OT: Starcraft II and Elemental

[13lackGu4rd]

sffrrrom, not ready not in the sense of game balance but in the sense of game options not working properly, I gave you some examples in my above post, Zeldor just gave you more. also, I understand that the multiplayer aspect of Elemental still doesn't work, which is another huge issue, considering most gamers buy new games just for the multiplayer aspect...

now, stop with this bull**** about the early release due to retailers! we're now almost a full week after the retailers released the game, Stardock already made what? 2 or 3 patches? and the game still isn't ready! Brad thinks it is, but it is clear he's mistaken... the game won't be really ready for a few months at the very least, sorting out the various bugs, getting all the game options to work as intended, fixing the UI and AI, etc. note that none of these have anything to do with the actual game play, balance, etc(well, part of the AI issue I assume, but the AI issue is huge...) so yes, we're talking about the BASICS not even the more advanced stuff(that usually takes more time, and is the real reason for patches, not to fix basics).

[sector24]

Update to tactical battles: http://forums.elementalgame.com/392831

Shards are supposed to increase your spell damage, but currently they do not. This is definitely a contributing factor to magic being so weak.

[LDiCesare]

Impassable terrain exists in tactical battles, but I've only been able to make use of it once, and I had 4 or 5 troops to boot, so it isn't terribly thrilling indeed.

The game is indeed in a beta state if anything.

Main issues remain. Brad blamed the number of Windows variants and graphics cards. He's certainly right in a sense, but then he wanted to make a PC-only game. And he's wrong in that in ye olde days, there was this mess with sound cards and with extended memory, so... Anyway, this kind of game certainly shouldn't use cutting-edge features that'll bleed the memory out of the game. But then I checked the 'cloth map only' option, so I'm probably biased. (And yes, I'll launch nethack of adom again soon.)

As of 1.05, the game crashes often (2 hours max for me). Several posters also report the impossibility to load saved games.
Random map generation is unable to provide a decent number of maps, and won't ever be if they stick to their current scheme. They have a patchworkk-algorithm prepared, but it's still ridiculous, as they would have decent map scripts ported from Civ IV if they had just opened the map generation api during the beta.
Tactical battles are dull. Auto resolution is pitiful, as I managed to lose a battle by autoresolution (I had about 100+ vs 33 in terms of estimated power), and when I reloaded and replayed I didn't lose 1 health on any unit...
Flavor isn't to be found anywhere.
AI is dumb. Just researching big armies with big weapons and some armor, and building ONE such unit wins you the game on a normal sized map.
Magic is mostly useless tactically, although some strategic spells (teleport, summons) can be useful. Even then, spells aren't balanced. Reveal costs a lot of mana for little benefit, while fire giants can be summoned pretty early and can win you the game all by themselves if you're fast enough at locating your opponent (which only requires building peasants, but I'm usually too lazy to have more than 1 stack at a time).
UI is bad. Locating armies/units in needs of orders is difficult. Finding out how to equip your heroes is unintuitive. Also, sometimes, one unit will move out of your stack alone without your wanting nor understanding. This can lead you to lose the game in case 'twas your sovereign who suddenly left his army because there's no army management window.
Champions are worthless. They cost so much to equip and will be slaughtered easily by the first squad of soldiers they'll meet that they are a joke. Even putting tens of the +2 attack for 100 gold amulet, cheesy as it is, isn't going to make them useful.

I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting stuff.

Still, the game will probably be good in several months or one year.