Elemental - Let's Try This Again

[Xenolith]

http://www.stardock.com/media/Mailers/elemental_fe_beta1update_part2/index.html

I've never seen a developer admit they failed.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Stardock is a great group and I have high hopes for the second game.  I get it for free anyways because I bought the first one early, so I have nothing further to lose anyway.

[Xenolith]

Same here.  I'm impressed.  The second game looks good to me so far.

[Xenolith]

I played it for a while tonight.  Some things are better, but I can't tell if it is really any different as far as game strategies go.

[lugaru]

I was an early adopter and ran out of steam due to all the problems. I'm getting the second game for free and I'm curious but for sure it did not turn into the Civ 5 killer I hoped it would be.

[Xenolith]

Got to play for a while today.  I like it, but it still seems a bit off for some reason.  I can't put my finger on it.  Combat is much more fun now.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

It was never intended to be a Civ 5 killer.  Different sub genre and all.

But this time around, it's being helmed by same guy who made Fall From Heaven for Civ 4.  You know, the mod so good it got adapted into an official expansion.

[lugaru]

Killer: I meant in terms of our "afternoon lan party time waster" since we often get together for an afternoon of civ 5. This looked like a game that was potentially more fun for it, but it was just so easy to subvert the resource system or the combat system and just dominate or be dominated. In other words "too easy to cheat" so I never forced my friends to buy copies.

I'll see if the new version has any semblance of balancing.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Killer: I meant in terms of our "afternoon lan party time waster" since we often get together for an afternoon of civ 5. This looked like a game that was potentially more fun for it, but it was just so easy to subvert the resource system or the combat system and just dominate or be dominated. In other words "too easy to cheat" so I never forced my friends to buy copies.

I'll see if the new version has any semblance of balancing.

I would never recommend you even try these games as far as multi player goes.  Startdock has always been good at single player games, and Elemental was one of their first attempts to do multiplayer.  They really don't know what they are doing in this area, so you should really be looking elsewhere if LAN parties are your thing.

[Xenolith]

Played some more last night.  After the recent patch I've had no more random crashes, which is a good thing.  The game seems to be about the same but they've added some "wild" areas to the map that prevent settler spamming to a degree.  You can't build multiple versions of the same building in each settlement.  You can't build a building and buid troops at the same time.  I haven't had any luck finding high level adventurers to hire.  I'm finding it dificult to build an effective army while keeping my citys built up and keeping up on technology.

I would have been happy after buying this game.