Peter Ebbesen

Reply to [BUG]Number of small/tiny buffers info on screen in FE Beta Elemental Forums

This debug is toggled on/off by pressing F3; Are you sure you didn't hit F3 by mistake?

Reply to How many factions do you play with on a large map? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

On both medium and large, all other factions enabled. The competition can get pretty fierce.

Reply to Has anybody seen Frogboy? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="4" id="2941352"]I was inspired through our experience with the Impulse acquisition actually. Getting 1 person with skill X is a lot easier than getting that second person which is easier than getting that third person and so on. And in a world where finding archivists and monks is likely very difficult, it should get increasingly harder to find more as time goes on. [/quote] That doesn't make all that much sense. Even assuming

Reply to I'm befuddeled by the logic at times. in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="jecjackal" reply="14" id="2937239"] what do you hate about the gal civ econ system? I liked it personally. [/quote] At a guess, he might hate it because it is poorly designed and has some really bad properties mathematically speaking, that are rather counterintuitive. (And not limited to idiocies like clear breakpoints - e.g. "people can except taxes up to 79%, 80% however...". Or was it 69%? Some time since I played last. If you want to delve into the

Reply to FE- Dynasties are cut in War of Magic Stardock Forums

With the extremely weak implementation in E:WoM I can only applaud the design decision not to waste time on implementing a slightly better but still half-arsed dynastical upgrade. Dynasties in games can be great fun when the game is centered around them and the game covers multiple generations during normal gameplay - to take an extreme example, look at Paradox' Crusader Kings or the upcoming Crusader Kings 2 - but when it is added as an afterthought or in games where a typical ga

Reply to Is Elemental Stable Enough to Play Yet? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

The game is currently poorly balanced and the AI is worse. It is also plagued by out of memory crashes as you get deeper into the game. Moreover, from a design POV, the dynasty implementation is so weak as to be irrelevant except for producing the initial bunch of four bonus channelers with one of your initial heroes, and there's very little magic about the "war of magic" in general; Unless you are as stupid as the AI, you'll be using a tiny fraction of the available spells over and o

Reply to Demigod: What would you do? in Demigod Stardock Forums

[quote who="pat_i7" reply="185" id="2932030"] Nice to hear a perspective from someone who only plays single player as well. Have you tried installing the mod for single player dude, it's supposed to vastly improve the AI.[/quote] Yes, OMG_pacov very helpfully directed me to the mod, which I would otherwise have overlooked seeing as how I don't play Demigod all that much, more as relaxation every few months, the same as I do with several other good tactical games that try

Reply to 1.2 Feedback in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I'm going to echo many others here, I fear... Play for any extended period of time and the game will crash with an OOM error. The AI remains atrocious, the tactical worse than the strategic. There's nothing like attacking Lady Porcupine the mighty channeler some 300 turns into the game and take on her little empire, only to see her charge into melee and get killed by the retaliation attack when she attacks a group of soldiers instead of casting spells. And do

Reply to Demigod: What would you do? in Demigod Stardock Forums

This feedback comes from player who has only ever played Demigod in SP and has no intentions of playing it in MP. I am aware that the major focus of the game is MP and am not suggesting that that should change, but I am not aware of how many players nevertheless, like I, bought it for SP and play it every now and then for SP. But under the assumption that there are enough of us that it makes sense to consider SP as something apart from a cheap addition, here goes: For a demig

Reply to Was E:WoM ever truly finished? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"] But it's been a few months now, and though I know work has continued, and it's been patched, what do the folks here think? Is it worth buying now, or still a work in progress? [/quote] No. It neither provides a decent tactical combat engine, nor a compelling strategic challenge. Add a world that as it is encountered in the game is rather bland and you have the recipe for a game that doesn't even reach the glorified heights of

Reply to Why should I buy this product now? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="JonnieR" reply="16" id="2876425"] My read on Elemental is that it is somewhat unique and there is is no other 4x fantasy strategy game that quite measures up. At least none that I am aware of. So, while I agree with you there are risks (primarily with regard to my precious available game playing time), and frustratioin level (which could ruin the game for me forever) the uniqueness of the playing experience, providing it works out, may be worth the risk. [/quot

Reply to PC Gamer review of 1.1 in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Mtn_Man" reply="6" id="2851744"]A fair assessment if a little overly harsh. The one thing they don't say is that despite the problems, Elemental is still a blast to play. [/quote] Presumably that is because Troy does not find Elemental a blast to play and, as such, has no reason to state it. A good example of how opinions differ - you feel that Troy's assessment is a bit overly harsh and that the game is a blast to play, I feel that his assessm

Reply to interested in 1.1 patch impressions in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"]I have not bought this game yet as I have been lightly monitoring general word of mouth on the forums about its stabiility and game play. This new patch seems rather large and I am wondering if the game is ready for prime time yet? [/quote] The answer is [b]no[/b]. This game is not ready for prime time. Many game mechanics have significantly improved from being overhauled, but the game is poorly balanced and the AI exceptionally bad

Reply to Brad, more AI please in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Ignoring the tactical AI (or lack of same) for the moment and the strategic AI once an AI nation has begun expansion, a very real problem I have run into several times now is the "AI that fails to expand". It is the AI that doesn't wage war against anybody and has plenty of space in which to expand and by turn 100 still has one city, and the same by turn 150, by turn 200. Sure, the city's population may be impressive by turn 100, but it won't be impressive by turn 200 - it may even be the sam

Reply to Time to bite the bullet - is the game worth it? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"] For someone like myself who likes these types of games.. is Elemental fun? [/quote] A short answer with qualifications: NO The qualifications - I like my turn based strategy games featuring tactical combat to have either interesting tactical combat game mechanics or to have challenging computer opponents, and whether the latter is gained through decent strategic AI or through giving the computer opponents enough bo

Reply to How would you rate AI ? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Partylurker" reply="29" id="2792963"] I would therefore request that you will have a difficulty level where the AI cheats liberally and is very aggressive so that even the top 1% of players will not be guaranteed a win.[/quote] That will require either a significant redesign of several core game mechanics to make taking advantage of them more friendly towards a brute-force approach to problem solving, at which computers excel when compared to humans, or ramping up the

Reply to How would you rate AI ? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

The AI is very poor. To somewhat compensate for this, the game is so badly balanced that if you really want to you may be able to convince yourself that it is all down to game balance. If self delusion is your sort of thing, that is.

Reply to Why are people so against a deep campaign? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"]As the title states why are people more in favor of a "sandbox" game? At least thats the feel I got from the 1.08 ETA thread. [/quote] In my case, it is because I love good campaigns and am a sucker for well-written storylines. In fact, good campaigns and great storylines are the reason that I buy many strategy games for single player that others buy only for the multiplayer and feel my money well spent even if I only play through the games onc

Reply to Multiplayer - wrong priority, re-balance game first in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"]The game is not ready for multiplayer, developers need to spend more time on magic, combat and technology before multiplayer should be even considered. [/quote] If multiplayer was not an advertised feature of the game but an additional feature that was thrown in but not guaranteed to purchasers you would certainly have a point. But it is, so you don't.

Reply to What's the point of balancing weapons when ... in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Archonsod" reply="30" id="2763326"] A lot of people also thought the world was flat. Generally, I find the more people support something, the more wrong it's likely to be. [/quote] I wonder just what your eating habits are... Do you actively avoid eating the things that most people support as being healthy or at least not dangerous to your health if eaten in moderation (which include most food you will find in the local super market) or do you make an exception f

Reply to IGN review is UP in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Jandurin" reply="17" id="2763483"] AFAIK, they're one of the sites that rates between 5 and 10, not 1 and 10. Sure, the occasional game will dip into >5 territory, but that's like shovelware territory? [/quote] You may have a point. When the reviewer adds a "Two weeks out and the game still feels like a beta" tag line to the review title and gives it a 6.0 score, which in their scoring system is supposed to be passable , it

Reply to Taking Tactical Battles back to square one in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Big J Money" reply="5" id="2756344"]Dude, this is way overboard. I agree the tactical system is too simple and easy to manipulate the AI. And I agree it can't be fixed only by modding. But this post is ridiculous. If you dislike this much about the game, go design your own. [/quote] Why is pointing out the perceived shortcomings of the current implementation or suggestions on how to remedy them ridiculous? While the odds that his proposed reme

Reply to Patch 1.8 Wishlist (short) in War of Magic Stardock Forums

How about a button in options/gameplay or in the interface when choosing whether to fight or to autoresolve battles that said "USE MAGIC IN AUTORESOLVED BATTLES: YES/NO"? Tactical battles are mostly mindless tedium right now but autoresolving often have channelers wasting valuable mana on opponents that would have been squashed by troops, leading me to fight battles manually that by all rights should have been autoresolved (since the outcome was clear) in order to save mana.

Reply to I support Stardock, the devs and Brad Wardell! in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"]Well, hearing about Stardock being in difficult waters, I feel I wanted to say that. You have my support. I bought the game, and even tho I feel atm it isn't really playable and needs much extension and rework for some months to come, I won't sent in refunds and won't write bad reviews. It's a decision of loyality. [/quote] Just so long as you don't write any good reviews either or present the game to your friends or others as something worth buying in its c

Reply to Why cant my sov. wear traveler boots? in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="kryo" reply="3" id="2755825"]Some items have race/gender requirements based on the model, which we do need to convey better or get rid of. [/quote] If you change that "Convey better" to "convey at all" (as they aren't conveyed in-game at all currently), I'm sure we'll all be happy though getting rid of them entirely if the restrictions don't add anything of significance to gameplay would be even better. While by no means the biggest problem Elemental faces c