Support NeoGAF

[Arrowgigantic]

SD didn't make Demigod

They were responsible for the part that was broken.

 

[epmode]

BTW, for anyone looking to pick this up: Multiplayer will not be enabled for a few more days, maybe not until next week. I couldn't care less about the feature but I'm that sure some of you might.

So yeah, seems rushed, regardless of what Stardock says. Nothing new here.

They were responsible for the part that was broken.

As I mentioned earlier, the simple fact that the game will be using a client/server setup instead of Demigod's peer-to-peer means that the multiplayer will be a LOT easier to set up.

 

[Spl1nter]

They were responsible for the part that was broken.

They actually were not responsible for the problems that caused it to be broken. They didn't code the peer to peer system.

Multiplayer will not be enabled to next week as the team is off after today since they came into work this past weekend to release the game early for beta and pre-order players.

 

[Sinatar]

You finished the campaign in one day?

They call it a campaign but it's more of a gibbled tutorial. Took maybe 3 hours to beat.

 

[Arrowgigantic]

They actually were not responsible for the problems that caused it to be broken. They didn't code the peer to peer system.

The networking being peer-to-peer wasn't the problem. There is nothing inherently broken from a technical standpoint in doing peer-to-peer multiplayer. In fact, there is a game that works just fine using P2P MP. It's called "Demigod after Stardock fixed their network layer".

http://forums.demigodthegame.com/346451

But we're pretty happy with early sales even if we're not totally satisfied with the game's network performance (which is not developed by GPG but by Stardock so don't blame GPG).

 

[corporateslave]

I've been watching this game for the past six months and have been looking forward to it. That being said, I never got into Gal Civ2, no matter how often I tried. I absolutely adored MOO 2 however and still play that to this day. I'm hoping that this game captures my interest in a way gal civ failed to.

For those who have played this, how does this compare to the Civ 4 Fall from Heaven II mod? I played Mom when I was in college but my memory of the game is hazy. All i recall is that it was fun but I am not able to compare anything to it. I never did play AOW: SM either so the comparisons there aren't meaningful for me. So FFH 2 is in my opinion the best fantasy TBS game I have played with maybe HOMM 3 coming in at a very close second. Will this game, post fixes come close?

 

[arstal]

I've been watching this game for the past six months and have been looking forward to it. That being said, I never got into Gal Civ2, no matter how often I tried. I absolutely adored MOO 2 however and still play that to this day. I'm hoping that this game captures my interest in a way gal civ failed to.

For those who have played this, how does this compare to the Civ 4 Fall from Heaven II mod? I played Mom when I was in college but my memory of the game is hazy. All i recall is that it was fun but I am not able to compare anything to it. I never did play AOW: SM either so the comparisons there aren't meaningful for me. So FFH 2 is in my opinion the best fantasy TBS game I have played with maybe HOMM 3 coming in at a very close second. Will this game, post fixes come close?

The FFH guys are going to do mod work with elemental- at least some of them.

The game isn't really that similar- you can do more in Elemental, though features aren't as refined as they can be yet. AI is much better (FFH AI is a joke, even in Wild Mana modmod)

There's a lot less micro in Elemental though, it's more macro in scope. No workers/peons, which is always a plus.

I'd bet money 6 mos down the road this game surpasses FFH. It's pretty close now in my eyes.

BTW the issue with Demigod was due to piracy of all things. Pirates caused the MP servers to check for updates repeatedly, which overwhelmed the servers. Stardock fixed the problem in 3 days, but the damage had been done.

 

[Quixzlizx]

They call it a campaign but it's more of a gibbled tutorial. Took maybe 3 hours to beat.

I don't know if this makes a difference to anyone, but SD said that the campaign was created entirely within the modding system.

 

[MurkyZebra2417]

Don't do "Non Agression Pacts" btw. They never seem to end for you and the enemy just captures city after city from you and you can't attack him... how got something like that past the beta?!?

 

[corporateslave]

Thanks arstal! I know I'll buy this as I have no control over impulse game buying. I just hope I can avoid the same failure to hold my attention problem that always happens when I start up a gal civ 2 game.

 

[Decado]

Have we gotten a sense of whether combat will be any good? TBS with tactical combat is probably my favourite genre. I tend to get bored with pure strategy.

 

[arstal]

Have we gotten a sense of whether combat will be any good? TBS with tactical combat is probably my favourite genre. I tend to get bored with pure strategy.

The patch that's coming out this evening is going to have several tactical battle tweaks.

I think it's getting there, and they will keep working on it.

 

[Spl1nter]

Elemental: Day 0 update - 1.05

Here’s the change log:

---------------------------------------------------
Elemental Day0 Change Log

Game Version 1.05
---------------------------------------------------
* Gameplay / Balance *
+ Several new spells added
+ Boats will no longer disband due to dissertion
+ Absolute elimination of duplicate NPCs
+ Vigilant Demon now has mana
+ Combat Speed can only be increased 0.25 per level
+ Shop values for weapons lowered
+ Elementium description added
+ Outposts and such now provide +HP to units stationed
+ Fewer resources are spawned at the start of the game
+ Summoning spellbook no longer available at start
+ Tech trees can now reach level 5 notable locations and quest locations
+ Fixed issue that would prevent people from completing the Old Enchanter quest (a.k.a. the midnight stone quest); it wasn’t checking the items of the unit that reached the quest destination, rather those of the unit that started the quest, which could be a different unit.
+ Random quest locations should no longer spawn on hills.
+ Snathi now has a new, non-Drake leader

* AI *
+ AI manages ships better
+ AI Sovereign’s spouse will seek the safety of a friendly settlement rather than travel with their spouse
+ AI more effective in establishing strong armies prior to going on the offensive
+ AI better at determining whether it is in their best interests to declare war
+ AI will notify player of tiles they should be using and how to use them.
+ Janusk provides a lot more useful information
+ AI difficulty levels tweaked for more challenge at higher levels
+ AI tweaks to XML

* Battles *
+ Added "Auto-Move Camera in Tactical" which is OFF by default
+ Clarified some language for the hurl boulder spells (that it does non-defendable damage).
+ Auto resolve draws will now favor the defender.
+ Added message boxes to tactical battles when action points are too low to do some action.
+ Added the ability to bring message boxes up as forced popups (always on top).
+ Added checks in auto resolve to be sure a unit can counter attack and its target can be counter attacked.
+ Added more robust checks to see if tactical actions can be done.
+ The tactical action check will now return a string if the action cannot be done.
+ Casting a spell will now properly check action points for special abilities and ranged attacks.
+ Moved the logic to refresh troop numbers to happen when a unit's health changes.
- Updating troop numbers should now be a bit more logical.
- A unit's max health is now properly based on the maximum amount of troops they have (not their current troop number).
+ In tactical battles units that have no spell can no longer open the spellbook.
+ Fixed a few temporary cursors in tactical battles.
+ Added sound effects to all the spells that were using FlameBurst1 (which doesn't exist)
+ Added the IsSpecialAbility tag to SpellDefs. Enabling this makes the spell cost 1 ap instead of 2 ap to use
- Updated all the core ability spell defs with the IsSpecialAbility tag.
+ Casting spells in tactical battles costs 2 action points now.
+ Using special abilities in tactical battles costs 1 action point now.
+ Shooting a ranged weapon in tactical battles cost 2 action points now.
+ The tooltip for a unit’s hit points in the tactical battle window will now show any bonuses applied to the health.
******
* UI *
+ added ESC key support for closing common popups.
+ new tutorial messages added to the campaign, explaining the basics, including: camera movement, unit selection and movement, founding a kingdom, tapping a resource, visiting an item shop, etc.
+ Added a bunch of new shortcut keys
+ Fixed unit shortcut keys while in a city (now clicking on a unit portrait in the city will do that unit action instead of overriding to the city keys)
+ Fixed cases that you could click a unit, then click a goodie hut (for example), and still use the previous units shortcut keys
+ Enabled shortcut keys for items that don't belong to the local player (details, propose, recruit, etc.)
+ Fixed the hiergamenon resource breakdown page to include houses under construction for food
+ Added code to reset minimap for new game
+ New game tray implemented (now has next unit and next city buttons)
+ Added shortcut keys for next unit and next city (shift+u and shift+c, respectively [shift+s already jumps to sovereign so consistent])
+ Tool tips cleaned up
+ hooked up new for when disband unit action is disabled
+ Faction Editor “Faction Creator” hooked up
+ Mod Library button added to workshop
+ clicking someone without a soundpack uses a UI sfx, not a grunt/yes/ etc (less annoying)
+ Champion Lorebook/Context area Tweaked, adding ‘Equip’ button that brings up EQUIPMENT, remove list of items
+ unit context: removed equip icon on medallion (redundant...button directly to the right had same functionality)
+ Map Notifications now display HUD icons on the map, event icons on the side, and when you click the event list icon it’ll take the player to the event they need to see

* Engine *
+ LOD levels on main map are now back to what they used to be for better performance
+ New shard effects, both dormant and tapped, that over 1/2 as intensive as their older versions (the joys of beam particles over billboard particles)

* Impulse Overlay *
+ Support for swedish, finnish, icelandic and spanish keyboards which have the @ symbol on an alt-gr modifier key. It is also now possible to enter some more unusual symbols too!
+ Wheel scrolling in friends list.

* Bug Fixes *
+ Fixed issue that was preventing quests from placing locations with their preferred type (CQuestDef wasn’t saving the preferred type, so when the data zip was loaded, it would be null).
+ Fixed some crashes on load from if a unit type was retired while a unit of that type was in a training queue, since the unit type would be removed from the global vector but some things would still be looking for it on load. Now the function to remove a retired unit type checks the training queues of all the cities, too, and when the AI retires a unit type, it removes it from its list of designs.
- I think this also fixes some crashes on load from the testers downstairs, where I would see units looking for AI designed unit types that weren't in the unit type list anymore, as well as the loading in of the AI designed unit type vector, but I'm just making an educated guess based on the fact that the AI automatically retires unit types it designs itself. This does fix a reproducible crash related to training units at least, though.
+ Campaign: AI cities named correctly to match lore
+ Lost Library and Ancient Temple now using proper cloth icons for their built versions (lost library used to like ancient temple)
+ Fixed bug where using a soverign for a race not their own (ex. Relias with Capitar) then playing against the race you would have led (Altar, in this example) the random sovereign would retain your name (2 relias’ talking to each other)

Stay tuned…

And arstal dont worry none of your suggestions are silly

 

[Arrowgigantic]

It's funny that they're calling it a Day 0 update when it is being released on the ass end of Day 1.

 

[platypotamus]

My Sovereign is really kind of pathetic in the probably-makes-a-girl-age-thread-in-OT sorta way. He's been trying to get this girl to marry him constantly for like the past 50 turns, but his reputation just won't pass her up.

 

[arstal]

It's funny that they're calling it a Day 0 update when it is being released on the ass end of Day 1.

They released the digital version to the public 2 days early. That's why.

Oh, guys they didn't change the version number, but run Impulse one more time when you see this thread when you get up. Brad's been doing hotfixes all night. I think he just finished.

 

[shock33]

I liked that a post of the official forums that simply said the epic feeling wasn't in as the units didn't display as they had in the media leading up to release (with 10/20 soldiers displayed per unit to give a feel of commanding armies) got slated and turned into some witch hunt that he didn't understand what the game was about - EDIT and then locked which I thought was harsh

I'm hanging fire for the moment as I actually agree with what he was saying and wanted to wait until I'd read feedback from the day 0 patch, at the moment the impressions seem to be luke warm which is concerning, as even with GalCiv the feeling was it was a fantastic game that needed some work.

 

[arstal]

I liked that a post of the official forums that simply said the epic feeling wasn't in as the units didn't display as they had in the media leading up to release (with 10/20 soldiers displayed per unit to give a feel of commanding armies) got slated and turned into some witch hunt that he didn't understand what the game was about - EDIT and then locked which I thought was harsh

I'm hanging fire for the moment as I actually agree with what he was saying and wanted to wait until I'd read feedback from the day 0 patch, at the moment the impressions seem to be luke warm which is concerning, as even with GalCiv the feeling was it was a fantastic game that needed some work.

Some of this bad feeling is the higher expectations. No one really expected GCII to be Civ-level classic. people are expecting this to be the greatest game ever.

Honestly, I think you aren't understanding what the game is about as well. Stardock fans tend to be pretty defensive at times early in a game's release cycle, you ran into that.

GCII also had these problems the first few weeks. I was there for it. The improvements to GCII over time is why I'll admit to fanboyism when it comes to Stardock.

When everything goes right, this is already a very fun game. It's going to get massively better over time- balancing and bugfixing a strategy game is one of the hardest things to do in gaming.

 

[shock33]

Whoa there, I didn't post that, I was just suggesting that the rampant defensiveness was actually harming the impressions. Someone posted a query that seemed perfectly valid given the pre-release media, and got drowned out in people suggesting he didn't understand what he was talking about and that he was crazy to suggest such a thing, and that even if he wasn't crazy, it wasn't what the game was about.

None of it was me.

 

[epmode]

The early screenshots are definitely misleading when it comes to the battle system. However, it would take one hell of a game redesign to get it to that point. I mean, every soldier in your army = 1 pop from a city. EVERYTHING would have to be tweaked.

Supposedly the higher unit counts can still be accessed via modding, it just doesn't mesh with their current design.

 

[Victrix]

Game is still way too easy. I lost some games by setting map difficulty to Ridiculous, adding more AIs, and setting all AIs to Ridiculous, but otherwise, on anything up to Hard, it's still easy to bash through. The AI is simply too passive unless it has a huge strength advantage, which gives you the time you need to boom and then crush the computer.

On the upshot, the AI does seem to be playing the game now, even if you have to crank the difficulty to the absolute maximum and pack the map full of AIs to be threatened.

There's also still bugs and quirks in literally every area of the game.

Give this one a pass if you're on the fence, wait for a few more major patches, then check it out.

There's a lot of good potential here, but it needs more development time.

 

[Cru Jones]

Game is still way too easy. I lost some games by setting map difficulty to Ridiculous, adding more AIs, and setting all AIs to Ridiculous, but otherwise, on anything up to Hard, it's still easy to bash through. The AI is simply too passive unless it has a huge strength advantage, which gives you the time you need to boom and then crush the computer.

On the upshot, the AI does seem to be playing the game now, even if you have to crank the difficulty to the absolute maximum and pack the map full of AIs to be threatened.

There's also still bugs and quirks in literally every area of the game.

Give this one a pass if you're on the fence, wait for a few more major patches, then check it out.

There's a lot of good potential here, but it needs more development time.

I purchased this a couple of days ago and I've put a few hours into and I am having a lot of fun. I don't think I am as "hardcore" about the genre as Victrix is, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt if you're as serious about your strategy games as he is.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

There's no doubt this game was rushed out the door, mainly because every patch the game gets, it gets a LOT better. Last night's patch being the best of them all - this is shaping up to be a great game.

A shame they released it early, it'll hurt reviews for a game I have faith in will be excellent, but isn't there just quite yet.

 

[epmode]

According to Stardock, it was either launch now or wait until Februaray. Apparently, self-publishing is only flexible for the big guys. Smaller companies have to bend to the whims of the retailers.

So yeah, this was definitely rushed and it still plays like a beta. Gotta get it out before Civ, right?

As it is now, it needs a massive balance pass, tons of bug fixes, a UI overhaul and a good tutorial. I'm sure it'll be a lot better in six months or so.

Oh and there could stand to be fewer snarky posts from Brad Wardell on the Stardock forums. Dude does not take criticism well AT ALL.

Oh oh and it's pretty amazing that the Gamer's Bill of Rights has disappeared from Stardock's site. It had this great line about how developers should never release unfinished games.

edit: I also love how the single-player campaign is little more than a crappy tutorial while the only way to get the actual single-player campaign is to buy Mr. Wardell's book. And even better, the book campaign is episodic (i.e. uninished).

 

[TimeKillr]

There's no doubt this game was rushed out the door, mainly because every patch the game gets, it gets a LOT better. Last night's patch being the best of them all - this is shaping up to be a great game.

A shame they released it early, it'll hurt reviews for a game I have faith in will be excellent, but isn't there just quite yet.

That's Stardock's way of doing things to counter piracy

To update, you need a legit copy.

If you pirated, you can't update.

 

[arstal]

According to Stardock, it was either launch now or wait until Februaray. Apparently, self-publishing is only flexible for the big guys. Smaller companies have to bend to the whims of the retailers.

So yeah, this was definitely rushed and it still plays like a beta. Gotta get it out before Civ, right?

As it is now, it needs a massive balance pass, tons of bug fixes, a UI overhaul and a tutorial. I'm sure it'll be a lot better in six months or so.

Oh and there could stand to be fewer snarky posts from Brad Wardell on the Stardock forums. Dude does not take criticism well AT ALL.

Oh oh and it's pretty amazing that the Gamer's Bill of Rights has disappeared from Stardock's site. It had this great line about how developers should never release unfinished games.

Yeah, Wardell at times is getting his inner Sirlin on.

I am going to give SD some assumption of wisdom, and assume that the GBR being down is a glitch.

It is obvious to me at least, that despite my own personal enjoyment, the game was rushed, and I believe it was rushed to counter Civ V. It's probably going to backfire on Stardock, possibly heavily. I hope not, because despite this, I still consider Stardock to have one of the whitest hats in the industry.

EDIT:

http://www.gamersbillofrights.com/

GBR is still up where it's supposed to be, just not there. Gunslingerbara is a SD employee. I think this is just a case of a forum post getting eaten- as SD forums do blow chunks.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

I still consider Stardock to have one of the whitest hats in the industry.

Which is why I have faith in this game to do nothing but improve. It's fantastic, but not done. But fantastic! It was good seeing the guys at PAX and seeing how much they believe in their product and how proud they are of it, there's still things I saw a year ago that haven't made it into the game yet (but will!)

 

[arstal]

I now know some at SD are aware of the RPS article- and apparently my assumption about it being a forum issue is correct. This really smells like a Kotaku-level hatchedtjob by RPS.

I just hope they react quickly enough before it spirals out of control- this is reputation-damaging potentially.

 

[Spl1nter]

I now know some at SD are aware of the RPS article- and apparently my assumption about it being a forum issue is correct. This really smells like a Kotaku-level hatchedtjob by RPS.

I just hope they react quickly enough before it spirals out of control- this is reputation-damaging potentially.

Ya I dont really agree with the PC Gamer article that the game is unplayable mainly because I can play it perfectly fine however the game does need work. Going to play the day 0 update now and see how everything goes.

I think Im the only person who finds the interface easy to use... All though the game could display you more information like Gal Civ did with all the graphs and charts. The Graphs in Elemental are kind of hard to read and unintuitive.

Here are a number of tutorial videos for anyone new to the game. I will update the OP with a link.

http://forums.elementalgame.com/391280

 

[Joseph Merrick]

oh yeah! those videos are awesome. fuck great

I'll start playing the game later today. not booted up the elemental client since beta2 or whatever hehe

 

[arstal]

http://forums.elementalgame.com/392513/#2731694

This explains some things about the AI. There's a world AI, and indidual AI for each player.

 

[Decado]

Are there attacking bonuses for flanking or hitting from behind?

 

[Joseph Merrick]

Are there attacking bonuses for flanking or hitting from behind?

the guy being attacked will address each attack separately and turn toward each attacker, so I don't think so. only the modifier for the square you're standing on goes over the top of the character stats. think so

http://forums.elementalgame.com/392513/#2731694 This explains some things about the AI. There's a world AI, and indidual AI for each player.

yeah, there is a different difficulty setting for world and then the different factions. edit: oh wait, that's what the first post there said

 

[arstal]

http://forums.elementalgame.com/393126

Another patch tonight. BTW you don't need to have Impulse running to get notified of patches, you'll be notified of official patches (unsure on beta patches) if you run the game.

AI should be better on defense.

This won't be a magic bullet patch, but it will be a decent start.

 

[Joseph Merrick]

patch installed. let's see

 

[Joseph Merrick]

campaign is pretty funny

 

[platypotamus]

My game is going pretty well. I've only encountered one other major power (I've taken two of his cities so far... I declared war because he was at war with EVERYONE else, so why not?).

It's interesting how my kids seem to have pretty random stats when they grow up. My second son had 22 essence at lvl 1 (!!!) but my second daughter only had 5. I'm on a quest to find a dragon egg, and then the mom is supposed to join me. I'm pretty close to the spot on the map it's supposed to be at...

 

[arstal]

1.06 patch, noticing the memory leaking isn't as bad now (I expect that to get fixed incrementally)

Still some nasty gameplay bugs and balance issues, but those will be fixed with time.

 

[BobsRevenge]

I kind of want to get this game. I don't care if its janky, really. I can dig janky. Is it fun?

 

[arstal]

I kind of want to get this game. I don't care if its janky, really. I can dig janky. Is it fun?

It's fun now, the process of the improvements will make it more fun.

I'd recommend if you're on the fence, pick it up as a Christmas present. They pretty much guaranteed the next 16 months of their game studios time will be spent enhancing the game, and SD's support/patching is superior to even Valve's.

 

[BobsRevenge]

It's fun now, the process of the improvements will make it more fun.

I'd recommend if you're on the fence, pick it up as a Christmas present. They pretty much guaranteed the next 16 months of their game studios time will be spent enhancing the game, and SD's support/patching is superior to even Valve's.

But I find that these games are sometimes more fun before they start trying to fix everything. Might this be a case of that, or is the jankyness the unfun kind of jankyness?

Sometimes a jankyness produces some hilarious or awesome wrinkles.

 

[LocoMrPollock]

Game's a massive disappointment for me.

-Bad interface
-Bad presentation
-Bad battle system

I really see no reason to play this when there are better alternatives out there.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

Game's a massive disappointment for me.

-Bad interface
-Bad presentation
-Bad battle system

I really see no reason to play this when there are better alternatives out there.

Just put it away for a couple months. Allow the devs to fix stuff, then come back later. Perhaps you will enjoy it more.

I've played a couple games so far and while I'm a little disappointed it didn't turn out as perfect as I hoped, it's still a good game. With time it will be a great game. I have faith in Stardock and they have really been busting their collective asses to get the game in better shape.

 

[Decado]

Game's a massive disappointment for me.

-Bad interface
-Bad presentation
-Bad battle system

I really see no reason to play this when there are better alternatives out there.

Like what (unless the game is really that bad)? Can't really think of any other games like this that were released in the last while. I guess Civ5 is coming and it'll have combat this time, though.

 

[Aaron]

Like what (unless the game is really that bad)? Can't really think of any other games like this that were released in the last while. I guess Civ5 is coming and it'll have combat this time, though.

Combat is one of the major improvements in Civ 5 actually. Not quite the same game though.

 

[platypotamus]

So I recruited an adventurer that has a special attack called Daze. Is there anyway I can learn attacks like this with characters I've already got, like my kids or anything? I haven't even had a chance to use it yet, because it costs 3 mana and he has no mana (derp derp), but I like the concept of having special attacks in the tactical combat.

 

[Joseph Merrick]

you can give him magic.. ?

But I find that these games are sometimes more fun before they start trying to fix everything. Might this be a case of that, or is the jankyness the unfun kind of jankyness?

Sometimes a jankyness produces some hilarious or awesome wrinkles.

hehe. it's definitely fun now. but it's more of a methodical game, or I play it like that. so more work on it will probably improve it.

definitely don't have a problem with the interface overall, but I have also been playing a lot of star ruler aswell :lol edit: except from some weird small glitches. like some layered areas will switch to the next layer under when just mousing over or using a scroll bar on the current layer, and the mouse cursor randomly doesn't change back to normal cursor when it should, like if you've moused over a battle and a window pops up you have to click around in that window with the battle cursor (changes between normal cursor and different things depending on context, for example a couple of swords when mousing over a battle option). small unimportant bugs that will disappear soon

 

[platypotamus]

you can give him magic.. ?

Well I know that, I just haven't got him near my sovereign yet. Is that attack actually in a spell book though, so other people can learn it? Or is there a a way for the other heroes to learn these abilities later?

Basically, my various heroes that don't cast spells or use a bow aren't getting to do much in battle right now, but special attacks might change that.

 

[ixix]

But I find that these games are sometimes more fun before they start trying to fix everything. Might this be a case of that, or is the jankyness the unfun kind of jankyness?

Sometimes a jankyness produces some hilarious or awesome wrinkles.

I don't think there's a whole lot endearing about the game's jankiness. The game can hold itself together in the early goings as long as you don't go for a min-max sovereign build followed by a rush that the AI is completely incapable of comprehending, let alone responding to, but even if you actively avoid taking advantage of any of the numerous imbalances, oddities, and exploits it all falls apart when you get toward the mid to late stages of the game. Even if you don't go out of your way to take advantage of the game you'll end up doing something that causes it to curl up in the fetal position, whimpering.

Generally speaking, in the late game:

- Your magic becomes largely useless, with the very notable exception of the super cheap teleportation spell that Kingdom factions start with and Empire factions get at level 3. Said spell makes any attempts to garrison cities pointless, as whatever army your sovereign is traveling with is capable of instantly teleporting to them for the piddling cost of 5 mana, with all their movement points intact. You can teleport to a city, eradicate anything that's threatening it, teleport back to your borders, and continue the rampage you were engaging in all in the space of a single turn.

- Units built in your cities are virtually invincible, unless you actively try to gimp them. You wouldn't expect groups of untrained dudes with bludgeons and leather armor to be virtually invincible, but put a few groups of them in a stack and you've built yourself a damn Death Star. Stack them with your sovereign and use the teleport spell to turn them into a Death Star with a hyperdrive.

- Any land not within a faction's borders becomes choked with constantly-respawning glass cannon enemies. And I mean choked. If there's an area of 10 contiguous wilderness squares it's not uncommon for 9 of them to be occupied by some wandering asshole. Don't bother clearing these areas out, either. Even if you have a super-fast, nigh-invulnerable army that can wipe them out in a single turn (which isn't hard to make, by the by) they'll all just respawn the very next turn after you exterminate them. Which makes for a massively efficient experience factory, which just makes things worse.

- Enemy sovereigns either cower within their own borders and wait for you to drop the Sword of Damocles on their heads, or just meander into your borders with a token force and drop it their damn selves. And since their entire faction collapses as soon as they die, that's pretty much handing you a victory. In other words, enemy sovereigns are incapable of properly defending themselves, incapable of mounting a meaningful offense, and if you try to spare them out of pity they usually just commit suicide anyway.

Short version:

In the early stages the game is full of annoying glitches and design decisions, but is mostly playable. In the late stages the game is full of annoying glitches and design decisions, and is completely incoherent. At all stages of the game it crashes constantly.

Very short version:

Elemental is not a game for playing. It is a game for laying down and avoiding.

 

[Acosta]

Well I know that, I just haven't got him near my sovereign yet. Is that attack actually in a spell book though, so other people can learn it? Or is there a a way for the other heroes to learn these abilities later?

Basically, my various heroes that don't cast spells or use a bow aren't getting to do much in battle right now, but special attacks might change that.

There is a spell called "Imbue Magic" or something like that, the sovereign will transfer permanently three points of mana to the hero and he will be able to use the same spells you have in your spell book. To increase the mana pool, you'll have to level the hero and put points in Essence.