

Reply to Could the beta program be an experience unto itself? in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Just wondering, has Stardock decided on this yet? Reason I ask is if you have decided to do the longer beta, might be a good idea to update the release date on Impulse. While people are going to be chomping at the bit for this game no matter what (after all, it has been too long since there was a good fantasy 4X) I know that it angers people when they feel like the release schedule "slides." As such, if you've decided on a longer beta, make the new release date known sooner rather than later.

Reply to Elemental BETA: Before summer ends in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

It very well could be a top seller. While common wisdom with publishers seems to be that only FPSes and the like can sell a lot, there are a good number of strategy fans out there and they don't get a lot of games. Civ 4 did real well when released, was the top seller for a time.

Reply to More lighting stuff in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

Well all three look acceptable to me. If I was to choose a favourite, it'd be Soft 75. However, what you might want to consider is programming a specalized lighting shader that is a little less realistic. Have it accentuate the colours around the edges of objects like trees and such. If done right I think it could give them a kind of cartoony "pop" and look really good. The terrain I'd light normally.

Reply to Stardock: Parking Fail in Everything Else Stardock Forums

The manufactured outrage is hilarious, as it is over anything like this. Some people just like to get worked up over any little thing. What's really funny is that there's nothing saying that Stardock couldn't have special, exclusive parking for their execs. There are some companies that do that. Heck the military does that (spots reserved for generals). Their CEO could have his own little covered spot, away from other cars, if he wished. I think some people just go through life looking

Reply to Dawn of Discovery is Fun! in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

I really like the Anno games, or I should say I like 1701 since that is when I got introduced to the series. However, since this one has TAGES, I'll have to give it a miss. I'll meet publishers half way on DRM: Goo is perfectly fine, Steamworks is ok, and I can live with Safedisc so long as it works with my drive. However limited activation phone home types? Nope, not happening on my system. If I can't play the game 10 years from now, I'm not going to pay you for it. When I buy something it i

Reply to Could the beta program be an experience unto itself? in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

Overall I’d say no, probably not what you should aim for. One part of it is simply that people dislike release schedules that slide. That’s why I’m something of a fan of not having a release schedule. However I think if you have given a time table, and that time table is something that is reasonable to meet, you should do that. Also you need to ask yourself if having a longer beta really buys you anything. I mean the public beta testers, well we are just gamers. It is

Reply to The death of PC games at retail in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

In the long term yes, digital distribution is probably going to be how it all is. Reason is partially because it's a little cheaper, but mainly because of convenience. When net connections are of a speed that you can get a game downloaded in 5 minutes or less, people aren't going to want to go to the store. They'll want it delivered right now. However, that is going to be a good long while in coming. While GameStop hates PC gaming it seems, many places still have lots of shelf space f

Reply to Do you really want Steam to be your only option? Are you sure? in PC Gaming Elemental Forums

I would add, in response to your original post, that I don't see why people are bothered that there's more than one distribution network. The thing is it is next to no effort to use both. Neither one costs anything to use, neither one takes up any real amount of resources either running or on disk, and neither interferes with the other. I've had both Steam and Impulse running at the same time and they didn't care at all. So it isn't as though it is some massive inconvenience. I could

Reply to Piracy & PC Gaming in GalCiv Journals Sins Forums

I think you are right on the money with this post, and I think that some other game developers would do well to stand up and take notice. There seems to be an assumption in the game industry that the formula for money you lost to copyright infringement is simple: L = N * S where L is your loss in dollars, N is the number of copies downloaded and S is the price you sell it at. Using this, you get these staggering figures for how much you are losing. Oh my goodness, we are losing $100,000